'DEAR PAMELA, 'The passion I have for you, and your obstinacy, have constrained me to

act by you in a manner that I know will occasion you great trouble and

fatigue, both of mind and body. Yet, forgive me, my dear girl; for,

although I have taken this step, I will, by all that's good and

holy! use you honourably. Suffer not your fears to transport you to

a behaviour that will be disreputable to us both: for the place where

you'll receive this, is a farm that belongs to me; and the people civil,

honest, and obliging. 'You will, by this time, be far on your way to the place I have allotted

for your abode for a few weeks, till I have managed some affairs, that

will make me shew myself to you in a much different light, than you may

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possibly apprehend from this rash action: And to convince you, that I

mean no harm, I do assure you, that the house you are going to, shall be

so much at your command, that even I myself will not approach it without

leave from you. So make yourself easy; be discreet and prudent; and a

happier turn shall reward these your troubles, than you may at present

apprehend. 'Meantime I pity the fatigue you will have, if this come to your hand in

the place I have directed: and will write to your father to satisfy him,

that nothing but what is honourable shall be offered to you, by Your passionate admirer, (so I must style myself,) '---------------' Don't think hardly of poor Robin: You have so possessed all my servants

in your favour, that I find they had rather serve you than me; and 'tis

reluctantly the poor fellow undertook this task; and I was forced to

submit to assure him of my honourable intentions to you, which I

am fully resolved to make good, if you compel me not to a contrary

conduct.' I but too well apprehended that the letter was only to pacify me for the

present; but as my danger was not so immediate as I had reason to dread,

and he had promised to forbear coming to me, and to write to you, my

dear parents, to quiet your concern, I was a little more easy than

before and I made shift to eat a little bit of boiled chicken they had

got for me, and drank a glass of my sack, and made each of them do so

too. But after I had so done, I was again a little flustered; for in came

the coachman with the look of a hangman, I thought, and madamed me up

strangely; telling me, he would beg me to get ready to pursue my journey

by five in the morning, or else he should be late in. I was quite

grieved at this; for I began not to dislike my company, considering how

things stood; and was in hopes to get a party among them, and so to put

myself into any worthy protection in the neighbourhood, rather than go

forward. When he withdrew, I began to tamper with the farmer and his wife. But,

alas! they had had a letter delivered them at the same time I had; so

securely had Lucifer put it into his head to do his work; and they only

shook their heads, and seemed to pity me; and so I was forced to give

over that hope. However, the good farmer shewed me his letter; which I copied as

follows: for it discovers the deep arts of this wicked master; and how

resolved he seems to be on my ruin, by the pains he took to deprive me

of all hopes of freeing myself from his power.




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