nded, tho' with what
confusion of mind is not easy to be expressed; and, when she was ready
to go, wrote a letter to Melanthe, thanking her for all the favours she
had received from her, acknowledging them to be as unmerited as her late
displeasure, which she conjured her to believe she had never, even in
thought, done any thing justly to incur;--wished her prosperity, and
that she might never find a person less faithful to her interests than
she had been. Having desired her woman to deliver this to her, she took
leave of the servants, who all loved her extremely, and saw her go with
tears in their eyes.

The rout she intended to take was to Padua by water, thence in a post
chaise to Leghorn, where she was informed, it would be easy to find a
ship bound for England; to what port was indifferent to her, being now
once more to seek her fortune, tho' in her native country, and must
trust wholly to that providence for her future support, which had
hitherto protected her.

Accordingly she took her passage to Padua in one of those boats, which
are continually going between Venice and that city; and it being near
the close of day when she landed, was obliged to go into an inn,
designing to lye there that night, and early in the morning set out
for Leghorn.

She was no sooner in bed than, having never been alone in one of those
places before, a thousand dreadful apprehensions came into her head: all
the stories she had been told, when a child, of robberies and murders
committed on travellers in inns, were now revived in her memory:--every
little noise she heard made her fall into tremblings; and the very
whistling of the wind, which at another time would have lulled her to
sleep, now kept her waking: but these ideal terrors had not long
possessed her, before she had an occasion of real ones, more shocking
than her most timid fancy could have suggested.

The wicked count de Bellfleur, who had taken care to prevent the passion
he had excited in Melanthe against her from growing cool, learned, from
that deceived lady, in what manner she intended to dispose of her; and
no sooner heard which way she went than, attended by one servant, who
was the confidant and tool of all his vices, he took boat for Padua, and
presently finding out, by describing her, at what inn she was lodged,
came directly thither; and, having called the man of the house, asked
him if such a young woman were not lodged there, to which being answered
in the a