Yet oh! the Mem’ry of my former Joys, So hard’s my Fate, my present Ease destroys. ’Tis strange that what gave such delight before, Shou’d serve to make me now lament the more.---- A Thousand Passions, not to be exprest, Your Letter rais’d in my distracted Breast; My vanquish’d Senses from their Office fled, } A long time stupid on the ground I laid, } And since I’ve often wish’d I had been dead. } But I unhappily reviv’d again To suffer greater Torment, greater Pain; A Thousand Evils I each Day endure, Which nothing but the Sight of you can cure; Yet I submit, without repining too, Because the ills I bear proceed from you.---- And ’tis because you know the Pow’r you have, You use me thus, and make me such a Slave. Oh! give me leave to speak---- Is this the Recompense you think is due, To those that sacrifice their Lives for you? Yet use me as you will, to my last Breath, Tho’ loath’d by you, I’ll keep my plighted Faith.---- And did you understand what Pleasure lies In being constant, you wou’d Change despise. You’ll never meet with one will prove so kind, Tho’ in another you more Beauty find. Yet I can tell the time, tho’ now ’tis gone, (Poor as it is) when mine has pleas’d alone.---- You need not bid me keep you in my Mind, I’m too much of myself to that inclin’d. I can’t forget you, nor those Hopes you give Of your return, in Portugal to live. Cou’d I from this unhappy Cloister break, You thro’ the Perils of the World I’d seek. I’d follow where you went, without Regret, And constantly upon your Fortune wait, Think not I keep these Hopes to ease my Grief, Or bring to my despairing Soul Relief; No, I’m too well acquainted with my Fate, And know I’m born to be unfortunate.---- Yet while I write, some glimmering Hopes appear } That yield a respite to my wild Despair, } And some small Ease afford amidst my Care. } Tell me, what made you press my Ruin so? Why with your Craft a harmless Maid undo? Why strove t’ ensnare my too-unguarded Heart, When you were sure ere long you shou’d depart? What Injury had I e’er done to you, To make you with such Wiles, my Innocence pursue?