fortunate enough to find two of the Baron's
Servants still alive, though desperately wounded. The rest had expired
beneath the swords of the Robbers, and of these my unhappy Stephano was
one.

Alarmed at our escape, the Robbers in their haste to overtake us, had
neglected to visit the Cottage. In consequence, the Soldiers found the
two Waiting-women unhurt, and buried in the same death-like slumber
which had overpowered their Mistress. There was nobody else found in
the Cottage, except a child not above four years old, which the
Soldiers brought away with them. We were busying ourselves with
conjectures respecting the birth of this little unfortunate, when
Marguerite rushed into the room with the Baby in her arms. She fell at
the feet of the Officer who was making us this report, and blessed him
a thousand times for the preservation of her Child.

When the first burst of maternal tenderness was over, I besought her to
declare, by what means She had been united to a Man whose principles
seemed so totally discordant with her own. She bent her eyes
downwards, and wiped a few tears from her cheek.

'Gentlemen,' said She after a silence of some minutes, 'I would request
a favour of you: You have a right to know on whom you confer an
obligation. I will not therefore stifle a confession which covers me
with shame; But permit me to comprise it in as few words as possible.

'I was born in Strasbourg of respectable Parents; Their names I must at
present conceal: My Father still lives, and deserves not to be
involved in my infamy; If you grant my request, you shall be informed
of my family name. A Villain made himself Master of my affections, and
to follow him I quitted my Father's House. Yet though my passions
overpowered my virtue, I sank not into that degeneracy of vice, but too
commonly the lot of Women who make the first false step. I loved my
Seducer; dearly loved him! I was true to his Bed; this Baby, and the
Youth who warned you, my Lord Baron, of your Lady's danger, are the
pledges of our affection. Even at this moment I lament his loss,
though 'tis to him that I owe all the miseries of my existence.

'He was of noble birth, but He had squandered away his paternal
inheritance. His Relations considered him as a disgrace to their name,
and utterly discarded him. His excesses drew upon him the indignation
of the Police. He was obliged to fly from Strasbourg, and saw no other
resource from beggary than an uni