my attention during the greater portion of the day; but William's employments did not demand so exclusive a share of his time: and he, at Adelaide's request, employed his leisure in teaching her botany.

One evening, fatigued with the heat and business of the day, as I lay reclining on a sofa, engaged in conversation with my brother, Adelaide came running in, her heavenly face illumined with an expression of pleasure, crying, "Oh, dear William! your auriculas are not withered, they look quite revived; do come and see:" and taking his hand, she drew him out of the

room.

Adelaide was neither a hoyden, nor a coquette; yet I thought this action very familiar; she had said too," Dear William!" I started up, tired though I was, and followed them into the garden, where I met them shortly after I entered; they were walking together, and both laughing violently.

"I am very glad to see you so merry," said I, while the faltering tone of my voice insinuated a doubt of the sincerity of my assertion.

“Oh! William has been making me laugh so immoderately; he has been christening us all out of the flower garden. We call my father White Honesty, and mama is Red Thrift, and Mr. Dalton's two daughters are, London Pride, and Striped Columbine."

"And what are you, my precious girl?" asked I, tenderly taking her hand, and drawing it under my arm.

"Why, William denominates me, Venus's Looking-glass; but I think that is nonsense," replied the fascinating girl.

"Not at all nonsense, Adelaide!" cried I, enraptured: "William means to say, that Venus might look at you, as a mirror, and see herself reflected." "Mighty fine indeed, Hollyhock!" simpered she, affectedly: we designate you Hollyhock, because you are so tall."

"Well, but I have not heard William's name yet," remarked I.

"Why, I suppose that we must allow him to be Flos Adonis," said she, with an expression of playful scorn that rendered it difficult to decide, whether she meant to jest, or to compliment him: be that as it may, I fancied that I heard him whisper, or perhaps it was only the current

of my own thoughts which endowed the imperfectly distinguished accents with a meaning most congenial to my suspicious mind, "I would rather be Sweet William."

I certainly observed her smile on him complacently, and they went on pursuing their pastime.

It was not many days after this, that I observed Adelaide wearing a small bunch of flowers in her bosom': I requested her to give them to me; and, as she complied, I said, perhaps in a reproachful tone, wear Hollyhock in your bosom, Adelaide."

"You never

Lord, no, that is such an ugly flower!" answered she, innocently.

This simple speech stung my feelings to the quick, and wrung my jealous beart with agony; I averted my head, to hide the tears which were fast gathering in my eyes; Adelaide noticed my emotion, and her penetrating mind supplied the cause; for taking my hand, she said, fondly, "Dear Godfrey, I did not mean to wound your feelings; but really you are such a sensitive plant, I hardly know how to avoid giving offence."

"Sweet Adelaide! do not heed me; I am sorry that you should have observed my weakness; it is my misfortune that my nerves should be so very susceptible; but I will strive to-"

"Very susceptible indeed!" interrupted she, in a tone of chagrin; "and I think you are become more fractious lately, though I am sure I cannot guess the cause.'

"And yet, Adelaide, I hope you do me the justice to suppose that there is a cause," making an effort to overcome my natural reserve, that I might arrive at once at an explanation of my sentiments."

"Well, and what is the cause, Godfrey?" asked she, but yet in so careless a manner, it seemed as if my justification was a matter of indifference to her.

I laid my head on her shoulder, and, as I clasped her waist, whispered in her ear, "I wish I had never brought William to New York."

A guiltless conscience might have been at a loss to understand the allusion; but Adelaide's treacherous heart betrayed her, and afforded her a clue to my meaning; for she exclaimed, with energy, Why so? William is

nothing to me; I only like him, respect him, I mean, as your brother; that is 'all; only, as your brother; I will never speak to him, if you do not wish it; but why should you fear William, or any body, you know that I am betrothed to you; though indeed, God'frey, if you are so extremely irritable, and selfish, and suspicious, I do not see that we have much chance of being happy in each other."

