ng, but no sooner heard that the marriage was near
being compleated, than he ventured every thing to prevent it; and, under
a pretence of his own forging, confined Patkul in the castle of
Konisting, where he lay a considerable time; the czar being too much
taken up with combating the fortune of our victorious king, to examine
into this affair, and besides, unwilling to break with Augustus, as
things then stood. Madam d' Ensilden did all this time whatever could be
expected from a sincere affection, in order to procure his enlargement;
but the interest of her friends, at least of those who would be employed
in this intercession, were infinitely too weak to oppose that of
Flemming and the king's own inclination, so that he remained a prisoner,
without being permitted either to write to madam d' Ensilden or see her,
till the time of his being delivered into our hands. But on hearing he
was so, my friend informs me her great spirit, which till now had made
her support her misfortune without discovering to the world any part of
the agonies she sustained, in an instant quite forsook her: she
abandoned herself to despair and grief, equally exclaiming against the
Czar, Augustus, and Charles XII; has ever since shut herself up in her
apartment, which she has caused to be hung with black, the windows
closed, and no light but what a small lamp affords, and only adds more
horror to the melancholy scene: she weeps incessantly, and, as she
expects her lover will obtain no mercy, declares, she only waits till
she hears the sentence of his fate is given, to dye, if possible, at the
same moment of his execution.

I must confess, continued Poniatosky, the history of this lady's
sufferings touch me very much; and tho' I think her lover well worthy of
the death he will undoubtedly receive, could wish some unexpected chance
might once more set him free, and in a condition to recompence so tender
a passion, which Augustus has now no longer any power to oppose.

Horatio had a heart too tender, and too sensible of the woes of love,
not to be greatly affected with this passage; and as they all were
young, and probably had each of them a lady to whom their affections
were given, could not help sympathizing in the misfortunes of two
persons who seemed to have fallen into them merely by the sincere
attachment they had for each other.

CHAP. XVIII.

_King Stanislaus quits Alranstadt to appease the troubles in Poland:
Charles XII. gives laws