The Treacherous Husband. 641 tually enjoyed-reciprocally returned, and poured in profufion around them. And had not the treacherous proceeding, and perfidious attempts of the former embittered the fweets of their connubial felicity, they would incon fure of that nuptial blifs which is appointed for mortals in this fublunary ftate. afiction's thorny road. I taste the bitter cup of forrow; forrow too of the most exquifite, moft poignant kind. The darts of adverfity were continually flying in fhowers around her, and made her heart to bleed, made her breaft throb with bitter and unavail-trovertibly have enjoyed the full meaing anguish. Poor Matilda! how art thou diftreft? In what an ocean of grief and confufion wilt thou foon be involved, toft about by the billows of adverfe fortune, and overwhelmed with the tumultuous waves of cruelty and treachery! Forfaken by her deareft friend, how is the left deftitute, for1orn, difconfolate' amid the fons of iniquity, and the clangs of a tumultuous and injurious world. May heaven above fupport the lovely fair, But though their happiness was for fome time fuperlative, it was not durable. It was only a kind of fascinating fyren prologue, to a Charybdian fcene of horror, deftruction and death.. Loath, very loath, I own I am, to begin the fhocking detail. Unwilling to enter on the afflicting and moving relation. Like a profligate wretch on the verge of time, with the awful profpect of an opening eternity before him I ftart, and ftand aghaft, ruminating on the conduct, the infamous Shall I ftop here? or muft I tell conduct, of a moft vile and deteftable the fatal catastrophe ? Muft I draw the husband, whofe name ought to be curtain and disclose to view the fhock- branded, as he has with audacity and ing fcene, the reflection of which triumph ruined the innocent fair, ftrikes me with horror?-How, how ftampt himself perfect in the books of fhall I relate the tragical-the direful fhame, and been guilty of a crime, at tale! How fhall I be able to paint the which human nature fhudders, and inexpreffible diftrefs of a much in- all heaven looks down big with vengejured, and tender friend! Already Iance, and reddening with indignaperceive the tear ftealing down my tion.-But I will keep the reader no cheek-already the unbidden figh be- longer in fufpence. gins to heave my breaft. Excule it, Loft to every fenfe of humanity. oh reader-excufe the involuntary, Forgetful, utterly forgetful of every fympathetical emotion of heart-felt principle of duty and nuptial affecaffection-and I will try to proceed. tion, the brutal husband leaves MaI will attempt to difclofe the dreadful, tilda, and fallies off to the metropolis, the fhocking feene which hath never pretending he had fome bufinefs of yet been unveiled, never yet fpread importance there, which required his abroad. Forgive me if I am fome- attendance.- Matilda was aftonifhed times imperfect. The calamities of a at his abrupt depart as he heard tions till the friend deprefs a feeling perfon, and not a fyllable of his i damp the energy of his mental facul- very day, nay, the very hour he fet ties. A heart obdurate, and unfuf- out. And what made her ftill more ceptible of pity is base indeed! Touneafy, he did not choose to tell her fympathize with our fellow creatures the precife time of his return, nor the when in adverfity, is a duty incum-nature of the bufinefs which he was bent on all.. going to execute. For the space of fix or eight months. Horatio and Matilda, as before obServed, lived together in a most unexampled and amiable manner indeed. The iwects of hymeneal pleasures were mu-in VOL. X. It is true he was not fo ungratefully fevere as to hid her farewell without an affectionate embrace, without fome marks of tendernefs and efteem: but all probability thofe external profeffions 4 N feffions of cordial love and fincere affection were unfelt in the heart-all hypocritical, and made only to foothe and deceive the much injured and diftreft fair one. But even to her it was apparent that there was not that glow of affection, that fweetnefs of temper, and peculiar regard, which he alwaya till that day expreft for her. This undeferved behaviour the often revolved in her mind in his abfence. Conscious that she had not merited fuch unkindness and indifference, the longed to know the reason of it; but could not by any expedient fhe could devife come to a knowledge of it. Horatio had now been abfent for more than fix weeks. Matilda was almoft frantic with grief, hearing nothing of him all this long period. She would have fent to him, but had unfortunately mislaid fomewhere or other