The Sun.
London, England, 1828-08-16 00:00:00

AFFLICTING NARRATIVE.

(From the Subaltern's Log Book.'';
" During our stay at Ceylon, I had bee'n intro-
duced to a very lovely young woman, flit wife of a
Bengal civilian, a man old enough to be her grand-
father. She came out to India a fine, lively, bloom-
ing girl, and she had been scarcely a month on shore
when she was proposed for and married. Age and
appearance are, in the eyes of some ladies who go to
India, of little consequence, provided the suitor has
a good fortune and possesses a high civil situation.
" In one year this lady's husband was recom-
mended by his physician to permit his wife to go and
see her friends in Europe. They parted, as may be
fancied, without much sorrow on her part : during
her absence, which was to be for an indefinite time,
she was to be allowed one thousand a year.
" She met with a giddy fashionable looking nran
at Ceylon, who, during the voyage, paid her the
most marked attention ; in such an intercourse, un-
less feelings of propriety, and a sense of moral mid
social obligation, are constantly uppermost, the re-
sult may be easily foreseen. The slightest circum-
stances are noticed on board ship, and many try to
employ themselves so little as to have much time to
spare in noticing the faults and peculiarities of their
fellow passengers.
" The flirtation of the two individuals whom I
have just mentioned became the daily subject most
dwelt on by the passengers.
When lovely woman stoops to folly.'
and when the sophistry of her lover, and her own
heart, led her to err, there is still one slender stay—
the observation and opinion of the world—that may
fora time prevent her falling; the epitome of that
world, on board ship, devours, most voraciously,
every slander injurious to woman's fame, and watches
with the eyes of an Argus for the slightest cause to
impugn her innocence and purity.
" There are here no mothers, or thoughtful feel-
ing females, who allow for youth, vanity, good spi-
rits, and admiration, to warn the unfortunate woman
she is going headlong to destruction, and that what
is now her delight and boast, unless tempered with
judgment and good sense, will shortly make her au
object of pity to the feeling, and a bye word to the
malicious.

" I fear that passion and infatuation so completely
took the lead in the minds of these young people,
that they were blinded to•all that was said or pass-
ing• around them. Many tumours affecting the
honour of the lady, were circulated on the quartew-
deck.

" The gentleman possessed an appearance, bY
some considered effeminate : he had those haul,
winning manners, that find their way to the unoc-
cupied heart of a thoughtless woman. lie was
esteemed a well meaning young man, who would
not de any action that was admitted to be dis-
honourable, but whose want of thought led him to
do things which tended directly to injure his own
respectability, and the peace of others; his passions,
where they took the lead, could not suddenly be
checked, from a conception of the ruin he was
bringing on the person he thought he loved, and on
'3
foe eyes lel sealiao'ut.e grating, ne
r .
with the Union ill
the future :store of misery be was laying tip fu►
himself; for man may do many things, and conscience
heard,"
reloaarcuebdl,e,t,olsiaiotindecnaaositcoanatptttahillioiiers:temia,m,ebeetinhooanNftgvma. his
oifnit:tei iniquity, but
debt must
thee
them,
aeimd, with
an d i
ningteirreeswdt,a someswakota_t id
lit
alfutureikde
and misery, which bow him to the earth.
" On coming on the quarter deck one night, after
a%pvneadt:ioAcbldro:,::egadinfhdtallperhaps under circumstances of disea,,t,
Have you
nyoouisentoet.,
reading below, I. observed many,',
ismawexp
deck.s the view of
and ship officers in a low whispering discltass_ton ; 1
walked up
_ was seet
gentleman hidden '
going into her cabin with a
es rlsa.s entered
argio,nai andfetse,r
Nlt:hVaese
toldgiy eyoomumngittmedentoTainithede
she
exposed to observed,
and
oeiNn'ered to a small bottle,
hurrying
r longyin g sfohraxivvall id': I
eSfth
he
sembling a fall. T,a, .
th
extendedseveral
beautifulheardacprfoeyono—rhpn,uet people e: I f
loaonino
tt
.h
~eat gunonte
rp
Nndveeoxel
ntp
e. dm a yeoshe
t
.g
over her body,
only have seen and reflected properly, on the occa-
sion, irmight be the means of helping to prevent
them from pursuing those. courses which led to this
melancholy catastrophe. The circumstance did not
appear to have made the deep impression it ought on
Mr. ----, as 1 saw him a week after his landing,
walking down one of the most frequented streets in
London, dressed in the height of fashion, and talking
gaily to a couple of young men, apparently us vola-
tile as himself."