A Sicilian Romance

'But to ensure your safety, should the veil be your choice, we will

procure a dispensation from the usual forms of noviciation, and a few

days shall confirm your vows.' He ceased to speak; but Julia, agitated

with the most cruel distress, knew not what to reply. 'We grant you

three days to decide upon this matter,' continued he, 'at the

expiration of which, the veil, or the Duke de Luovo, awaits you.'

Julia quitted the closet in mute despair, and repaired to madame, who

could now scarcely offer her the humble benefit of consolation.

Meanwhile the Abate exulted in successful vengeance, and the marquis

smarted beneath the stings of disappointment. The menace of the

former was too seriously alarming to suffer the marquis to prosecute

violent measures; and he had therefore resolved, by opposing avarice

to pride, to soothe the power which he could not subdue. But he was

unwilling to entrust the Abate with a proof of his compliance and

his fears by offering a bribe in a letter, and preferred the more

humiliating, but safer method, of a private interview. His

magnificent offers created a temporary hesitation in the mind of the

Abate, who, secure of his advantage, shewed at first no disposition

to be reconciled, and suffered the marquis to depart in anxious

uncertainty. After maturely deliberating upon the proposals, the pride

of the Abate surmounted his avarice, and he determined to prevail

upon Julia effectually to destroy the hopes of the marquis, by

consecrating her life to religion. Julia passed the night and the next

day in a state of mental torture exceeding all description. The gates

of the monastery beset with guards, and the woods surrounded by the

marquis's people, made escape impossible. From a marriage with the

duke, whose late conduct had confirmed the odious idea which his

character had formerly impressed, her heart recoiled in horror, and to

be immured for life within the walls of a convent, was a fate little

less dreadful.

Yet such was the effect of that sacred love she bore

the memory of Hippolitus, and such her aversion to the duke, that she

soon resolved to adopt the veil. On the following evening she informed

the Abate of her determination. His heart swelled with secret joy;

and even the natural severity of his manner relaxed at the

intelligence. He assured her of his approbation and protection, with a

degree of kindness which he had never before manifested, and told her

the ceremony should be performed on the second day from the present.

Her emotion scarcely suffered her to hear his last words. Now that her

fate was fixed beyond recall, she almost repented of her choice. Her

fancy attached to it a horror not its own; and that evil, which, when

offered to her decision, she had accepted with little hesitation, she

now paused upon in dubious regret; so apt we are to imagine that the

calamity most certain, is also the most intolerable!