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.

THE SECRET WITNESS. 177
exact and circumstantial in proportion as she retired
backward from her own age. She knew more of the
siege of Mutina than of that of Lisle; more of the machinations of Catiline and the tumults of Clodius, than
of the prostration of the Bastile and the proscriptions
of Marat.
She listened, therefore, with unspeakable eagerness to
this reciter, who detailed to her, as the occasion suggested, the progress of action and opinion on the theatre
of France and Poland. Conceived and rehearsed as
this was, with the energy and copiousness of one who
sustained a part in the scene, the mind of Constantia
was always kept at the pitch of curiosity and wonder.
But, while this historian described the features, personal deportment, and domestic character of Antoinette,
Mirabeau, and Robespierre, an impenetrable veil was
drawn over her own condition. There was a warmth
and freedom in her details, which bespoke her own coagency in these events, but was unattended by transports of indignation or sorrow, or by pauses of abstraction, such as were likely to occur in one whose hopes and
fears had been intimately blended with public events.
Constantia could not but derive humiliation from comparing her own slender acquirements with those of her
companion. She was sensible that all the differences
between them arose from diversities of situation. She
was eager to discover in what particulars this diversity
consisted. She was for a time withheld, by scruples not
easily explained, from disclosing her wishes. An accident, however, occurred, to remove these impediments.
One evening, this unceremonious visitant discovered
Constantia busily surveying a chart of the Mediterranean Sea. This circumstance led the discourse to the
present state of Syria and Cyprus. Martinette was
copious in her details. Constantia listened for a time;
'and, when a pause ensued, questioned her companion as
to the means she possessed of acquiring so much knowledge. This question was proposed with diffidence, and
prefaced by apologies.
"Instead of being offended by your question," replied
the guest, "I only wonder that it never before occurred