How then can it be that with such love I have not been able to make
you entirely happy? It is solely for love of you that I regret the
infinite pleasures you have lost. Can it be that you did not care to
enjoy them? Ah! if you only knew them you would doubtless find them
much greater than that of having deceived me, and you would have
experienced how much happier it is, and how much more poignant it is
to love violently than to be loved. I know not what I am, or what I do,
or what I wish for. I am torn asunder by a thousand contrary emotions.
Can a more deplorable state be imagined? I love you to distraction,
and therefore I spare you sufficiently not to dare to wish that the
same emotions should trouble you. I should kill myself or die of grief
without were I to be assured that you were never having any rest, that
your life was as anxious and disturbed as mine, that you were weeping
ceaselessly, and that everything was hateful to you. I cannot bear my
own sufferings, how then could I support the sorrow a thousand times
more grievous which yours would give me? I cannot, on the other hand,
make up my mind to wish that you should think no more of me; and to
speak frankly, I am furiously jealous of all that gives you pleasure,
and comes near to your heart and fancy in France. I know not why I
write to you. I perceive that you will only pity me, and I wish for
none of your pity. I hate myself when I look back on all that I have
sacrificed for you. I have lost my honour. I have exposed myself to the
anger of my parents, to all the severity of the laws of this country
against religious, and finally to your ingratitude, which has seemed
to me the greatest of all my evils. Withal, I feel that my remorse
is not real, and that I would willingly, with all my heart, have run
the greatest risks for the love of you, and that I experience a sad
pleasure in having risked my life and honour in your service. Ought not
all that I hold most dear to be at your disposal? Ought I not to be
satisfied at having employed it as I have done? Methinks, even, I am
not at all content with my sorrows, or the excess of my love, although
I cannot, alas! flatter myself sufficiently to be content with you. I
live, unfaithful that I am; I do as much to preserve my life as to lose
it. Ah! I am dying of shame. Is my despair then only in my letters? If
I loved you, as I have told you a thousand times, should I not have
been dead long ago? I have deceived you, and you may rightly complain
of me. Alas! why do you not complain of me? I saw you leave, I can
never hope to see you come back, and in spite of all I yet breathe! I
have deluded you. I ask your pardon, but do not grant it me. Treat me
harshly--say my love for you is too weak; be more hard to please; tell
me that you would have me die of love for your sake. Help me thus, I
conjure you, to overcome the weakness of my sex, and to put an end to
all my wavering in real despair. Doubtless a tragic end would force you
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account