If you do that, resumed Arabella, doubtless you will be justified in my opinion, and the world's also; and I shall have no scruple to treat you with as much friendship as I did before.

My brother is much obliged to you, madam, interrupted Miss Glanville, for putting him upon an action that would cost him his life!

I have so good an opinion of your brother's valour, said Arabella, that I am persuaded he will find no difficulty in performing his promise; and I make no question but I shall see him covered with the spoils of that impostor, who would have betrayed me; and I flatter myself, he will be in a condition to bring me his head, as he bravely promises, without endangering his own life.

Does your ladyship consider, said Miss Glanville, that my brother can take away no person's life whatever, without endangering his own?

I consider, madam, said Arabella, your brother as a man possessed of virtue and courage enough to undertake to kill all my enemies and persecutors, though I had ever so many; and I presume he would be able to perform as many glorious actions for my service, as either Juba, Cæsario, Artamenes, or Artaban, who, though not a prince, was greater than any of them.

If those persons you have named, said Miss Glanville, were murderers, and made a practice of killing people, I hope my brother will be too wise to follow their examples: a strange kind of virtue and courage indeed, to take away the lives of one's fellow-creatures! How did such wretches escape the gallows, I wonder?

I perceive, interrupted Arabella, what kind of apprehensions you have: I suppose you think, if your brother was to kill my enemy, the law would punish him for it: but pray undeceive yourself, miss. The law has no power over heroes; they may kill as many men as they please, without being called to any account for it; and the more lives they take away, the greater is their reputation for virtue and glory. The illustrious Artaban, from the condition of a private man, raised himself to the sublimest pitch of glory by his valour; for he not only would win half a dozen battles in a day; but, to show that victory followed him wherever he went, he would change parties, and immediately the vanquished became conquerors; then, returning to the side he had quitted, changed the laurels of his former friends into chains. He made nothing of tumbling kings from their thrones, and giving away half a dozen crowns in a morning; for his generosity was equal to his courage; and to this height of power did he raise himself by his sword. Beginning at first with petty conquests, and not disdaining to oppose his glorious arm to sometimes less than a score of his enemies; so, by degrees, inuring himself to conquer inconsiderable numbers, he came at last to be the terror of whole armies, who would fly at the sight of his single sword.

This is all very astonishing indeed, said Miss Glanville. However, I must entreat you not to insist upon my brother's quarrelling and fighting with people, since it will be neither for your honour nor his safety; for I am afraid, if he was to commit murder to please you, the laws would make him suffer for it; and the world would be very free with its censures on your ladyship's reputation, for putting him upon such shocking crimes.

By your discourse, miss, replied Arabella, one would imagine you knew as little in what the good reputation of a lady consists, as the safety of a man; for certainly the one depends entirely upon his sword, and the other upon the noise and bustle she makes in the world. The blood that is shed for a lady enhances the value of her charms; and the more men a hero kills, the greater his glory; and, by consequence, the more secure he is. If to be the cause of a great many deaths can make a lady infamous, certainly none were ever more so than Mandana, Cleopatra, and Statira, the most illustrious names in antiquity; for each of whom, haply, an hundred thousand men were killed: yet none were ever so unjust as to profane the virtue of those divine beauties, by casting any censures upon them for these glorious effects of their charms, and the heroic valour of their admirers.

I must confess, interrupted Miss Glanville, I should not be sorry to have a duel or two fought for me in Hyde-Park; but then I would not have any blood shed for the world.