thee. Art thou not satisfied!" "The Alsatian cavity, out of town, (now near the corner of Spring gazed on the frantic youth, and with a sneering and Green streets,) which it was supposed might smile, said in his native language, Ja! ich bin auf dich und auf ihr geracht. Aye, I am revenged on her and on you!” The friends of the unfortunate bridegroom now surrounded him, and endeavored to persuade him to leave the room. be his sister, and that his presence was required at the spot. The young man raised his eyes to heaven for support in that trying moment, and then having subdued his feelings to christian resignation, followed the stranger into the sleigh. They drove in silence until they arrived at a large “One word more," he said, struggling from them, and desolate field, where they saw a collection of "one more appeal and I am done; hear me, Alsa-people, standing on the edge of a deep cavity— tian. Thou didst only vow revenge, in case she married me; we are not married, and here I bind myself if thou wilt restore her to her mother's arms never to see her more. Herman speak, thou knowest with what an absorbing idolatry I loved her, I give her up; but oh, do not harm that gentle being!" The Alsatian stood with his arms folded, gazing scoffingly in the face of his wretched victim, and like another Zanga, he said, "Groan on! thy groans are music to my soul." Two days after this the family of the lost Esther, were all sitting together around the fire. In a large stuffed chair in the corner, sat the mother, her hands were clasped together, and her eyes were fixed on the flickering flame before her, her countenance as well as those around, was expressive of the deepest heart-seated woe. Silence was in the room, for all there had been taught early to repress every outward demonstration of feeling, and tears and sobs were deemed a weakness. The door opened and Amy R—, a celebrated preacher entered the room. A silent grasp of the hand from all, and a whispered how is thee Judith," and "how art thou friend Amy," was the only greeting between them. She then slowly laid aside her close bonnet, and hooded drab cloth cloak, and displayed under her small simple cap, a face expressive of kindness and pious humility. She seated herself and for a few moments, the silence was only disturbed by the rising wind without. At last she began in a soft low voice, to tell them that she had been inwardly moved that day to call upon them and give 44 them a few words of religious counsel, and consolation on their late bereavement. That it had been "borne in upon her mind," to speak to them of peace from on high, and remind them of the promises which would heal their broken hearts, and bind up their wounds. The words of consolation and pity, flowed gently from her lips, and while her hearers listened, the insufferable weight seemed to be leaving their hearts; and their thoughts were gradually withdrawn, from the sorrows of earth to their fathers house" above. She then asked them to kneel in supplication, to that being, who could alone sooth their griefs. The prayers and heavenly counsel of the good Amy, came like a healing balin, to the hearts of the unhappy family, and they were soon enabled to converse calmly on their loss. At that moment, a servant beckoned Jeremiah out of the room. He went to the door, and was told, a gentleman in the front parlor, wished to see him. Here he found a stranger, who, after keeping him some time, with the tantalizing intimation of having unpleasant news to communicate, which would demand all his fortitude,-at last told him a young female, had been discovered in a deep gazing below. Jeremiah approached-threw one glance into the horrid abyss, and turned shuddering away,-there, far down in that gloomy and revolting spot, lay a fair young girl, whose dark hair, several persons were endeavoring to disengage from the snow, which surrounded her. Jeremiah's usual subdued, and passionless exterior, would have pronounced him, a youth of little sensibility; but the agony, that rent his heart at that moment, told a different tale. He turned from the dreadful spot, so completely unnerved, that he was obliged to be supported. "Alas!" he sighed, as he gazed around on that lonely plain, swept by the wintry blasts. "What a dreary resting place, for the gentle Esther! what a dismal nuptial couch for a blooming bride!" An arm was placed within his, and the stranger who had brought him there, and who was also the landlord of a small tavern near the place, now whispered that the body was about to be deposited in his house, and it was necessary for him to go and identify it. 46 No, no!" cried the agonized brother," spare me that! I cannot again look on yon heart-rending sight!" The landlord by soothing and entreating him, at last drew him to the room. One glance was enough. My sister! My Esther!" he cried, "would I could have died for thee!" Yes, there she lay, that lovely being, in the ally dropped from their eyes, told the sorrow such "What a black hearted fellow that must have been, who did that deed," observed one of the group. "Yes," said another, "I should'nt like to stand in his shoes at the last day." "Poor young creature," said the hostess, while, as she bent over the corpse, her tears fell on its face, "what must her mother feel! Suppose it had