Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/232

 grow languid in the performance of those duties, which free-will might have performed with pleasure and alacrity: For my own part, all my prospects of happiness for ever clouded, oppressed with the weight of a much-loved father's denunciation, and which seems to be so literally fulfilled in this life—a brother, a husband, a father; yet separated from every endearing tie; what can I promise myself in this world, that can counter-balance that tranquil, that serene life which pervades in a convent, and which my misfortunes seem to point out as my only place of rest; and if I can assure to myself such a companion, such a friend, as Father Joseph, what can I desire more?"

"Revenge!" cried the Solitary, with an eye darting fire through his emaciated countenance: "Yes, revenge!" repeated he, with a violence that startled Ferdinand; "Live to detect the artful villainy of those that have wronged you, and to punish them!"

"But I know no such persons," said Ferdinand; "I know of no wrongs that I have