_Mel._ To shun disgrace, and punish baseness.

_Sir Per._ Punish baseness! what does the fellow mean? Wha are you, sir?

_Mel._ A man, sir--and one, whose fortune once bore as proud a sway as any
within this county's limits.

_Lord Lum._ You seem to be a soldier, sir.

_Mel._ I was, sir; and have the soldier's certificate to prove my
service--rags and scars. In my heart, for ten long years in India's
parching clime I bore my country's cause; and in noblest dangers sustained
it with my sword: at length ungrateful peace has laid me down where
welcome war first took me up,--in poverty, and the dread of cruel
creditors.--Paternal affection brought me to my native land, in quest of
an only child:--I found her, as I thought, amiable as parental fondness
could desire; but lust and foul seduction have snatched her from me,
and hither am I come, fraught with a father's anger, and a soldier's
honour, to seek the seducer and glut revenge.

_Lady Mac._ Pray, sir, who is your daughter?

_Mel._ I blush to own her--but--Constantia.

_Eger._ Is Constantia your daughter, sir?

_Mel._ She is; and was the only comfort that nature, fortune, or my own
extravagance had left me.

_Sir Per._ Guid traith, then, I fancy you will find but vary little