"Sweet excellence!" cried I, "forgive my folly; there is no true love without some jealousy, it is said; though, perhaps, I am over covet"ous of my treasure. I am, too, most unhappily diffident of myself; but you shall teach me, by your preference of me, to have more vanity; and I shall be so proud, I will think no one can compare with me."

Adelaide faintly smiled, and imprinted a gentle kiss upon my forehead; her fragrant breath acted as a balmy zephyr, dispersing the thick dark vapours that clouded my mind, and I was once more truly happy.

Adelaide's state of health had been somewhat delicate lately; and she was despatched, by her affectionate parents, to spend a few weeks at the house of a friend, some miles in the country. I entreated to be suffered to escort her thither; but she positively declined my attendance, and parted from me in a cold, constrained, and embarrassed manner.

In about a week after Adelaide had departed, William proposed to me, well knowing that I should refuse his offer, to join in an aquatic excursion, with a few chosen friends, to a neighbouring island, where it was intended that they should remain untill the following morning. The party set off in high glee; I assisted in hoisting their sail, and wished them, "a pleasant merry voyage."

As Howard pronounced these words he burst into a short hollow laugh, while his frame trembled with emotion. He paused a moment; then quickly recovering himself, pursued his narration in a steadier voice.

As the time approached when I began to look for William's return, and yet he did not appear, I began to feel somewhat uneasy; and the more so, because a brisk gale had been blowing freshly during the night; the stock of provisions, too, which they had taken was but small; and I was in a

summer-house in Mr. Dalton's garden, that commanded an extensive view of the ocean, hoping, by the aid of a good glass, to desery the little bark, when a letter was brought to me that speedily terminated my apprehensions.

I opened the epistle eagerly, for I perceived by the superscription that it came from Adelaide; I had scarcely glanced over the first two or three sentences, before I became transformed into a maniac. I guashed on the infernal scroll with my teeth; I tore it, syllable from syllable, that not one legible word should remain of it's accursed meaning. I fled, with mad and unremitted speed, to the house of Mr. Henley, not heeding that the withering beams of a meridian sun scorched my uncovered head; there was a fire within my brain ten thousand times more hot.

Just as I reached the open door of Adelaide's dwelling, overpowered by agitation and exertion, Isunk down senseless, but quickly revived to a consciousness of my misery. Reckless of Mrs. Henley's tender enquiries, and admonitions to be calm, I raved, I tore my clothes, exclaiming, "She is married! yes, married-married; disgusted' with my anxious temper; ay, disgusted' that is the word, she says, disgusted!'

Here Howard again made a break in his recital; fell back on the sofa where he was sitting, and hid his face in his hands, while a stifled groan escaped from his overcharged bosom. Meliora hastened to tender restoratives; but he put them aside with his arm, saying, he should be better soon; and, after the lapse of two or three minutes, thus resumed his story.

I find that, even at a distance of two and thirty years, I am not competent to dwell, with calmness, on this, the most painful, epoch of my existence. As soon, therefore, as I had received, from another quarter, confirmation of the fact, of the union of Adelaide with my brother, for at first I had almost persuaded myself that the whole was only a freak of Adelaide, contrived to revenge herself on, and cure me of my jealousy, I relinquished all share in my mercantile concern; and only drawing on the treasury for a sum of money, hardly equivalent to one tenth of the

value of my partnership, I prepared to leave the country, without trusting myself either to see or to write to that guilty pair, those murderers of my life's dearest happiness, who, like two vipers, had stung to agony the fond heart which held them enshrined in it's closest and warmest reccsses. Resisting the entreaties and importunities of my friends at New York to continue among them, I set sail in a small vessel, and landed on one of the beautiful Bahama Islands, which I had resolved to make my abode. Having determined to circumscribe my wants and wishes, my relations and affections, within as narrow a compass as possible.

