lity of French romance, acquired concentration
and strength; the study of sacred and profane history induced habits of
salutary reflection, and her character gradually developed a masculine
yet unpretending energy, which admirably fitted her to become the
helpmate of a man so timid and indecisive as Florian. Her mother was a
Parisian, of good manners and education, but an orphan and defenceless.
Persecuted by a licentious nobleman, who, in revenge for her firm
rejection of his dishonourable addresses, had accused her of theft,
she had effected her escape from the chateau in which she resided as
governess to his daughters, to the same town in which Florian had been
discovered by the headsman. Circumstances somewhat similar, but not
essential to my narrative, had induced her to accept a temporary asylum
in the house of the executioner, whose mother was then living; and here,
in a moment of despair at her destitute and hopeless condition, she
accepted the often-tendered addresses of the enamoured headsman, and
became his wife. The life of this amiable and accomplished woman was
shortened by her calamities, and by a sense of degradation which she
could never subdue. Secluded from all human society save that of an
uncultivated husband, who but imperfectly understood her value, she
loved her only child with more than a mother's idolatry; and, while her
strength permitted, devoted herself, with unceasing solicitude, to the
formation of her mind, and to the regulation of her untamable vivacity.
Thus happily moulded in her early youth, and judiciously cultivated
after her mother's death, Madelon combined, with clear and vigorous
perceptions, a degree of personal attraction rarely seen in France, and
no small portion of the feminine grace and fascination peculiar to
well-educated Frenchwomen, while to these advantages were superadded
eyes of radiant lustre, a voice rich in soft and musical inflections,
and a smile of irresistible archness and witchery. Accustomed, from her
limited opportunities of observation, to regard men as collectively
coarse and uncultivated, she had been immediately and powerfully
attracted by the elegant person, the refined and gentle manners, of
Florian, during their four leagues' journey; and to one who felt the
value of knowledge, and eagerly sought to extend her means of pursuing
it, there was, on farther acquaintance, a charm in his comprehensive
attainments and in the classic elegance of his diction, w