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[Illustration: Sir W. C. Rofs, R.A.       A.B. Ross
THE UNMARRIED BELLE
Engraved Expressly for Graham's Magazine]


GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.

VOL. XXXIII.    PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1848.    No. 4.




THE UNMARRIED BELLE.

BY ENNA DUVAL.

[SEE ENGRAVING.]


  Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted;
  If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters returning
  Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment;
  That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.
  Patience; accomplish thy labor; accomplish thy work of affection!
  Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance is godlike;
  Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart is made godlike,
  Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more worthy of heaven!
  LONGFELLOW'S EVANGELINE.


I was loitering beside my mother's chair, in her drawing-room, one day
on my return from school, listening to the conversation between her
and some morning visiters; they were discussing most earnestly the
merits of a reigning belle.

"She is, indeed, perfectly beautiful," exclaimed my mother. "I looked
at her the other evening, when I saw her at the last concert, and
thought a more lovely creature could not exist. The music excited her,
and her cheek was delicately flushed, which heightened the brilliancy
of her eyes; her lovely lips were just half apart and trembling with
feeling. Then she understands so well the art and mystery of dressing.
While other young ladies around her were in the full pride of
brilliant _costume_, the eye felt freshened and relieved when looking
at her--there was such a repose in her _demi-toilette_. The simple
white dress was so pure and chaste in its effect, displaying only her
lovely throat, and her beautiful chestnut-brown hair was gathered up
carelessly but neatly, while over one tiny ear fell a rich cluster of
ringlets; then, with all her beauty and exquisite taste, she is so
unconscious, so unstudied. That the world should call Mary Lee a
beauty, I do not wonder; but that society should pronounce her a
belle, is, indeed, a surprise to me--she is so unassuming, so free
from art and _affectation_."

"So unlike her mother," exclaimed a lady, eagerly. "I think Mary's
success in society is as gratifying as unexpected to Mrs. Lee. She
delayed her _entree_ into society as long as she could, and used to
lament most piteously to me the trouble she expected to have with her,
from her total want of animation and spirit. But now she seems to have
entirely forgotten her former misgivings, for she takes many airs on
herself about Mary's popularity, talking all the while as though
scarcely any one was good enough for the husband of the daughter she
pronounced one year ago a stupid, inanimate creature."

"Ah!" said a gentleman, laughing, "the tie now is between young Morton
and Langley, I believe. As Langley is the more _distingue_ of the two,
I suppose the mother will favor him; but if one can judge from
appearances, the daughter prefers Harry Morton."

"I can assure you," interrupted Mr. Foster, an intimate friend of our
family, "the daughter has quite as much admiration for the rich Mr.
Langley as the mother. There is a little incident connected with that
same concert Mrs. Duval speaks of, that convinces me of the daughter's
powers of management."

"Shame on you, Philip Foster!" said my mother, "you should not talk
thus of any lady, much less of Mary Lee."

"What was the incident, Mr. Foster?" eagerly inquired the other
ladies.

"Yes, do tell us, Phil," urged his gentleman friend.

My mother looked reproachfully at Mr. Foster, but he shook his head
laughingly at her, as he said,

"Hear me first, dear Mrs. Duval, before you judge. I was at Mrs. Lee's
two or three mornings since. Several visitors were in the
drawing-rooms, among them Harry Morton, as usual. I was looking at a
new and costly collection of engravings on the _commode_ table, when I
overheard Harry Morton ask Miss Lee if he should join their party at
the concert the next evening. She replied that she regretted they
were not going, for she had already promised her mother to dine and
spend the evening quietly with an old friend. The next evening at the
concert the whole Lee party were there, and our belle, Miss Mary, was
brought in by young Langley, just newly arrived from Europe. The
unconscious _demi-toilette_ Mrs. Duval speaks so admiringly of, had
the desired effect. Langley's taste has been chastened by a voyage
over the Atlantic; the noisy over-dressing of his countrywomen would,
of course, annoy his delicate sense--therefore was the simple home
costume adopted in preference, and the "_available_" Mr. Langley
secured as an admirer."

"I do not believe any such thing, Philip!" exclaimed my mother,
indignantly. "I will answer for it, there was some mistake. Mary Lee
would scorn a falsehood, and is entirely above all artifice or design.
Mrs. Lee is said to be maneuvering and worldly; if she is, her
daughter is entirely free from such influences."

"How did Morton take it, Phil?" asked the other friend, laughingly.

"He was with me," replied Mr. Foster, evidently enjoying with some
little malice my kind mother's annoyance, "we had dropped into the
concert by chance together. He looked thunderstruck, but said nothing,
and did not approach her during the whole evening. She knew he was
there, however, for I saw her return his cold bow in a painfully
embarrassed manner."

The entrance of some other visiters, connected with the Lees, put an
end to the conversation. That night, when my nurse was undressing me
for bed, I said,

"What's a belle, Katy?"

"A very rich and beautiful young lady," replied my nurse, "who has
plenty of lovers, and gets married very soon."

"Will I ever be a belle?" I innocently inquired, as she gathered up my
rebellious hair under my cap.

"No," she replied, in impatient tones, "your hair is too straight, and
your skin too yellow; but you must do as you're told to, or else
nobody will even love you; so go to sleep right away."

I was silenced, and thus obedience was obtained by appealing to my
love of approbation. Many years passed, bringing me to womanhood, when
I discovered the truth of Nurse Katy's reason why I should not be a
belle. Other people decided that my "hair was too straight, and my
skin too yellow," to use Katy's homely, rough words; but her _brusque_
admonition, that made me go to sleep so quickly when a child, acted
upon me as a woman. My approbativeness once roused, I managed, despite
my want of personal attractions, to secure a host of friends; and the
lesson I then learned, to please others rather than myself for the
sake of gaining their love, has caused my life thus far to be very
sunny and happy, even more so than if I had been the belle my childish
fancy desired.

One of Nurse Katy's principal attributes of a belle, however, Mary Lee
was deficient in. She did not get married at all--and Mary Lee she
remained all her life. But she was one of the loveliest old maids in
the world, and quite as popular in our circle as she had been in her
own. She had been confined many years with an invalid mother and
paralytic father, but after their death some time, she re-entered
society; and her house was the favorite resort of the new set of young
people, as it had been in her young days. She gave the most delightful
parties, planned the most pleasant enjoyments for us, and although
acknowledging herself to be an old maid, she still retained her
youthful feelings unimpaired.

Her mind remained in a fresh, healthy state, and her disposition was
still sweet and joyous. How we all loved her; she was our confidante,
adviser and friend. She was still pretty, and might have proved a very
formidable rival had she chosen to enter society as a young lady; but
she preferred being regarded by us as an elder friend. The young
ladies grouped around her as younger sisters; and one half the young
gentlemen would have married her _instanter_, notwithstanding she was
ten or fifteen years their senior. Old maid as she was, strange to
tell, she was a promoter of marriages. The ill-natured called Mary Lee
a match-maker. She certainly did interest herself very much with
lovers, fathoming all the little mysteries of their love-quarrels, and
setting every thing quite straight, even when they seemed in
inextricable confusion.

Miss Lee had been very fond of my mother, and extended to me the same
regard, therefore I was, notwithstanding the difference in our ages,
on a more intimate footing with her than her other young friends. One
day, as we were discussing the merits of an approaching wedding, the
conversation assumed a confidential tone.

"Indeed, Enna," she exclaimed, laughingly, "there is nothing more
interesting to me than a couple of lovers full of romance, poetry, and
perfectly blind and uncaring as to the future. I love to watch them in
courtship, lend them a helping hand in the quicksands of that
dangerous but delicious season; and then it makes me so happy to
congratulate them after their troubles are all over, and they are
happily married."

"Ah! if they only could be sure of happiness," I replied.

"Shame on you for that old maid's croak!" she said, with a bright
look; "those who are not happy in married life, would never be happy
in any situation. There should be no old maids or old bachelors, Enna;
we would all be happier married; we fail in fulfilling our missions
when we remain single. Hunt up a lover, Enna; let me watch your
courtship, and rejoice over your wedding. As a clever friend of mine
once said, we think poetry as lovers, but in married life we act true
poetry."

I opened my eyes with astonishment, and innocently asked, "Why is it,
then, you have never married?"

A shadow crossed over her face, and I felt a desire to recall the
question, for I feared I had called up disagreeable reminiscences, but
the next instant her countenance was as beaming and calm as before.

"I will tell you, Enna," she said, as she caressingly rested her head
on my shoulder, "why I have never married; but to do that I must
relate the history of my rather uneventful life. My story has but
little interest, but it will gratify the curiosity of one who loves
me. My childhood was spent with an old aunt. She took me when I was a
delicate wee thing, and I remained with her until her death, which
took place when I was nearly grown. She was a dear, good old lady, and
with her my life passed most happily; my short visits home gave me
little pleasure, for my mother was a very worldly, ambitious woman,
and displayed but little tenderness for me, which, when contrasted
with my aunt's fondness and indulgence, made me feel quite as a
stranger in my family; and when Aunt Mary died, I wept as bitterly,
and felt as lonely and bereft of friends, as though I did not possess
a mother, father, and sisters. The two years after my aunt's death
were spent in close attention to those accomplishments which had been
neglected in my education as unnecessary, and which my mother deemed
so essential; and not a day passed without my poor mother's
exclamations of despair over me.

"'One comfort there is, however,' she would say, 'your aunt's little
fortune of a few thousands will be exaggerated in society, and people
will forget your _mauvaise honte_ in giving you credit for being an
heiress.'

"But the report of my being an heiress was not needed, for when I
entered society, to my mother's amazement, I created quite a
sensation. I had been looked upon as a pretty girl always; but my
mother had so often declared that I was so inanimate and innocent, she
never would be able to do any thing with me, and my pretty face would
be of no service to me, that I looked upon myself as quite an ordinary
person, and was as much surprised at my belle-hood as my family. I
wonder my little head was not turned with the attentions I received,
so unused as I had been to admiration; it might have been, however,
had not a disappointment--a bitter, heart-aching disappointment,
wearied me of all this adulation and attention.

"Soon after my entrance into society, I became acquainted with a Mr.
Morton--agreeable, good-looking, and attentive he was, of
course--quite an acquisition to me in my circle of admirers. His
worldly qualifications were not of so brilliant a nature as to attract
my prudent mother's fancy, for he was only a young lawyer of slender
means and moderate practice. I do not think she ever dreamed of the
interest he excited in me, but looked upon him as one of the crowd of
attendants necessarily surrounding a belle. But how differently I
regarded him. The piles of costly bouquets I received daily, gained
but little attention from me, unless I discerned among them the tiny
bunch of sweet-violets, tea-roses, and mignonette, which he once in a
great while sent me. In my ball-tablets my eyes sought the dances
marked down for him; and when he was my partner, the dance, generally
so wearisome, was only too short, too delightful; the reminiscence of
that happy time makes a silly girl of me again. My mother never
imagined he aspired to my hand--she would have looked aghast at the
bare mention of such a probability; but she regarded him as a friend,
and he was a great favorite with her. She used to say young men like
Harry Morton, that knew their places, were invaluable acquaintances
for a belle; thus were we thrown a great deal together. She was so
blind to his real position with me, quick-sighted as she generally was
in other things, I was permitted to have him for my partner in
dancing, even for several quadrilles during an evening; he was my
constant attendant in my daily rides on horseback, and my mother never
hesitated to call upon him if we were at any time in need of an escort
to a ball or opera. He was upon the footing of a brother or cousin in
the family; but, ah! how dear was he to me. Without any actual
explanation, I felt sure of Harry Morton's love. I never had any
doubts or jealousies--we seemed to perfectly understand each other. I
never looked forward to our future--I was too quietly happy in the
present. I only dated from one meeting to another--from the dinner to
the party, when he would be ready to hand us from our carriage, to
take me off my father's arm in compliance with my mother's constant
inquiry and request of, 'Where's Harry Morton? Here, Harry, do take
charge of Mary,' a request which he always seemed delighted to obey.
Then, after the happy good-night, I would lie my head on the pillow to
dream of him and the morning ride we would take together. Why he never
spoke to me of his love I cannot tell. It might have been that
feelings of delicacy restrained him; my father was rich, while he was
but a poor young lawyer; then report had made me an heiress in my own
right, as well as a belle, to my worldly mother's great content. That
he loved me I am sure, though he never told me with his lips.

"One morning my mother said to me, 'Do not make any engagement for
to-morrow, Mary; we must dine _en famille_ with dear old Mrs. Langley;
we have not been there for a month.'

"Now this Mrs. Langley was a person of great consideration in my
mother's eyes. She was very wealthy, and, moreover, had been at the
head of the fashionable world for many years. Since my entrance into
society, she had been quite an invalid, and rarely appeared in public,
but it gratified her exceedingly to have her friends around her, for
she dreaded yielding up her command in the world. My mother was an
especial favorite of hers; and after I had taken such a prominent
situation in society, she expressed great regard for me. Once in a
month or so we spent a day with her. She lived in great style--a
stately dinner, and a stupid, grand, heavy evening was the amount of
the visit. How I used to dread the coming of the day; it was the only
time I was separated from Harry, for Mrs. Langley being very
exclusive, and making no new acquaintances, he had no _entree_ there.
I used to sing for her, arrange her worsteds, tell her of the parties
and different entertainments, and read to her her son's last letter.
She had only one son, and he had been in Europe for two or three
years. He was her idol, and she never tired talking of him. Dear old
lady, my conscience smote me many times for the feelings of impatient
weariness and _ennui_ I would give way to during one of her tedious
dinner parties.

"The following morning after my mother had announced the visit of
penance, Harry Morton made his appearance in our drawing-rooms, as
usual, with the other morning visiters. Every one was talking of a new
singer who was to make her _debut_ on that evening.

"'May I join your party at the concert this evening?' Harry asked me,
in a low voice.

"'I regret exceedingly,' I replied, 'that we are not going to the
concert. I have already promised mamma to spend a quiet day and
evening with an old friend of hers. You must listen attentively to
this new _donna_, and tell me all about her voice if you go.'

"'I do not think I shall go,' he replied, in low, earnest tones, 'for
I could not enjoy the concert if not with you.' A turn in the general
conversation drew us more into notice, and some ladies and gentlemen
entering, put an end to all further intercourse between us; how long I
remembered and cherished those last words of his. When I made my
appearance in my mother's room at 5 o'clock, shawl and hood in hand,
she regarded me from head to foot smilingly.

"'What new caprice to-day?' she said, 'and yet I must confess it is
very becoming to you.'

"I had felt too languid to dress much, and as the weather was warm,
spring being quite far advanced, I had chosen a simple white mull robe
for the visit to our old friend, knowing that we should meet with but
few visiters there. This I explained apologetically to my mother, who
tapped me with her fan good-naturedly, saying that beauties were
cunning creatures, they liked to show once in a while they could defy
the aid of ornament. The first few months of my entrance into society
my mother superintended, with great attention, all my _toilettes_; but
near the close of the season she fell into the general opinion, that
what ever I did was exactly right; and poor little me, that one short
half-year before had no right to express an opinion upon so grave a
subject as dress, was now constantly appealed to; and whatever style I
adopted was perfect in her eyes. Society had placed its stamp upon me,
I could pass current as a coin of high value to her.

"When I reached Mrs. Langley's, I found the old lady attended by but
one gentleman, who, beside ourselves, was her only visiter. What was
my surprise to hear her introduce him as her son, Templeton Langley.
The dinner passed more pleasantly than usual, for Mr. Langley made
himself very agreeable. After dinner he proposed we should go to the
concert, as he felt an interest in the new _primadonna_, having heard
her at her _debut_ in Europe. I made an objection, which was overruled
by Mrs. Langley's expressing a desire--strange for her--to go
likewise; and we went. I had not been ten minutes in the room when, on
lifting my eyes, the first person I saw was Harry Morton looking
sternly at me. Foolishly, I grew embarrassed, my face burned, and my
whole frame trembled with nervous agitation. He did not approach me,
but gave me only a cold bow. 'He thinks me guilty of falsehood,' I
said to myself. How wretchedly passed the evening, and yet I have no
doubt I was an object of envy to many of my young lady friends. The
rich _distingue_, Templeton Langley showed himself my devoted admirer,
while his mother, the acknowledged leader of _ton_, sat beside us
smiling approvingly. My indifferent, cold manner, my simple costume,
and my beautiful face, completed that evening the conquest of the
fastidious, fashionable young man. You cannot imagine the delight of
my mother, when day after day found Templeton Langley constantly
beside me, she could scarcely restrain her exultation; while I, poor
child, listened with aching, throbbing senses for the approach of one
who never came near me. Two or three weeks passed in a whirl of
gayety. It was the close of the season, and one or two brides in our
circle made the parties very constant. Mrs. Langley proposed that our
family should join her son and herself in their summer visit to the
Lakes; accordingly we did so, and we spent more than three months
traveling. Ere the close of those three months, Templeton Langley
offered himself to me. I could not describe to you the scene that
ensued between my mother and myself when I rejected him. She was a
worldly woman, and my conduct seemed perfectly wild to her. She
remonstrated, persuaded, then reproached me in impatient, angry tones.
My father was a quiet, amiable man, and rarely interfered with my
mother in her management, but he fortunately shook off enough of his
lethargy to come to my rescue at this time.

"'If Mary does not love Mr. Langley,' he said, 'why urge her to marry
him? Do not scold the poor child,' and he drew me toward him tenderly.

"Templeton Langley was rather an indifferent person in every way. His
wealth, combined with his situation in the fashionable world, placed
him in a fictitious light; but he had little intelligence, no
originality, and only a passable personal appearance. I was constantly
drawing the comparison between him and Harry Morton. Harry was so
handsome, so brilliant in conversation--and this thought rendered poor
Mr. Langley, with all his fastidious, elegant manners, quite
unbearable to me. To think of being tied to such a man for life was
perfect martyrdom for me; and although hitherto so yielding, I showed
myself on this occasion obstinate. Floods of tears I shed, and my
mother fancied at first she could overcome my 'ridiculous
sentimentality,' as she called it, but in vain; and finding a friend
in my father, I remained firm. I felt more sorry for old Mrs. Langley,
who was, indeed, terribly distressed, but she treated me very kindly,
and exonerated me from all blame. She was, however, really very fond
of me, and had set her heart upon having me for a daughter. Mr.
Langley returned to Europe, and for many months our circle of friends
were quite at a loss to know whether he had offered, been accepted,
or refused, or whether he had only flirted with me. My mother felt too
disappointed to boast of the rejection; and, moreover, she was so
occupied in bringing out my sister, Emma, as to have little time to
think of me or my affairs. My sister was but seventeen, three years
younger than I, but much nearer my age in appearance. I found myself
now of but secondary consideration in my mother's eyes. I fear she
really disliked me then. She was an ambitious woman, and had set her
heart upon my making a brilliant match; this favorite hope of hers I
had blighted, and feeling little interest in society, I became of less
consequence, for my sad, absent manner made me, of course,
uninteresting; therefore, as my reign as a belle was over, my poor
mother now sought to dismiss me from her mind and occupy herself with
other objects.

"Harry Morton had gone to the Southwest ere we returned from our
summer's journey, and we never met again. A year or so afterward I
heard of his marriage with a dashing southern belle, and he is now a
distinguished man at the South. After these perplexing, unfortunate
misunderstandings, my health failed, and for a long while I was an
invalid, rarely appearing in society. My two sisters, Emma and Alice,
were more lucky than I, for they married happily, and with my mother's
gratified approbation--for they each made the 'best match of their
season.' Neither one was so pretty as I had been, and as my mother
used to ejaculate,

"'Thank Heaven! neither Emma nor Alice are belles; they at least will
not trouble me with their exaggerated notions about love and all that
nonsense.'

"I passed a miserable, wretched existence for a year or more after
Harry and I were separated. How earnestly I prayed for death, so
completely prostrated was my spirit by my disappointment. I felt as
lonely as I had at the time of dear Aunt Mary's death. In time,
however, I aroused myself from my morbid feelings, and in reading and
study found at first occupation, then strength and content.

"The week after my youngest sister was married my father was stricken
down with paralysis. I was the only one at home with my parents, for
my bride sister had sailed for Europe the day after her wedding, and
Emma was far distant in her Southern home, having married a wealthy
South Carolinian two years before. Faithfully I devoted myself to my
father, and when my mother, a year afterward, was seized with a
painful, lingering disease, I made myself so necessary to her comfort,
that she at last acknowledged, that what had appeared to be her
greatest trouble had proved her greatest blessing. She altered very
much before her death, and lost entirely all those worldly feelings
which had actuated her during her early life. She suffered for many
years at times agonizing pain, and during this time I was sole
companion and nurse to my parents. Often I thanked Providence for
having denied to me my early love, granting to me in lieu an
opportunity of fulfilling the most holy of duties. See, Enna, to what
an unromantic and yet enviable state of mind I at last attained.
Believe me, dearest, we never should grieve over unavoidable troubles,
for many times they are but the rough husk of that sweet kernel--a
hidden blessing."




ZENOBIA.

BY MYRON L. MASON.


     'Twas holyday in Rome. Her sevenfold hills
    Were trembling with the tread of multitudes
    Who thronged her streets. Hushed was the busy hum
    Of labor. Silent in the shops reposed
    The implements of toil. A common love
    Of country, and a zeal for her renown,
    Had warmed all hearts, and mingled for a day
    Plebian ardor with patrician pride.
    The sire, the son, the matron and the maid,
    Joined in bestowing on their emperor
    The joyous benedictions of the state.
    Alas! about that day's magnificence
    Was spread a web of _shame_! The victor's sword
    Was stained with cowardice--his dazzling fame
    Tarnished by insult to a fallen woman.
    Returning from his conquests in the East,
    Aurelian led in his triumphant train
    Palmyra's beauteous queen, Zenobia,
    Whose only crime had been the love she bore
    To her own country and her household gods.

     Long had the Orient owned the sovereign sway
    Of Rome imperial, and in forced submission
    Had bowed the neck to the oppressor's yoke.
    The corn of Syria, her fruits and wares,
    The pearls of India, Araby's perfumes,
    The golden treasures of the mountains, all
    Profusely poured in her luxurious lap,
    Crowned to the full her proud magnificence.
    Rome regal, throned on her eternal hills,
    With power supreme and wide-extended hand,
    Plundered the prostrate nations without stint
    Of all she coveted, and, chiefly thou,
    O Liberty, the birthright boon of Heaven.
    But Rome had passed her noon; her despotism
    Was overgrown; an earthquake was at work
    At her foundations; and new dynasties,
    Striking their roots in ripening revolutions,
    Were soon to sway the destinies of realms.

     The East was in revolt. The myriad seeds
    Of dark rebellion, sown by tyranny,
    And watered by the blood of patriots slain,
    Were springing into life on every hand.
    Success was alternating in this strife
    'Twixt power and _right_, and anxious Victory,
    With balance poised, the doubtful issue feared.
    Amid the fierce contention, 'mid the din
    Of war's sublime encounter, and the crash
    Of falling systems old, Palmyra's queen
    Followed her valiant lord, Palmyra's king.
    Ever beside him in the hour of peril,
    She warded from his breast the battle's rage;
    And in the councils of the cabinet
    Her prudent wisdom was her husband's guide.

     Domestic treason, with insidious stab,
    Snatched from Zenobia's side her gallant lord,
    And threw into her hand the exigencies
    Of an unstable and capricious throne.
    Yet was her genius not inadequate.
    The precepts of experience, intertwined
    With intellectual power of lofty grade,
    Combined to raise Palmyra's beauteous queen
    High in the golden scale of moral greatness.
    Under the teachings of the good Longinus
    The streams of science flowed into her mind;
    And, like the fountain-fostered mountain lake,
    Her soul was pure as its ethereal food.
    The patronage bestowed on learned men
    Declared her love for letters. The rewards,
    Rich and unnumbered, she conferred on merit
    Her own refined, exalted taste betrayed.
    Her graceful and majestic figure, crowned
    With beauty such as few but angels wear,
    Like the rich casing that surrounds the gem,
    Heightened the splendor of her brilliant genius.
    Equally daring on the battle-field
    And in the chase, her prudence and her courage,
    Displayed in many a hot emergency,
    Had twined victorious laurel round her brow.
    Under her rule Palmyra's fortunes rose
    To an unequalled altitude, and wealth
    Flowed in upon her like a golden sea,
    Her wide dominion, stretching from the Nile
    To the far Euxine and Euphrates' flood--
    Her active commerce, whose expanded range
    Monopolized the trade of all the East--
    Her stately capital, whose towers and domes
    Vied with proud Rome in architectural grace--
    Her own aspiring aims and high renown--
    All breathed around the Asiatic queen
    An atmosphere of greatness, and betrayed
    Her bold ambition, and her rivalry
    With the imperial mistress of the world.

     But 't is the gaudiest flower is soonest plucked;
    The sturdiest oak first feels the builder's axe.
    Palmyra's rising greatness had awaked
    The jealousy of Rome, and Fortune looked
    On her prosperity with envious eye.
    Under the golden eagles of the empire,
    Aurelian's soldiers swept the thirsty sands,
    And poured into Palmyra's palmy plains,
    A mighty host hot for the battle-field.
    Borne on her gallant steed, the warrior queen
    The conflict sought, and led her eager troops
    Into the stern encounter. Like the storm
    Of their own desert plain, innumerable,
    They rushed upon the foe, and courted danger.
    Amid the serried ranks, whose steel array
    Glowed in the noonday sun, and threw a flood
    Of wavy sheen into the fragrant air,
    Zenobia rode; and, like an angry spirit,
    Commissioned from above to chastise men,
    Where'er she moved was death. There was a flash
    Of scorn that lighted up her fiery eye,
    A glance of wrath upon her countenance--
    There was a terror in her frenzied arm
    That struck dismay into the boldest heart.
    Alas for her, Fortune was unpropitious!
    Her fearless valor found an overmatch
    In the experienced prudence of Aurelian;
    And scarcely could the desert's hardy sons
    Cope with the practiced legions of the empire.
    The battle gained, Palmyra taken, sacked--
    Its queen a captive, hurled from off a throne,
    Stripped of her wide possessions, forced to sue
    In humblest attitude for even life--
    The haughty victor led his weary legions
    Back to Italia's shores, and in his train
    His fallen rival, loaded with chains of gold,
    Forged from the bullion of her treasury.

     'T was holyday in Rome. The morning sun,
    Emerging from the palace-crested hills
    Of the Campagna, poured a flood of light
    Upon the slumbering city, summoning
    Its teeming thousands to the festival.
    A playful breeze, rich-laden with perfume
    From groves of orange, gently stirred the leaves,
    And curled the ripples on the Tiber's breast,
    Bearing to seaward o'er the flowery plain
    The rising peans' joyful melodies.
    Flung to the wind, high from the swelling dome
    That crowned the Capitol, the imperial banner,
    Broidered with gold and glittering with gems,
    Unfurled its azure field; and, as it caught
    The sunbeams and flashed down upon the throng
    That filled the forum, there arose a shout
    Deep as the murmur of the cataract.
    In that spontaneous outburst of applause
    _Rome spoke_; and as the echo smote the hills
    It woke the slumbering memory of a time
    When Rome was _free_.

          A trumpet from the walls
    Proclaimed the day's festivities begun.
    Preceded by musicians and sweet singers,
    A long procession passed the city-gate,
    And, traversing the winding maze of streets,
    Climbed to the Capitol. Choice victims, dressed
    With pictured ornaments and wreaths of flowers,
    An offering to the tutelary gods,
    Led the advance. Then followed spoils immense,
    Baskets of jewels, vases of wrought gold,
    Paintings and statuary, cloths and wares,
    Of costliest manufacture, close succeeded
    By the rich symbols of Palmyra's glory,
    Torn from her temples and her palaces,
    To grace a triumph in the streets of Rome.
    With toilsome step next walked the captive queen;
    And then the victor, in his car of state,
    With milk-white horses of Thessalian breed,
    And in his retinue a splendid train
    Of Rome's nobility. In one long line
    The army last appeared in bright array,
    With banners high displayed, filling the air
    With songs of victory. The pageant proud
    Quickened remembrance of departed days,
    And warmed the bosoms of the multitude
    With deep devotion to the commonwealth.

     High in his gilded chariot, decked in robes
    Of broidered purple, and with laurel crowned,
    Rode the triumphant conqueror, in his hand
    The emblems of his power. The capital
    Of his wide empire was inflamed with zeal
    To do him honor and exalt his praise.
    The world was at his feet; his sovereign will
    None dared to question, and his haughty word
    Was law to nations. Yet his heart was troubled.
    In the dim distance he discerned the flight
    Of Freedom, on swift pinions heralding
    Enfranchisement to the oppressed of earth.
    He knew the feeble tenure of dominion
    Based on allegiance with reluctance paid;
    And read the future overthrow of Rome
    In the unyielding spirit of his victim.
    Uncovered in the sun, weary and faint,
    Bowed to the earth with chains of ravished gold,
    With feet unsandaled, walked Zenobia,
    Slave to the craven tyrant's cruelty.
    Neither her peerless beauty, nor her sex,
    Nor yet her grievous sufferings could melt
    The despot's stony heart. She, who surpassed
    Her conqueror in all the qualities
    Of head or heart which crown humanity
    With nobleness and high preeminence--
    She, whose _misfortunes_ in a glorious cause,
    And not her _errors_, had achieved her ruin--
    Burdened with ignominy and disgrace
    For her resplendent _virtues_, not her _crimes_--
    She who had graced a palace, and dispensed
    Pardon to penitence, reward to worth,
    And tempered justice with benevolence--
    Wickedly torn from her exalted station,
    Now walked a captive in the streets of Rome,
    E'en at the feet of the oppressors steeds.
    Yet was her spirit all untamed. Disdain
    Still sat upon her countenance, and breathed
    Unmeasured scorn upon her persecutors.
    The blush of innocence upon her cheek,
    The burning pride that flashed within her eye,
    The majesty enthroned upon her brow,
    Told, in a language which the tyrant _felt_,
    That her unconquered spirit soared sublime
    In a pure orbit whither _his_ sordid soul
    Could ne'er attain. Had he a captive led
    Some odious wretch, whose sanguinary crimes,
    Long perpetrated under sanction of a strength
    No arm could reach, had spread a pall of mourning
    Over a people's desolated homes,
    He then had _right_ to triumph o'er his victim.
    But 't was not thus. Insatiable ambition
    Had led him to unsheath his victor sword
    Against a monarch whose distinctive sway
    Ravished from Rome no tittle of her _right_;
    And, to augment the aggregate of wrong,
    _That monarch was a woman_, whose renown,
    Compared with his, was gold compared with brass.
    As o'er the stony street the captive paced
    Her weary way before the victor's steeds,
    And marked the multitudes insatiate gaze,
    The look of calm defiance on her face
    Told that she bowed not to her degradation.
    Her thoughts were not at Rome. Unheeded all,
    The billows of the mad excitement dashed
    About her, and broke harmless at her feet.
    Dim reminiscences of former days
    Burst like a deluge on her errant mind;
    Leading her backward to the buried past,
    When in the artless buoyancy of youth
    She sat beneath Palmyra's fragrant shades
    And gleaned the pages of historic story,
    Red with Rome's bloody catalogue of wrong.
    Little she dreamed Palmyra's palaces
    Should e'er be scenes of Roman violence;
    Little she dreamed that _hers_ should be the lot
    (A captive princess led in chains) to crown
    The splendor of a Roman holyday.
    Alas! the blow she thought not of had fallen.
    A bloody struggle, like a dreadful dream,
    Had briefly raged, and all to her was lost,
    Save the poor grace of a degraded life.
    Her sun of glory was gone down in blood--
    The glittering fabric of her power despoiled
    To swell the triumph of her conqueror.
    But in the wreck of her magnificence,
    With eye prophetic, she foresaw the ruin
    Of the proud capital of all the world.
    She saw the quickening symptoms of rebellion
    Among the nations, and she caught their cry
    For _freedom_ and for _vengeance_!

        *    *    *    *    *

          Hark! the Goth
    Is thundering at the gate, His reckless sword
    Leaps from the scabbard, eager to vindicate
    The cause of the oppressed. A thousand years
    The sun has witnessed in his daily course
    The tyranny of Rome, now crushed _forever_.
    The mighty mass of her usurped dominion,
    By its own magnitude at last dissevered,
    Is crumbling into fragments; and the shades
    Of long-forgotten generations shriek
    With fiendish glee over the yawning gulf
    Of her perdition.




TEMPER LIFE'S EXTREMES.

BY GEORGE S. BURLEIGH.


    'Tis wise, in summer-warmth, to look before,
      To the keen-nipping winter; it is good,
    In lifeful hours, to lay aside some store
      Of thought, to leaven the spirit's duller mood;
    To mould the sodded <DW18>, in sunny hour,
      Against the coming of the wasteful flood;
    Still tempering Life's extremes, that Wo no more
      May start abrupt in Joy's sweet neighborhood.
    If Day burst sudden from the bars of Night,
      Or with one plunge leaped down the sheer abyss,
    Painful alike were darkness and the light,
      Bearing fixed war through shifting victories;
    But sweet their bond, where peaceful twilight lingers,
    Weaving the rosy with the sable fingers.




THE CRUISE OF THE RAKER.

A TALE OF THE WAR OF 1812-15.

BY HENRY A. CLARK.

(_Continued from page 136._)

CHAPTER V.

_The Revenge._


The report of the pistol fired by Julia had also been heard upon the
pirate brig. To Florette it gave assurance of the safety of the fair
fugitive. The pirate sprang to his feet, forgetful of his wound, but
fell back helpless upon the companion-way, and soon relapsed into his
former thoughtful state, supposing the sound had come from the deck of
the Raker, though it had seemed much too near and distinct to appear
possible that such was the case.

The escape of Julia was not discovered until the following morning.
The wrath of the pirate was fearfully vindictive. Even Florette became
alarmed when he fiercely accused her of some share in the
disappearance of the captive girl. This she tremblingly denied,
suggesting the opinion that Julia must have jumped overboard, in her
despair, induced by the threats of the pirate. The loss of the boat
was also noticed, but not connected with the escape of Julia, it being
supposed that it had been carelessly fastened. As a very natural
consequence of his anger, the pirate sought some person on whom he
could vent its fury.

