allow. If it is the will of the Most High that Manfred's name must
perish, resign yourself, my Lord, to its decrees; and thus deserve
a crown that can never pass away. Come, my Lord; I like this
sorrow--let us return to the Princess: she is not apprised of your
cruel intentions; nor did I mean more than to alarm you. You saw
with what gentle patience, with what efforts of love, she heard,
she rejected hearing, the extent of your guilt. I know she longs
to fold you in her arms, and assure you of her unalterable
affection."

"Father," said the Prince, "you mistake my compunction: true, I
honour Hippolita's virtues; I think her a Saint; and wish it were
for my soul's health to tie faster the knot that has united us--but
alas! Father, you know not the bitterest of my pangs! it is some
time that I have had scruples on the legality of our union:
Hippolita is related to me in the fourth degree--it is true, we had
a dispensation: but I have been informed that she had also been
contracted to another. This it is that sits heavy at my heart: to
this state of unlawful wedlock I impute the visitation that has
fallen on me in the death of Conrad!--ease my conscience of this
burden: dissolve our marriage, and accomplish the work of
godliness--which your divine exhortations have commenced in my
soul."

How cutting was the anguish which the good man felt, when he
perceived this turn in the wily Prince! He trembled for Hippolita,
whose ruin he saw was determined; and he feared if Manfred had no
hope of recovering Isabella, that his impatience for a son would
direct him to some other object, who might not be equally proof
against the temptation of Manfred's rank. For some time the holy