42 Monsieur St. Cruix ; QJAN. 



for an instant, before she buried her face in her hands, she added, in a 

 voice tremulous from excess of emotion, " Is it possible you have yet to 

 learn that I am a nun ?" I started as these fearful words fell dull and 

 cold upon my ear, but it was long before I made any reply. Early pre- 

 judices arose like phantoms before my sight ; I remembered, for the 

 first time since our intercourse, that I too was bound by a sacred vow to 

 celibacy, and for a time I beheld in these trammels of bigotry the fiat 

 of interminable misfortune. But vows, whether sacred or profane, are 

 feeble against the tempest of passion ; and when the mind is once resigned 

 to its despotic influence, principles, and prejudices, are equally swept 

 away by the whirlwind. I did not long yield to despair ; the new doc- 

 trines I had adopted in casting aside my priest's frock, though for a 

 moment forgotten in the turbulence of excited feeling, soon came to my 

 assistance. According to these, Claudine and I were as free as at the 

 moment of our birth to follow the guidance of the feelings which nature 

 had implanted in our hearts ; and I endeavoured to convince the inno- 

 cent girl, with all the fervour and eloquence of which I was master, 

 that she was no longer the bride of heaven, and that her vows had 

 ceased to be binding, when formally annulled by the National Assembly. 

 The next day I returned again to the charge, and though she remained 

 unconvinced, my vehemence silenced all opposition. I saw that she 

 wavered between a sense of duty and the passionate feelings of her 

 heart, and I redoubled the earnestness of my supplications. I painted 

 wildly the horror and despair which awaited us should she persist in 

 her resolve, and doom us to an eternal separation ; whilst I described, 

 with all the enthusiasm which the joyful hope inspired, the felicity 

 attending our union. Gentle being ! it was no sin of thine that thou 

 clidst yield to the burning words and delirious eloquence with which I 

 tempted thee to thy ruin ! mine only was the guilt, and mine alone be 

 the long, the never-ending punishment. 



That night she slept not beneath her father's roof. Trembling and 

 breathless with agitation, I drew her towards the brink of the river, and 

 though, even at the last, she struggled faintly to return, I heeded it not, 

 and lifting her on board the little bark which had borne me from the 

 opposite shore, I dipped my oars in the stream and. rowed rapidly with 

 the current towards St. Denis. We reached Paris before sunset, and to 

 tranquillize the conscience of poor Claudine, as much as in my power, 

 we were united before nightfal, by such ceremonies as the National 

 Assembly had thought proper to substitute for the ancient marriage- 

 rites. 



My passion thus gratified, I could, for a time at least, have been per- 

 fectly happy, but I saw that Claudine was not so. She had acted under 

 the influence of my overwhelming feelings, not her own, and her reason 

 was never for a moment silenced. Though she complained not, she 

 drooped under the sense of the mighty weight of guilt she had incurred ; 

 the bloom faded from her cheek, and the roundness of her form gra- 

 dually wasted away. The state of the times, and the interest which my 

 necessities compelled me to take in public affairs, caused me to be fre- 

 quently absent from my home ; on my return I invariably found her in 

 tears. She shrunk from all society but mine, she refused to join in every 

 amusement, and each day deepened a gloom which all my efforts were 

 unable to dispel. 



It was about this period that a young priest, of the name of Bernis, 



