are never to act in any material
point of themselves:--but courts are places where this lesson is seldom
practised; and tho' the virtues of the English queen and princess are a
shining example to all about them, yet I am of opinion that innocence is
safest in retirement.

As she was fully convinced in her mind that it was only owing to some
jealousy of her behaviour that she had been taken from St. Germains, and
also that it was on the score of Horatio, she would not enquire too
deeply for fear of giving her father an opportunity of entering into
examinations, which she thought she could not answer without either
injuring the truth, or avowing what would not only have incensed him to
a very great degree, but also put him upon measures which would destroy
even the most distant hope of ever seeing Horatio more. He, on his side,
would not acquaint her with the sentiments which the above-mentioned
suggestions had inspired him with, thinking he should discover more of
the truth by keeping a watchful eye over her behaviour without
seeming to do so.

During the time of their little journey from the palace of St. Germains
to Paris, where monsieur the baron de Palfoy ordinarily resided, nothing
farther was discoursed on: but when they arrived, and mademoiselle
Charlotta had opportunity of reflecting on this sudden turn, she gave a
loose to all the anxieties it occasioned:--she was not only snatch'd
from the presence of what was most dear to her on earth, but as she had
no confidante, nor durst make any, was also without any means either of
conveying a letter to him, or receiving the least intelligence from him.

She had been in Paris but a very little time before she perceived the
baron artfully kept her in the most severe restraint under a shew of
liberty; pretending to her, as he had done to the princess, that he was
not well enough to go abroad, he would stay at home whole days together,
and oblige her to read, or play to him on the spinnet, which frequently
she did with an aking heart; and when she went out, it was always in
company with a relation whom he kept at his house on purpose, as he
said, as a companion to divert her, but in reality to be a spy over all
her actions; and had orders to dive, by all the insinuations she was
mistress of, into her very thoughts. All this mademoiselle Charlotta had
penetration enough to discover, and, spite of the discontent she
laboured under, so well concealed what they endeavoured t