Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/163

 preserving innocence: and may that heaven, which must ever regard purity like thine, ever render abortive all schemes that wickedness may plan against thee!"

No language could do justice to the feelings of Madeline on perusing this letter; but the astonishment, the ecstasy, with which the knowledge of her friend's existence inspired her, soon gave way to apprehensions for her father. She trembled to think of the horrors which D'Alembert might entail upon him in revenge for the disappointment of his hopes. "It will gladden his cruel and malicious soul (cried she) to plunge my father into the gulf of destruction—that gulf, into which the discovery of his own crimes must precipitate himself."

Her heart throbbing with impatience, she anxiously listened for her father. The moment he appeared, she flew to him, and put the letter into his hand. Her looks pre-