been my own child! Oh, the villain! he's worse than a Narragansett Injin! If I had him I've a kind of a notion, but mum-for if the coroner's jury in the next room hear us they'll have us up and examine us in no time." "I've he'ern, it was a kind of a furriner." The landlord nodded sagaciously. "Do tell!" inquired the landlord's wife. "Well I never thought our folks had a hand in it; if there is ever an ugly job, done in this country, you are sure to hear it was by some one from over the water. I wish to gracious," she added vehemently, that the ocean was twice as broad as it is." At that moment a young man burst into the room with his dress disordered, and his countenance ex pressive of insanity. "Where is the coroner!" he exclaimed loudly. Where is the justice! I have come to surrender myself as a murderer. Here in the face of the world, I come to proclaim myself, Joseph Denham, as the murderer of Esther Hanway." "Joseph!" exclaimed Jeremiah, rushing into the room and grasping his arm. "What is it thou say est, thou can'st not mean it!" I do mean it Jeremiah!" "Thou art beside thyself-thou never couldst have placed that dagger in thy own Esther's heart!" "I did not plunge the dagger, but I placed the wretch in her path who did the deed. It was my folly, my wickedness which brought all this desoJation on us. Aye, gentlemen of the jury," he cried tossing his arms violently; "I left my pure home, and herded with the monsters of the earth, and brought them from their den to devour that gentle Jamb." "Dear Joseph!" said Jeremiah soothingly, "thou knowest not what thou art saying, thou wouldst criminate another without proof." Joseph with a sharp cry rushed towards the corpse. He opened her hand, and exposed to view a dark brown tassel, with an embroidered heading, which was instantly recognized by all present, as one of those ornaments, usually wore on gentlemen's coats, and more particularly by foreigners. Jeremiah's cheek blanched as he remembered such tassels on the dress of the erring Joseph's profligate friend, the Alsatian. "Here is a damning witness!" cried Joseph. "Jeremiah, thou hast seen the very coat from which this was torn-aye, torn in dying agony, by my poor-lost--" with a hysteric sob, the wretched young man fell insensible on the corpse of his murdered bride. He was carried from the room by the compassionate Jeremiah, and some of the surrounding people. There were but a few left in the room, and these were wiping away the tears which blinded them, when a tall swarthy man entered. His hat was pulled over his eyes, and his cloak concealed the remainder of his face. He advanced to the corpse, knelt down, and pressed the delicate hand to his forehead, while a groan of the deepest anguish burst from his inmost soul. Revenge!" he said in a low voice of agony, "what is revenge-love has conquered vengeance. Ah Esther! liebe Esther! I never knew the deep love I bore thee until this hour. Oh, ruler above," he exclaimed, lifting his hands on high, "give me but power to undo this fiendish deed, and hurl me to the depths of eternal despair!" He leant over the inanimate form of his victim, and with a voice almost indistinct with passionate emotion, said, "Injured loveliness! could I but plunge this steel in my bosom, and thus bring life to thine, how readily would I do it! But it is in vain-my destiny is sealed. Years of penitence and penance must expiate this deed. Farewell only loved! that my dark crime may be ever before me," he said taking the blood stained rose from the bosom of the corpse, "this, a fitting emblem of that murdered purity, shall be placed above the crucifix in my solitary cell, as an ever living memento of the foulest deed that ever angered Heaven." He kissed the cold forehead of the lovely bride, and drawing his cloak around him, disappeared from the view of the bewildered inmates of the lonely tavern. E. R. S. She sat within the Abbey Walls. A maiden was there from her father's halls, For she was beauty's brightest gem; Were festoon'd with a diadem. Her lips, which sham'd the rose's red, Proclaim'd what words can never speak; Tho' eighteen summers scarce had shed Their warmth upon her crimson cheek. But faintly falls description's praise, "Twere vain to picture such a scene; And even royalty was mark'd to gaze, Admiringly on the lovely Queen. Beauty's Queen. Where joy and pleasure held their throne, A boon, in trust to mortals given; Ere she should grace her native Heaven. And dyed with tint of Heaven's own blue, As youth's bright garlands wreath it now. PASS OF THE ABRUZZI. A DREAM. picture which I had recently seen, carried my recol. lections. One scene, however, was uppermost in my mind. Never shall I forget the events of that evening. The Estafetta had left Distria at three, and we expected to reach Rocca Priori by night-fall, the daylight being yet tolerably long, and eked out by an early moonrise. Ir was on a surly October day, that after having taking a peep at the ancient regal palace of Scone, I found myself, by three in the afternoon, with my feet on the fender, within the Salutation Inn at Perth. I had secured my seat to Edinburgh in the Spring Eagle; so had nought to do, but look forward to my solitary dinner, for which preparations were making. A volume of Washington Irving's Tales of a Traveller