She conducted her scheme with deep dissimulation and patient

perseverance, and, having completely estranged

the affections of the Marquis from his wife, whose gentle goodness and

unimpassioned manners had ceased to please, when contrasted with the

captivations of the Italian, she proceeded to awaken in his mind the

jealousy of pride, for it was no longer that of love, and even pointed

out to him the person, to whom she affirmed the Marchioness had

sacrificed her honour; but Laurentini had first extorted from him a

solemn promise to forbear avenging himself upon his rival. This was

an important part of her plan, for she knew, that, if his desire of

vengeance was restrained towards one party, it would burn more fiercely

towards the other, and he might then, perhaps, be prevailed on to assist

in the horrible act, which would release him from the only barrier, that

with-held him from making her his wife.

The innocent Marchioness, meanwhile, observed, with extreme grief, the

alteration in her husband's manners. He became reserved and thoughtful

in her presence; his conduct was austere, and sometimes even rude; and

he left her, for many hours together, to weep for his unkindness, and to

form plans for the recovery of his affection. His conduct afflicted her

the more, because, in obedience to the command of her father, she had

accepted his hand, though her affections were engaged to another, whose

amiable disposition, she had reason to believe, would have ensured her

happiness. This circumstance Laurentini had discovered, soon after her

arrival in France, and had made ample use of it in assisting her designs

upon the Marquis, to whom she adduced such seeming proof of his wife's

infidelity, that, in the frantic rage of wounded honour, he consented to

destroy his wife. A slow poison was administered, and she fell a victim

to the jealousy and subtlety of Laurentini and to the guilty weakness of

her husband. But the moment of Laurentini's triumph, the moment, to which she had

looked forward for the completion of all her wishes, proved only the

commencement of a suffering, that never left her to her dying hour.

The passion of revenge, which had in part stimulated her to the

commission of this atrocious deed, died, even at the moment when it was

gratified, and left her to the horrors of unavailing pity and remorse,

which would probably have empoisoned all the years she had promised

herself with the Marquis de Villeroi, had her expectations of an

alliance with him been realized. But he, too, had found the moment of

his revenge to be that of remorse, as to himself, and detestation, as

to the partner of his crime; the feeling, which he had mistaken for

conviction, was no more; and he stood astonished, and aghast, that no

proof remained of his wife's infidelity, now that she had suffered the

punishment of guilt. Even when he was informed, that she was dying, he

had felt suddenly and unaccountably reassured of her innocence, nor was

the solemn assurance she made him in her last hour, capable of affording

him a stronger conviction of her blameless conduct.




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