Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/182

This page needs to be proofread.

day which has already been described, to the cottage of Olivia's nurse.

They set out in a chaise drawn by mules, leaving Madame Chatteneuf engaged at cards with a select party in the banqueting house; and, after travelling about a league, reached the cottage: its situation was romantically beautiful; it stood a little above the foot of a lofty mountain, which was surmounted by others equally tremendous, and overlooked a deep hollow, scattered over with a profusion of wild flowers, darkened by majestic pines, and washed by a clear rivulet, which proceeded from a mountain torrent at some distance: on a little grassy seat before the cottage, the nurse sat working, one of her daughters was milking the goats that browsed around it, and another was seen rambling about the neighbouring heights, gathering the herbs which grew upon them.