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198 consent of Polusino, the uncle of Montrano, and from whom alone he had any dependance; his father having wasted the best part of the estate which was to descend to him on a courtezan, of whom he was so fond, that he quitted one of the best of wives in the world, and lived wholly with her. Polusino, however, had a very plentiful fortune, and having no children of his own, he declared to everybody, that the young Montrano should be his heir: I, on the other hand, had but a small dowry, and that too in hands whence I could not easily call it out; nothing, therefore, could be mere unadvised, than for two people in such circumstances to join in marriage: but love is deaf to reason; the sum of our desires being the enjoyment of each other, we locked on all the misfortunes which might arise from such an union, as nothing worthy our regard: we took all imaginable care, however, to conceal what we had done from the knowledge of Polusino; but our caution was ineffectual, he was informed of it immediately; and scarce two hours had we been in bed, before he broke into the house where we lay, with a great number of armed men; who forcing Montrano to rise, tore him from my trembling arms, and bearing him away, left me in a swoon, which had like to have been fatal to me; for the people of the house, surprised at what had happened, came not into the chamber for a considerable time; but when they did, they found me on the floor, naked, cold, and in all appearance dead: they applied things proper for my recovery, however, in case there were any remains of life left in me, which, together with the natural strength of my constitution, at last brought me to myself, contrary to the expectation of all about me. I will not prolong the time by a tedious repetition of the exclamations I made; you may believe they were excessive, and proportioned to the greatness of my misfortune. But how infinitely more wretched, even than what I feared, did I find myself, when the next morning, by break of day, I sent in search of