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displeased with such a repulse and { ?} with acting so contrary
to his feelings, he more than once asked her if she was not
sleepy and reminded her that it was her bed time. But Rosa,
encouraged by her mother, declared she would not go and
as Captain Mirvan seemed equally resolved to stay, after
some struggles to keep awake, she at last fell asleep on
her mother's bosom. The still imparted or feeling of security
to Julia, who now conversed with her usual frankness and
ease, and as quickly as even this child could have
done, forgetting the danger from which she had escaped,
she with equal facility and thoughtlessness promised the Captain
to go with him the next day to a place he described
to her as equally solitary and beautiful. For some weeks
past Julia had been amusing herself with
painting a set of views she had sketched in her
various excusions. She had complained of their tameness
and expressed her wish to do something in a bolder and
grander style. "Where shall I find some precipices,
rocks, caverns, and cataracts, something in the Salvator style,
she enquired. In their next days tour, Captain Mirvan
promised to show her all these objects. He had often
visited at the house of friend, who lived opposite
to the little falls of the Potomack and he described the
scene from this dwelling as one of the most grand and
picturesque he had ever seen.
"There," said he, "'ave solitudes as wild and savage as
Pyrenean Bandditti ever haunted; and the daring fisherman
who venture among the whirlpools, cataracts and rocks
in search of their prey, have the hardihood and boldness
of those wild mountaineers and sitting as they often do in some
recess of the rocks round a blazing fire, cooking their fish,
and drying them and nets, they will afford you as fine
groups of savage looking men, as Salvator's Banditti's."
This being precisely what Julia wanted, she promised
to be in readiness early the next morning.
A thunder gust during the night had cooled
the air and refreshed the herbage and leaving
Rosa sound asleep, the imprudent and romantic
Julia set off with Captain Mirvan for an