tured the hours of infant love, and poisoned all hope of peace in the drear contrast. The mountain ramble, the tree-embosomed cottage, all, all harboured the form of Ermissende, and wrung the bitter tears of misery. 'Twas in these warring conflicts of the soul, that Religion smiled a beckoning pilot to meek-eyed Content: blest was the inspiration, sanguine the eager votarist. No claim wedded him to the world; every claim was severed, save the claim of the duke de Vermandois's friendship, and gratitude whispered him a debtor for past interest. He wrote, he explained the motive of his conduct; and then bidding an eternal adieu to every external object, he fled, and sought the shelter of Valombre's monastery. There, soon after his assumption of the cowl, death death having removed the father superior, the exertions of interest inaugurated him in the pious office of abbot of the fraternity. Absorbed in the duties of his station, carefully banishing the inroads of thought, and living but in the anticipation of the future, he studied ever to promote the happiness of his order; and though he lost not the saddened cast which calamity had stamped upon his features, still in the performance of his religious duties, in the calm communion of soul, in the patient endurance of restrictions; he prayed even for the destroyer of his repose; nay, Ermissende was recalled with pity: but no longer did the thrill of tenderness agitate his emaciated form, no longer did it flush with animating scarlet the sallow hue of his care-worn countenance. At the the altar of devotion, with a heart contrite and subdued, he mingled each appeal with grateful thanksgiving to Hea ven, for having, in escaping the snares and temptations of the world, learned" the true estimate of man's boasted superiority. CHAP. VII. Lust and liberty Creep in their minds; That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive, And drown themselves in riot. SHAKESPEARE. Blood hath been shed ere now, i'the olden time, Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd SHAKESPEARE. ALAS! what a contrast to the pious offices of christianity, what a contrast to the unvaried unvaried calm which marked the waning years of St. Theodore's existence, did the vitiated career of guilt portray! Ermissende-but we must progressively detail the gradations of vice, and start from the moment, when dead alike to gratitude, to honour, and to virtue, yielding to the incitements of unhallowed passion, she fled a husband's sanctuary, and braved the sneer of scorn, the keen, the scorpion sting of conscience, to share the fortune of that husband's brother. In a heart depraved, feeble are the struggles of duty, faint the resistance 'gainst the combined attacks of importunity and inclination. Ermissende heard the soft sigh, marked the stolen glance, felt the tremulous indication of growing conquering interest; yet yielding to the fatal, the insnaring weakness, vanity, did she fan the flame flame of prepossession. Studied were the graces of external ornament-alluring the smile of soft encouragement. Montauban extolled her matchless form, dwelt on the lustre of her radiant eyes, swore that her lips outvied the ruby's redness, that the lily's downy bell hung drooping at her bosom's rivalry, that with a tint, more vivid than the rose, Nature had tinged her cheek, and that the jetty raven owned no plumage half so black as the luxuriant ringlets of her glossy hair! Ermissende listened-Ermissende was entranced; she reflected not that her heart too fondly viewed the tempter; nor when the mask of soft persuasion dropped, did she shrink from the snare concealed. Montauban was pitied, was loved; and each revolving moment, giv VOL IV. G ing |