Passion till about the
fourteenth Year of her Empire, when unfortunate _Antonio_ first began
his Court to her. Don _Sebastian_ was really a very desirable Person,
being at that time very beautiful, his Age not exceeding six and twenty,
of a sweet Conversation, very brave, but revengeful and irreconcilable
(like most of his Countrymen) and of an honourable Family. At the Sight
of him _Ardelia_ felt her former Passion renew; which proceeded and
continued with such Violence, that it utterly defac'd the Ideas of
_Antonio_ and _Henrique_. (No Wonder that she who could resolve to
forsake her God for Man, should quit one Lover for another.) In short,
she then only wished that he might love her equally, and then she
doubted not of contriving the Means of their Happiness betwixt 'em. She
had her Wish, and more, if possible; for he lov'd her beyond the Thought
of any other present or future Blessing, and fail'd not to let her know
it, at the second Interview; when he receiv'd the greatest Pleasure he
could have wish'd, next to the Joys of a Bridal Bed: For she confessed
her Love to him, and presently put him upon thinking on the Means of her
Escape; but not finding his Designs so likely to succeed, as those
Measures she had sent to Don _Henrique_, she communicates the very same
to Don _Sebastian_, and agreed with him to make use of them on that very
Night, wherein she had obliged Don _Henrique_ to attempt her
Deliverance: The Hour indeed was different, being determined to be at
eleven. _Elvira_, who was present at the Conference, took the Hint; and
not being willing to disoblige a Brother who had so hazarded his Life in
Vindication of her, either does not, or would not seem to oppose his
Inclinations at that Time: However, when he retired with her to talk
more particularly of his intended Revenge on Don _Henrique_, who he told
her lay somewhere absconded in _Toledo_, and whom he had resolved, as he
assured her, to sacrifice to her injur'd Honour, and his Resentments;
she oppos'd that his vindictive Resolution with all the forcible
Arguments in a virtuous and pious Lady's Capacity, but in vain: so that
immediately upon his Retreat from the Convent, she took the Opportunity
of writing to Don _Henrique_ as follows, the fatal Hour not being then
seven Nights distant.

Don _Henrique_,

_My Brother is now in Town, in Pursuit of your Life; nay more, of
your Mistress, who has consented to make her Escape from the
Convent, at t