don me to my miserable fate."

No doubt I ought to have done so, and I would have done it if the
consciousness of what was due to my own interest had been stronger than
my feeling of pity. But her tears! I have often said it, and those
amongst my readers who have experienced it, must be of the same opinion;
there is nothing on earth more irresistible than two beautiful eyes
shedding tears, when the owner of those eyes is handsome, honest, and
unhappy. I found myself physically unable to send her away.

"My poor girl," I said at last, "when daylight comes, and that will not
be long, for it is past midnight, what do you intend to do?"

"I must leave the palace," she replied, sobbing. "In this disguise no one
can recognize me; I will leave Rome, and I will walk straight before me
until I fall on the ground, dying with grief and fatigue."

With these words she fell on the floor. She was choking; I could see her
face turn blue; I was in the greatest distress.

I took off her neck-band, unlaced her stays under the abbe's dress, I
threw cold water in her face, and I finally succeeded in bringing her
back to consciousness.

The night was extremely cold, and there was no fire in my room. I advised
her to get into my bed, promising to respect her.

"Alas! reverend sir, pity is the only feeling with which I can now
inspire anyone."

And, to speak the truth I was too deeply moved, and, at the same time,
too full of anxiety, to leave room in me for any desire. Having induced
her to go to bed, and her extreme weakness preventing her from doing
anything for herself, I undressed her and put her to bed, thus proving
once more that compassion will silence the most imperious requirements of
nature, in spite of all the charms which would, under other
circumstances, excite to the highest degree the senses of a man. I lay
down near her in my clothes, and woke her at day-break. Her strength was
somewhat restored, she dressed herself alone, and I left my room, telling
her to keep quiet until my return. I intended to proceed to her father's
house, and to solicit her pardon, but, having perceived some
suspicious-looking men loitering about the palace, I thought it wise to
alter my mind, and went to a coffeehouse.

I soon ascertained that a spy was watching my movements at a distance;
but I did not appear to notice him, and having taken some chocolate and
stored a few biscuits in my pocket, I returned towards the palace,
apparently with