And were you even ready to take me to your bosom, with the same tenderness, the same confidence,—I would not return to it,—But my Carlos," continued she after a pause, "I carry here on my breast your portrait, which my poor brother gave me, and which rendered so easy our first acquaintance. Will you suffer me to keep it?"
Here she pulled it out with a trembling hand, anxiously waiting for my answer, and finding me hesitate for a moment, the overwhelming weight of her feelings made her drop insensibly on the floor. I could not hold out any longer. I raised her with some difficulty, placed her in an arm chair, rung the bell, and somebody coming in, I precipitately quitted the convent.
I now went to Madrid to make application to the Grand Inquisitor for obtaining his absolution from the crime of murder, for which the secular magistrates would no doubt have prosecuted me. I was certainly wrong int concealing the body of the: perfidious Bernardos, but the despotism of my rage would allow me no time for reflection. Had the po-
