rtions she would
appeal to his own observation, and the opinion of the physician, who was
then employed in writing a prescription for the cure of her disease.

So saying, she conducted him into the chamber, where he beheld the
hapless virgin stretched upon a sick-bed, panting under the violence of a
distemper too mighty for her weakly frame, her hair dishevelled, and
discomposure in her looks; all the roses of her youth were faded, yet all
the graces of her beauty were not fled. She retained that sweetness and
symmetry, which death itself could not destroy; and though her discourse
was incoherent, her voice was still musical, resembling those feathered
songsters who warble their native wood-notes wild.

Fathom, as upon all other occasions, so on this, did behave like an
inimitable actor; he ran to the bedside, with all the trepidation of a
distracted lover; he fell upon his knees, and, while the tears rolled
down his cheeks, imprinted a thousand kisses on the soft hand of Monimia,
who regarding him with a lack-lustre and undistinguishing eye, "Alas!
Renaldo," said she, "we were born to be unhappy." "Would to Heaven,"
cried Ferdinand, in a transport of grief, "the wretch Renaldo had never
been born! that is the villain who seduced the affection of this
unfortunate woman. I admitted the traitor into my friendship and
confidence, relieved him in his necessities; and, like the ungrateful
viper, he hath stung the very bosom that cherished him in his distress."
Then he proceeded to inform Madam Clement how he had delivered that same
Renaldo from prison, maintained him afterwards at a great expense, and at
length furnished him with a sum of money and proper credentials to
support his interest at the Court of Vienna.

Having finished this detail, he asked the physician's sentiments of his
wife's distemper, and being told that her life was in extreme jeopardy,
begged he would use his utmost endeavours in her behalf, and even made
him a tender of an extraordinary fee, which was refused. He also thanked
Madam Clement for her charity and benevolence towards a stranger, and
took his leave with many polite professions of gratitude and esteem. He
had no sooner quitted the house, than the physician, who was a humane
man, and a foreigner, began to caution the lady against his insinuations,
observing, that some circumstances of the story concerning Renaldo were,
to his particular knowledge, contrary to truth; for that he himself ha