A lovers' leap. 251 



** Such are the chief circumstances of the tale I gathered from 

 the youth. I swooned whilst he related it, and could take no 

 sustenance. One whole day afterwards did I pray the Lord that 

 I might die rather than be near an incarnate demon. With what 

 indignation did I now survey that slender form and those flowing 

 tresses, which had interested me before so much in his behalf ! 



" No sooner did he perceive the change in my countenance, 

 than sullenly retiring to yonder rock he sat careless of the sun 

 and scorching winds ; for it was now the summer solstice. He 

 was equally heedless of the unwholesome dews. When midnight 

 came my horrors were augmented ; and I meditated sevaral times 

 to abandon my hovel and fly to the next village ; but a power 

 more than human chained me to the spot and fortified my mind. 



'^ I slept, and it was late next morning when some one called 

 at the wicket of the little fold, where my goats are penned. I 

 arose, and saw a peasant of my acquaintance leading a female 

 strangely muffled up, and casting her eyes on the ground. My 

 heart misgave me. I thought this was the very maid who had 

 been the cause of such atrocious wickedness. Nor were my 

 conjectures ill-founded. Regardless of the clown, who stood by 

 in stupid astonishment, she fell to the earth and bathed my hand 

 with tears. Her trembling lips with difficulty enquired after the 

 youth ; and, as she spoke, a glow of conscious guilt lightened up 

 her pale countenance. 



" The full recollection of her lover's crimes shot through my 

 memory. I was incensed, and would have spurned her away ; 

 but, she clung to my garments and seemed to implore my pity 

 with a look so full of misery, that, relenting, I led her in silence 

 to the extremity of the cliff* were the youth was seated, his feet 

 dangling above the sea. His eye was roiling wildly around, but 

 it soon fixed upon the object for whose sake he had doomed 

 himself to perdition. 



" Far be it from me to describe their extasies, or tiie eagerness 

 with which they sought each other's embraces. I indignantly 

 turned my head away ; and, driving my goats lo a recess amongst 

 the rocks, sat revolving in my mind these strange events. I ne- 

 glected procuring any provision for my unwelcome guests ; and, 

 about midnight, returned homewards by the light of the moon, 

 which shone serenely in the heavens. Almost the first object her 

 beams discovered was the guilty maid sustaining the head of her 

 lover> who had fainted through weeikness and want of nourish- 

 ment. 1 fetched some dry bread, and dipping it in milk laid it 



