Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/164

 here, in a distant part of the Castle from this, where they are shut up, and have only a garden to amuse themselves in, which is as much liberty as the laws of our prophet, and the custom of the country, allows them.—You Christians make your women infamous by toleration of their vices, and giving the reins to their natural depraved inclinations."

"As I make it an invariable rule," answered Ferdinand, "never to enter into any controversies against declared and established prejudices, I shall make no other reply to your observation, than to assure you, that in the European countries, we generally find an undue restraint, a severity of conduct, either from a parent or a husband, almost always is productive of those errors and vices we are so sedulous to guard them from.

"The English repose an unlimited confidence in their women; and though doubtless there may be, and I dare say are, very many who disgrace themselves and their families, yet both, from reading and information, I am led to believe that the number of