- How would the world confuse and ridicule the fondness of an
affection so ill placed!
- What would they say when they should hear the
nobly born, the rich, and the accomplished monsieur du Plessis, had
taken for his wife a maid obscurely defended, and with no other dowry
than her virtue! - My very affection for you would, in the general
opinion, lose all its merit, and pass for sordid interest: - I should be
looked upon as the bane of your glory; - as one whose artifices had
ensnared you into a forgetfulness of what you owed to yourself and
family, and be despised and hated by all who have a regard for
you. - This, monsieur, continued she, is what I cannot bear, neither for
your sake nor my own, and entreat you will no farther urge a suit, which
all manner of considerations forbid me to comply with.
The firmness and resolution with which she uttered these words, threw
him into the most violent despair; and here might be seen the difference
between a sincere and counterfeited passion: the one is timid, fearful
of offending, and modest even to its own loss; - the other presuming,
bold, and regardless of the consequences, presses, in spight of
opposition, to its desired point.
Louisa had too much penetration not to make this distinction: she saw
the truth of his affection in his grief, and that awe which deterred him
from expressing what he felt: - she sympathized in all his pains, and for
every sigh his oppressed heart sent forth, her own wept tears of blood;
yet not receding from the resolution she had formed, nothing could be
more truly moving than the scene between them.
At length he ceased to mention marriage, but conjured her to consider
the snares which would be continually laid, by wicked and designing men,
for one so young and beautiful: - that she could go no where without
finding other Bellfleurs; and she might judge, by the danger she had
just now so narrowly escaped, of the probability of being involved again
in the same: - he represented to her, in the most pathetic terms, that
her innocence could have no sure protection but in the arms of a
husband, or the walls of a convent; and on his knees beseeched her, for
the sake of that virtue which she so justly prized, since she would not
accept of him for the one, to permit him to place her in that other only
asylum for a person in her circumstances.
Difficult was it for her to resist an argument, the reason of which she
was so well convinced of, and could offer nothing in contradiction to,
but that she had a certain aversion in her nature to receive any
obligations from a man who had declared himself her lover, and who might
possibly hereafter presume upon the favours he had done her.
It was in vain he complained of her unjust suspicion in this point,
which, to remove, he protested to her that he would leave the choice of
the monastry wholly to herself: that in whatever part she thought would
be most agreeable, he would conduct her; and that, after she was
entered, he would not even attempt to see her thro' the grate, without
having first received her permission for his visit. Not all this was
sufficient to assure her scrupulous delicacy: she remained constant in
her determination; and all he could prevail on her, was leave to attend
her as far as Leghorn, to secure her from any second attempt the
injurious count might possibly make.
After this they entered into some discourse of Melanthe, and whether it
would be proper for Louisa to write her an account of this affair, and
the count's perfidiousness. Monsieur du Plessis said, he thought that
the late usage she had received from that lady, deserved not she should
take any interest in her affairs; but it was not this that hindered
Louisa from doing it: - the remembrance of the kindness she had once been
treated with by her, more than balanced, in her way of thinking, all the
insults that succeeded it; and when she reflected how much Melanthe
loved the count, and that she had already granted him all the favours in
her power, it seemed to her rather an act of cruelty than friendship, to
acquaint her with this ingratitude, and thereby anticipate a misfortune,
which, perhaps, by his artifices and continued dissimulation, might be
for a long time concealed: therefore, for this reason, she exacted a
promise from monsieur du Plessis not to make any noise of this affair
at his return to Venice, unless the count, by some rash and precipitate
behaviour, should enforce him to it.
This injunction discovered so forgiving a sweetness of disposition in
the person who made it, that monsieur du Plessis could not refrain
testifying his admiration by the most passionate exclamations; in which
perhaps he had continued longer, had not the eyes of the fair object
discovered a certain languishment, which reminded him, he should be
wanting in the respect he professed, to detain her any longer from that
repose, which, seemed necessary, after the extraordinary hurry of
spirits she had sustained; therefore having taken his leave of her for
that night, retired to a chamber he had ordered to be got ready for him,
as did she to that where she had been so lately disturbed: but all those
who are in the least capable of any idea of those emotions, which
agitated the minds of both these amiable persons, will believe neither
of them slept much that night.
CHAP. XVI.
The Innkeepers scruples oblige Louisa to write to Melanthe: her
behavior on the discovery of the count's falshood. Louisa changes her
resolution and goes to Bolognia.
Monsieur du Plessis, having found it impossible to dissuade Louisa from
going to England, now bent his whole thoughts to perform his promise of
conducting her to Leghorn, in the most commodious manner he could;
accordingly he rose very early, and calling for the man of the house,
desired he would provide a handsome post chaise, and if he knew any
fellows whose integrity might be relied on, he thought necessary to hire
two such, who, furnished with fire-arms, might serve as a guard against
any attack the count might take it into his head to make.
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