'Nor shall she now,' said the marquis. 'What--when wealth, honor, and
distinction, are laid at my feet, shall they be refused, because a
foolish girl--a very baby, who knows not good from evil, cries, and
says she cannot love! Let me not think of it--My just anger may,
perhaps, out-run discretion, and tempt me to chastise your
folly.--Attend to what I say--accept the duke, or quit this castle for
ever, and wander where you will.' Saying this, he burst away, and
Julia, who had hung weeping upon his knees, fell prostrate upon the
floor. The violence of the fall completed the effect of her distress,
and she fainted. In this state she remained a considerable time. When
she recovered her senses, the recollection of her calamity burst upon
her mind with a force that almost again overwhelmed her. She at length
raised herself from the ground, and moved towards her own apartment,
but had scarcely reached the great gallery, when Hippolitus entered
it. Her trembling limbs would no longer support her; she caught at a
bannister to save herself; and Hippolitus, with all his speed, was
scarcely in time to prevent her falling. The pale distress exhibited
in her countenance terrified him, and he anxiously enquired concerning
it. She could answer him only with her tears, which she found it
impossible to suppress; and gently disengaging herself, tottered to
her closet. Hippolitus followed her to the door, but desisted from
further importunity. He pressed her hand to his lips in tender
silence, and withdrew, surprized and alarmed.
Julia, resigning herself to despair, indulged in solitude the excess
of her grief. A calamity, so dreadful as the present, had never before
presented itself to her imagination. The union proposed would have
been hateful to her, even if she had no prior attachment; what then
must have been her distress, when she had given her heart to him who
deserved all her admiration, and returned all her affection.
The Duke de Luovo was of a character very similar to that of the
marquis. The love of power was his ruling passion;--with him no gentle
or generous sentiment meliorated the harshness of authority, or
directed it to acts of beneficence. He delighted in simple undisguised
tyranny. He had been twice married, and the unfortunate women
subjected to his power, had fallen victims to the slow but corroding
hand of sorrow. He had one son, who some years before had escaped the
tyranny of his father, and had not been since heard of. At the late
festival the duke had seen Julia; and her beauty made so strong an
impression upon him, that he had been induced now to solicit her hand.
The marquis, delighted with the prospect of a connection so flattering
to his favorite passion, readily granted his consent, and immediately
sealed it with a promise.