Page:Clermont - Roche (1798, volume 2).djvu/7

 pose of little dressing-rooms; but those caves, the bath, and grotto, had been long neglected: for since the death of the Count, who had constantly resorted to them for health and pleasure, the Countess had never been able to bear the idea of approaching them. Her desertion confirmed the superstitious stories, which had long been in circulation amongst the servants and peasantry, of their being haunted by some of the former inhabitants of the chateau; nor would one of them venture near the mountain after sun-set, for almost any consideration.

Hither, as I have already said, Madeline now wandered, almost without knowing whither she was going; but when she found herself at the grotto, feeling a little fatigued, she sat down upon a moss covered stone at its entrance: the present scene was perfectly adapted to her feelings, and like the poet she might have said,