. By the, boldness of this step I have made him a judge over me, and shall act with the severest prudence. I know your generous disposition, seeing only the better part of mine, might have induced you still to wish me near you;— how could I resist so sweet an invitation? Ah, only by silencing the most decisive pleader! Lord Leicester can now never urge me on the dangerous subject. In whatever place you fix your residence, I will retire to a neighbouring monastery as a boarder, where always hearing of, and sometimes seeing both, added she in a voice broken by sobs, my wishes will be completed: nor do I imagine you will in the interim grudge me a share in Lord Leicester's danger." "Ah little do you know me, returned I, pressing her hand

affectionately, if you think I could grudge you a share in his happiness; never, my tender, generous girl, never more will we part; never could Lord Leicester hope, or his wife fear any thing unbe∣coming from a soul like your's. Actu∣ated by one sentiment, counterparts by nature of each other, you and I should violate her laws were we to separate." "To own the whole truth, my sweet friend, returned she, with her usual no∣ble ingenuousness, I expected this instance of your generosity; but it only confirms my resolution, and my own heart would anticipate the condemnation of yours, were it possible for me to waver."
A sense of safety, and of gratitude to my fair friend, diffused itself through my soul as the evening closed, to which I had for some time been a stranger: Lord Lei∣cester pressed us to enjoy the sweetness of the hour. We ascended the deck, and seating ourselves in a little boat lashed to it, every fear, every hope seemed sus∣pended, and the present all of our lives for which any had a sense. The gentle

breezes only played upon the white sails, and the vessel cut with a safe and pleasant motion, through those green waves whose points the full moon exquisitely silvered, as breaking they gave life to the stillness of the night. I turned my eyes with the sweetest satisfaction from my love to my friend, from my friend to my love; the same mild orb delicately illum'd either face; a manly tenderness marked Lord Leicester's attention to me, a grateful de∣ference that to her, while the fair Rose, rich in the applauses of her own heart, and nobly conscious of her claims on ours, forgot there was any thing
