Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/173

 take the right-hand side of the forest, where two or three little hamlets lay dispersed, and would afford him some accommodation.—He viewed the mountain with a wearied eye, beyond the little valley the forest was very thick, nor did he know its termination; the other side he was acquainted with, but here he was entirely at a loss: Whilst he deliberated, he seated himself on a piece of the rock, where he had rested but a few moments before he heard the tinkling of a bell, and presently several sheep came to the opposite side of the rivulet; they stopped, looking at him, as if afraid of a stranger:—"Poor, simple animals! (exclaimed he) fear not a wretched, powerless man! Alas! thy very looks claim pity, so void of guile, hard and callous must that heart be grown, whose profession leads him to put the murderous knife to a throat so unoffending!"

He had scarcely finished those words, when he saw a young shepherdess descending from the mountain to attend the watering of her flocks. He marked her as she came nearer;