Whilst the
newspapers of the day informed us of these things, they noticed
amongst the first of her champions the Palatine of Masovia,
Kosciusko, and the young Sobieski. Many an evening have I passed with
Miss Dorothy and Mary Beaufort, lamenting the fate of that devoted
kingdom."
During this declaration, a variety of indeed happy emotions agitated
the mind of Thaddeus, until, recollecting with a bitter pang the
shameless ingratitude of Pembroke, when all those glories were
departed from him, and the cruel possibility of being recognized by
the Earl of Tinemouth as his son, he exclaimed, "My dearest madam, I
entreat that what I have revealed to you may never be divulged. Miss
Beaufort's friendship would indeed be happiness; but I cannot
purchase even so great a bliss at the expense of memories which are
knit with my life."
"How?" cried the countess; "is not your name, and all its attendant
ideas, an honor which the proudest man might boast?"
Thaddeus pressed her hand to his heart.
"You are kind--very kind! yet I cannot retract. Confide, dear Lady
Tinemouth, in the justice of my resolution. I could not bear cold
pity; I could not bear the heartless comments of people who,
pretending to compassion, would load me with a heavy sense of my
calamities. Besides, there are persons in England who are so much the
objects of my aversion, I would rather die than let them know I
exist.
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