nervous, too easily alarmed; and this timidity gives De Carency a power over you, that he will not fail to use to his profit, and to your continual annoyance—if not, ultimately, to your destruction. Prohibit your servants from letting any suspicious-looking person enter your doors; and, if he writes to you, commit the letters to the flames. Pursue this conduct but for a short time, and he will soon cease to torment you. He can gain nothing by exposing you to Lord Annandale, and would risk being arrested; for, in such a desperate dilemma, you, of course, could not hesitate to give him up to justice, as the assassin of your aunt. You could assert that, having been acquainted with him when he was admitted to the best society, you, in pity to his poverty and degradation, had relieved him; that, knowing the severity of your aunt, and her dislike to foreigners, you had permitted him to come at night to receive from a window the pecuniary aid you afforded: and then detail the fact of his forcible entrance, and the fearful catastrophe that followed. Enfin, tell the truth in all, except the circumstance of his ever having been more than a common acquaintance to you; and resolutely vow that he has invented this tale in order to extort money from you by threatening to circulate it, and to terrify you into a concealment of his guilt. To carry my advice into effect demands great nerve and self-control; you used to possess both, but I fear they have deserted you now that you most need them. Remember you have no other means of extricating yourself from the trammels of this monster; so take courage, adopt my counsel, and all may yet be well. Pauvre Florestan est dans Saint Pelagie, and his cruel aunt refuses to pay his debts. I have sent all my jewels to be sold, and le duc, comme un bon ami, is raising money in order to procure his freedom. The first day he was arrested I was half dead with sorrow; for I fancied that my poor Florestan would be shut in a damp, dark cell, chained to the wall, fed on bread and water, and his hands confined. But I find it is no such thing: au contraire, Lisette, my femme de chambre, whom I sent to him, being too ill to go myself, tells me that he has a very comfortable apartment; had two or three friends, who are also confined there, to dinner, un repas très recherché; was served by a restaurant of the domicile; and, instead of his hands being secured, they are busily employed in playing écarté all the evening. In short, as Lisette tells me, he leads a far more agreeable life there than he did in this triste maison, where he, pauvre garçon, was as ennuyé as I am. He read to his friends the passage of my letter in which I detailed the horrors to which I fancied he was exposed; and Lisette says, they laughed heartily at my notions of St. Pelagie. How like Florestan-n'est-ce pas? - to preserve his gaiety even in a prison! Adieu, ma chère Caroline! Remember, that true philosophy consists in enjoying the good one has attained, and not in lamenting the means used for its attainment; more especially when such retrospections cannot benefit. With your fortune I should have nothing to desire or, at least, not desire any thing long that it could supply. Tout à vous, DELPHINE, MARQUISE DE Villeroi. FROM THE COUNTESS OF ANNANDALE TO We have come to London, chère Delphine, to which my husband was summoned the day after my last letter to you, by an express from the ministers, who wish him to take office. He is gratified by this distinction, and I like it because he does; for his affection has awakened a reciprocal feeling in my heart, which I had thought callous and steeled against soft emotions. But where is the nature that can resist the gentle influence of kindness? not in woman's heart, I am sure. My first entrance into this house was very painful how many scenes which I would wish to efface for ever from my memory, did it recall! Lord Annandale had, considerately, changed the arrangement of the whole house; |