The most lucid part of the epistle pronounced a
sentence of eternal chastity on Azora, not without some sarcastic
expressions against the promiscuous amours of Orondates, which ought in
common decorum to have banished him long ago from the mansion of a
widowed matron.
Just as this fulminatory mandate had been transcribed and signed by the
lady abbess in full chapter, and had been consigned to the confessor to
deliver, the portress of the convent came running out of breath, and
announced to the venerable assembly, that Azora, terrified by the
abbess's blows and threats, had fallen in labour and miscarried of four
puppies: for be it known to all posterity, that Orondates was an Italian
greyhound, and Azora a black spaniel.
POSTSCRIPT.
The foregoing Tales are given for no more than they are worth: they are
mere whimsical trifles, written chiefly for private entertainment, and
for private amusement half a dozen copies only are printed. They deserve
at most to be considered as an attempt to vary the stale and beaten
class of stories and novels, which, though works of invention, are
almost always devoid of imagination. It would scarcely be credited, were
it not evident from the Bibliotheque des Romans, which contains the
fictitious adventures that have been written in all ages and all
countries, that there should have been so little fancy, so little
variety, and so little novelty, in writings in which the imagination is
fettered by no rules, and by no obligation of speaking truth.
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