sented to act under her Ladyship's directions without informing him of it,

After a variety of schemes, abandoned, as soon as formed (as likely to prove abortive), it was at length determined to take Louisa from her present abode, and commit her to the care of a morose old woman, who resided in a retired village on the Sussex coast, with whom Miss Freeman was acquainted; and who, for a sum of money not of vast amount, would, she was confident, confine her as strictly as she was at present. Louisa was to be represented as having, by her artful conduct, seduced the affections of the husband of her best friend, who was the most amiable of women, and who only wished to remove her out of the way of danger, till, by reflection and contrition, she had repented of her crime, and evinced, by her submission, her resolution not to renew her offence. -10 ylibea

She was to be strictly watched, lest she should attempt to make her escape, and not permitted the use of materials for writing, that she might not inform the person, from whom she was secluded, of her situation.

It was their intention to keep her there till they had fixed on some more eligible plan.

Miss Freeman undertook to perform this without Lady Belmour's name being mentioned, or her concurrence at all known.

For this purpose, she came in Mr. Melford's name to demand Louisa, whom she privately told that Lady Belmour was convinced of her innocence, and had resolved to restore her to liberty. As she was the person who had brought Louisa, she was without hesitation given up to her.

The joy of the poor persecuted girl

was excessive, when she found herself without the walls of the miserable abode in which she had been so long immured.

She freely forgave the injustice which had been done her, and also her who had been alike the instrument of her confinement and release. So great a blessing did liberty appear to her, that she considered the injurious treatment which she had received was amply compensated by a restoration to it.

But this happiness she was not long suffered to enjoy by her envious companion, who informed her she was only removing her to a more secure retreat, where she would not have an opportunity of sending letters to any one.

The satisfaction this woman felt in inflicting pain on Louisa would have rendered her true to the trust reposed in her by Lady Belmour, even if she had not had any other inducement. But her avarice was gratified by it also. Lady

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Is your bed

Belmour having liberally rewarded her for her iniquitous actions, which had quis gratified her revenge; and she looked forward to her Ladyship's fears of a discovery as a rich mine, from whence she could draw wealth at pleasure.

Louisa had thought, a few days before, that no change in her situation could possibly be for the worse. But the taunting cruelty of this woman, she now found, was more insufferable than the confinement from which she was just released And as anticipated evils are often worse, than real, so she imagined she had greater miseries to experience than any she had yet endured. The hope so long dormant in her breast of being restored to friends and liberty, had, she thought, only been fallacious, as it had plunged her in deeper distress by disappointment. In the bitterness of her grief, she could with difficulty avoid taxing the Omnipotent with injustice, in thus permitting her, who

had never in thought done injury to the meanest of his creatures, to suffer such complicated wrongs.

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But man is a short-sighted being, and often what appears an evil of the greatest magnitude, is fraught with unexpected bliss. Louisa was shortly to acknowledge this truth, and to retract the hasty murmurings which had possessed her soul, and almost made her impiously renounce the divine precepts implanted in her heart by the example and instruction, of her early preceptors, that the Almigh s does not afflict his creatures but for Jagy dens wise purposes; and that to profit by them, we should implicitly submit to his will without daring to call his justice in question.

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They had proceeded some time on their journey without exchanging a word. Louisa sat enveloped in her own gloomy reflections, and her companion was just relaxing in the vigilance with which she