Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
Here another pause ensued, which I had not courage enough to interrupt. He
presently resumed.
Perhaps you recollect a visit which you paid, on Christmas day, in the year ——,
to the cathedral church at Toledo. Do you remember?
A moment’s reection recalled to my mind all the incidents of that day. I had
good reason to remember them. I felt no small trepidation when Ludloe referred
me to that day, for, at the moment, I was doubtful whether there had not been
some bivocal agency exerted On that occasion. Luckily, however, it was almost the
only similar occasion in which it had been wholly silent.
I answered in the armative. I remember them perfectly.
And yet, said Ludloe, with a smile that seemed intended to disarm this
declaration of some of its terrors, I suspect your recollection is not as exact as
mine, nor, indeed, your knowledge as extensive. You met there, for the rst time, a
female, whose nominal uncle, but real father, a dean of that ancient church, resided
in a blue stone house, the third from the west angle of the square of St. Jago.
All this was exactly true.
This female, continued he, fell in love with you. Her passion made her deaf
to all the dictates of modesty and duty, and she gave you sucient intimations,
in subsequent interviews at the same place, of this passion; which, she being fair
and enticing, you were not slow in comprehending and returning. As not only the
safety of your intercourse, but even of both your lives, depended on being shielded
even from suspicion, the utmost wariness and caution was observed in all your
proceedings. Tell me whether you succeeded in your eorts to this end.
I replied, that, at the time, I had no doubt but I had.
And yet, said he, drawing something from his pocket, and putting it into my
hand, there is the slip of paper, with the preconcerted emblem inscribed upon it,
which the infatuated girl dropped in your sight, one evening, in the left aisle of that
church. That paper you imagined you afterwards burnt in your chamber lamp. In
pursuance of this token, you deferred your intended visit, and next day the lady
was accidentally drowned, in passing a river. Here ended your connexion with her,
and with her was buried, as you thought, all memory of this transaction.
I leave you to draw your own inference from this disclosure. Meditate upon
it when alone. Recal all the incidents of that drama, and labour to conceive the
means by which my sagacity has been able to reach events that took place so far
o, and under so deep a covering. If you cannot penetrate these means, learn to
reverence my assertions, that I cannot be deceived; and let sincerity be henceforth
the rule of your conduct towards me, not merely because it is right, but because
concealment is impossible.
We will stop here. There is no haste required of us. Yesterday’s discourse will
suce for to-day, and for many days to come. Let what has already taken place be
the subject of profound and mature reection. Review, once more, the incidents of
your early life, previous to your introduction to me, and, at our next conference,
prepare to supply all those deciencies occasioned by negligence, forgetfulness,
Page | 715