Dorilaus, However, Easily Perceived The Tenderness With Which She Was
Agitated On The Account Of That Young Gentleman, But He
Would not excite
her blushes by taking any notice of it, especially as he found nothing
to condemn in it,
And had observed, throughout the course of her whole
narrative, she had behaved on other occasions with a discretion far
above her years, he was far from wronging her, by suspecting she had
swerved from it in this.
But when he heard the vast journey she had come on foot, he was in the
utmost amazement at her fortitude, and told her he was resolved to keep
her pilgrim's habit as a relique, to preserve to after-ages the memory
of an adventure, which had really something more marvellous in it than
many set down as miracles.
And now having fully gratified his own curiosity in all he wanted to be
informed of, he thought proper to case the impatience she was in to know
the history of her birth, and on what occasion it had been so long
concealed, which he did in these or the like words:
CHAP. XXIV.
The history of Dorilaus and Matilda, with other circumstances very
important to Louisa.
You know, said he, that I am descended of one of the most illustrious
families in England, tho', by some imprudencies on the one side, and
injustice on the other, my claim was set aside, and I deprived of that
title which my ancestors for a long succession of years had enjoyed, so
that the estate I am in possession of, was derived to me in right of my
mother, who was an heiress. It is indeed sufficient to have given me a
pretence to any lady I should have made choice on, and to provide for
what children I might have had by her: but the pride of blood being not
abated in me by being cut off from my birthright, inspired me with an
unconquerable aversion to marriage, since I could not bequeath to my
posterity that dignity I ought to have enjoyed myself: - I resolved
therefore to live single, and that the misfortune of my family should
dye with myself.
In my younger years I went to travel, as well for improvement, as to
alleviate that discontent which was occasioned by the sight of another
in possession of what I thought was my due. - Having made the tour of
Europe, I took France again in my way home: - the gallantry and good
breeding of these people very much attached me to them; but what chiefly
engaged my continuance here much longer than I had done in any other
part, was an acquaintance I had made with a lady called Matilda: she was
of a very good family in England, was sent to a monastry merely for the
sake of well-grounding her in a religion, the free exercise of which is
not allowed at home, and to seclude her from settling her affections on
any other than the person she was destined to by the will of her
parents, and to whom she had been contracted in her infancy: - she was
extremely young, and beautiful as an angel; and the knowledge she was
pre-engaged, could not hinder me from loving her, any more than the
declarations I made in her hearing against marriage, could the grateful
returns she was pleased to make me: - in fine, the mutual inclination we
had for each other, as it rendered us deaf to all suggestions but that
of gratifying it, so it also inspired us with ingenuity to surmount all
the difficulties that were between our wishes and the end of them. - Tho'
a pensioner in a monastry, and very closely observed, by the help of a
confidant she frequently got out, and many nights we passed
together; - till some business relating to my estate at length calling me
away, we were obliged to part, which we could not do without testifying
a great deal of concern on both sides: - mine was truly sincere at that
time, and I have reason to believe her's was no less so; but absence
easily wears out the impressions of youth: as I never expected to see
her any more, I endeavoured not to preserve a remembrance which would
only have given me disquiet, and, to confess the truth, soon forgot both
the pleasure and the pain I had experienced in this, as well as some
other little sallies of my unthinking youth.
Many years passed over without my ever hearing any thing of her; and it
was some months after I received your letter from Aix-la-Chappelle, that
the post brought me one from Ireland: having no correspondence in that
country, I was a little surprized, but much more when I opened it and
found it contained these words:
To DORILAUS.
SIR,
"This comes to make a request, which I
know not if the acquaintance we had
together in the early part of both our lives,
would be sufficient to apologize for the trouble
you must take in complying with it: - permit
me therefore to acquaint you, that I have long
laboured under an indisposition which my physicians
assure me is incurable, and under which
I must inevitably sink in a short time; but
whatever they say, I know it is impossible
for me to leave the world without imparting
to you a secret wholly improper to be entrusted
in a letter, but is of the utmost importance
to those concerned in it, of whom yourself
is the principal: - be assured it regards
your honour, your conscience, your justice, as
well as the eternal peace of her who conjures
you, with the utmost earnestness, to come immediately
on the receipt of this to the castle of
M - - e, in the north of Ireland, where, if
you arrive time enough, you will be surprized,
tho' I flatter myself not disagreeably so, with
the unravelling a most mysterious Event.
Yours, once known by the name of MATILDA,
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