secret union with him. In the glare of the court she half forgets her
country husband until too fatally reminded of him by being sought in
marriage by the Marquis of Ab----lle. Her attempts at evasion are vain,
and rather than face her father's anger, she permits herself to be
married a second time. She has not long enjoyed her new rank when
Clermont, whom she has informed of her step, appears to reproach her and
to claim his rights. Still irresolute, she persuades him by tears and
prayers not to expose her perfidy, and secretly admits him to a
husband's privileges. In due time the pair are caught by the Marquis,
and to avoid his rage confess their prior marriage. Clermont is thrown
into prison, where he dies not without suspicion of poison. Henrietta
retires to convent, but the Duke, her father, in order to gain the
Marquis's estate for her unborn infant, manages to stifle the evidence
of her first marriage. Enraged that he cannot obtain a divorce, the
Marquis resolves to be revenged upon his perjured wife. He intercepts
her coach in a wood outside of Paris and brutally murders her. The Duke
orders her magnificently buried. Although nothing against the Marquis
can be proved, he is not allowed to escape the vengeance of heaven, but
goes mad and in a lucid interval just before death confesses his crimes.

The weakness and irresolution of the heroine are made the pivot of each
turning point in the plot. When she yields to her lover's entreaties to
consummate a hasty marriage; when fear of her father's displeasure
induces her to keep their union a secret; when her love of luxurious
grandeur at court persuades her to contract a more exalted match; when
her terror of Clermont forces her into a shameless expedient for the
sake of mollifying his anger; and when after her exposure by her
husband, the Marquis, she brazens out her trial in hopes of maintaining
the splendor of her rank and fortune, she is welding link by link the
chain of circumstance that draws her to ultimate disaster. She is by no