sired he would make no farther attempts to
engage her to an act so contrary to her duty, or even ever to see her
more.

Natura had so little notion of spirits and ghosts, that at first he
took this story only as a pretence, to cover a levity he had not
suspected her to be guilty of; but when he reflected on the silence of
the person he had taken for her, and the description of those who had
been to enquire for him, he began to imagine, as he had not the least
thought of the abbess, that something supernatural had indeed walked
the garden that night, and had also been at his own lodgings in order
to perplex him more:--a thousand little tales he had been told in his
infancy, concerning the tricks played on mortals by those shadowy
beings, now came fresh into his mind; and as the belief of what
Elgidia had wrote gained ground in him, was not far from being of her
opinion, that it was a warning from Providence, and to repent of
having attempted to snatch from the altar a woman devoted to it.

It is doubtless accidents such as this, that have given rise to so
many stories of apparitions, as have been propagated in the world; and
had not Natura been afterwards informed of the whole truth, it is
likely he would have been as great a defender of these ideas, as any
who are accounted superstitious:--but however that might have been, it
wrought so strongly on his mind at present, that joined with the
considerations of those perpetual perplexities which must infallibly
attend an ecclesiastical intrigue; besides, those which the abbess
would involve him in, made him resolve to obey Elgidia's commands, and
pursue the matter no farther, but go directly to the baron d' Eyrac's,
who he heard was still at his country-house.

The loss of his horses, however, very much vexed him; he bought them,
because he preferred that way of travelling to a post-chaise: they had
cost him forty louis d'ores in Paris, and knew not whether the country
he was in would afford him any so fit for his purpose:--he was just
sending his man to enquire where others were to be had, when his own
were at the door, without the least damage done either to themselves
or saddles:--the farmer who had the care of them while he was at the
monastery, found them wandering in the field, and easily knowing to
whom they belonged, brought them home.

This was some consolation to him for the loss of his mistresses; and
he began to resolve seriously on his departure; but thinki