Page:Duty and Inclination 2.pdf/186

184 England, the immense Ocean rolling between them? The same squadron, perhaps the same ship, had transported to a foreign clime with that beloved son—him whom she durst not name, she must not think of! In doing so, every pleasing vision or airy dream in which her fancy had indulged, would be withdrawn—hope would become extinct, and life a wilderness!

From that time the unceasing efforts she exerted for the suppression of her affliction, were even the cause of increasing its durability and strength. Reason and conscience were ever struggling to gain the pre-eminence over nature and sentiment; powerful opponents in the breast of Rosilia, for nature maintained its empire, uncontrolled by the suggestions of the one, and sentiment yielded not to the restraints of the other.

Thus disturbed, distracted, and divided, she became a prey to perpetual conflicts too painful to last. She insensibly languished, whilst the immolation of her unfortunate secret, in her own solitary bosom, prevented her from receiving those consolations, a participator in her sufferings might have afforded; and as her mental malady increased, its baneful influence was communicated to her frame. Often did she wish to unburthen her grief, but pride and a native dignity, conjoined with delicacy,