regiment his master should join, and follow him in sorrow and warfare, whom he had learned to love in happiness and peace,) and the two favorite horses, reserved to be his chargers, and to carry that master through fields of blood, whom they had so often borne in glorious sport by Whissendine pasture and Billesdon Coplow, he appeared only to be respected more truly for his noble endurance of the evils, than he had been loved for his social enjoyment, of the goods of life. Truly! too truly has it been said, that no calamity ever comes single! Scarcely had the shock of this grief past away, before letter after letter showered in from the Jew, who had advanced the money to Mertoun on Lindley's security. At first they were merely notices of the approaching term of payment; then urgent claims, and at length, coarse threatenings. To Lindley's repeated appeals to Mertoun's honor no answers were received. By and by an attorney's notice arrived-that Lord Mertoun had been a minor at the time specified, consequently no claim could lie; that in the bond, Lord Mertoun's name was not once mentioned; lastly, that Lord Mertoun disclaimed all connexion with Mr. Harlande's pecuniary affairs. Well did the victim know, that if once arrested, he had no possible means of escape from eternal imprisonment, except in taking refuge under the act which his high pride forbade, or in the payment of the claim by his relations, which his knowledge of the world declared to be utterly hopeless. For, although the wealthy and powerful oftentimes feel pride and pleasure in conferring on their dependants obligations unbought by sacrifice, and not interfering with the sordid considerations of self, it is hardly less rare to find a rich man who will unloose his pursestrings to the necessities of another, than a rock which will pour forth its flinty bosom in streams of living water, at the pleadings of the way worn pilgrim. A few weeks he struggled against his misfortunes-a few weeks he strove to bend, then to compel Mertoun to justice; each course vain alike, and hopeless. No proof existed,- -none were aware of the transaction but the Jew and themselves. The former knew that he had no claim on the real borrower, while it was his interest to keep in with a client whose wants were daily increasing, and who could now give undoubted security. Again, what was the word of a man who had avowedly retired from the expenses of the world, against the affirmation of one, certainly a little lower than the angels, yet reared far above the many in wealth and fashion, elevated on his pinnacle, an obscene, but honored idol, far above the crouching knees and humbled heads of his idiotic and besotted adorers. A few weeks of gnawing care and vexation, smothered to spare the feelings of others a few weeks of agony, vainly concealed beneath the hollow laugh and writhing lip-a few weeks, which had wrought changes on his countenance far deeper than the traces of years, or the corrosion of disease -changes not unmarked, though unobserved, by his doting mother, and the sister who loved him more than her own life ;-a few weeks, and a friend wrote him word that a writ was already sued out against him, and that the morrow would consign him to gyves, and fellowship with the outcasts of society, the fraudulent debtor, and unconvicted felon. The fatal moment came, and he was calm,-he took his measures with a coolness, almost terrible under such harrassing excitement; he arranged his own escape in one direction, and that the suspicion of his pursuers should be turned to another; he arranged how his still faithful follower should communicate with him;-and bitter was the resolution which he took, of departing without a single farewell;-bitter it was, but frustrated by the quick observation and deep devotion of Julia. CHAP. IV. My mother earth! And thou fresh breaking day, and you, ye mountains, Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye. Art a delight-thou shinest not on my heart. MANFRED. THE sun at high noon was pouring floods of lustre over an unclouded sky, and wide expanse of heathery moorland, broken into vast round headed hills, here rising in dark relief against the horizon, their summits crowned with gray and shivered rocks, their sides clothed in a rich robe of purple bloom; and there sinking into green morasses of bog and moss, haunted by the snipe and curlew, which fed and fluttered round their secluded springs, fearless of injury or intrusion from the dogs of wandering sportsmen, or from the nightly robber of the fold. Through these unfrequented moors a devious horsetrack, scarcely to be distinguished by a deeper shade of emerald verdure from the heather amongst which it wound, afforded a near though difficult access, from the fair horse pastures of Cleveland, and lonely valleys of the Swale and Ure, to the mighty marts of wealth and manufacture in the West Riding of York, whose produce is prized alike by the powerful republicans of the transatlantic world, and the simple natives of the southern seas. On the verge of one of the deep ravines, or ghylls, as they are yet called in the north, (retaining even now the ancient nomenclature of the rude