She beheld no longer her ravisher, whose eye beamed with
ungovernable desires, and whose crest swelled with pride. Every
countenance was marked with apparent carefulness and sympathy. She was
even pleased with their officious and friendly-seeming demeanour.
Tell me, ye vain cavillers, ye haughty adversaries of the omnipotence of
virtue, where could artful vice, where could invisible and hell-born
seduction, have found a fitter object for their triumph? Imogen was not
armed with the lessons of experience: Imogen was not accoutered with the
cautiousness of cultivation and refinement. She was all open to every
one that approached her. She carried her heart in her hand. Ye, I doubt
not, have already reckoned upon the triumph, and counted the advantages.
But, if I do not much mistake the divine lessons I am commissioned to
deliver, the muse shall tell a very different story.
[Illustration]
BOOK THE THIRD
PURPOSES OF RODERIC.--THE CARRIAGE OF IMOGEN.--HER CONTEMPT OF RICHES.
The fatigue which Imogen had undergone in the preceding day, prepared
her to rest during the night with more tranquility than could otherwise
have been expected. The scenes to which she had successively been
witness, and the objects that now surrounded her, were too novel and
extraordinary in their character, to allow much room for the severity of
reflection, and the coolness of meditation.
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