The English Rogue: Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty ExtravagantHead, Richard
General
The English Rogue: Described in the Life of Meriton Latroon, a Witty Extravagant
Head, Richard
Rogues and vagabonds -- England -- Fiction
These lines so powerfully wrought upon her, that she could not forbear
to tell me, that she was much obliged to me for what I had writ. You
cannot Madam, said I, cancel your obligation, till you have made some
recompence: with that, said she smilingly, What will content you? The
continuance of your favour Madam, is the utmost ambition of my desires.
You have it Sir; neither can I deny any deserving man a thing so
inconsiderable. By your favour Madam, love I mean. I never was so
uncharitable, said she, to be out of love with any. I was glad to hear
her reply so merrily: for a fort which so capitulateth, is half
surrendered. Since I had broke the ice, I was resolved to prosecute my
design; wherefore in plain English I told her, that I loved her from the
first interview, so ardently, that my constancy should prove the reality
of my affection: she desired me to leave that to the test of time; that
should she believe me suddenly before she had made tryal, she should not
only loose the good estimation she had gained by the prudent and
discreet management of her affairs, every one accusing her for too much
credulity, but thereby it may be involve her self in a Labyrinth of all
manner of troubles. Tryal, said I, you shall have: and knowing the
manner of courting a widow, a tryal I gave her, knowing that Parleys
operate little on a widow, and there is nothing sooner gains a conquest
then a storm or a resolute assault. This action made her so firmly mine,
that I durst not speak of leaving; which when I did at any time, her
Soul was ready to leave its ancient habitation to attend on me. Some two
months we spent in all manner of self-pleasing delights, till at last I
begun to be tyred with her too frequent invitations; the more I
endeavoured to satisfie her, the further I was from it. Not only by her,
but by others, this experiment I found, that the oftner I treated them,
the more eagerly and earnestly they desired it. Being now incapacitated
to hold out in this manner longer, I thought it high time to be gone,
but not without sufficient recompence for my service. She daily
sollicited me to marry her, which I promised her from time to time,
waiting an opportunity when I might become master of her treasure. One
day in a frollick, and the more to encourage me to make a speedy
consummation of our loves by marriage, she shewed me all her writings
which concerned her estate (by which I found her to be so wealthy a
fortune, that I often times curst my unhappy stars, that they had thus
debar’d me from the complement of so great a bliss.) After this, she
shews me a trunk wherein was contained her cash: then taking me about
the neck with such fervency of affection, that I thought she would have
strangled me, & with the repetition of kisses, she smiling, askt me,
whether these things satisfied me or not. I told her they did, but they
were not to stand in competition with her most affected self: with that
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