Charlotte Smith

“ D'Alonville recollected how, at a former period, and in still greater distress than he now felt, he had wandered among these cottages, entreating shelter for his father and that he was then repulsed; yet he forgave the people who had at that time denied him assistance, through fear of the very evil that was since come upon them; and he wished to hear the sound of a human voice. He thought he might obtain some information relative to the destruction of the castle above, if he could find a peasant yet in the village ”

“ The perusal of this letter filled the Baroness and Madame D'Alberg with concern. The former had an affection for the young and interesting stranger, as if he had been her son; and she could not think without terror and regret of the danger to which he exposed himself. ”

“ He continually fell among parties of them, but passed as a peasant, not without frequent attempts on their part to enlist a young man, whose height and figure made him so fit for a soldier. After two or three of these recountres he was perfectly master of their jargon, and telling some plausible story to each as he was interrogated, he passed without any adventure that materially retarded his course, till he arrived about noon on the fifth day at a village, which he thought he remembered, as being the first they had passed after they left Rosenheim. ”

“ D'Alonville now determined to visit the ruins in the morning, and to stay till then where he was, if his new acquaintance would permit him—she readily agree to allow him to remain in her house and by her fire, which was all the accommodation she had to offer him; for her mattrasses, she told him, had been carried away for the sick men when they were removed from the castle, and she had no food in the house, having subsisted for the last two of three days on the charity of such of her neighbours as had been lucky enough to conceal some of their provisions from the plunder of the Sans Culottes. ”

“ If that is all I suppose there will be no great harm if they are never found again. The Abbe Heurthofen has told me sometimes in confidence that, in his opinion, these great families are no better than we ourselves, and that the subjection we are in to them—" "The Abbe Heurthofen!" exclaimed D'Alonville, interrupting her, "He holds these doctrines, does he?" ”

“ A few days after the departure of D'Alonville, Count D'Alberg arrived; and the whole family, Heurthofen still being one of it, removed to Vienna. Madame de Rosenheim related to the Count on his first arrival all the circumstances of their precipitate retreat from Rosenheim, and the danger they encountered on their way. He listened with the generosity and sensibility natural to his temper, to that part of her narrative that related to D'Alonville. ”

“ It was here that the country bore the most dreary aspect and presented all the horrors of the seat of war. The borough or large hamlet where he now was, had been just evacuated by a party of Sans Culottes, who had left to the miserable inhabitants hardly any other possession than their lives ”

“ Disappointed, equally perhaps on both sides, they parted before they reached the hotel of Madame de Rosenheim. Bessola, whom D'Alonville had flattered into some degree of good humour promising before she left him, that she would endeavour to gather from the childrens' maid, who had lived longer in the family, such particulars as she could recollect relative to the subject of his enquiry. With this promise D'Alonville was compelled to be content for that night ”