Mrs
Lyddiard is, I know, too desirous to rescue, as far as possible, her
unhappy father's character from disgrace, to suffer a debt of his to
remain uncancelled.'
Thus urged, the baronet reluctantly took the sum; determining,
however, to return it through some medium which would not compromise
the independence, or hurt the feelings, of the person he was so
anxious to serve; and he had soon an opportunity of proving the
sincerity of his professions, by using his interest in procuring
Herbert an appointment far superior to that he at present filled.
It was nearly three years subsequent to the period at which Beaufort
quitted England, that his daughter received the sad intelligence of
his death. He had been a miserable wanderer on the continent for that
space of time, and he breathed his last in a lazaretto at Naples. It
was not till he lay upon his dying bed that he could summon courage
to address his deserted child. When all earthly hope was over, and
the awful realities of a future state presented themselves to his
appalled vision, he thought of the misery he had caused one who had
ever been an affectionate and devoted daughter to him; and as this
epistle expressed the deepest penitence for the errors of his
misspent life, Amy clung to the hope that it was sincere.
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