loveliest Virgin, and now Wife, that ever Man was bless’d with; yet when
he reflected, he should have children by her, and these and she should
come to want, (he having been magnificently Educated, and impatient of
scanty Fortune) he laid it to Heart, and it gave him a thousand
Uneasinesses in the midst of unspeakable Joys; and the more be strove to
hide his Sentiments from _Isabella_, the more tormenting it was within;
he durst not name it to her, so insuperable a Grief it would cause in
her, to hear him complain; and tho’ she could live hardly, as being bred
to a devout and severe Life, he could not, but must let the Man of
Quality shew it self; even in the disguise of an humbler Farmer: Besides
all this, he found nothing of his Industry thrive, his Cattel still dy’d
in the midst of those that were in full Vigour and Health of other
Peoples; his Crops of Wheat and Barly, and other Grain, tho’ manag’d by
able and knowing Husbandmen, were all, either Mildew’d, or Blasted, or
some Misfortune still arriv’d to him; his Coach-Horses would fight and
kill one another, his Barns sometimes be fir’d; so that it became a
Proverb all over the Country, if any ill Luck had arriv’d to any body,
they would say, ‘They had Monsieur _BEROONE’S_ Luck.’ All these
Reflections did but add to his Melancholy, and he grew at last to be in
some want, insomuch, that _Isabella_, who had by her frequent Letters,
and submissive Supplications, to her Aunt, (who lov’d her tenderly)
obtain’d her Pardon, and her Blessing; she now press’d her for some
Money, and besought her to consider, how great a Fortune she had brought
to the _Monastery_, and implor’d, she would allow her some Sallary out
of it, for she had been marry’d two Years, and most of what she had was
exhausted. The Aunt, who found, that what was done, could not be undone,
did, from time to time, supply her so, as one might have liv’d very
decently on that very Revenue; but that would not satisfy the great
Heart of _Henault_. He was now about three and twenty Years old, and
_Isabella_ about eighteen, too young, and too lovely a Pair, to begin
their Misfortunes so soon; they were both the most Just and Pious in the
World; they were Examples of Goodness, and Eminent for Holy Living, and
for perfect Loving, and yet nothing thriv’d they undertook; they had no
Children, and all their Joy was in each other; at last, one good Fortune
arriv’d to them, by the Solicitations of the Lady _Abbess_, and the
_Bishop_, who was her near Kinsman, they got a Pardon for _Isabella’s_
quitting the _Monastery_, and marrying, so that she might now return
to her own Country again. _Henault_ having also his Pardon, they
immediately quit the place, where they had remain’d for two Years, and
came again into _Flanders_, hoping, the change of place might afford ’em
better Luck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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