; nor did she feign it,
but felt really all the Pangs of Killing Grief; and was so alter'd with
her Night's Watching and Grieving, that this new Sorrow look'd very
Natural in her. When she was recover'd, she asked a thousand Questions
about him, and question'd the Possibility of it; for (said she) he went
out this Morning early from me, and had no signs, in his Face, of any
Grief or Discontent. Alas! (said the _Valet_) Madam, he is not his own
Murderer, some one has done it in Revenge; and then told her, how he was
found fasten'd to a Sack, with a dead strange Man ty'd up within it; and
every body concludes, that they were both first murder'd, and then drawn
to the River, and thrown both in. At the Relation of this Strange Man,
she seem'd more amaz'd than before, and commanding the _Valet_ to go to
the Hall, and to take Order about the Coroner's sitting on the Body of
_Villenoys_, and then to have it brought home: She called _Maria_ to
her, and, after bidding her shut the Door, she cry'd, Ah, _Maria_! I
will tell thee what my Heart imagins; but first, (said she) run to the
Chamber of the Stranger, and see, if he be still in Bed, which I fear he
is not; she did so, and brought word, he was gone; then (said she) my
Forebodings are true. When I was in Bed last night, with _Villenoys_
(and at that word, she sigh'd as if her Heart-Strings had broken) I told
him, I had lodg'd a Stranger in my House, who was by, when my first Lord
and Husband fell in Battel; and that, after the Fight, finding him yet
alive, he spoke to him, and gave him that Ring you brought me last
Night; and conjur'd him, if ever his Fortune should bring him to
_Flanders_, to see me, and give me that Ring, and tell me--(with that,
she wept, and could scarce speak) a thousand tender and endearing
things, and then dy'd in his Arms. For my dear _Henault's_ sake (said
she) I us'd him nobly, and dismiss'd you that Night, because I was
asham'd to have any Witness of the Griefs I paid his Memory: All this I
told to _Villenoys_ whom I found disorder'd; and, after a sleepless
Night, I fancy he got up, and took this poor Man, and has occasion'd his
Death: At that, she wept anew, and _Maria_, to whom, all that her
Mistress said, was Gospel, verily believ'd it so, without examining
Reason; and _Isabella_ conjuring her, since none of the House knew of
the old Man's being there, (for Old he appear'd to be) that she would
let it for ever be a Secret, and, to this she bound h