collection of their misfortunes—and, indeed, my Lady, we thought ourselves entitled to your best thanks."—
"Circumstanced as I was, what answer could I have made to the vile tools of a mysterious vengeance, after such a declaration? I was silent, and having resolved to keep all my ideas and thoughts to myself, only became their sport, without reserve. It was evident, in whose hands I had fallen, and what I had heard of the mystic Cabal on my nuptial day, now presented itself in stronger colors to my mind. Without being able to dive to the bottom of the sense of this phenomenon, its flight concatenation of results, was enough to corroborate the truth of my conjectures.
"If there was a single resource left, to disentangle myself from their snares, it could only be such an one, as they had not the least suspicion of my meditating. I feigned therefore to become gradually more attentive and yielding to their various insinuations, I seemed, without affectation, to alter my mind, and if I fought solitude, they only
