- Put Not Therefore, I Beseech
You, To So Severe A Test That Love And Duty,
To Which You Cannot Have A Greater Claim Than
I A Readiness To Pay?
- Did you command my
life, it is yours:
- I owe it to you, and with it
all that can render it agreeable; but, sir, my
honour, my reputation, must survive when I am
no more; it was the first, and will be the last
bent of my desires. No perils can come in any
degree of competition with those of being deprived
of that, nor any indulgencies of fortune
compensate for the loss of it: - pardon then
this enforced disobedience, and believe it is the
only thing in which I could be guilty of it. -
I very much lament my sister's absence, as I
find by yours she went without your permission:
time and reflection will doubtless bring her to a
more just sense of what she, as well as myself,
ought to have of your goodness to us, and make
her return full of sincere contrition for having
offended you. I should implore your favourable
opinion of her actions in the mean time,
were not all the interest I have in you too little
to apologize for my own behaviour. - All, sir,
I dare to implore is pardon for myself, and that
you will be assured no son, no dependant whatever,
would more rejoice in an opportunity of
testifying his duty, affection, gratitude and submission,
than him who is now constrained by
ties, which I flatter myself you will not hereafter
disapprove, to swerve in some measure
from them, and whose soul and all the faculties
of it are
Entirely devoted to you.
HORATIO."
These dispatches being sent away, he became more composed, and set his
whole mind on his departure, and taking leave of those friends and
acquaintance he had contracted at Leipsic and Alranstadt; the time of
the army marching being fixed in a few days, tho' what rout they were to
take none, except count Piper, general Renchild, count Hoorn, and some
few others of the cabinet council, were made privy to.
CHAP. XIX.
The king of Sweden leaves Saxony, marches into Lithuania, meets with an
instance of Russian brutality, drives the czar out of Grodno, and
pursues him to the Borysthenes. Horatio, with others, is taken prisoner
by the Russians, and carried to Petersburg, where they suffer the
extremest miseries.
The word at length being given, the tents were struck, the trumpets
sounded, and the whole army was immediately in motion. Never was a more
gay and glorious fight; the splendor of their arms, and the richness of
their habits blazed against the sun; but what was yet more pleasing, and
spread greater terror among their enemies, was the chearfulness that sat
on every face, and shewed they followed with the utmost alacrity their
beloved and victorious monarch.
It was in the latter end of September, a season extremely cold in those
parts, that they began their march but hardships were natural to the
king of Sweden's troops; and as they perceived they were going into
Lithuania, a place where their valour had been so well proved against
the invading Muscovites, their cheeks glowed with a fresher red on the
remembrance of their former victories.
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