night before this cruel design was to have been put in
execution, a faithful attendant of the queen's, named Loretta, by the
assistance of one of the Princess Tropo's confidants (who had long
professed himself her lover) discovered the whole secret, of which she
immediately informed her royal mistress.

The horrors which filled the queen's mind at the relation of the
Princess Tropo's malicious intentions, were inexpressible, and her
perturbation so great, that she could not form any scheme that appeared
probable to execute for her own preservation. Loretta told her that the
person who had given her this timely notice, had also provided a peasant
who knew the country, and would meet her at the western gate of the
city, and, carrying the young Princess Hebe in his arms, would conduct
her to some place of safety; but she must consent to put on a disguise,
and escape that very night from the palace, or she would be lost for
ever. Horses or mules, she said, it would be impossible to come at
without suspicion; therefore she must endeavour (though unused to such
fatigue) to travel afoot till she got herself concealed in some cottage
from her pursuers, if her enemies should think of endeavouring to find
her out. Loretta offered to attend her mistress, but she absolutely
forbad her going any farther than to the western gate; where delivering
the little Princess Hebe into the arms of the peasant, who was there
waiting for them, she reluctantly withdrew.

The good queen, who saw no remedy to this her terrible disgrace, could
have borne this barbarous usage without much repining, had she herself
been the only sufferer by it; for the loss of the good king her husband
so far exceeded all her other misfortunes, that every everything else
was trifling in comparison of so dreadful an affliction. But the young
Princess Hebe, whom she was accustomed to look on as her greatest
blessing, now became to her an object of pity and concern; for, from
being heiress to a throne, the poor infant, not yet five years old, was,
with her wretched mother, become a vagabond, and knew not whither to fly
for protection.

Loretta had prevailed on her royal mistress to take with her a few
little necessaries, besides a small picture of the king, and some of her
jewels, which the queen contrived to conceal under her night-clothes, in
the midst of that hair they were used to adorn, when her loved husband
delighted to see it displayed in flowing ringlets roun