420 MADAME DE MIRAMION. Miramion was a widow, and about to be a mother. The blow was so sudden and severe that nothing, perhaps, would have availed to recall her to an interest in mun- dane affairs but the birth of her daughter. When she reappeared in the great world, she was lovelier than ever in her face and person, and her fortune had been increased by her portion of her husband's estate. She was a very rich and beautiful widow of eighteen, with only the incumbrance of an infant in arms. Lovers again sur- rounded her, but she encouraged none of them; and, indeed, she was firmly resolved to dedicate her life to the education of her daughter. Among her suitors was a roue of high rank and wasted fortune — a widower with three daughters, who felt how advantageous it would be to add the lady's estate to his own. Rejected by her, he was given to understand by a friend of the family that she really liked him, and was only prevented from marry- ing him by the fear of offending her. relations. This was false, but he believed it, and he determined to carry her off in the style of an old-fashioned romance. On a certain day, as the young widow and her mother- in-law were going in a carriage to a church near Paris, the vehicle was suddenly surrounded by a band of horse- men wearing masks. They stopped the carriage and opened the door. The young lady screamed with terror, which the horsemen attributed to her desire to keep up appearances before her mother-in-law, and therefore pro- ceeded to execute their purpose. The old lady and one servant were left in the road to make their way home as best they could, while the carriage containing the prize was driven rapidly away, surrounded by the gentlemen on horseback, led by the lover. All day the party galloped on until, at the close of the afternoon, they reached an ancient castle, with wall, moat, and draw-bridges, as we find them in the novels of the period. Here a party of two hundred of the abductor's friends were in waiting,
