If this letter ever reach thee, thou wilt learn how thy wife was true to thee in life, and has therefore the right to bless thee in death." At this passage, Calderon dropped the letter, and was seized with a kind of paralysis, which for some moments seemed to deprive him of life itself.

When he recovered he eagerly grasped a scroll that was enclosed in the letter, but which, hitherto, he had disregarded.

Even then, so strong were his emotions, that sight itself was obscured and dimmed, and it was long before he could read the characters, which were already discoloured by time.
"TO INEZ.
"I have but a few hours to live,--let me spend them in atonement and in prayer, less for myself than thee.

Thou knowest not how madly I adored thee; and how thy hatred or indifference stung every passion into torture.

Let this pass.