Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded
encounter with the man, who have escaped the master—little thinking of
the base contrivance of the latter.—Says he, I am just there: ’Tis but
a mile on one side of the town before us.—Nay, said I, I may be
mistaken; for it is a good while since I was this way; but I am sure
the face of the country here is nothing like what I remember it.
He pretended to be much out of humour with himself for mistaking the
way, and at last stopped at a farmhouse, about two miles beyond the
village I had seen; and it was then almost dark, and he alighted, and
said, We must make shift here; for I am quite out.
Lord, thought I, be good to the poor Pamela! More trials still!—What
will befall me next?
The farmer’s wife, and maid, and daughter, came out; and the wife said,
What brings you this way at this time of night, Mr. Robert? And with a
lady too?—Then I began to be frightened out of my wits; and laying
middle and both ends together, I fell a crying, and said, God give me
patience! I am undone for certain!—Pray, mistress, said I, do you know
’Squire B——, of Bedfordshire?
The wicked coachman would have prevented the answering me; but the
simple daughter said, Know his worship! yes, surely! why he is my
father’s landlord.—Well, said I, then I am undone; undone for ever!—O,
wicked wretch! what have I done to you, said I to the coachman, to
serve me thus?—Vile tool of a wicked master!—Faith, said the fellow, I
am sorry this task was put upon me; but I could not help it. But make
the best of it now; here are very civil reputable folks; and you’ll be
safe here, I’ll assure you.—Let me get out, said I, and I’ll walk back
to the town we came through, late as it is:—For I will not enter here.
Said the farmer’s wife, You’ll be very well used here, I’ll assure you,
young gentlewoman, and have better conveniences than any where in the
village. I matter not conveniences, said I: I am betrayed and undone!
As you have a daughter of your own, pity me, and let me know if your
landlord, as you call him, be here!—No, I’ll assure you he is not, said
she.
And then came the farmer, a good-like sort of man, grave, and
well-behaved; and spoke to me in such sort, as made me a little
pacified; and seeing no help for it, I went in; and the wife
immediately conducted me up stairs to the best apartment, and told me,
that was mine as long as I staid: and nobody should come near me but
when I called. I threw myself on the bed in the room, tired and
frightened to death almost; and gave way to the most excessive fit of
grief that I ever had.
The daughter came up, and said, Mr. Robert had given her a letter to
give me; and there it was. I raised myself, and saw it was the hand and
seal of the wicked wretch, my master, directed to Mrs. Pamela
Andrews.—This was a little better than to have him here; though, if he
had, he must have been brought through the air; for I thought I was.
The good woman (for I began to see things about a little reputable, and
no guile appearing in them, but rather a face of grief for my grief)
offered me a glass of some cordial water, which I accepted, for I was
ready to sink; and then I sat up in a chair a little, though very
faintish: and they brought me two candles, and lighted a brushwood
fire; and said, if I called, I should be waited on instantly; and so
left me to ruminate on my sad condition, and to read my letter, which I
was not able to do presently. After I had a little come to myself, I
found it to contain these words:
‘DEAR PAMELA,
‘The passion I have for you, and your obstinacy, have constrained me to
act by you in a manner that I know will occasion you great trouble and
fatigue, both of mind and body. Yet, forgive me, my dear girl; for,
although I have taken this step, I will, by all that’s good and holy!
use you honourably. Suffer not your fears to transport you to a
behaviour that will be disreputable to us both: for the place where
you’ll receive this, is a farm that belongs to me; and the people
civil, honest, and obliging.
‘You will, by this time, be far on your way to the place I have
allotted for your abode for a few weeks, till I have managed some
affairs, that will make me shew myself to you in a much different
light, than you may possibly apprehend from this rash action: And to
convince you, that I mean no harm, I do assure you, that the house you
are going to, shall be so much at your command, that even I myself will
not approach it without leave from you. So make yourself easy; be
discreet and prudent; and a happier turn shall reward these your
troubles, than you may at present apprehend.
‘Meantime I pity the fatigue you will have, if this come to your hand
in the place I have directed: and will write to your father to satisfy
him, that nothing but what is honourable shall be offered to you, by
Your passionate admirer, (so I must style myself,)
‘———————-’
Don’t think hardly of poor Robin: You have so possessed all my servants
in your favour, that I find they had rather serve you than me; and ’tis
reluctantly the poor fellow undertook this task; and I was forced to
submit to assure him of my honourable intentions to you, which I am
fully resolved to make good, if you compel me not to a contrary
conduct.’
I but too well apprehended that the letter was only to pacify me for
the present; but as my danger was not so immediate as I had reason to
dread, and he had promised to forbear coming to me, and to write to
you, my dear parents, to quiet your concern, I was a little more easy
than before and I made shift to eat a little bit of boiled chicken they
had got for me, and drank a glass of my sack, and made each of them do
so too.
