ex A DESULTORY STORY, IN FOUR VOLUMES. INSCRIBED, BY PERMISSION, TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF BUCCLEUGH. VOL. III. There is a kind of justice which a man ought to observe MADAME ROLAND. LONDON: PRINTED FOR A. & J. BLACK & H. PARRY, LEADENHALL-STREET; AND BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH. ADONI A. CHAP. XX. Came he right now, to sing a raven's note, SHAKSPEARE. THOUGH the Comte De l'Avignon's apparent remorse, which succeeded the first discovery of Ferdinand's elopement, corresponded very well with the reports in circulation respecting this young man's origin; and, though the strong superstition, which the cowardice annexed to VOL. III. B vice vice had substituted for religion in his bosom, goaded his conscience with this consequence of his ill-performed vow, there was another more predominating principle of his mind, which was not less interested; whatever grounds, therefore, might appear to justify the Abbé Poverlerie's insinuation, that in his zeal to recover Ferdinand he only sought to defraud him of his rights, the fact was, there was nothing farther from his designs; for it was solely on the establishment of these rights that the accomplishment of his own interested views ultimately depended. The unfortunate father of Ferdinand, involved in very peculiar circumstances of embarrassment relative to his deserted son, had been in a manner compelled to entrust him to De l'Avignon, a man almost a stranger to him, and (still more singular) to continue him under his guardianship even after he had discovered that this trusted-stranger's views were of the most avari cious cious and nefarious kind. But the fidelity which he could not bind by promises he had more effectually secured by other engines; and, previously to that scene of solemn pageantry described by the Abbé, (which was but a seal to a more extensive contract,) he had deposited with De l'Avignon another large sum of money, with an agreement between them, formally registered, signed, and witnessed, on both sides, that this sum was to be doubled to De l'Avignon, or doubly forfeited by him, on Ferdinand's coming of age; according as he should have acquitted himself in regard to the concluding and most important article of the contract,—the restoring Ferdinand to his father's family. The substance of this agreement had been suggested by De l'Avignon himself, who, seeking to render the stranger's unfortunate necessity of confiding in him subservient to his avarice, had betrayed the meanness of his principles by the ungenerous B 2 |