_De Val._ (_resuming faintly._) Florian, there is a grief that never found its image yet in words. I prayed for death--nay, madness! but heaven, for its own best purposes, denied me either boon. I was ordained still to live, and still be conscious of my misery. For many weeks I wandered through the country, silent, sullen, stupified! My people watched, but dared not comfort me. Abjuring social life, I plunged into the deepest solitudes, to shun all commerce with my kind. 'Twas at the close of a sultry day, the last of August, that I entered a forest at the foot of the Cevennes, and worn with long fatigue and misery, stretched myself upon the moss for momentary rest. On the sudden, a faint and feeble moan pierced my ear; instinctively I moved the branches at my side, and at the foot of a rude stone-cross beheld a desolate infant, unnaturally left to perish in the wilderness! It was famishing--expiring. I raised it to my breast, and its little arms twined feebly round my neck Florian! thou wert heaven's gracious instrument to reclaim a truant to his duties! Welcome! I cried to thee, young brother in adversity!--"thou art deserted by thy mortal parents, and my heavenly father has forsaken me!" From that moment I felt I had a motive left to cherish life, since my existence could be useful to a fellow-being--my wanderings finished, and I settled in Alsace. Eighteen years have followed that event; but I shall not comment on their course. _Flor._ (_with energy._) Yet, sir, those years must not, shall not pass forgotten. Deeds of generous charity have made them sacred, and an orphan's blessing wafts their eulogy to heaven--_he casts himself at De Valmont's feet_). Friend! protector! more than parent! the beings who had called me into life denied my claim, and you performed the duties nature had renounced. Ah! sir, I am thoughtless, volatile, my manners wild--but, from my inmost soul, I love, I reverence, I bless my benefactor! _De Val._ Rise young man! your virtues have repaid my cares. Here let us dismiss the past, and advert to the future. Geraldine is my heiress; my niece and my vassals must receive the same master: both are objects of my care, and I would confide them only to a man of honor. Florian! let Geraldine become your wife--be you hereafter the protector of my people. _Flor._ Merciful powers! what is it that I hear? I?--the child of accident and mystery: a wretched foundling: I?