Mr. SPECTATOR,

"Pthe good People of Great-Britain of a strange and

ERHAPS you will not take it amifs to inform

• difmal Catsarophe that happened in Cambridgeshire, within fix Miles of Newmarket: One John Leach of • Gefely, and Alice Davis of Ifelham, at fix Miles distance ⚫ both discreet and good-natured Perfons, had for fome • Years entertained for each other a fincere Affection, ⚫ which about four Years ago grew up to a mutual and

very paffionate Love. But her Parents, who were able ⚫ to give her a little Fortune, thinking his Circumstances ⚫ not answerable to what they might expect, for a great ⚫ while refused their Confent. At length, a little before. • Chrifimas laft, they were perfuaded to fuffer the Bans ⚫of Marriage between the two joyful Lovers to be publifhed thrice in the Church; but upon fome new Difguft, they afterwards difapproved of their Daughter's • Choice. She readily told them, That her Affections • were unalterably fixed, but that fhe would not marry. • without their Leave; and thus the Marriage was put eff, to the great Mortification of both Parties. He roved up and down the Country, feeking Employment, but could fix no where, and was observed to be a little. disorder'd in his Mind. She lamented at home her • Friend's unhappy Fate, and freely told her Mother, that it were better to die than live in fuch Discontent; which mov'd the Mother's Compaffion; the Father • continued inflexible.

'ON the 20th Inftant, after an Absence of some • Months, John Leach made his Mistress a Vifit at Ifelbam. She, full of Joy, accompanied him to a • Friend's House in the Neighbourhood, where they fpent the Evening together. About Twelve in the Night, they went, as was fuppofed, to her Father's House; but having agreed to walk into the Fields, ' when they were at fome diftance from the Houfes, he asked her, If he thought it might yet be a Match • between them? She answer'd, Of that there is now but very little Likelihood. Then, faid he, we must part; ⚫ and immediately he fhot her through the Cheek, with a Pocket Piftol, which he had bought for the Pur

⚫ pose.

pofe. She falling to the Ground, unhappily discover'd that fhe was not dead, by saying, What, John, would you kill me? He made no anfwer, but with a Piece of • Cord ftrangled her to Death.

་

NEXT Morning he went to St Edmondsbury, diftant about fourteen Miles from the Place where the • Fact was committed. Alice Davis's Parents having fent a Person thither to inquire of him where their Daughter was, and, if poffible, to prevent the Marriage, which they took to be the Meaning of her Ab'fence. This John Leach immediately told him, Her • Soul is, I hope, in Heaven, and her Body is in such a Ditch, where I hid it, after that I had murder'd her, And having voluntarily offer'd to go before a Juftice of the Peace, he defired Leave to give upon Oath · a full Account of the Matter. He is now in Goal at St. Edmondsbury, neither expecting nor defiring any thing elfe, but to fatisfy Juftice, by fuffering fuch a Death as the Law fhall inflict. The poor Wretch now declares, that he found his Torments fo great, that he could not live without her; and that he would ⚫ have difpatch'd himself, had he not thought that either • the Refemblance of him would have made her Life bitter as long as the fhould have furvived him, or elfe that he might have forgotten him, and married another, which Imagination fill'd him with Horror. He therefore deliberately refolved that both fhould die; and he fays, that if he had not loft his Piftol, he 'would have killed himself upon the Spot. He now seems fenfible of the Atrocity of his Crime, and begs of those about him, to fuffer no Inftrument to fall into his Hands, by which he may become his own • Executioner..

THIS Story may inftruct the Lovers in Great-Bri⚫tain, not to fuffer their Paffions to rife to too great a Height, before they are fure of Succefs, and to beware of long Courtships, which very often end in Distraction, or fome fatal Difafter. But alas! how eafily does Love • triumph over the wifeft Refolutions?

I would therefore hope, that it may also touch fome hard-hearted Parents, who would rather fend their Children to Bedlam, or to the Grave, nay, which

is worse, to Hell, than that they fhould be happy in ⚫ their own Choice, if when their Fortunes are weighed in the Balance, one of the Scales be found a little ligh⚫ter than the other. If I did know Avaro to be void ⚫ of Humanity, I would expect that it should move him to have Compaffion on his Daughter, the incompa•rable Mirabella, and the generous, good-natur'd, wife, • valiant Eugenio, who now languifh and despair, because they know him refolv'd that his Daughter fhall marry an old Ufurer, worth half a Plumb. What does the • Mifer mean? Mirabella can relifh the Pleasures of Friendship and Love, and has no Notion of that only Delight which he takes in viewing mufty Bags • full of Silver and Gold. But I fear that that Wretch ⚫ will even envy the Happiness of Alice Davis's Parents, ⚫ who are quit of their Daughter, without giving any For

⚫ tune.

