ce.

It was break of Day when the Servant, who had been employed all the
foregoing Day in procuring Accoutrements for the Two Cavaliers, to appear
in at the Tilting, came into the Room, and told them all the Young
Gentlemen in the Town were trying their Equipage, and preparing to be
early in the Lists. They made themselves ready with all Expedition at
the Alarm: and Hippolito having made a Visit to his Governour, dispatch'd
a Messenger with the Letter and Directions to Leonora. At the Signal
agreed upon the Casement was opened and a String let down, to which the
Bearer having fastned the Letter, saw it drawn up, and returned. It were
a vain attempt to describe Leonora's Surprize, when she read the
Superscription.--The Unfortunate Aurelian, to the Beautiful Leonora--After
she was a little recovered from her Amaze, she recollected to her self
all the Passages between her and her supposed Cousin, and immediately
concluded him to be Aurelian. Then several little Circumstances which
she thought might have been sufficient to have convinced her, represented
themselves to her; and she was in a strange Uneasiness to think of her
free Carriage to a Stranger.

She was once in a Mind to have burn'd the Letter, or to have stay'd for
an Opportunity to send it again. But she was a Woman, and her Curiosity
opposed it self to all thoughts of that Nature: at length with a firm
Resolution, she opened it, and found Word for Word, what is underwritten.

The Letter.

MADAM,

If your fair Eyes, upon the breaking up of this, meet with somewhat
too quick a Surprize, make thence, I beseech you, some reflection upon
the Condition I must needs have been in, at the suddain Appearance of
that Sun of Beauty, which at once shone so full upon my soul. I could
not immediately disengage my self from that Maze of Charms, to let you
know how unworthy a Captive your Eyes had made through mistake. Sure,
Madam, you cannot but remember my Disorder, of which your Innocent
(Innocent, though perhaps to me Fatal) Error made a Charitable (but
wide) Construction. Your Tongue pursued the Victory of your Eyes, and
you did not give me time to rally my poor Disordered Senses, so as to
make a tolerable Retreat. Pardon, Madam, the Continuation of the
Deceipt, and call it not so, that I appear'd to be other than my self;
for Heaven knows I was not then my self, nor am I now my own. You
told me something that