‘If the maiden seduced under promise of marriage is inferior in status, so that she would cause greater dishonour to his lineage if he married her than the one that would fall on her by remaining seduced (as when for instance a Duke, Count, Marquis or Gentleman of known nobility were to seduce a mulatto girl, a china, a coyota or the daughter of a hangman, a butcher, a tanner) he must [not] marry her because the injury to himself and his entire lineage would be greater than that incurred by the maiden by remaining unredeemed, and at any rate one must choose the lesser evil … for the latter is an offence of an individual and does no harm to the Republic, while the former is an offence of such gravity that it will denigrate an entire family, dishonour a person of pre-eminence, defame and stain an entire noble lineage and destroy a thing which gives splendoura nd honour to the Republic. But if the seduced maiden is of only slightly inferior status, of not very marked inequality, so that her inferiority does not cause marked dishonour to the family, then, if the seducer does not wish to endow her, or she justly rejects compensation in the form of endowment, he must be compelled to marry her; because in this case her injury would prevail over the offence inflicted upon the seducer's family for they would not suffer grave damage through the marriage whereas she would were she not to marry.’