g so
to do: For I would Caution the Reader by the bye, not to believe every
word which she told him, nor that admirable sorrow which she
counterfeited to be accurately true. It was indeed truth so cunningly
intermingled with Fiction, that it required no less Wit and Presence of
Mind than she was endowed with so to acquit her self on the suddain. She
had entrusted her self indeed with a Fellow who proved a Villain, to
conduct her to a Monastery; but one which was in the Town, and where she
intended only to lie concealed for his sake; as the Reader shall
understand ere long: For we have another Discovery to make to him, if he
have not found it out of himself already.
After Aurelian had said what he was able upon the Subject in hand, with a
mournful tone and dejected look, he demanded his Doom. She asked him if
he would endeavour to convey her to the Monastery she had told him of?
'Your commands, Madam, (replied he) 'are Sacred to me; and were they to
lay down my Life I would obey them. With that he would have gone out of
the Room, to have given order for his Horses to be got ready immediately;
but with a Countenance so full of sorrow as moved Compassion in the
tender hearted Incognita. 'Stay a little Don Hippolito (said she) I fear
I shall not be able to undergo the Fatigue of a Journey this Night.--Stay
and give me your Advice how I shall conceal my self if I continue to
morrow in this Town. Aurelian could have satisfied her she was not then
in a place to avoid discovery: But he must also have told her then the
reason of it, viz. whom he was, and who were in quest of him, which he
did not think convenient to declare till necessity should urge him; for
he feared least her knowledge of those designs which were in agitation
between him and Juliana, might deter her more from giving her consent. At
last he resolved to try his utmost perswasions to gain her, and told her
accordingly, he was afraid she would be disturbed there in the Morning,
and he knew no other way (if she had not as great an aversion for him as
the Man whom she now endeavour'd to avoid) than by making him happy to
make her self secure. He demonstrated to her,--that the disobligation to
her Parents would be greater by going to a Monastery, since it was only
to avoid a choice which they had made for her, and which she could not
have so just a pretence to do till she had made one for her self.
A World of other Arguments he used, which she contradicted
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