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532 life will render it so dear to me, that I will take greater care for it. I had ceased to prize existence: alas! could I be happy under the recollection of the sentiments I heard you express for Constancio? Those fatal verses, and your coldness, have reduced me to the wretched state in which you see me; but, lovely shepherdess, you have desired me to live! Let me live then, and live but for you!"

Constancia had much difficulty in concealing the pleasure this flattering declaration gave her. Fearing that somebody might be listening to what the Prince was saying to her, she interrupted him by asking, if he would permit her to put on some bandages of the herbs she had gathered. He stretched his arms out to her with so much tenderness of expression, that she hastily bound on one of the bandages, in order that nobody should perceive what was passing between them, and having gone through several little ceremonies, the better to impose on the Prince's attendants, he exclaimed, after a few minutes, that he felt in less pain. It was quite true; he did. The physicians were summoned, and were surprised at the efficacy of the remedy and the promptitude of its effects; but when they saw the shepherdess who had applied it, they ceased to wonder at anything, and said to one another in their own jargon, that one of her looks was a more powerful dose than any in the whole Pharmacopœa.

The shepherdess was so little affected by all the praises they lavished on her, that those who did not know her, took for stupidity what arose from a very different cause. She crept into a corner of the room, concealing herself from everybody but her patient, whom she approached occasionally to press his forehead or feel his pulse; and in these brief moments they said to each other a thousand charming things with which the heart had much more to do than the head. "I trust, my Lord," said she, "that the sack which the Queen has ordered for me to be drowned in, will not be required for so fatal a purpose. Your health, which is so precious to me, is undoubtedly improving." "It depends wholly upon you, lovely Constancia!" he replied; "a share in your heart can do everything for my peace, and the preservation of my life."

The Prince arose, and repaired to the Queen's apartment. When he was announced, she would not believe it; she