lay on a side table; and I endeavored to fill up Here were we three strangers, associated accithe hours of vacuity over the pages of that accom-dently-companions in travel for the last two daysplished and admirable writer. and bound together only by one tie of unity, that of reaching our rendezvous in company." Indeed, so much was I interested, that, however impatient before, I felt annoyed when the horn blew; and half reluctantly took my seat in the coach, into which two passengers had already stepped. They appeared, from several circumstances, to be husband and wife. Methinks I see him yet:-Opposite to me, with his back towards the horses, (a pair of sorry nags, in sorrier harness,) squatted a lusty Capuchin friar, whose conversational powers had been gradually wearing themselves out in anecdotes of monastic The lord and master of the twain was a gentle-life, so full of pathos and simple beauty, as would man of some fifty-five years, and the Lady, I have almost weaned an alderman to seclude himself should judge was about seventy. He had coiled from all the world congregated at a civic feast, and himself into a corner, which he left not unoccupied, have made him abhor the bare mention of calapash being a personage of imposing dimensions. A and calapee; and by my side, sate an elegantly low-crowned broad-brimmed chapeau was slouch-formed feinale, through whose close veil I could yet ed over his eyes; and a Spanish cloak of blue frieze, ample of fold, with a read collar, of the poodle-dog style of beauty, clasped tightly about his neck, left uot much of his countenance visible; save a little pair of black eyes, that glanced like a rat's, and two promontories, which might be guessed as the tips of his nose and chin. Immense bunches of lanky hair overhung his ears, and altogether, his hair was that of a substantial Lowland grazier. The wife-for so the my dears' that floated between them pointed her out to be-was externally At a small way-side inn we changed horses, and the reverse of all this. She was shivelled and proceeded, without dismounting from the vehicle. scraggy, one of Pharaoh's lean kind; with a treble- Our road now became more steep and rugged; and toned voice which omened her capability of scold-crack, crack, went the whip of the driver. As we ing. Ever and anon, she made a silent appeal to her snuff box-but, without this, her devotion to the 'noxious weed' of Sir Walter Raleigh might have been shrewdly imagined, from a certain expression of the nose and mouth, peculiar to all votaries of the herb. snatch traces of a beauty, which downcast eyes and a mournful silence could not obscure. A richly furred cloak was thrown across her shoulders, to protect her from the damps of the evening, and from the cold, which after sun-set, frequently becomes almost piercing in these elevated regions. It was evident that her fate had been a melancholy one, and that, probably, the darkness of it was not yet over. She travelled under the escort of the holy father, and not unlikely, her destiny was the convent. slowly wound along the ascent, we had time to survey the magnificent and ever-varying scenery around us. The wild fowl sprang from the thickets; and as the bright sunshine shot from the west, the alternations of light and shade became extremely picturesque in the rugged outlines of the wooden crags, and the slumbrous twilight of the valleys, into which a hundred streamlets fell sparkling. The poor animals soon became jaded; and a 'Cosyette!' and Corpo del Bacco!' was uttered by the irritated brandisher of the whip. The halcyon days of courtship having no doubt, long ago passed over between them, they found little to say to each other-and nothing to me. As we passed over Kinnoul Hill, twilight was setting in, and the day died away beyond the summits of the western Grampians. The eyes of the grazier, who sat like a Polar bear in the corner began to gather straws; and, at a rough rut on the road, I could perceive the head of Madame nodding a la Mandarin. The evening was cloudy and without frost: and I had occasionally a glimpse of the evening star. over the flying rock. The banks and forests by the way side looked sombre and gloomy; and resting my chin on the umbrella between my knees, imagination transported me to the mountain solitudes of the Apennines and the Abruzzi, amongst which I beautiful Signora, starting in alarm, "Let me not had formerly travelled, and whither an excellent Evening was setting in apace, and the Capuchin fidgetted about, as if he was uneasy. Looking across me, he ejaculated with something of anxiety-"I fear we shall get belated here We are yet seven miles from our destination and these very passes around us have not long ago, been the scene of robbery and murder. The village of Rocca Priori should have been reached by this time-that ever we shall reach it, I now much doubt." "Per l'amor di Dio! say not so ;" exclaimed the fall alive into the hands of those ruffian banditti! Methought I was about to enter a peaceful sanctua- that we were through these wild passes unquesry-and distress is still my companion. Had we tioned. We are but as clay in the hands of the potnot better dismount and return. "Be not alarmed, Imilda," said the Capuchin in a soothing tone. "The dangers of these roads may have been overdrawn; and