ed world without a feeling of remorse--but I cannot
harm a woman--and you less than any other of your sex. _She_, like you,
was innocent and beautiful--like you, unfortunate--like _you_," he
added, with agitation, "like you, the victim of Gomez Arias."

"Heavens!" exclaimed Theodora, "what mystery is this? Oh, speak! I am
already but too low sunk in misery, and yet I fain would learn the full
measure of the crimes of him who has undone me."

"It would be a difficult," replied the renegade, "an endless task, to
satisfy your desire; but you may, perhaps, from your own experience,
draw a just inference of his conduct to others. Beauty, innocence, and
youth, and unlimited affection, could not save you from his barbarous
acts; the rule has been the same for those who like you had charms to
captivate his attention, and an unsuspicious, a genuine heart to inhale
the poison of his persuasive tongue. But still the fate of poor Anselma
surpassed in horror her many rivals in misfortune."

"He loved her once," said Theodora despondingly, "and then forsook her,
like me."

"He loved her," darkly returned Bermudo, "with the affection of one, who
centres his whole bliss only in the enjoyment of his selfish and
degenerate passion. But she spurned him; stratagem and force prevailed.
Madness--despair--must I say it? death ensued. Enough--the circumstances
of the horrid tale 'tis needless to relate: I have said thus much to
convince you of the impossibility of my harming a woman whose fate bears
so strong a resemblance to that of my own unfortunate Anselma. Dispel
then your apprehensions, and look upon me _now_ not as a foe, but as
your sole friend and protector."

Theodora gazed on the renegade with mute amazement; the professions of
her lover, and his base desertion, had taught her mistrust: her heart
was no longer ready to believe any pleasing tale, to welcome every
protestation of regard. It was by trusting too implicitly to her
feelings that her ruin had been accomplished, and even in her present
abandonment she considered those feelings as premeditating another
treason. Yet, when she beheld the composure of the renegade, when she
recalled to mind that not even a word had escaped him that could be
distrusted, she was persuaded to listen to his proposals, if not totally
to abide their results. The renegade perceived the state of her mind,
and hastened to hush the whispers of suspicion.

"Think you," said he with firmness, "think