The road from this hamlet," said Valancourt," and that to Beaujeu, part at the distance of about a league and a half from hence; if you will give me leave, I

will direct your muleteer fo far. I must wander fomewhere, and your company would make this a pleasanter ramble than any other I could take."

St. Aubert thankfully accepted his offer, and they fet out together, the young ftranger on foot, for he refufed the invitation of St. Aubert to take a feat in his little carriage.

The road wound along the feet of the mountains through a pastoral valley, bright with verdure, and varied with groves of dwarf oak, beech, and fycamore, under whofe branches herds of cattle repofed. The mountain-afh too, and the weeping birch, often threw their pendant foliage over the steeps above, where the scanty foil fcarcely concealed their roots, and where their light branches waved to every breeze that fluttered from the mountains.

The

The travellers were frequently met at this early hour, for the fun had not yet rifen. upon the valley, by fhepherds driving immense flocks from their folds to feed upon the hills. St. Aubert had fet out thus early, not only that he might enjoy the first appearance of fun-rife, but that he might inhale the first pure breath of morning, which above all things is refreshing to the spirits of the invalid. In these regions it was particularly fo, where an abundance of wild flowers and aromatic herbs breathed forth their effence on the air.

The dawn, which foftened the scenery with its peculiar grey tint, now difperfed, and Emily watched the progress of the day, first trembling on the tops of the highest cliffs, then touching them with fplendid light, while their fides and the vale below were still wrapt in dewy mift. Meanwhile, the fullen grey of the eastern clouds began to blush, then to redden, and then to glow with a thousand colours, till the golden light darted over all the air, touched the lower

1

points of the mountain's brow, and glanced in long floping beams upon the valley and its ftream. All nature seemed to have

awakened from death into life; the spirit of St. Aubert was renovated. His heart was full; he wept, and his thoughts afcended. to the Great Creator.

Emily wifhed to trip along the turf, fo green and bright with dew, and to taste the full delight of that liberty which the izard feemed to enjoy as he bounded along the brow of the cliffs; while Valancourt often ftopped to speak with the travellers, and with focial feeling to point out to them the peculiar objects of his admiration. St. Aubert was pleased with him: "Here is the real ingenuousnefs and ardour of youth," faid he to himself; "this young man has never been at Paris."

He was forry when they came to the spot where the roads parted, and his heart took a more affectionate leave of him than is ufual after fo fhort an acquaintance. Valancourt talked long by the fide of the car

riage; feemed more than once to be going, but ftill lingered, and appeared to fearch anxiously for topics of converfation to account for his delay. At length he took leave. As he went, St. Aubert obferved him look with an earnest and penfive eye at Emily, who bowed to him with a countenance full of timid fweetness, while the carriage drove on. St. Aubert, for whatever reason, soon after looked from the window, and faw Valancourt standing upon the bank of the road, refting on his pike with folded arms, and following the carriage with his eyes. He waved his hand, and Valancourt, feeming to awake from his reverie, returned the falute, and started

away.

The afpect of the country now began to change, and the travellers foon found themselves among mountains covered from their bafe nearly to their fuumits with forefts of gloomy pine, except where a rock of granite fhot up from the vale, and loft its fnowy top in the clouds. The riVOL. I,

F

vulet,

vulet, which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a river; and, flowing deeply and filently along, reflected, as in a mirror, the blackness of the impending fhades. Sometimes a cliff was feen lifting its bold head above the woods. and the vapours, that floated mid-way down the mountains; and fometimes a face of perpendicular marble rofe from the water's edge, over which the larch threw his gigan-` tic arms, here fcathed with lightning, and there floating in luxuriant foliage.

They continued to travel over a rough and unfrequented road, feeing now and then at a distance the folitary fhepherd, with his dog, ftalking along the valley, and hearing only the dafhing of torrents, which the woods concealed from the eye, the long fullen murmur of the breeze, as it fwept over the pines, or the notes of the eagle and the vulture, which were seen towering round the beetling cliff.

Often, as the carriage moved flowly over uneven ground, St. Aubert alighted,

and