LADIES' MUSEUM. New and Emproved Series. JUNE, 1832. SKETCHES FROM LIFE. BY MRS. HOFLAND. THE very interesting story given by the Earl of Mulgrave in the novel entitled "Contrast," has been said, in the public journals, to have its origin in some inappropriate marriage in high life. Several such have undoubtedly taken place within the last half century, but I think only one in which the female was drawn from the privacy of humble life, and who lived and died the same modest, gentle, and interesting creature, who first attract ed the affections and insured the esteem of her wedded lord. It is, indeed, pretty generally supposed, that the mother of the Marquis of Exeter is the person alluded to; and as many years are now past since the newspapers which announced her death gave also the leading traits of her short but eventful history, I venture to offer them to the present race of lady readers, observing only, that in the history of the nobleman who married her there are circumstances as romantic as any which imagination could conceive, or any writer of fiction would venture to pourtray, and equally claiming attention. The Honourable Henry Cecil, heirpresumptive to his uncle, the Earl of Exeter, was very early in life, by the advice and with the management of friends, (who knew the value of an heiress to a younger brother's son,) betrothed to Miss Vernon, of Hanbury; and the peerage informs us, that they were married when he was about twenty-two. I have been told by a lady, who was well acquainted JUNE, 1832. with the parties at that period, that the bride was about three years younger, and a very elegant woman, being rather above the middle size, finely formed, and delicately fair. Perhaps, had she not been in a manner forced upon him by those mistaken friends who forgot that the heart has wants which the purse cannot supply, she might have attracted his affections, as well as have supplied his pleasures; but there is always a resistance in the mind of man to con straint, and probably it operated strongly in this case, for it is certain that he was, to say the least, a very negligent husband. At a later season, pity towards one who probably had been influenced not less than himself, or admiration of an accomplished and handsome woman, together with gratitude for her dowry, and the recollection that their engagement was irrevocable, might have induced him so to control his own feelings as to produce eventually peace, if not happiness, to both; but few are wise so soon. Without being actually unkind, in a short period he became indifferent; and being a man of acute sensibility and fervid passions, negligence was in him a species of unnatural fault, and argued positive dislike. After the birth of a son, (which appeared likely to produce a happier train of feelings towards the mother, but which died in a very short time,) Mr. Cecil became accustomed to leave home for long periods of time, which he spent at London or Newmarket, 2 I and the situation of his lovely lady excited much commiseration in the neighbourhood. She was a woman of delicate constitution and retiring manners, seldom seeking to share the pleasures her fortune purchased, or leaving the house where it appeared to be her husband's pleasure to immure her. Her only companion or visitant was a young clergyman, to whom Mr. Cecil was much attached, as they had been intimate friends at college, and who was a man of high family and great attainments, but of such a delicate state of health as to render him unequal to much exertion, and little likely to follow the chase of ambition. To his friends alone devolved the task of providing for him, and it is probable that no one was more anxious to do so than Mr. Cecil, since he almost compelled him to live in his house, and was known to wish his advancement most earnestly at the time when he procured him the curacy he filled. hoped that all was madness, and waited patiently the abatement of the fever, happy to perceive that no other person seemed to place the slightest stress upon any portion of the lamentations in question. The fever passed away, leaving the patient convalescent and deeply melancholy. The alarmed husband then revealed to him what had been spoken, and received from a heart crushed and broken by repentance, the sad confirmation of his fears; together with a promise that he would, by some pub. lic proof of guilt, ensure to the injured husband the only reparation circumstances admitted. In doing this, the unhappy man signed his own deathwarrant; for, in dishonouring the church of which he was a member, and incurring the reproaches of friends who held him in high esteem, and exciting horror in his own lowly but loving parishioners, he was overwhelmed by grief so unutterable and unbearable, that so soon as the trial which ensued was over, he set sail for Lisbon, where the wretched woman who had now become his wife soon laid him in that grave which was, indeed, the best hiding-place for a heart so broken. When the few duties of his small parish were performed, every hour of Mr. Sneyd's time was devoted to Mrs. Cecil, to whom he read, with whom he played or discoursed "most excellent music," and who probably as little suspected the wan- At this period, Mr. Cecil was about derings of her own heart as he did, thirty-a period when a man of sensiuntil both were fatally entangled.bility feels the full value of domestic I have no power or wish to trace such ties. He had seen much of fashionpaths, but who can fail to pity persons able life, despised its general heartse singularly situated-it is enough to lessness, and deplored his own share say, that the clergyman being reported in its arrangements, its errors, and as dying of a brain fever, his kind their consequences; and under these friend left every enticement London impressions, ardently desired, as every offered, and hastened to the bed-side man of refinement and integrity must of the raving individual. do, to be loved exclusively and passionately for himself, independent of his station in society. Alas! what met his ears?