The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 5 of 5)Burney, Fanny
History
The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 5 of 5)
Burney, Fanny
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Refugees -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Refugees -- Fiction; War stories
'To repose the good Ambroise left me; but far from my pillow was repose!
the dreadful idea of flying one who might lay claim to the honoured
title of husband for pursuing me; the consciousness of being held by an
engagement which I would not fulfil, yet could not deny; the uncertainty
whether my revered Bishop had effected his escape; and the necessity of
abandoning my generous benefactress when surrounded by danger; joined to
the affliction of returning to my native country,--the country of my
birth, my heart, and my pride!--without name, without fortune, without
friends! no parents to receive me, no protector to counsel me;
unacknowledged by my family,--unknown even to the children of my
father!--Oh! bitter, bitter were my feelings!--Yet when I considered
that no action of my life had offended society, or forfeited my rights
to benevolence, I felt my courage revive, for I trusted in Providence.
Sleep then visited my eye-lids, though hard was the bed upon which I
sought it; hard and cold! the month was December. Happy but short
respite of forgetfulness! Four days and nights followed, of the most
terrible anxiety, ere Ambroise returned. He then brought me the
dismaying intelligence, that circumstances had intervened, in his own
affairs, that made it impossible for him, at that moment, to quit his
country. Yet less than ever could my voyage be delayed, the commissary
having, in his fury, advertised a description of my person, and set a
price upon my head; publicly vowing that I should be made over to the
guillotine, when found, for an example. Oh reign so justly called of
terrour! How lawless is its cruelty! How blest by all mankind will be
its termination.
'It now became necessary to my safety, that Ambroise, who was known to
be a domestic of the Marchioness, should not appear to belong to me;
and that, to avoid any suspicion that I was the person advertised by the
commissary, I should present myself to the pilot as an accidental
passenger.
'Ambroise had found means, during his absence, to communicate with the
Marchioness; from whom he brought me a letter of the sweetest kindness;
and intelligence and injunctions of the utmost importance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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