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LODORE.
CHAPTER II.
Settled in some secret nest,
In calm leisure let me rest;
And far off the public stage,
Pass away my silent age.
Seneca.—Marvell's Trans.
Twelve years previous to the opening of this tale, an English gentleman, advanced to middle age, accompanied by an infant daughter, and her attendant, arrived at a settlement in the district of the Illinois in North America. It was at the time when this part of the country first began to be cleared, and a new comer, with some show of property, was considered a welcome acquisition. Still the settlement was too young, and the people were too busy in securing for themselves the necessaries of life, for much attention to be paid to any thing