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42 inform me with a kind of new existence, inspiring me with eloquence, and enabling me to express that which I felt, whatever might be the sternness or the rank of my hearers. "How often have I contrasted the freedom and enjoyment of my spirit then, with the unutterable weight which has lain upon it ever since! I entered this paradise, ignorant of myself and my situation; I left it informed and miserable, yet under that influence which is the most sustaining of all earthly solace, and which in my case was increasing every hour—need I say this solace was love? "Lady Osmond was extremely intimate with the Mortimers, and might be said to be of their party, and to me she appeared much the most amiable. Soon after our arrival, she was joined by her son, who had been making excursions with other young men in the mountains, being almost as much an enthusiast as myself. There was in him no weighing of words, or repressing of thoughts, much less that measuring of civilities according to rank or wealth, which I had remarked in his countrymen, and he possessed the same taste for music, the same poetic fervour, and the same preference for the magnificent in nature and the excellent in art, which were inherent in myself. No wonder we soon distinguished each other, soon found that similarity of sentiment which led us step by step to—