Page:The Mysterious Mother - Walpole (1781).djvu/20

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THE MYSTERIOUS MOTHER.
MARTIN.
And Adeliza veil'Say her son were dead,
And Adeliza veil'd—

BENEDICT.
With fruitless ardouI press the latter
With fruitless ardour. Often as I urge it,
She pleads the maiden's flushing cheek, and nature,
That speaks in characters of glowing rose
Its modest appetites and timid wishes.
Her sex, she says, when gratified, are frail;
When check'd, a hurricane of boundless passions.
Then, with sweet irony and sad, she wills me
Ask my own breast, if cowls and scapularies
Are charms all powerful to subdue desire?

MARTIN.
'Twere wiser school the maiden: lead the train
Of young ideas to a fancied object.
A mental spouse may fill her hov'ring thoughts,
And bar their fixing on some earthly lover.

BENEDICT.
This is already done—but Edmund's death
Were hopes more solid—

MARTIN.
His letters intercepted—First report him dead,
His letters intercepted—

BENEDICT.
Thou true son of the cGreatly thought!
Thou true son of the church!—and lo! where comes
Our patroness—leave me; I will not lose
An instant. I will sound her inmost soul,
And mould it to the moment of projection.
[Exit Martin.

[Benedict retires within the castle.


SCENE

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