She had therefore spared no pains to place me in the way of her step-son upon every occasion, and how she succeeded has already

been seen.

The duchess, who had by her artifices originally caused the breach between Lord St. George and Lady Emily Loran, had also used every effort to prevent an éclaircissement between them.

In this she had succeeded by suppressing the letters of each, and then, by means of the brother of her French page, who was living with Lady Emily's mother, contriving so effectually to poison the minds of both the ladies by reports of the marquis's infidelity and forgetfulness of his noble mistress, that their pride forbade them to make any further efforts towards a reconciliation.

The marquis, meanwhile, having been equally and cruelly prejudiced against Lady Emily, who, it was asserted, had transferred her affections to a handsome cousin, and who apparently treated his letters with contemptuous silence, and in some instances (as he supposed) returned

them, gave up all thoughts or wish for an accommodation with her.

It was in this frame of mind that the Marquis of St. George first saw me, and aided unconsciously by the machinations of the cruel duchess, we both fell into the snare which she had so cunningly laid for us.

In the meantime, Lady Emily Loran, who had been long attached to the marquis, and to whom she had been engaged for two years, was inconsolable at his unaccountable neglect and defection, and could not be brought to believe one of the tales to his prejudice.

She became at last seriously ill, and her widowed mother resolved to break through her pride, and endeavour to bring back her daughter's faithless lover, for his presence, she saw too plainly, could alone restore peace to her unhappy child.

While pondering how to bring this about, an accident discovered the arts practised by the Duchess of Beaulieu to estrange these two young lovers.

I have before said that the brother of her

grace's French page lived in the family of the Dowager Countess of Loranville.

This man was attached to the female attendant of Lady Emily, and in order to induce the reluctant girl to accept him, he told her that he had an independence of a hundred a-year.

This she disbelieved, when to prove it, he showed her some letters which had passed between him and his brother, when the quickwitted Irish girl soon perceived that it was a pension from the Duchess of Beaulieu, for some services which her admirer had rendered to her grace.

Some words also had occasionally escaped him which now raised her suspicions, and by dint of a series of shrewd questions which the Frenchman could not parry, she discovered that he had been employed by the duchess to suppress all letters to and from the marquis and Lady Emily.

The honest and affectionate girl could scarcely conceal her indignation. She controlled it, however, till she had got into her possession several of the suppressed letters,

with one or two of instruction from the man's brother, in one of which he particularly pressed upon him to contrive to let it be known, how shocked he was at having frequently caught (as he expressed it) the faithless marquis making love repeatedly to the English attendant of the duchess, a most artful creature, who was at the bottom of all the cruel neglect shown towards Lady Emily Loran.

No sooner were these facts laid before the Countess of Loranville, than she hesitated no longer, but despatching a confidential friend (with the letters obtained from the page) to the Duke of Beaulieu, she entreated him to sift the affair to the bottom, and to use his influence with his son to clear up the doubts which had destroyed the peace and health of her child. At the same time she begged his grace to inform Lord St. George of the wicked arts which had been practised to separate them.

The duke, who had been seriously grieved and offended at the breaking off of this connexion, which he fully believed had been caused by the inconstancy of Lady Emily,

hastened to set (as he thought) his darling son's heart at rest, by disclosing to him the constancy of her ladyship, the state she was now in, and the arts which had been used to misrepresent each of them to the other.

What was the amazement of the duke to see his son confounded and petrified by this unlooked-for communication.

It was long before he could be roused, when to the dismay of his father he declared himself the veriest wretch that ever breathed.

As soon as he could in some measure compose himself, he opened his whole heart to the duke, not disguising the position in which he was placed with me by our pretended marriage. His grace was distressed beyond measure by this extraordinary and unlooked-for confession, the more so as, persuaded of the delight his son would feel in being reconciled to Lady Emily, to whom he knew that he had been once so warmly attached, he had despatched an express to Ireland to assure her ladyship that, within a week, Lord St. George would be at her feet.