Soon after, the following letter was in his hands; its contents will evince to the reader, the solicitude of Miss Cowley’s friends at once to ascertain the safety of her removal from them. “_To Counsellor Steadman._ “Bishops-Auckland, Durham. “MY DEAR FRIEND, “My short residence in this part of the world, will unavoidably subject the intelligence you require to errors, notwithstanding my zeal and diligence. The truth is, that, as I have only the voice of the parish of Tarefield and its environs for my authorities, I am forced to place before you the history of a family at once peculiarly marked as the object of a fond partiality, and of inveterate hatred. I leave to you to sift and resift the documents thus obtained: for my history includes a number of years and facts which are still the topics of conversation in this neighbourhood. “Flamall was, as you have heard, for some years a practitioner in the law; and succeeded his father in the business of an attorney, with the credit which that father left him, who was an honest and an able man. His sister, now Lady Maclairn, was left to his direction, and, to the surprise of old Flamall’s connections, to her brother’s generosity. She was young and remarkably handsome, had been carefully and liberally educated, and was a virtuous and elegant young woman; but from some proofs of her brother’s intentions, of making her subservient to his ambition or vices, she sheltered her own innocence by accepting the hand of old Mr. Flint, then in his seventieth year; and in the full blaze of beauty, not being more than four or five and twenty, she appeared as a bride at Tarefield-hall. Mr. Flint at this period had four children. Oliver, his eldest son, was settled in Jamaica, had married there, and was the father of a family. Lucretia, the present despot at the hall, was single; but something older than the bride. Percival Flint, the second son, had just finished his academical studies, and had quitted Oxford. Mary Flint, the youngest of the family, was then about seventeen, and in one word, a _paragon of perfection_, for such my authorities proclaim her. Domestic feuds and discontents still kept their ground, in spite of the young mother-in-law; who, it appears, was little calculated to maintain even her own rights: she sunk into a nurse to her husband. Percival Flint left his father’s house secretly, and for some years, whilst serving his country as an officer in the marines, was supposed by the neighbourhood to have fallen a victim to misery. Mr. Flamall had an active part in all the transactions at this period. He was useful to the infirm father of the family, in managing his business; and his ill treatment of his own sister, gave him favour with Miss Lucretia Flint. Love now engaged in the struggle for power. A new curate, of the name of Howard, appeared at Tarefield. Miss Lucretia made