of ' Belinda 'we find a sly hit at Mrs. Radcliffe, when

Dr. X (the pseudonym given, it would seem, to

Dr. Moore, author of ' Zeluco,' throughout the novels)
says to Belinda :

My dear Miss Portman, you will put a stop to a number
of charming stories by this prudence of yours — a romance
called the Mysterious Boudoir, of nine volumes at least,
might be written on this subject, if you would only con-
descend to act like almost all other heroines, that is to say,
without common sense.
In the second volume of the same novel Mr.
Percival has this speech :

You know it is a ruled case, in all romances, that, when

51 E2



Jane Austen

a lover and his mistress go out riding together, some
adventure must befal them. The horse must run away
with the lady, and the gentleman must catch her in his
arms just as her neck is about to be broken. If the horse
has been too well trained for the heroine's purpose, ' some
footpad, bandit fierce, or mountaineer,' some jealous rival
must make his appearance quite unexpectedly at the turn
of a road, and the lady must be carried off— robes flying —
hair streaming — like Buerger's Leonora. Then her lover
must come to her rescue just in the proper moment.
But if the damsel cannot conveniently be run away with,
she must, as the last resource, tumble into a river to make
herself interesting, and the hero must be at least half
drowned in dragging her out, that she may be under
eternal obligations to him, and at last be forced to marry
him out of pure gratitude.
