distracts my mind! for, as to myself, I am careless of everything future, and am sure nothing, when I am absent from hence, can ever make me feel what I do at this moment; nor would I have home it so long, had it not been for fear of bringing greater mischiefs on your head than what you now suffer.'
"Valentine swore he would never forsake me, that he would accompany me wherever I pleased, and be my support and guard to the utmost of his power, for that he valued his life no longer than it conduced to that end; but he thought it advisable we should make one effort, before we took such a step, to conconvince my father of Livia's treachery; and lay before him how she had used us; perhaps his affection might return for us, his eyes might be opened, _ and everything be right again.
"I considered a moment, and then replied. 'My I dear brother, I am very certain my father's passion for this woman must be without all bounds, or he could never have been influenced by any arts of hers to strike me, and use me as he has done. Were we to attempt to open his eyes on her faults, he would not hearken to us, and only hate us the more; and, could we give him any suspicion of her, it would only make him unhappy, which, let him use me ever so cruelly, the world could not bribe me to wish him; for, as I take his fondness for Livia to be unconquerable, all the ease he has he owes to his blindness; and I am sure, if a man was put in heavy chains, which he had no means of taking off, and was mad enough to deceive himself, and fancy they were bracelets made of the finest jewels and strings of the softest silk, that man would be very little his friend who should take pains to convince him they were made of iron, till he felt ail their weight, and was sensible of his own unhappy condition. Nay, if I loved him, and was confined within his reach, and he should carry his madness so far as to strike