"Call aft the other woman," shouted he, "unless she, too, has jumped
overboard."

A grim smile was interchanged between the men who heard this order.
John's true sex had not been long kept concealed after he had reached
the pirate brig, and he had nearly fallen a victim to the rage the
unpleasant discovery excited in the men, but his ludicrous and abject
expressions of terror, though they awoke no emotions of pity, yet
excited the merriment of his captors, and turned their anger into
laughter. A man's garments were thrown to him, in which he speedily
equipped himself, being indeed in no slight degree relieved by the
change. Since that time he had kept himself as much aloof as possible
from the crew, anxiously and fearfully expectant of some sudden
catastrophe, either that his brains would be blown out without
affording him an opportunity to expostulate, or that he would be
called upon to walk the plank.

He was roused by a heavy hand laid upon his shoulder.

"O dear, don't," cried John.

"The captain has sent word for'ard arter you, and faith ye had betther
be in a hurry, for he's a savage when he's mad."

"O! now I've got to do it."

"Do what?"

"Why walk the plank to be sure."

"Arrah, jewel! don't be onaisy now."

"Wont I's, don't you think?"

"Not a bit of it, darling. I think he will be afther running you up to
the yard-arm."

"But I can't run up it."

"Ha! ha! but come along, honey."

Half dragging John after him, the sailor led him to the quarter-deck.

"Here's the lady, captain, an' faith she's a swate one."

The truth of the case had already been explained to the pirate.

"You cowardly fool," said he, "did you expect to escape by such a
subterfuge? Pat, run him up to the yard-arm."

"Yes, captain, and that will be a relaif to him, for he was mighty
afraid he'd have to walk the plank."

"He was? well then he shall."

The vindictiveness of the pirate commander, who had only changed the
mode of John's death because he thought that by so doing he should
render it more fearful and bitter to the victim, was the means of
saving the poor cockney's life. So do revenge and malice often
overreach themselves.

A long plank was laid out over the side of the brig and John commanded
to walk out on it. He showed a strong disinclination to obeying, but a
huge pistol placed against his forehead quickly influenced his
decision, and with a cry of anguish he stepped out upon it. As the
board tipped he turned to spring back to the brig, but slipping up,
fell upon the board, which he pulled after him into the water.

"Fool," cried the captain to one of his men, "what did you let the
board loose for, he will float now till the chase picks him up--fire
into him."

A dozen balls were fired at John, and it seems he was hit, for he let
go the board and sunk.

"There, captain, he's done for."

The brig by this time had reached a considerable distance from the
place where John had been committed to the deep, and when he rose to
the surface, as he soon did, he was out of danger from their shot.

"O dear!" cried he, "I shan't ever get ashore; I never could swim
much."

The waves threw him against the plank.

"O! a shark! a shark!" shouted John, "now don't;" and he grasped hold
of the plank in a frenzy of fear. He soon discovered the friendly aid
it would afford him, and held on to it with the tenacity of despair.

In less than half an hour the Raker came up. John was noticed from its
deck, and a brawny tar seizing a rope and taking two or three turns of
it round his left arm sprang overboard to rescue the half unconscious
cockney.

As the sailor seized him, John, supposing it to be a shark, uttered a
loud cry and lost all sensation. In this condition he was hauled up to
the deck of the privateer, where, upon recovering his senses, he found
to his great surprise and joy, that instead of being in the belly of
some voracious fish, like Jonah of old, he was in safety, and
surrounded by the crew of his former vessel, the Betty Allen,
including his master.

The poor fellow was severely wounded by a pistol shot, in the arm, but
regardless of this he was wild in his demonstrations of joy,
especially when told that his young mistress had also escaped.

Captain Greene found that he had gained little, if any, upon the
pirate during the night, and became convinced that he must again
commence firing upon her, trusting to some lucky ball to carry away a
spar, or failing, to allow the villains to escape the punishment they
so richly deserved, not only for their inhuman treatment of the crew
of the Betsy Allen, but doubtless for numerous other crimes committed
upon the seas, as savage in their conception, and more successful in
their execution.

The long gun was again uncovered, and a shot dispatched from its huge
portals after the pirate brig. The first ball fired fell short of the
brig, striking the water directly in its wake, and ricochetting again
threw up the water beyond it.

A succeeding ball, however, did some execution, crashing through her
top-gallant forecastle, but without in any degree lessening her speed.
As every fire from the Raker lessened her speed, Capt. Greene became
exceedingly anxious that no balls should be thrown away, and commanded
Lieut. Morris to point the gun, having more confidence in his skill
than in that of the gunner. The young officer aimed the gun carefully,
and as it was fired three cheers arose from his crew, as they
perceived the pirate's mizzen-mast fall away.

"She is ours," cried the lieutenant.

"Stand by, men, to take in sail," shouted the captain. "We will draw
near enough," continued he to Morris, "to fire into her at our
leisure, a pirate is not entitled to a more honorable warfare, and he
seems also to greatly outnumber us in men."

As the privateer approached the pirate they could not but admire the
singular beauty of her build. She rose and fell upon the waters as
gracefully as a free and wild ocean bird. The long red lines of her
port-holes swept with a gentle curve from stem to stern, and her stem
was so sharp that the bowsprit seemed rather to terminate than to join
it. Twelve carronades occupied a double row of port-holes, and the
deck seemed crowded with men, all armed with cutlases and pistols.

"A formidable looking set," said Captain Greene, as he laid aside his
glass, "keep the gun lively."

An ineffectual fire opened upon the privateer from the pirate, but
though they had a swivel of pretty heavy calibre, turning on its axis
amidship in such a manner as to menace at will each point of the
horizon, it was evident that its force was far less than the long gun
of the privateer.

A well aimed shot brought down the pirate's fore topsail-yard, which
hung in the slings, and succeeding shots did much injury to her masts
and rigging, and at length the main-topmast fell over the side.

The scene on board the pirate, during this unequal warfare, was one
approaching perplexity and disorder. Their commander stood by the
helm, gazing at the privateer, his brow clouded with angry thought,
and giving little heed to the movements of his crew. He was aroused
from his abstraction by the voice of one of his officers.

"Captain, this is bad business, what is to be done?"

The captain gazed at him in silence.

"The crew are alarmed, and demand of you some relief from this
harassing state. Our guns will not reach the chase, and we cannot
leave her in this crippled state."

At this moment a heavy ball from the privateer whizzed by them and
buried itself in the main-mast of the brig.

The captain seemed fully aroused. His eyes flashed with their wonted
fire. He turned toward his crew, and saw at a glance the state of
depression which had fallen upon them all. He even overheard some
muttered words of complaint.

"Pat," says one, "this seems to be playing a rough game, where nothing
is to be won on our side."

"Faith, an' ye may say that, but we stand a chance to gain one thing."

"What may that be, Pat?"

"O, a two-inch rope, and a run up to the fore yard-arm."

"The devil! That's not a pleasant thought, Pat."

"No, but they say it's an aisy death."

"Silence, men," was heard in the deep tones of the captain's voice.

In a moment all was still, and every eye turned toward the
companion-way, on which the captain stood, resting one hand upon the
main-boom, as he was exceedingly weak from the wound inflicted by the
ball of Captain Horton.

"My brave fellows," said their leader, "do not be alarmed, we shall
not be hanged this time. Is our situation any worse than it has been
in times heretofore? Trust in me. Have I ever deceived you--have I
ever failed yet? You know I have not. Where we cannot conquer by fair
battle, we must use stratagem. Be watchful and ready, and we will yet
not only escape yonder vessel, but stand upon her deck as masters."

The confidence with which he spoke inspired his followers with like
feeling, and with countenances relighted by hope, they returned to
their several stations. Their reliance upon their commander was
unbounded. He had so often triumphed when even greater difficulties
opposed, that they already felt sure of ultimate delivery, now that he
had been restored to his former energy--they had mistaken the lethargy
into which pain and weakness had thrown him for the torpor of despair.
Again the joke and laugh went round, and already they began to compute
their respective shares of booty in the vessel so soon to be theirs,
they knew not how.

"Haul down the ensign, in token that we surrender," cried the captain.

A murmur of indignation and surprise arose from the crew.

"What, men, do you doubt me? 'Tis but a feint. Haul down the flag and
take in sail."

The men obeyed with alacrity, for they already clearly comprehended
the plan of their leader. It was his intention to entice the privateer
alongside, and, well aware of his own superiority in numbers, to make
a sudden onset upon her deck, and thus, contrary to all laws of
honorable warfare, seize by foul means what could not be obtained in
any other way.

These pacific indications were viewed with some surprise on board the
privateer.

"By Heaven!" cried Lieut. Morris, "she's tired of this game soon."

"Well, she had no other way to do; as it was we should have sunk her
without receiving a shot."

"It was a losing game for her, true enough."

"Lay the brig alongside of her," shouted Captain Greene to his men.

As his men with a cheer began to unfurl all sail, Captain Horton
approached the commander of the privateer. He had up to this period
ventured no interference, both from matter of delicacy, and because he
saw nothing to disapprove of in the course pursued by Captain Greene.

"My dear sir," said he, as he laid his hand upon the arm of the
captain of the privateer, "allow me to say a word."

"Certainly, sir," replied the courteous commander. "I ought sooner
than this to have asked your advice."

"I would not place too great confidence in the pirate's signal of
surrender."

"Do you apprehend foul play?"

"Recollect the savage brutality which the fiend has already evinced,
and judge for yourself whether he is worthy of being trusted at all."

"You are right, sir. Lieut. Morris," continued he, turning to his
young officer.

"Ay, ay, sir."

"Load the long gun with grape and canister, and wheel it abaft--load
the larboard guns the same way. Now, my men, don't run too near her.
She must send a boat aboard."

The privateer approached within half a cable's length of the pirate.

"Ship ahoy!" cried Captain Greene.

No answer came from the pirate, but her head was rounded to, so as to
bear directly down on the Raker.

"Answer me, or I'll fire into you."

"Fire and be d--d," came from the deck of the pirate, and at the same
time a broadside was poured into the Raker, which killed two or three
men at the guns, and severely wounded Captain Greene.

"Lieut. Morris," cried he, "take the command of the vessel," and
falling on the deck he was immediately carried below.

The young officer was fully equal to the emergency of the occasion. At
a glance he perceived that the pirate in the confusion which ensued
from his unexpected broadside, had fallen foul of the privateer's
rigging, and the crowd of his crew in his bow and fore-rigging, all
with cutlases drawn, and ready to spring aboard the privateer, plainly
announced the intention to board.

"All hands to repel boarders," shouted Morris, and drawing his cutlas
he sprang forward, followed by his men.

A well contested struggle ensued, the American seamen, indignant at
the foul deceit which had been practiced upon them, fought like
tigers, and for a time kept the pirates at bay--they had indeed,
notwithstanding their superior numbers, nearly driven them from the
deck, when the form of their commander appeared among them. In
consequence of his wound he had, contrary to his custom, entrusted the
command of the boarders to his first lieutenant, and had remained upon
his own vessel watching the fight. He sprung among his crew, with a
sword drawn, and a tight sash bound around his waist, from which the
dark blood was slowly oozing, his wound having burst away from its
ligaments.

"Cowards!" he shouted, "do ye yield--ye are two to their one."

Leaping to their front, he struck down a sailor and plunged into the
thickest of the fight. Reanimated by the presence of their leader, who
had so often led them to victory, a new spirit seemed to light up the
fainting courage of the pirates, and with a fierce yell they rushed
forward. The American crew were compelled to fall back before the
fierce assault. At the head of his men Lieut. Morris several times
crossed swords with the pirate captain, but the swaying of the fight
separated them. Perceiving that his men were slowly yielding, though
in good order, Lieutenant Morris, cool and collected, cheered their
courage, and at this moment thought of the long gun which had been
drawn up, loaded to the muzzle with grape and canister, against the
companion-way, and a man with a lighted match stationed by it.

"Fall back to the quarter-deck," cried the young officer.

They retreated in close array, and uncovered the mouth of the huge
gun. At the sight of this a cry of dismay broke from the foremost of
the pirates, who broke the front rank, and many of them escaped for
the time by leaping into the sea.

"Fire," cried Lieut. Morris. In a moment he was obeyed. Wild cries of
agony arose amid the gathering smoke, which, as it rolled away,
revealed a horrible sight. Not a living pirate stood upon the deck of
the privateer. A dense mass of bodies, writhing in pain, lay upon the
fore-deck, and many of the pirates who had jumped into the sea were
seen scrambling up the sides of their own vessel; the pirate chief
lay dead at the head of his followers, foremost in death, as he had
been in life. It was a terrible and revolting scene--the scuppers
literally ran with blood, the bulwarks were bespattered with brains
and pieces of scalps; several limbs were strewn about, and the entire
deck covered with the dead or dying.

While the crew of the Raker stood for a time awe-struck at the
desolation they had themselves made, the pirates, ferocious to the
last, had regained their own ship and cut her adrift, and as they paid
off fired a broadside into the Raker, which injured several of her
men. Roused by this, the privateersmen rushed to their guns. The
larboard guns, in obedience to the order of Captain Greene, were
already loaded with grape; while with the starboard Morris commanded
his men to keep up a steady fire at the masts and rigging.

A fortunate shot from the Raker struck the helms-man on board the
pirate, shattering at the same time the tiller. In a moment the brig
was up in the wind, and taken aback, throwing the pirates into
confusion.

"Ready about," cried Morris, leaping from the carronade-slide on which
he had raised himself, and taking in at a glance the exposed position
of the enemy--"head her round, and stand ready to give the rascals a
taste from our larboard quarter."

The Raker ranged across the bows of the pirate, and before he could
regain his headway, raked him with a tremendous broadside of the same
deadly missiles which had already destroyed so many of their comrades.
The wild cries of anguish which arose from the clouds of smoke told
with what destructive effect the death-bolts had been hurled.

The pirate now paid off and returned an ineffectual broadside, but
rendered ungovernable by the loss of her head-sails and tiller, he
immediately broached-to again, and the privateer poured in another
terrible discharge of grape and canister, raking him fore and aft,
then heaving-to and taking up a position on his bow, she fired
broadside after broadside into him in rapid and deadly succession. The
main-mast now fell over the side, and the pirate at the same time fell
off before the wind, and drew out of the deep mantle of smoke which
had for some time covered both vessels. As the smoke slowly curled up
from the deep it was seen that not a living man was visible upon the
deck of the pirate. Several of her guns were dismounted, and her masts
so cut away that she lay upon the waters a helpless and disabled
wreck. Yet the red ensign of death, though rent into ribbons, still
fluttered from the peak, and the young lieutenant hesitated to board,
having learned caution from the treachery of the pirate.

While the crew of the Raker were thus occupied in watching their
enemy, a light female form was seen to issue from the hatchway and
gaze around the deck of the pirate. She passed from body to body, but
seemed not to find what she sought. At length she turned her eyes,
streaming with tears, toward the Raker, and pointing to the flag above
her, as if to indicate that there was no one to lower it, she knelt
upon the deck, bowing her head upon her hands. Her long hair fell
over her forehead and trailed upon the blood-stained deck, as she
knelt in mute despair among the dying and the dead. It was a mournful
and singular picture of wo, and there were eyes long unused to tears
that filled to overflowing as they gazed upon her.

A boat was immediately lowered, and Lieutenant Morris with a dozen of
his crew were soon in possession of the pirate's deck. Upon examining
the brig it was found that she was fast filling with water, and after
conveying to the Raker all that they could lay hands on of value,
including a large amount of precious metal, she was left to her fate.
Not one of her crew was found living, so destructive had been the
continual discharge of grape from the Raker. Florette accompanied them
on board, and wept bitterly as she saw the dead body of the pirate
commander lying in front of his slaughtered followers, but suffered
herself to be led below by Julia, who received her with kindness and
gratitude.

All sail was now set upon the privateer, and she bore away from the
sinking craft of the pirate upon her former course. The latter vessel,
traversed in every direction by the Raker's terrible fire, was rapidly
settling into the ocean. Suddenly, with a sound like the gushing of an
immense water-spout, a huge chasm opened in the waves--the doomed brig
seemed struggling as if with conscious life, and then lashing the
waters with her shattered spars and broken masts, went down forever
beneath the deep waters, over whose bosom she had so long rode as a
scourge and a terror, with blood and desolation following in her wake.

Among the effects of the pirate captain which had been conveyed on
board the Raker, a manuscript was found, which seemed to be an
autobiography of his life. For what purpose he had written it can
never be known--most probably from an impulsive desire to give vent on
paper to thoughts and feelings which he could not breathe to any
living person, and which he doubtless supposed would never be perused
by human eye--they show that, savage, and lawless, and blood-thirsty
as he had become, strong and terrible motives had driven him into his
unnatural pursuit, and perchance a tear of pity may fall for him, as
the gentle reader peruses the private records of the scourge of the
ocean.


CHAPTER VI.

_The Pirate's Story._

I am the youngest son of a gentleman of the northern part of England.
My father's family is as good as any in the county, for without laying
claim to any title of nobility, our blood is as pure and our lineage
as ancient as the most boasted in England. I had but one brother, who
succeeded at our father's death to the broad lands and rich heritage
of our name. The accursed law of primogeniture, to which I owe all the
evil that has befallen me, of course debarred me from all share in the
family estate. I had refused to enter the army, the church or the
navy, though my inclinations were in favor of the latter profession;
yet a stronger claim than ambition or a roving life kept me on the
paternal estate. It was not that I envied my brother the possession of
the wide bounds over which he ruled, or that I found less happiness in
witnessing his, for I loved my brother, as God is my witness, here, in
my lonely cabin, with this great sea around me, and this broad sky
above me; here, though no eye may ever see these lines, I write, do I
repeat it, I loved my brother dearly and proudly. It was love that
kept me idle at home while other young men of England, belonging to
the same position in society as myself, and in the same unfortunate
category of younger sons, were carving out for themselves fame and
wealth in the service of their country.

Helen Burnett was the loveliest girl I have ever seen, and I loved her
with all the passionate devotedness of a young and ardent heart; she
was to me the light of life, for all was dark when I was not with her.
She was the only daughter of our village curate, and resided near our
family mansion. We had sported together beneath the venerable trees of
the park from the earliest days of childhood. Until I left home for
college she had seemed to me as a sister, and I had loved her as such
until, on returning home from a long absence at college, I found a
blushing and beautiful young woman where I had expected, forgetting
the rapid work of time, to meet with the same playful and lovely child
I had kissed at parting. She was, indeed, beautiful; tall, graceful,
and even commanding in figure, while the mildness of an angel reposed
in the glance of her deep-blue eyes, and the sweet smile that so often
visited her lips, while her pleasantly modulated voice was music
itself.

          "A lyre of widest range,
    Touched by all passion--did fall down and glance
    From tone to tone, and glided through all change of liveliest
       utterance."

Her hair was of the darkest shade of brown, resting in soft wave-like
smoothness above her high, pale forehead. Alas! that she was _so_
lovely! had she been less so, either I might not have loved her, or I
might have been permitted by fortune to have been happy with her.

After leaving college, my time was all devoted to Helen. She loved me
no less than I loved her; and I looked forward to a quiet and happy
life, picturing the future with colorings of the brightest hope and
joyfulness.

It was at this time that my brother returned from a long tour of the
Continent. He was one of the handsomest men of the day, and had been
distinguished by the appellation which had accompanied him from court
to court, of "the handsome Englishman." He was of a medium stature,
and faultlessly proportioned; his expansive and intellectual forehead
seemed the seat of lofty thought, and his dark flashing eye, intensely
expressive, seemed to penetrate to the heart of all who met its
glance. I see him now--not in his glorious beauty, but pale--pale,
touched by the cold fingers of death.

I had too much of the pride of my race to live as a dependent on my
brother's bounty, yet I could not bear the thought of leaving Helen. I
was in no situation to marry, and in an undecided state of mind I
suffered the days to glide away.

My brother had just come back from a day's angling in the trout-stream
that flowed through his lands. He met me at the park-gate.

"Well, John," said I, "what luck to-day?"

"O, William," said he, without heeding my question, "I have seen the
most charming girl--the loveliest one that breathes. She outvies all I
have seen in my travels; do you know her. She is the curate's
daughter."

I felt a sickness at heart, like the bitterness of death--was it a
presentiment, a warning of evil to come.

"Say, William?"

"Yes--yes, she is lovely."

"She is an angel."

Sir John passed into the park, and I proceeded, with a strange
melancholy I could not dispel, to meet Helen. She was at her father's
door, and greeted me with her accustomed kindness of voice and manner.

"Why are you so sad this lovely evening William?"

"Sad!--am I sad?"

"You look so."

"Well, I will be so no longer, then;" and I endeavored to shake off my
depression, but not succeeding, I bade her farewell at an earlier hour
than was my custom.

From that day my brother's angling excursions became more
frequent--but he seldom returned with a full basket. He often spoke to
me of Helen, but I always replied carelessly, and changed the topic of
conversation to something else, yet when alone, I was in continual
torment from my thoughts. I endeavored to console myself with the
reflection that Helen's love was plighted to me, and that she would
not change, yet my thoughts were continually recurring to my brother's
great advantages over me in every respect, not only in fortune but in
personal appearance; and I had already, in my suspicions, placed him
in the light of a rival for the hand of Helen. I knew his high-minded
and honorable disposition too well to fancy for a moment that he would
attempt her ruin; and I also knew that there was nothing in the
inferior station of Helen's family that would prevent him from seeking
her hand in marriage, if she had compelled his love.

All that followed might perhaps have been prevented had I at first
told my brother frankly of my love for Helen; but a foolish desire to
prove her love for me, and a certain feeling of self-respect kept me
silent.

It was not a long time before I either saw, or fancied I saw, a change
in the manner of Helen toward me--the thought was torture. I was for
days undecided how to act, but at length determined to learn the true
state of things. I knew my brother was often at the parsonage, and I
trembled for the result.

"Helen," I asked her, "is not my brother a frequent visitor here?"

It was twilight, but I thought I observed a heightened color in her
cheek.

"Yes, he has been here several times since his return."

"Dear Helen, answer me frankly, has he ever spoken to you of love?"

She hesitated, but at length replied,

"He has."

"And did you not tell him your vows were plighted to another?"

"My father entered the room before I made any reply at all."

"Helen, do you love me now the same as ever you have done?"

"You have my plighted word, William." Yet there was something
bordering on coldness even in the sweet accents with which she spoke;
the nice instinct of love detects each gradation of feeling with an
unerring certainty. I was not satisfied, and when I left her, I was
more unhappy than ever. I longed to speak to my brother on the
subject, yet some indescribable feeling prevented me; and I allowed
the days to glide away, growing more and more troubled in mind as they
passed by.

I was now convinced that Helen's affection for me was not what it had
been; and after a short interview with her, in which she had again
repeated her love for me, but in such chilling tones that I felt it
was not from the heart she spoke, I sought the chamber of my brother
in a state almost bordering on madness. All of our race have been of
ungovernable passions, but none more so than myself. I paused at his
door to regain in some degree my self-command, then lifting the latch,
I entered.

"Ah, brother!" said Sir John, in a cheerful tone.

"Yes, your younger brother," replied I, bitterly.

Sir John started with wonder.

"Why, William, what mean you?"

I paid no heed to the interruption, but continued growing, if
possible, still more enraged as I proceeded.

"Are not all the broad lands of our family estate yours--its parks,
its meadows, its streams; this venerable mansion, where the _elder
son_ has rioted for so many generations, leaving the younger to make
his way in the world as best he may."

"Brother, are you mad? My purse is yours--I have nothing that is not
yours."

"You have every thing, and not content with that, you have sought to
win away the love of my affianced bride."

"Who mean you, William?"

"Helen Burnett."

My brother turned pale, and gazing upon me for a moment with
astonishment, he heaved a deep sigh, and covered his face with his
hands.

I folded my arms, and stood looking upon him scornfully, for my
passion had made me consider him in the light of one who had knowingly
stolen away my bride.

Sir John at length uncovered his face and spoke.

"I would to God, William, you had told me this sooner."

"Is it then too late?" I inquired, bitterly.

"Too late--too late for my happiness, but not too late for justice and
honor. She is yours, William, I resign all pretensions to her hand,
and will cease to visit the parsonage."

I was touched by the generous spirit of my brother, and by the
mournful shadow which clouded his noble brow. I have ever acted from
impulse, and seizing him by the hand, I said,

"Not so, John--not so! She is, as I have told you, my affianced bride;
her solemn and oft-repeated vows are mine, and I have thought that her
love was forever mine; but this very night I plainly perceived that a
change has been wrought in her feelings. She treated me with coldness
instead of warmth, and maddened by my interview with her, I rushed
into your presence, and have blamed you unjustly."

"My dear brother--"

"No, no, John, I was wrong to accuse you. I should have better known
your nobleness. Henceforth let us stand on equal ground; I do not want
an unwilling bride, and if you can win her love from me, take her,
though it drive me mad."

A gleam of pleasure passed over Sir John's countenance as he replied,

"Be it so, my brother, it is but honorable; yet will I at once resign
all hope, and leave the country if you but will it so."

"Sir John, have you reason to think that Helen loves you?"

"She has never said so, but I did not think she looked coldly upon
me."

"She is 'false, false as hell!'"

"My dear William, however this suite terminate, any thing in my power
shall be done for you. If the estates were not entailed, I would at
once give you a deed for half of them, and then I should have no
advantage over you in wealth or position. Here is an order for a
hundred thousand pounds."

"Sir John I will accept nothing; if I lose Helen, I shall have no more
to live for, and I warn you, if I become mad from disappointment, do
not cross my path, or I know not the consequence."

"You do not threaten me."

I felt the turbulent passions of my nature rising within me, and
fearing that I should lose all self-command, I rushed from the room,
and entering the silent park, I wandered from grove to grove till the
cool air of the night had calmed my raging spirit, when I sought my
own chamber.

I had never told the worthy curate of my love for his daughter, and
Helen had never been accustomed to depend on him for advice or
consolation. It was to her mother that she had always turned for both,
and that mother had died but a year before the return of my brother.
Mr. Burnett was a quiet student, passionately fond of his books, as
innocent of the world as a child, only fretful and peevish when any
thing occurred to disturb the quiet monotony of his existence, and
apparently unconscious that his little Helen had grown from a child
to a woman. His mind was wholly wrapped up in his studies, even at his
meals it was abstracted, and he retired hastily to his closet. Helen
had no inclination to disturb the serenity of his life, until it
became absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with her
engagement to me; and I had been too thoughtless of all but my own
happiness to intrude upon his privacy, confident that his sanction to
our marriage would not be refused whenever demanded.

I had yet to learn the lesson, bitter and agonizing, that no woman is
proof against the captivating temptations of ambition, and the glare
of wealth. I know but little of the sex; they are called angels, and I
had thought Helen was an angel--alas! I found my mistake. I read my
doom in the averted coldness of her glance; I felt it in the unwilling
pressure of her hand whenever we met, and I knew it when I gazed upon
the countenance of my brother, on which was a quiet glow of happiness
his expressive features could not conceal, even when he knew my
searching glance was upon him. O! the agony of feeling which oppressed
me in those bitter days; I felt all the savage passions of my nature
rising within me; there were moments when I felt as if I could gladly
see my brother and Helen stretched dead at my feet. Day by day these
vindictive thoughts increased within me. It wanted but the finishing
stroke to make me completely mad--it came. Though I had long dreaded
to make the trial, on which all my happiness for this world rested, I
at length determined to put it off no longer.

The shadows of twilight were settling over the earth as I slowly and
sadly approached the parsonage. My head was bowed upon my breast as I
walked with a noiseless step upon the little path that led to the
unpretending dwelling. I was not aware how near I had come, till a ray
of light from the window fell across the path, and recalled me to
myself. As I stopped, I heard the tones of my brother's voice in low
and earnest conversation. I drew nearer, and beheld a sight which
rooted me to the spot, even though I was not wholly unprepared for
such a scene.

My brother and Helen were seated in the little arbor before the
parsonage, as she and myself had often before sat when I fancied our
love was lasting as life. In the dim light I could see that my
brother's arm was round her waist, and that her head rested upon his
shoulder. I could hear their conversation.

"And you do love me, then, Helen?"

I heard no answer, but the long curls moved slightly upon my brother's
shoulder, and as he bent his head and kissed her, I felt that he was
answered--I was answered--that he _was_ loved.

My brain burned as if on fire--and I sunk to the earth with a low
groan. How long I remained unconscious I do not know; when I
recovered, Helen and Sir John stood beside me. I sprung to my feet,
and gazed upon them with the glare of a maniac. It was so--my brain
was crazed.

"William," said Helen.

Her soft voice fell upon my ears with a singular cadence. With a
fierce laugh I struck my brother to the earth, and rushed forth into
the forest. All that night I must have wandered through its depths. I
found myself at the break of day miles from our mansion, lying beneath
an aged oak. I did not seem to know myself. I cannot now describe the
feelings and thoughts which raged within me. The wild storm which is
now lashing the ocean without my cabin is not more wild and
fierce--the black sky above me is not more dark and gloomy. They
seemed at length to settle into one stern, unchanging emotion, and
that was hatred toward my brother, and a stern determination to
revenge upon him the cruel wrong which had driven me mad.

My path led along the course of a mountain torrent, whose sudden
descent as it hurried toward the river, formed successive water-falls
not unmusical in their cadence. A few purple beech and drooping
willows with here and there a mountain ash, skirted the ravine that
formed its bed; their leaves had fallen before the blasts of autumn,
they seemed emblematic of myself; like me their glory had
departed--they were shorn of their loveliness by the rough storm, left
bare and verdureless in the chilling breath of autumn; the seasons in
their round would restore to them their beauty and their bloom,
clothing their branches again in all the freshness of youth; but what
should give back to me the freshness and youth of the heart? what
restore the desolation of of the soul?

Weak and exhausted, I flung myself down in a rude grotto, which
commanded a view of the foaming stream as it washed the rocks below;
it was a scene fitted to my mood, for I turned in disgust from the
beautiful landscape an opening in the forest revealed--the beauty of
earth had forever passed away from me. That same opening, however,
unfolded to the sight the gray towers of my family mansion, and at
once I started to my feet and bent my course toward them.

At length I reached my home--how hateful every thing about the
venerable building seemed. I stole to my chamber, and falling upon my
couch, slept from pure exhaustion.

It was night when I awoke. I arose, but did not leave my room; seated
by the window with the cold wind of November blowing upon my burning
brow, I nursed my thoughts of vengeance. I forgot that he against whom
I harbored such thoughts was my only brother; I forgot my self-offered
trial of our powers with Helen; I forgot every thing--every thing but
the fiery feeling of revenge. Yes, I was mad.

Day after day I wandered around the old castle, shunning every one. My
brother strove to converse with me, but glaring upon him like a maniac
as I was, I rushed past him. I felt the poison of hatred working
within me, and I knew the time was coming when my revengeful spirit
would find its vent.

I often wandered toward the parsonage, but never sought an interview
with Helen. At times I caught a glimpse of her light form as it passed
by a window or before the open door that led into the hall. One
evening I saw my brother enter, and drawing near the window, I saw
through the slightly-parted curtain, such evidence of their mutual
affection, that, if possible, I became more than ever crazy in my
anguish and despair. I waited for him to come out long hours, hours to
me of bitterest sorrow, to him of most intense delight. It was an
exceedingly cold night. A slight snow had fallen during the day, and
the landscape around me glistening in the moonlight, seemed wrapped in
a robe of the purest white. Yet as I gazed all seemed to turn into the
deep hue of blood--wherever I gazed, every thing presented the same
fearful coloring. It was but the shadowy reflection of a coming deed
that should forever stain my soul with a deeper red, that the years of
eternity could never efface.

At length my brother opened the door of the parsonage and came forth.
Leaning against the trunk of an old tree but a little distance from
them, I saw and heard the parting acts of endearment. At that terrible
moment the determination of my soul was made, and I heard the dark
devil within me whisper one of you must die. I shuddered at the
thought, but when scarcely out of sight of the parsonage, almost as
soon as the door had closed upon the form of Helen, I confronted my
brother. Sir John started back, surprised.

"What, William, is it you?"

I laughed scornfully.

"My poor brother!"

"Do you dare to pity me--ha! ha! ha! Sir John! one of us must die this
night--here, upon this spot; here are two pistols, take one of them,
and it will be soon seen which is the fated one."

Sir John mechanically took the pistol; cocking my own, I retired a few
paces, and turning, exclaimed,

"Are you ready?"

My words recalled him to himself; flinging his pistol far into the
wood, he exclaimed,

"I will not fire at my brother."

"Coward!"

"The name belongs not to our race; fire at me if you will, I will not
at you."

Enraged beyond expression, yet even in my madness ashamed to fire at
an unarmed man, I hesitated.

My brother spoke.

"Come, William, let us go home."

"Home!--ha! ha! ha! my home is the wood and the cave! Here, take my
good-night."

Thus speaking I flung my pistol full at his face with all my strength;
it struck him lengthwise, and being cocked, went off in consequence of
the concussion.

Sir John fell upon the cold snow. I rushed up to him, and beheld the
blood flowing in torrents from a ghastly wound; the ball had taken a
downward direction, and penetrated the abdomen.

"William," he said, faintly, "you have murdered me. God forgive you!"

It seemed as if my reason came back to me at that terrible moment as
suddenly as it had left me. At the report of my pistol, I had heard a
loud scream in the parsonage, and almost at the same time with myself
Helen rushed up to the side of my brother.

"Oh!" she cried, in accents of agony, "who has done this?"

"Who!" said I, bitterly, "do you ask? You have done it; but no, Helen,
I do not mean it--let us carry him into the parsonage."

With difficulty we lifted the body of my brother, and bearing him into
the house, laid him upon a bed. Helen, who had up to this time been
sustained by the necessity of exertion, fainted beside the body. I
stood gazing upon them in stupid despair. The worthy pastor opened the
door of the room; he had heard an unusual noise, and left his books to
learn the cause.

