ds. But that city and its buildings, that river of which
the lovely vistas, and the pools of blue water, mingled, crossed,
and embraced each other, which gladdened my sight and filled me with
love--where are they?

"At that hour the waters assumed fantastic hues under the sunset sky,
and seemed to be painted pictures; the stars dropped tender streaks of
light, the moon spread its pleasing snares; it gave another life to
the trees, to the color and form of things, and a new aspect to the
sparkling water, the silent hills, the eloquent buildings. The city
spoke, it glittered, it called to me to return!

"Columns of smoke rose up by the side of the ancient pillars, whose
marble sheen gleamed white through the night; the lines of the horizon
were still visible through the mists of evening; all was harmony and
mystery. Nature would not say farewell; she desired to keep me there.
Ah! It was all in all to me; my mother and my child, my wife and my
glory! The very bells bewailed my condemnation. Oh, land of marvels!
It is as beautiful as heaven. From that hour the wide world has been my
dungeon. Beloved land, why hast thou rejected me?

"But I shall triumph there yet!" he cried, speaking with an accent
of such intense conviction and such a ringing tone, that the boatman
started as at a trumpet call.

The stranger was standing in a prophetic attitude and gazing southwards
into the blue, pointing to his native home across the skyey regions.
The ascetic pallor of his face had given place to a glow of triumph, his
eyes flashed, he was as grand as a lion shaking his mane.

"But you, poor child," he went on, looking at Godefroid, whose cheeks
were beaded with glittering tears, "have you, like me, studied life from
blood-stained pages? What can you have to weep for, at your age?"

"Alas!" said Godefroid, "I regret a land more beautiful than any land
on earth--a land I never saw and yet remember. Oh, if I could but cleave
the air on beating wings, I would fly----"

"Whither?" asked the exile.

"Up there," replied the boy.

On hearing this answer, the stranger seemed surprised; he looked darkly
at the youth, who remained silent. They seemed to communicate by an
unspeakable effusion of the spirit, hearing each other's yearnings
in the teeming silence, and going forth side by side, like two doves
sweeping the air on equal wing, till the boat, touching the strand of
the island, roused them from their deep reverie.

Then, each l