although my profession forbids the use of arms, I doubt not our fellow travellers does not journey unprotected." ter! Would we were all safely landed within the gates of our monastery of San Francesco; and it might rain apple blossoms in January, ere they got me out again, to wander on any of their confounded missions." "Alas!" said the fair Signora, sobbing, “I seem destined to bring sorrow on all who even commiserate my situation. Would that I had died rather than have involved thee, holy father, in my "wretched fate." "I confess," returned I, groping in the side pocket of the carriage, for the wooden case containing my pistols," that I am not perhaps so well prepared as I might have been:-since so much danger is to be apprehended; for I was not aware of this route We had by this time gained the summit of an being infested in the manner you mention." Round eminence, from which we perceived, that the wild and round went my hand in the bottom of the pock-dim mountain scenery completely girdled up around. et; the case was not there-nor, to my mortifica- Nature here reigned in her stern and savage magtion, to be found within the vehicle. "This is most extraordinary," I exclaimed. "It is not possible, that in my hurry, I have left the case on the table? No-no-it cannot be. I have a distinct recollection of having put it into the pocket here, just after you, Sir, had got in-and before I returned for my cloak, which one of the servants was drying for me. I am as well assured that I placed it in this pocket, as I am of my own existence." "Indeed," said the Capuchin, "why it is not a little extraordinary, and somewhat unaccountable: but really, what we firmly intended to do, occasionally wears, in memory's eye, the aspect of something we have done; so much so, that it is difficult in such cases to discern between the intention and the fact. Very probably the dangers of the Abruzzi may have been drawn to me by an overcharged pencil. Surely man's nature cannot be in any state so degraded, that he would refuse mercy to a helpless maiden, or to an unoffending son of the Church! And your being in such company may be a sufficient protection for you. My heart could not but soften at this speech of the Reverend man, which betoken so much simplicity and ignorance of the ways of a wicked world. "Would holy father," returned I," that the heart of anan were as you imagine it!" "Have you then no other means of defence about you?" asked the Capuchin earnestly. It now occurred to ine-for I had forgotten it till this time-that I had a blade in my walking cane. "This cane is a sword-stick, said I, and may in extremity serve us instead of a better weapon.' "Unsheath it!" cried the Capuchin loudly, for we were just driving past a mountain torrent, which rendered his accents nearly inaudible-unsheath it, and let me see what sort of a thing it is." I did so; and as I pulled it half out, I chanced to look in his face, on which sate a sardonic grin. "It is slender,” he said and would require to be of good temper." The sneering laugh of the Capuchin somewhat perplexed me. "Alas!" he continued, "that is a mere lath of a thing-and is but a sorry protection for thee against a horde of Brigands." As he thus spoke, the fair Signora sank back into the corner of the carriage; and fetched a deep sigh. So powerfully was she affected, that I was in fears of her swooning altogether away. "Would to heaven!" exclaimed the holy father, nificence. The scope of the eye took in no vestige of man, or of his molehill works. Over abrupt and tremendous precipices hung venerable trees, that seemed almost mysteriously to have found footing. An occasional wild goat stood picturesquely on some bare ledge beween the eye and the horizon; and through clefts and fissures, rivulets, whose waters sparkled in the mellow rays of the setting sun, tumbled flashing into the dim and rayless valleys. Over all, the eagle screamed and soared dashing the last crimson beams of daylight from his majestic pinions. Descending the winding road we came to an angle which showed to us a fresh expanse of Alpine scenery-and there, between two parted hills, the light of the west broke in upon a platform of sod, where human figures were distinctly seen moving about. My first instinct was to scrutinize them, through my glass; there they were-free-booters to a certainty. They were clad in jackets and trowsers of gaudy colors, had the usual broad brimmed comicalcrowned hat; and their sashes stuck full of pistols and poniards. Several were reclining on the grass-a proof that we were not yet perceived, and others were seated around a fire which burned in a recess of the mountain-" Do you see that?" said to the monk, handing him over my telescope. I 64 "By San Gonnaro! is is all over with us," he exclaimed with a wonderful degree of coolness. There are not braver or more desperate men in Christendom, and we had better at once surrender at discretion. Each is an over-match for a lusty gen-d'armes; so I opine, we have no chance of routing a host of them with your sword stick. The die is thrown; let us all turn our pockets inside out and beg for mercy." So saying, the Capuchin scratched his shaven crown and smiled, or rather laughed. "And as for you, my fair Imilda," he added, "I would advise you to make up your mind to it. There