lady was brought back; and, from the severity of the French laws and
the supposed atrocity of the crime, it is generally affirmed that the
musician, notwithstanding his talents and fame, had he been secured,
would have been executed.

I have mentioned this adventure, my dear Louisa, not so much for its
own sake as for what relates to myself. It was natural that I should
feel compassion for mistakes, if mistakes they be, which have so great
an affinity to virtue; and that I should plead for the lovers, and
against the barbarity of laws so unjust and inhuman. For it is certain
that, had not the musician been put to death, his least punishment
would have been perpetual imprisonment.

In a former letter I mentioned the increasing alarms of Sir Arthur; and
this was a fit opportunity for him to shew how very serious and great
those alarms are. He opposed me, while I argued in behalf of the
lovers, with what might in him be called violence; affirmed it was a
crime for which no merit or genius could compensate; highly applauded
those wholesome laws that prevented such crimes, and preserved the
honour of noble families from attaint; lamented the want of similar
laws in England; and spoke of the conduct of the young lady with a
degree of bitterness which from him was unusual. In fine, the spirit of
his whole discourse was evidently to warn me, and explicitly to declare
what his opinions on this subject are.

Had I before wanted conviction, he fully convinced me, on this
occasion, of the impossibility of any union between me and Frank
Henley; at least without sacrificing the felicity of my father and my
family, and from being generally and sincerely beloved by them,
rendering myself the object of eternal reproach, and almost of hatred.