fe which, wronging none, we so long have led together. O my
beloved, the love of whom alone has entered into my heart, and preserved
my life, must you now be declared my deadly foe, while mine honour is
given to the winds, my body to the dust, and my soul to its everlasting
abode? Is the beauty of the Duchess so exceeding great that, like the
beauty of Circe, it has bewitched and transformed you? Has she turned
you from virtue to vice, from goodness to wickedness, from being a man
to be a beast of prey? O my beloved, though you have failed in your
promise to me, yet will I keep mine to you, and, now that our love has
been revealed, will never see you more. Nevertheless, I cannot live
without your presence, and so I gladly yield to my exceeding sorrow, and
will seek for it no cure either in reason or in medicine. Death alone
shall end it, and death will be sweeter to me than life on earth without
lover, honour or happiness. Neither war nor death has robbed me of my
lover; no sin or fault of mine has robbed me of my honour; neither error
nor demerit of mine has made me lose my joy. 'Tis cruel fate that
has rendered the most favoured of men thankless, and has caused me to
receive the contrary of that which I deserved.

"Ah, my Lady Duchess, what delight it was to you to taunt me with my
little dog! Rejoice, then, in the happiness you owe to me alone; taunt
her who thought by careful concealment and virtuous love to be free from
any taunt. Ah! how those words have bruised my heart! how they have made
me blush for shame and pale for jealousy! Alas, my heart, I feel that
thou art indeed undone! The wicked love that has discovered me burns
thee; jealousy of thee and evil intent towards thee are to thee as ice
and death; while wrath and sorrow do not suffer me to comfort thee.
Alas, poor soul, that in adoring the creature didst forget the Creator,
thou must return into the hands of Him from whom vain love tore thee
away. Have trust, my soul, that thou wilt find in Him a Father kinder
than was the lover for whose sake thou hast so often forgotten Him. O my
God, my Creator, Thou who art the true and perfect love, by whose grace
the love I bore to my beloved has been stained by no blemish save
that of too great an affection, I implore Thee in mercy to receive the
soul-and spirit of one who repents that she has broken thy first and
most just commandment. And, through the merits of Him whose love passeth
all understanding, forgive th