I stopped not to converse with him, I could not trust myself to speak,
but stooping to the lifeless form of Helen, I imprinted a last kiss
upon her pale lips, and burst from the chamber. I do not know the
result of that fatal night. It may be that my brother and Helen were
both restored to life and happiness. God grant that it was so. It may
be that the spirits of both had already passed to another world when I
broke from the room, leaving the pale and astonished pastor gazing
upon the lifeless bodies of his only daughter and the young lord of
the manor. Years have passed since then, and not a happy hour have
their long ages borne to me; yet methinks if I could but know that my
brother and Helen are living in happiness in the mansion of my
fathers, much that is dark and despairing in the remnant of life would
be taken from the future.

That night I bade farewell to the haunts of boyhood, and the next day
I was out upon the broad ocean. I had jumped aboard of a little vessel
which was just weighing anchor, without asking its destination or
caring where it bore me. I made brief reply to all interrogatories,
merely showing a purse of gold, which was sufficient answer, inasmuch
as it showed I was not to be an unprofitable part of the cargo.

Seated upon the companion-way, that evening I watched the receding
shores of my native isle, and as the sunlight went out on its white
cliffs, leaving them in sombre shade, I felt that so had the light of
my life gone out, leaving the darkness of despair forever. Reckless as
I was of the future, and dark as was the past, I was not yet dead to
all emotion, and I could not witness my native land fading from my
view without experiencing those melancholy feelings which the
endearing recollections of former years excite, embittered as they
were with me by the thought that even if I ever should return to the
home of my fathers, I should find no kindred to welcome me back. No
wonder, then, that I felt a chilling sickness of the heart as I caught
a last glimpse of the Wicklow Mountains gleaming in the warm colorings
of the evening sun, as they mingled their hoary summits with the "dewy
skies" of my native isle.

The vessel on which I had chanced to take passage was bound for the
West Indies. It was a small merchantman, and fell an easy prey to the
first pirate that gave chase. We were boarded and all consigned to
death. When the command was given to the pirates to shoot us all
through the head, I stepped forward with a smile, and a heart
partaking more of gladness than it had felt for long months, a pistol
was at my temple, when the stern voice of the pirate captain commanded
his man to stay his hand. He stepped forward and gazed into my face.

"My fine fellow, are you not afraid to die?"

"I have nothing to live for--blow away, and I will thank you."

"By heaven, you are just the man for us! Now take your choice, I have
no objection to shoot you, indeed it would be rather pleasant than
otherwise, but one of my lieutenants was killed yesterday, and you can
fill his place if you will. I give you five minutes to decide while we
are dispatching these dogs." I gazed upon the cruel work--it did not
shock me; I even smiled at their agony, and had determined to share
their fate, when a momentary thought of the unknown, mysterious
hereafter restrained my advancing step. Am I ready, thought I, to
plunge into its mysteries. I shuddered at the thought. It was not the
beautiful blue sky unrolled above me, nor the broad, playful sea
around that wooed me to life. No, it was that fear of the "something
after death."

"Are you ready to answer?"

"I am thine."

"It is well, throw these carcasses into the sea, and set all sail for
the Bermudas. Well, lieutenant," continued he, as the ship fell off
before the wind, "give us your name, or it will be awkward work
hailing you."

"William--" I stopped, the pride of my race arose within me.

"Well?"

"I will not give my name--call me William, I'll answer to that."

"Very well--lieutenant William, my lads, your second lieutenant."

The men seemed to like me from the first, and as I gazed upon them
with a proud, fearless eye, a hearty cheer arose that endorsed my
command.

Since then my home has been the pirate's deck; my heart has grown
harder and harder with the lapse of time. I love the sight of blood
better than I love the flowing wine--the agonizing shriek of death
better than the sweetest music--like an emissary of evil I gloat over
the tortures of man. I have learned to hate the land of my birth, and
all who first drew breath upon her detested soil. I have been foremost
in every conflict, yet have I not met death--the only foe whom I
cannot conquer by my fierce will and dark heart.

I could not long remain a subordinate in command. I had become the
idol of our lawless crew, and a single blow from my sword laid our
captain low in death upon his own deck; and I filled his place,
smiling with a fiendish pleasure, as I saw his body thrown into the
waves, and the hungry sharks severing the limbs yet throbbing with
life. I have no feeling for my kind--yet I was not meant for this.
Under happier auspices, I might have been a leader in the ranks of God
as I am now in those of Satan; my sword might have been drawn for my
native land with the purest and loftiest feelings of patriotism,
instead of being turned against her and her children. Even now, in the
midst of my crimes and desolation, my heart throbs when I think of the
great and good of earth, and I feel that, like them, I might have left
a name of boast and pride to mankind; now, I shall perish, unknown and
unwept; the annals of my house shall never record that one of its
scions led a pirate crew to deeds of bloody cruelty and death. Long
since I have buried my name in oblivion--I am dead to my kindred, dead
to the world; the caves of ocean are yawning for the body of the
pirate-chief, and there will he sleep with the howling ocean and the
shrieking storm to sing his requiem and his dirge.

                                                   [_To be continued._




DREAMS.


    Yes, there were pleasant voices yesternight,
      Humming within mine ear a tale of truth,
    Reminding me of days ere the sad blight
      Of care had dimmed the brightness of my youth:
      Yes, they were pleasant voices; but, forsooth,
    They threw a kind of melancholy charm
      Around my heart; as if in vengeful ruth,
    Our very dreams have knowledge of the harm
    Ourselves do to ourselves, without the least alarm!

    I love such dreams, for at my couch there stood
      One who, in other lands, with magic spell,
    Had taught my untaught heart to love the good,
      The pure, the holy, which in her did dwell.
      It was a lovely image, and too well
    I do remember me the fatal hour,
      When that bright image--but I may not tell
    How deep the thraldom, absolute the power--
    My very dreams decide it was her only dower.

                              _Sandwich Islands._

    What are our dreams? A sort of fancy sketches,
      Limned on the mind's retina, with a grace
    More subtle than the wakeful artist catches,
      And tinted with a more ethereal trace.
     Our dreams annihilate both time and space,
    And waft us, with magnetic swiftness, back
      O'er an oblivious decade to the place
    Where youth's fond visions clustered o'er our track;
    Of youth's fond hopes decayed, alas! there is no lack!

    I love such dreams, for they are more than real;
      They have a passion in them in whose birth
    The heart receives again its beau ideal--
      Its Platonized embodiment of worth.
      Call ye them dreams! then what a mortal dearth
    Throws its gaunt shadow o'er our little life!
      Our very joy is mockery of mirth,
    And our quiescence agony of strife:
    If dreams are naught but dreams, what is our real life?

                                                  E. O. H.




A LEAF IN THE LIFE OF LEDYARD LINCOLN.

A SKETCH.

BY MARY SPENCER PEASE.

It was in the joyous leaf-giving, life-giving month of June, of 18--,
after an absence of six years, that I found myself once more among my
own dearly loved native hills.

An intense worshiper of Nature, I had gratified to the utmost my
passion and curiosity by exploring all the accessible regions of the
old world. I had studied every scene that was in any way famous, or
_in_famous I might say with regard to some, if the necessity of
clambering down or up unclimbable precipices, or wading through
interminable swamps, could render them so.

With all the fatigue and hardships I had undergone my reward was
great, and had more than repaid me for the perilous dangers I had
courted and conquered. I had gazed, and dreamed, and raved by turns. I
had been melted into tears of tenderness by the perfect harmony and
loveliness of some scenes, and had been frozen into awe by the
magnificent grandeur and terrible sublimity of others. And, after
those six years of travel in foreign lands, I had returned, my brain
one endless panorama of hills, valleys and cloud-capped mountains,
earth, skies, wood and water. Not one of those gorgeous scenes,
however, had moved me as I was moved when once again I beheld my
boyhood's home--the stately mansion of my fathers. Half hidden, it
rose majestically amid the noble elms that surrounded it; there lay
the velvet-green sloping lawn in front--down which, as a boy, I had
rolled in the summer and sledded in the winter--there the wild,
night-dark ravine in the rear--fit haunt for elves and gnomes--that
terminated amid jagged rocks and tangled trees, in a rushing, roaring
brook of no mean dimensions, almost as large as many of the so-called
rivers of the mother country. Just at this point, at the turn of the
old time-worn stage-road, where the venerable, picturesque old
homestead of my sires burst thus suddenly into view, an opening in the
trees, whether by accident or design, revealed one of the very
merriest, maddest of musical water-falls, that went foaming and
tumbling its snow-white, sparkling waters over a bed of huge rocks,
and then, by a sudden wilful bend, that same loud-uttering brook was
lost to view.

As the rattling stage neared my home, my heart leaped within me, and
every fibre of it trembled with emotion. I could have hugged and
kissed each familiar sturdy old tree, looking so grand and natural. My
soul warmed and yearned toward the well remembered scene; and as I
thought upon my fond, doting mother and my loving, lovely sisters, and
my ever-indulgent father, I could have wept in the intensity of my
joy at finding myself so near them, and breathing the same free, pure,
health-giving air that had nurtured my childhood. But was there not
sitting directly opposite to me one of the most exquisitely beautiful
of God's lovely women; and did not her saucy, demure eyes seem to read
my very soul? I therefore restrained a display of my feelings, for it
would not have appeared in the least dignified or proper in a
fine-looking young man (such as I imagined myself to be) of
four-and-twenty, to be seen with eyes streaming like a young girl.

More than once, during our short stage-coach ride had our eyes met;
and hers had revealed to me a living well of spiritual beauty; and
although they were withdrawn as soon as they encountered mine--not
coquettishly, but with true feminine modesty--still they were not
turned away until our mutual eyes had flashed one electrical spark of
mutual understanding and mutual sympathy, that whole volumes of dull
words could never express either as vividly or as truly. What a
heaven-born mystery is contained in the glance of an eye: it can kill
and can make alive; it can fill the heart with a sudden and delicious
ecstasy, and it can plunge it into the deepest, darkest despair.

I gave her one last look as the stage stopped before my father's door,
and if it expressed one tithe of what I felt, it told her of my warm
admiration of her glorious beauty, and of my sorrow at leaving her,
perhaps forever, without knowing more of her.

For the time the matchless image of my stage-coach companion was lost
in the loving embraces and tender greetings of my family. I felt it
truly refreshing, after six years of exile from my own kith and kin,
to be caressed and made much of; to be told by three deliciously
beautiful, exquisitely graceful sisters, hanging around one, and
kissing one every other word, to be told how much the few last years
had improved one, how handsome, &c. one was grown; was it not enough
to somewhat turn one's brain, and make one a little vain and
considerably happy.

In the still hush of the night, after finding myself once more in my
own room--_my_ room, with its cabinets of shells and mosses, that I
had collected when a boy in my various trips to the seashore, all
religiously left arranged as I had left them, its guns, fishing-rods,
stuffed rabbits and birds, its preserved rattle-snakes and cases of
insects, all of which had stood for so long a time in their respective
places that they had become a part of the room--in the still hush of
the night the divine image of my most beautiful stage-coach companion
arose before me. The evening was warm and soft, and gleaming in the
gorgeous moonlight lay that wild, weird ravine, and the ever downward,
foaming water-fall. Its musical utterings, the delicious moonlight,
and my own newly awakened and hitherto invulnerable heart, all
conspired to make me poetical and inspired, or at least to imagine
myself to be so; and pardon me if I gave utterance in verse to some of
my feelings. But do not in the least imagine that you are going by any
means to be presented with a fatiguing copy of my passionate numbers;
in the first place I am very diffident, and in the next--but never
mind the next, I will tell you in plain prose that I felt convinced in
my heart, I felt a rapturous presentiment that the unutterably lovely
being I had that day beheld would ere long be my own dear little wife,
forever and forever. An indistinct dream of having somewhere, at some
time before, known her haunted me and tormented me, but I racked my
brains in vain to recollect the spot or time, and finally came to the
conclusion that it had been in another state of existence we had met.

I had been home but a few days when business letters came, demanding
the presence of my father or myself in Philadelphia. My father
expressed a desire that I should go, and a certain internal prompting
urged me to comply with his request. The next morning bright and early
found me seated in the same stage-coach in which I had met her. The
due progress of steamboat and cars deposited me safely the day after
in the goodly city of Squareruledom.

The first leisure moment at my command, I paid my respects to the
family of my father's brother. I found my good uncle and aunt at home;
but my little pet Emily--their only child--whom I had last seen a rosy
romping little imp of twelve--was unfortunately out. My uncle urged me
very hard to make his house my home during my stay in Philadelphia;
but I had taken up my abode in the family of an old college chum of
mine, who had lately commenced the practice of the art of healing, and
who I knew would be none the worse from a little of my help in a
pecuniary way. I therefore declined my kind uncle's request, with a
promise to come and see them often.

Judge of my inexpressible joy when, turning a corner of a street,
after leaving my uncle's, who should I chance upon but the very being
of whom my brain and heart were full! Yes, there was the identical
she, and bless her dear little heart! she gave me a bright half smile
of recognition, which I returned with as profound a bow as ever
courtier bowed to queen, or devotee to Pope's sublime imperial toe.

An omnibus came rolling by, which she, with a motion of her neat
little gloved hand, bid stop. She stepped lightly into it, while I,
with my usual impetuosity, without knowing exactly what I was doing,
sprang after her. I consoled myself for my apparent rudeness by
throwing the entire blame upon the elective affinities.

On we went, and from time to time as I stole a glance at her sweet
face, I thought I detected a sly, mischievous little devil playing
around the corners of her small dimpled mouth, and about the pure lids
of her downcast long-fringed eyes. She never vouchsafed me a look,
however; and as we went on, and as I still watched her lovely face, a
dread vision arose up before me of a six-foot and well proportioned
youth, with fierce whiskers and a moustache of undisputable cut and
style, that I remembered to have seen with the young lady during our
stage-coach ride together--that I remembered, with a terrible
heart-sinking, was impressively attentive to her. I inwardly resolved
to let nature have her way, and let all the hair grow on my face that
would; what if it did grow a little reddish or so--why I should
resemble the rising sun, with my glory like a halo around me.
Seriously, I have long been of the opinion that a shaved face is as
much of a disgrace, and ought to be so considered, as a shaved head
fresh from prison. Why do we not finish the half completed work and
actually shave off the hair of our heads, our eye-brows and lashes, as
well as our beards, and thus go cool and comfortable through the
world? There would be this advantage in it, the disciples of Spurzheim
would have no trouble of making a map of our bumps at sight; and then
think what an immense saving it would be in combs and brushes, to say
nothing of pomatum, which some so freely use. I rejoice sincerely to
see the sudden rise in crops of hair, and most truly hope they will
not have as rapid a fall. Shaving is artificial and injurious,
exposing parts to cold that Nature never meant should be exposed.
Black, white or red--hair is a protection and ornament that no manly
face or head should be without. Rejoice ye, therefore, over every
repentant sinner who tarrieth in Jericho and letteth his beard to
grow.

But to return to my little omnibus companion, who by this time was
gracefully moving over the smooth gravel-walks of Fairmount--for there
we had stopped--and exceedingly refreshing were its cool shades and
splashing fountains on that sultry June day. I kept as near her as I
could without appearing rude, especially as I had received one or two
half glances from her bright eyes, that nearly annihilated me, such an
unearthly fluttering and bumping in the region of my heart did they
create. Mercy upon me! what would a whole glance do? And for a whole
glance I courageously resolved to strive, let the consequences be what
they might.

Now do you not expect an earthquake, or a roaring bull, or at least a
rabid dog? It was nothing more however than a refreshing shower of
rain--truly refreshing to my thirsty soul, for it gave me that coveted
_whole_ glance. Heavens! I actually staggered, and would undoubtedly
have fallen had it not been for a friendly sappling--you will sneer at
witless I--that grew near me. But just try the effect upon yourself--a
shock of electricity is nothing in comparison to a shock from a pair
of bright eyes--such eyes as hers. The truth of the case was here, of
a sudden, apparently from out the clear sky, came down, with not a
moment's warning, a perfect avalanche of rain-drops--all expressly got
up, or down, for my benefit, else why did I happen to have an umbrella
in my hand? "A Wise man--" you remember the rest. My beautiful
incognito was away up those long stairs, and walking leisurely around
the immense basin, when the rain came down. I was not very far from
her, and in less than an instant my umbrella was over her pretty
little blue bonnet, with--

"Be kind enough to accept my umbrella, Miss"--in the most insinuating
manner of which I was master.

"Thank you! but I will not deprive you of its shelter," with that
whole glance of which I spoke. So on we went together, and somehow
after we found ourselves under shelter, it was the easiest and most
natural thing in the world to fall into a pleasant conversation. After
talking about the scenery, weather, &c., we had mutually enjoyed
during our short stage ride, I spoke of the beauty around us, and
asked her if she often visited this lovely spot.

"Not very often," replied she. "It is very beautiful though, in spite
of all they have done to spoil it."

"To spoil it!"

"Yes, by making it as much like a chess-board as possible, all
straight lines and stiffness. That is Philadelphia however."

"Then you are not a Philadelphian, or it is not a favorite city with
you?"

"There you are mistaken. It is my native place, and a city I love
dearly--with all its formalities and inhospitalities toward strangers.
Philadelphia is a prim matron, with a warm heart but a most frigid,
repulsive exterior, until you become acquainted with her--one of her
particular children."

"I have been told that there is a finer collection of works of art
here than in any other city in the Union."

"I believe you have been told correctly. We have more time in our
quiet way to look after and admire the productions of the great
masters. Our taste has wonderfully improved within a few years."

"I have not been in town long enough to visit any of your show places
yet."

"How I _should_ like to see that lovely water-fall and the whole of
that beautiful scene on canvas. Do you know I almost envied you a home
in that beautiful house with all its picturesque surroundings."

"I am truly thankful you had the kind grace to think of me at all."

"How could I help it? I had a feeling the first moment I saw you that
you and I were destined to be friends. Is there not a certain
mysterious something--call it magnetism or instinct--that either draws
us toward or repels us from every person we meet in either a greater
or less degree? With me this instinct is very strong, and I obey it
implicitly, never in one instance having found it to fail. I know at
once who to trust and who to love. And would know, by the same
unerring law of my nature, who to hate if ever I felt the least
inclination to hate. The only feeling of hate I ever experienced is a
strong desire to avoid all persons or things that are disagreeable to
me. I love harmony the most perfect, and discord is a thing for me to
flee from. I felt toward you a most decided drawing, and I felt a
conviction then, as I do now, that we are to be very near and dear
friends."

The little angel! I could have hugged and kissed her on the spot; but
I hugged her in my soul, and inwardly vowed to consecrate my life to
her, if the "drawing" she felt for me could be rendered sufficiently
strong to admit of such a thing. On a sudden I bethought me of the
whiskered incognito, her stage attendant. I mustered courage to ask
her in a half laughing way, if that fine-looking fellow she had called
Charles were her brother.

Instantly her manner changed from that of sweet and almost tender
seriousness to an arch, quizzical one that puzzled me.

"Oh no, not my brother," said she.

"_Not_ her brother--a sharp pang of pain shot through me--I was
getting dreadfully jealous--I looked all manner of curiosity and all
manner of questions; she took pity on me and said--a smile still
lurking in the corner of her eye--

"He is no more nor less than the intended future husband of the one
you see before you."

"The future devil! I sincerely beg your pardon, but--you take me by
surprise--I regret--but really I do not feel that it can be so."

"And why not?"

"Truly, why not!"

"He is very handsome."

"That is as one thinks."

"And very accomplished."

"In flattery, most like."

"And a most profound scholar."

"In the art of making love, it would seem."

"But I do not love him."

"Not love him!"

"No, nor never can."

"Then why, my dearest young lady, do you marry him?"

"You may well ask; why indeed?"

"You seemed very friendly with him the day I saw you together, and
happier than I could have wished you."

"That was before I knew I was to be his wife. It has only been decided
upon a few days."

"And now?"

"It is a long story, that I may tell you if we should meet again. I
never can love him, though I greatly esteem him, and--"

"_Esteem!_"

"A sad substitute for love; but what is love without esteem?"

"What is esteem without love?"

"Very true. It was not my own doing, although I reluctantly gave my
consent. If I can with honor release myself from this unfortunate
engagement--I have thought more and more every day since, that love,
true heart-love, is the only tie that should sanction the union of two
beings--but why should I talk in this way to you, a stranger? I cannot
feel, however that you are a stranger; we have surely met before in
some other state of being. I am a firm believer in the beautiful faith
of the transmigration of souls--of pre-existence. What is it that
brings two congenial souls together, uniting them in one hour in more
perfect harmony than whole years could effect among ordinary
acquaintances?"

"Something unexplainable," I answered, "as it is mysterious. We can
call it elective affinity, and can talk very learnedly upon the
singular attraction of the magnet, as applied to the poles as well as
souls, and we can make vast and wise experiments, and in the end be as
far from the real cause as we were before the Solomonic experiments
were made. The school-boy's reasoning was more to the point--

    "I do not like you, Dr. Fell,
     The reason why I cannot tell."

I love you dearly, Dr. Fell, the reason why, &c., would be just as
conclusive. We are so accustomed to seeing drops of water drawing near
to meet each other, and mingling in a loving embrace of perfect unity,
that we cease to wonder at the occurrence, as we do also at the fact
that oil and water will not mingle."

"Just as my soul will _not_ mingle with the souls of some. There is an
antagonism more or less decided between my inner self and many persons
I know; people, too, that I am compelled to be friendly with, and wish
to be friendly with, many of them my cousins and aunts. Then again
toward some am I as irresistibly attracted."

Her beautiful eyes sought mine frequently during our conversation, and
her glorious soul looked through them--earnest, simple and pure.

"Just so," resumed she, after a pause, during which her sweet, soft
eyes had been gazing on the dreamy waters. "Just so have I felt
attracted toward you. I could sit down beside you and tell my whole
soul to you as freely as though you were my own brother."

The word _brother_ sent a disagreeable shiver through me that all her
sweet confidence could not banish.

"But," exclaimed she, starting up, "what am I doing? The rain has
stopped, and the waning sun warns me that it is time to be at home.
And what _must_ you think of me? I hardly dare to ask the--"

"That you are the most lovely, most glorious of all Heaven's glorious
creatures; that you--"

"There, there! if you talk in that way, I shall truly repent having
said all I have to you."

"Forgive me; though I spoke sincerely, I hope--"

"I will forgive on condition of good behavior in future. But I must
not stay for another word. Promise me that you will not leave this
spot until ten minutes after the omnibus I shall be in is out of
sight."

"I promise," said I, reluctantly.

She gave me her little, soft, ungloved hand at parting; its gentle
pressure sent a thrill of ecstasy through me, and I looked all the
unutterable things that my full soul felt into her warm brown eyes.
And, by the way, I may as well say that my own eyes are--they are a
dark, deep blue, and strangely expressive, if I believe my sisters
and my friends, and--my own glass.

For one week did I wander up and down the streets, and watch every
omnibus, and stare into the windows and doors of every house I passed.
I peered under every pretty bonnet I met, and was, on the eighth day,
giving full chase to a coquettish little blue one, in the earnest hope
of finding the sweet face of my beautiful incognita hidden under it,
when some one laid a strong grasp on my shoulder, and looking around,
I beheld the generous face of my good uncle.

"Bless the boy! why, Led, what is your hurry? Your business must have
been _very_ urgent this last week. Why, in the name of all the saints,
have you kept away so studiously? There is poor little Emily actually
dying with anxiety to see you. Bless my soul! is this the way to treat
your friends? But now that I have fairly captured you, I do not intend
to let you go."

And he did not, and would not; so I had to go with him. And what do
you think? The first object that met my bewildered gaze, as my uncle
led me into the drawing-room, was--herself! her very self! but so
altered, looking so cold and stately. My uncle introduced me to her as
"My daughter Emily, nephew Ledyard." "My daughter Emily" inclined her
beautiful head most graciously, and sweetly smiled, but not one
recognizing glance did she deign to bestow on poor "nephew Ledyard."
Lovely she was, and proud and majestic as a queen. What could it mean?
I made several well-planned alluions to omnibuses and stages, &c., not
one of which did she seem to comprehend.

Her exceeding beauty still charmed me in spite of her coldness; and I
stayed to tea and then the evening. My cousin sung for me; her voice
was highly cultivated and exceedingly sweet, and full of feeling. Song
after song she poured forth into the listening air, and each song
entranced me more than the last.

We conversed gayly on several topics, and she grew more and more
familiar with me, alluded playfully to our childish intimacy; still,
to the very close of the evening, did she refuse to remember by look
or word that we had met since children. She evidently wished to
forget, and wished me to forget the whole of that pleasant interview
that had afforded _me_, at least, such soul-felt delight; yet she
acted her part so well, was so careless and unconscious, and withal so
cold and full of queenly dignity, that I went home in a perfect
bewilderment of amazement.

As I lay tossing on a sleepless bed, and in my heart bitterly railing
against the perversity and incomprehensibility of women, I found
myself incessantly repeating to myself, "Am I Giles, or am I not;" the
truth flashed upon me that I was the unhappy victim of an optical
illusion, that the Cousin Emily I had but a little before left was
simply my Cousin Emily, and not the beautiful being of whom my heart
and life were full--that incessant thinking of her, and seeking her,
had crazed my brain. I relighted my lamp and made my way into the
doctor's study. I read all I could find on the subject of optical
delusion and maniacal hallucination until I convinced myself that I
was laboring under a very alarming attack of one or both, and resolved
on seriously consulting my friend, the doctor, early the next morning.

I went back to bed with the decided opinion that I was exceedingly to
be pitied--how would it appear in the papers? for I must undoubtedly
grow worse, and it must undoubtedly end in suicide. "Sad occurrence,"
"nice young man," "brilliant prospects," "only son of--," and
"promising talents," "laboring under incipient insanity," "fatal cause
unknown," &c., &c. I sympathized with myself until near morning, then
fell into a sleep, which lasted until the bell rung for breakfast. I
dressed in a hurry, and got down before the muffins were quite cold. I
ate a hearty breakfast, read a newspaper or two, and determining on
seeing my cousin again before I made up my mind to ask advice, I soon
found myself at her door. The fresh morning air and the walk had so
invigorated me, that I laughed at my last night's fears, especially as
my lovely cousin came into the drawing-room to receive me, radiant
with health and beauty. I found her just the same as she was the night
before, gay, witty and charming, and as cold as marble. Still I could
not be mistaken; for, with all her feigned coldness--for some good
reason of her own undoubtedly--there was no doubting her identity with
that of my glorious Fairmount vision.

The day was a lovely one, soft and mild as a June morning could make
it. After conversing on indifferent subjects for a time, I asked her,
remarking on the deliciousness of the morning, if she would not like
to go out with me to Fairmount. She assented with a quiet smile, as
innocently as though she had never in her life before heard of such a
place as Fairmount.

"The little-deceiver!" thought I. "Which way shall we go?" said I,
aloud, and very significantly, "shall we take the omnibus?"

"I will order the carriage," replied she, with a slight shrug; "I
never ride in those omnibusses, one meets with such odd people."

"_Never?_" asked I, emphatically.

"Certainly, never!" answered she, with much apparent surprise.

My drive was a delightful one. How could it be otherwise, with a
glorious day surrounding me, and a gloriously beautiful cousin sitting
beside me, with whom I could not exactly make up my mind whether to
fall desperately _in_ love, or desperately _out_ of love. I, too, such
an enthusiastic lover of beauty. But she chose to be so different from
what she was at our first meeting--so reserved, that I could not
decide whether I most loved or was most indifferent to her.

We rode all the morning, and I left her, promising to call again in
the evening. I walked the streets until dark, the whole affair vexed
me so much--I, such a hater of all mysteries, the most impatient of
all breathing mortals. I determined to come at once to an
understanding with my perverse little cousin, and to decide at once
the puzzling question whether to love or not to love.

In the evening I found myself alone with my little tormentor.

"Now, sweet Cousin Emily," said I, playfully, "you have been teazing
me long enough with your pretty affectation of ignorance and
innocence--not but that you are as ignorant as the rest of your sweet
sex, and as innocent too--but, I beseech you, lay by this
masquerading, you have played possum long enough. I humbly implore of
you to be the same to me that you were in our first visit to
Fairmount--the earnest, simple-hearted Cousin Emily you then were."

"Mr. Lincoln speaks in enigmas; I must confess I do not understand his
meaning, nor his elegant allusion to 'playing possum.'"

This she said with so much haughtiness, that I was taken all aback.
Rallying, however, in a moment I determined not to give up the point.

"I beseech of you to pardon the inelegance of my expression, and also
my pertinacity in insisting upon some explanation of your manner
toward me. It will all do very well for the stage," continued I,
bitterly, "but in real life, among cousins, and two that have met so
frankly, and in such sincerity, I feel that our acquaintanceship must
at once end, pleasant as it has been, as it might be to me, unless you
lay aside this assumed coldness. It harasses me more than I can
express. Emily, after seeing you in the stage-coach, I thought I had
never met with one half so lovely, and I could think of nothing but
you. After remaining at home but one week, business called me to
Philadelphia. Judge of my delight when almost the first object that
met my view was your beautiful, unforgotten little self. You were just
stepping into one of those very omnibusses you have since seen fit to
decry. What followed you must remember as distinctly as I--no _not_ as
distinctly, for the whole of that delicious interview is engraven on
my heart--one of the sun-bright scenes of my life that I can never
forget. And now, after that beautiful interchange of thought and soul
that promised--every thing, do I find you cold, impassive. If you
repent the trust you so freely reposed in me, in all frankness, say
so; but for the sweet love of heaven, do not pretend to such--"

"For the sweet love of heaven what is the man raving about? Are you
mad, dear cousin, insane? Poor Cousin Ledyard! Or is it--?" her whole
manner changed, her brilliant eyes lighted up with intense fire. How
beautiful she looked! I could have knelt and worshiped her, though,
strange to say, my restless, ardent love for her had entirely abated.
"Yes!" exclaimed she, "it must be so;" and with that she clasped her
small white hands, and throwing back her fine head, laughed with all
her heart, and strength, and soul.

This was very pleasant for me; still I had to join her laugh, it was
so genuine and infectious.

"Forgive me, dear cousin, forgive me for my rude laughter; forgive me
also for my folly in attempting to deceive you. You will hereafter
find me the same you found me in our first pleasant interview. Here is
my hand--I will not explain one other word to-night; I hear voices on
the stairs. Come here to-morrow evening at eight, and you shall know
all--all my reasons."

"And why not to-morrow morning, cruel cousin?"

"I am engaged all of the day to-morrow. I go with mamma and papa out
of town, ten miles or so, to dine; a stupid affair, but mamma wishes
it."

"But before you go--just after breakfast."

"No, no--come in the evening."

By this time the voices heard on the stairs had entered the room in
the shape of a merry half-dozen of my cousin's young friends. Feeling
too agitated for society, I withdrew.

And now another night and a whole day more of suspense--that pale
horror, that come in what shape it will, even in the shape of a
beautiful cousin, always torments the very life from my heart.

All the clocks in town were striking eight as I rung my uncle's bell.
I found the drawing-room full of company, at which I felt vexed and
disappointed.

My lovely cousin came up to me and placed her arm within mine, and led
me through the next room into the conservatory, and there, seated amid
the rare eastern flowers, herself the queen of them, was, gracious
heaven! I dared scarcely breathe, so great was my fear of dispelling
the beautiful illusion. It was she! none other; my stage-coach
companion--my Fairmount goddess. The musical, measured voice of my
statue-like Cousin Emily brought me to myself.

"Allow me. Cousin Ledyard, to introduce you to _my_ Cousin Emily."

There they both stood, one Cousin Emily, calm, stately, serene; the
other trembling and in blushes.

I looked from one to the other in the most ludicrous bewilderment, yet
each glance showed me more and more what a wonderful fool I had been
making of myself for the last few days. Still they were strangely
alike; their own kindred could not at times distinguish one from the
other. My heart could feel the difference. _My_ Emily was a child of
nature, the other bred in a more conventional school. My Emily was a
shade less tall, less stately, less Grecian, and exquisitely more
lovely, and loving.

But that double wedding _was_ a grand one. By what means my Emily
contrived to disentangle herself from that handsome-whiskered
"Charles," and to entangle him fast in the chains of the other Emily,
any one who wishes to know, and will take the trouble, can have all
due information on the subject, and can also learn how I wooed my
peerless Emily and won her, by coming to our lovely picturesque
dwelling, situate in one of the most romantic spots in the country. I
write you all to come, one by one, and spend a month with me, and you
shall know all the particulars. You will find my little Emily a
pattern housekeeper; you will also find a ready welcome. Bless her
sweet face! There she sits, at the moment that I am writing this to
you, with her willow arms twined around the exquisite form of her
little lily-bud boy, and bending low her graceful form over him,
hushing to sleep the very bravest, noblest, merriest little specimen
of babyhood--the exact image of his enraptured father.




THE DEFORMED ARTIST.

BY MRS. E. N. HORSFORD.


    The twilight o'er Italia's sky
      Had wove a shadowy veil,
    And one by one the solemn stars
      Looked forth serene and pale;
    As quickly the waning light
      Through a high casement stole,
    And fell on one with silver hair,
      Who shrived a passing soul.

    No costly pomp and luxury
      Relieved that chamber's gloom,
    But glowing forms, by limner's art
      Created, thronged the room:
    And as the low winds echoed far
      The bell for evening prayer,
    The dying painter's earnest tones
      Fell on the languid air.

    "The spectral form of Death is nigh,
      The thread of Life is spun,
    Ave Maria! I have looked
      Upon my latest sun.
    And yet 'tis not with pale disease
      This frame is worn away,
    Nor yet--nor yet with length of years--
      A child but yesterday"

    "I found within my father's hall
      No fervent love to claim--
    The curse that marked me from my birth
      Devoted me to shame.
    I saw upon my brother's brow
      Angelic beauty lay,
    The mirror gave me back a form
      That thrilled me with dismay."

