 unaccountable behaviour. He was
inclined to suspect the derangement of his senses: yet the general tenor of his
conduct, the connexion of his ideas, and calmness of his demeanour till the
moment of his quitting the grotto, seemed to discountenance this conjecture.
After a few minutes Rosario returned. He again seated himself upon the bank: he
reclined his cheek upon one hand, and with the other wiped away the tears which
trickled from his eyes at intervals.
    The monk looked upon him with compassion, and forbore to interrupt his
meditations. Both observed for some time a profound silence. The nightingale had
now taken her station upon an orange-tree fronting the hermitage, and poured
forth a strain the most melancholy and melodious. Rosario raised his head, and
listened to her with attention.
    »It was thus,« said he, with a deep-drawn sigh, »it was thus that, during
the last month of her unhappy life, my sister used to sit listening to the
nightingale. Poor Matilda! she sleeps in the grave, and her broken heart throbs
no more with passion.«
    »You had a sister?«
    »You say right, that I had. Alas! I have one no longer. She sunk beneath the
weight of her sorrows in the very spring of life.«
    »What were those sorrows?«
    »They will not excite your pity. You know not the power of those
irresistible, those fatal sentiments to which her heart was a prey. Father, she
loved unfortunately. A passion for one endowed with every virtue, for a man -
oh! rather let me say for a divinity - proved the bane of her existence. His
noble form, his spotless character, his various talents, his wisdom solid,
wonderful, and glorious, might have warmed the bosom of the most insensible. My
sister saw him, and dared to love, though she never dared to hope.«
    »If her love was so well bestowed, what forbad her to hope the obtaining of
its object?«
    »Father, before he knew her, Julian had already plighted his vows to a bride
most fair, most heavenly! Yet still my sister loved, and for the husband's sake
she doted upon the wife. One morning she found means to escape from our father's
house: arrayed in humble weeds she offered herself as a domestic to the consort
of her beloved, and was accepted. She was now continually in his presence: she
strove to ingratiate herself into his favour: she succeeded. Her attentions
attracted Julian's notice: the virtuous are
