my hand: "We shall meet again;
come to me to-morrow." I clasped that kind hand; I tried to answer; a
fervent "God bless you!" was all my ignorance could frame of speech, and I
darted away, oppressed by my new emotions.

I could not rest. I sought the hills; a west wind swept them, and the stars
glittered above. I ran on, careless of outward objects, but trying to
master the struggling spirit within me by means of bodily fatigue. "This,"
I thought, "is power! Not to be strong of limb, hard of heart, ferocious,
and daring; but kind compassionate and soft."--Stopping short, I clasped
my hands, and with the fervour of a new proselyte, cried, "Doubt me not,
Adrian, I also will become wise and good!" and then quite overcome, I wept
aloud.

As this gust of passion passed from me, I felt more composed. I lay on the
ground, and giving the reins to my thoughts, repassed in my mind my former
life; and began, fold by fold, to unwind the many errors of my heart, and
to discover how brutish, savage, and worthless I had hitherto been. I could
not however at that time feel remorse, for methought I was born anew; my
soul threw off the burthen of past sin, to commence a new career in
innocence and love. Nothing harsh or rough remained to jar with the soft
feelings which the transactions of the day had inspired; I was as a child
lisping its devotions after its mother, and my plastic soul was remoulded
by a master hand, which I neither desired nor was able to resist.

This was the first commencement of my friendship with Adrian, and I must
commemorate this day as the most fortunate of my life. I now began to be
human. I was admitted within that sacred boundary which divides the
intellectual and moral nature of man from that which characterizes animals.
My best feelings were called into play to give fitting responses to the
generosity, wisdom, and amenity of my new friend. He, with a noble goodness
all his own, took infinite delight in bestowing to prodigality the
treasures of his mind and fortune on the long-neglected son of his father's
friend, the offspring of that gifted being whose excellencies and talents
he had heard commemorated from infancy.

After his abdication the late king had retreated from the sphere of
politics, yet his domestic circle afforded him small content. The ex-queen
had none of the virtues of domestic life, and those of courage and daring
which she possessed were rendered null by the secession of her husband: sh