Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/125

This page needs to be proofread.

the castle: when settled in the manner you wish, the Earl and the infant are to follow.'


"I attempted not to oppose the scheme of the monk; any scheme, indeed, which flattered me with a hope of again enjoying the company of my Geraldine without interruption, was to me acceptable. 'Tis unnecessary to say the anxiety with which she longed for my release from confinement—a confinement which she endeavoured to soften by the most unremitting attentions. Oh! with what agony have I gazed upon this matchless woman in my dreary dungeon! pale, weeping, emaciated, sinking with horror, yet trying to conceal it! Oh! surely the wretch extended upon the rack could not have felt greater tortures than I at those moments experienced.

"The period now arrived for making me a father: my Geraldine did not come near me one entire day, and my heart throbbed with tumultuous fears on her account. The monk came at night; with an eagerness