"That day is probably as accursed for me as for you! When I learnt the treachery of Raphael, I felt, as I told you, both rejoiced and incensed; but my first impulse was to avenge the slight shewn to you, and without an instant's delay, I proceeded to lay Raphael's vanity low, by ridiculing his idea of breaking the news he considered so afflicting, to you, by degrees, and assuring him you had long since imitated, if not anticipated, his inconstancy, by becoming, almost upon your first arrival at Florence, the acknowledged mistress of Charles de Brévannes." "Yet Inès herself had written you to the contrary!" "True; still she asserted that appearances generally were against you, and that public opinion unanimously pronounced you guilty of the charge. I only intended to inflict a severe wound on the self-love and vanity of Raphael. My expectations were, however, exceeded. Such is the overweening pride of man, that even this perfidious traitor, who had so unhesitatingly sacrificed you to his capricious fancy, became perfectly furious at the idea of having been himself deceived. I applied fresh irritation to his mortified feelings, and worked upon his offended vanity till I wrung from his outraged self-importance that which love would never have urged him to. He departed with Osorio for Venice, breathing threats of revenge and fury for your feigned falsehood! And the very being who, believing himself assured of your heart's warmest affections, had but a short time since ruthlessly and pitilessly trampled your love beneath his feet, and remorselessly left you to pine and die in anguish at his desertion, became all at once influenced by his former wild and ungovernable passion, directly he found himself on the point of losing you, and being rejected for another! You know the rest, and how deeply his error was increased by the infamous intervention of De Brévannes, who slew him not, until he had first persuaded him of your infidelity." "Heavenly Father! can such crimes be?" "I told you I would substantiate the perjury of Raphael. In the first place, you will be abundantly convinced by the reading of a letter addressed to yourself, and consigned by Raphael to my care when at Venice, in which he openly speaks of his approaching marriage with the young Greek. After the duel, Osorio wrote to me, begging I would suppress the letter altogether, no doubt wishing to avenge his friend by throwing the whole blame on your shoulders, by making it appear that you alone had broken your faith, while Raphael had never departed from the affection breathed forth in his last billet to you." "But wherefore did you abandon me to all the weight of my remorse? Why, when you saw me so long remain faithful to the memory of one who had so grossly deceived me, did you not tell me I mourned an unworthy object?" "Why did I not tell you this?" "Yes; I asked wherefore did you not disclose the truth to me?"