The father paused--his eyes sternly fixed on Julia, who, pale and
trembling, could scarcely support herself, and who had no power to
reply. 'I will be merciful, and not just,' resumed he,--'I will soften
the punishment you deserve, and will only deliver you to your father.'
At these dreadful words, Julia bursting into tears, sunk at the feet
of the Abate, to whom she raised her eyes in supplicating
expression, but was unable to speak. He suffered her to remain in this
posture. 'Your duplicity,' he resumed, 'is not the least of your
offences.--Had you relied upon our generosity for forgiveness and
protection, an indulgence might have been granted;--but under the
disguise of virtue you concealed your crimes, and your necessities
were hid beneath the mask of devotion.'
These false aspersions roused in Julia the spirit of indignant virtue;
she arose from her knees with an air of dignity, that struck even the
Abate. 'Holy father,' said she, 'my heart abhors the crime you
mention, and disclaims all union with it. Whatever are my offences,
from the sin of hypocrisy I am at least free; and you will pardon me
if I remind you, that my confidence has already been such, as fully
justifies my claim to the protection I solicit. When I sheltered
myself within these walls, it was to be presumed that they would
protect me from injustice; and with what other term than injustice
would you, Sir, distinguish the conduct of the marquis, if the fear of
his power did not overcome the dictates of truth?'
The Abate felt the full force of this reproof; but disdaining to
appear sensible to it, restrained his resentment. His wounded pride
thus exasperated, and all the malignant passions of his nature thus
called into action, he was prompted to that cruel surrender which he
had never before seriously intended. The offence which Madame de
Menon had unintentionally given his haughty spirit urged him to
retaliate in punishment. He had, therefore, pleased himself with
exciting a terror which he never meant to confirm, and he resolved to
be further solicited for that protection which he had already
determined to grant. But this reproof of Julia touched him where he
was most conscious of defect; and the temporary triumph which he
imagined it afforded her, kindled his resentment into flame. He mused
in his chair, in a fixed attitude.--She saw in his countenance the
deep workings of his mind--she revolved the fate preparing for her,
and stood in trembling anxiety to receive her sentence. The Abate
considered each aggravating circumstance of the marquis's menace, and
each sentence of Julia's speech; and his mind experienced that vice is
not only inconsistent with virtue, but with itself--for to gratify his
malignity, he now discovered that it would be necessary to sacrifice
his pride--since it would be impossible to punish the object of the
first without denying himself the gratification of the latter. This
reflection suspended his mind in a state of torture, and he sat wrapt
in gloomy silence.