Page:Magdalen, or, The history of a reform'd prostitute.pdf/20

 as coming from him. I have hopes too of regaining the regard of my other friends, and have already seen my sister. My poor father, to my exquisite sorrow, died soon after my departure. This is at present the greatest burden to my mind.

Such is my story; which I have delivered in the plainest manner. I want not to exculpate myself: That I am criminal, very criminal; that I have done amiss, very much amiss, I am ready to acknowledge; I do acknowledge in the sight of God and man. But oh! dear Sir, let the most rigidly virtuous consider a poor uninstructed young girl, without any principles almost but those of vanity, attacked by every thing that can allure, youth, wealth, personal graces, solemn vows, and the most awful protestations and promises of marriage from a faithless heart, her own, sick with love; and let pardon at least be granted for one fault. For the rest, treachery, perfidy, cruelty, necessity, will speak. My sufferings have been very severe: and oh! that I had known those dictates of virtue and religion, in which I have been instructed at the Magdalen, and which found a properly humbled mind to receive them! Oh that in early youth I had known them; that my parents had early taught me the ways of piety; for, I am persuaded, I should then never have taken the first false step. I should then have preserved my innocence, and have escaped those sorrows, which, I am sa-