 she professed—To that she sacrificed all earthly ties; the tender wife and the fond mother sunk before the idea of a higher duty; the conflict was too great for her soft nature—
The saint sustained it, but the woman died.


When the period of all her sorrows drew near, she called me to her, and with her dying lips enjoined me to pay the strictest obedience to my father in every point, except that of renouncing the religion in which I had been bred, and which, she added, I trust my Julia will never forsake; for something tells me, that you may, at some time or other of your life, stand in need of such an asylum as can only be found in the bosom of our church.
Too prophetic were her words, but ever blest be the guardian spirit that inspired them! The deep melancholy which succeeded to the violent sorrow I felt for the loss of such a parent, marked my countenance with a timid and dejected air, which my father, at my return to England, unkindly misconstrued into a sullenness of disposition, or a personal dislike to him, and this opinion inspired

an haughty coldness in his manners towards me—I trembled whenever I approached him; his hand was not stretched forth to sustain my feeble steps, nor did the encouraging smile of parental fondness ever smooth the severity of his naturally austere brow.—My brother was his darling, and my only consolation—Cruel as he is now become, my heart avows its gratitude to him for all the little happiness that dawned upon my youth.
When I had been about a year at my father's, he proposed sending back the governess that had come with me from France, as he justly imagined that she kept up my attachment to the Catholic religion, which he was determined I should renounce. This was a severe stroke to me; I loved Madame Duval as a second parent; she had been a favourite of my mother's, and many pleasing

melancholy hours we used to spend together, in mingling our tears to her memory.—On this occasion her dying commands occurred to me, and I submitted without appearing to lament my loss.
Her place was supplied by a very different sort of woman, unpleasing in her person, and vulgar in her manners—But you must remember Mrs. Winterman—I conceived a very strong aversion to her from the first sight; and therefore from the moment that my poor Duval left me, I never had a female friend older than myself whom I could consult upon any difficult occasion, or to whom I could pour forth the sorrows of my o'er-burthened heart
