This enterprise, hazardous as it was, I resolved to perform, in spite of all the arguments of Mrs.Sagely, who reasoned, chid, and entreated by turns; and the tears and prayers of Strap, who conjured me on his knees, to have more regard to myself as well as to him, than to attempt my own destruction in such a precipitate manner.

I was deaf to but the suggestions of my love; and ordering him to return immediately with the horses to the inn from whence we set out, and wait for my coming in that place, he at first peremptorily refused to leave me, until I persuaded him, that if our horses should remain where they were till daylight, they would certainly be discovered, and the whole country alarmed.

On this consideration, he took his leave in a sorrowful plight, kissed my hand, and, weeping, cried "God knows if ever I shall see you again." My kind landlady, finding me obstinate, gave me her best advice how to behave in the execution of my project: and after having persuaded me to take a little refreshment, accommodated me with a bed, and left me to my repose.

Early in the morning I arose, and armed with a couple of loaded pistols and a hanger, went to the back part of the squire's garden, climbed over the wall, and, according to Mrs.Sagely's direction, concealed myself in a thicket, hard by an alcove that terminated a walk at a good distance from the house, which (I was told) my mistress mostly frequented.

Here I absconded from five o'clock in the morning to six in the evening, without seeing a human creature; at last I perceived two women approaching, whom, by my throbbing heart, I soon recognised to be the adorable Narcissa and Miss Williams.