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ended, I resumed my narrative; from which one Mr. Mask, a jesuit, by a variety of artifices, and deeply laid schemes, which, though then unknown to, afterward came to light, seduced him, at the expense of his integrity; for he not only violated the most solemn oath, but betrayed the dearest interests of his country; and prevailed on him to go to Madrid, in company with, and as an attendant on, the said Mask, who was to provide him with money to defray all travelling expenses, and to settle him in a lucrative office at Madrid; or, if he chose rather to return, to bestow on him wherewithal to live independently. These preliminaries settled, they went to Madrid, where the deed of hell was done. It were needless to enter into a minute detail of the multifarious iniquities which were practised by these two worthies; suffice it to say, that, after having richly earned a very honourable and indubitable title to an exalted seat in pandemonium, they reaped their reward from the most Catholic court, which availed itself of the treachery, and then ordered the traitors, on pain of death, for

F

ever to quit the kingdom. Whereupon Mask and his associate returned to London, Mask certainly with abundance of cash, with none; for what little he carried from England was gone, and none had he received from his companion. To be as brief as possible, one morning, some fifteen years ago,

Icalled at Mask's house in the Strand, to request a little money for immediate subsistence, when, behold, Mask, and a woman with whom he had cohabited, had decamped, and, till lately, no tidings of his former associate had reached In the

mean time sunk his name into another appellation, well knowing, that no otherwise was there any likelihood of his supporting even an existence. But what can a man, stung to desperation at the cruelty and ingratitude of his friend, and at the same time conscious of being himself sunken low in the scale of depravity, do? how can he struggle against poverty? After many and complicated distresses, he is now in the extremest want, the husband of an amiable woman, and the father of six helpless babes." I ceased, and Mask, who had in vain en

deavoured to prevent his countenance from betraying the inward workings of his soul, declared it was a strange story, and he supposed that the drift was to prevail on him, Mask, to bestow money on

. But even

had

if the whole were true, and he and. been at Madrid, yet he, Mask, was at this moment 500l. worse than nothing, and therefore could not help him; but, as the case stood, he knew nothing of ——, he did not care if the story was told to the whole world, and much more to the same purport. Whereupon I apologized for the mistake I had made, for the trouble I had given, and took my leave, fully satisfied that Mask had been at Madrid with had been, and

still was, a villain, capable of compassing, contriving, and executing any enormity.' "Here ends Jack's account," continued my friend Martin, "and here ended the matter, for it was impossible to punish Mask without destroying which I should have been sorry to do. I, therefore, contented myself with thanking and applauding Jack for his judicious conduct in the whole affair; and from time to time I assist poor

with

a little matter. But," said he, in a voice more elevated than I had ever heard from him, and with a look more impassioned than I had ever seen in him, "if by making this tale public, by shewing the dreadful consequences of a deviation from rectitude, I shall rescue from, or hinder from falling into the snare of sin, any one human being, if I shall prevent the rending of one heart, the shedding of one tear, the heaving of one sigh; in the grave I shall lay down my hoary head in peace, contented and satisfied that I have not lived altogether in vain."

I

ESSAY IX.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FALL OF FOYERS
IN SCOTLAND.

SHALL in this essay present the reader. with a very interesting account of a visit made to the fall of Foyers in the western part of Scotland, which was lately sent me by a very ingenious and able young gentle

man, resident in the city of York. I shall not, by any farther preface, detain the reader from, or, by an alteration, deprive him of the smallest portion of delight, which this narrative must impart to every cultivated mind.

66 My dear friend,

"I shall now endeavour to give you a faint idea of my excursion to the western lakes of Scotland; but with this regret, that no description, however glowing, however warm, or however flowery, can do sufficient justice to the exquisite scenery to be found in these regions; which, although barren when considered in the light of civilization, and rude and uncultivated when the great benefits of mankind are contemplated, are, to the enlightened tourist, or the enthusiastic artist, an object of the highest admiration. These will for ever rejoice, that Nature has left so vast, so sublime, so beautiful a void, if a void it may be termed; or, rather, let us call it Nature's chaotic retreat, where she retires when disgusted with the petty exertions of men towards improving what she herself has made perfect. But, to pro

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