since I had seen the actual testament, no fraudulent transfer of
the property therein bequeathed could take place without my knowledge
that some fraud had been recurred to. Montreuil knew me well; he knew
that avarice, that pleasure, that ambition, were powerless words with
me, producing no effect and affording no temptation: but he knew that
passion, jealousy, spiritual terrors, were the springs that moved every
part and nerve of my moral being. The two former, then, he now put into
action; the last he held back in reserve. He spoke to me no further upon
the subject he had then at heart; not a word further on the disposition
of the estates: he spoke to me only of Isora and of you; he aroused, by
hint and insinuation, the new sleep into which all those emotions--the
furies of the heart--had been for a moment lulled. He told me he had
lately seen Isora; he dwelt glowingly on her beauty; he commended my
heroism in resigning her to a brother whose love for her was little in
comparison to mine, who had, in reality, never loved _me_,--whose jests
and irony had been levelled no less at myself than at others. He painted
your person and your mind, in contrast to my own, in colors so covertly
depreciating as to irritate more and more that vanity with which
jealousy is so woven, and from which, perhaps (a Titan son of so feeble
a parent), it is born. He hung lingeringly over all the treasure that
you would enjoy and that I--I, the first discoverer, had so nobly and so
generously relinquished.

"Relinquished!" I cried, "no, I was driven from it; I left it not while
a hope of possessing it remained." The priest affected astonishment.
"How! was I sure of that? I had, it is true, wooed Isora; but would
she, even if she had felt no preference for Morton, would she have
surrendered the heir to a princely wealth for the humble love of
the younger son? I did not know women: with them all love was either
wantonness, custom, or pride; it was the last principle that swayed
Isora. Had I sought to enlist it on my side? Not at all. Again, I had
only striven to detach Isora from Morton; had I ever attempted the much
easier task of detaching Morton from Isora? No, never;" and Montreuil
repeated his panegyric on my generous surrender of my rights. I
interrupted him; I had not surrendered: I never would surrender while a
hope remained. But, where was that hope, and how was it to be realized?
After much artful prelude, the priest explained. He prop