'DEAR Mrs. JERVIS, 'I have, instead of being driven by Robin to my dear father's, been
carried off, where I have no liberty to tell. However, at present, I
am not used hardly; and I write to beg you to let my dear father and
mother, whose hearts must be well nigh broken, know that I am well; and
that I am, and, by the grace of God, ever will be, their honest, as well
as dutiful daughter, and 'Your obliged friend.' 'I must neither send date nor place; but have most solemn assurances of
honourable usage.' I knew not what to do on this most strange request and occasion. But my
heart bled so much for you, my dear father, who had taken the pains to
go yourself, and inquire after your poor daughter, as well as for my
dear mother, that I resolved to write, and pretty much in the above
form, that it might be sent to pacify you, till I could let you, somehow
or other, know the true state of the matter. And I wrote thus to my
strange wicked master himself:
'SIR, 'If you knew but the anguish of my mind, and how much I suffer by
your dreadful usage of me, you would surely pity me, and consent to my
deliverance. What have I done, that I should be the only mark of your
cruelty? I can have no hope, no desire of living left me, because I
cannot have the least dependence, after what has passed, upon your
solemn assurances.--It is impossible they should be consistent with the
dishonourable methods you take. 'Nothing but your promise of not seeing me here in my deplorable
bondage, can give me the least ray of hope. 'Don't, I beseech you, drive the poor distressed Pamela upon a rock,
that may be the destruction both of her soul and body! You don't know,
sir, how dreadfully I dare, weak as I am of mind and intellect, when my
virtue is in danger. And, O! hasten my deliverance, that a poor unworthy
creature, below the notice of such a gentleman as you, may not be made
the sport of a high condition, for no reason in the world, but because
she is not able to defend herself, nor has a friend that can right her. 'I have, sir, in part to shew my obedience to you, but indeed, I own,
more to give ease to the minds of my poor distressed parents, whose
poverty, one would think, should screen them from violences of this
sort, as well as their poor daughter, followed pretty much the form
you have prescribed for me, in the letter to Mrs. Jervis; and the
alterations I have made (for I could not help a few) are of such a
nature, as, though they shew my concern a little, yet must answer the
end you are pleased to say you propose by this letter.