e're any thing was known of the retreat of the Nun with whom afterwards it was thought that Silvia might be At last she was upon her return homewards full of confusion and discontent telling every where as she went to all the people she met with the lamentable story of Silvia and the ill success of her labour in so tedious a Journey Sometimes her Gentleman-Usher 6 did perform that Office whilst she took some Rest when an unexpected and unlookt for Adventure accrewing to so many others gave the Marqueeze all manner of satisfaction The Countess of Englesac not failing to send to Thoulouse as the Old President had fore-seen and the Person she sent shewing an Order from the Queen that Silvia should be taken and shut up wheresoever she should be found It would not have been safe for Silvia to balance or waver any longer betwixt the offers that Birague had made and falling into the disgrace that threatned her She had accepted of them and was gone to Bourdeaux under the conduct of my Lady Pratt a Kins-woman of Birague with an intention to stay for him there whilst the Lady took care of some business she had in that Parliament Silvia was afterwards to trust her self upon his word into Birague's hands and so go to Paris where she resolved to put her self into a Cloyster of her own accord the very next day after that of her arrival What does your Highness think happened then The Lady Pratt and Silvia went to Lodge at Bourdeaux just at the very same place where the Marqueeze of Sevil had took her Lodgings the day before Silvia did see her A certain je ne scay quoy did strike into the minds of both at the first sight And whether it was an effect of sympathy betwixt her that was the scope of Adventures and she that did aim at them or that a more secret spring did move them both From that moment they begun to look and wonder at one another and to be desirous of knowing more each of the other Silvia told it the Lady Pratt who found yet that they had some resemblance Both Ladies having those dispositions to a correspondence at last resolved upon a visit The Lady who did use as hath been said to tell or get her Gentleman to relate her story to every one she met who had the meen of Illustrious Strangers as Silvia and her Guide left them at night her Servant to inform them of what she was Judge you Madam what was Silvia's wonder and amazement when she heard her name in that Relation and when the Gentleman added that the Marqueeze was come expresly from Brussels to adopt her and carry her away into Flanders and that she would give half of her Estate to know where Silvia was At the first she thought her self discovered and could not imagine what should be the reason of that Ceremony with which they came coldly to speak to her of her self without it were for to make sport and play with her a little before they did shew the Order they had to stop her To be short Silvia not knowing as yet the true Character of the spirit of that Lady could see nothing in that occurrence that did look natural and ingenuous She had thereupon the worst night that ever she past in all her life And for all the hopes that the Lady Pratt would have given her who made a better Judgment of it she could not keep her self from trembling at the thoughts of the friend of Madam Englesac till it was day 'T is true the excess of her trouble was somewhat alay'd the day after when the Marqueeze came to render them a second visit which was as soon as she was dress'd My Lady Pratt who certainly hath a very gallant wit begun to dive into the humour 8 of so extraordinary a Person And after many questions she thought fit to return her one story for another and to let her see that Silvia was the very same person of whom she had so tender and generous a compassion For my Lady Pratt had a fancy as it might very well be that the Relation of the misfortunes of Silvia which was made to the Marqueeze by St. Estienne had inspired into that merciful Lady a Motherly love towards her In effect a greater joy could not be imagined in the World than was her joy when she heard Silvia's name and that manner of finding her or rather lighting upon her by so great a chance endearing her still the more to that Noble Lady her transport was so great as that they could not be parted for a long while and Silvia was like to have left her life for joy in her first embraces Two dayes after Silvia did resolve to make use of that Adventure and not to stay for the Marquis of Birague who out of the spight that he took at it lost in time the remembrance of Silvia's Charms and renew'd his Friendship with the Widdow Moliere Though some people may blame him for that yet Silvia her self did not But rather said that the Marquis was not the first man who being much in Love or else taking himself to be so after an ill success with the subject of his desire had sought for some satisfaction elsewhere Silvia did thank the Heaven for a succour so unexpected and so seasonable and necessary a favour And left Bourdeaux few dayes after with much more content and less fear than she had come to it The Marqueeze did bestow a whole World of Commendations and caresses on her by the way as they went and gave her such tokens of an earnest and pressing tenderness that at the last she could not forbear to look upon her as upon one that was her true Mother Yet she did not like Silvia should call her so But told her that her face would not give consent to a truth which was acknowledged by the heart And really the former of these two had till then for above five and twenty years preserv'd it