o say thus much, that to those
who wish to recover their independence, any masters must be an object of
detestation; and it may be safely foretold that this unprofitable
aversion will not have been corrected before Venice shall have sunk into
the slime of her choked canals.

8.

Watering the tree which bears his Lady's name
With his melodious tears, he gave himself to Fame.
Stanza xxx. lines 8 and 9.

Thanks to the critical acumen of a Scotchman, we now know as little of
Laura as ever.[566] The discoveries of the Abbe de Sade, his triumphs,
his sneers, can no longer instruct or amuse. We must not, however, think
that these memoirs[567] are as much a romance as Belisarius or the
Incas, although we are told so by Dr. Beattie, a great name, but a
little authority.[568] His "labour" has not been in vain,
notwithstanding his "love" has, like most other passions, made him
ridiculous.[569] The hypothesis which overpowered the struggling
Italians, and carried along less interested critics in its current, is
run out. We have another proof that we can never be sure that the
paradox, the most singular, and therefore having the most agreeable and
authentic air, will not give place to the re-established ancient
prejudice.

It seems, then, first, that Laura was born, lived, died, and was buried,
not in Avignon, but in the country. The fountains of the Sorga, the
thickets of Cabrieres, may resume their pretensions, and the exploded
_de la Bastie_ again be heard with complacency. The hypothesis of the
Abbe had no stronger props than the parchment sonnet and medal found on
the skeleton of the wife of Hugo de Sade, and the manuscript note to the
_Virgil_ of Petrarch, now in the Ambrosian library. If these proofs were
both incontestable, the poetry was written, the medal composed, cast,
and deposited within the space of twelve hours: and these deliberate
duties were performed round the carcass of one who died of the plague,
and was hurried to the grave on the day of her death. These documents,
therefore, are too decisive: they prove not the fact, but the forgery.
Either the sonnet or the Virgilian note must be a falsification. The
Abbe cites both as incontestably true; the consequent deduction is
inevitable--they are both evidently false.[570]

Secondly, Laura was never married, and was a haughty virgin rather than
that _tender and prudent_ wife w