At this moment entered St Magdalene, all in tears.
"Well, madam (said Matilda, endeavouring to collect fortitude from despair) have the goodness to inform the gentlemen I will presently wait on them." The superior appeared rather unwilling to leave her with her favourite, but however she withdrew.
Her good mother advised her instantly to write a few lines to the Marquis, and likewise to the Countess at Vienna. "Give me the first letter, (said she) I will endeavour to have it conveyed; take the chance of leaving the other at some inn on the road: but make haste, for we have no time."
Poor Matilda, more dead than alive, soon executed her task, and the other assisting in packing, she was just ready when a messenger came to hasten her. With a resolution that astonished her friend, she followed the persons who came for her Trunks, and went down to
