s of her matrimonial
establishment, takes care also to guard against all unseemly
consequences of this privilege; and in return for such convenient
facilities of wrong exacts rigidly an observance of all the appearances
of right. Accordingly, the open step of deserting the husband for the
lover instead of being considered, as in England, but a sign and sequel
of transgression, takes rank, in Italian morality, as the main
transgression itself; and being an offence, too, rendered wholly
unnecessary by the latitude otherwise enjoyed, becomes, from its rare
occurrence, no less monstrous than odious.

The proposition, therefore, of her noble friend seemed to the young
Contessa little less than sacrilege, and the agitation of her mind,
between the horrors of such a step, and her eager readiness to give up
all and every thing for him she adored, was depicted most strongly in
her answer to the proposal. In a subsequent letter, too, the romantic
girl even proposed, as a means of escaping the ignominy of an elopement,
that she should, like another Juliet, "pass for dead,"--assuring him
that there were many easy ways of effecting such a deception.

[Footnote 41: "During my illness," says Madame Guiccioli, in her
recollections of this period, "he was for ever near me, paying me the
most amiable attentions, and when I became convalescent he was
constantly at my side. In society, at the theatre, riding, walking, he
never was absent from me. Being deprived at that time of his books, his
horses, and all that occupied him at Venice, I begged him to gratify me
by writing something on the subject of Dante, and, with his usual
facility and rapidity, he composed his 'Prophecy.'"--"Durante la mia
malattia L.B. era sempre presso di me, prestandomi le piu sensibili
cure, e quando passai allo stato di convalescenza egli era sempre al mio
fianco;--e in societa, e al teatro, e cavalcando, e passeggiando egli
non si allontanava mai da me. In quel' epoca essendo egli privo de' suoi
libri, e de' suoi cavalli, e di tuttocio che lo occupava in Venezia io
lo pregai di volersi occupare per me scrivendo qualche cosa sul Dante;
ed egli colla usata sua facilita e rapidita scrisse la sua Profezia."]

* * * * *

LETTER 335. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, August 1. 1819.

[Address your Answer to Venice, however.]

"Don't be alarmed. You will see me defend myself gaily--that is, if
I happen to be in spirits