Also there is this
house and all that it contains; the library and the silver are valuable,
and you will do well to keep them. All is left to you with the fullest
formality, so that no question can arise as to your right to take it;
indeed, foreseeing my end, I have of late called in my moneys, and for
the most part the gold lies in strong boxes in the secret cupboard in
the wall yonder that you know of. It would have been more had I known
you some years ago, for then, thinking that I grew too rich who was
without an heir, I gave away as much as what remains in acts of mercy
and in providing refuge for the homeless and the suffering. Thomas
Wingfield, for the most part this money has come to me as the fruit
of human folly and human wretchedness, frailty and sin. Use it for
the purposes of wisdom and the advancing of right and liberty. May it
prosper you, and remind you of me, your old master, the Spanish quack,
till at last you pass it on to your children or the poor. And now one
word more. If your conscience will let you, abandon the pursuit of de
Garcia. Take your fortune and go with it to England; wed that maid whom
you desire, and follow after happiness in whatever way seems best to
you. Who are you that you should meet out vengeance on this knave de
Garcia? Let him be, and he will avenge himself upon himself. Otherwise
you may undergo much toil and danger, and in the end lose love, and
life, and fortune at a blow.
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