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wished to incapacitate me from making resistance: it was a precaution which he always took, since, as the travellers had no hopes of escaping, despair would have incited them to sell their lives dearly.
The baron then desired Marguerite to inform him what were her present plans. I joined him in declaring my readiness to shew my gratitude to her for the preservation of my life.
"Disgusted with a world," she replied, "in which I have met with nothing but misfortunes, my only wish is to retire into a convent. But first I must provide for my children. I find that my mother is no more—probably driven to an untimely grave by my desertion. My father is still living. He is not an hard man. Perhaps, gentlemen, in spite of my ingratitude and imprudence, your intercessions may induce him to forgive me, and to take charge of his unfortunate grandsons. If you obtain this boon for me, you will repay my services a thousand-fold."
Both the baron and myself assured Marguerite, that we would spare no pains to
