Page:Tragical history of George Barnwell (2).pdf/15

This page has been validated.

( 15 )

folks, neat in their dreſs, and preciſe in their diſcourſe, but I ſoon found they were bigots to Calviniſm —— I paſſed my month of approbation and with an aching heart ſigned my indentures. When the buſineſs of the day was ended, my apartment was the kitehen, my companions an old woman, who was the ſervant, and her friend, a black cat. I might have employed myſelf by reading, but unfortunately the library conſiſted only of the Pilgrim's Progreſs and a volume or two of ſermons, which at that time was little ſuited to my taſte.

"I paſſed my time in this manner till my eighteenth year, when Mr. Nutting was ſent for one evening to viſit a ſtranger, who had lately come to lodge at the next door, and was now at the point of death. This ſtranger was a man, who, having early in life obtained a conſiderable eſtate had indulged in every pleaſure that a vitiated taſte and corrupt principles ſuggeſted. On a bed of sickneſs his heart ſmote him; chance had led him to the houſe he was then in: the landlord was a ſtrict Diſſenter of the ſame perſuasion as Mr. Nutting. whoſe ſanctity and upright conduct had been ſo frequently proclaimed in the hearing of the dying man, that he requeſted to ſee him, and to whom he made an ample confeſſion of his crimes while he derived from this diſcourſe a pleaſing conſolation. There was only one object living for whom in his preſent ſituation, he felt any concern; and that was a daughter, the fruit of an illicit amour in the Weſt Indies. He had brought her up with the true affection of a father, devoted a conſiderable ſum to her education, and ſhe now reſided as a private boarder in the ſame ſchool where ſhe had received her tuition; and ſuch was the confidence he placed in Mr. Nutting that he made a Will, in which he bequeathed an eſtate in Herefordſhire, and conſiderable property in the funds to hisdaughter,