The Wild Irish Girl, Sydney Owenson, Lady Morgan

• Letter V
• The letter begins with a mystery... Horatio is a prisoner of the Castle of Inismore:
• But whether a prisoner of war, or taken up on suspician of espionage, or to be offered as an appeasing sacrifice to the manes of the old Prince of Inismore, you must for awhile suspend your patience to learn.
• Horatio arrives at the Castle of Inismore. He spies the Prince and Glorvina at Church and then follows them back to their castle. He climbs to be able to see into the window with Glorvina singing, but falls. The royal family cares for the hurt peeping Tom. The Prince speaks to Horatio when he awakes:
• 'Be of good cheer, young stranger; you are in no danger; be composed; be confident; conceive yourself in the midst of friends; for you are surrounded by those who would wish to be considered as such.'
• Horatio resolves to lie to them about who he is, for if they learn his true identity, they will be prejudiced against him:
• Already deep in adventure, a thousand seducing reasons were suggested by my newly awakened heart, to go on with the romance, and to secure my future residence in the castle, that interest, which, if known to be the son of Lord M--, I must eventually have forfeited, for the cold aversion of irreclaimable prejudice. The imposition was at least innocent, and might tend to future and mutual advantage; and after the ideal assumption of a thousand fictitious characters, I at last fixed on that of an itinerant artist, as consonant with my most cultivated talent, and to the testimony of those witnesses which I had fortunateluy brought with me, namely, my drawing book, pencils, etc. etc.-- self-nominated Henry Mortimer, to answer to the initials on my linen, the only proofs against me, for I had not even a letter on me.
• They care for him, and Horatio feigns to sleep:
• These good people must certainly think me a second Epimenides, for I have done nothing but sleep, or feign to sleep, since I have been thrown amongst them.
• Letter VI
• After whining that Glorvina has not check on him in three days, Horatio defends himself, to the reader of the letter, that he is not falling for Glorvina:
• If I am less an apathist, which I am willing to confess, trust me, I am not a whit more the lover. --Lover!--Preposterous!-- I am merely interested in this girl on a philosophical principle. I long to study the purely national, natural character of an Irishwoman: in fine, I long to behold any woman in such lights and shades of mind, temper, and disposition, as Nature has originally formed her in. Hitherto I have only met servile copies, sketched by the finger of art, and finished off by the polish of fashion.
• Letter VII
• When Horatio speaks to Glorvina, we learn what happened when Horatio fell from Glorvina's POV, and Horatio explains with some rizz:
• 'What could have led you to so perilous a sitation?'
• 'That,' I returned, ' which has led to a more certain destruction, senses more strongly fortified than mine--the voice of a syren!'
• Letter VIII
• Horatio thinks they are dumb because they don't speak ill about his family:
• It should seem that the name of M. is interdicted at Inismore: I have more than once endeavored (though remotely) to make the residence of our family in this country a topic of conversation; but everyone seemed to shrink from the subject, as though some fatality was connected with its discussion. To avoid speaking ill of those whom we have but little reason to speak well, is temperance of aversion, and seldom found in great minds.
• Letter XII
• 'What, then,' said the Prince, good humouredly, 'I suppose that you would have deserted your national standard, and joined Mr Mortimer, merely from the motives of compassion.'
• Letter XV
• This is a character unknown to you in England, and is called here "a poor scholar." If a boy is too indolent to work, and his parents too poor to support him, or, which is more frequently the case, if he discovers some natural talents, or, as they call it takes to his learning, and that they have a means to forward his improvement, he then becomes by profession a poor scholar, and continues to receive both his mental and bodily food at the expense of the community at large.
• Letter XIX
• Horatio is jealous when Glorvina is dancing with an Irish boy:
• 'Nay,' said I, 'more than your duty; for you even performed a work of supererogation.' And I cast a pointed look at the young rustic who had been the object of her election.
• Letter XX
• In a word, I now feel I love!! --for the first time, I feel it. For the first time my heart is alive to the most profound, the most delicate, the most ardent, and most refined of human passions.