Norsemen, whose language still taints the dialect of districts where they reigned of yore,) where the horsetrack breaking abruptly off left no clue to the traveller's eye by which to regain it on the other side, paused a horseman nobly mounted, though the gallant beast be backed gave evident tokens in distended nostrils, heaving flank, and foam-besprinkled rein, of a toilsome road already passed. The spot on which they stood, declared that miles more were to be travelled over, before the wayfarers could approach the dwellings of men. At the bottom of the gorge, which seemed the breast of the hill, with a trenched scar hundreds of feet in depth, although so narrow that hare or moorfowl on the further brink might have fallen a sure victim to the unerring gun, a noisy brooklet raved through tangled thickets of hazel, ash, and alder, shedding a constant twilight over the puny cascades of their mimic torrent, while the top of the pass was steeped in the full radiance of day. It was evident from the searching glance with which the rider scanned the broken banks, and stony channel before him, that the brief halt he now made, was but a compelled check in his rapid career. While he paused, however, it seemed that he thought of the necessities The Exile. of his faithful companion, at least he dismounted, and leading him carefully by the bridle, down a smoother part of the descent, selected for repose a clear spot of dry and withered fern, sheltered from the sun by surrounding coppice and watered by a thread-like rill hurrying down to join the larger brook, augmenting its bulk and swelling its murmurs by the humble tribute from a nameless source. Here he loosed the girths, removed the bridle, rubbed dry the glossy limbs of his charger from sweat and foam-flake, bathed his fetlocks in the cold fountain, and shook out a few handfuls of oats from the slender wallet at his croup: his eye sparkled, and a brief smile lighted the gloom of his countenance, as the good horse whinnied his thanks with erected ear, and turned untamed in strength, and unbroken in spirit, to his well-earned provender. Then and not till then he plunged his own throbbing front and bloodshot eye into the stony basin of the spring, struggled to eat a few mouthfuls, but checked by the swelling convulsions of his throat, cast aside the untasted food, and stretched himself in gloomy contemplation, as silent as the sleep that knows no waking, beside the mossgrown channel of the mountain stream. It was Lindley Harlande, who thus abandoned to solitary thought, lived over again, in one hour of lonely grief, the hurried years of stirring joy and and stormy excitement. The swift whirl of events were as clearly defined before the vision of his agonized spirit, as they had formerly gleamed on his corporeal eyes: the chase, the court, the ball-room flitted through his mind like the changes of a troubled dream. There stood before him the smooth and obsequious Jew, cringing to destroy his high-born clients-there the wily and false-hearted Mertoun, sneering his contempt at the friend whose fortunes he had ruined, and whose character he had blighted-and ever and anon with these dark pictures mingled rare forms of female loveliness; the sweet kiss of Julia again melted on her brother's brow; the soft hand of one even dearer than she trembled and half responded to his presure.-Then came the bitter brief curse, the fist clenched against his burning forehead, as the conviction returned that this cup was dashed from his lip forever. Again flashed the high and ardent imagining of hair-breadth scapes, and wild struggles for glory on the sands of the tropical desert, or the waves of the wild pacific: of wealth restored, and fame reinstated, of home and happiness recovered by the toil, and dignified by the dangers of honorable exertion. An hour might have passed away in these musings, when the waking dreamer was roused by a low rustle in the coppice above, succeeded by the vehement rush of man or beast forcing his way down the steep and tangled declivity. The young man's frown contracted, as he rose silently to his feet; and thrusting his hand into the bosom of his dark riding-frock seemed to grasp the hilt of dirk or pistol, for the resolved defence of despair. In an instant a small wire-haired terrier burst from the bushes panting and travel-soiled, yet on the sight of Harlande he sprang almost to his face, yelling his very heart out in joy for the recovery of his astonished master. For the first time the fountains of grief were loosed; the tears which had been frozen in Lindley's brain by the intensity of his anguish, burst forth in torrents, rolling unheeded down his cheeks, bedewing the rough face and shaggy limbs of his faithful favorite, now caressed in the 66 arms of him whom he had so truly followed. Brass, poor Brass," he cried at last, are you alone honest and true, when friends and kindred are false and fickle, when all others defame and desert me. Man! base, cold hearted, selfish man! lock down from your imagined pinnacle of virture! look down and learn faith, and gratitude, and generosity, all that is noble and good, from a beast, which you affect to consider