dictate, and declaring "that whatever she said and did must be subscribed to by himself and her daughter."
Nevertheless, his reason rebelled, and his sense of religion by no means allowed the justice of refusing the amiable, handsome, and wealthy Englishman, whom his sweet child preferred, and who was perfectly willing that the signora should enjoy all the liberty required by her conscience and her church, together with such sums as should, from time to time, purchase the prayers of the faithful, and all other immunities, so far as his fortune furnished the means.
"No!" said the countess to every thing save the open renunciation, the positive reconciliation of the lover to the church of Rome; "no daughter of mine," said she, "shall wed a heretic—she had far better die."
Lady Anne could calmly contemplate the death of a daughter, provided she died a marchioness: we trust our readers see the difference between the worldly and the religious mother—the cold-hearted and the enthusiastic, but virtuous and upright, woman, although both were wrong, and both inflicted misery on their respective victims, alike unjustifiable in the eye of reason, or the contemplation of Christianity.
