claimed, declares you mine. Marriage is the sacred ordination of Heaven; and shall man, my Philippina, by the authority of self-arrogated power, sever two hearts so. closely linked? Forbid it, justice! forbid it, mercy!-No; flying from these hated walls, emancipated, free, we will resign grandeur allied to apprehension, for a cottage blessed with content.'-' Alas!' sighed the timid nun, how impracticable the scheme! Think of the high walls which enshrine me, think of the Argus eyes which so closely watch me, and tell me the pas sage for escape.Love will find that passage,' I replied; love will scale those walls, love will blind those eyes.'' Love!' sweetly smiling and will love absolve my vow? Duty and conscience will absolve it,' again clasping her to my bosom; 'for nature and sensibility will become the pleaders.'

"The sound of a distant footstep recalled the necessity for caution: terrified, she sprung from me, drew her veil over her

face, and recovered her taper. But where? how can I hear from you?' I whispered. Alas!' she replied, the strictness of the order prohibits the privilege of writing, else, had I pens, had' I paper, beneath the hollow base of the pedestal bearing the image of St. Clare, could I deposit my lefter.' There will I' seek it,' I exclaimed, giving her my tablets.The footsteps approached: hastily she hid them in her bosom, and fled from the cell. Daughter,' asked a voice in the pas sage, how fares the invalid? Was it to tender him assistance, that you ́ absented yourself from the chapel ? It was indeed the sufferer who detained me, holy mother,' faltered Philippina.- Humanity is a sacred call,' rejoined the superior, but religion ought to be stronger.' My Philippina spoke no more; and the Lady Abbess entering the cell, questioned me with an accuracy which required more than ordinary caution.

་

"Eagerly did I watch for the moment,

when,

when, unobserved, I could fly to regain my tablets; but not until the sisterhood had assembled in the refectory, did I venture to quit my cell. At the entrance of the passage, I hailed the friendly pedestal; and snatching the treasured effusion of my Philippina's soul, returned to my chamber. Fearful of interruption, I dared not peruse the contents, until the distant sound of voices could no longer be distinguished -until gloom and silence marked the repose of nature; then, with palpitating haste, I trimmed the lamp, and eagerly decyphered sentiments which time itself can never efface..

"I have reflected on all you have said, and the conviction has banished every lingering prejudice which religion had enforced; I have reflected on all you have said, and virtue, and truth, and honour, are become your advocates: yes, my beloved, my law

ful protector, nature, duty, sanctions the act you propose. The sway of inclination I dared not consult, for that would have betrayed me; but the cool arguments of reason, the unimpassioned sentiments of morality, point to freedom, and to bliss. I was your wife, ere the hand of treachery tore me from you; I am your wife, in spite of the compulsatory vow of a Corpus Domini sister. When borne to this asylum; when, frantic, wretched, I called upon your name, and invoked the saints of heaven to assert our marriage; when, kneeling at the feet of the superior, I poured forth the story of my woes, and told her what I had suffered, and how I had been wronged, she spurned me from her; talked of judgment for presumption, of parental authority, of female vanity, of monastic power: she deprived me of all hope, she condemned me to solitude and despair: my arguments were styled profane, my objections perverse; my prayers, my tears, artifice; and my adjurations, heresy. Not

one

one heart within these heavy walls, could I find to pity or to aid; alas, no!-in spite of opposition, in spite of remonstrance, the novitiatory months were prescribed, and eternal slavery, eternal woe, were destined my prospects through life. But my thoughts were free-my tyrant could not limit their bounds; they wandered to the peaceful shores of the Adriatic, to my cottage, to my love; they pictured the agony' my loss must have occasioned, they pictured the vain researches of my husband, and melted me into softness: every discordant passion slumbered, and wounded pride, outraged feeling, yielded to the more dangerous indulgence of anguish and regret.

6

My health sunk beneath sufferings so acute, so hopeless; and, for many months, my life was despaired of. On recovering strength and memory, my ears were again assailed by the pious exordiums of the sisterhood: the sensuality of the world, its trials and its snares, its pursuits and its allurements,

D 5