Adequate To Their Late Grief Was Their Satisfaction At This Joyful
News:
- Horatio was transported above his companions, and threw himself
at the feet of the fair intelligencer; but she desired
They would all of
them moderate their contentment so far as to hinder the guards, who had
the care of them, from perceiving it, because, said she, it might not
only draw on yourselves worse treatment, but also render me suspected of
being against the interest of a court, on which my fate has reduced me
to become a dependant.
Horatio, as well as the others, assured her he would take care to manage
the felicity she had bestowed upon them, so as not to be any way
prejudicial to her; and she took her leave, promising to be with them
again in a few days, and bring them farther information, a courier from
the camp, she said, being expected every hour.
But while this compassionate lady was pleasing herself, by giving all
the ease in her power to the distressed, the cruel Mattakesa was
plotting her destruction. - She had several of her kindred, and a great
many acquaintance in the army, who were in considerable posts, to all of
whom she exclaimed against the loose behaviour, as she termed it, of
Edelia, and represented her charities to the prisoners as the effects of
a wanton inclination: - this she doubted not but would come to prince
Menzikoff's ears, and perhaps incense him enough to cause her to be
privately made away with; for as she imagined nothing less than the most
amorous intercourse between her and Horatio, she thought it unadvisable
to declare the passion she had for him, till a rival so formidable, by
the advantages she had over her in youth and beauty, should be removed.
This base woman therefore impatiently waited the arrival of the next
courier, to find how far her stratagem had succeeded; and the moment she
heard he had delivered his dispatches, flew to the apartment of Edella,
in hopes of being informed of what she so much desired to know.
She was not altogether deceived in her expectations: she found that lady
drowned in tears, with a letter lying open before her; and on her
enquiring, with a shew of the utmost concern, the motives of her grief,
the other, who looked on her as her real friend, replied, alas!
Mattakesa, I have cruel enemies; I cannot guess for what cause, for
willingly I never gave offence to any one; - but see, continued she, how
barbarously they have abused my innocence, and represented actions
which, heaven knows, were influenced only by charity and compassion as
the worst of crimes! with these words she gave her the letter which she
had just received from the prince,
Mattakesa took it with a greedy pleasure, and found it contained these
lines:
To EDELLA.
Madam,
"I left you in a place, furnished, as I thought,
with every thing necessary for your satisfaction;
but I find I was mistaken in your constitution,
and that there was something wanting,
which, rather than not possess, you must have
recourse to a prison to procure:
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