It soon became a mass of putridity, and to every eye was a loathsome and disgusting Object; To every eye but a Mother's.

In vain did human feelings bid me recoil from this emblem of mortality with repugnance: I withstood, and vanquished that repugnance.

I persisted in holding my Infant to my bosom, in lamenting it, loving it, adoring it! Hour after hour have I passed upon my sorry Couch, contemplating what had once been my Child: I endeavoured to retrace its features through the livid corruption, with which they were overspread: During my confinement this sad occupation was my only delight; and at that time Worlds should not have bribed me to give it up.

Even when released from my prison, I brought away my Child in my arms.

The representations of my two kind Friends,"-- (Here She took the hands of the Marchioness and Virginia, and pressed them alternately to her lips)--"at length persuaded me to resign my unhappy Infant to the Grave.