450 D'ALEMBERT. 



she loved him, when he discovered, by a paper left for 

 him to read after her death, that all the time she really 

 loved another. She appointed him her executor; and 

 he found that she had kept masses of letters from others 

 and not one from himself; also she bequeathed all these 

 letters to different persons and none to him. He then 

 bursts out into this complaint: "Pourquoi les devoirs 

 que cette execution m'imposoit m'ont-ils appris, ce que 

 je ne devois pas savoir et ce que j'aurois desire ignorer? 

 Pourquoi ne m'avez-vous pas ordonne briiler sans 

 Fouvrir ce manuscrit funeste, que j'ai cru pouvoir lire 

 sans y trouver de nouveaux sujets de douleur, et qui 

 m'apprit que depuis huit ans au moins, je n'etois plus le 

 premier objet de votre cceur, malgre toute Tassurance 

 que vous m'en aviez si souvent donnee ?" He then goes 

 on naturally enough to ask what security he could have, 

 after this discovery, that she ever had loved him; and 

 that she had not been also playing upon his affections 

 ("trompe ma tendresse") during the eight or ten other 

 years which he had believed to be so filled with love for 

 him. (CBuv., Vol. L, p. 25.) 



Now, how can we possibly account for this but by 

 supposing, that she had made him believe her professed 

 affection for Mora was all a pretence? But if so, what 

 did he think was the nature of her connexion with that 

 enthusiastic young Spaniard? Assuredly he must have 

 been aware that Mora was in love with her. Then what 

 was her plan with respect to him? I confess I am 

 driven, how reluctantly soever, to the painful conclusion, 

 that he lent himself to the plan ^of her inveigling the 

 Spaniard into a marriage, and deceived himself into a 

 belief that her heart was still his own. Marmonters 



