Happy, happy they to whom heaven has given an angel to pour comfort and consolation into their hearts in hours of want and dejection! But listen, my child! "My brother was saved, and I concealed most carefully the assistance I had been to him; he left the country and went with his wife to America, where, ever since, he has worked hard and gained hardly enough to support a miserable existence.

His wife died during the voyage.

And, as to ourselves, we no longer possess any thing; for Grinselhof and our other lands were mortgaged for more than they were worth.

Besides this, I was forced to borrow from a gentleman of my acquaintance four thousand _francs_ upon my bond.
"When your mother heard of the sacrifices to which I was forced to submit, she made no reproaches; at first she fully approved my conduct.
But very soon we became necessarily subjected to privations under which your mother's strength declined, till, without a sigh or complaint, she began to fade away slowly from earth.

It was a dreadful situation; for, to conceal our ruin and save our ancestral name from contempt, we were forced to part with the last ounce of our silver to pay the interest on our debts.