XXIV.

THE NUN.

1 ' Est via qua videtur homini justa ; novissima antevi ejusdeducunt hominem ad mortem." —Proverb, iv.

Here is a mixture of gallantry and religion. The younglady has admitted her lover into her apartment. She iskneeling before an altar, and hesitates whether to persist inher devotions or listen to the amorous music of the youngman, who, seated on a bed, touches a theorbo lute. Deathextinguishes the candles on the altar, by which the designerof the subject probably intimates the punishment of unlawfullove.