Under this impression, I endeavour to conduct my fable, studious to make that amiable, which I strive to make attractive; and although, in obedience to nature, I must mingle shade with light, I flatter myself that vice of my devising will have no allurements to attach the unwary, nor virtue be pourtrayed with those romantic attributes, which, bearing no similitude to real life, leave no impression on the reader’s mind, nor can be turned to any moral use. END OF THE FIRST BOOK. BOOK THE SECOND. CHAPTER I. _Sir Owen ap Owen on his Death-Bed takes leave of Mr. De Lancaster._ There was an apartment in one of the turrets of Kray Castle, which commanded a fine view of the park and country, bounded by the sea: here it was that young De Lancaster commenced a course of application to his studies under the instruction of his excellent preceptor, to which he devoted himself with so determined a passion for improvement, that it was not long before he had made a progress in the learned languages, that would have qualified him to pass muster with most young scholars of his standing. Nature had endowed him with a strong and retentive memory, and parts rather solid than brilliant: he had great industry, a ready apprehension and a mind turned to enquiry. Few temptations were now sufficiently alluring to detach him from his books; so grateful to him were the lectures of his instructor, and so delectable the acquisition of knowledge, that he sought no pleasures, and seemed to regret all avocations. His volatility of spirit had now in a great degree subsided; he became cautious in the company of his seniors, and more disposed to listen than to talk. The neighbours did not think him mended by his studies, and the servants, who had been the companions of his puerile sports, pronounced that he was spoilt. An unatoned insult still rankled at his heart, and he shunned the sight of David Owen, not because he feared him, but because he doubted his own self-command upon the meeting. That arrogant young man had now taken a decided character; was a loud talker and a bold assertor, and, being under no restraint, gave himself all the latitude, which the actual possession of what he was only presumptive heir to, could have emboldened him to assume. As for Sir Owen, he was now in the last stage of a decline, never stirred from his chamber, and was considered by all about him as a man, who had not many days to live. In this extremity he dispatched a messenger to Kray Castle to request an interview with his old friend De Lancaster, who immediately put himself in order to obey the summons. As soon as his arrival was announced, Sir Owen dismissed his attendants, and received his worthy visitor alone in his chamber. After the customary enquiries had passed, the baronet delivered himself as follows--