'
O, Lucy! how I wept! How insupportable to me, said Sir Charles, would
have been my reflections, had my conscience told me, that I had been the
wilful cause of the noble Clementina's calamity!
After I had a little recovered, I read to myself the next paragraph,
which related, 'that the cruel Laurana dragged the sweet sufferer by her
gown, from her hiding-place, inveighing against her, threatening her:
she, all patient, resigned, her hands crossed on her bosom, praying for
ercy, not by speech, but by her eyes, which, however, wept not: and
causing her to be carried up to her chamber, there punished her with the
strait waistcoat, as she had threatened.
'Father Marescotti was greatly affected with Laura's relation, as well as
with what he had himself observed: but on his return to Bologna, dreading
to acquaint her mother, for her own sake, with the treatment her
Clementina met with, he only said, he did not quite approve of it, and
advised her not to oppose the young lady's being brought home, if the
bishop and the general came into it: but he laid the whole matter before
the bishop, who wrote to the general to join with him out of hand, to
release their sister from her present bondage: and the general meeting
the bishop on a set day at Milan, for that purpose, the lady was
accordingly released.
'A breach ensued upon it, with Lady Sforza and her daughter; who would
have it, that Clementina was much better for their management.
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