Clarissa, Volume 6 - The History Of A Young Lady

Clarissa, Volume 6 − The History Of A Young Lady 167
ought by all means to set on foot a prosecution against him, and against his devilish accomplices.
She asks, What murderers, what ravishers, would be brought to justice, if modesty were to be a general plea,
and allowable, against appearing in a court to prosecute?
She says, that the good of society requires, that such a beast of prey should be hunted out of it: and, if you do
not prosecute him, she thinks you will be answerable for all the mischiefs he may do in the course of his
future villanous life.
Will it be thought, Nancy, said she, that Miss Clarissa Harlowe can be in earnest, when she says, she is not
solicitous to have her disgraces concealed from the world, if she be afraid or ashamed to appear in court, to do
justice to herself and her sex against him? Will it not be rather surmised, that she may be apprehensive that
some weakness, or lurking love, will appear upon the trial of the strange cause? If, inferred she, such
complicated villany as this (where perjury, potions, forgery, subornation, are all combined to effect the ruin of
an innocent creature, and to dishonour a family of eminence, and where the very crimes, as may be supposed,
are proofs of her innocence) is to go off with impunity, what case will deserve to be brought into judgment? or
what malefactor ought to be hanged?
Then she thinks, and so do I, that the vile creatures, his accomplices, ought, by all means, to be brought to
condign punishment, as they must and will be upon bringing him to trial: and this may be a mean to blow up
and root out a whole nest of vipers, and save many innocent creatures.
She added, that if Miss Clarissa Harlowe could be so indifferent about having this public justice done upon
such a wretch for her own sake, she ought to overcome her scruples out of regard to her family, her
acquaintance, and her sex, which are all highly injured and scandalized by his villany to her.
For her own part, she declares, that were she your mother, she would forgive you upon no other terms: and,
upon your compliance with these, she herself will undertake to reconcile all your family to you.
These, my dear, are my mother's sentiments upon your sad story.
I cannot say but there are reason and justice in them: and it is my opinion, that it would be very right for the
law to oblige an injured woman to prosecute, and to make seduction on the man's part capital, where his
studied baseness, and no fault in her will, appeared.
To this purpose the custom in the Isle of Man is a very good one−−−−
'If a single woman there prosecutes a single man for a rape, the ecclesiastical judges impannel a jury; and, if
this jury find him guilty, he is returned guilty to the temporal courts: where if he be convicted, the deemster,
or judge, delivers to the woman a rope, a sword, and a ring; and she has it in her choice to have him hanged,
beheaded, or to marry him.'
One of the two former, I think, should always be her option.
I long for the particulars of your story. You must have too much time upon your hands for a mind so active as
your's, if tolerable health and spirits be afforded you.
The villany of the worst of men, and the virtue of the most excellent of women, I expect will be exemplified
in it, were it to be written in the same connected and particular manner in which you used to write to me.
Try for it, my dearest friend; and since you cannot give the example without the warning, give both, for the
sakes of all those who shall hear of your unhappy fate; beginning from your's of June 5, your prospects then