er
treatment than she received. Like me, she resisted the persuasions of
her friends, but her motives for remaining were disinterested and
heroic.

"No sooner did her indisposition appear, than she was hurried to the
hospital. I saw that no reliance could be placed upon the assurances of
Thetford. Every consideration gave way to his fear of death. After the
girl's departure, though he knew that she was led by his means to
execution, yet he consoled himself by repeating and believing her
assertions, that her disease was not _the fever_.

"I was now greatly alarmed for my own safety. I was determined to
encounter his anger and repel his persuasions; and to depart with the
market-man next morning. That night, however, I was seized with a
violent fever. I knew in what manner patients were treated at the
hospital, and removal thither was to the last degree abhorred.

"The morning arrived, and my situation was discovered. At the first
intimation, Thetford rushed out of the house, and refused to re-enter it
till I was removed. I knew not my fate, till three ruffians made their
appearance at my bedside, and communicated their commission.

"I called on the name of Thetford and his wife. I entreated a moment's
delay, till I had seen these persons, and endeavoured to procure a
respite from my sentence. They were deaf to my entreaties, and prepared
to execute their office by force. I was delirious with rage and terror.
I heaped the bitterest execrations on my murderer; and by turns, invoked
the compassion of, and poured a torrent of reproaches on, the wretches
whom he had selected for his ministers. My struggles and outcries were
vain.

"I have no perfect recollection of what passed till my arrival at the
hospital. My passions combined with my disease to make me frantic and
wild. In a state like mine, the slightest motion could not be endured
without agony. What then must I have felt, scorched and dazzled by the
sun, sustained by hard boards, and borne for miles over a rugged
pavement?

"I cannot make you comprehend the anguish of my feelings. To be
disjointed and torn piecemeal by the rack was a torment inexpressibly
inferior to this. Nothing excites my wonder but that I did not expire
before the cart had moved three paces.

"I knew not how, or by whom, I was moved from this vehicle.
Insensibility came at length to my relief. After a time I opened my
eyes, and slowly gained some knowledge of my situation. I lay upon a
ma