Again her memory began to store
itself with its beloved remembrances, and her heart to rejoice in its
artless longings and visionary thoughts. In spite of all her fears and
all her sufferings, she now walked on blest in a disposition that woe
had no shadow to darken long, and neglect no influence to warp; still as
happy in herself; even yet as forgetful of her past, as hopeful for her
future, as on that first evening when we beheld her in her father's
garden, singing to the music of her lute.
Insensibly as they proceeded, they had diverged from the road, had
entered a bye-path, and now stood before a gate which led to a small
farm house, surrounded by its gardens and vineyards, and, like the
suburbs that they had quitted, deserted by its inhabitants on the
approach of the Goths. They passed through the gate, and arriving at
the plot of ground in front of the house, paused for a moment to look
around them.
The meadows had been already stripped of their grass, and the young
trees of their branches by the foragers of the invading army, but here
the destruction of the little property had been stayed.
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