    "And soon I learned to shrink from all,
      The lowly and the high;
    To see but scorn on every lip,
      Contempt in every eye.
    And for a time e'en Nature's smile
      A bitter mockery wore,
    For beauty stamped each living thing
      The wide creation o'er;"

    "And I alone was cursed and loathed;
      'Twas in a garden bower
    I knelt one eve, and scalding tears
      Fell fast on many a flower;
    And as I rose I marked with awe
      And agonizing grief,
    A frail mimosa at my feet
      Fold close each fragile leaf."

    "Alas! how dark my lot if thus
      A plant could shrink from me;
    But when I looked again I marked
      That from the honey-bee,
    The falling leaf, the bird's gay wing,
      It shrunk with pain and fear,
    A kindred presence I had found,
      Life waxed sublimely clear."

    "I climbed the lofty mountain height
      And communed with the skies,
    And felt within my grateful heart
      Strange aspirations rise.
    Oh! what was this humanity
      When every beaming star
    Was filled with lucid intellect,
      Congenial, though afar."

    "I mused beneath the avalanche,
      And traced the sparkling stream,
    Till Nature's face became to me
      A passion and a dream:"
    Then thirsting for a higher lore
      I left my childhood's home,
    And stayed not till I gazed upon
      The hills of fallen Rome.

    "I stood amid the forms of light,
      Seraphic and divine,
    The painter's wand had summoned from
      The dim Ideal's shrine;
    And felt within my fevered soul
      Ambition's wasting fire,
    And seized the pencil with a vague
      And passionate desire"

    "To shadow forth, with lineaments
      Of earth, the phantom throng
    That swept before my sight in thought,
      And lived in storied song.
    Vain, vain the dream--as well might I
      Aspire to build a star,
    Or pile the gorgeous sunset clouds
      That glitter from afar."

    "The threads of life have worn away,
      Discordantly they thrill,
    But soon the sounding chords will be
      Forever mute and still.
    And in the spirit-land that lies
      Beyond, so calm and gray,
    I shall aspire with truer aim--
      Ave Maria! pray!"




A FAREWELL TO A HAPPY DAY.

BY FRANCES S. OSGOOD.


    Good-bye--good-bye, thou gracious, golden day:
    Through luminous tears, thou smilest, far away
    In the blue heaven, thy sweet farewell to me,
    And I, through _my_ tears, gaze and smile with thee.

    I see the last faint, glowing, amber gleam
    Of thy rich pinion, like a lovely dream,
    Whose floating glory melts within the sky,
    And now thou'rt passed forever from mine eye!

    Were we not friends--_best_ friends--my cherished day?
    Did I not treasure every eloquent ray
    Of golden light and love thou gavest me?
    And have I not been true--most true to thee?

    And _thou_--thou earnest like a joyous bird,
    Whose sacred wings by heaven's own air were stirred.
    And lowly sang me all the happy time
    Dear, soothing stories of that blissful clime!

    And more, oh! more than this, there came with thee,
    From Heaven, a stranger, rare and bright to me,
    A new, sweet joy--a smiling angel-guest,
    That softly asked a home within my breast.

    For talking sadly with my soul alone,
    I heard far off and faint a music-tone,
    It seemed a spirit's call--so soft it stole
    On fairy wings into my waiting soul.

    I _knew_ it summoned me to something sweet,
    And so I followed it with faltering feet;
    And found--what I had prayed for with wild tears--
    A rest, that soothed the lingering grief of years!

    So for that deep, perpetual joy, my day!
    And for all lovely things that came to play
    In thy glad smile--the pure and pleading flowers
    That crowned with their frail bloom thy flying hours--

    The sunlit clouds--the pleasant air that played
    Its low lute-music 'mid the leafy shade--
    And, dearer far, the tenderness that taught
    My soul a new and richer thrill of thought--

    For these--for all--bear thou to Heaven for me
    The grateful thanks with which I mission thee!
    Then should thy sisters, wasted, wronged, upbraid,
    Speak _thou_ for me--for thou wert not betrayed!

    'Twas little--true--I could to thee impart--
    I, with my simple, frail and wayward heart;
    But that I strove the diamond sands to light,
    In Life's rich hour-glass, with _Love's_ rainbow flight;

    And that one generous spirit owed to me
    A moment of exulting ecstasy;
    And that I won o'er wrong a queenly sway--
    For this, thou'lt smile for me in Heaven, my Day!




SAM NEEDY.

A TALE OF THE PENITENTIARY.

BY LOUIS FITZGERALD TASISTRO.


Several years ago, a man of the name of Samuel Needy, a poor artisan,
was living in London. He had with him a wife, and a child by this
wife. This artisan was skillful, quick, intelligent, very ill-treated
by education, very well-treated by nature--able to think, but not to
read. One winter his work failed him--there was neither fire nor food
in his garret; the man, the woman, and the child were cold and hungry;
he committed a theft; it is unnecessary to state what he stole, or
whence he stole it. Suffice it to know, that the consequences of this
theft were three days' food and fire to the wife and child, and five
years of imprisonment to the man.

Sam Needy, lately an honest man, now and henceforth a thief, was
dignified and grave in appearance; his high forehead was already
wrinkled, though he was still young; some gray lines lurked among the
black and bushy tufts of his hair; his eye was soft, and buried deep
beneath his lofty and well-turned eye-brow; his nostrils were open,
his chin advancing, his lip scornful; it was a fine head--let us see
what society made of it.

He was a man of few words--more frequent gestures--somewhat imperious
in his whole manner, and one to make himself obeyed; of a melancholy
air--rather serious than suffering; for all that he had suffered
enough.

In the place where he was confined there was a director of the
work-rooms--a kind of functionary peculiar to prisons, who combined in
himself the offices of turnkey and tradesman, who would at the same
time issue an order to the workman and threaten the prisoner--put
tools in his hand and irons on his feet. This man was a variety of his
own species--a man peremptory, tyrannical, governed by his fancies,
holding tight the reins of his authority, and yet, on occasion, a boon
companion, jovial and condescending to a joke--rather hard than
firm--reasoning with no one--not even himself--a good father, and
doubtless a good husband--(a duty, by the way, and not a virtue;) in
short, evil but not bad. The principal, the diagonal line of this
man's character was obstinacy; he was proud of it, and therein
compared himself to Napoleon, when he had once fixed what he called
_his will_ upon an absurdity, he went to its furthest length, holding
his head high, and despising all obstacles. Such violence of purpose
without reason, is only folly tied to the tail of brute force, and
serving to lengthen it. For the most part, whenever a catastrophe,
whether public or private, happens amongst men, if we look beneath the
rubbish with which it strews the earth, to find in what manner the
fallen fabric had been propped, we shall, with rare exceptions,
discover it to have been blindly put together by a weak and obstinate
man, trusting and admiring himself implicitly. Many of the smaller of
these strange fatalities pass in the world for providences. Such was
he who was the director of the work-rooms in the House of Correction
where poor Sam Needy was sent to undergo his sentence. Such was the
stone with which society daily struck its prisoners to draw sparks
from them. The sparks which such stones draw from such flints often
kindle conflagrations.

In a short time Sam found the prison air natural to him, and appeared
to have forgotten every thing; a certain severe serenity, which
belonged to his character, had resumed its mastery.

In about the same time he had acquired a singular ascendency over all
his companions, as if by a sort of silent agreement, and without any
one knowing wherefore, not even himself. All these men consulted him,
listened to him, admired and imitated him, (the last point to which
admiration can mount.) It was no slight glory to be obeyed by all
these lawless natures; the empire had come to him without his own
seeking--it was a consequence of the respect with which they beheld
him. The eye of a man is a window, through which may be seen the
thoughts which enter into and issue from his heart.

Place an individual who possesses ideas among those who do not, at the
end of a given time, and by a law of irresistible attraction, all
their misty minds shall draw together with humility and reverence
round his illuminated one. There are men who are iron, and there are
men who are loadstone. Sam Needy was loadstone. In less than three
months he had become the soul, the law, the order of the work-room; he
was the dial, concentrating all rays; he must even himself have
sometimes doubted whether he were king or prisoner--it was the
captivity of a pope among his cardinals.

By as natural a reaction, accomplished step by step, as he was loved
by the prisoners, so was he detested by the jailers. It is always
thus, popularity cannot exist without disfavor--the love of the slaves
is always exceeded one degree by the hate of their masters.

Sam Needy was, by his particular organization, a great eater; his
stomach was so formed, that food enough for two common men would
hardly have sufficed for his nourishment. Lord Slickborough had one of
these large appetites, and laughed at it; but that which is a cause of
gayety for a British peer, with a rent-roll of fifty-thousand pounds
a year, is a heavy charge to an artisan, and a misfortune to a
prisoner.

Sam Needy, free in his own loft, worked all day, earned his four
pounds of bread, and ate it; Sam Needy, in prison, worked all day,
and, for his pains, received invariably one pound and a half of bread,
and four ounces of meat; the ration admits of no change. Sam was
therefore constantly hungry whilst in the House of Correction; he was
hungry, and no more--he did not speak of it because it was not his
nature so to do.

One day Sam, after devouring his scanty pittance, had returned to his
work, thinking to cheat his hunger by it--the rest of the prisoners
were eating cheerily. A young man, pale, fair, and feeble-looking,
came and placed himself near him; he held in his hand his ration, as
yet untouched, and a knife; he remained in that situation, with the
air of one who would speak, and dares not. The sight of the man, and
his bread and meat annoyed Sam.

"What do you want?" said he, rudely.

"That you would do me a service," said the young man, timidly.

"What?" replied Sam.

"That you would help me to eat this--it is too much for me."

A tear stood in the proud eye of Sam; he took the knife, divided the
young man's ration into two equal parts, took one of them, and began
eating.

"Thank you," said the young man; "if you like, we will share together
every day."

"What is your name?" said Sam.

"Heartall."

"Wherefore are you here?"

"I have committed a theft."

"And I too," said Sam.

Henceforth they did thus share together every day. Sam Needy was
little more than thirty years old, but at times he appeared fifty, so
stern were his thoughts usually. Heartall was twenty--he might have
been taken for seventeen, so much innocence was there in his
appearance. A strict friendship was knit up between the two, rather of
father to son than brother to brother, Heartall being still almost a
child, Sam already nearly an old man. They wrought in the same
work-room--they slept under the same vault--they walked in the same
airing-ground--they ate of the same bread. Each of these two friends
was the universe to the other--it would seem that they were happy.

Mention has already been made of the director of the work-rooms. This
man, who was abhorred by the prisoners, was often obliged, in order to
enforce obedience, to have recourse to Sam Needy, who was beloved by
them. On more than one occasion, when the question was, how to put
down a rebellion or a tumult, the authority without title of Sam Needy
had given powerful aid to the official authority of the director; in
short, to restrain the prisoners, ten words from him were as good as
ten turnkeys. Sam had many times rendered this service to the
director, wherefore the latter detested him cordially. He was jealous
of him; there was at the bottom of his heart a secret, envious,
implacable hatred against Sam--the hate of a titular for a real
sovereign--of a temporal against a spiritual power; these are the
worst of all hatreds.

Sam loved Heartall greatly, and did not trouble himself about the
director. One morning when the turnkeys were leading the prisoners,
two by two, from their dormitory to the work-room, one of them called
Heartall, who was by the side of Sam, and informed him that the
director wished to see him.

"What does he want with you?" said Sam.

"I do not know," replied the other.

The turnkey took Heartall away.

The morning past; Heartall did not return to the work-room. When the
dinner hour arrived, Sam expected that he should rejoin Heartall in
the airing-ground--but no Heartall was there. He returned into the
work-room, still Heartall did not make his appearance. So passed the
day. At night, when the prisoners were removed to their dormitory, Sam
looked out for Heartall, but could not see him. It would seem that he
must have suffered much at that moment, for he addressed the
turnkey--a thing which he had never done before.

"Is Heartall sick?" was his question.

"No," replied the turnkey.

"Why is it, then, that he has not again made his appearance to-day?"

"Ah," replied the turnkey, carelessly, "they have put him in another
ward."

The witnesses who deposed to these facts at a later period, remarked,
that at this answer, Sam's hand, in which was a lighted candle,
trembled a little. He again asked, calmly,

"Whose order was this?"

The turnkey said "Mr. Flint's."

The name of the director of the work-rooms was Flint.

The next day went by like the last, but no news of Heartall.

That evening, when the day's work ended, Mr. Flint came to make his
usual round of inspection. As soon as Sam Needy saw him, he took off
his cap of coarse wool, buttoned his gray vest, sad livery of the
work-house, (it is a principle in prisons, that a vest, respectfully
buttoned, bespeaks the favor of the superior officers,) and placed
himself at the end of his bench, waiting till the director came by. He
passed.

"Sir," said Sam.

The director stopped and turned half round.

"Sir," said Sam, "is it true that Heartall's ward has been changed?"

"Yes," returned the director.

"Sir," continued Sam, "I cannot live without Heartall; you know that
with the ration of the house I have not enough to eat, and that
Heartall shared his bread with me."

"That was his business," replied the director.

"Sir, is there no means of getting Heartall replaced in the same ward
as myself?"

"Impossible! it is so decided."

"By whom?"

"By myself."

"Mr. Flint," persisted Sam, "the question is my life or death, and it
depends upon you."

"I never revoke my decisions."

"Sir, is it because I have given you offence?"

"None."

"In that case," said Sam, "why do you separate me from Heartall?"

"_It is my will_" said the director.

With this explanation he went away.

Sam Needy stooped his head and made no answer. Poor caged lion, from
whom they had taken his dog!

The grief of this separation in no way changed the prisoner's almost
disease of voracity. Nor was he, in other respects, obviously altered.
He did not speak of Heartall to any of his comrades. He walked alone
in the airing-ground, in the hours of recreation, and suffered
hunger--nothing more.

Nevertheless, those who knew him well, remarked something of a
sinister and sombre expression which daily overspread his countenance
more and more. In other respects he was gentler than ever. Many wished
to share their ration with him, but he refused with a smile.

Every evening, after the explanation which the director had given him,
he committed a sort of folly, which, in so grave a man, was
astonishing. At the moment when the director, in the progress of his
habitual duty, passed by Sam Needy's working-frame, he would raise his
eyes, gaze steadily upon him, and then address to him, in a tone full
of distress and anger, combining at once menace and supplication,
these two words only--"_remember Heartall_!" the director would either
appear not to hear, or pass on, shrugging his shoulders.

He was wrong. It became evident to all the lookers on of these strange
scenes, that Sam Needy was inwardly determined on some step. All the
prison awaited with anxiety the result of this strife between
obstinacy and resolution.

It has been proved, that once Sam said to the director, "Listen, sir,
give me back my comrade; you will do well to do it, I assure you. Take
notice that I tell you this."

Another time, one Sunday, when he had remained in the airing-ground
for many hours in the same attitude, seated on a stone, his elbows on
his knees, and his forehead buried in his hands, one of his
fellow-convicts approached him, and cried out, laughing,

"What are you about here, Sam?"

Sam raised his stern head slowly, and said, "_I am sitting in
judgment!_"

At last, on the evening of the 1st of November, 1833, at the moment
when the director was making his round, Sam Needy crushed under his
foot a watch-glass, which he had that morning found in the corridor.
The director inquired whence that noise proceeded.

"It is nothing," said Sam. "It is I, Mr. Flint--give me back my
comrade."

"Impossible!" said his master.

"It must be done though," said Sam, in a low and steady voice, and
looking the director full in the face, added, "reflect, this is the
first of November, I give you till the 10th."

A turnkey made the remark to Mr. Flint that Sam Needy threatened him,
and that it was a case for solitary confinement.

"No, nothing of the kind," said the director, with a disdainful smile,
"we must be gentle with these sort of people."

On the morrow, another convict approached Sam Needy, who walked by
himself, melancholy, leaving the other prisoners to bask in a patch of
sunshine at the further corner of the court.

"What now, Sam--what are you thinking of? You seem sad."

"_I am afraid_," said Sam, "_that some misfortune will happen soon to
this gentle Mr. Flint_."

There are nine full days from the 1st to the 10th of November. Sam
Needy did not let one pass without gravely warning the director of the
state, more and more miserable, in which the disappearance of Heartall
placed him. The director, worn out, sentenced him to four-and-twenty
hours of solitary confinement, because his prayer was too like a
demand. This was all that Sam Needy obtained.

The 10th of November arrived. On this day Sam arose with such a serene
countenance as he had not worn since the day when _the decision_ of
Mr. Flint had separated him from his friend. When risen, he searched
in a white wooden box, which stood at the foot of his bed, and
contained his few possessions. He drew thence a pair of sempstress's
scissors. These, with an odd volume of Cowper's poems, were all that
remained to him of the woman he had loved--of the mother of his
child--of his happy little home of other days. Two articles, totally
useless to Sam; the scissors could only be of service to a woman--the
book to a lettered person. Sam could neither sew nor read.

At the time when he was traversing the old hall, which serves as the
winter walk for the prisoners, he approached a convict of the name of
Dawson, who was looking with attention at the enormous bars of a
window. Sam was holding the little pair of scissors in his hands; he
showed them to Dawson, saying, "To-night I will divide those bars with
these scissors."

Dawson began to laugh incredulously. Sam joined him.

That morning he worked with more zeal than usual--faster and better
than ever before. A little past noon he went down on some pretext or
other to the joiner's workshop, on the ground-floor, under the story
in which was his own. Sam was beloved there as every where else; but
he entered it seldom. Thus it was--"Stop, here's Sam!" They got round
him; it was a perfect holyday. He cast a quick glance around the room.
Not one of the overlookers was there.

"Who has a hatchet to lend me?" said he.

"What to do?" was the inquiry.

"Kill the director of the work-rooms."

They offered him many to choose from. He took the smallest of those
which were very sharp, hid it in his trowsers, and went out. There
were twenty-seven prisoners in that room. He had not desired them to
keep his secret; they all kept it. They did not even talk of it among
themselves. Every one separately awaited the result. The thing was
straight-forward--terribly simple. Sam could neither be counseled nor
denounced.

An hour afterward he approached a convict sixteen years old, who was
lounging in the place of exercise, and advised him to learn to read.
The rest of the day was as usual. At 7 o'clock at night the prisoners
were shut up, each division in the work-room to which they belonged,
and the overseers went out, as it appears was the custom, not to
return till after the director's visit. Sam was locked in with his
companions like the rest.

Then there passed in this work-room an extraordinary scene, one not
without majesty and awe, the only one of the kind which is to be told
in this story. There were there (according to the judiciary deposition
afterward made) four-and-twenty prisoners, including Sam Needy. As
soon as the overseers had left them alone, Sam stood up upon a bench,
and announced to all the room that he had something to say. There was
silence.

Then Sam raised his voice, and said, "You all know that Heartall was
my brother. Here they do not give me enough to eat; even with the
bread which I can buy with the little I earn, it is not sufficient.
Heartall shared his ration with me. I loved him at first because he
fed me, then because he loved me. The director, Mr. Flint, separated
us; our being together could be nothing to him--but he is a
bad-hearted man, who enjoys tormenting others. I have asked him for
Heartall back again. You have heard me. He will not do it. I gave him
till the 10th, which is to-day, to restore Heartall to me. He ordered
me into solitary confinement for telling him so. I, during this time,
have sat in judgment upon him, and condemned him to death. In two
hours he will come to make his round. I warn you that I am about to
kill him. Have you any thing to say on the matter?" All continued
silent.

He went on; he spoke (so it appears) with a peculiar eloquence, which
was natural to him. He declared that he knew he was about to do a
violent deed, but could not think it wrong. He appealed to the
conscience of his four-and-twenty listeners. He was placed in a cruel
extremity; the necessity of doing justice to himself was a strait into
which every man found himself driven at one time or other; he could
not, in truth, take the director's life without giving his own for it;
but it was right to give his life for a just end. He had thought
deeply on the matter, and that alone, for two months; he believed he
was not carried away by passion, but if it were so, he trusted they
would warn him. He honestly submitted his reasons to the just men whom
he addressed. He was about to kill Mr. Flint; but if any one had any
objection to make, he was ready to hear it.

One voice alone was raised to say, that before killing the director,
Sam ought to make one last attempt to soften him.

"It is fair," said Sam. "I will do so."

The great clock struck the hour--it was eight. The director would make
his appearance at nine.

No sooner had this extraordinary court of appeal ratified the sentence
he had submitted to it, than Sam resumed his former serenity. He
placed upon the table all the linen and garments he possessed--the
scanty property of a prisoner--and calling to him, one after the
other, those of his companions whom he loved best after Heartall, he
divided all amongst them. He only kept the little pair of scissors.
Then he embraced them all. Some of them wept--upon these he smiled.

There were moments in this last hour, when he chatted with so much
tranquillity, and even gayety, that many of his comrades inwardly
hoped, as they afterward declared, that he might perhaps abandon his
resolution.

He perceived a young convict who was pale, who was gazing upon him
with fixed eyes, and trembling doubtless from expectation of what he
was about to witness. "Come, courage, young man," said Sam to him,
softly, "it will be only the work of a moment."

When he had distributed all his goods, made all his adieux, pressed
all their hands, he interrupted the restless whisperings which were
heard here and there in the dim corners of the work-room, and
commanded that they should return to their labor. All obeyed him in
silence.

The apartment in which this passed was an oblong hall, a
parallelogram, lighted with windows on its two longer sides, and with
two doors opposite each other at the two ends of the room. The
working-frames were ranged on each side near the windows, the benches
touching the wall at right angles, and the space left free between the
two rows of frames formed a sort of avenue, which went straight from
one door to the other, crossing the hall entirely. It was this which
the director traversed in making his inspection; he was to enter at
the south door, and go out by the north, after having looked at the
workmen on the right and left. Commonly he passed through quickly and
without stopping.

Sam Needy had reseated himself on his bench, and had betaken himself
to his work. All were in expectation--the moment approached; on a
sudden they heard the clock strike. Sam said, "It is the last
quarter." Then he rose, crossed gravely a part of the hall, and placed
himself, leaning on his elbow, on the first frame on the left hand
side, close to the door of entrance; his countenance was perfectly
calm and benign.

Nine o'clock struck--the door opened--the director came in.

At that moment the silence of the work-room was as of a chamber full
of statues.

The director was alone as usual; he entered with his jovial,
self-satisfied, and stubborn air, without noticing Sam, who was
standing at the left side of the door, his right hand hidden in his
trowsers, and passed rapidly by the first frames, tossing his head,
mumbling his words, and casting his glance, which was law, here and
there, not perceiving that the eyes of all who surrounded him were
fixed upon him as upon a fearful phantom. On a sudden he turned
sharply round, surprised to hear a step behind him.

It was Sam Needy, who for some instants followed him in silence.

"What are you about there?" said the director. "Why are you not in
your place?"

Sam Needy answered respectfully, "Because I have something to say to
you, Mr. Flint."

"What about?"

"Concerning Heartall."

"Still Heartall!" exclaimed the director.

"Always," replied Sam.

"Be quiet," said the director, walking on again. "You are not content,
then, with your four-and-twenty hours of solitary confinement?"

Sam followed him--"Mr. Flint, give me back my comrade."

"Impossible!"

"Sir," said Sam, in a tone which might have softened the heart of a
fiend, "I entreat you, restore Heartall to me. You shall see how well
I will work. To you who are free, it is no matter--you do not know
what the worth of a friend is; but I have only the four walls of my
prison. You can come and go, I have nothing but Heartall--give him
back to me. Heartall fed me--you know it well. It will only cost you
the trouble of saying yes. What can it be to you that there should be
in the same room one man called Sam Needy, another called
Heartall?--for the thing is simply that, Mr. Flint; good Mr. Flint, I
beseech you earnestly, for Heaven's sake!"

Sam had probably never before said so much at one time to a jailer;
exhausted with the effort, he paused. The director replied, with an
impatient gesture,

"Impossible--I have said it; speak to me no more about it, you wear me
out."

Then, as if in a hurry, he stepped on more quickly, Sam following.
Thus speaking, they had reached the door of exit; the prisoners looked
after them, and listened breathlessly.

Sam gently touched the director's arm. "At least let me know why I am
condemned to death--tell me why you have separated him from me?"

"I have told you," answered the director; "_it is my will_."

He turned his back upon Sam, and was about to take hold of the latch
of the door.

On this answer Sam had retreated a step; the assembled statues who
were there saw him bring out his right hand, and the hatchet with it;
it was raised, and ere the victim could utter one cry, three blows,
one upon the other, had cleft his skull. At the moment, when he fell
back, a fourth blow laid his face open; then, as if his frenzy, once
let loose, _could not stop_, Sam struck a fifth blow; it was
useless--he was dead.

"Now for the other!" cried the murderer, and threw away the hatchet.
That other was himself. They saw him draw from his bosom the small
pair of scissors, and before any one could attempt to hinder him, bury
them in his breast. The blade was too short to penetrate. He struck
them in again and again, so many as twenty times. "Accursed heart!
cannot I then reach you?" and finally fell in a dead swoon, bathed in
his blood.

Which of these men was the victim of the other?

When Sam returned to consciousness, he was in bed, well attended, his
wounds carefully bandaged; a humane nurse was about his pillow, and
more than one magistrate, who asked him, with the appearance of great
interest, "Are you better?"

He had lost a great quantity of blood, but the scissors with which he
had wounded himself, had done their duty ill--none of the wounds were
dangerous.

The examinations commenced. They asked him if it were he who had
killed the director of the work-rooms. He replied, "It was." They
asked him why he had done it. He answered--_it was his will._

After this the wounds festered. He was seized with a severe fever, of
which he only did not die. November, December, January, and February,
went over in recovering him and preparing for his trial; physicians
and judges alike made him the object of their care--the former healed
his wounds, the latter made ready his scaffold. To be brief, on the
5th of April, 1834, he appeared, being perfectly cured, before the
Court of Sessions.

Sam made a good appearance before the court; he had been carefully
shaved, his head was bare; he was dressed in the sad prison livery of
two shades of gray.

When the trial was entered upon, a singular difficulty presented
itself. Not any of the witnesses of the events of the 10th of
November, would make a deposition against Sam. The presiding judge
threatened them with his discretionary power in vain. Sam then
commanded them to give evidence. All their tongues were loosed. They
related what they had seen.

Sam Needy listened with profound attention. When one of them, out of
forgetfulness, or affection for him, omitted some of the circumstances
chargeable upon the accused, Sam supplied them. By this means the
chain of facts which has been related was unfolded before the court.

There was one moment when some of the females present wept. The clerk
of the court summoned the convict, Heartall. It was his turn to come
forward. He entered, staggering with emotion--he wept. The police
could not prevent his falling into the arms of Sam. Sam raised him,
and said with a smile to the attorney-general, "Here is a villain who
shares his bread with those who are hungry." Then he kissed Heartall's
hand.

The list of witnesses having been gone through, the attorney-general
rose and spoke in these words: "Gentlemen of the jury, society would
be shaken to its foundation if public vengeance did not overtake such
great criminals as this man, who, etc., etc."

After this memorable discourse, Sam's advocate spoke. The pleader
against, and the pleader for, made each in due order, the evolutions
which they are accustomed to make in the arena which is called a
criminal court.

Sam did not think that all was said that might be said. He arose in
his turn. He spoke in a manner which must have amazed all the
intelligent persons present on the occasion. It appeared as if there
were more of the orator than the murderer in this poor artisan. He
spoke in an upright attitude, with a penetrating and well-managed
voice; with an open, sincere, and steadfast gaze, with a gesture
almost always the same, but full of command. There were moments in
which his genuine, lofty eloquence stirred the crowd to a murmur,
during which Sam took breath, casting a bold gaze upon the bystanders.
Then again, this man, who could not read, was as gentle, polished,
select in his language, as a well-informed person--at other moments
modest, measured, attentive, going step by step over the irritating
parts of the argument, courteous to his judges. Once only he gave way
to a burst of passion. The attorney-general had proved in his speech
that Sam Needy had assassinated the director without any violence on
his part, and consequently _without provocation_.

"What!" exclaimed Sam Needy, "I have not been provoked! Ay--it is very
true--I understand you. A drunken man strikes me with his dagger--I
kill him, I have been provoked; you show mercy to me, you send me to
Botany Bay. But a man who is not drunk, who has the perfect use of his
reason, wrings my heart for four years, humbles me for four years,
pierces me with a weapon every day, every hour, every minute, in some
unexpected point for four years. I had a wife, for whose sake I became
a thief--he tortures me through that wife; a child for whom I
stole--he tortures me through that child. I have not bread enough to
eat--a friend gives it me; he takes away my friend and my food. I ask
for my friend back--he condemns me to solitary confinement. I speak to
him--him, the spy--respectfully; he answers me in dog's language. I
tell him I am suffering--he tells me I wear him out. What would you,
then, that I should do? I kill him. It is well--I am a monster; I have
murdered this man; I have not been provoked. You take my life for
it--be it so."

The debates being closed, the presiding judge made his impartial and
luminous summing up. The results were these: a wicked life--a wretch
in purpose. Sam Needy had begun by stealing--he then murdered. All
this was true.

When the jury were about being conducted to their apartment, the judge
asked the accused if he had any thing to say upon the questions before
them.

"Little," replied Sam, "only this; I am a thief and an assassin. I
have stolen, and have slain a man. But why have I stolen? Why have I
murdered? Add these two questions to the rest, gentleman of the jury."

After a quarter of an hour's deliberation on the part of the twelve
individuals whom he had addressed as _gentlemen of the jury_, Sam
Needy was condemned to death.

Their decision was read to Sam, who contented himself with saying, "It
is well--but why has this man stolen? Why has this man murdered? These
are questions to which they make no answer."

He was carried back to prison--he supped almost gayly.

He had no wish to make an appeal against his sentence. The old woman
who had nursed him entreated him with tears to do so. He complied out
of kindness to her. It would appear as if he had resisted till the
very last moment, for when he signed his petition in the register, the
legal delay of three days had expired some minutes before. The
benevolent old nurse gave him a crown. He accepted the money and
thanked her.

While his appeal was pending, offers of escape were made him. There
was thrown, one after the other, in his dungeon, through its air-hole,
a nail, a bit of iron file, and the handle of a bucket. Any of these
three tools would have been sufficient to so skillful a man as Sam
Needy to cut through his irons. He gave up the nail, the file, and the
handle to the turnkey.

On the 10th of June, 1834, seven months after the deed, its expiation
arrived. That day, at seven o'clock in the morning, the recorder of
the tribunal entered Sam Needy's dungeon, and announced to him that he
had not more than an hour to live. His petition was rejected.

"Come," said Sam, coldly, "I have this night slept well, without
troubling myself that I should sleep still better the next."

It would appear as if the words of strong men always receive a certain
dignity from approaching death.

The chaplain arrived--then the executioner. He was humble to the one,
gentle to the other.

He maintained a perfect ease of spirit. He listened to the chaplain
with extreme attention, accusing himself of many things, and
regretting that he had not been instructed in religion.

At his request they had given him back the scissors with which he had
wounded himself. One blade, which had been broken in his breast, was
wanting. He entreated the jailor to have these scissors taken to
Heartall as from himself.

He besought those who bound his hands to place in his right hand the
crown-piece which the good nurse had given him--the only thing which
was now remaining to him.

At a quarter to eight he was led out of his prison, with the customary
mournful procession which attends the condemned. He was pale; his eyes
were fixed on the chaplain--but he walked with a firm step.

He ascended the scaffold gravely. He shook hands with the chaplain
first, then the executioner, thanking the one, forgiving the other.
The executioner _pushed him back gently_, says one account. At the
moment when the assistant put the hideous rope round his neck, he made
a sign to the chaplain to take the crown-piece which he had in his
right hand, and said to him, "_For the poor_." At that moment the
clock was striking eight, the sound from the steeple drowned his
voice, and the chaplain answered that he could not hear him. Sam
waited for an interval between two of the strokes, and repeated with
gentleness, "_For the poor_."

The eighth stroke had scarcely sounded when this noble and intelligent
criminal was launched into eternity.




THE ANGEL OF THE SOUL.

BY J. BAYARD TAYLOR.


    Una stella, una notte, ed una croce. _Antonio Bisazza._


    Silence hath conquered thee, imperial Night!
    Thou sit'st alone within her void, cold halls,
    Thy solemn brow uplifted, and thy soul
    Paining the space with dumb and mighty thought.
    The dreary wind ebbs, voiceless, round thy form,
    Following the stealthy hours, that wake no stir
    In the hushed velvet of thy mantle's fold.
    Thy thoughts take being: down the dusky aisles
    Go shapes of good, and beckoning ghosts of crime,
    And dreams of maddening beauty--hopes, that shine
    To darken, and in cloudy height sublime,
    The spectral march of some approaching Doom!
    Nor these alone, oh! Mother of the world,
    People thy chambers, echoless and vast;
    Their dewy freshness like ambrosial cools
    Life's fever-thirst, and to the fainting soul
    Their porphyry walls are touched with light, and gleams
    Of shining wonder dazzle through the void,
    Like those bright marvels which the travele'rs torch
    Wakes from the darkness of three thousand years,
    In rock-hewn sepulchres of Theban kings.
    Prophets, whose brows of pale, unearthly glow
    Reflect the twilight of celestial dawns,
    And bards, transfigured in immortal song,
    Like eager children, kneeling at thy feet,
    Unclasp the awful volume of thy lore.

    My soul goes down thy far, untrodden paths,
    To the dim verge of being. There its step
    Touches the threshold of sublimer life,
    And through the boundless empyrean leaps
    Its prayer, borne like a faint, expiring cry,
    To angel-warders, listening as they pace
    The crystal walls of Heaven. Down the blue fields
    Of the untraveled Infinite, they come:
    Beneath their wings one sweet, dilating wave
    Thrills the pure deep, and bears my soul aloft,
    To walk amid their shining groups, and call
    Its guardian spirit, as an orphan calls
    His vanished brother, taken in childhood home:

    "White through my cradled dreams thy pinions waved,
    Lost Angel of the Soul! thy presence led
    The babe's faint gropings through the glimmering dark
    And into Being's conscious dawn. Thy hand
    Held mine in childhood, and thy beaming cheek
    Lay close, like some fond playmate's, to mine own.
    Up to that boundary, whence the heart leaps forth
    To life, like some wild torrent, when the rains
    Pour dark and full upon the cloudy hills,
    Thy gentle footsteps wandered near to mine.
    Be with me now! Oh, in the starry hush
    Of the deep night, that holds the earthly down
    In all my nature, bring to me again
    The early purity, which kept thy hand
    From the entrancing harp it held in Heaven!
    Through the warm starting of my hoarded tears,
    Let me behold thine eyes divine, as stars
    Gleam through the twilight vapors of the sea!

