The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

TIlE SECRET WITNESS.

57

of complaint. With great difficulty she was made to communicate the knowledge of her situation. Her visitant
then passed into Baxter's apartment. She forced herself
to endure this tremendous scene long enough to discover
that it was hastening to a close. She left the house, and,
hastening to the proper office, engaged the immediate attendance of a hearse. Before the lapse of an hour Baxter's lifeless remains were thrust into a coffin and conveyed away.
Constantia now exerted herself to comfort and encourage the survivors. Her remonstrances incited Sarah to
perform with alacrity the measures which prudence dictates on these occasions. The house was purified by the
admission of air and the sprinkling of vinegar. Constantia applied her own hand to these tasks, and set her
humble friend an example of forethought and activity.
Sarah would not consent to part with her till a late hour
in the evening.
These exertions had like to have been fatally injurious
to Constantia. HIer health was not sufficiently confirmed
to sustain offices so arduous. In the cofse of the night
her fatigue terminated in fever. In the present more
salubrious state of the atmosphere, it assumed no malignant symptoms, and shortly disappeared. During her
indisposition she was attended by Sarah, in whose honest
bosom no sentiment was more lively than gratitude. Constantia, having promised to renew her visit the next day,
had been impatiently expected, and Sarah had come to her
dwelling in the evening, full of foreboding and anxiety,
to ascertain the cause of her delay. Having gained the
bedside of her patroness, no consideration could induce
her to retire from it.
Constantia's curiosity was naturally excited as to the
cause of Baxter's disease. The simple-hearted Sarah
was prolix and minute in the history of her own affairs.
No theme was more congenial to her temper than that
which was now proposed. In spite of redundance and
obscurity in the style of the narrative, Constantia found
in it powerful excitements of her sympathy. The tale,
on its own account, as well as from the connection of
some of its incidents with a subsequent part of these