tained, notwithstanding the prejudices report had raised against her.

Osmond and the young officer tried every means to solace their afflicted companion, and the latter reasoned in so sensible a way, as served, in some measure, to abate the chagrin which oppressed him; nevertheless he retired to bed in a heavy and dejected

manner.

In the dead of night Orlando was roused by an uncommon noise.

CHAPTER IV.

OUR hero was awakened by a voice

conveying the sweetest sound, exceeding even melody itself, and which repeated his name three times in a tone, which, to his ear, was exquisite and ravishing.

It was, as he thought, the voice of his beloved Monimia, and, when he awoke, he listened with the fondest impatience for a repetition of the sound.

He kept in expectation some time,

but

but all was still and silent as the tomb.

Cruelly bereft of this enchanting sound, he at length relapsed into a sleep, when the same angelic accents arrested his attention, and created in his mind the most endearing sensations, in the midst of which he awoke and found the whole but the illusion of a dream.

Orlando tried to compose himself to sleep again, in hopes of a repetition of the bliss, but in vain; a croud of disconsolate ideas took possession of him, and his restlessness increased to such a degree, that he started from the bed and would have walked about the room, but the profound darkness that then reigned disappointed him.

In a fit of restlessness he repaired to bed again, where he had not been long

E 3.

long before his fancy was engaged in a scene of the most blissful and interesting appearances.

The beautiful Monimia appeared to him, but in a woe-worn and disconsolate figure.

Her countenance was pale and languid, and her looks denoted sorrow and inquietude.

She gazed at him with an air of tender reproof. Monimia then advanced towards him in an agony and agitation, and Orlando stretched forth his hands to embrace her.

At that moment a horrible fiend appeared and intercepted his design.

Her shrieks, when the hideous monster grasped her in his horrid fangs, roused Orlando to despera

tion.

tion. He made a furious attack on the invader of his happiness, but the demon was invulnerable.

On a sudden the clouds began to gather, and soon an awful darkness ensued, which entirely obscured Mo nimia from his sight.

He ranged about in a sort of phrenzy, while his ears were assailed with the most dismal tones and howlings.

Just as Orlando was on the brink of despair, a ray of heavenly light appeared, which soon after increased to a blaze of celestial splendour, and Monimia, attired in the richest robes, with a smile of ineffable delight in her countenance, approached, and, in a tone the most exquisite and tender, exclaimed---" Orlando! my Orlando! receive your injured Monimia !"