Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/202

 "This proposal," resumed Fatima, "did not please me. I was not willing to run the risk of being rejected as a burden, or treated with contempt, when I had the alternative of independence, pleasure, and an agreeable lover. I therefore accepted the nobleman's proposals, put myself under his protection, and one evening quitted the house to reside in a more elegant one. In a few days, Dupree found me out, and made such an uproar, and behaved so clamorous, that my protector was compelled to give her a handsome sum to hold her tongue, which perfectly contented her.

"My lover was obliged to join the army. I accompanied him. The General was compelled to give battle; he was victorious, and the Turks defeated; but unhappily a party of them, headed by Heli, had, in the mean time, surrounded the tents, where the women and officers" baggage remained, pillaged them, beat off the guards, and carried me and several other women off in triumph.