constancy, after such seeming proofs of my infidelity!--. Cruel, cruel,
treacherous abbess! pursued she; Is this the fruits of all your boasted
sanctity!--This the return to the confidence the generous du Plessis
reposed in you!--This your love and friendship to me!--Does heaven, to
increase the number of its votaries, require you to be false,
perfidious, and injurious to the world!

She was proceeding in giving vent to the anguish of her soul in
exclamations such as these; but Leonora begged she would moderate her
grief, and for her sake, as much as possible, conceal the reasons she
had for resentment. Louisa again promised she would do her utmost to
keep them from thinking she even suspected they had played her
false;--then cried, But tell me, my dear Leonora, were they not a little
moved at the tender melancholy which, I perceive, ran thro' this
epistle? Alas! my dear, replied the other, they have long since forgot
those soft emotions which make us simpathize in the woes of
love:--inflexible by the rigid rules of this place, and more by their
own age, they rather looked with horror than pity on a tender
inclination:--they had a long conversation together, the result of which
was to spare nothing that might either persuade, or if that failed,
compel you to take the order.

It is not in their power to do the latter, interrupted Louisa; and this
discovery of their baseness, more than ever, confirms me in the
resolution never to consent.

You know not what is in their power, said Leonora; they may make
pretences for confining you here, which, as they are under no
jurisdiction but the church, the church will allow justifiable:--indeed,
Louisa, continued she, I should be loth to see you have recourse to