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THE NOVELIST.

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THE CONFESSION OF SERVENTIUS.

(_Concluded from page 46_.)


That evening, Father Dominick, our excellent priest, and my tutor in the
classics, was closeted for a length of time with my afflicted nominal
parents; and two days afterwards taking me with him to his monastery, he
introduced me to the superior, as an orphan, the child of dear and
particular friends, confided by them to his charge for education upon
their death-bed, and with a distinct understanding that I was not bound to
take upon myself monastic vows, the superior allowed me to remain with him
as a boarder. Serventius and Artemisia I never more beheld, and every
inquiry respecting them which I ventured to make of Father Dominick, was
checked with a strange, sad look, and an admonition to mention them no
more. Seven long and peaceful years, I spent in the monastery; and at the
expiration of that period, was placed by my guardian in the house of the
celebrated Doctor Sanazio of Padua, as a student of medicine. Here, novel
and delightful studies, speculations, and scenes, opened upon my
inquisitive, ardent mind, and amused my enthusiastic imagination. Sanazio
was regarded in learned Padua, as little less than a demi-god; at certain