Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FIRST LETTER Men amigo verdadeiro, quem me vos levou tâo longe ? . . . Como vos vos foftes, tudo fe tornou trifteza ; nem parece ainda, fenâo que eftava efpreitando jâ que vos fofieis. Bernardim Ribeiro, Saudades, cap. i. O but think, my love, how much thou wert wanting in fore- fight. Ah! unfortunate, thou wert betrayed, and thou didft betray me with illufive hopes. A paffion on which thou didft reft fo many profpects of pleafure now only caufes thee a deadly defpair, which is like nothing elfe but theFirst cruelty of the abfence which occa- LETTER / fions it. What ! muft this abfence, to which my forrow, all ingenious though it be, cannot give a fad enough name, deprive me for ever of a fight of thofe eyes in which I was wont to fee fo much love, which made me feel fo full of joy, which took the place of all elfe to me, and which, in a word, were all that I defired ? Mine eyes, alas ! have loft the only light that gave them life, tears alone are left them, and ceafelefs weeping is the fole employment I have given them fince I learned that you were bent upon a feparation fo unbearable to me that it muft foon bring about my death. But yet it feems to me that I cling in fome fort to the forrows of which you are the fole caufe. I ' L £) J. J. i. K confecrated my life to you from the moment when I firft faw you, and I feel a certain pleafure in facri- ficing it to you. I fend you my fighs a thoufand times each day, they feek you everywhere, and as fole recompenfe of fo much disquietude they bring me back a warning too true, alas, of my un- happinefs: an unhappinefs which is cruel enough to prevent me from flattering myfelf with hope, and which is ever calling to me—Ceafe, ceafe to wear thyfelf out in vain, ill- fated Marianna, ceafe looking for a lover whom thou ...