'Having been in my Infancy Contracted to a Man I could never endure,and now by my Parents being likely to be forced to Marry him,is in short,the great occasion of my grief.I fansy'd (continued she)something so Generous in your Countenance,and uncommon in your Behaviour,while you were diverting your self,and rallying me with Expressions of Gallantry,at the Ball,as induced me to hold Conference with you.I now freely confess to you,out of design,That if things should happen as I then feared,and as now they are come to pass,I might rely upon your assistance in a matter of Concern;and in which I would sooner chuse to depend upon a generous Stranger,than any Acquaintance I have.What Mirth and Freedom Ithen put on,were,I can assure you,far distant from my Heart;but Idid violence to my self out of Complaisance to your Temper.--I knew you at the Tilting,and wished you might come off as you did;though I do not doubt,but you would have had as good Success had it been opposite to my Inclinations.--Not to detain you by too tedious a Relation,every day my Friends urged me to the Match they had agreed upon for me,before I was capable of Consenting;at last their importunities grew to that degree,that I found I must either consent,which would make me miserable,or be miserable by perpetually enduring to be baited by my Father,Brother and other Relations.I resolved yesterday,on a suddain to give firm Faith to the Opinion I had conceived of you;and accordingly came in the Evening to request your assistance,in delivering me from my Tormentors,by a safe and private conveyance of me to a Monastery about four Leagues hence,where I have an Aunt who would receive me,and is the only Relation I have averse to the Match.I was surprized at the appearance of some Company I did not expect at your Lodgings;which made me in haste tear a Paper which I had written to you with Directions where to find me,and get speedily away in my Coach to an old Servant's House,whom I acquainted with my purpose:By my Order she provided me of this Habit which I now wear;I ventured to trust my self with her Brother,and resolved to go under his Conduct to the Monastery;he proved to be a Villain,and Pretending to take me a short and private way to the place where he was to take up a Hackney Coach (for that which I came in was broke some where or other with the haste it made to carry me from your Lodging)led me into an old ruined Monastery,where it pleased Heaven,by what Accident I know not,to direct you.I need not tell you how you saved my Life and my Honour,by revenging me with the Death of my Perfidious Guide.This is the summ of my present Condition,bating the apprehensions I am in of being taken by some of my Relations,and forced to a thing so quite contrary to my Inclinations.
Aurelian was confounded at the Relation she had made,and began to fear his own Estate to be more desperate than ever he had imagined.
He made her a very Passionate and Eloquent Speech in behalf of himself (much better than I intend to insert here)and expressed a mighty concern that she should look upon his ardent Affection to be only Rallery or Gallantry.He was very free of his Oaths to confirm the Truth of what he pretended,nor I believe did she doubt it,or at least was unwilling so to do:For I would Caution the Reader by the bye,not to believe every word which she told him,nor that admirable sorrow which she counterfeited to be accurately true.It was indeed truth so cunningly intermingled with Fiction,that it required no less Wit and Presence of Mind than she was endowed with so to acquit her self on the suddain.She had entrusted her self indeed with a Fellow who proved a Villain,to conduct her to a Monastery;but one which was in the Town,and where she intended only to lie concealed for his sake;as the Reader shall understand ere long:For we have another Discovery to make to him,if he have not found it out of himself already.
After Aurelian had said what he was able upon the Subject in hand,with a mournful tone and dejected look,he demanded his Doom.She asked him if he would endeavour to convey her to the Monastery she had told him of?'Your commands,Madam,(replied he)'are Sacred to me;and were they to lay down my Life I would obey them.With that he would have gone out of the Room,to have given order for his Horses to be got ready immediately;but with a Countenance so full of sorrow as moved Compassion in the tender hearted Incognita.'Stay a little Don Hippolito (said she)I fear I shall not be able to undergo the Fatigue of a Journey this Night.--Stay and give me your Advice how I shall conceal my self if I continue to morrow in this Town.
Aurelian could have satisfied her she was not then in a place to avoid discovery:But he must also have told her then the reason of it,viz.whom he was,and who were in quest of him,which he did not think convenient to declare till necessity should urge him;for he feared least her knowledge of those designs which were in agitation between him and Juliana,might deter her more from giving her consent.At last he resolved to try his utmost perswasions to gain her,and told her accordingly,he was afraid she would be disturbed there in the Morning,and he knew no other way (if she had not as great an aversion for him as the Man whom she now endeavour'd to avoid)than by making him happy to make her self secure.He demonstrated to her,-that the disobligation to her Parents would be greater by going to a Monastery,since it was only to avoid a choice which they had made for her,and which she could not have so just a pretence to do till she had made one for her self.
A World of other Arguments he used,which she contradicted as long as she was able,or at least willing.At last she told him,she would consult her Pillow,and in the Morning conclude what was fit to be done.He thought it convenient to leave her to her rest,and having lock'd her up in his Room,went himself to repose upon a Pallat by Signior Claudio.
