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Subject I am now to enter upon, may be exposed as it deserves.
But when Facts, however flagrant, are too near home, and the miserable Sufferers already too much oppressed with the Injury, we must not add to their Afflictions by too publick a use of the Calamity to embellish our Story; the murthered Lady rests in her Grave; we must leave the Offender to the supreme Justice, and to the Reproaches of his Conscience.
Sad Examples of conjugal Treachery might be given of this kind; and I might make the whole Work a Satyr upon those, who, abusing the Marriage Bed, have prostituted the sacred Institution to their Vice, and made it a covering to Crime, a snare to the Person drawn into it, and a cheat to devour their Fortunes, as well as Persons.
The Lady ———, pardon my concealing Names, is a Person of good Birth, of a Family in good Circumstances, and pass'd with all that knew her for a Woman of Virtue. Her modest behaviour gave such a Credit to her, and established her Character so well, that it would have looked like Malice, and been received in all Company with a general disgust, so much as to have drop'd a Word that look'd like Detraction, or in the least touch'd her Fame.
She is admired and courted by several, and, after some time, married by a Person of good Fortunes, and even superior Birth; a Man of Honour and of Quality, and yet, which is now very rare, a Man of Virtue: He is pleas'd with his Bride to the last degree; vain of her Beauty; boasts of her as a Prize carry'd by his good Fortune from so many Pretenders. But, alas! what Shagreen covers the usual Smile that
