that fmile feemed impreffed on Emily's mind for ever. She leaned from the window, and faw him on a knoll of the broken bank, leaning against the high trees that waved over him, and purfuing the carriage with his eyes. He waved his hand, and the continued to gaze till distance confufed; his figure, and at length another turn of the road entirely feparated him from her fight.

Having stopped to take up Signor Ca vigni at a chateau on the road, the travellers, of whom Emily was difrespectfully feated with Madame Montoni's woman in a fecond carriage, purfued their way over the plains of Languedoc. The presence of this fervant reftrained Emily from reading Valancourt's letter, for fhe did not choose to expofe the emotions it might occafion to the obfervation of any person. Yet fuch was her wifh to read this his laft communication, that her trembling hand was every moment on the point of breaking the feal.

At length they reached the village, where they staid only to change horses, without alighting, and it was not till they ftopped to dine, that Emily had an opportunity of reading the letter. Though the had never doubted the fincerity of Valancourt's affection, the fresh affurances fhe now received of it revived her fpirits; fhe wept over his letter in tenderness, laid it by to be referred to when they fhould be particularly deprefled, and then thought of him with much less anguifh than fhe had done fince they parted. Among fome other requefts, which were interefting to her, be-, cause expreffive of his tenderness, and because a compliance with them feemed to annihilate for a while the pain of absence, he entreated she would always think of him at fun-fet. "You will then meet me in thought," faid he; "I fhall conftantly watch the fun-fet, and I fhall be happy in the belief, that your eyes are fixed upon the fame object with mine, and that our minds are converfing. You know not, Emily, the comfort

comfort I promife myself from thefe moments; but I truft you will experience it."

It is unneceffary to fay with what emotion Emily, on this evening, watched the declining fun, over a long extent of plains, on which the faw it fet without interruption, and sink towards the province which Valancourt inhabited. After this hour her mind became far more tranquil and refigned, than it had been fince the marriage of Montoni and her aunt.

During feveral days the travellers journeyed over the plains of Languedoc; and then entering Dauphiny, and 'winding for fome time among the mountains of that ro mantic province, they quitted their carriages and began to afcend the Alps. And here fuch scenes of fublimity opened upon them as no colours of language muft dare to paint! Emily's mind was even fo much engaged with new and wonderful images, that they fometimes banifhed the idea of Valancourt, though they more frequently revived

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revived it. Thefe brought to her recol lection the prospects among the Pyrenées, which they had admired together, and had believed nothing could excel in grandeur. How often did fhe wifh to exprefs to him the new emotions which this aftonishing scenery awakened, and that he could partake of them! Sometimes too fhe endeavoured to anticipate his remarks, and almost imagined him prefent. She feemed to have arisen into another world, and to have left every trifling thought, every trifling fentiment, in that below; thofe only of grandeur and fublimity now dilated her mind, and elevated the affections of her heart.

With what emotions of fublimity, foftened by tenderness, did fhe meet Valancourt in thought, at the customary hour of fun-fet, when, wandering among the Alps, the watched the glorious orb fink amid their fummits, his laft tints die away on their fnowy points, and a folemn obfcurity steal over the fcene! And when the laft gleana

had

had faded, fhe turned her eyes from the, weft with fomewhat of the melancholy regret that is experienced after the departure of a beloved friend; while thefe lonely feelings were heightened by the spreading gloom, and by the low founds, heard only when darkness confines attention, which make the general ftillness more impreffiveleaves fhook by the air, the last sigh of the breeze that lingers after fun-fet, or the murmur of diftant ftreams.

During the first days of this journey among the Alps, the fcenery exhibited a wonderful mixture of folitude and inhabitation, of cultivation and barrennefs. On the edge of tremendous precipices, and within the hollow of the cliffs, below which the clouds often floated, were feen villages, fpires, and convent towers; while green paftures and vineyards fpread their hues at the feet of perpendicular rocks of marble, or of granite, whofe points, tufted with alpine fhrubs, or exhibiting only maffy crags, rofe above each other, till they terminated

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