ARCADIA, 331 



loft, in yon, the firft of bleffings, and that a pru- 

 dent friend is the moft valuable gift which the 

 bounty of the Gods can beftow upon Man. 



Thus, I thought of nothing, but of the means 

 of regaining you once more, and I flattered myfelf 

 that I Ihould fucceed, by making my efcape in the 

 middle of the night, if I could only reach the fea- 

 coaft. I was perfuaded that I could not be far 

 diftant from it, but I was entirely ignorant on 

 which fide it lay. There was no eminence near 

 me from whence I could difcover it. Sometimes, 

 I mounted to the fummit of the moft lofty trees, 

 but 1 could perceive nothing except the furface of 

 the foreft, which extended as far as the Horizon. 

 Often did I watch the flight of the birds, to fee if 

 I could difcover fome fea-fowl coming on (hore to 

 build her neft in the foreft ; or fome wild pigeon 

 going to pilfer fait from the fliores of the Ocean, 

 I would, a thoufand times, have preferred the 

 found of the piercing cries of the fea-thrufli, when 

 (he comes, during a tempeft, to flicker herfelf 

 among the rocks, to the melodious voice of the 

 red -breaft, which already announced, in the yellow 

 foliage of the woods, the termination of the fine 

 weather. 



One night, after I had retired to reft, I thought 

 I heard, at a diftance, the noife which the waves 



of 



