Page:Madrid shaver's adventures in the Spanish inquisition (1).pdf/18

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politeness: he was a man of high birth and elegant menners, with a heart as benevolent as it was brave: such an address, set off with a person finely formed and perfectly engaging, could not fail to impress the prisoners with the most favourable ideas; and as Don Manuel spoke French fluently, lie could converse with the British Captain without the help of an interpreter: as he expressed an impatient desire of being admitted to his parole, that he might revisit his friends and connections, from whom he had been long separated, he was overjoyed to hear that the English ship would carry her prize into Lisbon; and that he would there be set on shore, and permitted to make the best of his way from thence to Madrid. He talked of his wife with all the ardour of the most impassioned lover, and apologized for his tears, by imputing them to the agony of his mind and infirmity of his health, under the dread of being longer separated from an object so dear to his heart, and on whom he doated with the fondest affection. The generous captain indulged him in these eonversations, and being a husband himself, knew how to allow for all the tendernesses of his sensations. Ah, brave Sir, cried Don Manuel, would to heaven it were in my power to have the honour of presenting my beloved Leonora to you on your landing at Lisbon.—Perhaps, added he, turning to Pedrosa, who at that moment en ered the cabin, this gentleman, whom I take to be a Spaniard, may have heard the name of Donna Leonora de Casafonda; if he has been at Madrid, it is possible he may have seen her; should that be the case he can