Peregrine did not neglect the occasion; but, on the contrary,
seized the first minute, and, in gentle murmurs, lamented his hard
hap in being thus the sport of fortune. He assured her, and that
with great sincerity, that all the cross accidents of his life
had not cost him one half of the vexation and keenness of chagrin
which he had suffered last night; and that now he was on the brink
of parting from her, he should be overwhelmed with the blackest
despair, if she would not extend her compassion so far as to give
him an opportunity of sighing at her feet in Brussels, during the
few days his affairs would permit him to spend in that city. This
young lady, with an air of mortification, expressed her sorrow for
being the innocent cause of his anxiety; said she hoped last night's
adventure would be a salutary warning to both their souls; for she
was persuaded, that her virtue was protected by the intervention
of Heaven; that whatever impression it might have made upon him,
she was enabled by it to adhere to that duty from which her passion
had begun to swerve; and, beseeching him to forget her for his own
peace, gave him to understand, that neither the plan she had laid
down for her own conduct, nor the dictates of her honour, would
allow her to receive his visits, or carry on any other correspondence
with him, while she was restricted by the articles of her marriage-vow.
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