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tfrtr preemption to call me a robber. Let him thank your prefence that redrains my indignation. Sity (added he) vou are impofcd upon. I am the youn<£ man to whom your brother Auguftin promifed his- niece. If you defire it, I can ihew all the letters’ which he wrote to my father, on the fubjett of the marriage. Will you not believe it when you fee the” piflure of Florentina, which he fent to me foine time before his death.”
“ No (faid the old citizen, interrupting him) neither the picture nor the letters will convince me : I know very well in what manner they fell into your hands, and I advife you as a friend, to be gone from Merida as foon as you •can.” “ This is too much (cried the young gentleman in his turn) I will not fuf- fer my name to be ftolcn with impunity, nor myfelf to be treated like an highwayman. I knoy fome peo*- ple in this place, whom I will find , and return to confound the impoftor that has prejudiced you againlfc me.” So faying, he retired with his valet, and Moralez remained mader of the field : nay, this adi venture made Jerome de Moyadas refolve to have the marriage celebrated that very day, and he went out infianrly, to give the nccclfary orders for the occa» lion.
Though my comrade was very well pleafed to fcC Florcntina’s father in a difpofition fo favourable for us, he was far from being perfc&Iy at eafe; feaiing the confequence of the xneafurcs wh : ch he conclndccl Pcd o would certainly take ; and he waited for me with impatience, to communicate what had happen* cd. Finding him, at my return, plunged in a pro- found reverie, What is the matter, friend ? (faid I) thou leaned in a brown dudy. 1 He replied, “ If 1 am, ir is not without reafon.” And informed me of the whole affair; adding, thou feed what caufe I have to mule. It was thou alone who rafhly threw us into that dilemma. It was a (Lining enterprise, I own, and would have crowned thee With glory had A 4 it