self in such a flower of Youth as rendred the quality of a Mother inconsistent with so much of Youth and Beauty Thus Silvia was oblig'd to keep within the name of Sister wherewith she was content and thought her self too much honoured At last they came to Paris and there they staid till after the magnificent Entry of their most Christian Majesties In a space of time so considerable and with such a Sister spent in Paris whither in that conjuncture the curiosity of the shew had drawn the eyes of strangers from all the parts of Europe Your Highness will easily conceive that there might have happened to Silvia many things worth the mentioning But whatsoever happened she was not concern'd in it All went to the Marqueeze of Sevil of whom she had desired that she might be seen but of few people till they should come to Brussels I must except only that a Friend of the Duke of Guyse coming in a disguise to see her did offer
with many protestations to make her a Sovereign Princess if she would That the next day after she refused to take at his hand a pair of Pendents of great value which he would have presented her with and that she did chuse rather to uphold the unfortunate Love of her banished Englesac than give way to a man that made her so fine proffers Besides this nothing of extraordinary did happen unto Silvia in her passage through France I need not name that Gallant 9 of Silvia's Madam your Highness knows very well who I mean and that he resolved afterwards to be reveng'd of her by rendering himself to a young Lady that did not prove so scrupulous as Silvia A moneth after she came within sight of the walls of Brussels her new Sister carried her in as if it had been in a kind of triumph She was there for above a fortnight the subject of an hundred Relations of Adventures every one made by the Marqueeze her self in choice words all the gallant and complying People of the Court 10 did recieve with respect and faith the Reasons that she was pleased to give for adopting of Silvia to her Heir Some did exaggerate unto her the likeness of their persons the more to shew the justice of her action but I cannot well say whether this did please her as much as the rest To be short Silvia Madam was there two years in the midst of the Spanish Courtship and Gallantry But lest I should prove troublesome to your Highness by too long a reading and that Silvia may also take a little breath I leave the Relation of what befel her there of most remarkable and of the rest of her Adventures for the next occasion that she shall have of writing to your Highness I am Your Highnesses most Humble and most Obedient Servant H. S. D. M. Notes on the first Part. a THe Memories I have chus'd rather to call this the Adventures than History Relation or Memories as the French Title is because I see that in the whole the Writer of this Relation does chiefly insist upon extraordinary things such as are termed Adventures and does not follow every particular passage of the Life as the Memories are wont to do Every body knows that Adventure in Romances and even in common language is taken for the unexpected good or bad success in any affair The Adventures of five Hours are full of that Yet some are of opinion that Adventure has not been long a very common English word in this sense in which it is French properly as what they call Dire la bonne Aventure is in English To tell some body His good Fortune But it is more in fashion to say Memories than Adventures and the mode in speaking right or wrong as well as in dresses is a Tyrant that will be obey'd b Silvia In the alterations that I have made as for example in this particular of speaking of Silvia as of the third person whereas the French makes her speak in the first all along I should not need to justifie my self nor give you any account of what I do if I would but desire you to put your self to the trouble of suspending your judgment till you have gone through the Book For then I am sure you will find that I have some reason on my side yet I must entreat you in this occasion to undergo that penance if you reade this with the spirit of a Critick Else I hope you will find it as smooth every whit to say Silvia did Silvia said as I did or I spoke thus Some indeed will have it that when you reade any thing that is very pleasant as for example the burning of the Castle and Silvia's being carried in a swoon out of the House in the Arms of Birague her being in the Closet with Englesac It is more pleasant still to have it in the first person by reason of an application and a certain interim that the Reader takes in it But when the case is altered and that Silvia is lockt up in another Closet with the Old Countess or guarded in the Cloyster or stript of the Prince of Salmes his Clothes as you shall see in the second part Then I believe some had rather it were She than I. 