The Greatest Regency Romance Novels. Maria Edgeworth

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       communicated the misfortune to my nurse,

       who you know I told you went from England

       with me, and has often brought you messages

       from the convent:--the faithful creature did

       her utmost to console me for an evil which was

       without a remedy:--to complete my confusion,

       my father commanded me home; my lord

       M----e was returned from his travels:--we

       were both of an age to marry; and it

       was resolved, by our parents, no longer to

       defer the completion of an affair long before

       agreed upon.--I was ready to lay violent hands

       on myself, since there seemed no way to conceal

       my shame; but my good nurse having set

       all her wits to work for me, found out an expedient

       which served me, when I could think

       of nothing for myself.--She bid me be of

       comfort; that she thought being sent for home

       was the luckiest thing that could have happened,

       since nothing could be so bad as to have my

       pregnancy discovered in the convent, as it

       infallibly must have been had I stayed a very little

       time longer: she also assured me she would

       contrive it so, as to keep the thing a secret

       from all the world.--I found afterwards she

       did not deceive me by vain promises.--We

       left Paris, according to my father's order, and

       came by easy journeys, befitting my condition,

       to Calais, and embarked on board the packet for

       Dover; but then, instead of taking coach for London,

       hired a chariot, and went cross the country

       to a little village, where a kinswoman of my

       nurse's lived.--With these people I remained

       till Horatio and Louisa came into the world:--I

       could have had them nursed at that place, but

       I feared some discovery thro' the miscarriage of

       letters, which often happens, and which could

       not have been avoided being sent on such occasions;--so

       we contrived together that my

       good confident and adviser should carry them

       to your house, and commit the care of them

       to you, who, equal with myself, had a right to

       it:--she found means, by bribing a man that

       worked under your gardener, to convey them

       where I afterwards heard you found and received

       them as I could wish, and becoming the

       generosity of your nature.--I then took coach

       for London, pretending, at my arrival, that I

       had been delayed by sickness, and to excuse my

       nurse's absence, said she had caught the fever

       of me;--so no farther enquiry was made, and

       I soon after was married to a man whose worth

       is well deserving of a better wife, tho' I have

       endeavoured to attone for my unknown transgression

       by every act of duty in my power:--nurse

       stayed long enough in your part of the

       world to be able to bring me an account how

       the children were disposed of.--That I never

       gave you an account they were your own, was

       occasioned by two reasons, first, the danger of

       entrusting such a thing by the post, my nurse

       soon after dying; and secondly, because, as I

       was a wife, I thought it unbecoming of me to

       remind you of a passage I was willing to forget

       myself.--A long sickness has put other thoughts

       into my head, and inspired me with a tenderness

       for those unhappy babes, which the shame

       of being their mother hitherto deprived them

       of.--I hear, with pleasure, that you are not

       married, and are therefore at full liberty to

       make some provision for them, if they are yet

       living, that may alleviate the misfortune of

       their birth. Farewell; if I obtain this first and

       last request, I shall dye well satisfied."