Every thing, every thing-- except that I am still dear to you.
_Vice._ Officers, you know your prisoners! remove them, their sight is
painful, (_the prior is conducted away by the guards; Veronica is
leading off when Josepha addresses her_)
_Jose._ Lady-- you felt for me-- you pitied me; I too can pity and feel
for you-- if I have influence, you shall find mercy.
_Ve._ Josepha!-- angel, your prayers-- oh! pray for me: pray for me!
[Exit with guards.
_Venoni._ My joy-- my amazement-- but oh! let me fly to rescue-- follow
me, my friends-- there is a poor old man-- a captive.----
_Vice._ Be calm, dear youth; Lodovico is in safety: in guiding us to
your dungeon, this worthy friar discovered and released him.
_Venoni._ My friend, my preserver! how can I reward----
_Vice._ If my power-- if my whole fortune can recompense----
_Mi._ I have preserved innocence, I have detected vice, I have served
the cause of humanity: I find a sufficient reward in the feelings of my
own heart. But, my good lords, let us quit this scene of horror: suffer
me, my son, to unite your hand with Josepha's at the altar; then
retiring to some more virtuous fraternity----
_Vice._ What, father? after such experience of a convent's interior will
you again----
_Mi._ Ah! forbear, my lord, nor brand a whole profession with disgrace,
because some few of its professors have been faulty-- tis not the habit
but the heart; tis not the name he bears but the principles he has
imbibed, which makes man the blessing or reproach of human nature.
Virtue and vice reside equally in courts and convents; and a heart may
beat as purely and as nobly beneath the monk's scapulary, as beneath the
ermine of the judge, or the breast-plate of the warrior.
_Venoni._ The good friar says right, my friend; then let us scorn to bow
beneath the force of vulgar prejudice, and fold to our hearts as
brethren in one large embrace men of all ranks, all faiths, and all
professions. The monk and the soldier, the protestant and the papist,
the mendicant and the prince; let us believe them all alike to be
virtuous till we know them to be criminal; and engrave on our hearts, as
the first and noblest rule of mortal duty and of human justice, those
blessed words.
"BE TOLERANT!"
* * * * *
* * * *
Errors and Inconsistencies: The Novice
Spellings were changed only when there was an unambiguous error
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