inadequate; it cannot therefore be supposed that he wished Mrs. Crayton
to be very liberal in her bounty to the afflicted suppliant; yet vice
had not so entirely seared over his heart, but the sorrows of Charlotte
could find a vulnerable part.

Charlotte had now been three days with her humane preservers, but
she was totally insensible of every thing: she raved incessantly for
Montraville and her father: she was not conscious of being a mother, nor
took the least notice of her child except to ask whose it was, and why
it was not carried to its parents.

"Oh," said she one day, starting up on hearing the infant cry, "why, why
will you keep that child here; I am sure you would not if you knew
how hard it was for a mother to be parted from her infant: it is like
tearing the cords of life asunder. Oh could you see the horrid sight
which I now behold--there there stands my dear mother, her poor bosom
bleeding at every vein, her gentle, affectionate heart torn in a
thousand pieces, and all for the loss of a ruined, ungrateful child.
Save me save me--from her frown. I dare not--indeed I dare not speak to
her."

Such were the dreadful images that haunted her distracted mind, and
nature was sinking fast under the dreadful malady which medicine had
no power to remove. The surgeon who attended her was a humane man; he
exerted his utmost abilities to save her, but he saw she was in want of
many necessaries and comforts, which the poverty of her hospitable host
rendered him unable to provide: he therefore determined to make her
situation known to some of the officers' ladies, and endeavour to make a
collection for her relief.