    "Not yet hast thou forsaken me. The prayer
    Whose crowning fervor lifts my nature up
    Midway to God, may still evoke thy form.
    Thou hast been with me, when the midnight dew
    Clung damp upon my brow, and the broad fields
    Stretched far and dim beneath the ghostly moon;
    When the dark, awful woods were silent near,
    And with imploring hands toward the stars
    Clasped in mute yearning, I have questioned Heaven
    For the lost language of the book of Life.
    Oh, then thy face was glorious, and thy hair
    On the white moonbeam floating, veiled thy brow,
    But in the holy sadness of thine eye
    Which held my spirit, tremblingly I saw,
    Through rushing tears, the sign of angel-grief
    O'er the false promise of diviner years.
    From the far glide of some descending strain
    Of tenderest music I have heard thy voice;
    And thou hast called amid the stormy rush
    Of grand orchestral triumph, with a sound
    Resistless in its power. I feel the light,
    Which is thine atmosphere, around my soul,
    When a great sorrow gulfs it from the world.

    "Come back! come back! my heart grows faint, to know
    How thy withdrawing radiance leaves more dim
    The twilight borders of the night of Earth.
    Now when the bitter truth is learned; when all
    That seemed so high and good but mocks its seeming--
    When the warm dreams of youth come shivering back,
    In the cold chambers of the heart to die--
    When, with the wrestling years, familiar grows
    The merciless hand of pain, desert me not!
    Come with the true heart of the faithful Night,
    When I have cast away the masquing garb
    Of hollow Day, and lain my soul to rest
    On her consoling bosom! From the founts
    Of thine exhaustless light, make clear the road
    Through toil and darkness, into God's repose!"




SCOUTING NEAR VERA CRUZ.

A SKETCH OF THE LATE CAMPAIGN.

BY ECOLIER.


Hours before day, Lieutenant Rolfe and his party were threading the
mazes of the chapparal. The moon glistened upon their bayonets and
bright barrels. Their path lay in a southwesterly direction, near the
old road to Orizava. Here it passed through a glade or opening, where
the moonbeams fell upon a profusion of flowers, there it reentered
dark alleys among the clustering trees, where the "trail arms" was
given in a half whisper. The boughs met and locked overhead, and the
thick foliage hid the moon from sight. Now a bright beam escaping
through some chance opening in the leaves, quivered along the path,
and scared the wolf in his midnight wanderings. Out again upon the
open track through the soft grass, and winding around the wild maguey,
or under the claw-shaped thorns of the musquit. A deer sprung from his
lair among the soft flowers--looked back for a moment at the strange
intruders, and frightened at the gleaming steel, dashed off into the
thicket. The woods are not silent by night, as in the colder regions
of the north. The southern forest has its voices, moonlit or dark. All
through the livelong night sings the mock-bird--screams the "loreto."
From dark till dawn, you hear the hoarse baying of the "coyote," and
the dismal howl of the gaunt gray wolf. The cicada fills the air with
its monotonous and melancholy notes. In all these sounds there is a
breathing, a wild voluptuousness that tells you you are wandering in
the clime of the sun--amidst scenes like those rendered classical by
the pen of St. Pierre. They who have read the sweet French romance,
will recognize his faithful painting of tropical pictures. The sunny
glades--and shady arbors--the broad green and yellow leaves--the tall
palm-trees, with their long, lazy feathers and clustering fruits
waving to the slightest breeze, and looking the same as in that sea
island where they flung their changing shadows over the loves of Paul
and Virginia. Scouting at night, and to strangers (as were Rolfe and
his men) in the land, was not without its perils. Objects of alarm
were near and around. The nopal rose before you like the picket of an
enemy. Its dark column gleaming under the false light of the moon is
certainly some sentinel on the outpost. A halt is the consequence, and
silent and cat-like one of the party, on his hands and knees, steals
nearer and nearer, through the thorny brambles, until the true nature
of the apparition betrays itself, in the shape of a huge column of
prickly pear. He then returns to his comrades, and the obstacle is
passed, some one as he passes, with a muttered curse, slashing his
sabre through the soft trunk of the harmless vegetable.

The wild maguey grasps you by the leg, as though some hideous monster
had sprung from the bushes. You start and rush forward, only to be
dragged back among the elastic leaves. It is useless to struggle. You
must either return and unwind yourself by gentle means, or leave the
better part of your cloth inexpressibles in the ruthless fangs of the
plant. The ranchero fences his limbs with leather, or with leggings of
tiger-skin. It is not fancy or choice to wear leather breeches in
Mexico. Necessity has something to say in fixing the fashion of your
small clothes.

When day broke, Rolfe and his party were ten miles from camp--ten
miles from the nearest American picket, and with only thirty men! They
were concealed in a thicket of aloes and musquit. This thicket crowned
the only eminence for miles in any direction. It commanded a view of
the whole country southward to the Alvarado.

As the sun rose the forest echoed with sounds and song. The leaves
moved with life, as a thousand bright-plumed birds flashed from tree
to tree. The green parrot screamed after his mate, uttering his wild
notes of endearment. They are seen in pairs flying high up in the
heavens. The troupiale flashed through the dark foliage like a ray of
yellow light. Birds seemed to vie with each other in their songs of
love. Amidst these sounds of the forest, the ear of Rolfe caught the
frequent crowing of cocks, the barking of dogs, and the other
well-known sounds of the settlement. These were heard upon all sides.
It was plain that the country was thickly settled, though not a house
was visible above the tree-tops. The thin column of blue smoke as it
rose above the green foliage proved the existence of dwellings.

At some distance, westward, an open plain lay like an emerald lake.
The woods that bordered it were of a darker hue than the meadow-grass
upon its bosom. In this plain were horses feeding, and Rolfe saw at a
glance that they were picketed. Some of them had dragged their
laryettes and were straying from the group. There appeared to be in
all about an hundred horses. It was plain that their owners were not
far off. A thin blue smoke that hung over the trees on one side of the
meadow gave evidence of a camp. The baying of dogs came from this
direction, mingled with the sounds of human voices. It was evidently a
camp of the "Jarochos," (guerilleros.)

Suddenly a bugle sounded, wild and clear above the voices of the
singing-birds, a few notes somewhat resembling the dragoon
stable-call. The horses flung up their heads and neighed fiercely,
looking toward the encampment. Presently a crowd of men were seen
running from the woods, each carrying a saddle. The few strays that
had drawn their pickets during the night, came running in at the
well-known voices of their masters. The saddles were flung on and
tightly girthed--the bits adjusted and the laryettes coiled and hung
to the saddle-horns, in less time than an ordinary horseman would have
put on a bridle. Another flourish of the bugle, and the troop were in
their saddles and galloping away over the greensward of the meadow in
a southerly direction. The whole transaction did not occupy five
minutes, and it seemed to Rolfe and his party, who witnessed it, more
like a dream than a reality. The Jarochos were just out of musket
range. A long shot might have reached them, but even had Rolfe
ventured this, it would have been with doubtful propriety. Rumor had
fixed the existence of a large force of the enemy in this
neighborhood. It was supposed that at least a thousand men were on the
Alvarado road, with the intention of penetrating our lines, with
beeves for the besieged Veracruzanos.

"They got off in good time, sergeant," muttered Rolfe, "had they but
waited half an hour longer--Oh! for a score of Harney's horses!"

"Lieutenant, may I offer an opinion?" asked the sergeant, who had
raised himself and stood peering through the leafy branches of a
cacuchou-tree.

"Certainly, Heiss, any suggestion--"

"Wal, then--thar's a town," the sergeant lifted one of the leafy
boughs and pointed toward the south-east--a spire and cross--a white
wall and the roofs of some cottages were seen over the trees. "Raoul
here, who's French, and knows the place, says it's Madalin--he's been
to it--and there's no good road for horses direct from here--but the
road from Vera Cruz crosses that meadow far up--now, lieutenant, it's
my opinion them thieving Mexicans is bound for that 'ere place--Raoul
says it's a good sweep round--if we could git acrosst this yere strip
we'd head 'em sure."

The backwoodsman swept his broad hand toward the south, to indicate
the strip of woods that he desired to cross. The plan seemed feasible
enough. The town, although seemingly near, was over five miles
distant. The road by which the guerrilleros had to reach it was much
farther. Could Rolfe and his party meet them on this road, by an
ambuscade, they would gain an easy victory, although with inferior
numbers, and Rolfe wished to carry back to camp a Mexican prisoner.
This was the object of the scout, to gain information of the force
supposed to be in the rear of our lines. The men, too, were eager for
the wild excitement of a fight. For what came they there?

"Raoul," said Rolfe, "is there any path through these woods?"

"Zar is, von road I have believe--oui--Monsieur Lieutenant."

Raoul was a dapper little Frenchman, who had joined the army at Vera
Cruz, where we found him. He had been a sort of market-gardener for
the plaza, and knew the back country perfectly. He had fallen into bad
odor with the rancheros of the _Tierra Caliente_, and owed them no
good-will. The coming of the American army had been a perfect godsend
to Raoul, who was now an American volunteer, and, as circumstances
afterward proved, worthy of the title.

"Close teecket, monsieur," continued the Frenchman, "but there be von
road, I make ver sure, by that tree, vot you call him, big tree."

Raoul pointed to some live-oaks that formed a dark belt across the
woods.

"Take the lead, Raoul."

The little Frenchman sprung out in front and commenced descending into
the dark woods beneath. The party was soon winding through the shadowy
aisles of a live-oak forest. The woods were at first open and easy.
After a short march they came to a small stream, bright and silvery.
But what was the surprise of Rolfe to find that the path here gave
out, and on the opposite bank of the rivulet the trees grew closer
together, and the woods were almost woven into a solid mass, by the
lianas and other creeping plants. These were covered with blossoms. In
some places a wall of snow-white flowers rose up before you. Pyramidal
forms of foliage, green and yellow, over which hung myriads of
vine-blossoms, like a scarlet mantle. Still there was no path--at
least to be trodden by human foot. Birds flew around, scared in their
solitary haunts. The armadilla and the wolf stood at a distance with
glaring eyes. The fearful-looking guana scampered off upon the
decaying limbs of the live-oak, or the still more fearful cobra di
capella glided almost noiselessly over the dry leaves and brambles.

Raoul confessed that he had been deceived. He had never traveled this
belt of timber. The path was lost.

This was strange. A path had conducted them thus far, but on reaching
the stream had suddenly stopped. Soldiers went up and down the
water-course, and peeped through the trellis of vines, but to no
purpose. In all directions they were met by an impenetrable chapparal.

Chafing with disappointment, the young officer was about to retrace
his way, when an exclamation from Heiss recalled him. The backwoodsman
had found a clew to the labyrinth. An opening led into the thicket.
This had been concealed by a perfect curtain of closely woven vines,
covered with thick foliage and flowers. It appeared at first to be a
natural door to the avenue which led from this spot, but a slight
examination showed that these vines had been trained by human hands,
and that the path itself had been kept open by the same agency.
Branches were here and there lopped off and cast aside, and the ground
had the marks of human footsteps. The track was clear and beaten, and
Rolfe ordering his men to follow noiselessly, in Indian file, took the
lead. For at least two miles they traced the windings of this forest
road, through dark woods, occasionally opening out into green flowery
glades. The bright sky began to gleam through the trees. Farther on
and the breaks became larger and more frequent. An extensive clearing
was near at hand. They reached it, but to their astonishment, instead
of a cultivated farm, which they had been expecting to see, the
clearing had more the appearance of a vast flower-garden. The roofs
and turrets of a house were visible near its centre. The house itself
appeared of a strange oriental style, and was buried amidst groves of
the brightest foliage. Several huge old trees spread their branches
over the roof, and their leaves hung around the fantastic turrets.

What should have been fields were like a succession of huge
flower-beds--and large shrubs, covered with sheets of pink and white
blossoms that resembled wild roses. This shrubbery was high enough to
conceal the approach of Rolfe and his party as they followed the
path--apparently the only one which led to the house.

On nearing this, the officer halted his men in a little glade, and
taking with him Heiss and the boy Gerry, (who might return for the men
in case of a surprise,) proceeded to reconnoitre the strange-looking
habitation.

A wall of ivy, or some perennial vine, lay between him and the house.
A curtain of green leaves covered the entrance through this wall. This
appeared to have grown up by neglect. As Rolfe lifted this festoon, to
pass through, the sound of female voices greeted him. These voices
reached his ear in tones of the lightest mirth. At intervals came a
clear ringing laugh from some throat of silver, and then a plunging,
splashing sound of water. Rolfe conjectured that some females were in
the act of bathing, and not wishing to intrude upon them sat down for
a moment outside the wall. The sounds of merriment were still heard,
and among the soft tones the officer imagined that he could
distinguish the coarser voice of a man. Curiosity now prompted him to
enter. Moreover, he reflected that if there were men there already
there could not be much impropriety in his taking a share in the
amusement.

Drawing aside the curtain of leaves he looked in. The interior was a
garden, but evidently in a neglected state. It appeared the ruin of a
once noble garden and shrubbery. Broken fountains and statues
crumbling among weeds, and untrained rose-trees, met the eye. The
voices were more distinct, but those who uttered them were hidden by
a hedge of jessamines. Rolfe stepped silently up to this hedge and
peeped through an opening. The picture presented was indeed an
enchanting one.

A large fountain lay between him and the house filled with crystal
water. In this fountain two young girls were plunging and diving about
in the wildest abandon of mirth. The water was not more than waist
deep, and the arms and bosoms of the young girls appeared above its
surface. They were strikingly alike, in all except color. In this
there was a marked contrast. The neck, arms and bosom of one seemed
carved from snow-white marble, while the other's complexion was almost
as dark as mahogany. There was the same cast of features, the same
expression in both countenances, and their forms, just emerging from
the slender figure of girlhood, were exactly alike. Their long hair
trailed after them, black and luxuriant, on the surface of the water,
as they plunged and swam from one side of the basin to the other. A
huge negress sat upon the edge of the fountain, seemingly enjoying the
bath as much as those who partook of it. It was the voice of this
negress that Rolfe had mistaken for that of a man.

The young officer did not hesitate a moment, but stole gently back and
regained his comrades.

Then striking through the flowery fields that stretched away toward
the wood in the rear, he commenced searching for the path that led
from the woods in a direction opposite to that whence he had come,
without disturbing the inmates of this peaceful mansion. Finding this
path on the other side, the party entered and hastily kept on, in
order to intercept the guerilleros, whom they still hoped to fall in
with. In these hopes they were not disappointed, for emerging from the
woods near Medellin they came upon the guerilleros, with whom they had
a sharp skirmish. Rolfe and his party were successful, killing two of
the guerrilla and taking the same number prisoners.

The young girls continued their pleasant pastime, little dreaming how
near to them had been these strange and warlike visiters.




I WANT TO GO HOME

BY RICHARD COE, JR.


    "I want to go home!" saith a weary child,
      That hath lost its way in straying;
    Ye may try in vain to calm its fears,
    Or wipe from its eyes the blinding tears,
      It looks in your face, still saying--
        "I want to go home!"

    "I want to go home!" saith a fair young bride,
      In anguish of spirit praying;
    Her chosen hath broken the silver cord--
    Hath spoken a harsh and cruel word,
      And she now, alas! is saying--
        "I want to go home!"

    "I want to go home!" saith the weary soul,
      Ever earnest thus 'tis praying;
    It weepeth a tear--heaveth a sigh--
    And upward glanceth with streaming eye
      To its promised rest, still saying--
        "I want to go home!"




THE HUMBLING OF A FAIRY.

BY G. G. FOSTER.


The Princess Dewbell was confessed to be the queen of the ball,
notwithstanding that the beauty and grace and wit of the whole realm
were there, for it was the birth-night festival of the fairy princess,
and her royal father, with all a parent's fond pride, had exhausted
invention, and impoverished extravagance, to give _eclat_ to the
occasion. The walls of his ancestral palace were sparkled all over
with dew-drops, which a troop of early bees had spent all the summer
mornings in collecting and preserving in the royal patent
dew-preserver, invented by one of the native geniuses of the realm.
These brilliant mirrors, flashing in the light of ten thousand
fire-flies of the royal household, whose whole lives had been expended
in learning how to carry their dainty lamps about so as to produce the
finest effects, reflected the forms of the ladies and the dazzling
military trappings of the handsome cavaliers, (there was war at that
time between the glorious empire of Fairydom and the weak and
infatuated republic of Elfland on its southern borders, and the
epaulette and spurs were the only pass to the hearts of the fair,)
imbuing them with an infinitude of prismatic hues, all softened into a
kind of timed starlight, exquisite as the dying voice of music. In
this gorgeous saloon, at the head of which sat, well pleased, the
benevolent old King Paterflor and his modest and still lovely queen
Sweetbine, all were noble and accomplished and beautiful and gay; but
the charms of the Princess Dewbell, just bursting into the richness of
full-grown fairyhood, were so surpassing that none had ever been found
to question, even in their own hearts, her supremacy. This, perhaps,
may appear strange to many of my pretty readers, but they must
remember that mine is a faithful chronicle of fairies--not of women.
The princess was standing lightly touching--it could not be said that
she leaned against--the slender stalk of a garden lily, that rose like
an emerald column of classic mould above her lovely form, and expanded
into a graceful dome of transparent and crimson-veined cornelian above
her head. Her eyes were cast pensively (at the Musical Fund Hall it
would have been called coquettishly) upon the ground, and ever and
anon she tossed her proud head with an imperious gesture, until the
streaming curls waved and parted around her cheek and neck, like
vine-leaves about a marble column as the south wind creeps among them
soliciting for kisses. The lady Dewbell, amid all this scene of
enchantment, which spread out before and around her, as if her own
loveliness had breathed it into existence, still was discontented;
sad, perhaps, at the total absence of care in her bosom, and sighing
for a sorrow. Unhappy lady Dewbell! She had so many hundred times been
told, what she herself believed full well, that she was absolutely
the most beautiful creature in existence, that the tale had lost its
interest. The champagne of flattery, its creaming foam long ago melted
into the brain, stood untasted before her, dull and flat as the
subsided fountain poured by the last rain-shower into the tulip's cup.
And so the fairy princess stood listless and apart from the joyous
revel, her little form swaying lightly to and fro, with the
undulations of the lily-stem against which she more perceptibly
rested. It is well for Root and Collins and Plumbe that the royal
daguerreotyper was laid up in a cowslip, with a broken skylight which
he had received in a rough-and-tumble with a gnat, about the ownership
of a particular ray of light, at last sunsetting.

But if the lady Dewbell were queen of the ball, the noble knight Sir
Timothy Lawn was as undisputedly worthy of the post of honor among her
gallant train of admirers. Indeed, it was universally known, of course
as a profound secret among the gossips of the palace, that Sir Timothy
was the declared lover of the proud Dewbell, and it was even whispered
that she had actually been seen hanging around his neck one bright
June morning, in a sweet clover-nook by the brook-side, while he bent
tenderly over her, his eyes filled with tears of rapture. But as this
story could only be traced to a rough beetleherd, who said he saw the
lovers thus as he was driving his herd of black cattle to water, it
was not generally believed. At any rate, all the ladies were decidedly
of opinion that Sir Timothy was in every way a match for the haughty
beauty, and that if she did not accept him while he was in the humor
she would be very likely to go farther and fare worse. In fact,
several old maids and bluestockings, over their dishes of scandal and
marsh-fog, (both of which they made uncommonly strong,) openly avowed
it as their opinion, that he was a great deal too good for her, and
that, if the truth must be told, the princess was an impertinent,
saucy and irreverent creature, who hadn't the slightest respect for
her superiors. "As to her beauty," said one of these crones, whose
little face was very much of the size and complexion of a dried
camomile-flower, and who was shrewdly suspected of qualifying her
marsh-fog with pale pink-brandy--"As for her beauty, that is all in my
eye. I have seen plenty of your plump, smooth-skinned pieces of paint
and affectation fade in my time, little as I have yet seen of life.
Mark my words--before we have reached our prime, my great lady
princess will be as ugly as--"

"As ugly as yourself, granny! Ha, ha, ha! ho, ho, ho! haw, haw, haw!"
shouted a mirthful voice, while an indescribably comic face, half cat
and half baby, appeared for a single glimpse above the burdock leaf
behind which the spinsters were holding their _conversazione_.

"There's that imp Puck again, as sure as I am a woman!" exclaimed the
gentle Mrs. Mullenstalk, rising hastily and spilling a dish of fog all
over the front of her new green and yellow striped grass dress, as she
ran toward the spot whence the voice had proceeded. "I'll to the
palace this very night, and lay my complaint against that wretch.
We'll see whether virtuous ladies are to be insulted in this manner,
and their helplessness trampled under foot!"

The intruder had already disappeared; but as the amiable Mrs.
Mullenstock got her spectacles adjusted, she just caught sight of him
throwing a somerset into a pumpkin-flower; while his laugh still
sounded faintly upon the air, mingled with snatches of a wild refrain,
of which she could only distinguish these lines:

    "Oh ho, Granny Mullenstock, how envious you be;
     I'll plague you to death, or the hornets catch me!"

The spinster shook her fist and grinned horribly at the broad-mouthed,
innocent yellow flower, down whose throat the varlet had leaped--but
chancing at that moment to catch a glimpse of her own face in a little
bit of mica, which served her for a toilet-mirror, she uttered the
least bit of a little shriek in the world and fainted--her companions,
who had by this time gathered round her, exchanging sly winks and
malicious looks of gratification as she went off.

But we must return to the ball-room, where the fire-flies have got
sleepy, and many of them had already put out their lamps and retired,
and the brilliant company of dancers and promenaders has dwindled down
to a few sets, composed of those ladies who had not been asked to
dance in the height of the evening, and some sour-looking gentlemen in
very tight coats and pants, who had "got the mitten" from their
sweethearts at the door, and were desperately trying to do the amiable
out of sheer revenge. At length even these disappeared; the saloons
were entirely deserted, save by the beautiful mother moonbeam, who
slept upon the fragrant turf, her babe, the silver starlight, folded
lovingly within her bosom.

Yet no, the scene is not quite solitary. Carefully bending aside the
tall, slender spears of diamond-tipped grass that perpetually guarded
the sacred domain of the imperial palace, a cavalier in full armor
appears, making way for a lady, whose long veil of the finest spider's
web completely conceals her head and form, making her seem like an
exhalation, taking, as its highest gift of grace, the shape of woman.
The two advance slowly and cautiously to the centre of the saloon, and
then the cavalier, throwing himself on his knees, (that's the way
fairies invariably make love,) beseeches his companion to have pity
upon him. The lady throws back her veil with a motion of indescribable
grace, and looking down into the upturned face of her lover, seriously
a moment, then lightly, utters a low laugh, and replies,

"Very well, Sir Timothy Lawn, upon my word! Quite prettily done,
indeed! You must have been taking lessons of Signor Sweetbriar, the
royal parson. Now do run and bring me a glass of geranium-dew--I
protest I have drank scarcely a drop all the evening."

"Not one word, then, for your poor lover and true knight," sighed Sir
Timothy, in a tone of the deepest despondence.

"I did not come here to listen to school-boy nonsense," said the lady
Dewbell, with a haughty and impatient motion of the head. "I came to
get a glass of geranium-water. But, as you decline obliging me to that
extent, I suppose I must e'en get it for myself. Good-night to you,
Sir Timothy! Pleasant dreams!" and she disappeared.

The knight was for a moment confounded; then rising slowly, he pointed
to a bright star that shone directly above him, winking and winking
with all its might, as much as to say, "what a green-horn you are!"
and swore an oath that no fairy should ever henceforth have power over
his heart, till she who had so wantonly scorned and insulted him
should beg to be forgiven. As he was turning sadly away, to seek his
solitary chamber in the upper branch of a bachelor's button, on the
other side of the brook, the elf-clown Puck stood before him, looking
as demure as puss herself.

"Well, fool," said the knight, somewhat impatiently, "how long hast
thou been listening here?"

"As long as my ears, your worship," replied the urchin, undauntedly,
"and they were long enough to hear that your worship's valiancy is a
very much over-praised commodity--since a maiden's dainty veil of
knitted night-air has proved too strong for him.

    The knight he sued, and the knight he sighed,
    But he went away without supper or bride."

"Silence, imp! or I 'll make thine ears, of which thou hast had such
pestilent service, shorter by a span."

"No, I thank your valiancy! my ears do very well as they are. And I
came to do you a good turn by offering you the use of them. But as
your worship is so high and dry in Dundrum Bay, as we say at sea, I'll
e'en get back to my nap in the hazle copse again."

"Nay, good Puck, I meant thee no harm, as thou knowest well enough.
Since thou knowest my innermost grief, let me hear thy fool's advice
in the matter."

"If I gave thee advice, I were in truth a fool. But I'll very
willingly forgive thee this time, and tell thee what I overheard
to-night at the palace."

"Ah, that's a good Puck!"

"That depends on circumstances, your valiancy. I am somewhat like a
dish of toasted gallinippers--whether it is palatable or not depending
very much in the way it is served. But this is what I heard his
majesty say to her majesty. 'Sweetbine, my dear,' said he, 'don't you
think Dewbell has a fancy for our brave and noble knight, Sir Timothy
Lawn?' 'Why, my love,' replied her majesty, 'I have long been almost
certain that she loved him. But she is such a confirmed flirt I am
afraid she can never be brought to say so. I haven't the least idea
that she would not reject Sir Timothy, were he to propose.' 'We must
cure her of this fatal pride and folly,' replied his majesty, 'and I
think that, with a little of your assistance, I can manage it
capitally.' And then the dear old people passed into the royal
bed-chamber, in the japonica wing, and I heard no more."

"I'll to the king."

"And I'll to a better friend than he; if you permit me, your worship,
I take my _bough_ and _leave_."

"Avaunt, vile punning Puck! Thou hast been to Philadelphia, where all
the streets rhyme, and every corner is a pun upon the next. May the
fiend unquip thee! Away!'

"If thou I kest not jokes, thou hadst best stick to thy
bachelor's-buttonhood. I tell thee, marriage is a capital joke."

"What knowest thou of marriage?"

"I am one of its fruits."

"A bitter jest, indeed, and plucked ere half ripened. St. Bulwer! but
thou wilt be a mother's blessing when thou art fully grown!"

"Better save thy wits, sir knight! Thou wilt have a plentiful lack of
them ere the honeymoon be out of the comb. A pleasant roost in thy
bachelor's hall, and many of them!" and the vagabond sprung upon the
back of a green lizard creeping silently through the grass, and
sticking his heels into his astonished charger, dragoon-fashion,
disappeared down the bank of the brook.

The old king and his good wife, Sweetbine, were very much grieved at
the foolish trifling of their daughter, Dewbell--for they were well
assured that Dewbell loved the noble knight, Sir Timothy, and that it
was only a spirit of mere wantonness that led her to vex and torment
him. Long into the night did the royal couple converse, striving to
devise some means of bringing their wayward daughter to her senses.
They at last hit upon a plan, which they fondly hoped might be the
means of securing the happiness of their child, and settling her
comfortably in life.

The next morning his majesty sent for the dwarf, Puck, to his private
cabinet, and received him with an unusually grave and troubled aspect.

"Venerable sire," said Puck, making a mock reverence, and scarcely
able to suppress a chuckle at the solemn looks of his master, "what
facetious dream hath been playing its mad pranks about thy sacred
pillow? Never saw I kingly face so mirthfully beprankt."

"Come hither, good Puck," said the king, patiently, "and when thou
hast made thy breakfast of fun upon thy poor master, listen to him
seriously."

"Dear prince", said the dwarf, suddenly running up to the king and
casting himself weeping at his feet, "art thou, then, really troubled?
Forgive thy poor slave!" and he began blubbering in the most pitiable
manner, while he looked up into the face of the king with such a look
of wo-begone and ludicrous despair, that Paterflor himself could
scarce refrain from bursting into laughter.

"Thou hast done nothing wrong, good Puck--handsome Puck," said the
king, chucking his favorite under the chin. "I have need of thee.
Here is my signet-ring. Bring me straight hither a young and handsome
peasant, one who has never been seen by the court, nor any inhabitant
of the palace. He must be intelligent, conscientious, and trustworthy.
Dost thou know of such a one?"

"Yes, your majesty, I think I do. My friend, young Paudeen O'Rafferty,
the son of the old forest-keeper, has just returned from Ireland,
where he was carried by the fairies at his christening, and has been
kept ever since until now, trying to get through the rent made by Mr.
O'Connell in the pockets of his relatives. He's as tight an Irish lad
as your majesty ever saw; and as for his honesty, I'll endorse it with
both hands. The O'Raffertys are constitutionally honest."

"Well, bring him hither at once. I shall be ready to receive him."

Puck, with his funny face entirely restored to good humor, left the
palace by a private gate, and running across a beautiful meadow,
disappeared in the dark green forest. Idle lingerer as he was, he felt
a strong inclination, at every hazel-copse he passed, to stop and have
a chat with the rabbits he knew were hid beneath it; and more than
once he was on the point of running up to a friendly deer and kissing
his cold, black nose, just for auld lang syne. But, for a wonder, he
was constant to his errand, and ran straight on--not stopping even to
throw stones at a squirrel by the way--till he came to the forester's
hut.

He found the old forester and his wife alone. They received him
kindly, for, notwithstanding his mad pranks, Puck was a favorite every
where, and especially among the poor and humble, who were always safe
from his mischievous propensities. The young Paudeen was out a little
bit in the forest, but would return directly.

"And what brings good Master Puck from among the great lords and
beautiful ladies of the coort to our poor little shieling, not bigger
nor betther than the mud cabins of ould Ireland itself?" inquired the
old woman, who had grown, with age and toil, wrinkled deaf and sour.

"I'll explain all that as soon as Paudeen comes home," replied the
grave and mysterious Puck; "but, in the meantime, how do you get on
Mr. O'Rafferty, and what is the news in the forest?"

"We get on but poorly," said the old forester, "and the news is, that
the people at the other side of the forest, where the potatoes have
all rotted, and the land is wore down to its bare bones, for want of
rest like, are very bad. Some of the women and childhers have already
starved, and the men have for the most part took to dhrinken and
fighten, till things is in a mighty bad way."

"Yes," chimed in the old woman, who seemed to have caught by instinct
the subject of conversation, "and the poor stharven people say, too,
that there is plenty of money squandhered upon extravagance by the
king and his coort to give them all bread; and that the forests that
is kept for the deers and craythurs to be killed for the spoort of the
big folks, would give every man a bit of fresh land, and that the
potatoes would grow well enough then."

"Auch, Peggy, will ye have us hung for parjery, out and out!"
exclaimed the terrified husband, casting a deprecating look at Puck.
"Poor craythur, she doesn't know what she is saying."

At this juncture the young Paudeen made his appearance, and put a stop
to a conversation that was becoming decidedly stupid. He made his
respects cordially to Puck; and when he heard his errand, seemed
amazed and delighted. After a good deal of difficulty, the old lady
was made to understand what was the desire of the king.

"Hooh!" exclaimed the old crone, leaping from her seat and dancing
about the room, "the dhrame's come true at last! Och, hullybaloo!
didn't I know that the pretty Paudeen wasn't born for the pig-stye!
Bedad, but he'll ruffle the gentles! Wont you, darlint?" and the old
woman fell upon her son's neck, smothering him with kisses, while the
poor youth could hardly keep his legs under the vigor of her maternal
caresses.


PART II.

In a few days after the interview of Puck and Paudeen in the hut of
the forester, there was great excitement at the court of Fairyland.
The fashionable milliners and dress-makers never had seen such a
time--orders from the aristocracy poured in upon them by scores, and
their doors were beset by fashionable carriages, and little fairy
footmen caparisoned in long coats with many capes, and broad, red
bands fastened with shining buckles round their hats. The great
_artistes_ who were at the head of these establishments saw themselves
amassing fortunes from the sudden influx of fashionable custom. But
the poor little fairy seamstresses, who sat up all night, sometimes
without time to eat or sleep, from sunset to sunset, so that all these
splendid dresses might be finished in time--they did not fare so well.
They grew pale and sick, and sat swaying and swinging about as they
worked, until one might have thought them the ghosts of fairy workers,
come back for a ghostly midnight frolic in their old haunts. It was
melancholy enough, truly; but then nobody knew any thing about it. The
rich ladies, when their splendid robes came home, did not stop to
think that good, earnest, faithful fairy hearts had embroidered the
roses that adorned the skirts from their own cheeks, and spangled them
with the broken fragments of their youth's faded dreams. If they had--

Well, and if they had?

That is not at all to the purport of my story; and so I will proceed
to let the reader into the secret of all this flutter and fluster. A
great prince had made his appearance at the court of Paterflor, and
had created almost as great an excitement in Fairyland as a new prima
donna with bright eyes and a _sfogato_ voice among mere mortals.
Nobody knew exactly who he was, but he came from a great way off, and
had a name as long as a province, and, beside being incalculably
wealthy, it was universally voted (ladies vote in Fairyland) that he
was the very handsomest love of a fairy knight that ever jingled
spurs, or sighed at the feet of beauty. He had come to court evidently
with the "highest recommendations" to the king, such as would have
procured him immediate access into the first "circles," even in
Philadelphia, where society lives behind barred doors, and goes about
armed cap-a-pie against encroachment or intrusion. He had been at once
received at the royal table, and a splendid suite of apartments had
been assigned him in the palace itself. Such extraordinary attentions
from the imperial family, of course, made the stranger a favorite and
a welcome guest wherever he appeared; and there was not a lady at
court who would not have given her eyes--if it would not have spoiled
her beauty--for a smile from his magnificent mouth.

