by you, and join in supplicating that mercy I have so little room to hope for, but from Divine goodness to the truly penitent."
Matilda assured him of her forgiveness, and implored heaven's mercy on him. "But tell me, Sir (said she) did you never hear of my mother?" "Only once, and by accident, eight years ago; she was then at Naples, with her family." "Grant heaven! (said Matilda) she may be there still; O, what happiness, if I should ever embrace a mother!" Tears stopt her utterance; her uncle was affected. "O, Matilda! leave me; I cannot bear your tears, they reproach me too deeply; and I have much to repent of before I leave you for ever."
She quitted the room, oppressed with the most painful sensations: the tragical end of her father, the melancholy situation of her mother, the crimes of her uncle, and her own present distressed and forlorn state, altogether gave her unutterable pangs: yet a gleam of
