Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/240

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inferior servants, were stirring, and walked out upon the lawn to try if the freshness of the air and exercise would revive her spirits. A solemn stillness reigned around, and the dewy landscape was yet but imperfectly revealed; but by degrees its grey veil was withdrawn, and the stillness interrupted by the twittering of birds and the carol of the early peasant. Madeline sighed at the contrast she drew between the cheerfulness of the scene and the sadness of her own mind.

"And oh, when (she cried as she saw the gloomy vapours of night flying before the beams of a rising sun), oh, when shall the clouds that involve my prospects be dispersed!"

After walking about some time, she sat down beneath the shelter of the chestnut, where she and her friend had rested the preceding night; and as she looked at the opposite but distant mountains, she thought of Madame Chatteneuf and Olivia, who had