was at the inn.” A note now came to our hero, which was conceived in these words:-- “MY DARE SIR, It has pleased Providence to get me into a bad scrape, so that unless you lend a _help in_ hand to relieve me, I will be rather ill off. I pass for your brother, so pray do not contradict it, and I promise you, if I get out of the _clamper_, I shall never do so no more. Your’s, to command, ROGER O’ROURKE.” Hamilton now asked the other, “What his ground of complaint was against the person in question?” “The most heinous in the world. He has robbed me of the affection and honour of a wife, whom I loved, and even yet love to madness; who was to me the best, fondest of women, till seduced first to mad enthusiasm, and afterwards to dishonour by this sophister, this profligate hypocrite, this blasphemer of religion.” The ladies now retiring, our hero learned from the stranger, that he was a gentleman who had a moderate estate near Tewkesbury, that he had for several years been the husband of a farmer’s daughter whom he had married for love, and they had lived in the most perfect happiness. His wife possessing great sensibility, and a romantic fancy, had, in the course of a visit at Bristol, been carried to one of the meetings of Moravians, or other fanatic adventures there, she had imbibed a liking for visionary absurdities, and soon became the professed devotee of the romances of methodism. Though he saw the change with regret, yet not apprehending the moral depravity that so naturally results from a system which enchains the understanding, and unmuzzles all the wild impetuosity of passion; which debases the sentiments, and vitiates the taste, as well as depraves the conduct. “Having seen you, Sir, and conversed with you, I am convinced I must have done you injustice in supposing this ignorant vulgar fellow your brother.” Without directly answering this observation or question, our hero requested him to proceed: he accordingly went on. “When she returned, this man, Hamilton, was an itinerant preacher through the country. She was pleased with his devotion. I having the utmost confidence in her affection and fidelity, though I disapproved of her new articles of faith, yet never having contradicted her, I indulged her propensity; alas! thinking that because the doctrines were jargon, the practice must be harmless, though silly and absurd, but I have since fatally discovered my error. Last night my Harriet eloped from my house, and after various searches and enquiries, I learned that she had left her husband and children to be a companion of this ruffian. Tracing his course, I discovered that he was at one of the fanatical meetings,--entered the place, accompanied by a faithful servant,--found the villain in a small party--presented a pistol to his head--and ordered him, on pain of immediate death, to produce my wife. He confessed his crime, and prayed for mercy, and said, that the lady was to meet him this night at the inn, where his brother,