He went on with the Priest, while Hippolito saw Leonora come forward,
only accompanied by her Woman. She was in an undress, and by reason of
a Melancholy visible in her Face, more Careless than usual in her
Attire, which he thought added as much as was possible to the abundance
of her Charms. He had not much Time to Contemplate this Beauteous
Vision, for she soon passed into the Garden of the Convent, leaving him
Confounded with Love, Admiration, Joy, Hope, Fear, and all the Train of
Passions, which seize upon Men in his Condition, all at once. He was so
teazed with this Variety of Torment, that he never missed the Two Hours
that had slipped away during his Automachy and Intestine Conflict.
Leonora’s Return settled his Spirits, at least united them, and he had
now no other Thought but how he should present himself before her. When
she calling her Woman, bid her bolt the Garden Door on the Inside, that
she might not be Surpriz’d by her Father, if he returned through the
Convent, which done, she ordered her to bring down her Lute, and leave
her to her self in the Garden.
All this Hippolito saw and heard to his inexpressible Content, yet had
he much to do to smother his Joy, and hinder it from taking a Vent,
which would have ruined the only Opportunity of his Life. Leonora
withdrew into an Arbour so near him, that he could distinctly hear her
if she Played or Sung: Having tuned her Lute, with a Voice soft as the
Breath of Angels, she flung to it this following Air:
I.
Ah! Whither, whither shall I fly,
A poor unhappy Maid;
To hopeless Love and Misery
By my own Heart betray’d?
Not by Alexis Eyes undone,
Nor by his Charming Faithless Tongue,
Or any Practis’d Art;
Such real Ills may hope a Cure,
But the sad Pains which I endure
Proceed from fansied Smart.
II.
’Twas Fancy gave Alexis Charms,
Ere I beheld his Face:
Kind Fancy (then) could fold our Arms,
And form a soft Embrace.
But since I’ve seen the real Swain,
And try’d to fancy him again,
I’m by my Fancy taught,
Though ’tis a Bliss no Tongue can tell,
To have Alexis, yet ’tis Hell
To have him but in Thought.
The Song ended grieved Hippolito that it was so soon ended; and in the
Ecstacy he was then rapt, I believe he would have been satisfied to
have expired with it. He could not help Flattering himself, (though at
the same Time he checked his own Vanity) that he was the Person meant
in the Song. While he was indulging which thought, to his happy
Astonishment, he heard it encouraged by these Words:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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