The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

THE SECRET WITNESS.

237

versations with me took place at seasons of general repose, when all doors were fast and avenues shut, in the
midst of silence, and in the bosom of retirement. The
theme of our discourse was, commonly, too sacred for
any ears but our own; disclosures were of too intimate
and delicate a nature for any but a female aldience;
they were too injurious to the fame and peace of Ormond for him to be admitted to partake of them: yet
his words implied a full acquaintance with recent events,
and with purposes and deliberations shrouded, as we
imagined, in impenetrable secrecy.
As soon as Constantia recovered from the confusion of
these thoughts, she eagerly questioned him: —" What do
you know? How do you know what has happened, or
what is intended?"
"Poor Constantia!" he exclaimed, in a tone bitter and
sarcastic. "How hopeless is thy ignorance! To enlighten thee is past my power. What do I know? Every
thing. Not a tittle has escaped me. Thy letter is superfluous; I know its contents before they are written. I
was to be told that a soldier and a traveller, a man who
refused his faith to dreams, and his homage to shadows,
merited only scorn and forgetfulness. That thy affections
and person were due to another; that intercourse between
us was henceforth to cease; that preparation was making
for a voyage to Britain, and that Ormond was to walk to
his grave alone!"
In spite of harsh tones and inflexible features, these
words were accompanied with somewhat that betrayed
a mind full of discord and agony. Constantia's astonishment was mingled with dejection. The discovery of
a passion deeper and less curable than she suspectedthe perception of embarrassments and difficulties in the
path which she had chosen, that had not previously occurred to her-threw her mind into anxious suspense.
The measures she had previously concerted were still
approved. To part from Ormond was enjoined by every
dictate of discretion and duty. An explanation of her
motives and views could not take place more seasonably
than at present. Every consideration of justice to herself and humanity to Ormond made it desirable that this