-continual adjurations to the beloved, the adored Harriet," the wife of his friend, blended with bitter self-reproach, with allusions to some late and terribly lamented interview, and protestations of remorse unspeakable, arising alike from a sense of base in gratitude towards the friend he loved, and unspeakable anguish for a crime especially unpardonable in a Christian minister. These ravings were blended with the wild matter in which the delirious deal, that, shocked as he could not fail to be, still Mr. Cecil SO During the time of his pending lawsuit, he kept much aloof from society, and taking a ride in a thinly-inhabited part of Shropshire, was one day much struck by the modest answer and delicate beauty of a young girl, of whom he inquired his way, at the time when she was entering her father's cottage. In consequence of this impression, and the retirement it offered, he entered, and inquired if the mistress of the house could accommodate him with lodgings; and since he was prepared to obviate all difficulties, and really found an abode of more than common decency and comfort, he became stationary until the period when his liberation from the matrimonial fetters should be decided. There were several children, but Sally, the eldest, who was only in her sixteenth year, was the "immediate jewel of the house." She was sweettempered, intelligent, and industrious, but bashful to very fearfulness, and unlearned to very ignorance. The strange gentleman, by degrees, however, so far conquered her timidity, that she thankfully attended to the lessons he taught her, and gave every hour she could spare to reading the books he lent her; and since he never even spoke to her save in the presence of her mother, the father, who was not less upright and prudent, thanked him for the pains he took in teaching her. Nor could he be less grateful for the many comforts flowing from the bounty of his lodger; but he received them warily, not less than thankfully, for his neighbours whispered doubts as to the character of the rich lodger, insinuating "that his noble appearance and his fine horse" exactly tallied with the description given of those dashing highwaymen who at that time exhibited their prowess on Hounslow-heath and Bagshot common. These reports gained ground, when the stranger suddenly departed, without giving any idea that he should ever return but his movements had evidently been governed by letters, for which he generally rode himself to the nearest town. Weeks and months passed by, and though a tale of wonder lasts long in a small vil lage, people had began to forget the stranger, (whose assumed name I cannot recollect,) when Higgins one evening, as he returned from his work, was overtaken by him on the road. In reply to the gentleman's inquiries after his family, he was answered "All were well, except Sally; she had somehow fallen into a pining sort of a way for a long time past-indeed, now he came to recollect, almost ever since he left them." Mr. Cecil hung his horse at the little garden-gate, and entered the cottage with its owner. His sudden appearance produced a scream of joy from the mother and her younger children, but far deeper effects from the drooping lily who had suffered from his absence. In the astonishment, the ecstasy, the fainting, trembling joy of poor Sarah, he saw, indeed, the depth and intensity of woman's love-saw, too, in her faded cheek, how much she had suffered from his absence, and perceived from the little she became at length able to speak, that his teaching had produced improvement beyond his expectations. The consequence of these observations was, the re-engagement of his lodg ings, an explanation to the father as to his means of life, which satisfied the honest man's scruples, an anxious return to his former occupation of instructor to Sarah, together with an open avowal of affection, and intention of marriage, for he was now at liberty to form the connection. In three months, he had secured a house in the same neighbourhood, to which he conducted his now recovered bride, amid the congratulations of her proud and happy family. One circumstance had, indeed, occurred in the church to alarm the father; this was the signature of "Henry Cecil," a name they had never heard before; and such was the unflinching integrity of Higgins, that even then he would have withdrawn his child from the promised greatness of her happiness, if, in consequence of a whispered communication to the clergyman, he had not been assured by him, "that all was right and honourable on the part of the bridegroom." Within a year the happy wife presented her husband with a daughter, on the birth of which he feasted the poor, and manifested extraordinary attention to the gentle and lovely creature, who lived but in his presence. At the end of another year she was the mother of a fine boy, and on this occasion his demonstrations of joy, were so great, and his gifts so profuse,' and he was seen to such advantage in his attentions to the people, that all repented of their former scandals, and |