the directions which he left with her at his departure. Very foon after a letter arrived. Fearful of the event, fhe opened it haftily with trembling hands, and a fluttering heart. Before her eyes had run over half the contents, the fell down fenfelefs in her chair, without any figns of life. She remained in this fituation for feveral hours, and with and be not duped a fecond time. Adieu." What a ftroke was this! In what an abyfs of misery is the fair one overwhelmed, without one fpark of hope to chear her despairing foul! Robbed not only of her health, her innocence, and property; but left utterly abandoned, forlorn, and unpitied to ru minate on her precipitate credulity, and bewail her unhappy fate. Unthought of, unheard of, unexampled treachery !-that ever fuch a black and audacious deed should enter the heart of man! Good heavens look down! Nemefis hold up the impartial fcale, and draw the fword of juftice.— Monftrous wretch! fhall he go un punifhed? No. (To be continued.) LETTERS of AZ A. (Continued from Page 603.) But not by the Author of THE OLD LETTER XIV. To KAN HUISCA P. great difficulty was brought back to PERHAPS you may think, treifty friend, that my impatience being finfibility. The fubftance of the letter was as mollified by time, ought at laft to follows: "Madam, ceafe. I pardon your error, as I am the cause of it. The reflections to which you have seen me abandoned for fome time could not originate from a foul in a state of tranquillity, as you thought. Leave an error "I fuppofe you wonder you have had no intelligence of me till this time. Depend on it I fhall never fee you more. My whole motive in marrying you was to gain your for-which gives me offence. tune, and become master of your cir Impatience too frequently borrows cumitances. If you was fo credulous the most cruel arms from a feerning as to rely on my fair promifes, you tranquillity. I have experienced this are become a dupe to your own folly.- too often. My mind run over with a Mifs ➖➖➖, with whom I now co- fluctuating eye, the different objects habit, is your rival, and we are this which prefented themfelves to my inftant going on a tour to France. Iview: my heart was not devoured the thank you for the favours already re- lefs by impatience. Zilia, who is alceived of you, which will be of fin-ways prefent to my mind, confined me gular fervice to me and my charmer. to my difquiet at the very moment You may inform my friends that they in which you thought my philofophy will never fee me again. Take care fecured my repofe. The. that has the most money. When this difcovery is made, all her attentions, all her actions should be to gain his affections; the fucceeds-marries him-and then confults her heart. Her beauty fhines with new éclat, fhe frequents the temples and public places every day; there, through a veil, which fpares her blufhes, and with her eyes caft downwards, she passes in review before the army of the faithful. The feiences and ftudy may divert, but they never caufe us to forget our paffions, and when they have this right, this power, what afcendancy muft they have over a propenfity which has the fanction of reafon! You must be a judge. My attachment is not one of thofe tranfient vapours which originates from caprice, and is foon diffirated by it. Reafon, which teaches me to know my heart, teaches me that it is formed for love. It was by means of its torch, that I first difcovered what love is. Could I help following it. It fhewed me beauty: in Zilia's it made me difcern its power, its allurements, and inftead of oppoting my felicity, reafon informed me, that it was often-times only the art of giving birth to pleasures, and ofrez happy, grew tired of him, returnrendering them permanent. Judge now, Kanhuifcap, if it was in the power of philofophy to diminish my love. The reflections I made on the manners of the Spaniards ferved only to augment it. The difproportion of the virtues, the charms, and the tenderness which I remarked between them and Zilia, make me feel more poignantly the cruelty of our feparation. Alvarez and Pedro foon shared her heart. She was long in fufpence to whom fhe fhould give the preference, fhe favoured the former, concealed her predilection from each of them, and left them to their fighs. Without disheartening Pedro, fhe made Alva ed to Pedro, whom fhe deferted for the fake of another. This was not the greatest obftacle fhe had to remove. It was her fudy to perfuade the world that he was beloved by her husband, and to convince her husband how happy he was in having so good a wife. The world had likewife a duty to difcharge, in which