“I have read a translation in Latin hexameters so well done that I fancied I was reading Virgil.”

“Is that truly so?”

“I would never lie to you.”

“Then I make a vow to learn Latin.”

“That is worthy of you, but it is of me that you must learn the language.  I will go to Portugal and live and die there, if you will give me your heart.’

“My heart!  I have only one, and that is given already.  Since I have known you I have despised myself, for I am afraid I have an inconstant nature.”

“It will be enough for me if you will love me as your father, provided I may sometimes take my daughter to my arms.  But go on with your story, the chief part is yet untold.  What became of your lover, and what did your relations do when they found out your flight?”

“Three days after I arrived in this vast city I wrote to the abbess, my aunt, and told her the whole story, begging her to protect my lover, and to confirm me in my resolution never to return to Lisbon till I could do so in security, and have no obstacles placed in the way of my marriage.  I also begged her to write and inform me of all that happened, addressing her letters to ‘Miss Pauline,’ under cover of my landlady.

“I sent my letter by Paris and Madrid, and I had to wait three months before I got an answer.  My aunt told me that the frigate had only returned a short time, and that the captain immediately on his arrival wrote to the minister informing him that the only lady who was in his ship when he sailed was still on board, for he had brought her back with him, despite the opposition of Count Al——­, who declared she was his wife.  The captain ended by asking his excellency for further orders with respect to the lady aforesaid.

“Oeiras, feeling sure that the lady was myself, told the captain to take her to the convent of which my aunt was abbess, with a letter he had written.  In this letter he told my aunt that he sent her her niece, and begged her to keep the girl securely till further orders.  My aunt was extremely surprised, but she would have been still more surprised if she had not got my letter a few days before.  She thanked the captain for his care, and took the false niece to a room and locked her up.  She then wrote to Oeiras, telling him that she had received into her convent a person supposed to be his niece, but as this person was really a man in woman’s dress she begged his excellency to remove him as soon as possible.

“When the abbess had written this curious letter she paid a visit to the count, who fell on his knees before her.  My good aunt raised him, and shewed him my letter.  She said that she had been obliged to write to the minister, and that she had no doubt he would be removed from the convent in the course of a few hours.  The count burst into tears, and begging the abbess to protect us both gave her my jewel-casket, which the worthy woman received with great pleasure.  She left him, promising to write to me of all that happened.