Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/132

 "Good Heavens!" said she, "what imposition, what falsities did Ferdinand tell me!" She then repeated to him what has been already mentioned, and the very circumstances which he had invented to calm her mind, and restore her peace, were now turned against him, as a piece of base duplicity, and the inference drawn was, 'that if he was capable of so much deceit in one thing, he might in another, and therefore she could have no confidence where there was room for doubts."—Rhodophil, who was perfectly acquainted with his brother's motives for the deception, pretended to be entirely ignorant of them, and, by the most artful finesse, gave a colouring to an action dictated by tenderness alone, that stamped an indelible impression on the mind of Claudina, to the injury of that love and truth she owed to the most affectionate of husbands.

Letters very soon arrived from the much injured Ferdinand, acquainting them of his arrival at Vienna, his introduction to the Emperor, and the desirable situation in which