it acquitted itfelf very well, which was to remind the hufband that he had a handfome wife. That innocent candour, that amia-ble fimplicity, thofe fweet tranfports, to which he gave up her foul, are here I think that even Zulmira's heart only fo many veils to conceal licen- is not untainted with thefe contagionis tioufnefs and pertidy. To conceal examples. Though the is fo young, I the most ardent paffion to make a fhow am of opinion, that he has the danof another, which is not felt, inffead gerous paffion of wishing to be ad. of being punished is esteemed an ac-mired. Her most trivial motions, her complishment. To be defirous of pleafing one perfon only, is a crime; not to please every one is a difgrace; thefe are the principles of virtue which they engrave here on the hearts of the fex. When one of them has the happinefs of being pronounced a beauty, if it may deserve that appellation, the muft prepare herself to receive the homage of a crowd of adorers, of, whom the muft recognize the attentions, by honouring every one with a look. When a perfon, who enjoys this diftinction, is what they call a coquette, the first motion fhe makes to fingle out from the group. him most indifferent looks, have always fomething which feems to come from the heart. Her converfation is flattering, her eyes expreffive, and her affecting voice is frequently loft in tender fighs. Thus, Kanhuifeap, by dif ferent fecrets, virtue has the external appearance of vice, whitt vice con ceals itfelf under the cloak of virtue. LETTER XV. To KANHUISCA P. IIOW am I furprifed by truths till now unknown! How deep is the well of knowledge! Kanhu fep, the fun, the the mafterpiece of creation; the earth; that fruitful parent, are no deities! A creator, but not our's, has formed them, and can annihilate them with a fingle look. Confufed in an immenfe chaos, enveloped in grofs matter, he drew thefe luminaries, and the people who adore them, from the bofom of confufion. The fun, at his command, diftributed light. The moon received its rays, and tranfmits them to us. The earth cherifhed by its juices thofe animals, thofe trees, which are the objects of our adoration. The fea, whom a deity alone could controul, nourishes with the fish, which fport in its waters, and man, created the master of the univerfe, reigns over all other animals. Thefe, my friend, are the myfteries from which all our miferies originate. If inftructed, as the Spaniards are, we had known that the thunder, which they launched against us, was only a mafs of the materials which our own climates can furnish; that Lappa himself, that tremendous deity, was nothing but a vapour produced from the earth, and guided by chance in its explofion; that thofe furious Hamas, which fled before us, might be subject to us, and pacific witnelles of the grandeur of our ancestors, should we have been chained to the triumphant chariots of our conquerors! Really Kanhuifcap, it feems as if nature could conceal nothing from the penetration of this people; they are acquainted with its moft fecret operations. They can read the fkies, and the most profound abyffes; and one would imagine, that it is not in the power of nature to prevent what they have foreseen. LETTER XVI. ftablished opinion, let it be ever fo alfe, must be followed. It cannot be oppofed without fubjecting the opponent at least to the imputation of fingularity. The dictates of nature, that clear voice, which speaks to us without ceafing, this brilliant torch, is extin guifhed by prejudice.-It is a tyrant, which, though hated, is not lefs powerful, an impofture, which though dis. covered, is not lefs dangerous. Notwithstanding this tyrant might be vasquifhed without difficulty, if it had not a fupport more dangerous than itself, I mean fuperftition. This is the meteor which leads moft men here, and induces them to prefer the most fabu lous opinions to the decisions of truth, A man, who fhall frequent their temples many times in a day, though he appear there with an hypocritical countenance, let him commit what crime he may, will be efteemed by every body; while the moft virtuous; who hall have got rid of the yoke of prejudice, will gain nothing but contempt. The man who is unpreju diced, pafles here for an impious one. No one is fuffered here to be any thing but what they ftile wife; we should add, that of a devotee, or else they will favour you with the appellation of a libertine. The diftributess of public esteem, though contemptible in themselves, admit of no medium. To be neither a devotee or a libertine is to them a kind of paradox; it is to appear in their jaundiced eyes, what an amphibious animal is-a monster! The Spaniards have too deities, one of which prefides over virtue, the other over vice. If you fhould be content to facrifice, without affection, to the former, they will foon accufe you of adoring the latter. Not that the empire of virtue is abfolute: its fubjects To KANHUISCA P. have much to fear from the deity of vice becaufe they are always oblig COULD I, Kanhuifchap, evered to appear abroad properly armed to dream that these people, who are enlightened by reafon, could be enflaved to the opinions of their ancestors! An * The Peruvians worthip the earth under the name of Mamachaa. 