ve made you the victim.

There is a plant called the atropa belladonna, a very poisonous
shrub, which is rare in this country, but Ambrosia obtained one and
planted it beside the little stream which runs by the ruined house.
It was that which we destroyed. From this she extracted the juices
as she well knows how. Now begins the awful scheme. She sent for
me, who was living at the Convent de Santa Clara, to come and be
her companion, as she was growing old. She knew that I was
beautiful, and thinking to gain your love for me, tried in every
way to bring us together. We met, and heaven knows we truly loved.
Ever since my arrival she has given me a sweetmeat, of which I once
told you. In this confection was the smallest quantity of the
extract of the poisonous atropa, and some Chinese drug unknown to
me, the taking of which in time became a necessity of my being, but
not till to-night did I know the contents of these drops or the
awful power to which I am a slave. The extract affected my eyes,
causing their unnatural brilliancy and impaired vision. Having
fixed this terrible habit upon me, she would wed me to you, and
thus make your future life miserable, for in a few years the drug
would ruin me in soul and body, and its only substitute could be
found in the fatal opium. The revenge is the height of cruelty, and
alas, I was to be the helpless medium. She thought that I should be
proud of the use to which she had put me, for she said it was as
much my duty to avenge the death of my grandfather as for her that
of her father. I know not what I said, but my anger gave me words.
I told her of the enormity of her crime, the inhumanity she had
shown, and that I would do no more nor longer remain with her.

She laughed and left the room. Presently returning, she handed me a
packet of the confections and with a mocking smile said: "Make thy
husband happy while these sweets last; they are my wedding present
to thee." She left me. I know the terrible power this drug has over
me, and nothing can ever cure. Even if the habit be not indulged
in, I have gone so far that my existence would be worse than death.
I will not make your life miserable; the dread of being blind is
nothing to this. May the Holy Mother forgive me for all I have been
the cause, innocent as I