Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/136

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not attempt to oppose it. After some consideration he mentioned the place he had come from, as a situation well calculated for retirement. I was enamoured of it from his description; and he assured me he would dispatch a confidential person that very day to procure a residence in it for me. He had already, he said, prepared the servants for dismission; and, before others came to supply their place, from the real owner of the castle, who had only lent it to the Earl as a temporary asylum, "my messenger (said he), will be returned, and every thing prepared for your departure. I have (continued he), prevented all enquiries as to the destination of your child, by declaring her solely committed to my charge: and when the hour for your quitting the castle approaches, I shall send the woman who now takes care of her after the other domestics.'


"Every thing succeeded according to our wishes. At the expected time the messenger arrived, after having taken the cottage for me in