The praise which made the per formance of this work, a pleasure, can no longer be bestowed, and there fore that of the public is less anxiously desired, for the satisfaction which it might once have given, cannot now be shared.

The approbation of the wise and good is however always valuable, and they must be undeserving of it, who are insensible of its worth.

To obtain it for these volumes, the design must be considered more than the execution; and the severity of criticism must be forgotten in the consideration that it would be illemployed on a subject of which af fection prompted the undertaking,

and

and for the errors and imperfections of which, the compassionate will accept the excuse of its having been begun and ended in the most trying moments of affliction.

DRELINCOURT AND RODALVI

СПАР. І.

There, in domestic virtue rich and great,
As erst in public, 'mid his wide domain,
Long in primeval patriarchal state,
The lord, the judge, the father of the plain,
He dwelt; and with him in the golden chain
Of wedded faith, ylink'd a matron sage
Aye dwelt; sweet partner of his joy and pain,
Sweet charmer of his youth, friend of his age,
Skill❜d to improve his bliss, his sorrow to assuage.

WEST.

AMONG the innumerable villas which grace the banks of the Arno, in the neighbourhood of Florence, none were more distinguished by elegance than that of the Marchese di Rodalvi, who had early in life resigned the bustle of the world, to enjoy the pleasures of rational retirement, enriched with books, and enlivened by the occasional society of VOL. I. friends,

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friends, whose cultivated minds, and polished manners were congenial to his

own.

During six months, the Marchese had considered himself particularly fortunate in having been favoured with a visit from Lord Drelincourt, an English nobleman, to whom he had been attached from his youth, and who had been advised to try the efficacy of a warm climate, towards the restoration of his health, which he had lost by an indefatigable attendance on politics, and vexation from seeing his schemes frustrated and his services neglected.

Frederick Augustus Courtney, Baron Courtney, Earl of Drelincourt, was, at this period of our history, forty-seven years of age, tall and of a noble figure, his countenance expressive and thoughtful, tho' terrible in anger, of which, however, it seldom assumed the appearance; its neral character was that of benevolence, tho' his penetratin dark eyes sometimes darted

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such