hich
compensated for the unmanly timidity and morbid infirmity of purpose,
so easily distinguishable in his character and conduct.

In Florian, whose feelings were fortified by reminiscences of a prior
attachment, the progress of sentiment was slower, but not less certain
in its tendency. His silent worship of Angelique had always been
accompanied by doubts and misgivings innumerable. He thought her lost to
him for ever; he felt that all his prospects of professional advancement
were blighted by the disastrous incident at D., and his consequent
flight; and insensibly he yielded to the charm of daily and hourly
intercourse with the bewitching Madelon. The consciousness of her
admiring prepossession, and of his own superior attainments, gave to
him, while conversing with her, a soothing self-possession, an expansion
of thought and feeling, and a glowing facility of elocution, which he
had never yet experienced, and which proved a source of exquisite and
inexhaustible gratification. Her unceasing sympathy and kindness, her
flattering anticipation of his wishes, lulled the anguish of his
recollections, and her sparkling gaiety never failed to rouse his
drooping spirits. He soon learned to estimate at its true value the rare
combination of gentleness and energy which her character displayed;
while her courageous self-possession and unfailing resources under every
difficulty, made him regard her as a woman gifted beyond her sex with
those qualities in which he felt himself most deficient. In short,
feelings of deep and lasting attachment stole insensibly into the hearts
of the youthful pair. Florian had surrendered all his sympathies to
Madelon before he was conscious of the power she had gained over his
happiness, and their mutual affection was betrayed and sealed by word
and pledge before he reflected upon the inevitable consequences. Too
soon, alas! he was awakened from this dream of bliss to a long reality
of terror and anguish. The spell which bound him was broken, and the
scene of enchantment was abruptly changed into a chaos of interminable
dismay and anxiety.

Some weeks after his arrival in this asylum, the headsman had advised
him to prolong his stay until all danger of pursuit had subsided, and
the fears of the fugitive soon gave way to cheering sensations of
security and confidence. To lovers the present is everything: Florian
forgot alike the trying past and the menacing future; weeks and months
flitted past un