and Learning that
will atone sufficiently for all those Faults you mention: A fine Soul is
infinitely to be preferr'd to a fine Body; this decays, but that's
eternal; and Age that ruins one, refines the other.' Tho' possibly
_Atlante_ thought as ill of the Count as her Sister, yet in Respect to
him, she would not own it.

_Atlante_ was now arriv'd to her thirteenth Year, when her Beauty, which
every Day increas'd, became the Discourse of the whole Town, which had
already gain'd her as many Lovers as had beheld her; for none saw her
without languishing for her, or at least, but what were in very great
Admiration of her. Every body talk'd of the young _Atlante_, and all the
Noblemen, who had Sons (knowing the Smallness of her Fortune, and the
Lustre of her Beauty) would send them, for fear of their being charm'd
with her Beauty, either to some other part of the World, or exhorted
them, by way of Precaution, to keep out of her Sight. Old _Bellyaurd_
was one of those wise Parents; and timely Prevention, as he thought, of
_Rinaldo's_ falling in Love with _Atlante_, perhaps was the Occasion of
his being so: He had before heard of _Atlante_, and of her Beauty, yet
it had made no Impressions on his Heart; but his Father no sooner forbid
him Loving, than he felt a new Desire tormenting him, of seeing this
lovely and dangerous young Person: he wonders at his unaccountable Pain,
which daily sollicits him within, to go where he may behold this Beauty;
of whom he frames a thousand Ideas, all such as were most agreeable to
him; but then upbraids his Fancy for not forming her half so delicate as
she was; and longs yet more to see her, to know how near she approaches
to the Picture he has drawn of her in his Mind: and tho' he knew she
liv'd the next House to him, yet he knew also she was kept within like a
vow'd _Nun_, or with the Severity of a _Spaniard_. And tho' he had a
Chamber, which had a jutting Window, that look'd just upon the Door of
Monsieur _De Pais_, and that he would watch many Hours at a time, in
hope to see them go out, yet he could never get a Glimpse of her; yet he
heard she often frequented the Church of _our Lady_. Thither then young
_Rinaldo_ resolv'd to go, and did so two or three Mornings; in which
time, to his unspeakable Grief, he saw no Beauty appear that charm'd
him; and yet he fancy'd that _Atlante_ was there, and that he had seen
her; that some one of those young Ladies that he saw in the Church was
she, t