'T is sometimes your fear and sometimes your pleasure that rules you 't were hard to serve them both at once I have took care that you might not be offended Do your self your best to be pleased c Lin. 13. In the first place I have omitted here of purpose two or three lines of unnecessary complements to her Highness d It would be easie c. Here I have quite alter'd the thing The French sayes If I would borrow the lustre of some Romantick Heroina There might be found men in the World as some are found already that would labour to countenance the fable of her pedigree and by that render her true story more dark and more doubtful Silvia aims at perswading her Highness of the truth of her being the Duke of Kendale's Heir and I desire to do the best I can to divert you e Her pretty carriage The French hath Mes petites fassons That 's very good French but the English would not be so if one should say My little fashions Thus the French say Il a assez bonne fasson He is well enough behaved Vous faites bien des fassons vous faites trop de fassons Whereof the English is You make too much Ceremony Thus you see how French and English fashions will differ sometimes f A Financier The King's Treasure and Revenues in French are called Finances which was the Old word for all manner of money and more especially for Tribute-money from the word Finer to pay from whence the English Fine From the word Finances they are call'd Financiers that are either Treasurers Controllers Intendents Super-intendents or Farmers of the King's Customes Rights Demain c. as Moliere was in the Province of Languedoc g The Marquis de Birague I find it easier and better English too to let alone the proper names of persons and even those that are used in France to distinguish the Rank and condition of people than to alter them Take it therefore for granted that I will do so for the most part Only excepting Englesac who being the Heroe of this Story I have thought fit to bestow on him the English Title of Earl h 'T is like her Husband c. That has been added and the rest of the story doth justifie it to be true It makes me remember a most witty passage in the Joconde of la Fontaine which runs thus Tous deux dormoient dans cet abord Joconde Voulout les envoyer dormir en l'autre monde Mais cependant il n'en fit rien Et mon advis est qu'il fit bien Le moins de bruit que lon peut faire En telle affaire Est le plus feur de la moitiè Soit par
sporting with Fortune who plai'd the wag with me should extricate my self chargeable with so few suspitions and I say so few Madam because they imagined and that not without cause that the absolute necessity of concealing my self had engaged me to be prudent as well as my innate vertue and permitted me at the most onely to make other women to miscarry Besides the major part of the Flemish Ladies I say the most rigid did not look upon me with a more evil Eye They did not so much as open their Mouth but onely to bemoan my Misfortunes Nay I am apt to believe that to plead my Justification throughly I put some of them in the way to justifie my former proceedings for the Countess du Cardonnoy did as much five or six days after my arrival and fled in Man's Apparel from her Husband's house who Treated her too inhumanely You may possibly have heard all the particulars of that Story for the Lady took Sanctuary in your Highnesses Countrey Yet I did not procure my Dower without a Suit at Law with my Husband's Heir who was his Nephew and called Meneza also besides it had proved an intricate business when he grew Amorous and which would have continued a long time e're I could have accomplished it if a Brother of this Meneza who was Governour of several places in West India under the King of Spain had not been so audacious as to declare himself King This News coming luckily to the Marquiss of Castel-Rodrigo with Orders to secure all the Relations of this new Monarque the good Gentleman was taken into custody which tended somewhat to the advantage or at least expedition of this curious Enterprize and this was all that I met with in this Country As for the Earl of Englesac he was not so happy in Languedoc The Marquiss de Birague who was resolved not to lose his pretentions was very industrious from time to time to inform himself of all News He was not ignorant of my good or bad Fortune He knew that I was taken away by violence and suspected the Author of it He understood that my Husband was dead and I know not by what means he had discovered that the Earl and I had promised Marriage probably 't was by his friend Monsieur de la Frette who was told it at Brussels But at length to break the neck of all our designes he saw him no sooner arrived but he put it in the head of Madam his Mother to marry him with a She-Cousin of his Birague by name The person was Illustrious and the name of Birague correspondent Her Estate great for she was an Heiress and the Wit and Beauty of the Lady was much greater which rendred her not onely worthy of the Alliance of the Countess of Englesac but of a Prince himself so that I had no mean Rivaless The Earl soon understood the Stratagem which was the more intricate because the Marquiss did revenge himself on him by all the apparent tokens of highest esteem and that in effect that Marriage had proved a kinde of Fortune to him if without the enjoyment of me there could be any for that faithful Lover Besides as passionate as he was for me he wanted not good Conduct he rais'd this storm onely feignedly He was not so great an Heretick as some are who make it an Article of their Creed that when a Man is amorous of a Woman he is prohibited to play the Counterfeit gentilely with others and that he must grossly offend them all to make trial of his Fidelity Besides he was not a man that could do a publick injury to a young and fair person by a denial And on the other hand he could not do it without extreamly provoking his Mother who was a severe Lady What was his last resolution think you To see his new Mistriss and to make his Amours to her he behaved himself herein as many true-hearted men do who judge it no great crime to dissemble with Ladies what risque soever he runs by that means falling in love with them and all this in expectation of an opportunity to break off with them