are worse situations in the world than that of becoming a bandit's bride. Make a virtue of necessity, and the Mother church will absolve you, for I see no other way for it, my little rose-bud." A sudden thought now flashed across my mind; and as apparently we were not yet perceived by the banditti, I determined at once to put my suspicions to the test: I shall cry to the driver to halt," I said, " and let us dismount, ere it be too late." While in the act of rising for this purpose, I turned to the Signora, who, terror struck, remained almost insensible-saying, “Will you accompany | unspeakable in perhaps many bosoms which could me, or proceed forward! You may depend upon only have been so pierced by an unwise confidence whatever protection I can give, and on the honor in her, and preferred a slow and subtle revenge to of a gentleman I swear not to leave you while I have the happiness of forgiving and being forgiven. breath; if you prefer proceeding, of course I can- Self-love has afforded her many plausible excuses not help it. Stop! Ventiruno, I say, hollo!-stop!" for such a course, and grave moralists sometimes "Go on!" shouted the Capuchin at the top of his applaud the decorum and dignity of such conduct. voice, clapping his hand upon my mouth, and But bitter experience teaches another lesson, all too thrusting me down with his brawny arm, while in late. a twinkling one of my own pistols was cocked at my head. Pride can never be the fit substitute for faith, patience, and affection. When these fail, for any cause, a lady may diligently continue to flirt through the world, but she will lose her way. It is a melancholy sight to behold, yet is the retribution most righteous. Shall they who wantonly cause so many bitter tears to flow shed none them "Pinion him!" shouted the Signora. "Heu quantum mutatus ab illa!" "Pinion the fellow!"-and I felt myself seized by the elbows with any thing but feminine softness, by the beautiful unknown-who, doffing her veil and mask, showed a majestic aquiline nose, over-selves? looking a forest of mustaches. While he was It is a law of Providence that the lot of humanity groping for a pistol in his girdle, I dashed in des- shall be one of suffering and sorrow. peration the arm of the Capuchin aside, off went the cocked pistol, and whether he was shot or no, such a yell arose, that, in the utmost trepidation, I awoke. "The generous for another's woe" Let no one expect to escape remorse who is con "Hold him-hold him, for the sake of goodness," scious of having taken an insane delight in playing shouted the grazier, "he is furious-wild-non-upon the passions and sporting with the hopes and compos-is mad as a March hare." fears of another. "He has broken off all the coach windows!" cried the lady. "He has broken my head!" responded the mate. "Will nobody succor us?" "Murder! murder!" was the chorus of man and wife. When Jehu with his coat of nineteen capes, opened the door to inquire the meaning of all this strange disturbance, it was some time before I was sufficiently recovered from my sleep and terror, to explain that a striking picture which I had lately seen, had forcibly wrought on my imagination in a dream. At last I succeeded in persuading all parties that I was a safe travelling companion to the next stage; and ever since that night I have been frequently haunted with terrible visions of the Pass of the Abruzzi. Flirts. Ir is a horrible destiny for a fine woman to fulfil, upon whom Providence has lavishly bestowed the rich and rare gifts of beauty, fortune and education, all the charms of person and the advantages of station, to linger out at last a lonely life of solitude, unblessing and unblest. To be the loved of no feeling heart, the cynosure of no admiring eyes. Gradually and slowly to fade away and sink under sickness and disease. Surely to become the secret scoff and scorn of slyly circumventing flatterers and sycophants. To yearn after enjoyment which the humblest gatefully possess and mourn over prospects which selfishness has blasted. Such a fate though retributive is ever just. So having sown, thus must she reap. She has deliberately preferred to become as a wandering star, faintly and feebly glimmering on many to being the central sun of a domestic circle, a fountain of light and life and exquisite joy to many. She has calmy and coldly seen the cherished hopes of many consume away and slowly perish, one by one, and withheld that comfort and consolation which she only could give. Implanted agony and tortures Such may escape vengeance, but it seldom in the end proves child's play. The woman who has caused another's hopes to wither away, another's heart to falter and his reason to reel must not expect so wantonly to misuse the power God has given her with impunity. Whether she be actuated solely by vanity and a heedless and careless disregard of consequences, or any other motive, it is the same, some demoniac delusion of pride, some sinful fantasy has subtly ensnared her soul, and fatally mislead her. ORIGINAL. Summer's Moonlight Roses. Oh Nature! every varying light Each bright and latent charm, Which dewy morn discloses, On Summer's moonlight roses. I'd rather stray among their sweets With those warm hearts that love me,- To that pure orb above me,- Rings brightly through the bower. |