Was ever such a cruel coil of deceit and trickery wound about a poor creature, Amelia? If you could know the horrid feeling of helplessness that seized me in face of this man’s plottings! Oh, my dear, your Sylvia is a sad coward. She durst not look the perfidious wretch in the face, and declare her hatred at once of his proposition and himself. Instead, she had recourse to a miserable equivocation that darted into her mind.
“Sir, you can’t but be aware that ’tis only seven months since I lost the best of fathers. What have you seen in Sylvia Freyne to make you think so meanly of her as that she would outrage all the laws of decorum and filial piety by listening to a proposal of marriage in such circumstances?”
For one instant, my dear, the man was taken aback. “I declare, madam, you’re cleverer than I thought you!” was in his eye, and the unhappy fool before him rejoiced. Then he said, “I accept the rebuke, madam, and Clarissa shan’t be troubled again with my ill-timed importunities for the present, unless there’s any reason for infringing her pious punctilio in her own interest.”
He left me soon after, and for three days I have been in a continual terror lest his departure should only be a pretended one, meant to throw me off my guard. But I have seen and heard nothing of him, and the steward assuring me to-day that the Soubah had left Muxadavad with his army, I begin to feel that I may look forward to a short period of peace.
February ye 21st.
Sinzaun is returned, Amelia, bringing such tidings as have reduced your unhappy Sylvia to the lowest depths of despair. Immediately upon entering the saloon he acquainted me that Colonel Clive, after a gallant resistance, in which he was nobly supported by his troops, had been forced to surrender, and was now in captivity until some Dutch or other European ship could be found to convey him to England, while the last traces of British influence in Bengall were now destroyed. As if this grievous news, putting an end to any extravagant hopes that might have crept into my mind, were not enough, my persecutor must needs add a keener edge to my suffering by saying—
“Will it please the amiable Clarissa to learn that she had some hand in this overthrow? I was told by one of the captive British officers that ’twas the knowledge of Miss Freyne’s carrying-off by the Moors that had played a principal part in inducing her generous countrymen to attempt this rash expedition in the vain hope of rescuing her.”
Was not this an excess of cruelty, Amelia? Not content with bringing about the destruction of Calcutta, I must involve in my misfortunes the forces of Madrass and our great, our only commander on Indian soil. Blame me, my dear, if you will, but I think you’ll scarce wonder that the impulse seized me to unite my unhappy fate with that of the sneering wretch seated opposite me, and draw down upon him some of those calamities which seem to follow every one with whom I have to do. Almost as the thought crossed my mind, Sinzaun remarked, with great deliberation,—
“If I cursed the unfortunate Mr Clive a month ago for tearing me from the side of my charmer, I have some hopes of finding reason before long to bless him. The Soubah has been pleased to appoint me a mission to visit Mons. Bussy, who is advancing hither from the Carnatic, and welcome him in his triumphal course. Now in this agreeable jaunt I shall be accompanied with my own tried troops, and no one can question my actions. I see that Clarissa’s health is suffering from her close confinement within these walls, and perhaps she may find the prospect pleasing of a journey that would carry her through the most charming region of Bengall, in the company of a man that would spare no pains to make it enjoyable to her. The past can’t be undone, but if Clarissa will relax her prohibition, and suffer her adorer to seek the priest he spoke of, it may be that she’ll find it easier to banish from her mind the sad images which can’t but cloud at present the spirits of a creature of so much sensibility.”
Sure it must have been that Providence in which he affects to disbelieve that directed Sinzaun’s tongue to the mention of the past at that instant, thus recalling my mind from the shocking scheme of vengeance that had presented itself to me to a frightful question which I had been led to ask myself during his absence.