another set insisted upon their ally, the prioress, delivering up every thing that was valuable, assuring her at the same time, that so soon as they should have dispersed the English in the valley, they meant to take up their abode. with us. The very thought made our blood run cold, and several of the nuns vowed, that so soon as a Frenchman set foot within their holy walls, they would dash themselves from the precipitous rocks into the waves beneath. As for me, I clung in speechless agony to our lady abbess, who endeavoured to soothe me, but with such a look of despair as made me feel there was no hope.

The French, with their usual impetuosity, had dashed down the side of the mountain to annihilate, as they expressed it, the miserable islanders.

But they found a warmer reception than they expected, though the

only half their numbers.

conflict, the French were few that remained were order, while our noble

brave English were

After a desperate

After a

defeated, and the driven back in disdefenders marched

upon our convent, to assure us of protection. They took up their quarters for the present in the church and its environs, as the commanding officer thought it as unwise as cruel to leave so commanding and defenceless a spot again open to the tender mercies of our pretended friends.

Nothing could exceed the kind and delicate protection and attention we received from the noble English. They had retaken the plunder of the church and convent from the French, and restored it to the prioress; yet that infatuated woman could ill conceal her rage at the discomfiture of her desperate party.

I now saw for the first time the English.

The officers came to congratulate us upon our safety, and offered to convey us to a convent in the nearest city or fortified town, as a place of greater security, or to continue their protection to us where we were as long as they should be stationed near us.

After this time, the military were in the habit of calling daily at the grate, and I, who

had never before seen any man but our aged confessor, and occasionally a gloomy monk, could scarcely take my eyes from the young, the noble, and brilliant soldiers who now met my astonished gaze.

One singled me out, and endeavoured to converse with me in French, a language I did not then understand. He however made himself understood in broken Spanish, and day after day I hung with delight upon his accents, till I could scarcely bear to be out of his sight. How did I count the moments till his return. Need I say that this pleasing stranger, who so won upon my regards, was my dear Enrico.

A stop would soon have been put to these friendly meetings at the grate by the bitter prioress, but she did not dare, now that they were our sole protectors, show her dislike, or I should rather say hatred, to the English; so we went on for several weeks, occupying ourselves, at every leisure moment, in making national cockades, and all sorts of convent trifles, for our friends, who never seemed so

happy as in chatting to the simple-hearted

nuns.

Two months had thus passed away, when part of the regiment stationed immediately near us was ordered off several miles up the country, to intercept a body of French, who, in was reported, were expected to convey provisions to a fortress in their possession.

Enrico was one of the officers selected for this expedition, and when he announced this. to me I thought I should have died. Too young and inexperienced to conceal my feelings, I gave way to a torrent of tears, while I sobbed out my fears that I should never behold him more.

He seemed as much affected as myself, and it was fortunate for us that the parlour being crowded by nuns and novices, all eager to wish their protectors farewell, they did not notice, while occupied with their own emotions, my more violent ones. In the afternoon the bugles sounded, and from the roof of our prison (for such I now considered it) we could discern the brave soldiers winding

down the side of an opposite hill, their colours flying and drums beating. I thought I could never bear to hear military music again.

To describe my wretched feelings during the absence of one who had become so dear to me is impossible; and to add to my distress, our kind abbess was compelled to be absent just at this time, on business connected with our deserted convent.

I stole to the roof of the turret, whenever I could find an opportunity, and strained my eyes in the direction the detachment had taken.

I was one evening watching with intense anxiety, when Bianca ran up, and calling me to follow her, assured me that she had a moment before received certain information that the party had returned, and by a different route, and that it was not improbable but that our friends might, ere long, present themselves at the grate. How my heart beat with fear and hope! At length the sound of feet announced that some of the military were approaching; for our practised ears had be