Page:The female Quixote, or, The adventures of Arabella (Second Edition).pdf/289



Denunciation of your Anger, I submit, Madam, without repining at the Rigour of that Doom you have inflicted on me. Yes, Madam, this Criminal, who has dared to adore you, with the most sublime and perfect Passion that ever was, acknowleges the Justice of his Punishment; and, since it is impossible to cease loving you, or to live without telling you he does so, he is going, voluntarily, to run upon that Death your Severity makes him wish for, and the Greatness of his Crime demands. Let my Death then, O Divine Arabella, expiate the Offence I have been guilty of! And let me hope those fair Eyes, that have beheld me with Scorn when alive, will not refuse to shed some Tears upon my Tomb! And that, when you remember my Crime of loving you, you will also be pleased to remember, that I died for that Crime; and wish for no other Comfort in Death, but the Hope of your not hating, when he is no more,

The unhappy Bellmour.

Arabella, who had read this Letter aloud, sighed gently at the Conclusion of it; but poor Lucy, who was greatly affected at so dolorous an Epistle, could not restrain her Tears; but sobbed so often, and with so much Violence, as, at length, recalled her Lady from the Reverie, into which she was plunged.

What ails you? said she to her Confidante, greatly surprised: What is the Cause of this unseemly Sorrow?

Oh! Madam! cried Lucy, her Sobs making a frequent and unpleasing Interruption in her