With These Words She Gave Her The Letter Which She
Had Just Received From The Prince,
Mattakesa took it with a greedy pleasure, and found it contained these
lines:
To EDELLA.
Madam,
"I left you in a place, furnished, as I thought,
with every thing necessary for your satisfaction;
but I find I was mistaken in your constitution,
and that there was something wanting,
which, rather than not possess, you must have
recourse to a prison to procure: - ungrateful
as you are to the affection I have treated you
with, I am sorry for your ill conduct, and could
with you had been, at least, more private in
your amours: few men but would have sent an
order for removing you and the persons, for
whose sake you have made these false steps,
into a place where you would have cause to
curse the fatal inclination that seduced you:
think therefore how much you owe a prince,
who, instead of punishing your faults, contents
himself with letting you know he is not ignorant
of them. - If you make a right use of
the lenity I shew on this occasion, you may
perhaps retrieve some part of the influence you
once had over me; but see the Swedish prisoners
no more, if you hope or desire ever to see
MENZIKOFF."
Mattakesa affected the greatest astonishment on having read this letter;
and after having cursed the persons that put such vile suspicions into
the prince's head, asked her what she intended to do.
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