_The history of Dorilaus and Matilda, with other circumstances very
important to Louisa_.
You know, said he, that I am descended of one of the most illustrious
families in England, tho', by some imprudencies on the one side, and
injustice on the other, my claim was set aside, and I deprived of that
title which my ancestors for a long succession of years had enjoyed, so
that the estate I am in possession of, was derived to me in right of my
mother, who was an heiress. It is indeed sufficient to have given me a
pretence to any lady I should have made choice on, and to provide for
what children I might have had by her: but the pride of blood being not
abated in me by being cut off from my birthright, inspired me with an
unconquerable aversion to marriage, since I could not bequeath to my
posterity that dignity I ought to have enjoyed myself:--I resolved
therefore to live single, and that the misfortune of my family should
dye with myself.
In my younger years I went to travel, as well for improvement, as to
alleviate that discontent which was occasioned by the sight of another
in possession of what I thought was my due.--Having made the tour of
Europe, I took France again in my way home:--the gallantry and good
breeding of these people very much attached me to them; but what chiefly
engaged my continuance here much longer than I had done in any other
part, was an acquaintance I had made with a lady called Matilda: she was
of a very good family in England, was sent to a monastry merely for the
sake of well-grounding her in a religion, the free exercise of which is
not allowed at home, and to seclude her from settling her affections on
any other than the person she was destined to by the will of her
parents, and to whom she had been contracted in her infancy:--she was
extremely young, and beautiful as an angel; and the knowledge she was
pre-engaged, could not hinder me from loving her, any more than the
declarations I made in her hearing against marriage, could the grateful
returns she was pleased to make me:--in fine, the mutual inclination we
had for each other, as it rendered us deaf to all suggestions but that
of gratifying it, so it also inspired us with ingenuity to surmount all
the difficulties that were between our wishes and the end of them.--Tho'
a pensioner in a monastry, and very closely observed, by the help of a
confidant she frequently got out, and many nights we passed
together;--till some business relating to my estate at length calling me
away, we were obliged to part, which we could not do without testifying
a great deal of concern on both sides:--mine was truly sincere at that
time, and I have reason to believe her's was no less so; but absence
easily wears out the impressions of youth: as I never expected to see
her any more, I endeavoured not to preserve a remembrance which would
only have given me disquiet, and, to confess the truth, soon forgot both
the pleasure and the pain I had experienced in this, as well as some
other little sallies of my unthinking youth.
Many years passed over without my ever hearing any thing of her; and it
was some months after I received your letter from Aix-la-Chappelle, that
the post brought me one from Ireland: having no correspondence in that
country, I was a little surprized, but much more when I opened it and
found it contained these words:
_To_ DORILAUS.