to accompany them on their return, it could not make any great difference to him, whilst to them it was of incalculable advantage. They considered that the Count, from his close affinity with the family, had a right to advise their mother, which neither her children nor her sons-in-law could pretend to, and that, remembering the fortune their aunt brought him, and the accumulations their father might be said to have presented him with, no delicacy on their part need to interfere with his evidently generous intentions. Isabella so well knew the high opinion Glentworth entertained of him, and the deep regard he felt for him, that she was certain whatever he did would be perfectly approved by her husband.
From the time poor Riccardini had engaged his courier, and taken his passage to Marseilles, he became extremely melancholy, and required all the active kindness of both his nieces to support his spirits. Doubtless his heart often addressed his dear, his beautiful, and noble country, saying, "With all thy faults I love thee still," and even to leave the hallowed dust of his wife and daughter was afflictive; but Isabella well knew, from what Margarita had told her, it was far better he should depart, since nothing could be more probable, when he was no longer prevented by domestic ties, than that he should join some party of those who sought to overturn Austrian usurpation, and by that means consign himself to a turbulent
