Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 1).djvu/24

 but, as if unwilling to relinquish the pleasure they had given her, she immediately began singing the beautiful air she had been listening to, and with which she was well acquainted. She however soon ceased, imagining that she heard a low voice beneath the balcony repeating her words. Somewhat startled, she hastily arose, and looked over it; but no object was visible, and all again was silence. Her fancy, she was then convinced, had deceived her, and her composure returned in consequence of that idea; but the night being now far advanced, she delayed no longer quitting the castle.

The next evening her father again left her to herself. Slinging her lute across her arm, with which she was wont to amuse herself in her moments of solitude, she again proceeded to the castle, and sought her favourite seat; but scarcely had she gained it, ere the following lines, penciled on a smooth white stone that had once formed