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

quite incapable of giving any directions: if you please therefore, we will set about our work immediately." We did so, and the will was written, signed, and executed the very day which followed that of his death. The little boy was then confined to his bed, and delirious; but by degrees, the symptoms grew less alarming, and in a few weeks, he was perfectly restored. The servant likewise recovered, and all the rest of the family entirely escaped the contagion.

At the time appointed, Mr. L., our kind relation and friend, revisited Stank-house. On the 1st of May, 1780, 1 took my leave of my humble friends, the Colliers' wives and daughters, at the quarterly meeting of our Female Benefit Club at Barwick; and on the 7th, my mother and myself bid a final adieu to our homely dwelling; not without many a feeling of tender regret, mixed with thankfulness for the accomplishment of our deliverance.

P 3

CHAPTER 27.

The Author and her mother visit Thorp-Arch....Company there....How received by them....A revolution in their favour....The Author's brother retires into Craven.... Summer spent among friends....Decided to fix in York.... Reasons of that decision.

WE had been invited to spend the remainder of the year with my two aunts, and with some other friends, to which we had consented, as a matter of necessity indeed, rather than of choice; not having any means wherewith to begin housekeeping. My cousin L. proposed that we should commence our pilgrimage, by spending a short time at Thorp-Arch, a very pleasant wateringplace, a few miles distant, and there remain until the sale was over: and he kindly enabled us to assent to his proposal, by a small pecuniary aid, to defray our immediate expenses. We were the more particularly induced to adopt this plan, by the earnest desire of hearing, from time to time, how the sale went on, and of seeing my poor brother once more, previous to his final retreat among the mountains of Craven.

We were accompanied in our flight, by my former pupil, Maria Logan, who, when last mentioned, was sailing with her mother across the Atlantic. They had both of them since that time, endured many sorrows, and encountered many difficulties, which it was little in our power to relieve. They had however followed our for

tunes to the neighbourhood of Leeds, having taken a small lodging there, in order to be near us. Maria had been with us at Stank-house; and was so inconsolable on our leaving it, that we agreed she should accompany us, and remain with us, during the first stage of our removal.

We did not expect to find any company at that early season; and were accordingly much surprised and mortified, to find the house at ThorpArch, already occupied by three parties, two of which had met there by appointment, for the express purpose of passing a little time agreeably, and of exploring the neighbouring country. They had each their own carriage, and it can hardly be imagined how strangely it sounded to my ear, when I heard them planning in the evening, what should be their excursion on the following day; so completely did I seem to have lost the remembrance, in my late school of discipline, that there were persons in the world, who could be at liberty to seek their own amusement! I am far from meaning to insinuate, however, that there was any thing wrong in the thing itself, but merely to remark how sensibly our tone of feeling is liable to be affected by our present circumstances, and how little any thing that could assume the name of pleasure, was in unison with our forlorn situation.

If we were disconcerted, and felt somewhat uncomfortable, at finding our expected retirement assume the appearance of a public place, the company, on their part, were not less chagrined, by the arrival of three fugitives in a