at the hour of sunset, as had long been his frequent custom, ernest was to discourse to an assemblage of the neighboring inhabitants in the open air. he and the poet, arm in arm, still talking together as they went along, proceeded to the spot. it was a small nook among the hills, with a gray precipice behind, the stern front of which was relieved by the pleasant foliage of many creeping plants that made a tapestry for the naked rock, by hanging their festoons from all its rugged angles.