'But to ensure your safety, should the veil be your choice, we will
procure a dispensation from the usual forms of noviciation, and a few
days shall confirm your vows.' He ceased to speak; but Julia, agitated
with the most cruel distress, knew not what to reply. 'We grant you
three days to decide upon this matter,' continued he, 'at the
expiration of which, the veil, or the Duke de Luovo, awaits you.'
Julia quitted the closet in mute despair, and repaired to madame, who
could now scarcely offer her the humble benefit of consolation.
Meanwhile the Abate exulted in successful vengeance, and the marquis
smarted beneath the stings of disappointment. The menace of the
former was too seriously alarming to suffer the marquis to prosecute
violent measures; and he had therefore resolved, by opposing avarice
to pride, to soothe the power which he could not subdue. But he was
unwilling to entrust the Abate with a proof of his compliance and
his fears by offering a bribe in a letter, and preferred the more
humiliating, but safer method, of a private interview. His
magnificent offers created a temporary hesitation in the mind of the
Abate, who, secure of his advantage, shewed at first no disposition
to be reconciled, and suffered the marquis to depart in anxious
uncertainty. After maturely deliberating upon the proposals, the pride
of the Abate surmounted his avarice, and he determined to prevail
upon Julia effectually to destroy the hopes of the marquis, by
consecrating her life to religion. Julia passed the night and the next
day in a state of mental torture exceeding all description. The gates
of the monastery beset with guards, and the woods surrounded by the
marquis's people, made escape impossible. From a marriage with the
duke, whose late conduct had confirmed the odious idea which his
character had formerly impressed, her heart recoiled in horror, and to
be immured for life within the walls of a convent, was a fate little
less dreadful.
Yet such was the effect of that sacred love she bore
the memory of Hippolitus, and such her aversion to the duke, that she
soon resolved to adopt the veil. On the following evening she informed
the Abate of her determination. His heart swelled with secret joy;
and even the natural severity of his manner relaxed at the
intelligence. He assured her of his approbation and protection, with a
degree of kindness which he had never before manifested, and told her
the ceremony should be performed on the second day from the present.
Her emotion scarcely suffered her to hear his last words. Now that her
fate was fixed beyond recall, she almost repented of her choice. Her
fancy attached to it a horror not its own; and that evil, which, when
offered to her decision, she had accepted with little hesitation, she
now paused upon in dubious regret; so apt we are to imagine that the
calamity most certain, is also the most intolerable!