deliver into her hands: she went to the

parlour, where she saw an English groom: demanding his business, he answered that he was servant to Lord Compton, but the parcel came from Mr. Charles Fitzosborn. She opened it with the fond expectation of hearing of his health and happiness, when the first object which attracted her notice was her own picture, with a few lines in the cover to request that his might be returned to him, and also his letters, as he had enclosed her's.

move.

Astonishment seemed to petrify all her faculties; she became a perfect statue, and had neither power to articulate or The parcel fell from her hands, and she sunk without motion into a chair. The groom felt for her situation, and rang the convent-bell violently. Her old friend, Mrs. Grant, was called, and Hubertine was carried to her apartment in a stupor. No tears could she shed; she seemed insensible to all surrounding

objects, and the physician compelled them to endeavour to rouse her attention, by producing the picture and papers which had occasioned her malady.

"The tempest in my mind

"Doth from my senses take all feeling else, "Save what beats there:

"For where the greater malady is fix'd, "The lesser is scarce felt."

The tempest in Hubertine's mind remained in this alarming state for several weeks, during which period Mrs. Grant wrote both to Fitzosborn and to his father, but no notice was taken of the application.

Report said that Charles Fitzosborn had met with a lady at a watering-place, with whom he had flirted, and that her brother interfered, and insisted upon his marrying her. Another was, that Hubertine's brothers and sister had been so extravagant and dissipated, that Fitzosborn's father had convinced him that he would find no happiness in an alliance

1

with such connections; but these were only reports, for Hubertine never knew from what cause Charles Fitzosborn had thus doomed her to wretchedness.

Her character became quite changed; she could not settle to any thing: reading, drawing, and needle-work, were all neglected. Music had such an effect on her spirits, that if by chance she heard the sound of an instrument she wept bitterly. In this situation of mind, her friends, the Abbess and St. Victoire, thought it a favourable opportunity to prevail on her to embrace the Catholic faith, and leave a world in which she could only meet with perfidy and deceit. Most gladly would she have taken the veil, but Mrs. Grant informing her guardians of what was likely to happen, they desired, that if she could not prevail on Hubertine to return to England, that she would make a tour, as probably change of scene might restore to her that serenity which she had lost.

.

Mrs. Grant loved Hubertine as a daughter, and had long wished to see her united to the Baron de St. Aubert, a young man who had shewn a great partiality for her; therefore she contrived to make a party for the intended expedition, in which the Baron de St. Aubert and his mother should form a part. They visited all Picardy, and then remained sometime with Hubertine's relations in Flanders. Her uncle at this time held the same office that his brother had filled, and the Archduchess at this period also held her court at Brussels. The Baron d'Arrambert presented his niece to her; and if Hubertine could have forgotten Charles Fitzosborn, she might have been happy. She was by no means a beauty, but her person and accomplishments were such as to attract admiration; added to which, as her uncle had no children, and was chancellor of the Low Countries, it was presumed that her fortune would not be contemptible. She had already

eight thousand pounds, which, though it was not reckoned much in England, was thought a handsome fortune in a foreign country, and her connections in Brussels placed her in the first rank of society.

The Baroness de St. Aubert was extremely fond of Hubertine. The Baron was an only child, and she knew his happiness depended on his marrying Miss Godefroï. The old lady pleaded his cause most powerfully, and her uncle approved of her espousing a foreigner. She therefore felt that she could make no reasonable objection to uniting herself to the Baron de St. Aubert; but the idea of entering into any matrimonial engagement was to her dreadful; for although his name never passed her lips, yet Fitzosborn was never from her thoughts. She was, however, so importuned by Madame de St. Aubert and her uncle, that she determined to sacrifice her own feelings, as she had now given `up all