HISTORY  OF  ST. DOMINGO.
2o.3
the scene had given her.    She was dressed in a superior style, chap. iv.
and possessed all the elegance of European manners, improved **"??*
by the most expressive carriage.    She held a basket, containing £* ^
the most delicate food, with the finest fruits: she entreated him ÏT^'
to receive them silently, and to destroy any remnants, as a dis-
covery would be fatal to her, and prejudicial to himself.    He
was about to reply with the ardour of gratitude, when, in an
instant, she was gone!    On the following evening, she returned,
and endeavoured to comfort him with the most obliging exprès-
sions; and, by evincing extreme anxiety on his behalf, once more
light up the illusion of hope in his breast, which he had aban-
doned, with all human prospects, for ever.    The next evening
she repeated her visit, and condescended to favor him with more
extensive communication.    Still not a word occurred to disclose
her name, or situation: once, indeed, she made some distant
allusions to the English, which led him to imagine, she had been
impressed with gratitude towards the country by some obliga-
tion.   Whatever her name, or whatever her circumstances, if this
slight memorial should live to reach that delightful isle, in which,
as an angelic representation of mercy, she may yet stay the hand
of the destroyer, it will bear to her the sincere effusions of a
grateful heart, which, though bruised by those of a fairer skin,
can never discharge its sense of duty.*
The

I have ever conceived this adventure as highly illustrative of the character of the sex
conveyed in the eulogium of Lediard, which contains sentiments I have always delighted to
repeat.-   I have/ says he, « always remarked, that women, in all countries, are civil,
12                                                obliging,