false pretensions by dint of perjury and fraud, which they would have
found it very difficult to elude. She observed, that the physician had
actually despaired of Monimia's life, and it was not till after she
herself was made acquainted with the prognostic, that she wrote the
letter to Renaldo, which she committed to the care of Madam Clement, with
an earnest entreaty, that it should not be sent till after her decease.
But that lady, believing the Count had been certainly abused by his
treacherous confidant, despatched the billet without the knowledge of
Monimia, whose health was restored by the indefatigable care of the
physician, and the sage exhortations of the clergyman, by which she was
reconciled to life. In a word, the villany of Fathom had inspired her
with some faint hope that Renaldo might still be innocent; and that
notion contributed not a little to her cure.

The letter having so effectually answered their warmest hopes, in
bringing back Renaldo such a pattern of constancy and love, the
confederates, in consequence of his enthusiastic sorrow, had planned this
meeting, as the most interesting way of restoring two virtuous lovers to
the arms of each other; for which purpose the good clergyman had pitched
upon his own church, and indulged them with the use of the vestry, in
which they now were presented with a small but elegant collation.

Melvil heard this succinct detail with equal joy and admiration. He
poured forth the dictates of his gratitude to the preservers of his
happiness.--"This church," said he, "shall henceforth possess a double
share of my veneration; this holy man will, I hope, finish the charitable
work he has begun, by tying those bands of our happiness, which nought
but death shall have power to unbind." Then turning to that object which
was the star of his regard, "Do I not overrate," said he, "my interest
with the fair Monimia?" She made no verbal reply; but answered by an
emphatic glance, more eloquent than all the power of rhetoric and speech.
This language, which is universal in the world of love, he perfectly well
understood, and, in token of that faculty, sealed the assent which she
had smiled, with a kiss imprinted on her polished forehead.

In order to dissipate these interesting ideas, which, by being too long
indulged, might have endangered his reason, Madam Clement entreated him
to entertain the company with a detail of what had happened to him in his
last journey to the e