arms, he cried, ‘Be false, be cruel, and deceitful; yet still I must, I am compelled to adore you----’ This being spoken in so hearty and resolved a tone, from a man of whose heart she was so sure, and knew to be generous, gave her a little courage--and like sinking men she catches at all that presents her any hope of escaping. She resolves by discovering the whole truth to save that last stake, his heart, though she could pretend to no more; and taking the fainting lover by the hand, she leads him to the couch: ‘Well,’ said she, ‘_Octavio_, you are too generous to be imposed on in any thing, and therefore I will tell you my heart without reserve as absolutely as to heaven itself, if I were interceding my last peace there.’ She begged a thousand pardons of him for having concealed any part of her story from him, but she could no longer be guilty of that crime, to a man for whom she had so perfect a passion; and as she spoke she embraced him with an irresistible softness that wholly charmed him: she reconciles him with every touch, and sighs on his bosom a thousand grateful vows and excuses for her fault, while he weeps his love, and almost expires in her arms; she is not able to see his passion and his grief, and tells him she will do all things for his repose. ‘Ah, _Sylvia_’ sighed he,’.alk not of my repose, when you confess yourself wife to one and mistress to another, in either of which I have alas no part: ah, what is reserved for the unfortunate _Octavio_, when two happy lovers divide the treasure of his soul? Yet tell me truth, because it will look like love; shew me that excellent virtue so rarely found in all your fickle sex. O! tell me truth, and let me know how much my heart can bear before it break with love; and yet, perhaps, to hear thee speak to me, with that insinuating dear voice of thine, may save me from the terror of thy words; and though each make a wound, their very accents have a balm to heal! O quickly pour it then into my listening soul, and I will be silent as over-ravished lovers, whom joys have charmed to tender sighs and pantings.’ At this, embracing her anew, he let fall a shower of tears upon her bosom, and sighing, cried--’Now I attend thy story’. she then began anew the repetition of the loves between herself and _Philander_, which she slightly ran over, because he had already heard every circumstance of it, both from herself and _Philander_; till she arrived to that part of it where she left _Bellfont_, her father’s house: ‘Thus far,’ said she, ‘you have had a faithful relation; and I was no sooner missed by my parents, but you may imagine the diligent search that would be made, both by _Foscario_, whom I was to have married the next day, and my tender parents; but all search, all _hue-and-cries_ were vain; at last, they put me into the weekly _Gazette_, describing me to the very features of my face, my hair, my breast, my stature, youth, and beauty,