Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/117

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duced you from your duty. Speak, say you will obey me."

"I dare not deceive my father," replied Ferdinand, with grief and horror in his countenance; "I dare not forfeit my integrity."

"You persist then in your folly, in your crimes," exclaimed the other, in a rage little short of madness; 'then mark my words: The allowance I have given you, I shall resume as long as you resist my will; the creature who has bewitched you I will punish, and if you dare to form any legal sacred connexion with her, my everlasting curses attend you both!"

"Stop, oh! stop," cried the frantic Ferdinand, "she is my wife!" The Count dropped into a chair.

"Wretch! unnatural wretch! what hast thou done?" said he, in a tone of horror, "thou art now an alien to my blood. I recall not what I have denounced; my curses are registered above; go, leave me, see me no more; dare not to enter any mansion where I reside, for I solemnly protest this is