The fascinating charms of Maria de Rosenvault seemed destined, by the powerful hand of fate, to snatch the prince, for a short period, from the slothful rust of apathetic gallantry; a failing, dictated by fashion, matured by vice, and which can afford only satiety, and give a precarious satisfaction in which the heart has no share; never leaving those soul-satisfying remembrances, which / may be dwelt on with real delight in absence, by the mere contemplation of an object that we sincerely love.

After a splendid tournament, in honour of the mother of Edward, a pageant was represented in the evening, in which the gay youth of both sexes supported the various characters of different nations, according to the costume in which they were habited. They were dressed as at a masque, but without wearing visors, and the evening concluded with a ball, similar to the present fancy balls of Ireland; where the ladies appear in different characters, while the native beauty of the fair Hibernian is not clouded or disfigured by a mask. The prince had often seen Maria in the suite of his mother. He had noticed her in the public walks, and had beheld her with a regard, almost bordering on veneration. He made inquiries / into her situation in life. He found she was married, her husband worthless, and her beauty almost her only portion. He as yet respected her sad situation, and thought as little of bribing her affections, by pecuniary benefits, as those of the richest countess at court: but, beholding her performing in the pageant, her resplendent beauty was so heightened, by a dress peculiarly calculated to display her person to advantage, that the remains of every virtuous principle and every good resolution were destroyed which had been kindled in his breast, when Maria was the object.