the house at an early period. One or
two of the servants likewise forsook him. One girl, more faithful and
heroic than the rest, resisted the remonstrances of her parents and
friends, and resolved to adhere to him in every fortune. She was anxious
that the family should fly from danger, and would willingly have fled in
their company; but while they stayed, it was her immovable resolution
not to abandon them.

"Alas, poor girl! She knew not of what stuff the heart of Thetford was
made. Unhappily, she was the first to become sick. I question much
whether her disease was pestilential. It was, probably, a slight
indisposition, which, in a few days, would have vanished of itself, or
have readily yielded to suitable treatment.

"Thetford was transfixed with terror. Instead of summoning a physician,
to ascertain the nature of her symptoms, he called a negro and his cart
from Bush Hill. In vain the neighbours interceded for this unhappy
victim. In vain she implored his clemency, and asserted the lightness of
her indisposition. She besought him to allow her to send to her mother,
who resided a few miles in the country, who would hasten to her succour,
and relieve him and his family from the danger and trouble of nursing
her.

"The man was lunatic with apprehension. He rejected her entreaties,
though urged in a manner that would have subdued a heart of flint. The
girl was innocent, and amiable, and courageous, but entertained an
unconquerable dread of the hospital. Finding entreaties ineffectual, she
exerted all her strength in opposition to the man who lifted her into
the cart.

"Finding that her struggles availed nothing, she resigned herself to
despair. In going to the hospital, she believed herself led to certain
death, and to the sufferance of every evil which the known inhumanity of
its attendants could inflict. This state of mind, added to exposure to a
noonday sun, in an open vehicle, moving, for a mile, over a rugged
pavement, was sufficient to destroy her. I was not surprised to hear
that she died the next day.

"This proceeding was sufficiently iniquitous; yet it was not the worst
act of this man. The rank and education of the young woman might be some
apology for negligence; but his clerk, a youth who seemed to enjoy his
confidence, and to be treated by his family on the footing of a brother
or son, fell sick on the next night, and was treated in the same
manner."

These tidings struck me to the heart. A burst