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No entreaties could induce Courcelles to suffer himself to be removed, or to speak again. He lingered a few days in such a state of mental and bodily misery as no pen can describe, and then, with one convulsive yell, expired.

Poor Madame Bonval, who had that morning received all the particulars of this dreadful tale from Father Anselm himself, was, as might be expected, overcome with the accumulated horrors and wonders of the detail. I shuddered with terror as I listened to the horrible history, and fancied I could never again enter the summer-house, where so dreadful a deed had been perpetrated. The bedroom, which had been formerly occupied by the detestable Courcelles, was the very one in which our innocent little Carlos slept. I determined he should never inhabit it again.

It may be supposed that this miraculous discovery of the murder of Mademoiselle St. Julien, and her servant Marie, made no small noise in the neighbourhood, as the monks, to

enhance the sanctity of the convent, took every opportunity of circulating the hideous.

tale.

I entreated Madame Bonval that no breath of this dreadful story should be permitted to reach the ears of Lady Henry, and I inwardly hoped that we might soon leave a place which was connected with so much guilt and horror.

The period for which Lord Henry Villeroi had taken the chateau was expired, but it being an unpleasant time of the year for travelling, he resolved to prolong his stay for four months longer.

Had I not been made acquainted with the shocking history of Courcelles, I should have enjoyed these few winter months in this secluded and truly delightful spot; but the recollection of the deeds which had been perpetrated in sight of the very windows made me quite miserable.

I could never look upon the glittering ocean without thinking that the bones of the confiding and lovely Rosalie, and of the brutal

Marie, were whitening in its caves at the bottom.

Fortunately we succeeded in keeping this miserable history from Lady Henry, and she daily improved in health, and looked forward, with much satisfaction to the proposed journey to Italy.

Whenever Lord Henry was absent, I was her constant companion. She seemed very partial to me, and I felt an equal regard for her ladyship. One day, when we were alone together, she said she would perform her promise, of giving me an account of her early life, which was spent, as she told me, in a cloister. Though I did not suppose there could be any thing very interesting in a life of so much sameness as that passed within the dreary walls of a convent, I gladly caught at her kind offer to amuse me, delighted to have any thing which could drive from my mind the late tale, which, ever since I had heard it, haunted my imagination.

Of course we had a great many interruptions

VOL. II.

P

during Lady Henry's recital; I shall, therefore, give the little history in the form of a continued narrative, and as nearly as possible in Lady Henry's own words.

CHAPTER X.

"Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains

Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains;"

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"Shrines! where their vigils pale-cy'd virgins keep; And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep."

POPE.

THE HISTORY OF DONNA CLARA DI MANUELA, AFTERWARDS LADY HENRY VILLEROI.

I WAS placed in a convent at so early an age, that I have not the slightest recollection of any thing before that time. I have been told that I had not completed my third year, when first taken to the convent of Santa Margarita.

I was considered a plaything by the holy sisterhood, and indulged by them to such a degree till I reached the age of ten years,

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