148 ^i Chapter from the Memoirs of [Aug. 



" Noble, generous-minded girl ! But have you no idea that she will 

 be induced to cliange her resolution ?" 



' Very little at present. She tells me, indeed, that when the heat of 

 pursuit and inquiry has relaxed, we shall be married ; but this desired 

 period, judging from her notions of time, is like the Greek calends — 

 vague — uncertain — visionary. Her chief argument is founded on her 

 apprehensions for my safety. Our separation, she says, would at once 

 kill her ; she could not survive it an hour. I believe her ; for the deep 

 agitation she shews whenever the subject is mentioned, proves how 

 closely it is entwined with her existence. Meanwhile, she is living with 

 me here, in secret. I have taken a cottage for her on the Sodermalm, 

 close beside the IMount of Moses, and not a soul but yourself knows 

 aught of our intimacy. — But see," continued Herwaldsen, pointing to his 

 watch that lay on the table, " it is already seven o'clock, the hour at 

 which I usually visit Hortense ; so put on your hat, and come along 

 with me — I will introduce you to her ; nay, more, you shall sup with us 

 to-night." 



I did so ; and never, to the latest moment, shall I forget that delight- 

 ful evening. At the very extremity of the large island of Sodermalm, 

 and removed from the more bustling tumult of the city, stood Herwald- 

 sen's cottage — homely, it is true, but the very picture of health, peace, 

 and happiness. Hortense was at the window when we arrived : she was 

 dressed in simple but attractive attire, eminently calculated to set off the 

 luxuriant graces of her person. In stature, she was rather above than 

 below the middle size, of a slender but not thin figure, easy and dignified 

 in her gait, with a bust modelled by nature in her happiest and most 

 classic mood. But her eye — her dark, languishing, Italian eye, eloquent 

 of passion, but tempered by the natural softness of the woman — her Gre- 

 cian nose — her small, but characteristic mouth — her ringlets, glossy, 

 luxuriant, and wantoning in wild profusion round her forehead, and 

 down a neck such as Canova would have loved to model from — these 

 were the attractions that, joined to a set of features whose general cha- 

 racter was tenderness, but which varied according to each varying emo- 

 tion of the mind, imprinted themselves at once on my imagination, never 

 thence to be withdrawn. During supper, our conversation was not wholly 

 without restraint ; but, long before I left, it had become frank and unem- 

 barrassed. Hortense talked of France (of Italy she said nothing), 

 which early prejudices had taught her never to think of but with fond- 

 ness ; of the sunny plains of Provence, where she was born, and where 

 she said she hoped to die ; and Herwaldsen kept up and illustrated the 

 conversation by apt and familiar anecdotes. And so passed my first 

 evening with Hortense. The next night was spent in the same delightful 

 manner — and so with the next — and the next — and the next. Herwaldsen, 

 now that the ice of his reserve was once fairly broken, honoured me with 

 liis entire confidence : his good opinion, of course, extended itself to 

 Hortense — the consequence of which was, that I was always a welcome 

 visitor at the cottage. 



If I linger over this portion of my narrative, it is because I feel that 

 it is the only part of my existence worth a moment's recollection ; 

 because, in short, it is the only part which I would gladly live again 

 Our progress through life is the progress of a traveller through an Ara- 

 bian desart : here and there, when worn with toil and desirous of laying 

 down our burdens, we arrive at an oasis sparkling with fountains and 



