This was the severest Stroke of all: It made him compleatly
wretched, and he knew it must have a dreadful Effect on his Wife and
Daughter; he therefore endeavoured to conceal it from them. But the
perpetual Anxiety he was in, together with the Loss of his Appetite
and Want of Rest, soon alarmed his Wife. She found something was
labouring in his Breast, which was concealed from her; and one Night
being disturbed in a Dream, with what was ever in his Thoughts, and
calling out upon his dear Children; she awoke him, and insisted upon
knowing the Cause of his Inquietude. _Nothing, my Dear, nothing,_
says he, _The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be
the Name of the Lord._ This was sufficient to alarm the poor Woman;
she lay till his Spirits were composed, and as she thought asleep,
then stealing out of Bed, got the Keys and opened his Bureau, where
she found the fatal Account. In the Height of her Distractions, she
flew to her Daughter's Room, and waking her with her Shrieks, put the
Letters into her Hands. The young Lady, unable to support this Load of
Misery, fell into a Fit, from which it was thought she never could
have been recovered.
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