ridicule with which you were pleased to load him. I know not whether he
had his information from your femme-de-chambre, but I am very certain
that he has sworn he will be revenged, and he is a man that keeps his
word; for after all, that you may not be deceived by his look, like that
of a Stoic, and his gravity, like that of a judge, I must acquaint you,
that he is the most passionate man living. Indeed, these invectives are
of the blackest and most horrible nature: he says it is most infamous,
that a wretch like yourself should find no other employment than to
blacken the characters of gentlemen, to gratify your jealousy; that if
you do not desist from such conduct for the future, he will immediately
complain of you; and that if her royal highness will not do him justice,
he is determined to do himself justice, and to run you through the body
with his own sword, though you were even in the arms of Miss Temple; and
that it is most scandalous that all the maids of honour should get into
your hands before they can look around them.

"These things, madam, I thought it my duty to acquaint you with: you are
better able to judge than myself, whether what I have now advanced be
true, and I leave it to your own discretion to make what use you think
proper of my advice; but were I in your situation, I would endeavour to
reconcile Lord Rochester and Miss Temple. Once more I recommend to you
to take care that your endeavours to mislead her innocency, in order to
blast his honour, may not come to his knowledge; and do not estrange from
her a man who tenderly loves her, and whose probity is so great, that he
would not even suffer his eyes to wander towards her, if his intention
was not to make her his wife."

Miss Temple observed her promise most faithfully during this discourse:
she did not even utter a single syllable, being seized with such
astonishment and confusion, that she quite lost the use of her tongue.