AND I know not but that it may be worth our Legislature's while to establish fome Matrimonial Laws; ⚫ for it would feem reasonable, either that Sons and Daugh⚫ters be difpofed of, as in the Eaftern Countries, by the fole Pleasure of their Parents; or elfe that Parents, when once they have allowed of a Courtship, be, as • in Holland, obliged by the Civil Magiftrates to confent to the Marriage, unless they can make fome legal Objection against it. Matrimony is what all wife • Nations have thought fit to encourage; but I am per• fuaded that in this Ifland many die Batchelors and • Maids, who are not very fond of Celibacy; because in this Affair, both Parents and Children have Power to break off the Match, and neither of them to conclude it without the other's Approbation. Poor Celia is unhappy, though admired by Thousands, and poffeffed of every Charm. She has had no less than a dozen of profeffed Lovers, fix of which were fine Gentlemen, and therefore her Father's, and as many of them • Old Mifers, and therefore her Averfion; and fhe must < want a Husband, until one offer, of whom Youth and Old Age, Love and Avarice fhall approve.

S

I am, SIR, Yours, &c. ** ́

Monday,

N° 687.

Monday, July 7.

· Amor non talia curat.

Virg.

HE Story of the Amours of the brave Colonel Ravelin, and the no lefs lovely and agreeable Cecilia, is not without its moving Tendernesses; though perhaps not enough to gratify the Taste of one Order of Lovers. Thefe kind of Sectaries in Cupid's Religion, refolve all their Devotion into Fanaticism, and imagine the Reality of that Paffion, to confift in Diftrefs, and romantick Extravagance. But the happy Pair, whose History I intend to relate, had agreed to preferve their Conduct and Prudence untainted throughout the whole Novel of their Affair. The Dart that fmote the Hero, never grew up to a Sword, nor indeed fo much as a Dagger; and the Amazon's Cruelty produced no other Effects than the Preservation of her own Dominions in a Jointure of about two thousand Pounds per Annum. The Catastrophe may therefore be not the lefs furprifing, because it is inftructive, and ends with a Moral much to the Honour and Advantage of the fair Sex.

ON a Day in the Month of April, the Sun was far advanced on the other fide of Buckingham-Houfe, when Colonel Ravelin turned fhort by Rofamond's Pond, and was then revolving in his Breaft all the grand Affairs of Europe; the different Turns of Peace and War, the Nature and Duration of Eftablishments, by the Dates and Era's of Commiffions, and his own unavoidable and calamitous Reduction to Half Pay; in the room of this melancholy Profpect, a thousand more engaging Images crouded into his Soul, and difputed their Precedency with Ambition, which had reigned there fo long without a Competitor. The Relult was, a firm Refolution in our Heroe, to end his days in fome pleasant Country Scat, with rich Widow or Heirefs: and in

the

the very Crifis of his Refolution, juft as the Matter was fettled, a Hackney-Coach fet him down at Drury-lane Play-house, the Moment the fecond A&t of The Soldier's Fortune came upon the Stage.

CECILIA was that Night in in one of the FrontBoxes: A Lady, who during her Nonage, had been kept in all the Obscurity of a great Fortune referved for Sale to the very Day of her Marriage, and had tafted no more of that State, than what the gayeft and most volatile Spirits might relish with extreme Pleasure and Tranfport: No Husband could have been cloy'd with a much longer Poffeffion of Cecilia. She came out of her Weeds with a thousand warmer Hopes of Conqueft, than unknowing and inacceffible, Fifteen could poffibly be acquainted with; fhe was then in the fecond Year of her Widowhood, and the twenty fecond of her Age. The Colonel had hardly brufh'd his Eyes over one half of the Female Audience, before he made an unexpected ftand at the Beauty of Cecilia. He gaz'd on the Luftre of her Eyes, and the Number and Richness of her Jewels. Plenty feem'd to fmile upon him from her Cheeks and Forehead, and the Majefty and Promptitude of her Mien, with a Look divided between the Careless and Afpiring, and every now and then a neg ligent Loll, and a difregardful Glance at the whole Circle of Fellows in the Pit, at once proclaim'd her most adorably wealthy and fortunate. He now reflected, of how much Use an Evening's Meditation in the Park might be to Men of his gay Genius, and refolved to ftake his Heart upon the Credit of his Eyes, as if they had already perus'd the Deeds and Writings of her Eftate. Her Name and Quality foon flew about the adjacent Benches. A Cit on the right Hand, cried out, a Plumb, and a Brother Officer to the left, gave the word for a ninety thousand Pounder. There being always a Creature or two on thefe Occafions, whose fole Business it is to keep up a good Intelligence between the diftant Quarters of every publick Affembly. After the Play, the Colonel was the firft to lead her out, when the Appearance of Links, Liveries, and a gilt Chair, made him bow exceffive low, and quit her Hand with a fenfible Reluctance. That Night he pour'd down her Name with