Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 4).djvu/135

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adored, (the wife I must eternally regret) is a poor helpless infant!'

'For her sake (said the monk), you must now exert yourself. Oh! rouse yourself (he continued, seeing me despondently shake my head), to guard her tender years from the cruelties and snares of the world! Ah, let not the sweet blossom, which gives so early a promise of perfection, fade untimely for want of a paternal shelter!'


"By degrees his language re-animated me to exertion, and we began to arrange plans for the future. He enquired to what part of the globe I was inclined to bend my steps? My broken spirits, I told him, rendered me, not only unwilling, but unable, to acquire new habits. I had, therefore, an unconquerable aversion to any strange country; and thought, from being so little known in my own, that I might, particularly as the story of my death was credited, remain in it with safety. The monk expressed his regret at my disinclination to quit France, but did