me from my sleep; and
I then perceived my Helen lying insensible on the floor; and
Theresa--yes--the altered and to me terrible figure of Theresa, bending
over her. For one dreadful moment I believed that you had fallen a
victim to her insanity.

"And now Helen--my injured, but fondly beloved Helen, now that my tale
of evil is fully disclosed, resolve at once the doom of my future being.
Yet in mercy be prompt in your decision; and whether you determine to
unfold to the whole world the measure of my guilt, or, since nothing can
now extricate us from the web of sin and shame in which we are involved,
to assist in shielding me from a discovery which would be fatal to the
interests of our innocent child, let me briefly hear the result of your
judgment. Of this alone it remains for me to assure you--that I will not
one single hour survive the publication of my dishonour."

For several hours succeeding the perusal of the forgoing history, Lady
Greville remained chained as it were to her seat by the bewildering
perplexities of her mind. The blow, in itself so sudden, so fraught
with mischiefs, involving a thousand interests, and affording no hope
to lessen its infliction, appeared to stupify her faculties. Lost in the
contemplation of evils from which no worldly resource availed to save
herself or her child, indignation, compassion, and despair, by turns
obtained possession of her bosom. Her first impulse, worthy of her
gentle nature, was to rush to the bed-side of her sleeping boy, and
there, on her knees, to implore divine aid to shelter his unoffending
innocence, and grace to enlighten her mind in the choice of her future
destiny. And He, who in dealing the wound of affliction, refuseth not,
to those who seek it, the balm that softens its endurance, imparted to
her soul a fortitude to bear, and a wisdom to extricate herself from the
perils by which she was assailed. The following letter acquainted Lord
Greville with her final determination:

"Greville,--I was about, in the inadvertence of my bewildered mind, to
address you once more by the title of husband; but that holy name must
hereafter perish on my lips, and be banished like a withering curse from
my heart. Yet it was that alone which, holding a sacred charter over my
bosom, bound me to the cheerful endurance of many a bitter hour, ere I
knew that through him who bore it, a descendant of the house of
Percy would be banded as an adulteress; and her child as the