Page:The Castle of Wolfenbach - Parsons - 1854.djvu/125

 but I wish to hear my dear Miss Weimar's story taken up from the visit she promised me, and I suppose intended paying me." Matilda very readily gave an account of every event at the castle. The Countess shuddered, and heaved a sigh to the fate of poor Margarite, but did not interrupt till she came to the letter received from Joseph, of the fire in the castle, Bertha's miserable fate and his escape. "Good heaven's! (cried she) of what atrocious wickedness is that man capable; Poor wretch, what a long account has he one day to make—God grant him repentance!" Matilda proceeded, and related every circumstance until their safe arrival in London. The Countess embraced the lovely girl, who had betrayed a sense of mortification in recounting the particulars of her birth. "I thank my beloved sister, (said she) for the attention she paid to my request, and I am persuaded your charming society has amply recompensed her for the favor she did me." "You judge right, my dear Victoria; I am indeed the obliged person: but come, pray begin your narration, and take it up from the time you married that brute whose name you bear" "But which I do not asume here, (answered the Countess;) I pass for a Madame Le Roche, and as we neither go to court nor attend any public galas, I have never been particularly introduced, and am known among my dear Mrs. Courtney's friends, as a widow of some fashion, but small fortune, on a visit to her, and not very desirous of much company; therefore you must get your lesson by heart against we return to town. Now, as to your request, you may possibly think I am too observant of my word toward an inhuman monster, when I declare that the sacred vows he drew from me still bind me to secresy, as to what occasioned my being shut up in the castle, and permitting the general belief of my death." "Good God! sister, (cried the Marchioness) vows forced upon you, under such circumstances, have no power to bind; and