handsomely He believing also that it was not necessary for him to afflict me by giving me to understand that he was obliged to have recourse to his dissimulation he wrote nothing to me about it which occasioned a great confusion Birague the most experienc'd Lover in the world and the most perplexing Rival two qualities inherent in him which are no more to be disputed than that of a brave and accomplish'd Gentleman For in truth he is such as I Characterize him to be he has a Nobler Spirit than all the Heroes in History put them together He is one of the most Complaisant Gentlemen in the whole Universe when he is not unfortunate in his Love and truely I shall not be disturb'd if he should hear that I do him this Justice to publish his rare Qualities to the end that he may the better excuse the Complaints that I shall make of him in this insuing Story Birague I say who knew that de la Frette at Brussels held a general Correspondence of Intelligence by Letters with the Ladies of Montpellier and with some others of his Neighbours did not fail to make them write to this Gentleman about the Marriage which was in agitation La Frette who frequently visited the Marchioness of Sevil who had the goodness to flatter her self that it was upon her own account acquainted him with this Novel then he communicated it to me very cunningly and with a designe the more malicious because he thought that would disturb me and revenge himself of me for my cruelties I speak thus Madam because he was as yet one in the Catalogue of my Lovers and that my Malevolent Stars had such an Influence as to perswade him as well as many others that I must not be seen without being beloved or at least without being told so You may pretty well guess what I did then divine understanding this news which I did not suspect the Ladies of Montpellier to have a hand in besides that it was not barely invented yet for all that 't was somewhat irksome to me at first to perswade my self that it was so but at last my Capricio joyning with my Misfortune I was so offended with the Earl that without any farther examination of matters I desisted altogether from writing to him The Marchioness of Sevil who was so fond as to disclose all her Secrets to her dearly beloved Monsieur de la Frette went also to compleat my Misfortune and made him her Confident of this effect of my Choler and he looked upon it as an happy occasion to supply the Earl's place in my Affection if he could redouble the causes of my Defiance of him He intercepted and suppressed some Letters he sent to me which probably might have undeceiv'd me and wherein he acquainted me that my Silence was death to him and I really believing that
not believe at first that he said truth he was naturally addicted to Raillery and did affect it to his reproving me to the end as I think that I might esteem it the better for that I set my self a laughing and I told him that I was not so easily deceiv'd but as he said nothing but what was too true and at last we can distinguish Truth from Raillery I began to believe him and never was more astonished nor incensed Yet I knew not how to quarrel with the Chevalier Du Buisson I was unwilling to expose the Earl D'Eschapelles besides I knew farther that those Gentlemen that succeed in their designes take a pride in passionate and high Quarrels and that if I should engage with the Chevalier Du Buisson it would prove an Obligation rather than a Punishment Whereupon I resolved to jeer him in publique and thus I performed it I was one day in the Kings Garden with a Country-Lady of Quality who lodged in the same House with me and who brought me to this Promenade Many of our Acquaintance were there also and among the rest the two men that I was just now speaking of They came both and accosted us and I no sooner saw the Chevalier Du Buisson near me but stopping very nimbly To the purpose Monsieur le Chevalier said I pray put me in minde when I am at home to tell you that I love you I have deferred the manifestation of it too long and I had saved you many a false Story if I had considered on it and declared it to you before now This To the purpose made them break out into excessive laughter because it was to no purpose at all The Chevalier seem'd very much perplexed and I to increase it the more pursued What are you resolved then to be cruel looking upon him tenderly Ha! Monsieur le Chevalier don't take upon you that Resolution this would kill me absolutely 'T is sufficient that I love you without loving you ineffectually Believe me Sir Cruelty doth not well become your Sex and I love you so much that you cannot without Ingratitude refuse to love me a little I said all this with such an envious Accent that the Chevalier was quite out of countenance He would fain say somewhat and asked very gravely what ground I had for that Raillery but to his mischance the Earl D'Eschapelles looked upon him at that very instant and he saw somewhat I cannot tell what that was so full of Drollery in his very Countenance that he disengaged himself and retreated in a great confusion Your Highness may well think that they that remained there did not spare him in the least He lov'd to Droll naturally and whether they were charitable to him or that the Report of him was true they said I was not the first Woman whose Galant he falsely published himself to be All persons were ravish'd to see a man of his name thus toss'd in a Blanket and there was no kind of Jeer but was thrown upon him He understood the major part of them and took a very pleasant course to repulse them He