having first sent a messenger to his castle to
announce that he was arrived, but so much fatigued and way-worn, as to
require nothing but repose and solitude. His wife met him with her usual
gentleness of affection; but instantly saw in his haggard looks that his
heart laboured with some misery which her tenderness was unable to
remove. His manners were such as to awaken without satisfying her
curiosity. He rose at day break, spent some hours at prayers, walked
alone into the forest, proceeded instinctively to the fatal hermitage,
and returned late in the evening, bearing with him, as it appeared, an
additional load of misery. He saw with astonishment that death seemed to
abstain from ravaging the beauties of Guilliadun; he involuntarily gave
way to the most flattering hopes; and, after many long sad hours of
tears and fruitless prayer, retired in anguish and disappointment. On
the third day he gave notice he should go to court, and pass the evening
with the king. His wife, in the mean time, by the promise of the most
tempting rewards, had engaged one of her pages to follow his master at a
distance, during his forest walk, and report what he should see and
hear; and the page, having on that morning executed his commission, she
determined to take advantage of Eliduc's absence to visit the hermitage,
and discover, if possible, the cause of that excessive grief to which he
gave way; and of which the death of the old hermit, much as he might
have loved him, was far from affording a satisfactory explanation. She
set forth with the page, entered the chapel, beheld, with much surprize,
a bed handsomely ornamented; and, on lifting up the covering, saw, with
still more astonishment, the young and blooming Guilliadun, "_qui
resemblot rose nuvele_." The faultless beauty of a living rival might
have excited some indignation in the bosom of the most patient wife, but
the eyes of the lovely object before her, appeared closed for ever; and
Guildeluec could find no place in her heart, for any sentiments but
those of admiration and pity. After calling her page to survey the
spectacle which fully explained and excused her husband's immoderate
grief, she sat down by the bed to reflect on the past, and decide on
her own future conduct. During, the long absence of Eliduc she had
devoted the greater part of her time to religious exercises, and now
clearly saw that to them only could she look for comfort. Having
convinced herself of this neces