Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 2).djvu/12

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returned to the Castle, and found the Count had not been more successful than myself.—Rage, vexation and fatigue, threw me into a fever, which confined me to my bed for eight days; but though incapable of acting myself, I still sent persons to watch the roads night and day. The fourth day of my confinement, a woman servant entered the room with two letters; "having that morning been to Eugenia's apartment to clean the room, and take the linen from the bed, under the pillow she had found those papers." I hastily snatched them from her hand, and saw one was addressed to me, the other to the Count, the writing Eugenia's. I tore it open, and read the following words:

"All endeavours to discover my retreat will prove fruitless, nor will you ever see me more. Had not the prospect of a deliverance from your power been held out to me, my own hand would have terminated my life. To avoid the completion of a father's malediction, I obeyed and gave you my hand, but I secretly repeated other vows.—-