With what eager impatience did I watch the hours to the appointed
interview with the Hermit languish themselves away! However, before that
time arrived and towards the evening of the next day, I was surprised by
the rare honour of a visit from Anselmo himself. He came attended by two
of the mendicant friars of his order, and they carried between them a
basket of tolerable size, which, as mine hostess afterwards informed me,
with many a tear, went back somewhat heavier than it came, from the
load of certain _receptacula_ of that rarer wine which she had had the
evening before the indiscreet hospitality to produce.

The Abbot came to inform me that the Hermit had been with him that
morning, making many inquiries respecting me. "I told him," said he,
"that I was acquainted with your name and birth, but that I was under
a solemn promise not to reveal them, without your consent; and I am now
here, my Son, to learn from you whether that consent may be obtained?"

"Assuredly not, holy Father!" said I, hastily; nor was I contented until
I had obtained a renewal of his promise to that effect. This seemed to
give the Abbot some little chagrin: perhaps the Hermit had offered a
reward for my discovery. However, I knew that Anselmo, though a griping
was a trustworthy man, and I felt safe in his renewed promise. I saw him
depart with great satisfaction, and gave myself once more to conjectures
respecting the strange recluse.

As the next evening I prepared to depart towards the hermitage, I took
peculiar pains to give my person a foreign and disguised appearance. A
loose dress, of rude and simple material, and a high cap of fur, were
pretty successful in accomplishing this purpose. And, as I gave the last
look at the glass before I left the house, I said inly, "If there be any
truth in my wild and improbable conjecture respecting the identity of
the anchorite, I think time and this dress are sufficient wizards to
secure me from a chance of discovery. I will keep a guard upon my words
and tones, until, if my thought be verified, a moment fit for unmasking
myself arrives. But would to God that the thought be groundless! In
such circumstances, and after such an absence, to meet _him_! No; and
yet--Well, this meeting will decide."

CHAPTER IV.

THE SOLUTION OF MANY MYSTERIES.--A DARK VIEW OF THE LIFE AND NATURE OF
MAN.

POWERFUL, though not clearly developed in my own mind, was the motive
which made me so strongly desire to