I immediately fought to bring the conversation on another topic, which less affected her. At last the said to me in one of her woeful moments: "Dear Carlos, those hours which afforded me leisure from the beginning of my solitude, have been applied to write out my history, and you will once find it in a little case among the rest of my papers."—From this time, I dreaded nothing so much, as the word that could drop the least hint at the opportunity of informing myself of those secrets.
It behoves me, however, to state here; that although Elmira had written many letters to me to come and join her, they had all been intercepted, probably by the inconceivable influence of that horrid Cabal, of which I am a going to relate another wonderful instance. I never knew that Elmira had a brother, till my sweet little Amados once brought me a ring, which he fetched from one of the rooms above stairs. It was of gold; quite plain; and had the name Emanuel engraved on it. Elmira surprised me looking at it, wrest it with some violence from my hands, kissed