pretended to understand my Discourse verbally and told them that talk'd with him concerning me that we were at some variance because he could not finde in his heart to love me I confess she is well shaped he further added and that she hath also a diverting Wit but every man knows his own business best a man cannot love all the world and a man must needs have a great stock of Love to become amorous of all that deserve it I did but laugh at this Discourse and they that were inform'd of the truth of that Story did so likewise but all people knew it not and there were some persons so weak as to publish it abroad that I doated on the Chevalier Du Buisson and could not gain his Affection Nay I don't know whether they did not make me act some desperate thing thereupon For the Death of a fine Woman who arrived here the last Winter had brought it in fashion and perhaps they have honoured me so far as to believe me dying by the Charms of this ingrateful person These Tales reached the Ears of a Gentlewoman who as your Highness shall understand did not hear them indifferently It was a pretended Prudent Woman who had deceived some good souls and as honest persons judge freely of others by themselves she was looked upon as an extraordinary good Woman and was generally so reputed She was very High-minded and you could hear nothing in her Quarters but the severe Remonstrances she made to all Women and she favoured me with some of them Do you judge Madam whether she made choice of a proper time when I had newly learn'd an Intrigue of Love between her self and du Buisson above a year before I smiled at the juncture of time and having a minde to make it my divertisement I said Being so Charitable and Virtuous a Lady methinks you have a strong Inclination to judge amiss of your Neighbours I have been more favourable to you and whatever they have told me concerning du Buisson and your self I would never believe a word of it You would have laughed heartily Madam if you had but seen how discomposed this Woman was when she heard her Lover named She was at a loss and in a great confusion but soon recovered her self and reassuming her severe look told me she was sufficiently known and feared not those Calumnies for that they would return upon the Heads of their Authors They that told me the Story knew it very well and I did not think my self obliged to disguise it I omitted not one Circumstance and I put my counterfeit Prudent Woman into so high a Passion of anger that she could dissemble it no longer She call'd me Ill-bred Detracting Woman and I know not how many more Names posting away in a fury out of my house and sware that I should repent I ever had offended her I did but laugh at her Menaces and made Monsieur de Lionne too laugh heartily when I told him of our Conversation But I was a Fool to make so slight of this business we must not sport with such kinde of persons and I learned soon after to my own cost that a Quarrel with them is not a Laughing business I told your Highness that this person was esteemed a very Vertuous Woman though they wronged her in so doing as you may finde but in the mean time those that she had infected with this errour were powerful persons and embarqued hood-wink'd in her Quarrel She perswaded them that I led a dissolute Life and that she had reason to upbraid me therewith She accused me of having used her injuriously which I did not so much as dream of and without doubt intermixing some piece of irreverence towards that which merits our Respect she stir'd them up so highly against me that thinking to do well they became the very Instruments of her Revenge
forsook it when they could live happily and if by any turn which she did not foresee I could accomplish my business I would have the less desire to retreat to a Convent Methinks Madam that she told me true and rightly to consider all things I should rather be in love with what Madam de Seville left me than my Retirement but this Gift was become very uncertain and the Asylum that they offered me was a present Refuge In fine I accepted it and it would be a hard matter to quit it if Fortune should prove more favourable The Coach of Madam the Abbess arrived according to her expectation and we went together to Cologne for Madam I had dismiss'd all my Retinue assoon as I resolved to follow her advice and onely kept with me Merinvil We travelled not the shortest way the Abbess had some friends in the Canonesses Colledge that she had a minde to see in her passage and who expected her coming with impatience We stay'd there some time and without doubt your Highness will be well pleased to know what we did and I Madam am resolved to tell you but this Relation requires me to take a little breath and I beseech you to grant me that liberty I have written a long time already and I should fear disobliging the Audience with which your Highness honours me if I should tire her with too prolix a Narrative Your Highness most humble and most obedient Servant H. S. D. M. THE ADVENTURES AND MEMOIRES OF Henrietta Sylvia Moliere PART the VI. ARe you not almost tired out Madam to hear me make such Complaints against Fortune I am weary my self and methinks I do not use to remember them so much nor so often But Madam I must confess that she did treat me with great Cruelty and that one cannot be more implunged in Troubles than I was at Modave when I received that Letter from the Earl of Marsin I saw all my Hopes proved abortive Births the Alliance of my Enemies with the Governour of the Low-Countreys made me dread some violence that would be