The three actors in this solemn and singular scene had not enveloped their secret in so impenetrable a veil, as they imagined; and this transaction was the means of their meeting with many severe reproofs from those, to whom they were in subjection. The youthful devotee had been watched by an inquisitive Nun; and the respectable office, which she had thought proper to perform on this occasion, was made known to the Abbess the next morning. Severe were the censures past by that good lady on Mary’s boldness, in assuming a character so ill adapted to her time of life. On the other hand, each of the lovers was closeted by the chief of their respective families; and many representations were laid before them in these private conferences, which seemed to make great impression on the minds of both, though they had not the smallest effect in diminishing their mutual attachment. At their next meeting Erwin revealed not to Rosanna one word of the conversation, which he had held with his grandfather Melthal; neither on _her_ side was Rosanna more communicative of the information, which she had gained from the old William Tell. They only confest to each other, that the main-topic of both these secret conferences had been reasons for their renouncing their so lately contracted union; and the question was exchanged—“Whether what each had heard, but which neither revealed, was of such force, as to authorize their breaking vows, which had been pronounced with such solemnity”—“No!”—uttered in a tone so positive, as to convey in it a renewal of all their former oaths, was the reply on both sides: yet they agreed to commit their cause to Heaven and Time, and to suffer, to hope, and to believe, what (in secret each was compelled to own) appeared then to be impossible.