Don Pedro spent the whole day in preparations for his departure. Celestina, on her part, was equally busy in getting ready the little box she was to take with her. She wrs very careful not to omit securing in it a very fine emerald, which had been given her by her lover.

Celestina and her box were ready by eight in the evening; and before ten, Don Pedro, who had already provided carriages on the road to Andalusia arrived at the appointed spot; his heart beating with perturbation and hope.

As he approached the place, he heard persons calling for help, and perceived two men attacked by five assassins, armed with swords and bludgeons. The brave Pedro forgot his own affairs to defend the lives of the assaulted. He wounded two, and put the other three assassins to flight.

What was his surprise, on more attentively considering those he had delivered, to perceive they were no other than Henriquez and Celestina's guardian, Alonzo! Some desperate young cavalier of the city, who was in love with Celestina, knowing it was intended that Henriquez should espouse her, had hired bravoes, a species of rascal but too common in Spain, to assassinate them; had it not been for the valor of Don Pedro, the young scholar and the old miser would have found it no easy matter to have escaped with life.

Pedro did his utmost to avoid their grateful acknowledgements, but Henriquez, who piqued himself on having learned politeness in Salamanca, swore he should not leave them that night. Pedro,

in despair, had already heard the clock strike eleven. Alas! he knew not the mischief that had happened.

One of the bravoes whom he had put to flight, had passed, muffled up in his cloak, near the latice of Celestina. The night was extremely dark, and the unfortunate fair, having opened the window, imagining him to be Don Pedro. She presented him the box with joyful impatience.

Take our diamonds, said she, while I descend.At the word diamonds, the bravo suddenly stopped, took the box, without speaking a word, and, while Celestina was coming down from the window, fled with the utmost precipitation.

Imagine the surprise of Celestina, when she found herself alone, in the street, and saw nothing of whom she had supposed to be Don Pedro. She thought, at first, he had left her to avoid raising suspicion or alarm. She, therefore, hastily walked to a little distance, looked round on every side and called in a low voice. But no Pedro could she see; no lover could she hear.

She was now seized with the most alarming apprehensions. She knew not whether it was most adviseable to return home, or endeavor to find the horse and attendants of Don Pedro, that were waiting out of town. She continued to walk forwards, in the utmost uncertainty and distress, till she had lost herself among the streets; while her fears were redoubled by darkness and silence.

At length she met a person, whom she asked if she were far from the gate of the city. The stran

ger conducted her thither, but she found nobody waiting as she expected.

She dared not yet accuse her lover of deceiving her: still she hoped he was at no great distance. She therefore proceeded along the road, fearful at every bush, and calling Don Pedro at every step; but the farther she walked the more she was bewildered; for she had come out of the city on the side opposite the Portugal road.

In the mean time, Don Pedro found himself unable to get away from the grateful Henriquez and his father. They would not suffer him to leave them for a moment, but obliged him to enter the house with them, to which Pedro, fearful of betraying his intent, and frustrating his dearest hopes, and imagining too that Celestina might be soon satisfied why he thus delayed most reluctantly consented.

Alonzo hastens to the chamber of his ward to inform her of the danger he had just escaped. He calls, but receives no answer: enters her apartment, and finds the latice open; his cries collected the servants, the alarm is immediately given, Celestina is missing.

Pedro, in despair, immediately offered to go in quest of her. Henriquez, thanking him for the concern he expressed, declared his resolution of accompanying him. Pedro suggested that the probability of finding her would be greater if they took different roads. Accordingly, he hastened to rejoin his domestics; and not doubting but Celestina had taken the road to Portugal, put his 7

horses on at full speed. But their swiftness only removed him farther from the object of his love; while Henriquez galloped towards the Alpuxarian mountains, the way Celestina had actually gone.

In the mean time Celestina continued to wander disconsolate, along the road that leads to the Alpuxares, seeking her lover. Anon she heard the clattering of approaching horses; and at first, imagined it might be her beloved Pedro; but, afterwards, fearful of discovery, the violence of travellers, or perhaps, robbers, she, concealed herself, trembling behind some bushes.

Here she presently saw Henriquez pass by, followed by a number of servants. Shuddering at the danger of being again in the power, and dreading a second time to submit to the redoubled tyranny of Alonzo, if she continued in the high road, she turned aside, and took refuge in a thick wood.

The Alpuxares are a chain of mountains which extend from Grenada to the Mediterranean. They are only inhabited by a few peasants. To these fear and terror conducted the unfortunate maiden. A dry and stony soil, with a few oak trees, thinly scattered, some torrents and echoing cataracts, and a number of wild goats, leaping from precipice to precipice, are the only objects which present themselves to the eyes of Celestina, as soon as the day begins to break. Exhausted, at length with weariness and vexation, her feet being torn by the rugged stones over which she had passed, she sat down under a rock, through the cliffs of which a limpid water gently oozed.

The silence of this grotto, the wildness of the landscape around, the hoarse and distant murmur of several cascades, and the noise of the water near her, falling drop by drop into the bason it had hollowed beneath, all conspired to convince Celestina she was alone in the midst of a desart, abandoned by her lover, who to her was the whole world.

She sat her herself down on the edge of this stream, to vent her grief in tears, reflecting on the miseries that seemed to threaten her; but, above all, her lost Don Pedro, whom, at moments she still flattered herself she should one day regain.

It certainly was not he, said she, whom I saw carry off my diamonds. I must have been mistak

en.

Yet, how was it possible that my heart should not have informed me of the truth! No doubt he is now far hence, seeking me with anxiety and distraction; while I, as far distant from him, here am perishing.

While mournfully thus she ruminated, she heard at the botom of the grotto, the sound of the rustic flute.

Upon searching, she found a young goat-herd siting at the foot of a willow, his eyes bedewed with his tears, and fixed on the water as it issued from its rocky source. In his hand he held a flageolet, and by his side lay a staff and a little parcel.

Shepherd, said Celestina, have pity on one abandoned, and shew me my way among these mountains, to some village, or habitation, where I may procure, though not repose, or least sustenance.