第1086页 / 共1118页

After a few days' stay, he returned by the way of Pasturo, and

conducted Agnes to her village home: we will not attempt to

describe her feelings at beholding again those well remembered

places. She found all things in her cottage as she had left them:

it seemed as if angels had watched over the poor widow and her

child. Her first care was to get ready with all speed an

apartment in her humble abode for that kind friend who had been

to her child a second mother. Renzo, on his side, was not idle.

He laboured alternately at the widow's garden, and in the service

of his hospitable friend. As to his own cottage, it pained him to

witness the scene of desolation it presented; and he resolved to

dispose of it, and transfer its value to his new country. His

re-appearance in the village was a cause of much congratulation

to those who had survived the plague. All were anxious to learn

his adventures, which had given rise to so many reports among the

neighbours.