compassionate and respectful love could bestow.

"Three long and tedious years passed away, and no tidings were received.
Whether he were living or dead, nobody could tell. At length, an English
traveller, going out of the customary road from Italy, met with
Fielding, in a town in the Venaissin. His manners, habits, and language,
had become French. He seemed unwilling to be recognised by an old
acquaintance, but, not being able to avoid this, and becoming gradually
familiar, he informed the traveller of many particulars in his present
situation. It appeared that he had made himself useful to a neighbouring
_seigneur_, in whose _chateau_ he had long lived on the footing of a
brother. France he had resolved to make his future country, and, among
other changes for that end, he had laid aside his English name, and
taken that of his patron, which was _Perrin_. He had endeavoured to
compensate himself for all other privations, by devoting himself to
rural amusements and to study.

"He carefully shunned all inquiries respecting me; but, when my name was
mentioned by his friend, who knew well all that had happened, and my
general welfare, together with that of his son, asserted, he showed deep
sensibility, and even consented that I should be made acquainted with
his situation.

"I cannot describe the effect of this intelligence on me. My hopes of
bringing him back to me were suddenly revived. I wrote him a letter, in
which I poured forth my whole heart; but his answer contained avowals of
all his former resolutions, to which time had only made his adherence
more easy. A second and third letter were written, and an offer made to
follow him to his retreat and share his exile; but all my efforts
availed nothing. He solemnly and repeatedly renounced all the claims of
a husband over me, and absolved me from every obligation as a wife.

"His part in this correspondence was performed without harshness or
contempt. A strange mixture there was of pathos and indifference; of
tenderness and resolution. Hence I continually derived hope, which time,
however, brought no nearer to certainty.

"At the opening of the Revolution, the name of Perrin appeared among the
deputies to the constituent assembly for the district in which he
resided. He had thus succeeded in gaining all the rights of a French
citizen; and the hopes of his return became almost extinct; but that,
and every other hope respecting him, has since been totally extinguished