Yet that was the life of her
choice, when she had a choice, her grandfathers' wishes notwithstanding.
Will you now wonder, chevalier, that neither our sons nor we can allow
Clementina to take the veil? Can we so reward Laurana for her cruelty?
Especially now, that we suspect the motives for her barbarity? Could I
have thought that my sister Sforza--But what will not love and avarice
do, their powers united to compass the same end; the one reigning in the
bosom of the mother, the other in that of the daughter? Alas! alas! they
have, between them, broken the spirit of my Clementina. The very name of
Laurana gives her terror--So far is she sensible. But, O sir, her
sensibility appears only when she is harshly treated! To tenderness she
had been too much accustomed, to make her think an indulgent treatment
new, or unusual.
I dread, my dear Dr. Bartlett, yet am impatient, to see the unhappy lady.
I wish the general were not to accompany her. I am afraid I shall want
temper, if he forget his. My own heart, when it tells me, that I have
not deserved ill usage, (from my equals and superiors in rank,
especially,) bids me not bear it. I am ashamed to own to you, my
reverend friend, that pride of spirit, which, knowing it to be my fault,
I ought long ago to have subdued.
Make my compliments to every one I love. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves are of the
number.
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