a breach of promise, then the next question was, may there not be some excuse found for the young gentleman? Markham took up this part of the business, and after conceding all that could be claimed, proved or well argued that the extenuations to be set up were not sufficient: he showed the jury there could be no valid excuse; and therefore, when the defendant's counsel came to make and furnish out the excuses, he found that he had been so anticipated as to be much hampered in the defence: and it answered well. An eloquent man would have spoiled the cause by exaggeration and bombast: therefore, though the young ladies did not think Markham's speech the production of a clever man when they first read it, yet afterwards they were convinced that he was right; and they were very much pleased with those pure and generous principles which he unostentatiously and calmly avowed. They all thought that Mr. Markham must be so very pure in his principles, and so very chivalric, as he expressed such strict notions of the principles of honor as applicable to promises of such a sacred nature as promises of marriage: for in the course of his speech he had said, "You will find that a promise of marriage has in this case actually been made formally, explicitly, and decidedly. There was not an implied intention, but an actual promise. Some men there are, to their shame be it spoken, who by constant attentions and assiduities, without making any promises, gain the affections and excite the hopes of those whom they desert at last with legal impunity, but not without bitter self-reproach."