land to the clergyman, and that gentleman answered it by his immediate perfonal attendance. The awful ceremony was performed in the English fervice. CHAPTER XXIV. "Happy they! the happiest of their kind! Can answer love, and render blifs fecute. SAFE ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND, AND CONCLUSION. MRS. RS. Maitland had invited many friends to the entertainment which was to be given in honour of the nuptials of her children. Letters of invitation were sent to the duke and duchefs of Calabria, and the countess of Colonna; but the lofs that they had sustained, in the death of the accomplished and ill-fated Alphonfo, prevented them from attending. The bridegroom would have waved his rights till he came to England, had not Emma released him from fuch hard conditions, as she smiled upon him with a soft and alluring countenance, in which gratitude, admiration, and love were depictured. She confeffed that the owed to him her happiness; that he had preferved her life; and she would now endeavour to fhow him that a poffeffion which had coft him fo dear, was not without fome value. Having nothing to detain them, in a few days the new married couple departed from Vienna, on their return to England. "Here Love his golden fhafts employs, here lights His conftant lamp, and waves his purple wings; Reigns here and revels, not in the bought smile Of harlots, lawless, joyless, unendear'd." They made their voyage in a frigate, the commander of which congratulated them on the glory of the Britifh flag, which rode triumphant and unoppofed through the ocean, bidding proud defiance to the enemy. When they arrived in England, they immediately set forward on their journey to the metropolis; and on their arrival in London being announced, the manfion of the earl of Sunderland was crowded with visitors, who came to congratulate him, and exprefs their joy at his fafe arrival among his friends. The honourable Mr. Pellet and his tutor having been unsuccessful on the turf are obliged to fell their ftud and retrench their expenfes. The two boroughs, and presentation to a fruitful living, are inadequate to yield the former a fufficient fum of ready money. > In fine, the honorable Mr. Pellet boafts of nothing but the empty fhadow of once having been distinguished as a dashing man. Even this fatisfaction, if any, has its alloy, if we confider miffpent time, broken fortune, and a ruined constitution. Mr. Lefter and his wife, happy in the affections of each other, do not feel that gratitude is an intolerable burthen, but treat Emma with the most polite attention; and, far from fuppofing an acknowlegement of the many effential favours which they received from their benefactress in the hour of trial to be a degradation, they endeavour to heighten the importance of her benevolent affistance; nor is the repayment of the debt, in their opinions, a discharge in full from their obligation. Little Edward fhows how happy he is, when he is promised, if he is a good boy and behaves himfelf like a good young gentleman, that he shall visit the countess of Sunderland. .. When introduced to that amiable and elegant lady, he climbs on her lap, and, putting his arms round her neck, a freedom which he is forced to allow, declares that he loves her, because the faved his father from prifon.. Mr. Harris is a conftant vifitant at Sunderland house, and his penetration and |