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 where a woman, eovered with a hood, stepped before the Count de Nevers, and lifting it, displayed, by the light of a dark lantern whieh she opened, the figure of the Negress. She presented him with a ring like that on his finger, saying,—"Will you follow me?"—"Without doubt," replied the Count. She then walked before them to one of the gates of the city, where they found a carriage with four horses. "Get in," said the Negress; "that carriage will convey you to the place where you are expeeted." In silence they entered the earriage.

The evening was elosed, the moon did not appear, the most profound darkness hid from the friends every objeet, and the presence of the Negress (who was crouehing at their feet) prevented them from communieating their thoughts. Some few questions, and vague enquiries, whieh they made, and which the Negress laeonieally, and very little to their satisfaction, answered, were not caleulated to shorten a journey, which the travellers supposed must have been of several leagues, when on a sudden the earriage stopped. The Negress opened her lantern, and they saw themselves in the midst of a forest; the horses were changed, and after travelling some time longer, and going, as they thought, at a great rate, the earriage stopped at a small door in the middle of a high wall. "We must now alight," said the Negress, "for we are at the end of our journey." They deseended, and the carriage drove away directly. The door then opened, and shut immediately after them; their conduetress preceded them down a long avenue of firs, planted very thickly, and of a great height.

The silver rays of the moon, which had now risen, sometimes pierced through the dark foliage of these melancholy trees, instead of