nd paid in such a Time,
setting a certain Time, which I have not been so curious as to retain,
or put in my Journal-Observations; but I am sure it was not long, as may
be easily imagin'd, for they every Moment suspected the Prince would
pack up, and be gone, some time or other, on the sudden; and for that
Reason they would not trust him without Bail, or two Officers to remain
in his House, to watch that nothing should be remov'd or touch'd. As for
Bail, or Security, he could give none; every one slunk their Heads out
of the Collar, when it came to that: So that he was oblig'd, at his own
Expence, to maintain Officers in his House.
The Princess finding her self reduced to the last Extremity, and that
she must either produce the Value of a hundred thousand Crowns, or see
the Prince her Husband lodged for ever in a Prison, and all their Glory
vanish; and that it was impossible to fly, since guarded; she had
Recourse to an Extremity, worse than the Affair of _Van Brune_. And in
order to this, she first puts on a world of Sorrow and Concern, for what
she feared might arrive to the Prince: And indeed, if ever she shed
Tears which she did not dissemble, it was upon this Occasion. But here
she almost over-acted: She stirred not from her Bed, and refused to eat,
or sleep, or see the Light; so that the Day being shut out of her
Chamber, she lived by Wax-lights, and refus'd all Comfort and
Consolation.
The Prince, all raving with Love, tender Compassion and Grief, never
stirred from her Bed-side, nor ceas'd to implore, that she would suffer
herself to live. But she, who was not now so passionately in Love with
_Tarquin_, as she was with the Prince; nor so fond of the Man as his
Titles, and of Glory; foresaw the total Ruin of the last, if not
prevented by avoiding the Payment of this great Sum; which could not
otherwise be, than by the Death of _Alcidiana_: And therefore, without
ceasing, she wept, and cry'd out, 'She could not live, unless
_Alcidiana_ died. This _Alcidiana_ (_continued she_) who has been the
Author of my Shame; who has expos'd me under a Gibbet, in the Publick
Market-Place--Oh!--I am deaf to all Reason, blind to natural Affection.
I renounce her, I hate her as my mortal Foe, my Stop to Glory, and the
Finisher of my Days, e'er half my Race of Life be run.'
Then throwing her false, but snowy, charming Arms about the Neck her
Heart-breaking Lord, and Lover, who lay sighing, and listening by her
Side, he was cha
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