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Appendix I The Loves of Milord Edward Bomston1 The strange adventures of Milord Edward in Rome were too novelistic to be combined with Julie’s without spoiling their simplicity. I will therefore limit myself to extracting and abridging here what helps to understand two or three letters where they come up. Milord Edward, during his travels in Italy, had made the acquaintance in Rome of a Neapolitan noblewoman, with whom he soon fell deeply in love: she, for her part, conceived for him a violent passion that consumed her the rest of her life, and Wnally sent her to the grave. This man, rugged and uncourtly, but ardent and sensible , extreme and grand in everything, could hardly inspire or experience a mediocre attachment. The stoical principles of the virtuous Englishman worried the Marchesa. She elected to pass herself oV as a widow during her husband’s absence, which was easy for her, because they were both foreigners in Rome, and because the Marchese was serving in the Emperor’s troops. It was not long before the passionate Edward broached marriage; the Marchesa invoked religious diVerence and other pretexts. Ultimately, they contracted an intimate and licentious relationship, until the day when Edward, having discovered that the husband was living, tried to break oV with her, after heaping on her the most stinging reproaches, in a rage at Wnding himself guilty, without his knowledge, of a crime he held in horror. The Marchesa, a woman without principles, but crafty and full of charms, spared nothing to hold onto him, and Wnally succeeded. The adulterous relationship was ended, but the relationship continued. As unworthy as she was to love, she yet did: she had to consent to seeing fruitlessly a man she adored, whom she could not otherwise keep, and with this intentional barrier stimulating love on both sides, it became the more ardent through constraint. The Marchesa did not neglect the attentions that could lead her lover to forget his resolutions: she was seductive and beautiful . All for nothing. The Englishman held Wrm; his great soul was being tested. His foremost passion was virtue. He would have sacriWced his life to his mistress, and his mistress to his duty. One day the seduction became too insistent; the means he was to employ in order to deliver himself from it curbed the Marchesa and made all her wiles vain. It is not because we are weak, but because we are fainthearted that our senses always enslave us. Whoever fears death less than crime is never forced to commit a crime. There are few of those vigorous souls which attract others and raise them to their own sphere; but there are some. Edward’s was one such. The Marchesa hoped to win him over; it was he who little by little won her. When lessons of virtue took on the melody of love in his mouth, he moved her, he made her weep; its sacred Xame inspired this grovelling soul; a sentiment of justice and honor brought its foreign 613 X_Append.qxd 04 Oct 2007 10:41 AM Page 613 charm into it; the truly beautiful was beginning to please her: if the wicked could change their nature, the Marchesa’s heart would have done so. Love alone took advantage of these slight emotions; as a result it gained in subtlety . She began to love in a generous manner: notwithstanding her ardent temperament , and a climate where the senses have such empire, she forsook her pleasures to attend to her lover’s and, though unable to share them, she at least wanted him to take them from her. Such was on her part the favorable interpretation of a conduct in which her character and Edward’s, which she understood well, could lead one to see a more insidious form of seduction. She spared neither eVort nor expense to search out anywhere in Rome a young person who was loose and dependable; she was found, not without diYculty. One evening, after a most tender conversation, she introduced her to him: Do what you will with her, she told him with a sigh; let her enjoy my love’s recompense; but let her be the only one. It suYces me that when you are with her you sometimes remember the hand that gave her to you. She started to leave; Edward held her back. Stop, he said to her; if you think I am contemptible enough to take advantage of your oVer in your own house...

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