He said that if they
supposed that we were all burned in the house when it was fired, it
would give them a fair opportunity of calling you an impostor and
treating you accordingly, and that there were so many anxious to have
a gift of the property, that you would have thousands of people
compassing your death. He said that your making known yourself and
claiming your property would be the very conduct that your enemies
would wish you to follow, and would be attended with most fatal
consequences; for he said, to prove that you were Edward Beverley, you
must declare that I and your sisters were in the forest with him, and
this disclosure would put the whole family in the power of their
bitterest enemies; and what would become of your sisters, it would be
impossible to say, but most likely they would be put under the charge
of some Puritan family who would have a pleasure in ill-treating and
humiliating the daughters of such a man as Colonel Beverley."
"And why did he not tell me all this?"
"He was afraid to say any thing to you; he thought that you would be
so mad at the idea of this injustice that you would do something rash:
and he said, I pray every night that my otherwise useless life may be
spared; for, were I to die, I know that Edward would quit the forest.
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