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 your claim by manly daring; or let us bury our feuds, as was proposed, by the intermarriage of our children: But trust me, it ill becomes a Prince of your bearing to practice on mercenary wenches—I scorn your imputation; said Frederic: until this hour I never set eyes on this damsel: I have given her no jewel!—my Lord, my Lord, your conscience, your guilt accuses you, and would throw the suspicion on me—but keep your daughter, and think no more of Isabella: The judgments already fallen on your house forbid me matching into it.

Manfred alarmed at the resolute tone in which Frederic delivered these words, endeavoured to pacify him. Dismissing Bianca, he made such submissions to the Marquis, and threw in such artful encomiums on Matilda, that Frederic was once more staggered. However, as his passion was of so recent a date, it could not at once surmount the scruples he had conceived. He had gathered enough from Bianca's discourse to persuade him that heaven declared itself against