"In a few words, Louise. St. Ledger, the man she was privately united to, was in his youth the bosom-friend of my father: on his travels, he saw and became enamoured of the amiable Francoise; and on her father's refusing him her hand, prevailed on her to consent to a private marriage. Their intercourse had continued some time, when he was discovered by Monsieur de Colline, and the consequences which followed were as you recited them, from the words of Sister Brigide. Francoise was delivered of a son, who was doomed by the grandfather to an early grave; but was preserved and secretly conveyed to St. Ledger, by the old confident. This soon reached the knowledge of Monsieur de Colline, who in the first paroxysm of passion, would have sacrificed her life, for the innocent one she had preserved. He spared her, but on condition of her taking an oath, never to divulge the retreat of Francoise to St. Ledger, or to undeceive his daughter respecting the death of her infant; for he well knew that whilst she supposed her child living, she would not consent to retire from the world. Poor Francoise was deceived, and imagining herself bereaved of both husband and offspring, gladly took shelter from the anger and reproaches of her father and sisters, in the Convent of St. Ursule. St. Ledger, in the mean time, after vainly demanding his wife of her father, searched the country for some miles round; till, imposed on by a fabulous tale of her death, he, in a state of mind truly disconsolate, returned with his infant son to England. "My father went to France at the time of Monsieur de Colline's death. The circumstances attending the liberation of Francoise were too publicly discoursed of to escape his knowledge, and he immediately proceeded to Rennes, where, introducing himself as the intimate friend of her husband, she joyfully accepted his offer of escorting her to England. "Francoise had written to St. Ledger, who, with an impatience equal to his regard for this amiable woman, was hastening with his son to France, to meet her, when my father unexpectedly presented her to his embrace at Portsmouth, where St. Ledger was waiting for a favourable wind, to convey him to the opposite coast. "Since that time their happiness has never had the least interruption; except from the hymeneal expedition of my friend Henry. They are, however, perfectly satisfied with his choice of a bride, who, on her part, appears sincerely attached to the parents of her husband.