And his confiding folly to behold; To feel incessant fears that he should read, In looks assumed, the cause whence they proceed, I cannot brook; nor will I here abide Till chance betrays the crime that shame would hide. Fly with me, Henry!” Henry sought in vain To soothe her terrors and her griefs restrain; He saw the lengths that women dared to go, And fear’d the husband both as friend and foe. 610 Of farming weary—for the guilty mind Can no resource in guiltless studies find— Left to himself, his mother all unknown, His titled father, loth the boy to own, Had him to decent expectations bred, A favour’d offspring of a lawless bed; And would he censure one who should pursue The way he took? Alicia yet was new; Her passion pleased him; he agreed on flight; They fix’d the method, and they chose the night. 620 Then, while the farmer read of public crimes, Collating coolly [Chronicle] and Times, The flight was taken by the guilty pair, That made one passage in the columns there. The heart of Ellis bled; the comfort, pride, The hope and stay of his existence, died; Rage from the ruin of his peace arose, And he would follow and destroy his foes; Would with wild haste the guilty pair pursue, And when he found—Good heaven? what would he do? 630 That wretched woman he would wildly seize, And agonize her heart, his own to ease; That guilty man would grasp, and in her sight Insult his pangs, and her despair excite; Bring death in view, and then the stroke suspend, And draw out tortures till his life should end; O! it should stand recorded in all time, How they transgress’d, and he avenged the crime! In this bad world should all his business cease, He would not seek—he would not taste of peace; 640 But wrath should live till vengeance had her due, And with his wrath his life should perish too. His girls—not his—he would not be so weak— Child was a word he never more must speak! How did he know what villains had defiled His honest bed?—He spurn’d the name of child: Keep them he must; but he would coarsely hide Their forms, and nip the growth of woman’s pride; He would consume their flesh, abridge their food, And kill the mother-vices in their blood. 650 * * * * *