n her happiness, her rights, and those of her child. As by
degrees the full measure of her misery unfolded to her comprehension,
she fell into no paroxysm of angry grief; she vented her despair in no
revilings against the guilty Greville. Sorrowfully indeed, but calmly,
she requested to be made acquainted with the whole extent of her
miserable destiny.

"Let me know the worst," said she, "I have been long, too long deceived,
and the only mercy you can now bestow upon me is an unreserved and
unqualified confidence."

But Lord Greville could not trust himself to make so painful a
communication in words, and after passing the night in writing, he
delivered to her the following relation:--

LORD GREVILLE'S HISTORY

"I need not dwell upon the occurrences of my childhood, I need
not relate the events which rendered my youth equally eventful and
distinguished. My early life was passed so entirely in the immediate
service of my sovereign, and in participation of the troubles and
dangers which disastrous times and a rebellious people heaped upon his
head, that the tenor of my life has been as public as his own.

"Yet Helen, forgive me for saying that I cannot even now, in this my
day of humiliation, but glory in the happy fortune which crowned with
success my efforts in the royal cause, both in the field and in the
cabinet, and won for me at once the affection of my king, and the
approbation of my fellow-countrymen, when I remember that to these
flattering testimonies I owe not only the friendship of your father, but
the first affections of his child. How frequently have you owned to me,
in our early days of joy and love, that long before we met, my public
reputation had excited the strongest interest in your mind--those days,
those happy days, when I was rich alike in the warmest devotion of
popular favour, and the approval of--but I must not permit myself to
indulge in fond retrospections; I must steel my heart, and calmly and
coldly relate the progress of my misery and guilt, and of its present
remorse and punishment.

"You have heard that soon after the restoration of Charles Stuart to the
throne of his ancestors, I was sent on a mission of great public
moment to the Hague, where I remained for nearly two years, and having
succeeded in the object of government, I returned home shortly after the
union of the king with the princess of Portugal. I was warmly received
by his majesty, and presented by him to the young qu