of this dreadful scene, and have kept my promise to this hour. I soon after was informed, that my unfortunate brother had been enticed to be one of the horrid Cabal, whose barbarous decrees I have never yet ceased to bewail."
Here Elmira concluded the mournful tale.—"Was this," said I to myself, "thy friend Don Pedro, who always attempted to influence thy passions?" I could not help thinking, that he intended to make his wife play the same part with me, which he had made the pretended enamorata act with the unfortunate Emanuel. It was he too, that accompanied me to the hovel in the forest, to deliver up, as it were, his victim with security, and who secretly stole away afterwards, to elude every discovery which chance might have thrown into my way, and which, in case of the least mistake, would certainly not have escaped my penetration. The mystic tenor of every other part of his conduct, as well as the real nature of his relations to Francisca, I resolved to leave to time and more favourable circumstances.