It was discovered, however, at a very early stage of the proceedings,
that the chief object of the prince's admiration was the lady Dewbell,
who, proud as she was, could not help feeling flattered by the evident
and special devotion of one for whom the whole of her sex were dying.
Sir Timothy Lawn, who, from pique or melancholy, or from some unknown
cause, had left the court the very day after the arrival of the new
prince, was not entirely forgotten, but was laid away carefully on a
back shelf of her heart; and the lady Dewbell never had been so
beautiful, so fascinating, so joyous and irresistible. Courts are as
fickle as coquettes; and before the month had passed, in a series of
brilliant _fetes_ and entertainments, at all of which the prince and
princess were the reigning toast, it was regarded as a settled thing
that there would, ere the maple leaves grew red in the dying gaze of
the year, be a royal marriage in Fairyland.

But while to all around the beautiful Dewbell was ever the same
careless, saucy and happy creature as ever, in her heart she nursed a
bitter sorrow. After many and severe struggles, she was forced at last
to make to herself the humiliating acknowledgment that she deeply and
truly loved Sir Timothy Lawn, that noble and chivalric spirit, whom
her unworthy trifling had driven--so her frightened heart interpreted
it--in disgust from her. Compelled in common courtesy to receive the
devoted attentions of the stranger prince, and to hear every day and
every hour repeated the earnest solicitations of her father that she
should school herself to regard the stranger as her future husband,
her little fairy heart was quite broken with its ceaseless struggles.
Her pride and self-will were entirely vanquished, and she felt herself
truly the most miserable of fairy maidens. Suicide is of course a
thing strictly prohibited among immortals; but had it been otherwise,
I sadly fear that one of the lady Dewbell's spider-web silk hose would
some morning have been found without a garter, and she herself hanging
like a beauteous exhalation among the elm-leaves in the morning
sunshine. Oh, had Sir Timothy been there then, he would have found,
instead of his imperious and tantalizing coquette, the tenderest and
truest of disconsolate maidens, ready to melt into his arms between
the delicious pause of a sigh and a kiss. "Naughty, cruel Sir Timothy!
Horrid creature! to take all my nonsense for real earnest, and to go
away and leave me to be persecuted to death!" exclaimed the lady
Dewbell, with an uncontrollable burst of tears, as she threw herself,
her toilet half finished, and her hair all strewn over her face and
shoulders, upon her little praying cushion. "What will become of poor
Bell!"

"What ails my daughter?" said the sweet, soft voice of the queen
mother, as she knelt tenderly over her child, and pressed her head to
her bosom. "Tell your sorrows to your mother."

"Oh, mother, _I_ am the most wretched fairy that ever existed. I don't
want to marry that odious, red-haired stranger; and my father has made
me promise that the wedding shall take place on Halloween--and I--I
have consented. But I love Sir Timothy; and I wont marry any body but
him," sobbed the poor creature, convulsively, as she cast herself upon
the floor, and looked up to her mother, terrified and half frantic.

"But, dearest, you know you laughed at poor Sir Timothy's vows--and he
is so sensitive."

"Oh, yes, I know I did, but I'll never do so any more. _If_ Sir
Timothy will only come back and forgive me, and marry me, just this
once, I will never, never offend him again as long as I live--never,
never, never! Do, mamma, do make him come back!"

"Poor child! I will certainly do all I can. But you have promised to
be married on Halloween."

"Oh, yes, but that is a good fortnight off, and you can bring Sir
Timothy back before then, you know, and he can kill this horrid
stranger, and then every body will be _so_ happy!" and the face of the
volatile creature began already to re-clothe itself in smiles.

"I fear you are mistaken, love," said her mother, solemnly, and
shaking her head in an impressive manner, she added, "do not deceive
yourself with such fallacies, my daughter; your princely word is
passed, your father's royal honor is pledged, and you must be married
on Halloween."

The lady Dewbell, sobbing hysterically, again looked up. She was
alone; at the same moment the cat-and-baby face of Puck glanced by the
window, and a wild, mischievous laugh melted away into a song, of
which the lady only caught the two last lines:

    "He rideth fast, and he rideth well,
     But his heart still clings to the pretty Bell."

"Oh, bless thee, dear Puck!" sighed the haply wondering lady, rising
and leaning from the window. "May thy sweet prophecy come true!"


PART III.

'T is Halloween midnight. Through the tall windows of the venerable
church streamed in the broad moonlight, in bright silver floods, that
lost themselves in the profound recesses of the distant aisles, or
fell like many- snow-flakes upon the marble floor. Entering
without sound, came up the middle aisle the royal wedding-procession.
First walked the father, the royal Paterflor, looking stern and
determined, yet, it must be confessed, a little roguish about the
crowsfeet. Upon his arm leaned his pale and stricken daughter, the
once proud, joyous and imperious Princess Dewbell. She was pale as a
lily's cup, and drooping as its stem. She never raised her head from
her bosom, and her eyes, once sparkling like fountains of light, were
hidden beneath their willowy lids. Next comes the "red-haired prince,"
as the lady Dewbell had scornfully denominated him, (his head _was_ a
little inclined to flame, dear reader, between you and me,)
respectfully conducting the ever sweet and placid Queen Woodbine; and
after them a troop of merry and gayly-dressed fairies, both ladies and
gentlemen, but very demure and solemn; while Puck, in the united
capacity of Hymen and Grand Usher, was dodging about with his flaming
torch, now in front, now in rear, now here, now there, and every where
imparting an air of grotesqueness to the whole affair.

At the altar the party stopped, and ranging themselves in the approved
order for such occasions, the priest--a grave and reverend bullfrog,
whose surplice was scrupulously neat and tidy--proceeded with the
ceremony. When he came to the question, "dost thou, my daughter,
freely and voluntarily bestow thy hand and thy affections upon this
man, Paudeen O'Rafferty, commonly called Pat?"

The pale and shrinking lady raised her head and opened her great
ox-like eyes; the bridegroom looked sheepish and hung his head; King
Paterflor seemed suddenly troubled with a severe fit of coughing, and
the priest could scarcely forbear a chuckle.

"Father, dear father, what is the meaning of this cruel joke?"
exclaimed the poor lady Dewbell, running to her father and catching
hold of his arm. But the old king's cough was still very troublesome.
She then appealed to the priest, but he seemed deaf, and only made a
grum kind of noise in his throat, that sounded a good deal like "Pat
O'Rafferty."

"Who, then, are you, sir?" demanded she, at last, of the groom,
turning suddenly and imperiously upon him her piercing gaze.

"So plaze yer ladyship, I am Paudeen O'Rafferty, the son of the
forester--at yer ladyship's sarvice."

The fairy princess was about to faint, in the most approved manner,
and had already selected a convenient cushion upon which to fall, when
a tall and noble form crossed the moon-ray, and Sir Timothy Lawn stood
before her.

"Beloved princess," said he, kneeling, and respectfully taking her
hand, "I hope my presence is not disagreeable to the queen of my
heart, for whose love I have so long pined. Speak to me frankly, sweet
lady Dewbell, tell me, can you love me? Will you permit me to call you
mine forever?"

The lady Dewbell changed her intention respecting the cushion upon
which she had intended to faint, and, somehow, found herself before
she was half conscious of it, in her lover's arms. An explanation
ensued; the prince Paudeen gave up his post of honor to Sir Timothy;
the ceremony was concluded on the spot; and as the gay and joyous
party left the church, Puck was seen sitting at the organ accompanying
himself in a sort of wild yet sweet chant, of which the lady Dewbell
easily distinguished--

    "Oh, a merry tale will the gossips tell,
     Of the happy mishap of the proud lady Bell."




A NIGHT THOUGHT.

BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.


      Long have I gazed upon all lovely things,
        Until my soul was melted into song,
      Melted with love till from its thousand springs
        The stream of adoration, swift and strong,
      Swept in its ardor, drowning brain and tongue,
    Till what I most would say was borne away unsung.

      The brook is silent when it mirrors most
        Whate'er is grand or beautiful above;
      The billow which would woo the flowery coast
        Dies in the first expression of its love;
      And could the bard consign to living breath
    Feelings too deep for thought, the utterance were death!

      The starless heavens at noon are a delight;
        The clouds a wonder in their varying play,
      And beautiful when from their mountainous height
        The lightning's hand illumes the wall of day:--
      The noisy storm bursts down--and passing brings
    The rainbow poised in air on unsubstantial wings.

      But most I love the melancholy night--
        When with fixed gaze I single out a star
      A feeling floods me with a tender light--
        A sense of an existence from afar,
      A life in other spheres of love and bliss,
    Communion of true souls--a loneliness in this!

      There is a sadness in the midnight sky--
        An answering fullness in the heart and brain,
      Which tells the spirit's vain attempt to fly
        And occupy those distant worlds again.
      At such an hour Death's were a loving trust,
    If life could then depart in its contempt of dust.

      It may be that this deep and longing sense
        Is but the prophecy of life to come;
      It may be that the soul in going hence
        May find in some bright star its promised home;
      And that the Eden lost forever here
    Smiles welcome to me now from yon suspended sphere.

      There is a wisdom in the light of stars,
        A wordless lore which summons me away--
      This ignorance belongs to earth which bars
        The spirit in these darkened walls of clay,
      And stifles all the soul's aspiring breath;--
    True knowledge only dawns within the gales of Death.

      Imprisoned thus, why fear we then to meet
        The angel who shall ope the dungeon-door,
      And break these galling fetters from our feet,
        To lead us up from Time's benighted shore?
      Is it for love of this dark cell of dust,
    Which, tenantless, awakes but horror and disgust?

      Long have I mused upon all lovely things;
        But thou, oh Death! art lovelier than all;
      Thou sheddest from thy recompensing wings
        A glory which is hidden by the pall--
      The excess of radiance falling from thy plume
    Throws from the gates of Time a shadow on the tomb.




THE BARD.

BY S. ANNA LEWIS.


    Why should my anxious heart repine
    That Wealth and Power can ne'er be mine,
      And Love has flown--
    That Friendship changes as the breeze?
    Mine is a joy unknown to these;
      In Song's bright zone,
    To sit by Helicon serene,
    And hear the waves of Hippocrene
      Lave Phoebus' throne.

    Here deathless lyres the strains prolong,
    That gush from living founts of song,
      Without a cross;
    Here spirits never feel the weight
    Of Wrong, or Envy, or of Hate,
      Or earthly loss;
    The pomp of Pelf--the pride of Birth--
    The gilded trappings of this earth
      Return to dross.

    Oh, ye! who would forget the ills
    Of earth, and all the bosom fills
      With agony!
    Come dwell with me in Fancy's dream,
    Beside this lovely fabled stream
      Of minstrelsy;
    And let its draughts celestial roll
    Into the deep wells of thy soul
      Eternally.

    God always sets along the way
    Of weary souls some beacon ray
      Of light divine;
    And only when my spirit's wings
    Are weary in the quest of springs
      Of Song, I pine;
    If I could always heavenward fly,
    And never earthward turn mine eye,
      Bliss would be mine.




THE WILL.

BY MISS E. A. DUPUY


PART I.

    There is peace in the Night of the Early Dead--
    It will yield to a glorious morrow! _Clarke_.

Amid all the brightness and bloom which the imagination conjures up,
when we think of the sunny islands lying within the tropics, many
mournful associations arise and cast a sadness over the picture. Very
few have not had within the circle of their relatives, or friends,
some cherished one, who has vainly sought the balmy breezes of those
favored spots, with the feverish hope that amid their loveliness Death
would forget to launch his arrows for them.

Alas! to die among strangers is usually the fate of those who are thus
lured from their homes by a deceitful hope. There, where Nature wears
a perpetual verdure--where the fervid sun brings forth a luxuriance of
vegetation unknown in more northern regions, the wearied spirit sinks
to repose, soothed, or saddened, by the glow of existence around.

A spacious apartment on the southern side of a highly ornamented
villa, opened into a magnificent garden, filled with orange-trees,
oleanders, and many other gorgeous flowers peculiar to the climate of
Cuba; while in the distance the sunlight gleamed upon a row of
towering palms, whose stately columns, crowned by their verdant
coronal, resembled the pillars of some mighty temple, which found a
fitting canopy in the blue arch of heaven, glowing with the gorgeous
hues of a tropical sunset.

The floor of this room was inlaid with marble of different colors, and
the couch and windows were draped with snowy lace, lightly embroidered
at the edges, and looped with cords of blue and silver--tables with
marble tops, supporting porcelain vases filled with flowers, were
placed between the windows, for these ephemeral children of sunshine
were dear to the heart of the dying one. Beside one of these stood a
large cushioned chair, in which reclined a young man of delicate
features and wasted form. He appeared in the last stages of his fell
disease, and the friends who had received him beneath their roof to
die, wondered that he should have been deluded with the hope that
health could ever again reanimate his bowed and shrunken form. There
was an expression of care upon his sharpened features--a feverish
restlessness in his manner, which betrayed the spirit's unrest.

At his feet sat a young girl, whose brilliant complexion and
pale-brown hair betrayed her Saxon origin; the finely rounded figure,
the delicately formed feet and hands, and the gracefully turned head
and bust, were all evidences of the grade of life to which she
belonged. She held the burning hand of the invalid between her own
soft, cool palms, and sung in a sweet low voice an old ballad which
told of the ancient greatness of the Saxon race. At a short distance
from them sat an elderly lady, clad in deep mourning, and her saddened
countenance corresponded well with her weeds.

The young man made an impatient movement, and said--"Sing not to me
England's former prowess, dear Edith. What to the dying can such
themes be but a bitter mockery? Take your guitar, my sister, and throw
your soul into its vibrating strings, while you sing me such a lay as
I can fancy the angels of Heaven to be pouring forth around the throne
of God."

"Shall I sing the chants of our church, dearest Edgar?" said Edith in
a subdued voice.

"Yes--yes--they breathe peace and resignation into my restless soul.
When I am dying, my sister, stifle your own feelings as you love me,
and pour into my failing senses those magnificent strains. If God sees
fit to tear me from you before I can legally provide for you and my
beloved mother, I shall be enabled to forget the bitter truth in
listening to your sweet voice. You promise me this, Edith?"

"I do--Heaven will sustain me even then, my darling brother, and give
me power to forget my own anguish in soothing your last moments."

Edith Euston pressed his hand to her lips, and raising from the floor
a guitar which lay beside her, she poured forth a strain of melody
which seemed to soothe the senses of the invalid to rest. His eyes
closed, and an expression of repose rested on his worn features.

Twilight deepened over the earth--a single ray of light, from the
reddened sky, fell through the open window upon the figure of the
young girl, and the mother, who sat silent and abstracted, thought as
she glanced upon her that even in a higher world her beloved Edith
could wear no lovelier outward semblance than was now hers. There was
an expression of elevated feeling, of pure tenderness in her upturned
face which revealed the high and noble soul within. One fitted to
suffer and conquer in the dark struggle which she felt awaited her.

Hers were not the only eyes which contemplated that lovely picture of
sisterly devotion upon that twilight eve. Another stood without,
beneath the shadow of a high hedge, and gazed upon the unconscious
musician with even deeper admiration; and his dark, expressive
features lighted up with an emotion almost of reverence. The stars
came forth in the translucent depths of ether; the young moon cast her
tremulous light over the garden, yet still the intruder lingered in
his place of concealment. Twice he put the boughs aside, as if to
approach the room and announce his presence, but again receded, as if
irresolute and uncertain as to the effect his presence might produce.

At length all became silent. The tones of the instrument died slowly
away, and the voice of the singer ceased to pour forth its song. The
windows were still unclosed, for the invalid had reached that
distressing stage in his malady, when his oppressed breathing required
a constant circulation of free air. A lamp burning beneath an
alabaster shade was swung from the centre of the ceiling, and its
mellow lustre diffused a faint moonlight radiance throughout the
apartment.

With suppressed breathing the two ladies watched the sleep of the sick
youth, and he who had so earnestly observed every movement of Edith,
ventured to approach so near the open window that the heavy and
interrupted respiration of young Euston was distinctly audible to him;
while his eagle eye sought to penetrate the shadow in which his
features reposed, that he might read upon them the ravages made by
approaching dissolution.

As he stood thus, the moonlight revealed a tall, well proportioned
figure, clad in a suit of black, well fitted to his form. His
prominent features and flashing black eyes were half concealed by a
large straw hat, which was carelessly placed upon his head. As he
gazed upon the sleeping form, his lips curled, and a strange
expression of exultation came to his face; his eye wandered
triumphantly to the fair brow of Edith.

"Twice rejected," he muttered half audibly--"twice rejected, and with
scorn, by yon dainty girl; now methinks my vengeance is almost within
my grasp. I hold her future destiny in my power; for this boy _cannot_
drag out his existence another week. Yes, Edith--to labor you have not
been bred--to beg you will be ashamed, and he who vainly hopes that
time will be granted him to deprive me of my inheritance, will perish
from my path, just as he believes himself on the verge of consummating
his hatred to me."

Edith softly arose, and making a sign to her mother, glided
noiselessly from the room by a distant window, which opened to the
floor. The intruder hesitated a moment, and then followed her with
light and rapid steps. The flutter of her white dress guided him to
the retreat she had chosen, and she had scarcely thrown herself upon a
rustic seat beneath the shelter of some orange-boughs, and given vent
to her painfully repressed emotion, by a burst of tears, when the dark
stranger stood before her. She started up and would have fled, but he
spoke, and the sound of his voice seemed to bind her to the spot as by
a spell.

"Why would you fly from me, Edith?" he asked. "I come in the spirit of
good-will to you and yours."

A struggle seemed to be passing in the mind of the young girl. She
wiped her tears away, and after a pause answered in a tone which
faltered at first, but grew firm, and even haughty as she proceeded,

"What has brought you hither, Mr. Barclay? Yet why do I ask? To exult
in the fate of your unfortunate victim; to watch each painful breath
which brings him nearer to his grave, with the certainty that the
very eagerness with which he desires a few more days of existence,
that he may fulfill a sacred duty, is fast wearing away the faint
thread that yet binds him to life. Oh false, unfeeling man! depart, I
pray you, if one human instinct yet remains within your callous heart,
and leave my unhappy brother to die in peace."

She turned to depart, but Barclay stepped forward and placed his hand
on her arm, as if to detain her. She shrunk from his touch with an
expression of loathing, which called the crimson to his cheek, but he
suppressed his emotion, and said calmly--

"I knew that you would soon need a protector, Miss Euston, and I came
hither with the faint hope that I might be able to overcome your cruel
prejudices against me--that I might become to you a friend at least,
if no dearer title were allowed me."

"You a friend to _me_!" exclaimed Edith impetuously. "You, who lured
my brother from his home, to wreck his existence in the life of
dissipation to which you tempted him. Ever feeble from his boyhood,
you knew that little was needed to destroy his frail constitution--yet,
because he stood between you and the possession of wealth, his life
was offered as the sacrifice to your criminal cupidity. And now you
come hither to watch the last fluttering throes of existence, fearful
that Death may delay his arrows until he shall have passed that hour
which entitles him to dispose of his property--and disappoint your
hopes, by bequeathing his wealth to those who are dearest to him."

"You are excited, Edith. You judge me too severely. Edgar's own
headlong passions destroyed him. I merely urged him to do as others of
his years and station, without foreseeing such fatal results. My love
for you would have prompted me to save your brother."

"Speak not to me of love--dare not approach the sister of your victim
with proffers of affection. The death of Edgar may leave me
penniless--nearly friendless--I have been tenderly nurtured, but I
would sooner embrace a life of sternest self-denial, of utter poverty,
than link myself with infamy in your person. Leave me--and dare not
approach the room of my brother, to imbitter his last hours by your
presence."

"And your mother, my fair heroine?" said Barclay, in a tone of sarcasm
bordering on contempt. "What will become of her if you persist in the
rejection of the only person in the wide world on whom you have any
claim? She is old, feeble, broken in health and spirit. Ah! will not
your proud heart faint when you behold her sharing this life of
poverty and self-denial, which seems to you so much more attractive
than the home and protection I offer you?"

Edith stifled the tears that sprung anew to her eyes, and after a
brief struggle said with composure--

"My mother is too honorable--she has too bitter a disdain of meanness
ever to wish her child to sacrifice the truth and integrity of her
soul, by accepting the hand of one for whom she has no respect."

"By Heaven!" said Barclay passionately, "you force me to throw away
the scabbard and declare war to the knife. Be it so, then. Yonder weak
boy cannot survive five of the ten days yet required to complete his
majority. Then comes to me--yes to _me_--all his wealth; and only as
_my_ wife shall one ray of my prosperity shine upon you. The gray
hairs of your only parent may be brought to the grave by want and
sorrow, and unless you relent toward me my heart shall be steeled to
her sufferings."

At this picture, which was only too likely to be realized, the courage
of the unhappy Edith forsook her, and she exclaimed in faltering
tones--

"My dear, dear mother! for her sake any other sacrifice might be
borne--but not this--not this. My brother yet lives, and Heaven may in
pity prolong his existence beyond the hour he so anxiously prays to
see. Then we escape your power."

Barclay laughed mockingly.

"This is the fifteenth, and he is not of age until the twenty-fifth,
exactly at the second hour of the morning. One moment only before that
time should Death claim his victim the estate is mine, and you
dependent on my bounty. Think you that the frail and wasted ghost of a
man who struggles for breath in yonder room can live through another
week? Hope--yes, hope for the best, for despair will come soon enough.
I feel as secure of my inheritance as though it were already mine."

Edith proudly motioned him from her path, and fled toward the house,
with his mocking words still ringing in her ears. Her brother yet
slept, and as she gazed upon his sunken features it seemed to her as
if death were already stamped upon them, and she bent her head above
his still face, to convince herself that he yet breathed.

Barclay and Euston were distantly related, and had both been educated
by an eccentric kinsman, with the belief among their connections that
he designed dividing his ample fortune between them. To the surprise
and chagrin of Barclay, he found on the death of Colonel Euston that
the whole of his estate was bequeathed to his young cousin, encumbered
with an annuity to himself, which appeared to one of his expensive
tastes, and lavish prodigality, as absolute poverty.

Edgar Euston was then but seventeen years of age, and of a delicate
bodily organization, which did not promise length of days. A clause in
Colonel Euston's will offered a temptation to Barclay, which he had
not sufficient principle to resist. If Euston died before attaining
his majority the estate was to pass into the hands of his kinsman, and
no mention was made of the mother or sister of the young heir. Barclay
reflected that if he could remove Euston from his path, before he
attained his twenty-first year, the coveted wealth would yet be his.

From that hour he made every effort to win the confidence and
affection of young Euston. He was his senior by nearly ten years, and
possessed a knowledge of the world, and a fascination of manner which
was extremely attractive to a youth who had passed the greater portion
of his life, at a country residence, in the society of his mother and
sister. Euston entered one of our Northern colleges, and under the
auspices of his kinsman he soon achieved a reputation which was far
more applauded by the wild students than agreeable to the professors.
He blindly followed wherever Barclay led, and before he entered his
twenty-first year he returned to his early home, with a constitution
completely broken by the reckless life he had led, and the symptoms of
early decay in his flushed cheek and hollow cough. Vain had been the
entreaties and remonstrances of his mother and sister; under the
influence of his tempter, they were utterly disregarded--until the
hand of disease was laid upon him, and he felt that the only atonement
he could offer for all the suffering he had inflicted upon them would
probably be denied to him.

He earnestly desired to live, that he might reach that age which would
entitle him to make a legal transfer of his property to those who were
deservedly dear to him, for in the event of his death without a will,
his mother and sister would be left entirely dependent on the tender
mercies of his successor. An unfortunate lawsuit had deprived his
mother of the property which had become hers on the death of his
father, and his own reckless extravagance had dissipated more than the
annual revenue of his own property since it came into his possession.

Too late he discovered the baseness of Barclay's motives, and
renounced all intercourse with him--but he would not thus be cast off.
He had seen and loved the noble-hearted Edith, and he forced his
hypocritical offers of service upon the afflicted family, until Edith
distinctly assured him that he need never hope for a return to his
passion.

Euston had long since abandoned all hope of recovery, but he sought
the mild climate of Cuba, trusting that the fatal day might be
deferred until he had secured independence to his family, but his
physician feared that the very eagerness of his wishes would
eventually defeat them. It was mournful, and deeply touching, to
witness that clinging to existence in one so young, not from love of
life itself, but from a desire to perform an act of justice. That
completed, his mission on earth was ended, and Death might claim him
without a murmur.

The hours dragged heavily on toward the desired day, and each one as
it passed appeared to hurry the poor invalid with rapid strides toward
the grave, that seemed eager to claim its prey. Barclay had not again
ventured to intrude on Edith, but he nightly hovered around the room
of the dying youth, and gloated on the wasted and death-like form
which held his earthly fortunes in his hands.

A skillful physician had accompanied Euston from his native land, and
his unremitting attention, aided by the tender nursing of his
affectionate sister, seemed as if they would eventually reap their
reward in the preservation of life beyond the hour of his majority.

In pain and weariness time slowly waned, but it still left him life
and an unclouded mind; and the bold, bad heart, that nightly watched
him, feared that the wealth he so ardently coveted, might yet elude
his grasp.

The evening of the twenty-fifth at last arrived. Euston reclined in
his chair as we first beheld him, wrapped in a brocade dressing-gown,
whose brilliant colors made his extreme pallor the more remarkable; a
table was drawn close beside him, and on it, at his own desire, was
placed his repeater, from which his eyes scarcely wandered. His breath
came slowly and gaspingly, and at brief intervals his physician
moistened his parched lips with a restorative cordial, and murmured
words of encouragement in his ear.

As before, Edith sat at his feet, with her guitar, ready to stifle her
deep emotion, and fulfill her promise to sing to him while his parting
soul was struggling for release from its earthly tenement. His mother
leaned over his chair, and bathed his cold brow with her burning
tears; in the back-ground sat a clergyman, gazing on the scene with
absorbing interest.

Each one in that hushed room felt the approach of the stern tyrant,
and all prayed fervently that his dart might be stayed yet a few
hours.

"My sister, sing to me. Soothe me into quietness by the loved tones of
your voice. It is my _only_ hope for life beyond the desired hour,"
murmured the dying youth.

With tremulous fingers Edith touched the chords, and poured forth the
solemn strains to which he loved to listen, and he sunk back and
closed his eyes. At first her voice faltered, but she gradually
regained her self-command, and never had those clear, rich tones
uttered a sweeter strain, than that which floated around the
fluttering spirit, which struggled to release itself from the
attenuated form of the early doomed.

Barclay stood without, watching the scene with breathless interest,
and a terrible struggle was passing in his dark and stormy soul.
Euston might live beyond the hour of two, and he would then be a
beggar. His eye wandered toward Edith, so nobly devoted, so purely
beautiful; and the tempter whispered,

"She might save you--ennoble you; the love, the sweet influence of
such a woman are all powerful. Once yours, you could surround her with
such an atmosphere of care and tenderness, that her heart must be won
to love you--to forget the past. Without her, you are doomed--doomed.
What matters a few more moments of existence to one like him, when the
eternal welfare of a human being hangs trembling in the balance?
Deprived of the means of living, Edith will have no choice--she must
marry you, or debase her pride of soul before the iron sway of
poverty. Her mother is old--infirm; and for her sake, the daughter
will listen to your proffers of love. Take your destiny into your own
hands. Cowardly soul! why falter now? It is but completing your own
work. He is _your_ victim--you know it, and feel it in every pulse of
your throbbing heart. Years of usefulness might have been his, but for
you; then complete the sacrifice without hesitation. What avails it
to have accomplished so much, if the reward escapes you at the last
moment?"

Such were the wild thoughts that oppressed his soul during those
terrible hours. He saw that the parchment which disinherited him was
placed beside Euston, and the pen stood in the inkstand, ready to do
its service, so soon as the hand of the watch pointed to the hour of
two; and he ground his teeth in impotent rage, as the moments flitted
by, and Euston yet continued to breathe.

Terrible is the watch of love beside the flitting soul which parts in
peace; but how much more awful was that vigil, in which the anguish of
bereavement was doubly embittered by the fear of future want to those
who had been reared amid all the refinements of luxury. The mother
looked upon her remaining child, and felt that she was not formed to
struggle with poverty and neglect, and the daughter bent her earful
eyes on that venerable form, and in the depths of her soul, prayed
that her old age might be spared the grinding cares of want.

The watch struck the half hour--then the quarter--and a feeble motion
of Euston stopped the hand of Edith as she swept it over the strings
of her instrument. She arose and stood beside him; a breathless
silence reigned throughout the apartment, only broken by the
monotonous ticking of the watch, which struck upon the excited nerves
of those around with a sound as distinct as the reverberations of
thunder.

Not a word was uttered until the hand pointed to the hour, then, as if
endued with sudden energy, the dying man stretched forth his hand, and
grasping the pen, said in a firm, distinct voice,

"Now let me sign my name, and yield up my spirit to the angel that has
been beckoning me away for hours. My mother--my sister, God has
vouchsafed to me a mercy I did not deserve. Thank Heaven! your
interests are safe. You are free from _his_ power."

At that instant a strange cry was heard; a bird flew into the room,
and, dazzled by the light, flapped his wings against the shade of the
lamp, overturned it, and left the apartment in utter darkness. In the
confusion of the moment, a figure glided through the open window, and
stood beside the chair of Euston. He noiselessly placed his firm grasp
upon his laboring breast, and held it there a single instant. A faint
rattling sound was heard, and Edith wildly called for lights.

Noiselessly as he had entered glided that dark form from the side of
his victim, and buried itself in the shadows of the trees without.
Many lights flashed into the room--they glared coldly on the face of
the dead, and the mother sunk senseless in the arms of her daughter.


PART II.

Several months have passed away, and Mrs. Euston and her daughter have
returned to their native land. A single room in an obscure
boarding-house in the heart of a southern city was occupied by both.
The expenses of their voyage to New Orleans, and a few months sojourn
in their present abode, humble as it was, had nearly exhausted their
slender resources. Edith had made many efforts to procure a few
scholars to instruct in music and drawing, but the departure of the
greater portion of the wealthy, during the unhealthy season, had
deprived her of those she had been able to obtain. She thought of
going out as a daily governess, but the feeble health and deep
dejection of her mother, offered an insuperable objection to such an
arrangement. When she left her alone even for an hour, she usually
found her in such a state of nervous excitement on her return, as was
painful to behold.

Edith is seated near the only window of their sordid apartment in the
afternoon of a sultry summer day; the sun is shining without with
overpowering splendor; a heated vapor rises from the paved streets and
seems to shimmer in the breathless atmosphere. Edith had lost all the
freshness and roundness of youth; her cheek was deadly white, and her
emaciated form seemed to indicate the approach of the terrible disease
of which her brother had died. She was sewing industriously, and her
air of weariness and lassitude betrayed the strong mastery of the
spirit over the body, in the continuance of her employment.

Mrs. Euston was lying on the bed; and twenty years seemed to have
passed over her since the night of her son's death. The oppressive
heat had induced her to remove her cap, and her long hair, white as
the snows of winter, lay around her wasted and furrowed features. From
infancy the respect and observance due to one of high station had been
bestowed upon her, and the reverse in their fortunes was more than she
could bear. At first, her high-toned feelings had shrunk from
obligations to the new heir, and she approved of Edith's rejection;
but as time passed, amid privations to which she had never been
accustomed, her very soul revolted against their miserable mode of
living.

To a woman of refined feelings and vivid imagination, the coarse and
sordid realities around her were sufficiently heart-sickening, without
having the terrible fear forced upon her that her only child was
hurrying to the grave through her exertions to keep them literally
from starvation. Her daughter now thought she slept, but her mind was
far too busily occupied to permit the sweet influences of slumber to
soothe her into a momentary forgetfulness of her bitter grief.
Suddenly she unclosed her eyes, and spoke.

"Edith, my child, lay aside that work--such constant employment is
destroying you. Is it not time that we heard from Robert Barclay?
Surely he will not be relentless, when he hears that your health is
failing. After all, Edith, you need not be so averse to receiving
assistance from him; the property he holds is rightfully ours."

"Mother," replied Edith, a faint flush mounting to her cheek, "for
your sake I have submitted to humiliate myself before our ruthless
kinsman, but I fear it will be in vain. Only as his wife will my
claims on his humanity and justice be acknowledged. Would you not
shrink, dearest mother, from condemning your child to such a doom?
Could you not better bear to stand above my grave, and know me at
peace within it, than to behold me wedded to this unprincipled man, to
whose pernicious example my brother owed his early doom?"

"Speak not of dying, my daughter," said the poor mother, hysterically,
"I cannot bear it; I am haunted by the fear that I shall at last be
left on earth alone. I daily behold you fading before my eyes without
the power to avert the fate I see written upon your pale cheek and
wasted form. As Robert's wife you would have a luxurious home, the
means of gratifying refined tastes, and of contributing to the
happiness of others. He may atone to me, by the preservation of one
child, for the destruction of the other."

"Mother, your fears for me blind you to the truth. Are not mental
griefs far more difficult to bear than the privations of poverty,
galling as they are? As Mr. Barclay's wife, I should loathe myself for
the hypocrisy I should be compelled to practice toward him; and the
wealth for which I had sold myself, would allow me leisure to brood
over my own unworthiness, until madness might be the result. No, no,
mother--come what may, I never can be so untrue to myself as to become
the wife of Robert Barclay."

"God help us, then!" said Mrs. Euston, despondingly.

A carriage drove to the door, and a gentleman alighted from it. Edith
heard the bustle, but she did not look out to see what occasioned it,
and she was startled from her painful reverie by a knock on the door.
She opened it, and started back with a faint cry as she recognized
Barclay.

"The landlady told me to come up," he said, as he glanced around the
wretched apartment, and a slight twinge of remorse touched his heart
as he remarked the changed appearance of Edith. She motioned him to
enter, while Mrs. Euston arose from the bed, and offered him a seat.

"I concluded it would be best to reply to your communication in
person," said he to Mrs. Euston, as he took the offered chair. "I come
with the most liberal intentions, provided Miss Euston will listen to
reason. I am grieved to see you in a place so unsuited to your former
station as this wretched apartment."

"And yet," said Edith, "I have passed some pleasant hours in this
room, comfortless as it looks. So long as I had the hope of being able
to provide for our wants by my own exertions, I found contentment in
its humble shelter."

