for a year by a young woman of a lively, good-natured and affectionate
disposition. Margaret (for that was her name) was born in Brittany, of a
family of peasants, by whom she was cherished and beloved, and with
whom she might have passed through life in simple rustic happiness, if,
misled by the weakness of a tender heart, she had not listened to the
passion of a gentleman in the neighbourhood, who promised her marriage.
He soon abandoned her, and adding inhumanity to seduction, refused to
insure a provision for the child of which she was pregnant. Margaret
then determined to leave forever her native village, and retire, where
her fault might be concealed, to some colony distant from that country
where she had lost the only portion of a poor peasant girl--her
reputation. With some borrowed money she purchased an old negro slave,
with whom she cultivated a little corner of this district.

Madame de la Tour, followed by her negro woman, came to this spot, where
she found Margaret engaged in suckling her child. Soothed and charmed by
the sight of a person in a situation somewhat similar to her own, Madame
de la Tour related, in a few words, her past condition and her present
wants. Margaret was deeply affected by the recital; and more anxious to
merit confidence than to create esteem, she confessed without disguise,
the errors of which she had been guilty. "As for me," said she,
"I deserve my fate: but you, madam--you! at once virtuous and
unhappy"--and, sobbing, she offered Madame de la Tour both her hut and
her friendship. That lady, affected by this tender reception, pressed
her in her arms, and exclaimed,--"Ah surely Heaven has put an end to my
misfortunes, since it inspires you, to whom I am a stranger, with more
goodness towards me than I have ever experienced from my own relations!"

I was acquainted with Margaret: and, although my habitation is a league
and a half from hence, in the woods behind that sloping mountain, I