I need not repeat to you what followed; by what means I endeavoured to
effect that end which your obstinate folly refused.

When I gave this promise to Talbot, I foresaw not his speedy death and
the consequences to Colden and yourself. I have been affrighted at the
rumour of your marriage; and, to justify the conduct I mean to pursue, I
have revealed to you what I promised to conceal merely because I foresaw
not the present state of your affairs.

You will not be surprised that, on your marriage with this man, I
should withdraw from you what you now hold from my bounty. No faultiness
in you shall induce me to leave you without the means of decent
subsistence; but I owe no benevolence to Colden. My duty will not permit
me to give any thing to your paramour. When you change your name you must
change your habitation and leave behind you whatever you found.

Think not, Jane, that I cease to love thee. I am not so inhuman as to
refuse my forgiveness to a penitent; yet I ask not thy penitence to insure
thee my affection. I have told thee my conditions, and adhere to them
still.

To preclude all bickerings and cavils, I enclose the letter which
attests your fall.

H. FIELDER.




Letter XVII