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Rh curiosity; but Anziana perfectly understanding what it was she desired, made her turn from that ungrateful object, and lit down by her on a couch some distance from it, where she began thus: Had I not been convinced of your discretion, said she, I should not have taken this method to shew how improper a person I am to undertake the talk you came hither to employ me in: I will therefore exact no promises from you of preserving my secret, nor desire any other security for it than your own honour ; but as I have begun with bringing you into this closet, which, since thus furnished, has never been entered by any but myself, I will proceed to reveal by what strange means this dreadful guest was harboured here : but because I cannot do it clearly, without going back to some passages of the former part of my life, you must excuse the length of my narration ; which will at least be of this service to you, that your own woes will sit more lightly on you, when you shall know how infinitely more heavy those are under which I labour. These words drew a flood of tears from her to whom they were addressed, as thinking it impossible for any misfortune to exceed that which she sustained ; but composing herself as well as she could, me prepared to give attention to what the other was about to say, who immediately began the relation she had promised in these terms.

T is not unknown to you, said she, that I am descended from one of the best families in this republic, and that I had a fortune equal to my birth ; I shall therefore pass over in silence the years of my