Go, and you bear with you my warmest prayers for your happiness, my friendship, my esteem and admiration: Stay, and you become to me the source of danger, of sufferings, of despair! Answer me, Matilda; What is your resolve ?'--She was silent--'Will you not speak, Matilda?
Will you not name your choice ?' 'Cruel! Cruel!' She exclaimed, wringing her hands in agony; 'You know too well that you offer me no choice! You know too well that I can have no will but yours!' 'I was not then deceived! Matilda's generosity equals my expectations.' 'Yes; I will prove the truth of my affection by submitting to a decree which cuts me to the very heart.

Take back your promise.

I will quit the Monastery this very day.

I have a Relation, Abbess of a Covent in Estramadura: To her will I bend my steps, and shut myself from the world for ever.

Yet tell me, Father; Shall I bear your good wishes with me to my solitude?
Will you sometimes abstract your attention from heavenly objects to bestow a thought upon me ?' 'Ah! Matilda, I fear that I shall think on you but too often for my repose!' 'Then I have nothing more to wish for, save that we may meet in heaven.
Farewell, my Friend! my Ambrosio!-- And yet methinks, I would fain bear with me some token of your regard!' 'What shall I give you ?' 'Something .-- Any thing .-- One of those flowers will be sufficient.' (Here She pointed to a bush of Roses, planted at the door of the Grotto.) 'I will hide it in my bosom, and when I am dead, the Nuns shall find it withered upon my heart.' The Friar was unable to reply: With slow steps, and a soul heavy with affliction, He quitted the Hermitage.