Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 161: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

134 ALFRED} OR ADVENTURES out of the post-chaise that brought you hither. I have, therefore, resolved on choosing another lodging. | ‘* Of course you intend to commence a desperate warfare with me relative to the papers. If it be your intention to divulge all you know of my character, I shall naturally do the same good office towards you: but if it suit you to forget the circumstances under which we first met, and to fight, upon fair ground, with any wea- pons save those of scandal, I am willing to make the compact; for it will not forward either of ont purposes to let the world know we are two fugitive galley-slaves. ‘¢ Should this mutual concession obtain your approbation, I shall soon discover your assent by your actions. ‘Therefore rest assured that the secret is safe with me until your lips have divulged it to my disgrace; and then the shame will be equally shared. It suits me to take another name: the suppression of your knowledge of that change enters into our compact as well as any other circum- stance unconnected with the papers: but of course I do not sup- pose you will allow the limits of our agreement to comprehend the stratagem by which I obtained possession of the said documents. You see I am willing to act justly; and, that I anticipate your slightest objection to the conditions of our treaty. Encore fin contre The contents of this letter did not at all displease our hero, as the reader may well imagine: and he was not afraid that Belle- Rose, or the Count d’Elsigny, would break an agreement that involved his own honour as deeply as that of his adversary. But while he made this reflection, he could not help smiling at the easy and off-hand manner in which his late companion, or guide, penned the epistles that conveyed his thoughts, exactly as he would have expressed them in conversation. In the course of the day, De Rosann wrote a letter to Mr. Clayton, at St. Malo, stating, that certain circumstances, which he could not explain until they met, had obliged him to hasten to London instead of returning to Paris, according to his former determination. He concluded with a long paragraph to his beloved Eloise, wherein he assured her of the permanence of his affection, and of the sanguine hopes he entertained of being one day able to demand her hand in marriage of her mother. He besought her not to despair, but to keep up her spirits to the utmost of her power, and refrain, as much as possible, from tormenting Mrs. Clayton with supplications that at present were vain, as he was almost certain of speedily removing every obstacle to their union. ECOMICLMOOOKS»€©