Fan. Thy art! prithee, no more of that.Look ye, I know you are a cheat as much as I am. And if thou'lt keep my counsel, I'll give thee ten broad pieces.

Sir Geo. I am not mercenary. Young man, I scorn thy gold.

Fan. I'll make them up twenty

Sir Geo. Avaunt! and that quickly, or I'll raise such an apparition as shall

Fan. An apparition, old gentleman! you mistake your man; I'm not to be frighted with bugbears!

Sir Geo. Let me retire but for a few moments, and I will give thee such a proof of my art

Fan. Why, if thou hast any hocus-pocus tricks to play, why canst thou not do them here?

Sir Geo. The raising of a spirit requires certain secret mysteries to be performed, and words to be muttered in private

Fan. Well, if I see through your trick, will you promise to be my friend?"

Sir Geo. I will-Attend and tremble!

[Exit. Fan. A very solemn old ass! but I smoke him-he has a mind to raise his price upon me. I could not think this slut would have used me thus. I begin to grow horribly tired of my drum. I wish I was well rid of it. However, I have got this by it, that it has driven off Tinsel for good and all I shan't have the mortification to see my mistress carried off by such a rival.Well, whatever happens, I must stop this old fellow's mouth; I must not be sparing in hushmoney. But here he comes.

Enter SIR GEORGE in his own habit. Ha! what's that! Sir George Trueman! This can be no counterfeit. His dress, his shape, his face, the very wound of which he died! Nay, then, 'tis time to decamp. [Runs off

Sir Geo. Ha, ha, ha! Fare you well, good sir George, The enemy has left me master of the field; here are the marks of my victory. This drum will I hang up in my great hall, as the trophy of the day.

Enter ABIGAIL-SIR GEORGE stands with his hand before his face, in a musing posture. Abi. Yonder he is. O' my conscience, he has driven off the conjurer! Mr Fantome, Mr Fantome! I give you joy, I give you joy! What do you think of your thousand pounds now? Why does not the man speak?

[Pulls him by the sleeve.

Sir Geo. Ha! [Taking his hands from his face. Abi. Oh 'tis my master! [Shrieks. [Running away, he catches her. Sir Geo. Good Mrs Abigail, not so fast. Abi. Are you alive, sir? He has given my shoulder such a cursed tweak! they must be real fingers; I feel them, I'm sure.

Sir Geo. What dost thou think? Abi. Think, sir! think!-Troth I don't know what to think. Pray, sir, how

Sir Geo. No questions, good Abigail; thy curiosity shall be satisfied in due time. Where's your lady?

Abi. Oh, I'm so frighted-and so glad-
Sir Geo. Where's your lady, I ask you?
Abi. Marry, I don't know where I am myself
I can't forbear weeping for joy-

Sir Geo. Your lady? I say, your lady? I must bring you to yourself with one pinch more.

Abi. Oh, she has been talking a good while with the steward.

Sir Geo. Then he has opened the whole story to her. I'm glad he has prepared her. Oh, here she comes!

Enter LADY TRUEMAN, followed by VELLUM. Lady True. Where is he? Let me fly into his arms ! my life! my soul! my husband!

Sir Geo. Oh, let me catch thee to my heart, dearest of women!

Lady True. Are you, then, still alive, and are you here! I can scarce believe my senses! Now am I happy indeed!

Sir Geo. My heart is too full to answer thee. Lady True. Was ever woman so blessed! to find again the darling of her soul, when she thought him lost for ever! to enter into a kind of second marriage with the only man, whom she was ever capable of loving!

Sir Geo. May it be as happy as our first! I desire no more. Believe me, my dear, I want words to express those transports of joy and tenderness, which are every moment rising in my heart whilst I speak to thee.

Enter Servants.

But. Just as the steward told us, lads! Look you there, if he ben't with my lady already! Gard. He, he, he! what a joyful night will this be for madam.

Coach. As I was coming in at the gate, a strange gentleman whisked by me; but he took I did not see master before me, I should have to his heels, and made away to the George. If sworn it had been his honour!

Gard. Hast thou given orders for the bells to be set a ringing?

Coach. Never trouble thy head about that; it is done.

Sir Geo. [To LADY TRUEMAN.] My dear, I long as much to tell you my whole story, as you do to hear it. In the mean while, I am to look upon this as my wedding-day. I'll have nothing but the voice of mirth and feasting in my house, My poor neighbours and my servants shall rejoice with me. My hall shall be free to every one, and let my cellars be thrown open.

But. Ah, bless your honour, may you never die again!

Coach. The same good man that he ever was. Gard. Whurra!

Sir Geo. Vellum, thou hast done me much service to-day. I know thou lovest Abigail; but she's disappointed in a fortune. I'll make it up to both of you. I'll give thee a thousand pounds with her. It is not fit there should be one sad heart in my house to-night.

Abi. Mr Vellum, you are a well-spoken man: pray, do you thank my master and my lady,

SCENE L-A tavern.

COLONEL FAINWELL and FREEMAN over
a bottle.

