"Some persons are entangled in the chains of love by the bait of beauty; others, by that of lively and pleasing manners. Some, by the merit they discover in her who has subdued them; but I have put my neck into the yoke, and lost my freedom through compassion. It must indeed have been a heart of stone, O beauteous lady, that felt not pity in seeing you bought and sold and placed in such sad circumstances that your last moment often seemed at hand. The pitiless steel has threatened your throat; the flames have reached even your very garment. The cold snow has frozen you, and hunger has enfeebled and faded the bloom upon your cheeks, and lastly the sea engulphed and then cast you forth. What aid in all these sufferings have you had unless it be the slight assistance of a wandering prince, who follows you only for his own ends, or that afforded by your brother, (if indeed he is such,) that can relieve you from your miseries. Trust not lady, to distant promises, but cling to succour which is near at hand, and accept a means of safety which Heaven offers to you. I am a bachelor; I have abilities that will avail me even in the most remote corners of the world. I will form a plan to remove you from this land, and the importunities of Prince Arnoldo, and taking you from this Egyptian bondage, will bring you into a land of promise--Spain, France, or Italy (as I cannot live in England, my own dear and beloved country). I here then offer to be your husband; and from this moment I accept you as my bride." Rutilio having read this letter, said, "Truly, I think we have both lost our wits to suppose we can fly without wings, our own pretensions being to crawl like the emmet. In my opinion, Clodio, it will be best to destroy these letters, for we are neither of us really in love, and only an idle and absurd fancy has urged us to write in this way. Love must have some foundation to rest upon, or it cannot exist; failing this, it fails entirely. Now what have we to expect for our pains but the rope to our necks, or the knife to our throats, the more, because in this declaration of love we are traitors as well as ingrates. Dost thou not see the immense distance that exists between a dancing-master, who mended his means by becoming apprentice to a silversmith, and the daughter of a king? And that which exists between a banished backbiter and one who refuses and scorns a crown? Let us forget our folly, and repent that necessity should have brought us to such a pass. At any rate, this letter of mine shall go into the fire, or be cast to the winds ere it reaches Polycarpa." "You may do as you please with your's," answered Clodio; "as for mine, whether I give it to Auristella or not, I intend to keep it as a sample of my cleverness; but I doubt if I do not give it to her that I shall find my conscience reproach me during the rest of my life for having repented; it does not always follow that when one makes an attempt one is to be punished for it."