Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/274

 sure, and lock his bosom close from professions of friendship, which tend only to deceive, and under a specious covering envelop the most treacherous designs. Should those cautions be read too late to preserve him from the machinations of the deceitful heart, then let him learn from me the triumph of Revenge!!!"

"My father was a Bavarian Baron, but supporting his rank with that splendour necessary to keep his vassals in awe, and give consequence to his dignity at Court, he diminished the value of those estates bequeathed to him by his ancestors, and left me possessed of equal pride, ambition, and desire of grandeur and magnificence, without a capability of gratifying either. Unable to appear at Court with the consequence attached to my title, I retired to my estate, and sought, in the submissive obedience of my vassals, and in the authoritative and sullen grandeur I assumed over them, a consolation for that retirement disappointed ambition had driven me to choose, as a smaller evil than sup-