Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2Bonhote, Mrs. (Elizabeth)
General
Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2
Bonhote, Mrs. (Elizabeth)
English fiction -- 18th century
"When life was more perfectly restored, we moved him upon a grass plat,
till the carriage and horses could be got ready.--He took no notice
of any one, and appeared to be totally insensible of the accident,
and of every thing around him.--This at once determined us to intrude
on the Baron's goodness, and convey him to this castle.
"Having dispatched a messenger for the best advice we could procure,
one of his attendants and myself accompanied him in the carriage.
His head rested on my bosom, but he knew me not, nor once attempted
to speak. On our arrival here, we found every thing prepared for our
reception, Edwin having taken one of the horses, and rode full speed
to inform the Baron's servants a sick gentleman was coming, for whom
he requested their care and assistance.
"My father was taken from the carriage, and instantly put to bed.
Two medical gentlemen very soon arrived, who, on examining the state
of their patient, from the violence of the contusion and the total
deprivation of sense in which they found him, seemed to think there
was a concussion of the brain. They assured us, however, that his
life would not be endangered by the accident, but said, they saw
he was far advanced in decline, from which they apprehended more
fatal consequences.
"We continued our disguise, and, as our real names were totally unknown
in this neighborhood, having passed for a Mr. and Mrs. Danbury, we
were under no apprehensions of being discovered, should my father
recover his senses. After remaining in the most painful state of
suspense many days, he began to take notice of those who attended
him, but made no inquiries after his own servants, how he came into
a strange place, or the accident which had befallen him. One day, as
I was sitting by him, and holding his head, which I had been rubbing
with vinegar, he looked earnestly at me.
"If I did not think, if I did not know it was impossible, (said he,
in hurried accents, looking first at me, and then at Edwin, who was
standing at the foot of the bed,) I should almost be tempted to
believe that the hand which has so gently given me relief was the
hand of Madeline de Glanville, and that face the face I once fondly
doated upon; but it cannot be!--I am a poor, wandering, old man, whose
eyes must be closed by strangers, and I deserve it should be so. I
once had a daughter, but I banished her my sight:--I had a son, but
he perhaps is no longer an inhabitant of this world."
Here he stopped, and burst into a violent flood of tears. By a sign
from Edwin I understood he wished me to take this favourable opportunity
of making the discovery, for which he knew I languished. Falling
therefore, on my knees, in the most supplicating attitude, and pressing
his hand to my lips, I exclaimed:
"I am your daughter,--your Madeline, and there is the amiable, the
beloved husband for whom I dared to disobey my father, and for whom
at this moment I stand a trembling victim to the just laws of my
country and my religion!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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