this time she recovered gradually, and in the following November they left Yorkshire, and she was replaced in her former school at Chel

sea.

During my absence at Bedale, on the business already mentioned, she wrote to me many letters, the greater part of which I found upon my dressing-table, when I returned. I have some of them yet in my possession, and preserve them as fair specimens of those opening, intellectual powers, and dawning virtues, which were destined so early, to wither in the tomb.

CHAPTER 26.

Great pecuniary distress at Stank-house....Great perplexities and difficulties....Friendly assistance of Mr. L.....A season of great calamity....Sudden sickness and death of a kind neighbour....Fortitude of his widow....That of the Author put to some trial....Stank-house given up.

AFFAIRS at Stank-house were now quickly tending towards a close. I found on my return thither, that it was become a matter of absolute necessity, that the farm should be relinquished but how this was to be accomplished, how my brother would dispose of himself, what he was to do afterwards, and how and where my mother and myself were to fix our abode, were mysteries wholly unrevealed. Not a ray of light on any of these perplexing subjects, even glimmered

through the gloom. I had many friends it was true, and my mother was universally beloved; yet there was not one that was fully competent, and at the same time, thoroughly disposed, to assist us in this distressing emergency. At length, a train of unexpected occurrences, sufficiently painful to the parties immediately concerned, but in the unravelling of which, I had some agency, brought Mr. L., a beloved nephew of my mother's, and who has now for some years been one of the directors of the Bank of England, on a visit to Stank-house. To him I communicated the whole of our distressed situation. He assisted me in the painful duty of urging my brother to relinquish his present ruinous undertaking, and prevailed upon him at last, to give immediate notice of his design to quit his farm the following May; helping him also to take an account of stock on the one hand, and of debts on the other. This was a most painful business, and especially as my poor brother was still so completely deluded by the visionary plans which he had so long unfortunately cherished, as to think himself ill-used by the interruption of them, although there remained no other possible means of preserving him from complete ruin.

But the question still occurred-What must he do after leaving Stank-house? my mother had already given him the whole of the ready money she possessed; I was in honour engaged for a debt. of £700, and nothing remained but a small estate in Craven, which was her jointure, and was not more than sufficient for her own comfortable

P

support. One thing seemed absolutely necessary; that we should agree to separate from my brother, and in order to make it less painful to all parties, I proposed that she should secure to herself an annuity of £60 per annum, out of the Craven estate, and give up the remainder to him entirely. This arrangement would enable him to pay the interest of the money he had borrowed, and leave something for his present subsistence. To this arrangement my mother consented, but still the difficult question occurred, where was he, to live, and how maintain and occupy himself? My cousin L. very earnestly exhorted him to return again to the Church, where at least he might be certain of obtaining a curacy; and to this as a last resort, he at length very reluctantly consented, determining for the present to retire into Craven.

My dear mother bore this severe trial with a resigned composure, and even cheerfulness, which was truly admirable. When I look back upon it, I must now, as I did then, attribute our deliverance to a kind and gracious Providence, for we could not have requested Mr. L. to have come at that time to Stank-house, had not a severe disappointment of his own, as painful as it was singular, compelled the visit; a circumstance so very striking, that I cannot help adverting to it, for the purpose of shewing from fact, how wonderfully the great chain of causes and effects is linked together; so that the very same events which in respect to some, may constitute their severest trial, may, in respect of others, be the very means

of their deliverance! May we not hence assuredly conclude, that when "patience has had its perfect work," when the sorrows by which we are encompassed, have answered all the purposes of salutary discipline, they will be alleviated, if not wholly removed? This at least, I can truly say, has been my own uniform experience, through a long period of nearly threescore years and ten. So true it is, that God never afflicts his creatures, but for their benefit, and that in judgment, he remembers mercy!

But leaving this digression. The kindness of Mr. L. did not terminate here; he promised to repeat his visit at May-day, when the stock and furniture were to be sold, and when my mother and myself were to take our flight, we knew not whither. The above transactions happened in December; and it is remarkable, that every thing around us, in perfect unison with the season, and with our own forlorn situation, wore the face of general desolation. My own health had been considerably injured by a long series of anxieties, and the countenance of my unhappy brother, was the very picture of wretchedness. Even the very animals of his household seemed to participate in their master's misfortunes; sickening and dying, without any apparent cause.

This was also a season of great calamity to our kind neighbours at Lazencroft. Mr. Eamonson, a very stout, healthy man, retaining all the activity and vigour of youth, although sixty years of age, was taken very ill on the 6th of March.

I went there on the following day; and found him suffering in a violent pleuritic fever. The progress of the disease was exceedingly rapid; his respiration became hourly more difficult; in the evening, the fever assumed the appearance of typhus, and he died on the fourth day. The next morning, one of his attendants was taken ill; and also their youngest son, a boy about eleven years of age. As the fever was become contagious, Mrs. E. was apprehensive that she might likewise be suddenly attacked; and as she was left sole executrix, with the discretionary power of dividing the whole property betwixt their two sons, in such proportion as she should judge best, she was very anxious to make her will immediately, lest, in the event of her death, every thing should be left in confusion. She sent therefore, to desire I would go to assist her in this painful duty. I felt that it required an effort to comply with her request, and I am not certain that I should have possessed sufficient fortitude, had I not remembered the conduct of my father and mother, already mentioned, at Catterick, in the year 1754, and been ashamed of my own pusillanimity.

The fortitude and composure of Mrs. E., in these trying circumstances, could not be surpassed-calm, collected, and perfectly resigned to the will of God, whether to live or die, her only solicitude, was to do her duty. "I may

have no time to lose," she said to me, on my arrival; "if I should be attacked in the same manner, as my late dear husband, I should be