end between her and Fitzosborn: she had pledged her honour in the most solemn manner, that in future she would neither correspond with him or receive his visits, and at this moment her existence was a load which she would gladly have resigned; but the trials of her heart were not to end here.

The following morning she was desired to attend a young gentleman, who had just arrived in a post-chaise and four, apparently in great haste. He refused giving his name, said his business was urgent, and he must see Miss Godefroï immediately. When she entered the room she was surprised to see Charles Fitzosborn, and her astonishment gained additional force at his informing her, that not having had any answer to a letter which he had addressed to her, he come to implore that she would give him such a release as would prove to his father that she had no claims on him. This he entreated to have immediately, as some

That

family arrangements were then taking place. Miss Godefroï convinced him that she had satisfied his father on this head, and he took his leave. This was the last time she saw Fitzosborn. such a meeting was most distressing to her may easily be believed; but she was compelled to smother her feelings, as her relations had no compassion for her, as they thought that she wanted that proper pride which every female ought to possess on a similar occasion. Fitzosborn was scarcely departed before Mr. and Mrs. Banter gave her to understand that they should no longer request her residence with them, than while she adhered to her engagements with the Baron de St. Aubert; and that in future Charles Fitzosborn could not be received into their house. This rebuke obliged her to explain to them from what cause his appearance originated.

Hubertine at this period was indeed an object of the greatest compassion;

deserted by the man she fondly loved, and compelled either to marry the Baron de St. Aubert, or disoblige all her relations. In the retirement of the country she could not fly from herself; there were no public places open that she could resort to for the purpose of dissipating her ideas; every hour she regretted the past, and was more averse to the future. Soon after this she was informed that Fitzosborn was married; in fact, he had been long the same as dead to her: she heard that his wife was amiable, and that he had every prospect of being happy; she fervently prayed that he might be so. She mourned his loss as a departed friend, but her heart could never form another attachment,

At this period she had a most melancholy letter from the Baron de St. Aubert; it was written in absolute despair, and contained the most soul-afflicting intelligence. The enormities committed by the friends of liberty became every

day more horrible. Madame de Lamballe was his near relation; he was also partial to her for her charitable disposition, her graceful manner, and the numerous virtues which she possessed. Only the malicious and the envious could accuse her of failings, the shadow of which never passed her mind, but it was sufficient to be the favourite of a queen, to be pre-eminent for grace, talents, and beauty, to become the subject of secret malignity or open detraction; for it is a rule always to abuse those whose merit is better rewarded than the defamers. St. Aubert considered Madame de Lamballe as a perfect character; he knew that poverty and sorrow in her ever found a friend, that her benevolence even surpassed her beauty, and when he learned that this exalted woman, a pattern for her sex, had been rudely torn from the Hotel de la force, where she had been confined and treated with the greatest indignity and cruelty, to witness scenes too horrible

for fancy to dwell on, and after viewing the murderers pursuing their sanguinary desolations, and putting questions to her which she could not satisfy them by answering; this so enraged the wretches that they stripped, insulted her, and put an end to her existence in a manner too dreadful to relate. The Baron de St. Aubert gave this account, and mentioned that his mother was anxious for him to leave France as soon as possible, and he trusted that Hubertine would, in the present crisis of affairs, see the propriety of acceding to his wishes, by permitting him to come immediately to England, and ratifying those engagements which would secure his happiness; that his mother would follow as soon as she could settle her affairs, as he could not think of returning to France, till some change had taken place in the government of that distracted country..

Hubertine lost no time in assuring the Baron de St. Aubert that she should be