VOLUME THE SECOND.




CHAPTER I.


I have stated the narrative of Mr. Collins, interspersed with such other
information as I was able to collect, with all the exactness that my
memory, assisted by certain memorandums I made at the time, will afford.
I do not pretend to warrant the authenticity of any part of these
memoirs, except so much as fell under my own knowledge, and that part
shall be given with the same simplicity and accuracy, that I would
observe towards a court which was to decide in the last resort upon
every thing dear to me. The same scrupulous fidelity restrains me from
altering the manner of Mr. Collins's narrative to adapt it to the
precepts of my own taste; and it will soon be perceived how essential
that narrative is to the elucidation of my history.

The intention of my friend in this communication was to give me ease;
but he in reality added to my embarrassment. Hitherto I had had no
intercourse with the world and its passions; and, though I was not
totally unacquainted with them as they appear in books, this proved of
little service to me when I came to witness them myself. The case seemed
entirely altered, when the subject of those passions was continually
before my eyes, and the events had happened but the other day as it