- Think
not, therefore, that I will perform my promise, unless you give me
yours, not to be so covetous of fame as to court dangers, nor, in too
eager a pursuit of glory, to lose the remembrance of what you owe
to love.
Oh thou divinest softness! cried he, be assured I will put nothing to
the venture that might take me from Louisa! - Your kindness, my angel,
has shewed me the value of life, and almost made a coward of your
lover: - no farther will I go than the duties of my post oblige me, and
that honour, which to forfeit, would render me unworthy of your care.
Louisa now found herself so much at ease, in having discovered a secret
she had so long laboured with, and suffered an infinity of pain in the
concealing of, that nothing could be more chearful than her looks and
behaviour. He, on the other hand, was all rapture, yet did it not make
him in the least forgetful of the rules he had prescribed himself, or
give her modesty any room to repent the confession she had made in
favour of his passion: - the conversation between them was all made up of
innocence and love; and every hour they passed together, rendered them
still dearer to each other.
Monsieur du Plessis having thus gained the point his soul was let on,
began to consider in what part of Italy it would be best to place his
dear Louisa: as Bolognia was a free country, under the jurisdiction of
the Pope, he thought she would there be the least subject to alarms, on
account of the army's continual marches and countermarches thro' most
other parts of Italy. He therefore got a post-chaise, and by easy
journeys conducted her thither; and having made an agreement with the
lady abbess of the Augustines, she was welcomed into the convent by the
holy sisterhood with all imaginable good-nature and politeness.
It would be endless to recite the farewels of these equally sincere, and
passionate lovers; so I shall only say that never any parting was more
truly touching; and the grief, which both of them endured, was only
alleviated by the confidence they had in each other's affection, and the
mutual promises of communicating the assurances of persevering in it, by
letters as often as opportunity would permit.
Melanthe being recovered of the indisposition of her body, tho' not of
her mind, was informed of every particular of her perfidious lover's
conduct as he had quitted Venice before she did her chamber, was obliged
to bear the load of discontent her too easy belief had brought upon her,
without even the poor ease of venting it in reproaches on him.
