length difpofe them to liften to his propofal.

Zeluco waited on Madame de Seidlits and Laura the following day; they both manifefted fincere fatisfaction at seeing him. Madame de Seidlits cautioned him, with all the folicitude of friendship, to be very careful of himself till his health fhould be fully reftored; and Laura, impreffed with a sense of obligation, and softened by the dangers in which he had been, behaved with more cordiality than fhe had ever fhewn to him before. He continued to vifit them very frequently, and was always received in the fame manner.

Father Pedro congratulated him on the very friendly reception which he met with, from which he augured an agreeable anfwer when he should next speak to Madame de Seidlits on the fubject of Zeluco's fuit, which he hinted he intended to do very foon; but the fame circumftances which had imparted this confidence to the mind of the Father, revived Zeluco's original hopes

B 3

hopes of obtaining Laura without marriage. He imagined that the proud spirit of both mother and daughter, humbled by misfortune and terrified by the horrors of impending poverty, would in a fhort time acquiefce in the fettlements he determined to make, unclogged with the ceremony he detefted.

He wished not, therefore, that the Father, by a precipitate renewal of the pros pofal of marriage, fhould render it more difficult for him to fucceed upon his own terms, as he expected, though perhaps at a more diftant period.

The wound in his arm was now on the point of healing; but the fears he had un dergone, the medicines he had taken, the regimen he had followed, had weakened him confiderably, giving him alfo an appearance of fickness, which correfponded with the accounts that had been spread of his danger, and enabled him to fupport a delay in the gratification of his defires with a degree of patience which he could

not have displayed had he been in perfect healthao

He begged of Father Pedro, therefore, not to urge his former fuit at prefent, expreffing an apprehenfion of difgufting the ladies by too much importunity; then, talked of his forrow at the thoughts of the diftrefs they were in, wifhed that the Father would prevail on Madame de Seidlits to accept of a fum of money, with which he directly presented him, on the pretence of its coming from a person who fufpected her fituation, but was unknown to Father Pedro and to herself, and was determined to conceal the tranfaction from all the world. ...

© Although Zeluco behaved on this occafion with a good deal of address, spoke with great gentlenefs and in plaufible terms, Father Pedro's penetration pervaded his hypocrify, and he at once faw his motive and drift.

Father Pedro, it must be confeffed, was not a monk of that rigid felf-denial and fublime

B 4

fublime piety that will intitle him, an hundred years after his death, to canonization.

Had Laura been inclined to meet Zeluco on his own terms, very poffibly he would have winked at the connexion, or given her abfolution on easy terms; but his mind revolted at the thought of being acceffary to betraying her befides, the virtues of Madame de Seidlits and her daughter commanded his entire efteem; whereas the money he had from time to time received from Zeluco had not produced a fingle fentiment in his favour. He wished well to both the former, and would have cheerfully ferved them in any thing not attended with great inconveniency to himfelf; but he would not have abftained from a pinch of fnuff when his nofe required it, to have faved the other from the gallows.--For these reasons Father Pedro refufed the money; faying, He was fufficiently acquainted with Madame de Seidlits, to know that fuch an offer would offend her; that as for his own part he had been induced

to

to interfere in this bufinefs, with the fole view of rendering him the most effential service that, in his opinion, one man could do to another, by affifting him in his avowed inclination of marrying one of the moft accomplished, beautiful, and virtuous women in Europe: "But," continued he,

Signor, if you have altered your mind, my interference of course must end here."

To this Zeluco replied, That he was fenfible of what he owed to the Father; that he would ever take the warmest interest in both the ladies; but wifhed not to have his former propofal preffed on them at that particular time."