The Signora having concluded her own narrative, reverted to the Count’s unfortunate attachment, and seemed to take a deep interest in his fate. What excited her utter wonder was the constancy with which he persisted in adoring so ungrateful a woman. “Noble sir,” said she, “it is not easy to devise a remedy for your ills, since you would endure the pangs of despised love rather than enjoy the sweets of revenge. Could you but resolve to hate the perfidious creature, it were easy for me to provide you with the means of holding her up to ridicule and scorn, and repaying her doubly all the evil she has inflicted upon you. I can prepare a powder, which, diluted in water, would have the property of producing in the heart of whoever takes it, an irresistible passion for the person from whose hands it has been received. Let the coquette who trifles with your feelings but moisten her lips with this beverage, and she will in a moment be overcome with a resistless love for you. Then repulsing her with all the scorn she has cast upon you, mocking with her own bitterness of insult her sighs and tears, you would be amply avenged in the eyes of the whole Court; but woe be to you if, yielding to her fascinations, you should weakly consent to unite your fate with hers; instead of a loving wife you would find a fury, who would pierce your heart with a thousand stabs, more venomous, more fatal, than those of adders; for as
