hless to her husband. But she hated him, longed
to leave him, and loved another: the end was coming quickly, and every
one of our unknowing actors and actresses were to be implicated, more or
less, in the catastrophe.

It will be seen that Mrs. Cat had followed pretty closely the
injunctions of Mr. Wood in regard to her dealings with the Count; who
grew more heart-stricken and tender daily, as the completion of his
wishes was delayed, and his desires goaded by contradiction. The Abbe
has quoted one portion of a letter written by him; here is the entire
performance, extracted, as the holy father said, chiefly from the
romance of the "Grand Cyrus".

"Unhappy Maximilian unto unjust Catherina.

"MADAM,--It must needs be that I love you better than any ever did,
since, notwithstanding your injustice in calling me perfidious, I
love you no less than I did before. On the contrary, my passion is so
violent, and your unjust accusation makes me so sensible of it, that
if you did but know the resentments of my soule, you would confess your
selfe the most cruell and unjust woman in the world. You shall, ere
long, Madam, see me at your feete; and as you were my first passion, so
you will be my last.

"On my knees I will tell you, at the first handsom opportunity, that
the grandure of my passion can only be equalled by your beauty; it hath
driven me to such a fatall necessity, as that I cannot hide the misery
which you have caused. Sure, the hostil goddes have, to plague me,
ordayned that fatal marridge, by which you are bound to one so infinitly
below you in degree. Were that bond of ill-omind Hymen cut in twayn
witch binds you, I swear, Madam, that my happiniss woulde be to offer
you this hande, as I have my harte long agoe. And I praye you to beare
in minde this declaracion, which I here sign with my hande, and witch I
pray you may one day be called upon to prove the truth on. Beleave
me, Madam, that there is none in the World who doth more honor to your
vertue than myselfe, nor who wishes your happinesse with more zeal
than--MAXIMILIAN.

"From my lodgings in Whitehall, this 25th of February.

"To the incomparable Catherina, these, with a scarlet satten petticoat."

The Count had debated about the sentence promising marriage in event
of Hayes's death; but the honest Abbe cut these scruples very short, by
saying, justly, that, because he wrote in that manner, there was no need
for him to act so; that he had bette