Producing Eugenia’s MSS.
De Val. Beware! you offend me; grief yields no privilege to slander.
Mon. I am not a slanderer, indeed, indeed, I am not; here are proofs: your lordship, I find, is called the Count De Valmont; had you not once a relation of the same title, who fell in battle with the Huguenots eighteen years ago!
De Val. Never.
Mon. Yet ’twas the same title: ay, here ’tis written: “in forcing the passage of the Durance.”
De Val. How! ’tis of myself assuredly you read; I was reported falsely in that very action to have fallen; and for a time my death was credited through France.
Mon. Ah! my lord! my lord! O! it rushes on my heart—nay, give but a moment; speak; were you once wedded to a lady named Eugenia?
De Val. Woman! ah, name beloved!—wherefore that torturing question?
Mon. Yes, yes; it is—it must be so—I cannot, here—read—this!—(giving the scroll).
De Val. Eternal Powers! Eugenia’s well-known character! when and whence did you procure this writing?