"These," said Corinne, "are the words your father addresses to you from above."--"True," sighed Oswald, "consoling angel! how you cheer me; yet could I but have see him for a moment, ere he died--could I have said how unworthy of him I felt myself, and been believed, I should not tremble like the guiltiest of mankind. I should not evince the vacillation of conduct and gloom of soul which can promise happiness to no one. Courage must be born of conscience; how then should it triumph over her? Even now, as the darkness closes in, methinks I see, in yon cloud, the thunderbolt that is armed against me. Corinne, Corinne! comfort your unhappy lover, or leave me on the earth, which, perhaps, will open at my cries, and let me descend to the abode of death."[6] [1] This is the less clear for being literal. I cannot comprehend how the banker's return should concern Madame d'Arbigny, if he had previously restored Raimond's fortune; nor who possessed it.--TR. [2] The lady's professed aversion to a third party in her attachments seems unaccountably reversed.--TR. [3] Frequent _unexplained chances_ favor subsequent letters; indeed, the correspondence henceforth seems to proceed as easily as if the countries had been at peace.--TR. [4] Discourse "On the duty of Children to their Parents," by M. Necker. See first note.** [5] On Indulgence. The same. [6] Lord Nevil does not inform us whether he entered the army before he visited France, or during his year's residence in Scotland, ere he returned thither. Between his father's death and his departure for Italy, he had surely as little time as health for the military duties even of a mess-table.--TR. BOOK XIII. VESUVIUS, AND THE CAMPAGNA OF NAPLES. CHAPTER I.