folding portal, entered the well-known chapel of the monastery.

He advanced toward the skreen, and looked anxiously about for some way by which he might enter the convent; but his search was fruitless. He, however, determined on taking some method to let Agatha know the discovery he had made, and to request her to be in the chapel at an appointed hour the next night in order to consult on the means of her escape.

As he found it would not be possible to make any further attempts till he had seen her, he now retraced his steps, carefully fastening the door by which

he

he had gained admittance into the monastery, and traversing the long subterraneous passage at length found himself in the ruins of the chapel.

The next morning he attended the service, and stationed himself near the skreen; he however found it impossible to effect his purpose without fear of a discovery. He saw Agatha, who was the last of the long train of nuns, and who often turned her head as she was leaving the chapel to gaze on the cavalier.

In the evening, however, he was more fortunate, the increasing gloom made his actions less liable to be observed,

H 4

served, and as Agatha was leaving the place, the contrived to throw a paper toward her through the grating of the skreen, and which falling near her feet she unobserved stooped down and picking it up concealed it in her bosom. The cavalier then, greatly pleased at his success, retired.

:

From the moment that Agatha had entered the convent she had abandoned herself to all the bitterness of of grief; and far from repenting of her sinful actions, for which it appeared but too probable she had been sent to that place, which was one of the most rigid order in Sicily, she continually lamented her deprivation of those enjoyments

which

which had constituted the happiness of

her life.

She often thought too with sensations which ill became the heart of one now devoted to a life of religious seclusion, of the animated countenance of the cavalier, his regret for her hapless state, his instant offer of assisting her, and the distress that apaeared to overwhelm him when he found it imposible to rescue her. A ray of hope beamed on her breast, when she saw him in the chapel, and served in some small degree to lighten the heavy burthen. of despair which had began to oppress her almost beyond a possibility of

endurance.

H 5

When

When she had, as already is mentioned, possessed herself of the paper, she thought each moment an age till she could retire to her chamber and peruse its contents. She was, however, obliged to wait till the nuns were dismissed by the abbess, when she perceived it to contain the following words.

"BEAUTIFUL SIGNORA,

"The Deity of love, and kind "fortune, have in some measure favor"ed my attempts to preserve you from "the cruel fate that awaits you within "these walls, and to restore to an admiring world a jewel so sweetly "formed