Flowers of Literature, Vol. 3 of 4

Excerpt from Flowers of Literature, Vol. 3 of 4: Consisting of Selections From History, Biography, Poetry, and Romance; Jeux D'esprit, Traditionary Relics and Essays, With Translations From Approved Authors

IN the province of Andalusia there is a little valley embosomed on each side by mountains, and known by the appropriate appellation of the Vale of Solitude. It is intersected with numerous rills, that descend with the violence of cataracts from the adjacent precipices, and meander in graceful undulations through the valley. To the west of the landscape, amid the magnificent ruins of the Moorish palaces, the eye of the passing stranger discovers alittle cottage, sheltered with luxuriant ivy, and environed with the loftiest rocks. A few years ago, it was the ornament of the scene, but, like its once happy owners, has now gone to decay. The hand of time has placed his withering mark upon its beauty; and day after day it crumbles gradually to earth. But it is still an interesting ruin; and when viewed in con nexion with the tale which 1 am about to relate, arrests in an extraordinary degree the imagination of the tra veller. In my younger days I have often listened to it with transport; and while the Andalusian peasants hymned on their mountain-pipes the mournful burthen of days long since gone by, I have wept, even as achild, for the misfortunes of Annette, the pretty peasant girl.

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