But after I had so done, I was again a little flustered; for in came
the coachman with the look of a hangman, I thought, and madamed me up
strangely; telling me, he would beg me to get ready to pursue my
journey by five in the morning, or else he should be late in. I was
quite grieved at this; for I began not to dislike my company,
considering how things stood; and was in hopes to get a party among
them, and so to put myself into any worthy protection in the
neighbourhood, rather than go forward.
When he withdrew, I began to tamper with the farmer and his wife. But,
alas! they had had a letter delivered them at the same time I had; so
securely had Lucifer put it into his head to do his work; and they only
shook their heads, and seemed to pity me; and so I was forced to give
over that hope.
However, the good farmer shewed me his letter; which I copied as
follows: for it discovers the deep arts of this wicked master; and how
resolved he seems to be on my ruin, by the pains he took to deprive me
of all hopes of freeing myself from his power.
‘FARMER NORTON,
‘I send to your house, for one night only, a young gentlewoman, much
against her will, who has deeply embarked in a love affair, which will
be her ruin, as well as the person’s to whom she wants to betroth
herself. I have, to oblige her father, ordered her to be carried to one
of my houses, where she will be well used, to try, if by absence, and
expostulation with both, they can be brought to know their own interest
and I am sure you will use her kindly for my sake: for, excepting this
matter, which she will not own, she does not want prudence and
discretion. I will acknowledge any trouble you shall be at in this
matter the first opportunity; and am
‘Your Friend and Servant.’
He had said, too cunningly for me, that I would not own this pretended
love affair; so that he had provided them not to believe me, say what I
would; and as they were his tenants, who all love him, (for he has some
amiable qualities, and so he had need!) I saw all my plot cut out, and
so was forced to say the less.
I wept bitterly, however; for I found he was too hard for me, as well
in his contrivances as riches; and so had recourse again to my only
refuge, comforting myself, that God never fails to take the innocent
heart into his protection, and is alone able to baffle and confound the
devices of the mighty. Nay, the farmer was so prepossessed with the
contents of his letter, that he began to praise his care and concern
for me, and to advise me against entertaining addresses without my
friends’ advice and consent; and made me the subject of a lesson for
his daughter’s improvement. So I was glad to shut up this discourse;
for I saw I was not likely to be believed.
I sent, however, to tell my driver, that I was so fatigued, I could not
get out so soon the next morning. But he insisted upon it, and said, It
would make my day’s journey the lighter; and I found he was a more
faithful servant to his master, notwithstanding what he wrote of his
reluctance, than I could have wished: I saw still more and more, that
all was deep dissimulation, and contrivance worse and worse.
Indeed I might have shewn them his letter to me, as a full confutation
of his to them; but I saw no probability of engaging them in my behalf:
and so thought it signified little, as I was to go away so soon, to
enter more particularly into the matter with them; and besides, I saw
they were not inclinable to let me stay longer, for fear of disobliging
him so I went to bed, but had very little rest: and they would make
their servant-maid bear me company in the chariot five miles, early in
the morning, and she was to walk back.
I had contrived in my thoughts, when I was on my way in the chariot, on
Friday morning, that when we came into some town to bait, as he must do
for the horses’ sake, I would, at the inn, apply myself, if I saw I any
way could, to the mistress of the inn, and tell her the case, and to
refuse to go farther, having nobody but this wicked coachman to contend
with.
Well, I was very full of this project, and in great hopes, some how or
other, to extricate myself in this way. But, oh! the artful wretch had
provided for even this last refuge of mine; for when we came to put up
at a large town on the way, to eat a morsel for dinner, and I was fully
resolved to execute my project, who should be at the inn that he put up
at, but the wicked Mrs. Jewkes, expecting me! And her sister-in-law was
the mistress of it; and she had provided a little entertainment for me.
And this I found, when I desired, as soon as I came in, to speak with
the mistress of the house. She came to me: and I said, I am a poor
unhappy young body, that want your advice and assistance; and you seem
to be a good sort of a gentlewoman, that would assist an oppressed
innocent person. Yes, madam, said she, I hope you guess right; and I
have the happiness to know something of the matter before you speak.
Pray call my sister Jewkes.—Jewkes! Jewkes! thought I; I have heard of
that name; I don’t like it.
Then the wicked creature appeared, whom I had never seen but once
before, and I was terrified out of my wits. No stratagem, thought I,
not one! for a poor innocent girl; but every thing to turn out against
me; that is hard indeed!
So I began to pull in my horns, as they say, for I saw I was now worse
off than at the farmer’s.
The naughty woman came up to me with an air of confidence, and kissed
me: See, sister, said she, here’s a charming creature! Would she not
tempt the best lord in the land to run away with her? O frightful!
thought I; here’s an avowal of the matter at once: I am now gone,
that’s certain. And so was quite silent and confounded; and seeing no
help for it, (for she would not part with me out of her sight) I was
forced to set out with her in the chariot for she came thither on
horseback, with a man-servant, who rode by us the rest of the way,
leading her horse: and now I gave over all thoughts of redemption, and
was in a desponding condition indeed.
Well, thought I, here are strange pains taken to ruin a poor innocent,