The peasants of this gay climate were often seen on an evening, when the day's labour was done, dancing in groups on the margin of the river. Their sprightly melodies, debonnaire fteps, the fanciful figure of their dances, with the tasteful and capricious manner in which the girls adjusted their fimple drefs, gave a character to the scene entirely French.

The front of the chateau, which, having a fouthern aspect, opened upon the grandeur of the mountains, was occupied on the ground floor by a ruftic hall, and two excellent fitting rooms. The first floor, for the cottage had no fecond ftory, was laid out in bed-chambers, except one apartment that opened to a balcony, and which was generally used for a breakfast room.

In the furrounding ground, St. Aubert had made very tafteful improvements; yet, fuch was his attachment to objects he had remembered from his boyifh days, that he had in fome inftances. facrificed tafte to fentiment. There were B 5

two

two old larches that haded the building, and interrupted the profpect: St. Aubert had fometimes declared that he believed he should have been weak enough to have wept at their fall. In addition to these larches he planted a little grove of beech, pine, and mountain-afh. On a lofty terrace, formed by the fwelling bank of the river, rofe a plantation of orange, lemon and palm-trees, whofe fruit, in the coolness of evening, breathed delicious fragrance. With these were mingled a few trees of other fpecies. Here, under the ample fhade of a plane-tree, that fpread its majestic canopy towards the river, St. Aubert loved to fit in the fine evenings of fummer, with his wife and children, watching, beneath its foliage, the settingfun, the mild fplendour of its light fading from the diftant landscape, till the fhadows of twilight melted its various features into one tint of fober gray. Here, too, he loved to read, and to converfe with Madame St. Aubert; or to play

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with his children, refigning himself to the influence of thofe fweet affections, which are ever attendant on fimplicity and nature.

He has often faid, while

tears of pleasure trembled in his eyes, that these were moments infinitely more delightful than any paffed amid the brilliant and tumultuous fcenes that are courted by the world. His heart was occupied; it had, what can be fo rarely faid, no wish for a happiness beyond what it experienced. The consciousness of acting right diffused a ferenity over his manners, which nothing else could impart to a man of moral perceptions like his, and which refined his fenfe of every furrounding bleffing.

The deepest shade of twilight did not fend him from his favourite plane-tree. He loved the foothing hour, when the laft tints of light die away; when the ftars, one by one, tremble through æther, and are reflected on the dark mirror of

the waters; that hour, which, of all others, infpires the mind with penfive tenderness,

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dernefs, and often elevates it to fublime contemplation. When the moon fhed her foft rays among the foliage, he ftill. lingered, and his paftoral fupper of cream and fruits was often fpread beneath it. Then, on the ftillness of night, came the fong of the nightingale, breathing fweetnefs, and awakening melancholy.

The first interruptions to the happiness he had known fince his retirement, were occafioned by the death of his two fons. He loft them at that age when infantine fimplicity is fo fafcinating; and though, in confideration of Madame St. Aubert's distress, he restrained the expreffion of his own, and endeavoured to bear it, as he meant, with philofophy, he had, in truth, no philofophy that could render him calm to fuch loffes. One daughter was now his only furviving child; and, while he watched the unfolding of her infant character, with anxious fondnefs, he endeavoured, with unremitting effort, to counteract thofe traits in her difpofition, which might hereafter

hereafter lead her from happiness. She had discovered in her early years uncommon delicacy of mind, warm affections, and ready benevolence; but with thefe was obfervable a degree of fufceptibility too exquifite to admit of lafting peace. As the advanced in youth, this fenfibility gave a penfive tone to her fpirits, and a foftness to her manner, which added grace to beauty, and rendered her a very interesting object to perfons of a congenial difpofition. But St. Aubert had too much. good fenfe to prefer a charm to a virtue; and had penetration enough to fee, that this charm was too dangerous to its poffeffor to be allowed the character of a bleffing. He endeavoured, therefore, to ftrengthen her mind; to enure her to habits of felf-command; to teach her to reject the first impulfe of her feelings, and to look, with cool examination, upon the disappointments he fometimes threw in

her way.

While he inftructed her to re