offer'd me and if I must confess all my weakness to you I looked upon the necessity of my retiring to the Convent I was going into as a new mischief Not because that I did not really love my Abbess and that in any place but a Cloister I should have thought my self happy to have spent my days with her but the word Cloister startled me and I had not yet forgot the Troubles that I went thorough in my antient Convent nor could I beat it out of mind but that I should always meet with as many in all the Convents that ever I should go into Yet I was foolish to nourish such Conceits Fortune us'd me more courteously than I thought of and I must acknowledge that I never prosper'd better than when I follow'd the advice of the Abbess But Madam I must relate all this to you in order and begin according to my promise with the Adventures of our Journey First of all it was much longer than we judg'd it to be for we were but yet at Maubeuge which our Abbess took in her way to see some of her Friends when she received the News of the Disorders at Cologne which your Highness is not ignorant of and knows also how that the Inhabitants of that City denyed the Elector entrance within their Gates who is also Prince of Liege and depended upon the Power of the French King who had promis'd him Recruits and resolv'd to force them open This began a War in the Borders of Cologne which made approaches dangerous for such persons as we were and our Abbess was forced to stay at Maubeuge till all these Troubles were somewhat appeas'd she was much afflicted at this stay and whatever I could say to perswade her that she ought to extend her Permission to Travel as far as she could she made me answer that she had business at home and nothing could fall out more vexatious than to be so long from thence I loved her well enough to sympathize with her like a true Friend in all her Afflictions but as for this Madam I must confess that I was but very indifferently concerned for as I told your Highness I went to Cologne with regret and the sojournning at Maubeuge began to be full of Divertisement Madam You know the famous Colledges in Flanders and without doubt understand that the Canonesses who compose them make no Vows against Marriage and admit of Conversation with modest Galantry as if they were in the most splendid Court in the World They write to them Notes and Amorous Verses and they answer them if they think it convenient they are visited as if they inhabited their own Houses and receive their Visits in the Halls or Gardens where they are observed by none but Ladies as Sociable as Vertuous In truth all things are managed here with a prospect of Marriage and the Quality of the Husband is most remarkable But as oftentimes Marriages are propounded and not accomplished there are many lawful Addresses which in their consequences become simple Galantries and differ only from an Amorous Intrigue but by the Intention of which every one passes his Sentence according to his Phantasie One of the Ladies of Maubeuge met with such another Adventure as this and when we came thither it was the general Discourse of the place I will relate it to your Highness because I believe it may divertise you besides Fortune has given me such a share therein that I cannot tell you the History of my Life without a word or two of it by the by Your Highness hath beyond all question heard talk of one called Don Antonio of Corduba who had some Command over the Troops which the King of Spain maintained in Flanders and was made Prisoner of War at the Campagne of the Isle He was very much in Love with the Canoness I mention and there was a stop to the Articles of their Marriage when the War was declar'd between France and Spain I know not whether the Marquiss of Castel-Rodorigo who was then Governour of Flanders did believe that time of War ought not to be a time of Rejoycing and that a Married-man would Husband his Life better than a Batchelor or whether some other whimsie possessed him which the Lovers never heard of but he gave Don Antonio to understand that he would oblige him by deferring the Consummation of his Nuptials till the Campagne was over and this Desire was cloathed in such Language as would admit of no denial This retarding of the Match was very grievous to two persons that were agreed that loved each other very passionately and desired a long while the compleating of their Espousals but they must be patient for the Governours of Flanders are like so many Petty Kings as to Authority and as in case of Marriages one obstacle seldom comes unaccompanied so not only Don Antonio was taken Prisoner as I told your
she said that at last she did yield to the perseverance of both these Lovers That she was now in balance her Daughter being gone and that she was much troubled she did not give her time to determine that business But Madam she might say and do what she would the Lover still was Amorous of his Mistriss and if he were grown desperate to see himself thus betray'd yet it was a tender Despair and not a brutish and vindicative Resentment Two moneths compleat were elapsed in this manner during which time our new-married Gentlewoman who was not for all this the Wife of her Husband did so feelingly represent unto him the remorse that an honest man exposeth himself to when he exerciseth violence upon a Woman's Inclinations and that he abuseth a power that is not lawfully given him that he conceived a kind of horrour within himself for the action he had done and resolved to make reparation for it by all possible means The new-married Man