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THE FRENCH CONVERT.
45

a luſty ſervant? He told him, Yes; then he returned, and took the Gardener out of the ſack, ungagged and unbound him, and told him, That though he deſerved to die, for perverting his lady to hereſy, yet they had compaſſion upon him, and would only ſend him to do penance, for a ſlave in the Weſt Indies, and bid him accept of it thankfully, and without muttering; and thereupon they delivered him to the maſter of the veſſel, of whom they received twelve crowns. After which they returned, and gave an account that they had thrown him, with a great ſtone about his neck, from a fifty-foot clift into the ſea; and for it, received the reward promiſed them. Nor was Bernard unwilling to go with his new maſter, finding providence had changed the death that was deſigned him, only into ſlavery, from whence he might hope in time to be releaſed. But his care was greater for Deidamia than himſelf; for he had been uſed to misfortune, and inured to ſeveral hardſhips. And, her grief was no leſs that ſhe found herſelf conſtrained, (as ſhe ſuppoſed, for his ſafety,) ſo abruptly to part with the man that had been an inſtrument in the filling her heart ſo full of heavenly conſolations; and had not laid her commands on him to write to her, or otherwiſe to give ſecret notice of his abiding place, (that ſhe might have had farther converſe with him, and be more ſtrengthened by him in the profeſſion of that truth he had inſtructed her in, and which ſhe was reſolved to abide by,) till ſhe found means to reſtore him to his place again.

Whilſt ſhe was penſive on theſe thoughts Antonio having (as I before told you) get a letter from her parents to her, wherein they laid their

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