She had no sooner laid this plot, than she ran to see if the servant he had left behind was yet gone, and finding he was not, bad him wait a little, that she might send a letter by him to his master. The contents of her epistle were as follow:
‘Something has happened, which lays me under a necessity of speaking to you this night: — the only consolation I have under the severest of all afflictions, is, that I did not take back the key I gave you in the morning: I beg you will make use of it, and let me find you in the close arbour as soon as the darkness will permit your entrance unobserved: — fail not, if you have any regard for the honour, the peace, and even the life of the unfortunate
Elgidia.
Natura had no sooner received this billet from the hands of his servant, than all his tenderness for the fair authoress of it revived in him, which, joined to his impatient curiosity for the knowledge of the accident she mentioned, easily determined him to do as she desired.
He set out at the close of day; but the moon rising immediately after, shone so extremely bright as proved her, no less than the sun, an enemy to the design he was at present engaged in; he was therefore obliged to wait till that planet had withdrawn her light, before he durst approach the convent.
The abbess and her companion having dressed themselves in riding habits, went at the above-mentioned hour to the gate where they expected the man and horses were attending their coming; but there was not the least appearance of any. — the abbess, emboldened by her impatience and despair, would needs venture out some paces beyond the gate, to listen if she could hear any sound of what she wanted, but had not long continued in that posture, before she discovered by the twinkling light of the stars, two men on horseback, galloping directly to the place where she stood: — impossible was it for her to discern what sort of persons they were, but easy to know, as there were two men, and no more than two horses, that they were not those she looked for; on which she ran with all the haste she could back into the garden, and clapping the gate after her, in her fright stopped not till she was almost at the entrance of the cloyster: — both she and her companion were out of breath; but when they had a little recovered it, the latter took the liberty of railying her on the terror she had been in, at the sight of two persons, who were, doubtless, only pursuing their own affairs, without any thought or notice of them: — the abbess acknowledged the pleasantry was just, and returned again to the gate, which having opened, they found two horses tied to a tree, at a little distance from it, without any person to look after them. She imagined they belonged to the farmer, but could not guess wherefore there was not a third, or how it happened that the man was not with them. — The two lady-adventurers waited in hopes of seeing their attendant with another horse, till the abbess, fearing the night would be too far spent for the execution of her design, and grown quite wild with rage and vexation, resolved to go without a guide; and accordingly she, and the young nun that was with her, mounted the horses they found there, and rode away.
Little did this distracted woman imagine to whom she was indebted for the means of conveying herself where she wished to be; for in effect these horses were Natura's, and it was no other than himself, attended by his man, who had put her into that fright, which occasioned her running so far back into the garden, as gave him time to enter, without being either seen or heard by her: — he was no sooner within the gate, than his servant tied the horses to a tree, as has been related, and retired to a more convenient place, either to lye down to sleep, or on some other occasion. — Thus did an accident which had like to have broken all Elgidia's measures, turn wholly to the advantage of them, and she found as much satisfaction, as a person in her situation could possibly take, in finding Natura so punctual to the summons she had sent:
It was with a flood of tears she related to him all that had passed between the furious abbess and herself after his departure, and concluded her discourse with beseeching him to see her in the morning, and omit nothing that might pacify her, “even,” said she, “to forswear ever speaking to me more.”
Natura was touched to the very soul at the grief he saw her in, and equally with the tender consideration she had for him; and now more devoted to her than ever, would have done any thing to prove the sincerity of his passion, but that which she demanded of him: — it was in vain she urged the impossibility of keeping a correspondence together under the same roof with a rival who had all the power in her own hands; or that she represented how much better it would be for both to break off so dangerous an intercourse of themselves, before the rage of the abbess should put her upon doing it, in a manner which might involve them all in destruction: — all the arguments she made use of, only served to render him more amorous, and consequently less able to part with her. — The difference he found between these two sisters; the outrageous temper of the one, compared with the prudence, sweetness, and gentleness of the other, rendered the comparison almost odious to him; and as he could not but acknowledge the impractibility of maintaining a conversation with the latter, without the participation of the former; nor though he should even consent to divide himself between them, would either of them be content, he told Elgidia, that the only way to solve these difficulties, was, for her to fly from the monastery, and be the partner of his fortune, as she was the mistress of his heart.
Such a proposition made her start! — to abandon all her friends, and put herself wholly in the power of a stranger, of whose fortune, family, or fidelity, she could not be assured, gave her very just alarms; but whatever was her reluctance at the first mention of such an enterprize, the extreme passion she had for him, rendered all her apprehensions, by degrees, less formidable: — he told her he had no other wishes, than such as were dictated by honour; — that he would marry her as soon as they should arrive at a place where the ceremony could be performed with safety: — that he was heir to a considerable estate after his father's death, that on his return to England he should have a handsome settlement out of it, and that his present allowance was sufficient to keep them above want. — People easily believe what they wish, especially from the mouth of a beloved person. — Natura indeed had uttered no untruths as to his circumstances, but as to the main point, his marrying her, it is impossible to judge whether in that he was sincere, because he knew not himself whether he was so, tho' in the vehemence of his present inclinations he might imagine he did so, and at that time really meant as he said.