an instant the cobweb tissue of my fancy. With his usual zeal he
had gathered facts concerning the scene, which put my fictions all
to flight. The heroine of my romance was neither young nor
handsome; she had no lover; she had entered the convent of her own
free will, as a respectable asylum, and was one of the most
cheerful residents within its walls.

"It was some little while before I could forgive the wrong done me
by the nun in being thus happy in her cell, in contradiction to all
the rules of romance; I diverted my spleen, however, by watching,
for a day or two, the pretty coquetries of a dark-eyed brunette,
who, from the covert of a balcony shrouded with flowering shrubs
and a silken awning, was carrying on a mysterious correspondence
with a handsome, dark, well-whiskered cavalier, who lurked
frequently in the street beneath her window. Sometimes I saw him at
an early hour, stealing forth wrapped to the eyes in a mantle.
Sometimes he loitered at a corner, in various disguises, apparently
waiting for a private signal to slip into the house. Then there was
the tinkling of a guitar at night, and a lantern shifted from place
to place in the balcony. I imagined another intrigue like that of
Almaviva, but was again disconcerted in all my suppositions. The
supposed lover turned out to be the husband of the lady, and a
noted contrabandista; and all his mysterious signs and movements
had doubtless some smuggling scheme in view.

"--I occasionally amused myself with noting from this balcony the
gradual changes of the scenes below, according to the different
stages of the day.

"Scarce has the gray dawn streaked the sky, and the earliest cock
crowed from the cottages of the hill-side, when the suburbs give
sign of reviving animation; for the fresh hours of dawning are
precious in the summer season in a sultry climate. All are anxious
to get the start of the sun, in the business of the day. The
muleteer drives forth his loaded train for the journey; the
traveler slings his carbine behind his saddle, and mounts his steed
at the gate of the hostel; the brown peasant from the country urges
forward his loitering beasts, laden with panniers of sunny fruit
and fresh dewy vegetables, for already the thrifty housewives are
hastening to the market.