110 INVALIDISM AND ITALY. 



voice was heard from the stump of an elder-tree, and the 

 beautiful dark-eyed bird, the soother of many an hour of 

 weary solitude, stood confessed before me. I could scarcely 

 resist the first sudden impulse which had almost driven 

 me towards him. He seemed to bend his radiant eyes 

 upon me, as if he had recognised an ancient friend, and I 

 sat down upon the grass, and listened to his plaintive 

 melody as intently as if nothing else had existed in the 

 world but himself and me. The gray crags and castellated 

 clouds, and that secluded valley, so magnificent in its 

 deathlike solitude, were at once forgotten. I had a con- 

 fused remembrance of a darkened chamber, and some 

 scattered books, and the same gorgeous breast and lustrous 

 eye, and most melancholy voice, and I could have sat for 

 ever. But at last I rose, and, as I left the valley, the beau- 

 tiful creature seemed to deepen and yet extend the com- 

 pass of its voice, as if it knew no end ; and the last and 

 only sound which I heard in that sublime region was the 

 eong of that single solitary bird. I then gained the mouth 

 of the valley, and descended to the sea-shore ; and I said 

 to myself, ' If I have elbow-room in the cabin, I shall tell 

 my cousin about this delightful creature :' and I have done 

 so now." 