In pursuance of this design, I secured a small tenement for my residence; while my establishment consisted only of a negro youth, called Scipio; his mother, who acted in the capacity of cook and housekeeper; and a favourite horse. But I was too young to turn hermit yet. A misanthrope of one and twenty is

a rare character in any country; and I had not lived in my retirement but a few months, before I felt that perpctual solitude was irksome, my time hung heavily on my hands, and I at length persuaded myself to return the polite advances to friendship which I had received from an elderly gentleman, a bachelor, named Sartram, who held an immense plantation immediately contiguous to my humble estate. With this gentleman I spent many hours of kind and social intercourse; he regarded me as his son, and I looked up to him with almost filial affection; till at the expiration of ten years, during which period I continued to receive the most satisfactory tidings from my friends in England, in reply to the liberal remittances which I was enabled occasionally to forward to them; Mr. Sartram died, leaving me the sole heir of the property which he had amassed during his residence there, amounting to several thousand pounds. (To be continued.)

SHAKSPEARE.

Eur. Mag. Vol. 81. March 1822.

I

Н.

A DEEP and permanent melancholy, which preyed upon me unceasingly, succeeded to the terrilic circumstances and results related in my last adventure; and it seemed as if even Time itself would have but little chance to soften, or to remove the keenness of the impression which they had made upon my mind. It is with our griefs, however, as it is with the approach of spring, and the gradual expansion of the days. We do not step at once from gloominess and desolation to liveliness and beauty, nor from the long nights of wintry darkness to the bright sunny mornings of summer:-No, as an ancient and quaint author remarks, "The lengthening of days is not suddenly perceived till they are grown a pretty deal longer, because the sun, though it be in a circle, yet it seems for a while to go in a right line. For take a segment of a great circle, especially, and you shall seem to doubt whether it be straight or no. But when that the sun is got past that line, then you presently perceive the days are lengthened.” This exactly illustrates the departure of sorrow from the sou! : we do not feel the removal of any part of our affliction until a large portion of it be wept away, ameJiorated by time, or borne into oblivion by the gradual recession of grief, which, after it have flowed to a great height, usually.cbbs by degrees, and carries all our distresses into the great sea of our former lives. To accelerate this, men usually fly to a vast variety of means, one of the most common of which is travelling into other countries, thus deeming, that they shall leave their sorrows behind them with the scenes where they originally occurred. This, although it be in a great measure a mistaken conceit, I was prevailed upon to try, and accordingly, in the latter part of 1783, I left the Zetland Islands for the Continent, and made Paris the first grand resting

place in my journey. I acceded the more readily to the wishes of my friends, because the discoveries of the French in the science of Aerostation were then become a general subject in conversation; and though I neither expected nor wished that my tour should remove from my mind the remembrances which filled it with a wild abstracted joy, and a destroying but pleasing sorrow, yet did I earnestly desire that it might produce the gratification of another of my romantic wishes; namely, to ascend in an Air-Balloon. My departure was, of course, previous to the setting-in of that dangerous season, which so deforms the climate of Zetland; and as the close of the month of September proved much milder than usual, on the 24th I embarked on board the Mermaid, which was then commanded by my kind friend Rudolph Feldsparr, and was bound for the coast of France. My former life had been passed entirely in Zetland, and the monotony of it's primitive customs had been broken only by our departure for the Haaff, or Deep Sea-Fishing; and I had never yet set foot upon the shores of another country. My romantic disposition would, it is true, have led me abroad in search of adventures to gratify it; but at the same time, Zetland was endeared to me by being the Mortlakes' “last and longest resting-place;" it was sacred because it contained, either in it's ser", or beneath it's turf, the ashes of all my former ancestors, and dearest relatives of my own time, from Ivar, the first Jarl, or Lord of Mortlake, contemporary with Harold the Fair, early in the tenth century; down to my own lamented father and mother, Ronovald and Alofa Mortlake. Zetland, then, was to me, what the cavern in the field of Macphelah was to Jacob: "there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah." When