"Your happiness must then be truly independent of outward
circumstances," replied Barclay, with a touch of his old sarcasm. "I
supposed, from the tenor of your mother's petition, that you had begun
to repent of your high-toned language to me in our last interview, and
would now accede to terms you once spurned, as the price of my
assistance to you and yours."

Edith curbed her high spirit, and calmly replied, "You misunderstood
my mother's words. As the mother of the late heir, she justly
considers herself entitled to a pittance from your estate, and she
claimed from your humanity, what she was hopeless of obtaining from
your sense of justice. For myself, I hoped for nothing from either,
but I acquiesced in her application. I am sorry that you have founded
on it expectations which must prove fallacious."

"Then, madam, I need remain no longer," said Barclay, addressing Mrs.
Euston. "Your daughter remembers our interview previous to, and after,
the death of her brother; the only terms on which I would assist you
were then explicitly expressed."

Mrs. Euston caught his hand, and bowed her venerable head upon it.

"Have mercy, Robert, upon my gray hairs--my daughter; look at her--she
is dying by inches--she is stifling in this wretched spot. The money
that was my son's should surely buy a shelter for us. Leave us not
helpless, hopeless. My God! my God! give me eloquence to plead for my
child!" and she threw herself upon the floor, and raised her clasped
hands to heaven.

"Madam," said Barclay, "it only rests with your daughter to have mercy
upon you and herself. Where, I ask you, is her filial piety, when she
beholds you suffer thus, and relents not toward one who offers her a
love that has survived coldness, contempt, contumely."

Edith approached her mother, and assisted her to rise.

"My dearest mother, calm yourself. Humble not yourself thus before our
oppressor. God is just--is merciful. He will not forget the widow and
the orphan in their extremity. Leave us, Mr. Barclay; had my wishes
alone been consulted, you never would have been called on thus to
witness our misfortunes."

Barclay bowed, and haughtily strode from the room.

"Another month of privation," he muttered, "and she will surely be
mine or Death's. It does not much matter to which she belongs. Ah, if
she only knew all!" and he sprung into his cabriolet, and dashed off
toward the more aristocratic portion of the city.

In the hope that Edith would be forced to relent, Barclay had remained
in New Orleans thus late in the season, and he resolved to linger yet
a little longer, until want and suffering should leave her no choice.
His passion for her was one of those insanities to which men of his
violent character are often liable. He desired her as the one great
gift, which was to purify, to exalt him in the scale of humanity. The
delicate beauty of her person, the sensibility of her soul, the grace
of her manner, rendered her irresistibly attractive to him; but so
selfish was his love, that he would sooner have seen her perish at his
feet, than have rendered her assistance, except at the price proposed.

Another month passed by, and still there was no news of Edith or her
mother. He grasped the daily paper, almost with a sensation of fear,
and glanced at the column of deaths, which at that season usually
contains a goodly array. Their names were not yet among them, or
perchance in their poverty and obscurity they would not find
admittance even among the daily list of mortality.

The yellow fever had commenced its annual ravages, and Barclay
retreated to a country-house in the vicinity, owned by a friend, and
dispatched a confidential servant to inquire concerning Mrs. Euston
and her daughter. They were still in the same place, but the mother
had been ill, and was still confined to her bed.

One morning, about two weeks afterward, Barclay was seated in a
delightful little saloon, over a late breakfast. The room was
furnished with every appliance of modern luxury, and the morning air
stirred the branches of noble trees without, whose verdant shade
completely shut out the glare of the sun. A servant entered, and
presented to him a letter which had just been left. The irregular hand
with which it was directed, prevented him from recognizing the writing
of Edith, and when he opened the missive, which had evidently been
blotted with her bitter tears, a flush of triumph mounted to his
cheek, and he exclaimed with an oath,

"Mine at last!--I knew it must end thus!"

The letter contained the following words:

     "After a night of such suffering as casts all I have
     previously endured into the shade, I address you. My
     mother now lies before me in that heavy and death-like
     sleep which follows utter exhaustion. Her state of
     health for the last month has demanded my constant
     care, and the precarious remuneration I have been able
     to obtain for sewing, I have thus been compelled to
     give up. We have parted with every souvenir of our
     better days--even our clothing has been sacrificed,
     until we have but a change of garments left; and now
     our landlady insists on being paid the small sum we owe
     her, or we must leave her house to-day. She came into
     our room last evening, and the scene which ensued threw
     my mother into such a state of nervous excitement, that
     she has not yet recovered from it.

     "I cannot disguise from myself that she is very ill. If
     she awakes to a renewal of the same anguish, I dare not
     contemplate the consequences. You know that I do not
     love you, Mr. Barclay. I make no pretension to a change
     in my feelings; repugnant as it must be to a heart of
     sensibility, I must view this transaction as a matter
     of bargain and sale. I will accept your late offer, to
     save my mother from further suffering, and to gain a
     home for her declining years.

     "For myself, I will endeavor to be to you--but why
     should I promise any thing for myself. God alone can
     give me strength to live after the sacrifice is
     completed.

                                                  "EDITH."

There was much in this letter that was wounding to his vanity, and
bitter to his feelings; but he had triumphed! The stately pride of
this girl was humbled before him--her spirit bowed in the dust before
the gaunt spectre she had thought herself capable of braving. She
would be his--the fair, the pure in heart, would link herself to vice,
infamy and crime, for money. Money! the world's god! See the countless
millions groveling upon the earth before the great idol--the golden
calf, which so often brings with it as bitter a curse as was denounced
against the people of old, when they forsook the living and true God
for its worship.

Can it not buy every thing--even woman's love, or the semblance of it,
which would serve him just as well? He, the murderer of the brother,
would purchase the compliance of the sister with this magical agent;
but--and his heart quailed at the thought--could it buy self-respect?
Could it enable him to look into the clear eye of that woman he would
call his wife, and say, "My soul is worthy to be linked with thine in
the realms of eternity."

No--he felt that the sacrilegious union must be unblessed on earth,
and severed in heaven, yet he shrunk not from his purpose.

He lost no time in seeking Edith; Mrs. Euston was yet buried in the
leaden slumber produced by a powerful narcotic. The unhappy girl
received him alone, and he remarked that his words of impassioned love
brought no color to her marble cheek--no emotion to her soul; she
seemed to have steeled herself for the interview, and it was not until
he pressed the kiss of betrothal upon her pallid lips, that she
betrayed any sensibility--then a thrill, a shudder pervaded her whole
frame, and he supported her nearly insensible form several moments
before she regained power to sustain herself. Could he have looked
into that breaking heart, and have read there all the bitter loathing,
the agonized struggles for self-control, would he have persisted in
his suit? Yes--for this was a part of his vengeance for the slights
she had put upon him; and in the future, if she did not play the part
he thus forced upon her, with all the devotion he should exact, had he
not bitter words at his command to taunt her with the scene of that
morning?

A physician was called in, who advised the removal of Mrs. Euston
while she slept; and arrangements were soon made to accomplish it. The
family to whom Barclay's present retreat belonged, were spending the
summer at the north, and their house had been left at his disposal. He
determined to remove Mrs. Euston and her daughter thither, while he
took up his own abode, until the day of his marriage, with a bachelor
friend in the neighborhood.

Edith demanded an interval of a week before their union took place,
which he reluctantly granted. Naturally prodigal, he employed the time
in ordering the most elegant _trousseau_ for his bride. She who so
lately was struggling with bitter want, was now surrounded by servants
eager to anticipate every wish, while Barclay played the devoted
lover. Edith prayed earnestly for power to regard him with such
feelings as alone could hallow the union they were about to form. Vain
were her lonely struggles--her tearful supplications; a spectral form
seemed to rise ever between them, and reproach her that she had been
so untrue to herself, even for the preservation of a mother.

The only thing that consoled her for her great sacrifice, was that her
beloved mother seemed to revive to some sense of enjoyment, when she
again found herself surrounded by that comfort to which she had been
accustomed. Weakened in mind as in body, Mrs. Euston fondly flattered
herself that her daughter might yet be happy amid the splendors of
wealth; and the poor mother welcomed the arbiter of their future fate
with smiles and courteous words, to which he listened with politeness,
and scorned as the hollow offspring of necessity.

The dreaded day at length arrived, and with the calmness of exhausted
emotion, Edith prepared herself for the ceremony which was to consign
her to the protection of Barclay. She believed her earthly fate
sealed, and resignation was all she could command.

Amid all her suffering, there was one thought which arose perpetually
before her; there was one human being on earth who would have risked
his life to serve or save her, and she knew that a heart worthy of her
love would hear the history of her enforced marriage with bitter
disappointment and anguish.

Near the home of her infancy dwelt a family of sons and daughters with
whom she had been reared in habits of intimacy. Between herself and
the eldest son a strong attachment had grown up; it had never been
expressed in words, yet each felt as well assured of the affection of
the other, as if a thousand protestations had been uttered. About the
time that Mrs. Euston and her daughter left their own home to travel
with their beloved invalid, Walter Atwood bade adieu to his paternal
home, on a tour to Europe, where he was to complete his professional
education as a medical man.

Mrs. Euston's place passed into the hands of strangers, and after a
few months all intercourse by letter ceased between their former
friends and themselves. After the death of her son, the bereaved
mother would not consent to return to their former neighborhood, and
thus all trace of them was lost to the Atwoods; but Edith knew in her
deep heart that Walter would return--would seek her; and it was this
conviction which gave her firmness to resist so long the overtures of
Barclay.

Now all was at an end; another hour and the right even to think of him
would no longer be hers. Her mother entered her room, folded her to
her breast, and whispered,

"The hour has arrived, my child. Robert is here with the clergyman. Do
not keep them waiting."

"I am quite ready, mother," said Edith, calmly, and she advanced
without hesitation toward the door, for she heard an impatient step
without, which she well knew. Barclay awaited her in the hall--he
impetuously seized her hand and drew it beneath his arm.

At that moment the door-bell was violently pulled, and both turned
impulsively to see who made so imperious a demand for admittance.

At the open door stood two figures, one of a young man, who appeared
deeply agitated, for his features, beneath the light of the lamps,
seemed white and rigid, as if cut from marble. Over his shoulder
appeared a swarthy face, with a pair of bright, keen eyes, gleaming
from beneath overhanging brows.

Edith and Barclay both uttered an exclamation--but they were very
different in their character. In the impulse of the moment, the former
drew her hand forcibly from him who sought to retain it, and with one
bound, was in the arms of the foremost stranger, as she exclaimed,

"Walter--my saviour--my preserver! you have come at last!"

The face of Atwood lost its unnatural rigidity as he pressed her to
his heart, and said,

"Thank Heaven! I am not then too late!"

Barclay advanced threateningly,

"What does this mean, sir? Are you aware that such conduct in my house
is not to be tolerated--that you shall answer for it to me with your
life?"

"It means, Mr. Barclay, that I come with authority to prevent the
unholy alliance you were about to force upon this helpless and
unprotected girl, to place the seal upon your crimes, by clasping in
wedlock the hand of the sister with that which is red with the
brother's blood."

"'T is false--the boy killed himself, as Edith herself knows full
well. Am I to be held accountable for the dissipation of a young fool,
who, when once the curb was removed, went headlong to destruction
without the necessity of any prompting from me."

"We will waive that part of the question, if you please, Mr. Barclay.
I have brought with me one who can prove much more than that. Come
forward, Antoine."

The Frenchman advanced, and Barclay grew pale as he recognized him.

"Let us retire to a private room," continued Atwood, in a lower
tone--"I would not have Mrs. Euston and her daughter hear too
suddenly the developments I am prepared to make."

Then turning to Edith he said--

"You are saved, my dear Edith. Retire with your mother, while I settle
with Mr. Barclay."

Mechanically Barclay led the way into an adjoining room. When there,
he turned haughtily and said--

"Now, sir, explain yourself--tell me why my privacy is thus invaded,
and--"

Atwood interrupted him.

"It is useless to attempt bravado with me, sir. Your whole career is
too intimately known to me to render it of any avail. You know that
from my boyhood I have loved Miss Euston, for you may remember a
conversation which took place between us several years since, when you
were received as a visiter at her mother's house. Jealousy enabled you
to penetrate what had been carefully veiled from others, and you taxed
me with what I would not deny. Do you remember the words you used to
the boy you then spoke to? That you would move heaven and earth to win
Edith Euston."

"To what does all this tend?" asked Barclay, in an irritated tone.

"Patience, and you will see. I returned from Europe and found that
Mrs. Euston's family had left for Havanna. Her lawsuit had gone
against her, and she had lost her home. Nothing more was known of her.
I lost no time in following her. I reached Cuba, and after many
inquiries, traced her to the house of the family which had received
her beneath their roof. There I heard the history of her son's unhappy
death, at the moment he was about to confer independence upon his
mother and sister. _You_ were mentioned as a visiter after his death;
your _generous_ offer to share with Miss Euston as your wife the
wealth which should have been hers was dwelt on. All this aroused a
vague suspicion in my mind. I made minute inquiries, and traced you
through all the orgies of your dissipation. One night I was following
up the inquiry, and I entered a tavern much frequented by foreigners.
A man sat apart in gloomy silence. One of his comrades said--

"'Antoine grieves over the loss of his bird. All the money the
American paid him does not make him forget that he sold his best
friend!'

"By an electric chain of thought, the incident which attended poor
Euston's last moments, occurred to me. I approached the man, and
addressed him in French, for I saw that he was a native of that
country. I spoke of his bird. He shook his head and said--

"'It is not the loss of the bird, monsieur, but the use that was made
of him, that troubles my conscience.'

"In short, to condense a long story, I learned from Antoine, that he
remained in your lodgings several days, until the mackaw he sold to
you became sufficiently accustomed to you to be caressed without
biting. During that time you had a room darkened, and required him to
train the bird to fly at a light and overturn it. When he was
dismissed, his curiosity was excited, and he watched your movements.
He nightly dogged your steps, and traced you to the garden of the
villa. He stood within a few feet of you on the night of Euston's
death, and beheld the use to which you put his bird. His eyes,
accustomed to the gloom without, beheld your dark form glide to the
side of your victim. He saw your murderous hand pressed upon the
breast of the dying youth."

"'T is false--false. I defy him to prove it."

"It is true, sir--the evidence is such as would condemn you in any
court; and now listen to me. I offer you lenient terms, in
consideration of the ties of relationship which bind you to those you
have so cruelly oppressed. One third of the fortune for which you have
paid so fearful a price shall be yours, if you will sign a paper I
have with me, which will restore the remainder to Mrs. Euston. If you
refuse, I have in my pocket a writ of arrest, and the officers are in
the shrubbery awaiting my orders to execute it. Comply with my terms
and I suffer you to escape."

Thus confronted by imminent danger, Barclay seemed to lose his courage
and presence of mind. He measured the floor with rapid steps a few
moments, and then turning to Atwood motioned for the paper, to which
he affixed his signature without uttering a word.

"There is yet another condition," said Atwood.

"Leave this country within forty-eight hours. If, after that time, I
am made aware of your presence within the jurisdiction of the United
States, I will have you arrested as a murderer. The peace of mind of
those I have rescued from your power shall not be periled by your
presence within the same land they inhabit." Barclay ground his teeth
with rage.

"I _shall_ leave it, be assured, but not to escape from this absurd
charge."

"Go then. I care not from what motive."

Another instant, and Barclay had passed from the room. Edith and her
mother traveled to their former home in the beautiful land of Florida,
under the protection of Atwood, and there, amid rejoicing friends,
surrounded by all the happy associations of her bright youth, she gave
her hand to her faithful lover.

Barclay perished in a street brawl, in a foreign land, and the whole
of her brother's estate finally devolved upon her.




A VOICE FOR POLAND.

BY WM. H. C. HOSMER.


    Up, for encounter stern
      While unsheathed weapons gleam;
    The beacon-fires of Freedom burn,
      Her banners wildly stream;
    Awake! and drink at purple springs--
    Lo! the "White Eagle" flaps his wings
      With a rejoicing scream,
    That sends an old, heroic thrill
    Through hearts that are unconquered still.

    Leap to your saddles, leap!
      Tried wielders of the lance,
    And charge as when ye broke the sleep
      Of Europe, at the call of France:
    The knightly deeds of other years
    Eclipse, ye matchless cavaliers!
      While plume and penon dance--
    That prince, upon his phantom steed,
    In Ellster lost your ranks shall lead.

    Flock round the altar, flock!
      And swear ye will be free;
    Then rush to brave the battle shock
      Like surges of a maddened sea;
    Death, with a red and shattered brand
    Yet clinging to the rigid hand,
      A blissful fate would be,
    Contrasted with that darker doom
    A branded brow--a living tomb.

    Speed to the combat, speed!
      And beat oppression down,
    Or win, by martrydom, the meed
      Of high and shadowless renown;
    Ye weary exiles, from afar
    Came back! and make the savage Czar
      In terror clutch his crown;
    While wronged and vengeful millions pour
    Defiance at his palace-door.

    Throng forth with souls to dare,
      From huts and ruined halls!
    On the deep midnight of despair
      A beam of ancient glory falls:
    The knout, the chain and dungeon cave
    To frenzy have aroused the brave;
      Dismembered Poland calls,
    And through a land opprest, betrayed,
    Stalks Kosciusko's frowning shade.




TO HER WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT.

BY MAYNE REID.


    They tell me, lady, that thy heart is changed--
      That on thy lip there is another name;
    I'll not believe it--though for life estranged--
      I know thy love's lone worship is the same.
    The bee that wanders on the summer breath,
      May wanton safely among leaves and flowers,
    But by the honied jar it clings till death--
      There is no change for hearts that loved like ours.

    You may not mock me--'tis an idle game--
      The lip may lie, the eye with bright beguiling
    May, from the world, conceal a suffering flame,
      But 'tis the eye and not the heart is smiling;
    And I, too, have that power of deceiving,
      By the strong pride of an unfeeling will,
    The cold and cunning world in its believing--
      What boots it all? The heart will suffer still.

    Comes there not o'er thy spirit, when 'tis dreaming
      In the lone hours of the voiceless night,
    When the sweet past like a new present seeming,
      Brings back those rosy hours of love and light?
    Comes there not o'er thy dreaming spirit then
      Delicious joy--although 'tis but a vision--
    That we have met, caressed and kissed again,
      And revel still among those sweets Elysian?

    Comes there not o'er thy spirit when it wakes,
      And finds, with sleep, the vision too hath parted
    A lone depression, till thy proud heart aches,
      And from thy burning orb the tear hath started?
    And with sad memories through thy bosom thronging,
      Within thy heart's most secret deep recesses
    Feel'st thou not then an agony of longing
      To dream again of those divine caresses?

    To dream them o'er and o'er, or deem them real,
      While penitence is speaking in thy sighs--
    For this, unlike thy dream, is not ideal--
      It brings the pallid cheek, the moistened eyes:
    Then, lady, mock not love so deeply hearted,
      With that light seeming which deceit can give--
    The love I promised thee, when last we parted,
      Shall never be another's while _you_ live.


[Illustration: Engraved by W. E. Tu
A PIC NIC ON OLDEN TIME.
Engraved Expressly for Graham's magazine]




A PIC-NIC IN OLDEN TIME.

BY QUEVEDO.

[SEE ENGRAVING.]


Joy is as old as the universe, yet as young as a June rose: and a
pic-nic has of all places been its delight, since the little quiet
family _fetes champetres_ of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. So it
is of no especial consequence in what reign of what kingdom our clever
artist has laid his scene--and sooth to say, from the diversified and
pleasantly incongruous costume and accessories of the picture, it
might puzzle an uninitiated to tell. But we, who are in the secrets of
Maga, and to whom the very brain-workings of her poets and painters
are as palpable as the crystal curdling of the lake beneath the filmy
breath of the Frost King, of course know all about it, and will
whisper in your ear the key to the pretty harmonies of wood and sky
and happy faces which he has spread out in a sort of visible cavatina,
or dear little love-song, beneath your eye.

It was a gay time at Sweetbriar Lodge--for the fair Alice Hawthorn had
just been married to the Squire of Deerdale, and the happy pair
(new-married people were even in those times happy, although they were
not so set down in the newspapers,) had determined to spend the
honeymoon quietly at home, like sensible people, instead of posting
off to Bath or Brighton; or mewing themselves up in some outlandish
corner of the country, where they could see and hear nothing but
themselves, until they were ready to commence the married life by
being cloyed with each other's society. The season was mid-summer, and
the weather so balmy and beautiful that after wandering about in the
woods and fields all day, and watching the moon creep stealthily up
the sky to view herself in the fountain, one felt a longing to make
his bed on the fresh turf under the katydid's bower, and sleep there.
Of course I don't mean the young and happy bridegroom. He never
dreamed of being absent from his Alice; and he even felt quite jealous
of her little sister Emma, who used sometimes to come and put her
laughing, roguish face and curly head between the lovers, as they were
sitting on the sofa or reclining on the green turf by the little
fountain.

But Alice had another sister, older than herself, and who had already
refused several excellent offers of marriage--declaring that she
intended to live and die single, unless she should fall in love with
some wandering minstrel or prince in disguise, like Lalla Rookh. Her
name was Hortensia; but on account of her proud indifference to the
attentions and compliments which were every where offered to her
wonderful beauty, she was usually called Haughty Hawthorn--a name
which seemed to please her better than all the flatteries of which she
was the object. She was already twenty-two, and ripening into the full
magnificence of glorious womanhood--her heart yet untouched by the
electric dart of love, and her fancy free as the birds of air.

Now it was quite natural that the gentle Alice, whom love had made so
happy, should willingly enter into a conspiracy with her husband and a
parcel of the young people of the neighborhood against the peace and
comfort of her haughty sister--deeming of course--as I myself am also
of opinion--that a young lady out of love ought to be supremely
miserable, whatever she herself may think about it.

Keeping in view the peculiar requisites required by Haughty in a
lover, the plan was to get up an old-fashioned pic-nic, at which a
young friend of Squire Deerdale, who was studying for an artist, and
had just returned from Italy, where he had picked up a little music as
well as painting, should be introduced after a mysterious fashion,
which would be sure to inflame the imagination of the loveless lady.
The artist, according to the squire, was handsome as a prince and
eloquent as a minstrel, and his extensive practice in Rome had made
him perfect master of the fine arts, the art of making love included.
So the pic-nic was proposed that very evening, to take place the next
day. Hortensia, who was fond of frolick and fun as the best of them,
albeit not yet in love, fell at once into the snare; and the squire
carelessly led the conversation to turn upon the sudden and unexpected
arrival of the young Duke of St. James upon his magnificent estate
adjoining Sweetbriar Lodge, which he said had taken place that very
day.

"The duke," said the squire, "is, as you all have heard, one of the
most romantic and sentimental youths in the world, and quite out of
the way of our ordinary extravagant, matter-of-fact young nobility. I
had the pleasure of meeting him when I was in Rome, and could not help
being charmed with him. He read and wrote poetry divinely, played the
mandolin like St. Cecilia, and sung like an improvisatore. I met him
to-day, as he was approaching home in his carriage, and found him, as
well as I could judge from a five minutes' conversation, the same as
ever. I say nothing--but should a fresh-looking, golden-haired,
dreamy-eyed youth be seen at our pic-nic to-morrow, I hope he will be
greeted with the courtesy and welcome due not only to a neighbor but a
man of genius."

This adroitly concocted speech was drank in like wine by the
unsuspicious Hortensia. A duke! a poet! a romantic man of genius! What
was it made her heart beat so rapidly?--_her_ heart, that had never
beat out of time save over the page of the poet or the novelist--or
may be in the trance of some beautiful midnight dream, such as love to
hover around the pillows of fair maidens, and who can blame them?

The next morning, as Willis says of one of his fine days, was astray
from Paradise; and bright and early our pic-nickers, comprising a
goodly company of young people, married and single, with several
beautiful children, including of course the roguish Emma, were on the
field selected for the day's campaign. It was a lovely spot. Under a
noble oak whose limbs, rounded into a leafy dome, shed a palpitating
shadow around a sweet little fountain, guarded by a marble naiad,
gathered the merry company upon the green velvet ottoman,
daisy-spangled, that ran around this splendid natural saloon, bower
and drawing-room combined. The day had fulfilled the golden promise of
the early morning; the air, impregnated with a sparkling, effervescing
sunshine, was as bewitching as the breath of champagne foam, and our
adventurers were in the liveliest and gayest spirits.

Noon was culminating, and the less excitable and more worldly portion
of the company began to be thinking seriously of the bountiful
refection which had been provided for the grand occasion. Hortensia,
it was observed by Squire Deerdale and his wife, and the others who
were in the secret, had seemed absent and thoughtful, all the morning,
and little Emma had teased her sufficiently for not playing with her
as usual. At this moment a young man was seen coming down the broad
sloping glade at the foot of which the party were seated. The squire
immediately rose and welcomed the stranger, introducing him to his
bride and sister-in-law, and expressing his pleasure that he had come.
"We almost began to fear," he added, "that you had forgotten our
humble festival."

"A _fete_ thus embellished," replied the stranger, bowing with
peculiar grace to the ladies, and glancing admiringly at Hortensia,
"is not an affair to be so easily forgotten by a wanderer who comes,
after years of exile, to revive beneath the blue skies and bluer eyes
of his native land."

"But your mandolin, Signor Foreigner; I hope you have not forgotten
that?"

"Oh no indeed," returned the stranger with a musical laugh, "I never
forget my little friend, whose harmonies have often been my only
company. Here it comes," pointing to a lad who just then came up,
bearing a handsome though outlandish-looking guitar gingerly across
his arm.

Another of the party had also brought his guitar, and the two were
soon tinkling away at different parts of the grounds--the latter
surrounded by half a dozen young men and women, and several beautiful
children; while the stranger, throwing himself on the grass at the
feet of Hortensia, upon whose lap nestled the little Emma, began a
simple ballad of the olden time--while the squire and his bride stood
against the old oak behind Hortensia. At length the strain of the
young musician changed, subsiding into low and plaintive undulations.

"It is time for us to go," whispered Alice to her husband; "we are
evidently _de trop_ here"--and the wedded pair glided noiselessly off,
casting mischievous glances at the haughty Hortensia, who sat
absorbed in the music, and tears of sympathy and rapture ready to fall
from her eyes. It was a clear case of love at first sight.

From this pleasant reverie both musician and listener were suddenly
roused by little Emma, who, raising her head and shaking back the long
ringlets from her face, exclaimed,

"Oh, sister, hear that! There goes the champagne, and I am so hungry.
Come, let us go to dinner."

"Excuse me, madam," exclaimed the stranger, ceasing to play and
springing to his feet, "your beautiful little monitor is right. I was
already forgetting myself and venturing to dream as of old;" and he
offered his arm to Hortensia, with that polite freedom not only
permitted, but enjoined, by the etiquette of the pic-nic.

"And do you call it forgetfulness to dream?" inquired Hortensia.

"With so fair a reality before me, yes; but at other times to dream is
to live."

"Oh, yes, it _is_ nice to dream!" broke in the little Emma. "Almost as
nice as a wedding. Now last night I dreamt that you were married,
Haughty, like sister Alice."

A lambent rosy flame seemed to envelop for an instant the beautiful
Hortensia, disappearing instantly, yet leaving its scarlet traces on
cheek and brow.

"What say you, my pretty one," said the stranger, patting the lovely
child upon the head, "what say you to a sandwich and a glass of wine
with me, here on the greensward? (They had now approached the
_table_--if a snow-white damask spread upon the velvet grass, and
loaded with tempting viands could be called so.) Is not that better
than dreams?"

"I love wine, sir, but mamma and sister say I shouldn't drink it,
because it makes my eyes red. Now _your_ eyes are as bright as stars.
Do you drink wine?"

It was the stranger's turn to blush. And this little childish prattle
seemed to have removed the barrier of strangership from between the
two young people, who exchanged glances of a sort of merry vexation,
and seemed to understand each other as if they were old friends.

That was a merry meal, "all under the greenwood tree," and on the
margin of that sweet little fountain, whose waters came up to the very
lip of the turf, which it refreshed with a sparkling coolness that
ever renewed the brightness of the flowers upon its bosom. After the
dinner was over, a dance was proposed, and the services of the
handsome stranger, as musician, were cheerfully offered and promptly
accepted. It was observed, however, that Hortensia, usually crazy for
dancing, strolled pensively about with little Emma at her side, and at
length seated herself on a little grassy bank, remote from the
dancers, yet where she could overlook the scene.

There was a little pause in the dance, and Squire Deerdale approached
the stranger and whispered,

"Do you like her?"

"She's as beautiful as Juno, but I dare not hope that she would ever
love a poor vagabond like me. She deserves a prince of the blood, at
the very least."

"Never mind!--_Vedremo_, as we say in Italy;" and with a laugh the
young man bounded again into the dance, while the stranger redoubled
his attention to his guitar.

The day began to wane, and the shadows of a neighboring mountain to
creep slowly across the lea; and yet, so absorbed was that gay company
in the merry pleasures of the day, that hours glided by unnoticed; and
it was not until the round, yellow moon rose over the eastern hills,
as if peeping out to see the sun set, that they thought of breaking up
a scene of little less than enchantment.

The stranger scarcely left the side of Hortensia, who seemed
completely subdued and fascinated by the serious eloquence, the
inexhaustible brilliancy of his conversation, as well as enthralled by
the classic beauty of his face, and the respectful yet tender glances
which he from time to time cast upon her face. It may also be supposed
that the hints casually dropped by the squire the night before,
respecting his distinguished acquaintance, the young Duke of St.
James, had not been without their effect. Sooth to say, however, that
the hitherto cold and impassive Hortensia was really in love, and that
she had too much self-respect to make any conditions in the bestowal
of her admiration. She was haughty, proud and ambitious--yet at the
same time high-minded and generous where her feelings were really
interested.

Much may be accomplished in an afternoon between two congenial hearts
that meet for the first time; and it is not at all surprising that on
their way home the stranger and Hortensia should have lingered a
little behind the rest of the party, engaged in deep and earnest talk.

"Beautiful being," whispered the stranger, "I have at length found my
heart's idol, whom in dreams I have ever worshiped. What need of long
acquaintanceship between hearts made for each other? Lady, I love
you!"

"Sir, sir, I beg you to pause. You know not what you are saying--you
cannot mean that--"

"But I tell you he does mean it, though," exclaimed a merry voice
close at the lady's elbow; and turning round, she saw her mischievous
brother-in-law, who had been demurely following their tardy footsteps.

"Brother! you here! I--really--am quite astonished!"

"And," interrupted the stranger, while a dark flush came over his
face, "allow me to say, Squire Deerdale, that I also am astonished at
this violation of the rights of a friendship even so old and sincere
as ours."

"Well, well, I beg your pardon, fair lady; and as for you, sir, after
you have heard my explanation, I shall be prepared to give you any
satisfaction you may require. You must know, then, my dear old friend,
that from a few careless words I dropped last evening, by way of joke,
this young lady has imbibed the idea that you are the young Duke of
St. James in disguise; and for the purpose of preventing any
misunderstandings for the future, it is requisite that my sister and
my friend Walter Willie, the artist, should comprehend one another's
position fully."

"Good heavens! madam, you cannot believe that I was accessory to this
mad prank of your brother's? Do not believe it for the world."

"No, no, I acquit you and every body but myself. I am sure I intended
no harm by my thoughtless joke. Come, come, make up the matter at
once, so that I may hasten back to Alice, who will begin to grow
jealous, directly."

"Madam, dear madam, (Hortensia turned away her head with an imperious
gesture,) I have only to beg your pardon for having too long intruded
upon your attention, and to take my leave. The poor artist must still
worship his ideal at a distance. For him there is but the world of
imagination. No such bright reality as being beloved rests in his
gloomy future. Farewell!" and the young man, bowing for a moment over
the hand of Hortensia, withdrew.

"Brother, brother, what have you done!" passionately exclaimed the
beauty, in a voice choked by sobs. "For a foolish joke you have driven
away the only being who has ever interested my lonely heart. And now I
can never, never be happy again."

"But, dear Hortensia, would you stoop to love a mere artist?"

"Stoop, sir,--stoop! I know not what you mean. Think you so meanly of
me as to believe I would sell myself for wealth and a title? Proud I
may be--but not, I thank God, mercenary nor mean. And what a lofty,
noble spirit is that of your friend! What lord or duke could match the
height of his intellect or the gorgeousness of his imagination. Oh,
too soon my beautiful dream is broken!" and the young lady, all power
of her usual self-restraint being lost, wept like a child upon the
shoulder of her brother.

"Nay, nay, sister dear, weep not," at length said the squire, tenderly
raising her head and leading her homeward. "All is not lost that is in
danger. And so that you really _have_ lost your hard little heart to
my noble, glorious friend, I'll take care that it is soon
recovered--or at any rate another one quite as good. Come, come, cheer
up! All will go well."

The squire, although not usually rated as a prophet, predicted rightly
for once; for the very next day saw young Walter Willie at Sweetbriar
Lodge, with a face as handsome and happy as the morning. Hortensia was
ill, and must not be disturbed; and at this information his features
suddenly became overcast, as you may have seen a spring sky by a thick
cloud, springing up from nobody knows where. However, the squire
entered directly after, and whispered a few words to his guest, which
seemed to restore in a measure the brightness of his look.

"And you really think, then, that I may hope?"

"Nay, my friend, you may do as you like about that. All men may hope,
you know Shakspeare says. But I tell you that Hortensia has fallen in
love with your foolish face--it's just like her!--and that's all about
it. Come in and take some breakfast. Oh, I forgot--you've no appetite.
Of course not. Well, you'll find some nice fresh dew in those
morning-glories yonder, and I will rejoin you in a minute. We 'll make
a day of it."

That evening the moon shone a million times brighter, the sky was a
million times bluer, and the nightingale sung a million times sweeter
than ever before. At least so thought the beautiful Hortensia and her
artist-lover, as they strolled, arm-in-arm, through the woody lawn
that skirted the garden of Sweetbriar Lodge, and held sweet converse
of immortal things by gazing into each other's eyes. And so ends our
veracious history of the Pic-Nic in Olden Time.




TO THE VIOLET.

BY H. T. TUCKERMAN.