was as I acquainted your Highness a kind of tractable Youth and well enough principled who demonstrated more Obedience than Malice in all these Transactions His Father-in-Law proposed this Cheat to him and he acted it without prying into the consequences that might follow but when he saw apparently that he should make a person very unhappy and lead his life with a woman from whom he could expect nothing but Complaints and Reproaches he freely set his hand to the rupture of the Marriage and leading his Wife into a Convent whereof one of his Aunts was Abbess and she her self became Abbess afterwards they parted the best friends in the world This Retreat made a great noise throughout the whole Countrey where 't was transacted the cause was at last known and the Lover making haste to clear up the truth no sooner understood the innocence of his Mistris but thought to bring her back with him and at last to conclude that Marriage which had been so often crossed But she had an insuperable reluctancy to see that she had two Husbands at once he might talk if he would and say that he did not believe her to be Wife to the first and that he would remember that Adventure only to enhance her estimation with him She said that all the world would not be of his opinion and continuing firm in her Resolution of making her self a Nun they converted their Love into such innocent and endeared Friendship that it cannot be too much admir'd One day they would have married the man I am talking of and the Religious Woman newly entred who judged this Match might be advantageous advis'd him to accept of it I shall see you then with less scruple said she for I shall never possess your whole heart And though mine be replete with none but innocent desires and that I believe yours are the same Methinks an honest Wife and one that should love you well would better suit with this Innocence and this is a Caution we should do well to give one another You have a sufficient one in the Character of your Soul Madam said he and in that that you have been able to imprint upon my esteem of you I look upon you with admiration which permits me not to love you like another woman and judge you Madam if it be not with justice that I make such a difference between you and others I have found you tender not weak You have seen your self basely betrayed without Despair You have quitted one Husband and he ne'er complains of your Conduct you have driven one Lover into Despair and yet he cannot reproach you in the least and by a Priviledge granted from Heaven to you onely you are a Wife Lover and Nun without failing in any of your Duties How can I know you so well and suffer any vacant place in my Heart for another Woman to supply Madam don't ordain me to marry an honest person and one that could love without doubt would complain of her Choice and in the humour I am in now I should look upon my self as very unhappy if I should not make may Wife absolutely happy This was the delicate and passionate Gentleman that was wounded at the siege of Cologne and that I found the poor Abbess drown'd in the Tears he had so well merited when I came to acquaint her with my last Adventure She was so pleased herewith that she made a Truce with her Grief for a small time to give ear to it And as my Stars will create me Lovers and Suiters everywhere she gave me Relation for Relation and told me that Don Pedro was also grown in Love with me I perceived no such thing and I did not believe the Abbess when she told me this news But Madam I could not by any means question it afterward for as she went for my Aunt and that he believed I was committed to her Tutelage he addressed himself to her discovered his Amours assuring her that he had but an Honest and Lawful Designe This did not take much with me for in the humour I was in at that time I did as much detest a Lover under the name of a Husband as under any other form But I thought I stood in need of all the world and feared some dreadful effects of our Marquiss his Resentment if he came to discover the cheating trick that his Heart had play'd him Therefore I treated his Rival more civilly than I should have done if I had followed my own Sentiments and as that did somewhat confine my Spirit and did not willingly admit of Courtiers or else did divertise my self by turning what they said into Ridicule I often revenged my self of this constraint by the Questions that I put on my part and by the Person that I made him represent He was engaged very deeply in many of my particular Concerns and told me all the ways that he made use of to deprive me of the Requests of the Marchioness of Sevil. This put me upon it to ask him sometime or other some news of my own and you would have laughed Madam sufficiently had you but heard how I persecuted him on this Subject He knew nothing of them as your Highness may imagine but I pretended that he did and that it was out of mistrust or defiance that he would not acquaint me therewith He would not let me continue long in that opinion and giving me a relation of the first Adventure that he could call to minde he put me in thoughts of the most pleasant things in the world I remember that one day he made me walk in Man's Apparel in I know not how many Towns in Italy and gave me several Adventures which are known to befal a fair Lady of great Quality for whom certainly I could not be mistaken He told me one among the rest which was very pleasant and would agree with me well enough if I were detained in a Convent where I should give my self over to wearisomness and tire the