"'At once good and bad,' I replied. 'We have obtained a brilliant
victory over De Ruyter; but alas! it has cost us the lives of several
of our most distinguished officers.'

"She started from her seat, and wildly approaching me, whispered in a
tone of suppressed agony, 'Tell me--tell me truly--_is he dead_?'

"'Of whom do you speak?'

"'Of _him_--of my beloved--my bethrothed--of Percy, my own Percy,--'
said she with frantic violence.

"Helen--even then, heart-struck as I was, I could not but pity the
unfortunate being whose very apprehensions were thus agonizing. I
dared not answer her--I dared not summon assistance, lest she should
betray herself to others as she had done to her husband; for she had
lost all self-command. I attempted to pacify her by an indefinite
reply to her inquiries, but in vain. 'Do not deceive me,' said she,
'Greville, you were ever good and generous; tell me did he know all,
did he curse me, did he seek his death?

"It occurred to me that the letter which I held in my hand might be
from--from her dead lover; and with a sensation of loathing, I gave
it to her. She tore it open, and a lock of hair dropped from the
envelope. I found afterwards that it contained a few words of
farewell, dictated by Percy in his dying moments; and this
sufficiently accounted for the state of mind into which its perusal
plunged the unhappy Theresa. Before night she was a raving maniac,
and in this state she was delivered of a dead infant.