CHAPTER XXX. "She speaks-yet she says nothing; what of that? I am too bold; 'tis not to me she speaks: "AH, Lady!" continued Paulo, "when I entered the apartment where your beauteous mother was sitting, how transcendently lovely did she then appear, although she had been weeping. Her loose neglected flaxen tresses but partially concealed the snowy neck on which they hung; on one arm she had reclined her pale and lovely cheek, and her soft azure eyes were scarce uplifted from their dewy lids when she perceived my approach, which was not with the step and the manner that I had been wont to use, but with a bold and familiar glance I gazed upon her lovely form. I was shortly repelled, however, by a look which seemed to penetrate my inmost soul, as she sternly demanded to know what was the purport of my business there, and whether I had any intelligence to communicate from the Duke my master?-to which I insolently replied, that I neither knew, or cared to know, aught of the Duke or his concerns! "Then what business have you in this apartment, Sir?' uttered she, haughtily and indignantly, or so I thought it; and why do you look at me with such presuming confidence? Did the Duke of Braganza, did my husband, charge you thus to treat his wife in his absence, that you have the effrontery to open the door of my chamber, without so much as thinking it necessary to knock once for permission to enter?— Did my Orlando bid you use me thus? answer me:-or who else has set you on so grossly to insult me?' "Lady,' answered I, somewhat baffled and abashed by the spirited manner in which she had addressed me, 'I am sent hither by authority of my illustrious mistress, and I must have audience with you whether you like it or not the complexion of my fortunes, Lady, is changed; and, with change of fortune, men change their habits and their nature,-as I have now done mine! I am Paulo Michello still; but you no longer behold me the Paulo Michello living in the service of the Duke of Braganza, the dependant of his bounty! In brief, Lady, I am come to be a wooer to you, if you will have me such;-your husband, as you call him, is unworthy of the title, or long ere this he would have returned and claimed the privilege of his possession, of which you make so proud a boast: but men can be false, Lady,—false as women are fair.' "Whether pure astonishment had sealed the lips of the lovely Florentine, or every faculty was now absorbed in terror and dismay, at the perfidious, unmasked villain who appeared before her, I could not at that precise moment determine: but, strange to say, she did not utter one word of reproach, expressive of her wounded or insulted feelings; and, though her soft, celestial, patient countenance was as a dagger to my guilty heart, yet she spake not. "At length I faltered out- Lady, I wait the honor of your commands; the Duchess expects me, and I must shortly attend her, with the result of the conversation that has passed between us.' "By which result neither Paulo Michello nor the Duchess will be much benefited,' said she, in so calm, dignified, and collected a tone and manner, that, hardened villain as I was, I felt confounded and abashed at my own effrontery; while I also felt the consciousness how much superior virtue awes when vice would attempt to shake the firm basis on which it is constructed; and I actually trembled beneath the expression of the beauteous orbs which were now fixed contemptuously on me, as the lovely Agatha addressed me in the following impressive words : "To expect justice and humanity from one who has so basely renounced them, with the aggravated offence of having also betrayed a generous, confiding, and unsuspecting master, would, I know, be a vain hope, even if I were inclined to cherish it. But do not once flatter yourself, Paulo Michello, that I am weak enough tamely to submit to become the instrument of your infamous and cruel designs, because I am a helpless woman at this immediate crisis of my affairs, and placed within the reach of your wicked machinations; believe not that you shall ever succeed or prosper in your evil intentions, or that you shall infect me with fears to which I am a stranger. I am the wife of the Duke of Braganza, his honorable, true, and faithful wife; nor will I ever prove false to my noble Lord: and with thee, thou something worse, or surely less than man!-think'st thou for such a reptile I would basely contaminate the name of my dear and virtuous Lord? No, I will rather perish first! Go to the Duchess, then, and proclaim my marriage with her son, and with it the sentiments of my firm, undaunted mind, which neither you nor she shall ever change. Tell her how far more welcome death will be to me than thy arms, perfidious monster :-tell her that a virtuous woman can freely die, but never live dishonored! But mark me, Paulo Michello! should one spark of honor yet remain unextinguished in that guilty breast, cherish the expiring flame, till it glows again with virtue, before repentance may arrive too late to do you service, and I swear, Paulo Michello, never to betray your treachery to your master.' "And will you swear by Heaven, Lady, to forget the wrong I have now done you, should I be yet faithful to my trust,' exclaimed I, in the most breathless accents, and that to the Duke you never will reveal this circumstance?' "I swear, by Heaven, and all its holy angels, that the Duke shall never be informed of it from the lips of Agatha!' cried she should he even return in this sad state of my tortured feelings, and enquire the cause, he shall never know that Paulo Michello has deceived him!' "I take you on your oath, Lady,' exclaimed I; 'forgive the bold, presuming suit I have offered to your immaculate beauty: encouraged by the Duchess, alas! I have been unwittingly led on to this base encounter. I pray you pardon me, and never more shall Paulo Michello forget his duty to Braganza's bride!' 6 "I have promised, and have I not also sworn?' uttered the beauteous Florentine, though Orlando should return to-night, I will not betray thee.' "On this consolatory assurance of your lovely mother, lady, I quitted the apartment, in which I had so long remained to her an intrusive and a most hateful guest; and, repairing to my own, took a review of my past conduct with horror, and the bitterest thorns of compunction goaded my feelings. Would to Heaven that I had been left to these reflections! but I was destined to become the dupe of the deep, designing, artful and insinuating Dowager, as well as being a second time tempted by the demon avarice: in answer, therefore, to the inquiries that she made as to how I had succeeded with my proffered suit to the fair Florentine, I artfully evaded any particular explanation, in the hope of obtaining some part of the promised reward; and, on my assuring her that I be lieved a little time would conquer the repugnance which the yet inflexible beauty discovered towards me, and that I need not absolutely despair on the first interview I had obtained with her on the subject, the Dowager was so transported by the intelligence, that she presented me with a gift of five thousand pounds, with a promise of five more to be paid down on my actually becoming the husband of the then supposed Agatha Delcrusa. Having thus secured the one half of this ill-gotten wealth, at the expense only of a few dexterous lies, I was unwilling to relinquish the other part of my booty while yet a prospect remained of securing it, by leading the Dowager to imagine that I should obtain the possession of Agatha; requesting, therefore, the favour of my illustrious mis |