Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 2).djvu/148

 granted: but alack! he only returned to find a grave within it.

"Within a league of his castle, he was way-laid and murdered by two ruffians, masked; and the sad intelligence was conveyed to his expecting family by his faithful squire, then his only attendant, who, in attempting to save his life, received such desperate wounds, that he died in two days after.

"Peter was greatly grieved; but, alas! what was his grief to that of the poor lady's; she lost all relish for this life, and in less than a week after her husband's death, was laid beside him in the grave. In her last moments, as well as in those preceding them, she besought Peter to be a steady friend to her child, and see him, if possible, put into possession of his rights. Peter promised to do all he could, but that all, he feared, would be but little. The certificate of her marriage had been destroyed in a box, with many other valuables, by an accidental fire some months prior to her death; and Peter