The French Revolution had commenced, and he received from the Ruling Powers the most munificent promises, and so much immediate and effectual assistance, that by their aid and countenance he formed one establishment, upon a very large scale, at Dunkirk, and another at l’Orient. Here, for some years, he prosecuted his plans with such success, that he had the fairest prospect of acquiring the greatest opulence. Unfortunately, one of his partners at l’Orient, laboured under the suspicion of being an aristocrat, in the atrocious times of Robespierre. Suspicion was but another term with this sanguinary crew, for guilt, and the guillotine was (to use their abominable jargon) in constant requisition. This most worthy and excellent man, with little, perhaps with no form of trial, was put to death, and his friend and patron, the American, escaped with life only. All the property was seized, plundered, or confiscated, and the whole establishment fell to the ground. Whether he yet survives, or if he does, in what situation he remains, was unknown when this was written. M. R. had great talents, many amiable qualities, and, in those respects, deserved a far better fate. Now to return to Mrs. Hayley. The hours of rapture, even with younger subjects, (votaries at the Hymeneal shrine) do not always extend beyond the honeymoon. When a female, approaching to seventy, leads to the altar a bridegroom who has not seen thirty, these hours of Elysium seldom continue quite so long. In a very short interval, a separation was mutually thought expedient. The lady, as before observed, had confided everything to the generosity of her husband, and, with such an allowance as he thought proper to make her, she took a very early opportunity of re-crossing the Atlantic; and after a short residence in London, fixed herself at Bath, where she passed “An old age of cards.” Thy care is fixed, and zealously attends To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, And hope that reaps not shame. CHAPTER XLIX. MRS. C⸺. Perfectly contrasted to the preceding personage, in mind, temper, and manners, and gifted with talents of a better kind, was the individual to whom a tribute of respect is now about to be paid. Mrs. C. was distinguished by every domestic and every amiable virtue; and though her situation in life exempted her from the drudgery of minutely attending to every particular circumstance of a very large family, yet she paid the strictest attention to the education of her children, and, at the same time, found opportunity to cultivate and extend her taste for literature.