1 oppofe him, which fometimes will not prove fufficient to refift him. A man was apprehended lately, who com mitted a great many crimes, and they faid, that the devil muft have infti gated *Letters of Aza. 645 be both at the fame time. Thus error frequently leads us to the truth. I was told fome time ago, by a perfon who is deemed a philofopher, that the fun revolves round the earth. I be gated him to vice; however, he had tied round his neck a rope which the Cucipatas had confecrated to the 'good' deity. He held in one hand, fome beads on a ftring, and a cord, which had the power of remov-lieved him, for he convinced me that ing his crimes; and in the other the poinard, which he had made ufe of in committing them. it mult. Another came and told me the contrary: I fent for the former, and fat as umpire between them. By what I could learn from⚫heir discourse, it was poffible that each of thefe planets might make their circumvolution, and that the ancellor of one of the difputants was an Alguafil. Yesterday I was conducted to a great fquare, where a prodigious crowd teftified an excefs of joy, in feeing fome of their fellow-creatures burnt alive. The fingular habit in which they were dreffed, the compofed air; This is what I have learnt from the of the priests, who led them in converfation of this people, whofe triumph, made me take them for vic-knowledge at firft furprifed me: the tims, which these favages were going efteem which they are held in is anoIs it to offer to their gods. How great ther fource of aftonishment. was my furprife, when I was inform- poffible that fo enlightened a nation ed that the deity of thefe favages fhould fet fo great a value on perfons abominates not only human blood, who have no other merit but that of but even that of other animals! How thinking? Reafon muft certainly be a great was my horror, when I recol- great rarity among them. lected, that it was to a benevolent deity, that these inconfiftent priefts were going to offer thefe odious faerifices! Do thefe Cucipatas imagine that they are going to expiate the deity? The very expiation mult of fend him more, than the crimes, which could irritate him against them. Kanhuifcap, what a deplorable error is this! LETTER XVII. To KAN HUISCA P. A man who has a fingular mode of thinking, fpeaks little, never laughs, is always reafoning, is proud, though poor, cannot diftinguifh himfelf by the richnefs of his drefs, but by the vileness of his rags. He is a philofopher, and has a claim to be impudent. Another, amidit the fire of youth, ftrives to make philofophy a court-lady. He conceals her under rich attire and paint: fhe is gay, a coquette, and her approach is announced by her perfumes. Those who are used to judge, by appearances, do not recoge THE thirst you have for informa-nize her. Philofophy is nothing but tion, dear friend, fatisfies me as mucha fop. To fufpect her of thinking, is as it perplexes. You infilt upon cer- as bad as to accufe her of conflancy.. tainty, upon a further eclairciffement of Zais was afflicted with the vapours. the difcoveries I have communicated Alonzo faid to me fhe wanted fometo you: your doubts are excufable; thing to father them upon. Philofobut I cannot fatisfy your demands.-Iphy appeared no improper one to Zais might have done it in a fhort time. I She thought herfelf to be a philofo conceived things more cafily than Ipher immediately. Caprice, mifancould defcribe them, and my mind, thropy, and pride put her in poffeffion more active than my hand, difcovered of that title. She wanted nothing but evidence, where now, it finds nothing to find out a lover as fingular as her but uncertainty. About two days a- felf. She has fucceeded. go I thought the earth was round; but I am told now that it is flat. Of thefe two affertions I can admit only one as true, which is, that it cannot Zaïs and her lover form an acade. my. Their caftle is an obfervatory Though not without her wrinkles, in the garden Zais is Flora, in her bal. |