first indulged that pensive melancholy, which afterwards made a
strong feature of his character--the wild walks of the mountains, the
river, on whose waves he had floated, and the distant plains, which
seemed boundless as his early hopes--were never after remembered by
St. Aubert but with enthusiasm and regret. At length he disengaged
himself from the world, and retired hither, to realize the wishes of
many years.

The building, as it then stood, was merely a summer cottage, rendered
interesting to a stranger by its neat simplicity, or the beauty of
the surrounding scene; and considerable additions were necessary to
make it a comfortable family residence. St. Aubert felt a kind of
affection for every part of the fabric, which he remembered in his
youth, and would not suffer a stone of it to be removed, so that the
new building, adapted to the style of the old one, formed with it
only a simple and elegant residence. The taste of Madame St. Aubert
was conspicuous in its internal finishing, where the same chaste
simplicity was observable in the furniture, and in the few ornaments
of the apartments, that characterized the manners of its inhabitants.

The library occupied the west side of the chateau, and was enriched
by a collection of the best books in the ancient and modern
languages. This room opened upon a grove, which stood on the brow of
a gentle declivity, that fell towards the river, and the tall trees
gave it a melancholy and pleasing shade; while from the windows the
eye caught, beneath the spreading branches, the gay and luxuriant
landscape stretching to the west, and overlooked on the left by the
bold precipices of the Pyrenees. Adjoining the library was a green-
house, stored with scarce and beautiful plants; for one of the
amusements of St. Aubert was the study of botany, and among the