ted of no doubt, as there was no
water near the cottage; and had any accident happened, they must have
found her, as they had searched every part of the village before they
ventured to return home.

One servant was sent to Rochester, another towards London, and a third
and fourth across the country roads; but no intelligence could be
obtained, or the slightest information gathered, by which the
unfortunate child could be found, or her wicked decoyer's footsteps
traced.

When Mr. Darnley was apprised of the calamitous event, the agitation of
his mind may be easily conceived, but can never be described.

Handbills were instantly circulated all over the country, the child's
person described, and a reward of five hundred guineas offered for her
restoration.

Sophia and Amanda were inconsolable, and Susan was ordered to be
discharged before Mr. Darnley returned home, which he did not for more
than a month after the melancholy circumstance happened, as he was not
satisfied with sending messengers in pursuit of his lost treasure, but
went himself to all those wretched parts of London where poverty and
vice are known to dwell, in the hope of meeting the object of his
solicitude, and at length gave up the interesting pursuit, because he
found his health rendered him incapable of continuing it.

Nine tedious months passed away without any intelligence of the lost
Eliza; and time, which is a general remedy for all misfortunes, had not
softened the severity of their affliction. Mrs. Collier had engaged a
lady to be governess to her nieces, as her attention had been wholly
devoted to her unfortunate brother, whose agitated state of mind had
produced a bodily complaint which demanded her unremitting care and
tenderness.

Although Emily loved Eliza with the fondest affection, yet her grief was
much less poignant than either of her sisters', as she could not accuse
herself with being accessory to her loss.

'Never, never shall I forgive myself,' Sophia would often say, 'for
having deviated from my dear father's command! Oh, so good and indulgent
as he is to us, how wicked it was to transgress his will! I was the
eldest, and ought to have known better, and my poor Eliza is the
sufferer for my crime!'

Thus would she bewail her folly and imprudence, until, agonized by the
torture of her own reflections, she would sink down in a chair quite
exhausted, and burst into a flood of tears.

While the family at Darnley Hall were thus