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ſure you, I am willing to bear what ſhare of it is proper for me, I ſhould very much wonder, if you were inſenfible of ſo great a Loſs; Mourn on, your Tears are ſo many Proofs of your good Nature; but I hope, however, that Time and Reaſon will moderate your Grief.
She retir’d into her Apartment, where giving her ſelf wholly up to Sorrow,ſhe ſpent a whole Year in Mourning, and afflicting her ſelf. At the end of that time ſhe beg’d leave of me, to build a Burying-place for her ſelf, within the Bounds of the Palace, where ſhe would continue, ſhe told ſhe told me, to the end of her Days: I agreed to it, and ſhe built a ſtately Palace, with a Cupulo, that may be ſeen here, and ſhe called it the Palace of Tears: When it was finiſh’d, ſhe caus’d bring her Gallant thither, from the Place whither ſhe had made him be carried the ſame Night that I wounded him; ſhe had hinder’d his dying, by a Drink ſhe gave him, and carried to him her ſelf every Day, after he came to the Palace of Tears.
Yet, with all her Enchantments, ſhe could not cure the Wretch; he was not only unable to walk, and to help himſelf, but had alſo loſt the Uſe of his Speech, and gave no ſign of Life, but only by his Looks. Tho’ the Queen had no other Conſolation but to ſee him, and to ſay to him all that her fooliſh Paſſion could inſpire her with, yet every Day ſhe made him two long Viſits: I was very well inform’d of all this, but pretended to know nothing of it.
One Day I went out of Curioſity to the Palace of Tears, to ſee how the Princeſs employ’d her ſelf, and going to a place where ſhe could not ſee me, I heard her ſpeak thus to her Gallant; I am afflicted to the higheſt Degree, to ſee you in this Condition; I am as ſenſible as you your ſelf of the tormenting Grief you endure; but, dear Soul, I always ſpeak to you and you don’t anſwer me: How: long will you be filent? Speak only one Word: Alas! the fweeteſt Moments of my Life, are theſe I ſpend here in partaking of your Grief, I cannot live at a Diſtance from you, and wou’d prefer the Pleaſure of always ſeeing you to the Empire of the Univerſe.
At theſe Words, which were ſeveral times interrupted by her Sighs and Sobs, I loſſ all patience,and diſcoveringmy
