Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/96

 mit detached from the world. I take fish here sometimes, and still have what I please from the Castle, which has been long deserted by the family, and only inhabited by the steward, his wife, and two men, who look after the ground and cattle."

Here the hermit stopped; Ferdinand had been very attentive to him, and had decided in his own mind, that he had glossed over his conduct by only a slight account of his falseness and ingratitude to his Prince: He concluded his errors had been of no common magnitude, and such as deserved the severest punishment, or he would never have given up the world. This conclusion was strengthened as he proceeded in the story, and though he felt himself indebted for his assistance, yet the contempt that naturally arose in his mind for a character so unamiable, lessened his sense of gratitude.

He had continual occasions to observe an unequal and unpleasant temper in the hermit. He had a few books, with which he was sup-