The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-11-16
Fanny BraddOclk .
A ROMANCE.

huCn larger sum 10 MS only son EDWARD
Bra ddock. ......
One Of the daughters died early, and her
sister, Fanny Braddock, became possessed
Of her share of the fathers Legacy. Gold
smith, in his life of Beau Nash, has told the
story OF Fanny, under the name Of
"Miss Sylvia s." with his sweetness Of mar.
rative and gentle kindness OF sympathy
She wns descended, he says, from one of the
best families in the kingdom, and was left
large fortune upon her sisters decease.-I
Whatever the finest poet could conceive Of
wit, or the most celebrated painter imagine
of beauty, were excelled in the perlections
OF this young lady. She was naturally gay,
generous to fault, good natured to the high
est degree, affable in conversation; and
sume OF her letters and other writings, as
we'll in verse as in prose, would hsve sbone
among those of the most celebrated wits OF
this or any other age, had they been pub.
lished.
But these qualifications were marked by
another, which lessened the value of them
all; she was imprudent nt-"by which," says
the phiIopher, mean she had no knowl-
edge Of the use Of money" She had arri-
we'd at the age of nineteen, when the crowd
of her lovers and the continued repetition of
new flattery had taught her to think that she
could never be forsaken and never poor
Young ladies are very apt to expect, wise.
ly moralizes Goldsmith, in a strain that re.
minds us Of a passage in the "VicOr OF
Wakedeld," certeinty of success from a
number OF lovers: and yet have never
seen girl courted by hundred lovers that
found husband in any. Before her choice
is fixed she has either lost her reputation or
her good sense, and the loss of either is
sufficient to consign her to perpetual virgin.
ity.
Among the rumber Of this young lady's
lovers was h 'Ddsome, good natured, easy
kind of fellow, Of whose nome We can learn
nothing beyond its initial 49," He was
"constirutionaly virtuous," but practically
it appears quite the contrary, for he followed
the dictates of every lowest passion. He
loved Fanny Broddock and Fanny Braddock
loved him. The vices of the man (Gold.
smith gently terms them "imprudencies," ;"
soon ruined him and he was thrown int
prison for debt. Fanny Braddock, with the
disinterestedness of pure and loving wo
man, was resoIutely bent on freeing him
and sacrificed her whole fortune in relieving
her lover from his obligations to his credit
ors, and thus restored him to liberty. s.
instead or improving in friendship or affec
ton, only studied to avoid creditor he coul
never repay: for "though small fnvors pro
duce good will, great ones destroy friend
ship" says Goldsmith, who could utter ma1
inns worthy of Solomon, while he lived d
riotousIy as the Prodgal Son.
Poor Fanny, however, was ruined, in reE
uta,on as well as in fortune, by this pro 'us
generosity to her uagratetul lover. B ca
Nash, then meeting with her among of hi
friends in London, prevailed on her to g
with him to Bath, where the Beau being pal
amount in power, might introduce her to tn
, best company, and leave it to her merit to
the rest. People OF distinction courted he
acquaintance, ard strove to divert her wit
social enjoyment and fashionable irivoli.ie
Of the place; but it was apparent that Sc
tied melancholy had taken posse ession of hi
mind, and she moved along but was not {
the gay throng. With loss Of love, loss (
fortune, loss Of friends, and loss OF healt
she was finally induced, as mere refue
from her own wretchedness, to yield to Il
invitation of dame Lindsey, who desire
to secure SO much beauty as an addition
temptation to those who resorted to h
gambling rooms. Although she yielded
dame Lindsey's Invitation, Fanny Braddoc
is not believed to have been tainted with ar
4 other vice than that of presiding at the he
! ard table for the advantage of others.
She could not long, however, endure tn
disgrace, and preferred the humble conditio
= of housekeeper in a gentieman's fami
b to which her poverty now reduced her.
o Here she remained, always sad, but faithf,
q to her duty. The gentleman with whom ST
lived now went up to London with his wit
leaving the children and the house to ht
, care. When he was expected to return
Fanny, after the discharge of her da
household duty, went into the dining roo
= and wrote these lines upon one Of the vii
s dow panes:
s'0h, Death! thou pleasing end Of human woe,
II Thou cure for Kfe, thou greatest good below
y Still may'st thou fly the coward and the slave,
And thy soft slumbers only bless the brave"
Some visitors coming in, she entertaint
= them cheerfully, and, on their going out, 81
n went into the library, where she had order,
y supper. Here "she spent the remainin
hours preceding bed time, in dandling tv
o of Mr.. Woods (the gentleman 10 whose
y mily she lived) children on her knees.
retiring thence to her chamber, she we
into the nursery to take leave OF anoth
e child as it lay sleeping in the cradle. Stru'
" with the innocence of the little babes look
o and the consciousness of her meditated gui
it she could not avc'i bursting into tears. al
. hugging 1t in her arms. She then bade h
old servants a good night for the fret tin
she had ever done so, aud went to bed
'e usual.