Free. COME, colonel, his majesty's health. You are as melancholy as if you were in love! I wish some of the beauties of Bath han't snapt your heart.

Col. Why, faith, Freeman, there is something in't; I have seen a lady at Bath, who has kindled such a flame in me, that all the waters there can't quench.

Free. Women, like some poisonous animals, carry their antidote about them-Is she not to be had, colonel?

Col. That's a difficult question to answer; however, I resolve to try: perhaps you may be able to serve me; you merchants know one another. The lady told me herself she was under the charge of four persons.

Free. Odso! 'tis Mrs Anne Lovely.
Col. The same-Do you know her?

Free. Know her! ay- -Faith, colonel, your condition is more desperate than you imagine:

why, she is the talk and pity of the whole town; and it is the opinion of the learned, that she must die a maid.

Col. Say you so? That's somewhat odd, in this charitable city. She's a woman, I hope?

Free. For aught I know-but it had been as well for her, had nature made her any other part of the creation. The man who keeps this house served her father; he is a very honest fellow, and may be of use to you; we'll send for him to take a glass with us: he'll give you her whole history, and 'tis worth your hearing.

Col. But may one trust him?

Free. With your life: I have obligations enough upon him to make him do any thing: I serve him with wine. [Knocks.

Col. Nay, I know him very well myself. I once used to frequent a club that was kept here.

Freeman?

Free. Yes, I know two of them very well.

Enter SACKBUT.

Here comes one will give you an account of them all. Mr Sackbut, we sent for you to take a glass with us. 'Tis a maxim among the friends of the bottle, that as long as the master is in company, one may be sure of good wine.

Sack. Sir, you shall be sure to have as good wine as you send in. Colonel, your most humble servant; you are welcome to town.

Col. I thank you, Mr Sackbut.

Sack. I am as glad to see you as I should a hundred tun of French claret, custom free. My service to you, sir. [Drinks.] You don't look so merry as you used to do; arn't you well, colonel?

Free. He has got a woman in his head, landlord; can you help him?

Sack. If 'tis in my power, I shan't scruple to serve my friend.

Col. Tis one perquisite of your calling. Sack. Aye, at t'other end of the town, where you officers use, women are good forcers of trade; a well-customed house, a handsome barkeeper, with clean, obliging drawers, 300n get the master an estate; but our citizens seldom do any thing but cheat within the walls. But as to the lady, colonel; point you at particulars? or have you a good Champagne stomach? Are you in full pay, or reduced, colonel?

Col. Reduced, reduced, landlord.

in the care of four men, as opposite to each other as the four elements; each has his quarterly rule, and three months in a year she is obliged to be subject to each of their humours, and they are pretty different, I assure you. She is just come from Bath.

Col. 'Twas there I saw her.

Sack. Aye, sir; the last quarter was her beau guardian's. She appears in all public places during his reign.

Col. She visited a lady who boarded in the same house with me: I liked her person, and found an opportunity to tell her so. She replied, she had no objection to mine; but if I could not reconcile contradictions, I must not think of her; for that she was condemned to the caprice of four persons, who never yet agreed in any one thing, and she was obliged to please them all.

Sack. 'Tis most true, sir; I'll give you a short description of the men, and leave you to judge of the poor lady's condition. One is a kind of virtuoso; a silly, half-witted fellow, but positive and surly, fond of every thing antique and foreign, and wears his clothes of the fashion of the last century; doats upon travellers, and believes. more of sir John Mandeville than he does of the Bible.

Col. That must be a rare odd fellow!

Sack. Another is a 'Change-broker; a fellow that will out-lye the devil for the advantage of stock, and cheat his father that got him, in a bargain: he is a great stickler for trade, and hates every man that wears a sword.

Free. He is a great admirer of the Dutch management, and swears they understand trade better than any nation under the sun.

Col. Why so?

Sack. He hated posterity, you must know, and wished the world were to expire with himself.He used to swear, if she had been a boy, he would have qualified him for the opera.

Free. 'Twas a very unnatural resolution in a father.

Sack. He died worth thirty thousand pounds, which he left to his daughter, provided she married with the consent of her guardians; but that

Sack. The third is an old beau, that has May his fancy and dress, but December in his face and his heels: he admires all the new fashions, and those must be French; loves operas, balls, masquerades, and is always the most tawdry of the whole company on a birth-day.

Col. These are pretty opposite to one another, truly; and the fourth, what is he, landlord?

Sack. A very rigid quaker, whose quarter began this day. I saw Mrs Lovely go in, not above two hours ago-sir Philip set her down.What think you now, colonel; is not the poor lady to be pitied?

Col. Aye, and rescued too, landlord.
Free. In my opinion, that's impossible.

Col. There is nothing impossible to a lover.What would not a man attempt for a fine woman and thirty thousand pounds? Besides, my honour is at stake; I promised to deliver her, and she bid me win her and wear her.

Sack. That's fair, faith.

Free. If it depended upon knight-errantry, I should not doubt your setting free the damsel; but to have avarice, impertinence, hypocrisy, and pride, at once to deal with, requires more