e, and fear not that thou shalt be without the reward due thee in the
future."

And thereafter she suddenly vanished from my eyes. _Oime!_ wretched me!
I do not for a moment doubt now, after considering the things which
followed, that this one who appeared unto me was not Venus, but rather
Tisiphone, who, doffing from her head the horrid snakes that served it
for hair, and assuming for the while the splendid form of the Goddess of
Love, in this manner lured me with deceitful counsels to that disaster
which at length overwhelmed me. Thus did Juno, but in different fashion,
veiling the radiance of her deity and transforming herself for the
occasion into the exact likeness of her aged nurse, persuaded Semele to
her undoing. Woe is me! my resolve to be so advised was the cause--O
hallowed Modesty! O Chastity, most sacred of all the virtues! sole and
most precious treasure of righteous women!--was the cause, I repeat,
wherefore I drove ye from my bosom. Yet do I venture to pray unto ye for
pardon, and surely the sinner who repents and perseveres in repentance
should in due season obtain your forgiveness.

Although the goddess had disappeared from my sight, my whole soul,
nevertheless, continued to crave her promised delights; and, albeit the
ardor of the passion that vexed my soul deprived me of every other
feeling, one piece of good fortune, for what deserving of mine I know
not, remained to me out of so many that had been lost--namely, the power
of knowing that seldom if ever has a smooth and happy ending been
granted to love, if that love be divulged and blazed abroad. And for
this reason, when influenced by my highest thoughts, I resolved,
although it was a most serious thing to do so, not to set will above
reason in carrying this my desire unto an ending. And assuredly,
although I have often been most violently constrained by divers
accidents to follow certain courses, yet so much grace was conceded to
me that, sustained by my own firmness, I passed through these agonies
without revealing the pangs that tortured me. And in sooth, I have still
resolution enough to continue to follow out this my purpose; so that,
although the things I write are most true, I have so disposed them that
no one, however keen his sagacity, can ever discover who I am, except
him who is as well acquainted with these matters as I, being, indeed,
the occasion of them all. And I implore him, should this little book
ever come into his hands, in the