nation. Inform him of his danger; tell him
that his crimes are known; let him fly far and instantly from this spot,
if he desires to avoid the fate which menaced him in Ireland.

"And wilt thou not stay behind?--But shame upon my weakness. I know
not what I would say.--I have done what I purposed. To stay longer, to
expostulate, to beseech, to enumerate the consequences of thy act--what
end can it serve but to blazon thy infamy and embitter our woes? And
yet, O think, think ere it be too late, on the distresses which thy
flight will entail upon us; on the base, grovelling, and atrocious
character of the wretch to whom thou hast sold thy honor. But what
is this? Is not thy effrontery impenetrable, and thy heart thoroughly
cankered? O most specious, and most profligate of women!"

Saying this, he rushed out of the house. I saw him in a few moments
hurrying along the path which led to my brother's. I had no power to
prevent his going, or to recall, or to follow him. The accents I had
heard were calculated to confound and bewilder. I looked around me to
assure myself that the scene was real. I moved that I might banish the
doubt that I was awake. Such enormous imputations from the mouth of
Pleyel! To be stigmatized with the names of wanton and profligate! To
be charged with the sacrifice of honor! with midnight meetings with a
wretch known to be a murderer and thief! with an intention to fly in his
company!

What I had heard was surely the dictate of phrenzy, or it was built
upon some fatal, some incomprehensible mistake. After the horrors of the
night; after undergoing perils so imminent from this man, to be summoned
to an interview like this; to find Pleyel fraught with a belief that,
instead of having chosen death as a refuge from the violence of this
man, I had hugged his baseness to my heart, had sacrificed for him my
purity, my spotless name, my friendships, and my fortune! that even
madness could engender accusations like these was not to be believed.

What evidence could possibly suggest conceptions so wild? After the
unlooked-for interview with Carwin in my chamber, he retired. Could
Pleyel have observed his exit? It was not long after that Pleyel himself
entered. Did he build on this incident, his odious conclusions? Could
the long series of my actions and sentiments grant me no exemption from
suspicions so foul? Was it not more rational to infer that Carwin's
designs had been illicit; that my life had been end