"Do

mony in Latin, as I understood; and Mrs. Wadsworth said she was not yet satisfied he was a priest. Says Mr. Fielding to her,you think my dear, that I would have anybody to do this business, but the holy father?" Mrs. Wadsworth was well satisfied till he came to that part, Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife?' She desired it might be spoke in English by him. He did so. He asked Mr. Fielding whether he would have this gentlewoman to his wedded wife. He said, 'Yes, with all my heart.' He asked the lady then, whether she would have this gentleman for her husband. She said Yes,' faintly. But, says Mr. Fielding, you must speak it so earnestly as I do: you must say with all my heart and soul.' Which she did. Then the priest blessed the ring, and gave it to Mr. Fielding to put on the lady's finger. He said something in Latin, but what it was, I know not. Then we went into the dining-room. Boucher brought up wine, and when all had drank, the priest was discharged."

6

Boucher, Fielding's servant, corroborates in every respect Mrs. Villars' statement. "My master," he says, "ordered me to be at home, and get clean sheets, wax-candles, and sconces ; and fires in both the rooms. He told me some ladies would be there that night, and ordered, if he was not at home when they came, to tell them that he would be there presently. Accordingly they came, and he was not at home, but in a

little time he came, and went up to them. Some time after that, he came down stairs, in great haste, and said,- Boucher, go and bespeak a dish of pickles.' I did so, and brought over a cloth, and the rest of the things, and left them in the window. I staid by the stairs till he came back in a hackney-coach, with a priest along with him, in a long gown, and long beard, and a fur cap. I knew him to belong to the Emperor's Envoy, and I heard Mr. Fielding call him Reverend Father. Then I was ordered to set the table, and glasses, and wine and things of that kind, upon the side-board. I waited at table all the while. When supper was over, Mr. Fielding ordered me to go down, and fetch water, salt and rosemary. I went and got water and salt, but could get no rosemary. Then I was

ordered to go down, and they were locked in, about three-quarters of an hour. He then called Boucher,' says he, 'will you fill some wine?' I did so, and perceived upon the thumb of this lady, upon her left hand, a plain gold ring which before she had not. supper When this was over, the priest went away. Presently after, says Mr. Fielding,- Take the sheets from my bed, and lay them on the other bed for Mrs. Villars, and see that none lie there.' I told my master it was done. Mrs. Villars, in the meantime put the lady to bed. When I came down to tell them of it, I saw the lady's clothes on a stool in the chamber, and Mrs. Villars folding them up, and laying them in another room. I then lighted

Mrs. Villars to bed, and then went to bed myself. In the morning I was called to make a fire. I then perceived Mr. Fielding and this lady in bed together. The fire being made, I was ordered to get a hackney-coach. Mrs. Villars dressed the lady hastily, and she was carried away in the hackney-coach."

Under what circumstances Fielding was made aware of the impudent manner in which he had been duped, we have unfortunately not been made acquainted. As his marriage, however, with the Duchess of Cleveland took place within little more than a fortnight, the dénouement could not long have been delayed. The ladies, on their part, grew, as might have been expected, exorbitant in their demands for money, to which Fielding not only turned a deaf ear, but insisted on his presents being returned. Their repeated visits to Cleveland House must have caused him

not a little annoyance. At last, apparently wearied out with their importunities, he sent for Mrs. Villars, and on her refusing to deny his marriage with Mrs. Wadsworth, not only gave her a severe beating, but told her, if she still persisted in declining to comply with his demands he would slit her nose, and "get two blacks, one of whom should hold her on his back, and the other break her bones." Mrs. Wadsworth was treated with scarcely more consideration. On her presenting herself at Cleveland House to claim him as her lawful husband, he beat her with a stick and made her nose bleed.

270

ROBERT FIELDING, BEAU FIELDING.

Fielding was found guilty at his trial and sentenced to be burnt in the hand, though he was afterwards pardoned by Queen Anne. On the 23rd of May, 1707, his marriage with the Duchess of Cleveland was annulled in the Arches Court, and from henceforth we discover no mention of either the fortune or the name of Robert Fielding.

271

BEAU WILSON.

Beau Wilson's mysterious rise from poverty to affluence.-Serves a campaign in Flanders.-Is broken for cowardice, and returns to England with forty shillings in his pocket. His extraordinary show of wealth immediately after his return.-Various conjectures on the subject.-Extract from Madam Dunois' Memoirs. Her belief that Wilson owed his good fortune to the favour of the Duchess of Cleveland.-Wilson engaged in a duel with Law, and killed.-Extract from Evelyn's Diary. -Law tried and condemned.-His escape from prison.-His death at Venice in 1729.

THE preceding memoir of Beau Fielding throws so curious a light on the manners and customs of the last century, that we are tempted to introduce the portrait of another individual of the same stamp, who, though he figured a few years previously to his brother in dissipation, yet resembles him not a little in the ephemeral splendour of his existence, and the precarious sources from which his magnificence was derived.

The person known as Beau Wilson, whose mysterious rise from extreme poverty to the greatest affluence, afforded our ancestors so wide a field for curiosity and conjecture,-was a younger brother, for whom his friends had purchased a commission in the army. He served a campaign with the army in Flanders, but