16
shall not divert me from tasting the ripe beauties of those matchless charms." Then rudely snatching the struggling beauty to his loathed embrace, impressed on her lovely lips the guilty purpose of his passion. At that instant, rage and indignation fired the soul of Trueman; who, darting through the hedge, seized the rude ravisher by the throat, and hurled him to the ground. "Detested monster! I know thee well! Thou art the faithless steward of the absused Belfont. Already has thy fame reached thy master's ears: nor think, vile ingrate, that he will suffer thy villanies to escape with impunity." Then, taking the almost fainting Charlotte by the hand, he hastened from this fallen Lucifer.
The spirits of Charlotte hardly supported her from the presence of her base assailant, before she sunk lifeless into the arms of her deliverer; who, urged by fear, placed her on a bank, and ran for water to a neighbouring rivulet, and besprinkled her features with the cooling drops. Soon she unclosed her lovely eyes, and recovered.
"You tremble still, my Charlotte, and, by your disordered looks, seem to doubt your safety?"
"O no! where Trueman is, suspicion has no dwelling."
"Enchanting sweetness! Oh! my lovely Charlotte, never till this hour of danger did I know how dear an interest in my heart you held. Would my sweet girl but kindly listen to my artless tale,--would she but give my ardent passion one approving smile--"
"Alas!" interrupted Charlotte, "I have no smiles to give. On any other subject, I will hear
