cottages and fruit gardens as in a dream, possessed by one only object, and dwelling on my fair unknown and the hour when I hoped again to see her. Passing through the vineyards at the foot of the Urny, which are said to produce excellent wine, these grapes, thought I to myself, have time enough to ripen yet, and I felt vexed at the lingering of the sun, which seemed determined to delay his setting behind Mount Rigi.
Long before the appointed time, I returned to Shwytz, but there being nothing to hope at the church-yard, I again bent my steps towards Siti, and thence onwards to the wood of the hermitage. I arrived at the chapel; my old acquaintance the hermit was not there, but, seated on the steps, I beheld my interesting unknown. Yesterday, from the darkness of the evening I had been unable to distinguish her features, but that she was the same figure I had then beheld, I could have sworn by a thousand oaths; for not in the whole of Shwytz, nor even in the whole universe, could two beings possess that delicate grace, or that nobleness of form, which in her were so conspicuous.
Now it was I conjured the setting sun to relax his rapid course, and with deep uneasiness beheld him retiring behind the mountain; for with his purple hue vanished the same beauteous tinge from the cheeks of the blooming girl beside me, with which my presence had overspread them, doubtless from her recognising in the intruder the nocturnal wanderer among the graves of the reposing Shwytzers.
“What are you doing here?” I enquired, in a friendly tone, of the beauteous maiden; to which she modestly replied, “she was waiting for the hermit.” Yes, ’twas she indeed! the two words she had pronounced the evening before seemed at the enchanting sound of her voice again to thrill through my soul. I had seen the most celebrated picture galleries of Europe; I had admired the Madonnas of Raphael and Guido; but amongst the whole of these collections my eyes had never beheld a head so angelically beautiful as that which now
