He took notice of this to Laurana--O Father,
said she, we are in the right way, I assure you: when we had her first,
her chevalier, and an interview with him, were ever in her mouth; but now
she is in such order, that she never speaks a word of him. But what,
asked the compassionate Father, must she have suffered, to be brought to
this?--Don't you, Father, trouble yourself about that, replied the cruel
Laurana: the doctors have given their opinion, that some severity was
necessary. It is all for her good.
'The poor lady expressed herself to him, with earnestness, after the
veil; a subject on which, it seems, they indulged her; urging, that the
only way to secure her health of mind, if it could be restored, was to
yield to her wishes. Lady Sforza said, that it was not a point that she
herself would press; but it was her opinion, that her family sinned in
opposing a divine dedication; and, perhaps, their daughter's malady might
be a judgment upon them for it.'
The father, in his letter to Mrs. Beaumont, ascribes to Lady Sforza
self-interested motives for her conduct; to Laurana, envy, on account of
Lady Clementina's superior qualities: but nobody, he says, till now,
doubted Laurana's love of her.'
Father Marescotti then gives a shocking instance of the barbarous
Laurana's treatment of the noble sufferer--All for her good--Wretch! how
my heart rises against her! Her servant Laura, under pretence of
confessing to her Bologna father, in tears, acquainted him with it.
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