FROM CAROLINE ASHBURN
TO
ARTHUR MURDEN
Ah my friend, my beloved Murden, if an interval of memory, happily, now is thine, read these lines which thy friend pens to thee in agony.—She follows on the instant. You once demanded my consolations and friendship, as a reparation for the mischievous error into which I had led you.—Will you receive them now as such, against the manifold mischiefs I have brought upon you?
Ah! what, what had I to do with secret escapes!—I, who exclaimed from the beginning against Valmont's secresy, and prophesied its fatal consequences!—Must I too conspire to make Sibella the victim of secresy?—Unhappy sufferer! Yet more unhappy Caroline! She, debarred the use of her judgment, erred only from mistake; I, alas! have sinned against reason and conviction!
Clement, I suspect, has watched our footsteps. I fear he has secured her.—Ah, miserable fate!
Console yourself, my dearest friend. It will please you to know that, even before I come to you, I am going to B——, to send messengers in search of Sibella. And if money and vigilance can bring us tidings of our lost friend, I have the power of employing both.—Prepare to receive me with calmness.—Already, I have the aggravated distress of your and Sibella's feelings to endure.—I am pained beyond description.
CAROLINE ASHBURN
LETTER XXXIII
FROM LORD FILMAR
TO
SIR WALTER BOYER
I can truly say, I neither sit, stand, walk, nor lie:—that is, the complete I, body and soul together; for, let the former attempt its mechanical motions as it will, the other in a quite opposite direction is striking, curvetting, capering, twisting, tumbling, and playing more tricks than any fantastical ape in nature.