Mystic discourse.--A mountain ramble.--A benevolent Hermit.--Red
light in the northern sky.--Lose my way in the solitary
hills.--Approach of night.
I had scarcely finished taking extracts from the writings of this holy
and highly-gifted personage when the dinner appeared, consisting of
everything most delicate which a strict adherence to the rules of meagre
could allow. The good fathers returned as usual before our repast was
half over, and resumed as usual their mystic discourse, looking all the
time rather earnestly into my countenance to observe the sort of effect
their most marvellous narrations produced upon it.
Our conversation, which was beginning to take a gloomy and serious turn,
was interrupted, I thought very agreeably, by the sudden intrusion of
the sun, which, escaping from the clouds, shone in full splendour above
the highest peak of the mountains, and the vapours fleeting by degrees
discovered the woods in all the freshness of their verdure. The pleasure
I received from seeing this new creation rising to view was very lively,
and, as the fathers assured me the humidity of their walks did not often
continue longer than the showers, I left my hall.
Crossing the court, I hastened out of the gates, and running swiftly
along a winding path on the side of the meadow, bordered by the forests,
enjoyed the charms of the prospect inhaled the perfume of the woodlands,
and now turning towards the summits of the precipices that encircled
this sacred inclosure, admired the glowing colours they borrowed from
the sun, contrasted by the dark hues of the forest. Now, casting my eyes
below, I suffered them to roam from valley to valley, and from one
stream (beset with tall pines and tufted beech trees) to another. The
purity of the air in these exalted regions, and the lightness of my own
spirits, almost seized me with the idea of treading in that element.
Not content with the distant beauties of the hanging rocks and falling
waters, I still kept running wildly along, with an eagerness and
rapidity that, to a sober spectator, would have given me the appearance
of one possessed, and with reason, for I was affected with the scene to
a degree I despair of expressing.
Whilst I was continuing my course, pursued by a thousand strange ideas,
a father, who was returning from some distant hermitage, stopped my
career, and made signs for me to repose myself on a bench erected under
a neighbouring shed; and, perceiving my agitation and disordered looks,
fancied, I believe, that one of the bears that lurk near the snows of
the mountains had alarmed me by his sudden appearance.
The good old man, expressing by his gestures that he wished me to
recover myself in quiet on the bench, hastened, with as much alacrity as
his age permitted, to a cottage adjoining the shed, and returning in a
few moments, presented me some water in a wooden bowl, into which he let
fall several drops of an elixir composed of innumerable herbs, and
having performed this deed of charity, signified to me by a look, in
which benevolence, compassion, and perhaps some little remains of
curiosity were strongly painted, how sorry he was to be restrained by
his vow of silence from enquiring into the cause of my agitation, and
giving me farther assistance. I answered also by signs, on purpose to
carry on the adventure, and suffered him to depart with all his
conjectures unsatisfied.
No sooner had I lost sight of the benevolent hermit than I started up,
and pursued my path with my former agility, till I came to the edge of a
woody dell, that divided the meadow on which I was running from the
opposite promontory. Here I paused, and looking up at the cliffs, now
but faintly illumined by the sun, which had been some time sinking on
our narrow horizon, reflected that it would be madness to bewilder
myself, at so late an hour, in the mazes of the forest. Being thus
determined, I abandoned with regret the idea of penetrating into the
lovely region before me, and contented myself for some moments with
marking the pale tints of the evening gradually overspreading the
cliffs, so lately flushed with the gleams of the setting sun.
But my eyes were soon diverted from contemplating these objects by a red
light streaming over the northern sky, which attracted my notice as I
sat on the brow of a sloping hill, looking down what appeared to be a
fathomless ravine blackened by the shade of impervious forests, above
which rose majestically the varied peaks and promontories of the
mountains.
The upland lawns, which hang at immense heights above the vale, next
caught my attention. I was gazing alternately at them and the valley,
when a long succession of light misty clouds, of strange fantastic
shapes, issuing from a narrow gully between the rocks, passed on, like a
solemn procession, over the hollow dale, midway between the stream that
watered it below, and the summits of the cliffs on high.
The tranquillity of the region, the verdure of the lawn, environed by
girdles of flourishing wood, and the lowing of the distant herds, filled
me with the most pleasing sensations. But when I lifted up my eyes to
the towering cliffs, and beheld the northern sky streaming with ruddy
light, and the long succession of misty forms hovering over the space
beneath, they became sublime and awful. The dews which began to descend,
and the vapours which were rising from every dell, reminded me of the
lateness of the hour; and it was with great reluctance that I turned
from the scene which had so long engaged my contemplation, and traversed
slowly and silently the solitary meadows, over which I had hurried with
such eagerness an hour ago.
Hill appeared after hill, and hillock succeeded hillock, which I had
passed unnoticed before. Sometimes I imagined myself following a
different path from that which had brought me to the edge of the deep
valley. Another moment, descending into the hollows between the hillocks
that concealed the distant prospects from my sight, I fancied I had
entirely mistaken my route, and expected every moment to be lost amongst
the rude brakes and tangled thickets that skirted the eminences around.
As the darkness increased, my situation became still more and more
forlorn. I had almost abandoned the idea of reaching the convent; and
whenever I gained any swelling ground, looked above, below, and on every
side of me, in hopes of discovering some glimmering lamp which might
indicate a hermitage, whose charitable possessor, I flattered myself,
would direct me to the monastery.
At length, after a tedious wandering along the hills, I found myself,
unexpectedly, under the convent walls; and, as I was looking for the
gate, the attendant lay-brothers came out with lights, in order to
search for me; scarcely had I joined them, when the Coadjutor and the
Secretary came forward, with the kindest anxiety expressed their
uneasiness at my long absence, and conducted me to my apartment, where
Mr. Lettice was waiting, with no small degree of impatience; but I found
not a word had been mentioned of my adventure with the hermit; so that,
I believe, he strictly kept his vow till the day when the Carthusians
are allowed to speak, and which happened after my departure.