_Philander_, while he was undressing, being alone with _Brilliard_, began to discourse of _Sylvia_, and to take some care of letting her know, he was arrived at _Brussels_; and for her convoy thither. _Brilliard_, who even yet retained some unaccountable hope, as lovers do, of one day being happy with that fair one; and believing he could not be so, with so much felicity, while she was in the hands of _Octavio_ as those of _Philander_, would never tell his lord his sentiments of her conduct, nor of her love to _Octavio_, and those other passages that had occurred in _Holland_: he only cried, he believed she might be overcome, being left to herself and by the merits and good fashion of _Octavio_; but would not give his master an absolute fear, or any account of truth, that he might live with her again, if possible, as before; and that she might hold herself so obliged to him for silence in these affairs, as might one day render him happy. These were the unweighed reasons he gave for deluding his lord into a kind opinion to the fickle maid: but ever when he named _Sylvia_, _Philander_ could perceive his blushes rise, and from them believed there was something behind in his thought, which he had a mind to know: he therefore pressed him to the last degree,--and cried--’Come--confess to me, _Brilliard_, the reason of your blushes: I know you are a lover, and I was content to suffer you my rival, knowing your respect to me.’ This, though he spoke smiling, raised a greater confusion in _Brilliard_’. heart. ‘I own, my lord,’ said he, ’.hat I have, in spite of that respect, and all the force of my soul, had the daring to love her whom you loved; but still the consideration of my obligations to your lordship surmounted that saucy flame, notwithstanding all the encouragement of your inconstancy, and the advantage of the rage it put Sylvia in against you.’ ‘How,’ cried _Philander_, ‘does _Sylvia_ know then of my falseness, and is it certain that _Octavio_ has betrayed me to her?’ With that _Brilliard_ was forced to advance, and with a design of some revenge upon _Octavio_, (who, he hoped, would be challenged by his lord, where one, or both might fall in the rencounter, and leave him master of his hopes) he told him all that had passed between them, all but real possession, which he only imagined, but laid the whole weight on _Octavio_, making _Sylvia_ act but as an incensed woman, purely out of high revenge and resentment of so great an injury as was done her love. He farther told him, how, in the extravagancy of her rage, she had resolved to marry _Octavio_, and how he prevented it by making a public declaration she was his wife already; and for which _Octavio_ procured the _States_ to put him in prison; but by an accident that happened to the uncle of _Octavio_, for which he was forced to fly, the _States_ released him, when he came to his lord: ‘How,’ cried _Philander_, ‘and is the traitor _Octavio_ fled from _Holland_, and