mountain; that certainly (thought he) is the retreat of Claudina: I will go to it, perhaps she will not see me, but it will be a satisfaction to know where she is. He inquired of the shepherdess if his conjecture was right respecting the convent? She told him it was, that about seven miles off there was a convent so remote and dreary, that it seemed shut out from the world, and was almost as much unknown as if in a desert.
"I have never been near it (said she) for, indeed, what I have heard about it is enough for me, and I have something else to do than to ramble into such places, where one may get nothing but a great fright for one's pains." "Ah! (concluded Ferdinand) this is the very place which seems to be designed for an entire seclusion from the world, there I will direct my steps." Having bid adieu to the good girl and her father, and taking a direction towards the convent, he began to descend the hill. The morning was fine, the dew drops still hung upon the under-wood, sparkling as the rising sun glit-
