any of Lady
Sforza; and her talk being all on this subject, they were both highly
displeased; and hinted, that she was too much indulged in it; and,
unhappily, she repeating some tender passages that passed in the
interview her mother had permitted her to hold with the Chevalier, the
general would have it, that Mr. Grandison had designedly, from the first,
sought to give himself consequence with her; and expressed himself, on
the occasion, with great violence against him.

'He carried his displeasure to extremity, and obliged her to go away with
his aunt and him that very day, to her great regret; and as much to the
regret of Mrs. Beaumont, and of the ladies her friends; who tenderly
loved the innocent visionary, as sometimes they called her. And Mrs.
Beaumont is sure, that the gentle treatment she met with from them, would
in time, though perhaps slowly, have greatly helped her.'

Mrs. Beaumont then gives an account of the harsh treatment the poor young
lady met with.

Sir Charles Grandison would have stopt reading here. He said, he could
not read it to me, without such a change of voice, as would add to my
pain, as well as to his own.

Tears often stole down my cheeks, when I read the letters of the bishop
and Signor Jeronymo, and as Sir Charles read a part of Mrs. Beaumont's
letter: and I doubted not but what was to follow would make them flow.
Yet, I said, Be pleased, sir, to let me read on. I am not a stranger to
distress. I can pity others, or I should not deserve pity myself.

He pointed to the place; and withdrew to the window.

Mrs. Beaumont says, 'That the poor mother was prevailed upon to resign
her child wholly to the management of Lady Sforza, and her daughter
Laurana, who took her with them to their palace in Milan.

'The tender parent, however, besought them to spare all unnecessary
severity; which they promised: but Laurana objected to Camilla's
attendance. She was thought too indulgent; and her servant Laura, as a
more manageable person, was taken in her place.' And O how cruelly, as
you shall hear, did they treat her!

Father Marescotti, being obliged to visit a dying relation at Milan, was
desired by the marchioness to inform himself of the way her beloved
daughter was in, and of the methods taken with her, Lady Laurana having,
in her letters, boasted of both. The good Father acquainted Mrs.
Beaumont with the following particulars:

'He was surprised to find a difficulty made of his seeing t