Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/89



CHAP. IV.

this time he had inquired of his host "how long he had lived in that rock?"

"Many years (replied he;) I had once a place at Court, was esteemed by the late Emperor, and not a small favourite with a Lady he loved. I often attended him when he visited her privately, and I happened to be young and pleased her fancy: I do not pretend to defend my conduct, I ought to have remembered the Emperor was my master and benefactor; but the seductive arts of women it is difficult to withstand, and perhaps I made no efforts for the pur-