    Sweet trophy of life's morning, fresh and calm,
      Dropped from the gleanings of relentless time,
    How from thy dainty chalice steals the balm
      That hung like incense o'er its dewy prime!

    The lily's stateliness thou dost not own,
      Nor glow voluptuous of the damask rose,
    Thou canst not emulate the laurel's crown,
      Nor, like the Cereus, watch while all repose.

    And these gay rivals of parterre and field
      May freely drink the sunshine and the dew,
    But only unto thee does heaven yield
      The pure reflection of her cloudless blue.

    Thy tint will sometimes darken till it wear
      A purple such as decked the eastern kings,
    And yet, like innocence, all unaware
      Its tribute to the wind thy blossom flings.

    Symbol of what is cherished and untold,
      Thy fragrance oft reveals thee to the sight,
    Peering in beauty from the common mould,
      As casual blessings the forlorn requite.

    Thy image upon Laura's robe was wrought,
      O'er which her poet with devotion mused,
    And gentle souls, I ween, have ever caught
      From thee a solace that the world refused.

    The Tuscan flower-girls delight to cheer
      Each pensive exile with thy scented leaves,
    Fit largess of a clime to fancy dear,
      Which a new blandishment from thee receives.

    Grief's frenzy, when it melts, of thee will rave,
      As of a thing too winsome to decay,
    And thus Laertes at his sister's grave
      Bids violets spring from her unsullied clay.

    Lowly incentive to celestial thought!
      We ne'er with listless step can pass thee by,
    For thou with tender embassies art fraught,
      Like the fond beaming of a northern eye.

    Hence thou art sacred to our human needs;
      Laid on the maiden's white and throbbing breast
    Thy delicate odor for the absent pleads,
      And mourners strew thee where their idols rest.

    In those wild hours when feeling chafed its bound,
      And deepened more that utterance was denied,
    In thee persuasive messengers I found
      That reached the haven of love's wayward tide.

    And I have borne thee to the couch of death
      When naught remained to do but wait and pray,
    And marked the sudden flush and quickened breath
      That proved thee dear though all had passed away!




THEY MAY TELL OF A CLIME.

TO ---- ----.

BY CHARLES E. TRAIL.


    They may tell of a clime more delightful than this,
      The land of the orange, the myrtle and vine;
    Where the roses blush red beneath Zephyr's warm kiss,
      And the bright beams of summer unceasingly shine.
    But I know a sweet valley, a beautiful spot,
      Where the turf is so green, and the breezes are bland;
    And methinks, if you'll share there my ivy-crowned cot,
      There'll be no place on earth like my own native land.

    A palace 'neath Italy's star-covered sky,
      Unblest by thy presence would desolate be;
    But cheered by the light of thy soft beaming eye,
      Ah! sweet were a tent in the desert with thee.
    For 'tis love--O! 'tis love which thus hallows the ground,
      And brightens the gloom of the anchorite's cell;
    And the Eden of earth--wheresoe'er it be found--
      Is the spot where the heart's cherished idol doth dwell.

    Then come to my cottage--though cool be the shade,
      And verdant the sod 'neath the wide-spreading bough--
    Where the wood-dove its nest 'mid the foliage hath made,
      Yet lone is that cottage, and desolate now.
    For as the green forest, bereft of the dove,
      No more with sweet echoes would musical be--
    Even so is the rose-mantled bower of love,
      Unblest and uncheered, if not gladdened by thee.




A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

BY C. A. WASHBURN.


I dreamed that for a long time I courted Charlotte--what need of
dreaming? It was true. Nevertheless I dreamed that for a long time I
courted Charlotte, and at last, which was not true, married her. And I
thought that Charlotte and I lived very happily together.

She loved me better than she ever thought she could before we were
married, for I loved her exceedingly, and was very kind to her.

I remember how long it was that I wooed her. Always hoping, though
sometimes fearing that she would never love me so as to marry me; how,
when at last we were married, and I carried her home to my pretty
cottage, I could hardly contain myself for joy; and when I saw her
seated in our own parlor on the wedding eve, I could not keep a tear
from trickling down my cheek; and how she kissed away the tear, and
when she knew the cause, how she burst into a flood of tears, and said
she would love me the better for my having loved her so; and how that
we were from that time wholly united in heart and sympathy.

Then, in the course of time, we had two darling children, which we
both loved--and I thought my cup of happiness completed. I had been an
ambitious man in my youth, and had experienced much of the
disappointment incident to a life for fame. But when God had given us
two such lovely children, I thought it was abusing his mercy to
neglect them for the applause of the world--and so devoted myself
entirely to their welfare. If I worked hard and was inclined to feel
peevish and cross, I thought how that I was laboring to make happy,
and good, and great, the dear boys, and I forgot every thing else. If
I became tired of the turmoil of life, I was the more happy when I got
home, for the children were always waiting and glad to see me, and
their presence immediately banished all anxiety and care. They seemed
so happy when I came--for Charlotte used to teach them to prize my
presence by dating their pleasures by my arrival; that I thought it
joy enough for one mortal to have looked upon the impersonation of
innocence and joy in his own children.

Then, when the boys were asleep, how we used to talk about them; how
anxious we were when either of them was restless or unquiet! How we
used to reckon on the joy they would give us in age, and how in the
happiness of our lot we shed tears of happines and joy! With what
fervor did we unite in prayer for their health and preservation, and
wish all the world as happy as we were. We became selfish in our joy,
and felt to care little for any thing but home, and in our enjoyment
of the gift we had like to have forgotten the Giver.

But at length Charlie, the younger boy, was sick, and we feared he
would die. We then remembered in whose hands his life was, and, I
believe, ever after regarded our treasures as trusts committed to our
keeping. Charlie suffered great pain, but he complained not. His very
submission smote our hearts, and though we could not think he was to
die, yet we thought he was too good to live. Benny could no longer
smile upon us, but watched by his brother's bed without speaking or
moving, unless to do him some service. We felt anxious about Charles,
yet forbore to speak of our anxiety, though when he was asleep we
could no longer conceal our sorrow and fears. And when one day the
physician imprudently said in his hearing that he feared Charles would
die, he looked at him in surprise, as if he had not thought of that;
and kissing the fevered brow of his sick brother, he came and stood by
his mother's side, and looking in her face as much as to say you wont
let brother die, he saw a tear in the clear blue eye of his mother,
and he sobbed aloud; and Charlotte could contain herself no longer,
but dropped hot tears on his face faster than she could kiss them
away. Then I feared if Charlie should die lest Benny should die too;
and then I knew that Charlotte could not bear all this, and I prayed
in my heart to God for Charles. And the next day, when the good
physician said the danger was past, we felt to thank God that he had
so chastened our affections, and ever loved him the more.

So we lived in love and happiness for many years, and all that time
not a shade of discord passed between us; and I often thought what a
dreary world this had been to me if Charlotte had never been mine. I
used to pity my bachelor neighbor, and, as I thought, I could see the
tear of disappointment in his eye when he witnessed my happy lot. I
saw it was a vision, and only the figure of Margaret, my once loved
and pretty sister, who existed then but in the land of spirits, was
before me.

And I told Margaret of the vision, and could not repress a sigh that
it was not reality; and musing long on what I was, and what I might
have been had nature dealt with me more kindly, until the vision
returned. Again I lived the life of youth's fancy.

But the boys now began to mingle a little with the world, and we
feared we were not equal to the task of educating them. We trembled
when we thought of the dangers before them, though we could not
believe it possible that they should ever do wrong. Alas! what trouble
was before us!

I had carried home a box of strawberries, and set them in the pantry,
and setting myself down in the library, waited for Charlotte to come
home from shopping. I saw Charlie come from the pantry, but thought
nothing at the time, and when Benny came in, bade him bring them to me
that I might divide them between them--they were gone; Charles must
have taken them, for no one else had been in the pantry. I called him
to me, and asked if he had taken them. I asked without concern, for I
knew if he had, he did it supposing it to be right. He said, "No,
sir." "Ah," said I, "you did." He then inquired what ones I meant, and
I told him, and told him he must confess it, or I must punish him. But
when I talked so seriously of punishment, he seemed confounded. He
turned pale, and only said, "I did not do it." That was a trying
moment; and when Charlotte came in, we considered long and anxiously
what we ought to do. Should we let the theft go unpunished, and the
falsehood to be repeated. Again we urged him to confess. The answer
was still the same. There was no alternative but a resort to what I
had prayed Heaven might spare me. I punished him severely, but he
confessed not. I wished I had not begun, but now I must go on. I still
increased the castigation, and it was only when I told him that I
would stop when he owned the theft, and not before, that he confessed
he had taken the berries.

After this cruel punishment he went out and found Benny, who had been
crying piteously all the time, and then my two boys went and hid
themselves. I would have suffered the rack to have recalled that hour.
It was too late. On going into the kitchen shortly after, I found a
poor woman of the neighborhood with the box, which she said her
thievish son had confessed he stole from the pantry. Perhaps some
parents imagine the feelings of Charlotte and myself when we made this
discovery. But they are few. The boys both shunned us, and we dreaded
to see them. But at last we sent for them to come in, and they dared
not refuse to obey. I took Charles in my arms. I asked him to forgive
me; I told him who took the berries; I shed tears without measure; I
begged him to forgive me--to kiss me as he was wont. He could not do
it. It was cold and mechanical. His little heart seemed broke. Had he
died I thought I could have borne it, but I could not endure this.
When he slept he was fitful and troubled; ah! his troubles could not
be greater than mine. I slept not that night; no, nor for many nights
after that; but I watched him in his sleep, and many a hot tear did I
drop on his cheek, which he wiped off as poison; and for many weeks I
would rise several times every night, and go and gaze on his yet
pretty face, on which was stamped the curse for my own cruel haste.

In the midst of these sore trials, the lovely face of Margaret again
appeared before me, and again the vision vanished into nothing. And I
told her this part of the dream, and even then could not suppress a
tear that it was a dream, and that the children of W---- could never
have an existence or a name.

Then the kind Margaret spoke words of comfort to me, and made me
repress the half-formed feeling of discontent.

"Have you not," said she, "said you would be satisfied for only one
hour of the love of Charlotte?"

"True," I replied, "and that dream was worth more than all my life
before."

"Have you not known in that the joys of a parent, and have you not
seen what sorrows and trials might have been yours, from which you
have now escaped? And do you now complain of your lot, W----? You know
not the designs of Providence. Will not Charlotte be yours in the
world to come?"

"God grant it!" said I; "but where will be Benny and Charles? They can
never be, and I shall die, and the flame of parental love will burn in
me, and never can it have an object."

"Hush you!" said Margaret, "cannot God give you in the other world
those spirits of fancy? Did you not enjoy them in the dream, and
cannot the same power make you enjoy them in Elysium? Is it nothing
that God has done for you in showing you what might have been, and
what can be _there_? Are you still ungrateful, and do you still
distrust his goodness? Is it nothing that he has kept you from
temptation, and that you have so clear a conscience? Will you not be
worthy of Charlotte in heaven; and have you no gratitude for all this?
Have you not dear friends still; and will not Margaret be a
guardian-angel to you so long as you sojourn in this valley of tears?"

"Ah!" said I, "I am blest beyond my deserts, and I will no more
complain, but thank my heavenly Father for the dream-children he hath
given me."

I felt reproved by the words of Margaret, for I felt I had often
indulged in useless repinings; and I determined I would do so no more,
but patiently await my time to enjoy the loved ones, both real and
ideal, in heaven. I again turned to speak to Margaret--but Margaret
had vanished to the land of spirits, and I was alone, the solitary man
I had long been. It was but a dream within a dream.




PASSED AWAY.

BY W. WALLACE SHAW.


    With wearied step, and heavy heart,
      O'erburdened with life's woes--
    My soul bowed down with grief and care
      The orphan only knows--
    I strayed along old ocean's shore,
    Where I had wandered oft before,
      My grief to hide from men;

    I listened--something seemed to say--
      The joys that once did fill thy breast
    Where, oh! where are they?
      A voice that mingled with the roar
      Of dashing waves against the shore,
        In hollow tone, replied--
        "They _bloomed_; and _died_!"




AN EVENING SONG,

BY PROFESSOR WM. CAMPBELL.

[AN EXTRACT.]


    Lyre of my soul, awake--thy chords are few,
      Feeble their tones and low,
    Wet with the morning and the evening dew
      Of ceaseless wo.
    The time hath been to me and thee, my lyre,
        When soul of fire
    Was ours, and notes and aspirations bold
    Of higher hopes and prouder promise told--
        Those days have flown--
          Now we are old,
            Old and alone!

    Old in our youth--for sorrow maketh old,
      And disappointment withereth the frame,
      And harsh neglect will smother up the flame,
    That else had proudly burned--and the cold
      Offcasting of affection will repel
    The warm life-current back upon the heart,
      And choke it nigh to bursting--yet 't is well,
    And wise-intended, that the venomed dart
      Shall bear its sure and speedy remedy.
      Why should the wretched wish to live? to be
      One in this cold wide world--ever to feel
      That others feel not--wounds that will not heal--
    A bruised, though yet unbroken spirit's strife--
    A waning and a wasting out of life--
      A longing after loving--and the curse
              To know
    One's self unknown--
      In secrecy a hopeless hope to nurse--
        Down to the grave to go
    Unloved--alone!

    Yet not alone! Pardon, thou gentle breeze,
      That comest o'er the waters with the tread
      Of beauty stealing to the sufferer's bed,
    To cool the burning brow, and whisper peace.
    Pardon, ye sweet wild flow'rets, that each morn
      Woo us to brush the dew-drop from the lid
    Of tearful innocence, and meekly warn
      Of worth in garb of lowliest texture hid.
    Beings of gentlest life, ye murmuring streams,
    Lull of our waking, music of our dreams,
    Ye things of artless merriment, that throw
    Around you gladness, wheresoe'er ye flow--
    And ye dark mountains, down whose changeful sides
    The mystic guardian, giant shadow strides,
    Whose kindly frown, howe'er the storms prevail,
    Peace and repose ensureth to the vale--
    Ye tall proud forests, that forever sway
    In kingly fury, or in graceful play--
    Ye bright blue waters whose untiring drip
      Against this island shore doth lightly break,
    Gentle and noiseless as the parting lip
      Of dreaming infant on its mother's cheek,
    Pardon my rash averment--pardon, ye
      Flow'rets and streamlets, mountains, woods and waves,
    That pour into the soul a melody,
      Like to the far down music of the caves
    Of ocean, heard not, felt not, save within,
    Seeking to joy the darker depths to win--
      Oh! while your sweet and sacred voices steal
        Into my spirit, as the joyous fall
      Of the warm sunbeam on the frozen rill,
        To wake the voice that slumbereth, and call
          To bear you company
    In your glad hymnings, let the wretched own
        He cannot be
              Alone!

    Never alone!--awake, my soul--on high
      The glorious sun his thousand rays has flung
    Athwart the vaulted sky--
      Lo! there the heavens their mighty harp have strung,
        The gold, the silver and the crimson chord,
        To hymn their evening hymn unto the Lord.
    Hark! heard ye not that glorious burst of song,
      Which, touched by hands unseen, those chords sent forth,
    Bidding the attuned spheres the notes prolong
      Deeper and louder, till the trembling earth
        Catcheth the thrilling strain--
        Echoeth back again--
    From the bosom of ocean a voice
    Pealeth forth, and the mountains rejoice
    And the plains and the woods and the valleys rebound,
    And the Universe all is a creature of sound,
      That runneth his race
      Through the infinite regions of infinite space,
        Till arrived at the throne
        Of HIM who alone
    Is worthy of honor and glory and praise.

    And it is ever thus--morn, noon and eve,
      And in the still midnight, undying
    Choirs of creation's minstrels weave
      Sweet symphony of incense, vying
    In wrapt intricacy of endless songs.
      Ever, oh ever thus they sing,
    But to our soul's dull ear belongs
        Seldom the trancing sense
      To list the universal worshiping,
    Thrill with the glorious theme, and drink its eloquence.

    Mocking all our soul's desiring,
      Distant now the notes are stealing,
    And the minstrels high reining,
      Drapery blue their forms concealing.




THE OCEAN-BURIED.

COMPOSED, AND DEDICATED TO MISSES HARRIET AND MARY HALSEY,

Of Blooming Grove, O. C., N. Y.,

BY MISS AGNES H. JONES.


=Andantino Soave=.


[Illustration: music]

   "Bury me not in the deep, deep sea." The words came faint and mournfully,
   From the pallid lips of a youth who lay On the cabin couch where,

[Illustration: music]

    day by day, He had wasted and pined, till o'er his brow The death shade
    had slowly pass'd, and now, When the land and his fond loved home were
    nigh, They had gath'rd around to see him die.


    Let my death-slumber be where a mother's prayer
    And sister's tears can be blended there.
    Oh, it will be sweet ere the heart's throb is o'er,
    To know, when its fountain shall gush no more,
    That those it so fondly has yearn'd for will come,
    To plant the first wild-flower of spring on my tomb.
    Let me lie where lov'd ones can weep over me--
    Bury me not in the deep, deep sea!

    And there is another, her tears would be shed
    For him who lays far in an ocean bed;
    In hours that it pains me to think of now,
    She has twin'd these locks and kiss'd this brow--
    In this hair she has wreathed shall the sea-snake hiss?
    The brow she has press'd shall the cold wave kiss?
    For the sake of that bright one that wails for me,
    Bury me not in the deep, deep sea!

    "She hath been in my dreams"--his voice failed short,
    They gave no heed to his dying prayer.--
    They have lowered him o'er the vessel's side--
    Above him hath closed the solemn tide.
    Where to dip her wing the wild fowl rests--
    Where the blue waves dance with their foamy crests--
    Where the billows bound and the winds sport free,
    They have buried him there, in the deep, deep sea.




REVIEW OF NEW BOOKS.


     _Calaynos: A Tragedy. By George H. Boker, E. H. Butler
     & Co. Philadelphia, pp. 218._

The spirit of English poetry has been for years eminently lyric; the
few attempts at the epic or dramatic having been laid aside, if not
permanently, at least for a time. The age has been too busy in working
out, with machinery and steam, its own great epic thought, to find
leisure to listen to any thing longer than a single bugle-blast
encouraging its advancement. We cannot but believe, however, if we may
be allowed an analogical inference, that the age is fast approaching
the climax of its utilitarian inventions, and that man, instead of
chasing through unknown regions every will-o-wisp of his brain, in the
hope of bringing it a captive to the Patent-office, will sit modestly
down to apply to their various uses the discoveries already made. Then
will the healthy feast of literature once more begin, and the public
cease to be surfeited by the watery hash which has been daily set
steaming before them. In the volume under consideration we think we
can discern the promise of the return of the good old spirit of
English poetry--of solid honest thought expressed in straight forward
Saxon. The story, which is one of the chivalrous days of Spain, while
it is devoid of trick is full of thrilling interest, and its style,
while it is eminently poetical, neither swells into bombast nor
descends to the foppery so common among the verse-makers of our day.
There is a stately, old-fashioned tread in the diction, as of a man in
armor, who, should he attempt to gather flowers of mere prettiness,
would crush them at the first touch of his iron gauntlet, and who, if
he seems to move ungracefully at times, owes his motion to his weight
of mail. Calaynos, the hero, is in every respect a nobleman, not only
in blood, but what is better, in mind. He is a scholar, one who, in
the words of Dona Alda his wife,

      --uses time as usurers do their gold,
    Making each moment pay him double interest.

He is a philosopher--

    Things nigh impossible are plain to him;
    His trenchant will, like a fine-tempered blade,
    With unturned edge, cleaves through the baser iron.

He is generous and has

      --a predetermined trust in man;

and holds that

    He who hates man must scorn the Source of man,
    And challenge as unwise his awful Maker.

The character of Dona Alda is noble and womanly--her chief trait being
her great pride and jealous care of her honor. She conceives that no
one will brave the

      --peril, such as he must brook,
    Who dares to love the wife of great Calaynos.

Her maid, Martina, tells her that

      --Queens of Spain
    Have had their paramours--

and she replies,

      --So might it be,
   _Yet never hap to bride of a Calaynos_!

Don Luis, the villain of the plot, thus paints his own picture:

      --I was not formed for good:
    To what Fate orders I must needs submit:
    The sin not mine, but His who made me thus--
    Not in my will but in my nature lodged.

    *    *    *    *    *

    I will grasp the stable goods of life,
    Nor care how foul the hand that does the deed.

Martina is admirably drawn; her wit is excellent, and as exhaustless
as it is keen. She says of Calaynos--

    He looks on pleasure as a kind of sin,
    Calls pastime waste-time----

    *    *    *    *    *

    I heard a man, who spent a mortal life
    In hoarding up all kinds of stones and ores,
    Call one, who spitted flies upon a pin,
    A fool to pass his precious lifetime thus.

She says of Oliver, Calayno's secretary,

    Yes, there he goes--
    Backward and forward, like a weaver's shuttle,
    Spinning some web of wisdom most divine.

She addresses him thus--

    Our clay, the preachers say, was warmed to life;
    But yours, your dull, cold mud, was froze to being.
    _I would not be the oyster that you are
    For all the pearls of wisdom in your shell!_

All the persons of the play are vivid and life-like. With the
beginning of the third act the interest becomes intense, and nothing
could be more vigorous and touching than the action and depth of
pathos toward the close of the piece. Every page teems with fine
thoughts and images, which lead us to believe that the mine from which
this book is a specimen, contains a golden vein of poetry which will
go far to enrich our native literature.


     _Literary Sketches and Letters: Being the Final
     Memorials of Charles Lamb, Never before Published. By
     Thomas Noon Talfourd. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1
     vol. 12mo._

The present work is important in more respects than one. It was needed
to clear up the obscurity which rested on several points of Lamb's
life, and it was needed to account for some of the peculiarities of
his character. The volume proves that this most genial and kindly of
humorists was tried by as severe a calamity as ever broke down the
energies of a great spirit, and the frailties commonly associated with
his name seem almost as nothing compared with the stern duties he
performed from his early manhood to his death. The present volume is
calculated to increase that personal sympathy and love for him, which
has ever distinguished the readers of Lamb from the readers of other
authors, and also to add a sentiment of profound respect for his
virtues and his fortitude. The truth is that Lamb's intellect was one
of the largest and strongest, as well as one of the finest, among the
great contemporary authors of his time, and it was altogether owing to
circumstances, and those of a peculiarly calamitous character, that
this ample mind left but inadequate testimonials of its power and
fertility. He is, and probably will be, chiefly known as an original
and somewhat whimsical essayist, but his essays, inimitable of their
kind, were but the playthings of his intellect.

Talfourd has performed his editorial duties with his usual taste and
judgment, and with all that sweetness and grace of expression which
ever distinguishes the author of Ion. His sketches of Lamb's
companions are additions to the literary history of the present
century. Lamb's own letters, which constitute the peculiar charm of
the book, are admirable--the serious ones being vivid transcripts of
his moods of mind, and some of them almost painful in their direct
expression of agony, and the semi-serious rioting in mirth, mischief
and whim, full of wit and meaning, and full also of character and
kindliness. One of his early letters he closes, as being from his
correspondent's "afflicted, headachey, sore-throatey, humble servant."
In another he calls Hoole's translation of Tasso "more vapid than
smallest small beer, 'sun-vinegared.'" In speaking of Hazlitt's
intention to print a political pamphlet at his own expense, he comes
out with a general maxim, which has found many disciples: "The first
duty of an author, I take it, is never to pay any thing." When Hannah
More's Coelebs in Search of a Wife appeared, it was lent to him by a
precise lady to read. He thought it among the poorest of common
novels, and returned it with this stanza written in the beginning:

    If ever I marry a wife
      I'd marry a landlord's daughter,
    For then I may sit in the bar,
      And drink cold brandy-and-water.

In speaking of his troubles toward the close of his life, he has a
strange, humorous imagination, in every way worthy of his peculiar
genius: "My bedfellows are cough and cramp; _we sleep three in a
bed_."

The present volume is elegantly printed, and will doubtless have a
run. It is full of matter, and that of the most interesting kind. No
reader of Lamb, especially, will be without it.



     _Modern French Literature. By L. Raymond de Vericour.
     Edited by W. S. Chase, A. M. Boston: Gould, Kendall &
     Lincoln. 1 vol. 12mo._

This work is the English production of a native Frenchman, and was
written for one of Chambers's series of books for the people. It is
edited, with notes alluding particularly to writers prominent in the
late French Revolution, by a young American scholar, who has recently
resided in France. The book, though deficient and sometimes incorrect
in details, deserves much praise for its general correctness and
accuracy. The author, though by no means a critic of the first class,
is altogether above the herd of Grub street hacks who commonly
undertake the popularizing of literary history. He is no Winstansley
and no Cibber. The range of his reading appears to be extensive. His
judgments are somewhat those of a school-master, but one of the
highest grade. There are several amusing errors relating to the
position of English authors, to some of which we cannot help alluding,
as they seem to have escaped the vigilant eye of the editor. Speaking
of Guizot and Sismondi as the leaders of the school of French
philosophical historians, he remarks that "the English language
possesses some good specimens of this class of history; the most
remarkable are Gibbon's Decline and Fall and the works of Mr. Millar."
This is as if the author had said that England possessed some good
specimens of the Romantic Drama, the most remarkable being
Shakspeare's Macbeth and the works of Mr. Colman.

Again, in speaking of the novels of Paul de Kock, and protesting
against those English critics who call him the first writer of his
time and country, he says that it is as ridiculous as it would be in
Frenchmen to exalt the novels of Charles Dickens above Ivanhoe,
_Philip Augustus_ and Eugene Aram, The idea of a Frenchman thinking it
a paradox to rank Dickens above James, or even Bulwer, shows how
difficult it is for a foreigner, especially a Frenchman, to pass
beyond the external form of English literature.

The author deserves the praise of being a sensible man, in the English
meaning of the phrase. There is one sentence in his introductory
which proves that his mind has escaped one besetting sin of the French
intellect, which has prevented its successful cultivation of politics
as a practical science. In speaking of the histories of Thiers and
Mignet, he says that they "have hatched a swarm of _Jeunes Prances_,
vociferating in their wild aberrations, emphatic eulogies on Marat,
Coulhon and Robespierre, and breathing a love of blood and
destruction, which they call the progressive march of events."


     _Rise and Fall of Louis Philippe, Ex-King of the
     French, Giving a History of the French Revolution from,
     its Commencement in 1789. By Benj. Perley Poore,
     Boston: Wm. D. Ticknor & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._

Of all the publications we have seen relating to Louis Philippe this
is the most complete and the most agreeable. The author, from his long
residence in Paris, and from his position as Historical Agent of the
State of Massachusetts, was enabled to collect a large mass of matter
relating to French history, and also to learn a great deal respecting
the Orleans dynasty, which would not naturally find its way into
print. The present volume, though it has little in relation to the
first French Revolution not generally known by students, embodies a
large number of important facts respecting Louis Philippe, which we
believe are now published for the first time. The biography itself has
the interest of a romance, for few heroes of novels ever were, in
imagination, subjected to the changes of fortune which Louis
encountered in reality. Mr. Poore's view of his character is not more
flattering than that which commonly obtains--on both sides of the
Atlantic. To sustain this disparaging opinion of his subject, however,
he is compelled to suppose policy and hypocrisy as the springs of many
actions which a reasonable charity would pronounce virtuous and
humane. It must be conceded that the conduct of the king during the
last few days of his reign was feeble, if not cowardly, but his
uniform character in other periods of his life was that of a man
possessing singular readiness and coolness in times of peril, and
encountering obstacles with a courage as serene as it was adventurous.


     _The Tenant of Wildfield Hall. By Acton Bell, Author of
     Wurthuring Heights.. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1
     vol. 12mo._

The appearance of this novel, so soon after the publication of
Wurthuring Heights, is an indication of Mr. Bell's intention to be a
frequent visiter, or visitation, of the public. We are afraid that the
personages he introduces to his readers will consist chiefly of one
class of mankind, and this class not the most pleasing. He is a
monomaniac on the subject of man's rascality and brutality, and crowds
his page with forcible delineations of offensive characters and
disgusting events. The power he displays is of a high but limited
order, and is exercised chiefly to make his readers uncomfortable. To
be sure the present novel is not so bad as Wurthuring Heights in the
matter of animal ferocity and impish diabolism; but still most of the
characters, to use a quaint illustration of an eccentric divine, "are
engaged in laying up for themselves considerable grants of land in the
bottomless pit," and brutality, blasphemy and cruelty constitute their
stock in trade. The author is not so much a delineator of human life
as of inhuman life. There are doubtless many scenes in The Tenant of
Wildfield Hall drawn with great force and pictorial truth, and which
freeze the blood and "shiver along the arteries;" but we think that
the author's process in conceiving character is rather logical than
imaginative, and consequently that he deals too much in unmixed
malignity and selfishness. The present novel, with all its peculiar
merits, lacks all those elements of interest which come from the
generous and gentle affections. His champagne enlivens, but there is
arsenic in it.


     _Brothers and Sisters. By Frederika Bremer. Translated
     by Mary Howitt. New York: Harper & Brothers._

This is by no means one of Miss Bremer's best productions, but it is
not on that account a commonplace production. The pathos, the
cheerfulness, the elevation, the sweet humane home-feeling of the
Swedish novelist, are here in much of their old power, with the
addition of universal philanthropy and the rights of labor. But we
fear that the original vein of our authoress is exhausted, and that
she is now repealing herself. It is a great mistake to suppose that a
new story, new names of characters, additional sentiments nicely
packed in new sentences, make a new novel, when the whole tone and
spirit of the production continually reminds the reader of the
authors previous efforts. It is no depreciation of Miss Bremer's
really fine powers to assert, that she lacks the creative energy of
Scott, or the ever active fancy and various observation of Dickens.


     _Grantley Manor. By Lady Georgiana Fullerton. New York:
     D. Appleton & Co. 1 vol. 12mo._

This is altogether one of the finest novels which have appeared for
many years. It is written with much beauty of style; evinces a
creative as well as cultivated mind, and contains a variety of
characters which are not only interesting in themselves, but have a
necessary connection with the plot and purpose. The mind of the author
has that combination of shrewdness and romantic fervor, of sense and
passion, so necessary to every novelist who desires to idealize
without contradicting the experience of common life.


EDITOR'S TABLE.

To the readers of "Graham."--A series of misfortunes having bereft me
of any proprietory interest in this Magazine, the present publishers
have made a liberal arrangement with me, and for the future, the
editorial and pictorial departments of Graham's Magazine will be under
the charge of Joseph R. Chandler, Esq., J. Bayard Taylor, Esq., and
myself.

It is due to the subscribers to "Graham" from me, to state, that from
the first hour I took charge of it, the warmest support and
encouragement were given me, and from two not very profitable
magazines "Graham" sprung at once into boundless popularity and
circulation. Money, as every subscriber knows, was freely expended
upon it, and an energy untiring and sleepless was devoted to its
business management, and had I not, in an evil hour, forgotten my own
true interests, and devoted that capital and industry to another
business which should have been confined exclusively to the magazine,
I should to-day have been under no necessity--not even of writing this
notice.

I come back to my first love with an ardor undiminished, and an energy
not enervated, with high hopes and very bold purposes. What can be
done in the next three years, time, that great solver of doubts, must
tell. What a daring enterprize in business can do, I have already
shown in Graham's Magazine and the North American--and, alas! I have
also shown what folly can do, when business is forgotten--but I can
yet show the world that he who started life a poor boy, with but eight
dollars in his pocket, and has run such a career as mine, is hard to
be put down by the calumnies or ingratitude of any. Feeling,
therefore, that having lost one battle, "there is time enough to win
another," I enter upon the work of the "redemption of Graham," with
the very confident purposes of a man who never doubted his ability to
succeed, and who asks no odds in a fair encounter.

                                                      GEO. R. GRAHAM.


An Acquisition.--Our readers will share in the pleasure with which it
is announced, that JOSEPH R. CHANDLER, Esq., the accomplished writer,
and former editor of "_The United States Gazette_," will hereafter be
"_one of us_" in the editorial management of Graham's Magazine. There
are few writers in the language who equal, and none excel Mr. Chandler
in graceful and pathetic composition. His sketches live in the hearts
of readers, while they are heart-histories recognized by thousands in
every part of the laud. An article from Mr. Chandler's pen may be
looked for in every number, and this will cause each number to be
looked for anxiously.


Editors Looking Up.--It is expected that an early number of "Graham"
will be graced with a portrait of our distinguished rival of the
"Lady's Book," that gentleman having "in the handsomest manner," as
they say in theatricals, sat for a picture of his goodly countenance
and proportions. At our command this has been transferred to steel, to
be handed over to the readers of "Graham," by Armstrong, an artist
whose ability is a fair warrant for a fine picture. Now if any of our
fair readers fall in love with Godey, we shall take it as a formal
slight, and shall insist upon having our face _run_ through an edition
of a magazine, to be gazed at and loved by thousands of as fine
looking people as can be crowded upon a subscription book.


W. E. TUCKER, ESQ.--We are very much gratified to be able to state,
that an arrangement has been made by the proprietors of "Graham" with
Mr. W. E. Tucker, whose exquisite title-pages and other gems in the
way of engraving are familiar to our readers, and that _for the year
1849, he engraves exclusively for Graham's Magazine_.

This is but the beginning of arrangements proposed to revive the
original splendor of the pictorial department of this magazine, while
the literary arrangements are in the same style of liberality which
has ever distinguished "Graham." "There is a good time a-coming boys"
in 1849.


Sketches From Europe.--In the present absorbing state of affairs
abroad, it will please our readers to know, that we have engaged an
accomplished writer to furnish sketches of European manners, events
and society, such as escape the daily journals, for the pages of the
magazine. These sketches will occasionally be illustrated with
engravings of scenery and persons taken on the spot, and cannot fail
to add to the value of "Graham."


Gems From Late Readings.--We shall introduce into the next number of
Graham a department which we think cannot fail to be of interest, by
selections from authors which it is not possible for all the readers
of Graham to have seen. Culling such passages as may strike us in our
reading as worthy of wide circulation and preservation.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 4
October 1848, by Various

*** 