PREFACE. XVii 



" Should some tree we used to love 



In days of childhood meet our eye," &c. 



" Here, under the ample shade of a Plane-tree, 

 that spread its majestic canopy towards the river, St. 

 Aubert loved to sit, in the fine evenings of summer, 

 with his wife and children, watching beneath its 

 foliage the setting sun ; the mild splendour of its 

 light fading from the distant landscape till the 

 shadows of twilight melted its various features into 

 one tint of sober gray. Here, too, he loved to 

 read and to converse with Madame St. Aubert, or 

 to play with his children ; resigning himself to the 

 influence of those sweet affections which are ever 

 attendant on simplicity and nature*." 



His daughter is afterwards described as visiting 

 this tree alone, for the first time, after an absence 

 of some months, during which she had lost her 

 father. 



" Emily, wandering on, came to St. Aubert's 

 favourite Plane-tree, where so often at this hour 

 they had sat beneath the shade together, and, with 

 her dear mother, so often had conversed on the 



* Mysteries of Udolpho, vol. i. 



