As soon as he was sufficiently recovered, he quitted Italy for Sicily,
in the design of visiting the monastery of St Augustin, where it was
possible Julia might yet remain. That he might pass with the secrecy
necessary to his plan, and escape the attacks of the marquis, he left
his servants in Calabria, and embarked alone.

It was morning when he landed at a small port of Sicily, and proceeded
towards the abbey of St Augustin. As he travelled, his imagination
revolved the scenes of his early love, the distress of Julia, and the
sufferings of Ferdinand, and his heart melted at the retrospect. He
considered the probabilities of Julia having found protection from her
father in the pity of the Padre Abate; and even ventured to indulge
himself in a flattering, fond anticipation of the moment when Julia
should again be restored to his sight.

He arrived at the monastery, and his grief may easily be imagined,
when he was informed of the death of his beloved sister, and of the
flight of Julia. He quitted St Augustin's immediately, without even
knowing that Madame de Menon was there, and set out for a town at some
leagues distance, where he designed to pass the night.

Absorbed in the melancholy reflections which the late intelligence
excited, he gave the reins to his horse, and journeyed on unmindful of
his way. The evening was far advanced when he discovered that he had
taken a wrong direction, and that he was bewildered in a wild and
solitary scene. He had wandered too far from the road to hope to
regain it, and he had beside no recollection of the objects left
behind him. A choice of errors, only, lay before him. The view on his
right hand exhibited high and savage mountains, covered with heath and
black fir; and the wild desolation of their aspect, together with the
dangerous appearance of the path that wound up their sides, and which
was the only apparent track they afforded, determined Hippolitus not
to attempt their ascent. On his left lay a forest, to which the path
he was then in led; its appearance was gloomy, but he preferred it to
the mountains; and, since he was uncertain of its extent, there was a
possibility that he might pass it, and reach a village before the
night was set in.