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able of resisting the dangerous ordeal of love. But even this almost omnipotent passion she has partly vanquished; for the sentiment, in her, partook of the purity that characterises her so peculiarly; and, though she could not entirely extirpate it, yet it could not pervert her noble nature.

Yes, I now begin to be aware that virtue and passionate love may abide together in the female heart; and that those who, like me, have been doubtful of the existence of the union, only because they had been too stubbornly blind to observe it, may live to discover and deplore the pernicious fallacy of their system. I look back on the days of my early youth with horror, stained with one degrading crime, the consciousness of which has blighted every hope, and rendered torpid every virtue. All my thoughts addressed to the concealment, instead of being directed to the correction, of

errors, how have I strayed from the path of truth and peace! Yes, I cannot disguise from myself that I am despicable; and to you alone, who have been a witness, nay, a partaker, of the sins of my early youth, dare I draw aside the dark veil that shrouds them from others, and relieve my oppressed heart by the disclosure of its torments.

How could I live in intercourse with Augusta for months without discerning the delicacy and purity of her mind! Fool, fool that I was, to imagine that the power of bestowing her hand where I know her heart is placed, would console her for the loss of fame! Many too many women would be so consoled, but she is not of them; and I am sensible, too late, that I have, by my wicked, my inhuman scheme, destroyed her peace of mind for ever.

A letter has just been given to me: its contents have almost made me expire with

horror. Fancy my feelings, Delphine, when I tell you that the artful and vicious man who betrayed me in early youth, and who has avoided me ever since he who, not content with triumphing over my virtue, exposed my infatuation and shame-is now in England!

yes, even here, within a short distance poor, degraded, and desperate. All that Florestan had heard of his ruin is but too true. He has spent the whole of his small fortune, and has exhausted all resources except the infamous one he now adopts, of compelling me to marry him, under pain of disclosing all to my aunt, and to the world. He has ascertained that my aunt is rich, and that I am considered heiress to her wealth. This is his inducement to his present plan; and I know too well of what'

he is capable to doubt his putting his threat into execution. What am I to do? where turn

for support in this fearful dilemma? He says

he will arrive at the post-town nearest this to-morrow; and that, if I do not meet him, he will directly seek my aunt, and inform her of all his rights over me.

Oh, Heavens! what is to become of me? who will, who can, protect me from this unprincipled, ruthless being? How I shudder at the thoughts of beholding him, knowing how wholly I am in his power! I am overpowered by terror, and feel a faintness that compels me to leave this unfinished.

Delphine, I have seen this man, and loathe him as never mortal loathed another.

Yes,

I abhor him and despise myself - oh, how immeasurably!—that I could ever have liked such a wretch. The long years that have elapsed since I knew him, he has evidently passed in a career of vice and profligacy, that has rendered him as hideous and disgusting

as he was once the reverse. His manners, too, have fallen with his fortunes; for they are low and brutal beyond any that I ever witnessed, and he appears to be reduced to the most extreme poverty. Such was his attire, that I trembled at being seen by any of the peasants in the vicinity conversing with him.

We met in a retired lane outside the parkwall-a place of rendezvous that he indicated to me in a note, soon after his arrival, when he had reconnoitred the precincts of this abode. The person who brought his letter told the footman, that he believed it was a petition from a poor foreigner in distress. Luckily I was alone when it was given me; for had my aunt been present, her suspicious eyes would have detected my emotion. I stole to the appointed place like a culprit, and there I found him. Oh, Delphine, had you seen

him! his face bloated and flushed from the

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