A Sicilian Romance

'Hippolitus!' said Julia, in a tremulous accent, 'Hippolitus, Count de

Vereza!'--'The same,' replied the nun, in a tone of surprize. Julia

was speechless; tears, however, came to her relief. The astonishment

of Cornelia for some moment surpassed expression; at length a gleam of

recollection crossed her mind, and she too well understood the scene

before her. Julia, after some time revived, when Cornelia tenderly

approaching her, 'Do I then embrace my sister!' said she. 'United in

sentiment, are we also united in misfortune?' Julia answered with her

sighs, and their tears flowed in mournful sympathy together. At length

Cornelia resumed her narrative.

'My father, struck with the conduct of Hippolitus, paused upon the

offer. The alteration in my health was too obvious to escape his

notice; the conflict between pride and parental tenderness, held him

for some time in indecision, but the latter finally subdued every

opposing feeling, and he yielded his consent to my marriage with

Angelo. The sudden transition from grief to joy was almost too much

for my feeble frame; judge then what must have been the effect of the

dreadful reverse, when the news arrived that Angelo had fallen in a

foreign engagement! Let me obliterate, if possible, the impression of

sensations so dreadful. The sufferings of my brother, whose generous

heart could so finely feel for another's woe, were on this occasion

inferior only to my own.

'After the first excess of my grief was subsided, I desired to retire

from a world which had tempted me only with illusive visions of

happiness, and to remove from those scenes which prompted

recollection, and perpetuated my distress. My father applauded my

resolution, and I immediately was admited a noviciate into this

monastery, with the Superior of which my father had in his youth been

acquainted. 'At the expiration of the year I received the veil. Oh! I well

remember with what perfect resignation, with what comfortable

complacency I took those vows which bound me to a life of retirement,

and religious rest.

'The high importance of the moment, the solemnity of the ceremony, the

sacred glooms which surrounded me, and the chilling silence that

prevailed when I uttered the irrevocable vow--all conspired to impress

my imagination, and to raise my views to heaven. When I knelt at the

altar, the sacred flame of pure devotion glowed in my heart, and

elevated my soul to sublimity. The world and all its recollections

faded from my mind, and left it to the influence of a serene and, holy

enthusiasm which no words can describe.

'Soon after my noviciation, I had the misfortune to lose my dear

father. In the tranquillity of this monastery, however, in the

soothing kindness of my companions, and in devotional exercises, my

sorrows found relief, and the sting of grief was blunted. My repose

was of short continuance. A circumstance occurred that renewed the

misery, which, can now never quit me but in the grave, to which I look

with no fearful apprehension, but as a refuge from calamity, trusting

that the power who has seen good to afflict me, will pardon the

imperfectness of my devotion, and the too frequent wandering of my

thoughts to the object once so dear to me.'