inferior to your sordid self! Poor, poor Brass, you have linked yourself to one of evil fortune and slandered name; far may we roam, and hardly may we fare, before we again see the happy days and lovely abode of my youth, but starvation shall have chilled this heart, and dimmed this eye, before you shall lose your pittance!" He rose unrefreshed from his short repose, prepared his now recruited horse, toiled up the opposite side of the ravine, and bearing his little companion before him on the saddle, resumed his mournful wanderings. It was an afflicting sight to see one naturally so lively of spirit, and so active in body, wrapped so abstractedly in his own dark thoughts, as to pay no attention to sounds or sights which would at another time have engrossed his keenest notice. His horse was left to choose his own way, and govern his own paces, while the rider sat motionless, with his eyes directed in gloomy fixedness to the sod beneath his feet; but nobly did the generous animal requite the blind confidence of his master, instinctively he followed the meanderings of that green path; he started not at the moorland sheep, which, ragged of fleece and dingy of hue, started from the covert at his side; he stumbled not where the fierce rains of autumn had worn deep and unseen channels among the roots of twisted heather; he swerved not from his regulated and springy trot, more than if the rein, which hung so listlessly from his arched neck, had been guided by the firm grasp of a master hand. Harlande though a keen and enthusiastic sportsman, turned not an eye or a thought to the moorcock, which sprung on whirring wing from under the very hoof of his charger, and lighted again almost within shot of the invader of his lonely domains: though an eager admirer of all the beauties of the magnificent earth and sky, his countenance gave no token of delight as he saw the gorgeous view of Wharfdale outstretched beneath his eye. Though behind him lay hill rising above hill, less and less distinct as they melted into the misty haze common to all lands of mountain, and before him, in the remote distance, a sullen fog on the horizon announced the smoky opulence of Leeds, relieved by a bright and glowing foreground of pastoral scenery and rich cultivation. Deep pastures peopled with sleek herds of cattle or noble horses-stubbles which had already gladdened the heart of the farmer with their garnered stores-woodlands ringing to the shot of the sportsman-thousands of snug and happy homes peeping from every leafy nook, while here and there the stately mansion of some rich proprietor looked proudly over its subject demesne, or the dismantled tower of some feudal lord of the olden time, frowned in gray and ivied solitude over the beautiful valley. Evening found the wanderer at his solitary meal in a dingy tavern of the populous town, his wearied horse enstalled at rack and manger, till a servant should reconduct him to his now distant home. Time hung drearily on the exiled youth, and he had yet some hours to wait, before the mail should hurry him away still further from the seat of his ancestors: the wine which he had ordered stood untasted before him; the thumbed and greasy Mercury was unread; and the long black-crowned wicks of the mould candles, which poured a visible gloom over the unpapered walls, clearly showed that the mind of the inmate was far away. Suddenly he snatched his hat, oppressed beyond endurance by an overwhelming sense of loneliness, and wandered away into the lighted streets. The night had come in thick and misty, the gass lamps shorn of half their beams, twinkled like exhalations from some foul morass; overhead thick clouds of inky smoke rolled from the chimnies of unnumbered factories; the din of hammers, the vibration of shuttles, the continuous click of machinery mingled with the quick tread of busy feet, and the ceaseless hum of happy voices, sunk into Lindley's heart; he felt that solitude, which had driven him from his lonely chamber, even more oppressive amidst the bustle of the innumerable multitude. He saw around him on every side evidences of the wealth and industry, the knowledge, and power of his country: his country!-alas! for him there was neither home nor country on the face of the globe; goaded by his impetuous feelings he hastened back to his deserted room, flung himself upon a chair, and sank into heavy and disturbed slumbers, from which he sprang, dreaming of fetters and dungeon, as the slipshod waiter rushed in to call him to the coach already announced by the twanging horn of the impatient guard. He arrived at Manchester in the gray twilight of early morning, and thanks to the speed of steam, superseding the strength of horse, and counting miles by minutes, reached Liverpool in time to get on board one of those splendid ships, which bear the wealth of European climes to the great emporium of the western world, and display the stars and stripes of America, unrivalled by merchant or trader of the ancient dominions, to the diberal airs of heaven. W. SONNET, ON A SLEEPING INFANT. VOL. I. SLEEP's dewy veil hath sealed thy curtained eyes, But slumber thus when earth's last woes are o'er, H. |