continued to read, "the deed can be perpetrated, and hours will intervene ere the theft is discovered. Shall it be stratagem, or shall it be violence? no matter which, each alike being certain if stratagem, 'tis but to flatter the vanity of a woman; no more; 'tis but to whisper love, and the business is done if violence, the dagger, and the assistance of Ruffino.

"Ruffino!" groaned Father Luitfrido;: "alas! then there could be no mercy.

"The paper is torn," said Huberto. "Dreadful break!" faltered the canon ;: "torn, and the dagger in the hand of Ruffino! Oh! hapless, lost victim! but the remainder; in pity decypher the remainder."

FRAGMENT THE THIRD.

"I acknowledge, friendship for you is but a secondary

c 5

a secondary consideration; revenge is the first. Last night, malice, hatred, envy,burned like a firebrand in my tortured heart; every fibre was distended, and I swore by created nature, by the glory of the blessed, by the pangs of the damned, to live but for vengeance: yes, powers of unknown destiny, grant me life to poison the joy of my ri-.. val, and then do with me as you please. I could have loved, I have loved, I do love, with an ardour not to be controuled; that love was rejected; that rejection colours. my every action. For what do I exist, but to stamp the curse of indignation, but to wield the barbed arrow of hatred, but to mock the sufferings of one she dared to prefer? for what do I exist, but to blast the felicity I cannot feel? Last night, unperceived, I marked the propelling impulse of nature, the solicitude of maternal tenderness I envied not the babe she caressed; no, had he worn the semblance of his father, I could have snatched him from her arms, I could have immolated his being;

but

but wrapped in infancy and innocence, Ieven. I felt pity-I-even I shed tears: weak and unmanly influence! As I gazed on her angel face, the last faint lingering spark of compassion threatened to overthrow all preceding resolves, threatened to subvert my oath, to make my promises and my vows, my determinations and my schemes, nugatory. But my rival came; and the sunny face of creation vanished; my rival came, and maddening rage, chaotic vengeance, banished the softened sentiments of humanity. I saw the beauteous. instigator of the mischief smile in his face, and hell was not hotter than my heart.Avaunt, unworthy, coward weakness, that would whisper pity!' I could have exclaimed; now and for ever, I tear you from my bosom:' but policy kept a guard upon my tongue, and with silent caution I watched them. Did he-and in my presencedid he kiss the glowing lip of beauty? yes, he did more, he threw his arm around her waist, he folded her to his bosom, he

called her his wife, his soul's comfort, the mother of his darling infant! Gods! had I possessed the envied power of the basilisk, I would have struck him dead; could I have guided the thunder of Omnipotence, I would have blasted him in the very sanctuary of his felicty: but the period of my triumph was not then arrived; it shall, it will come; yet will I bend her stubborn will, yet will I conquer her pride, yet will I subject her to my power; and then, yes, then, though hell yawns wide to ingulf the ravisher, then will I be master of her person"

FRAGMENT THE FOURTH.

"What a reluctant consent have you tendered, Alverani! At length you deign to snatch the prize Fortune holds to your acceptance. But what a sea of morality, what a page of idle reflection had I to encounter, ere I reached the decision! You feel an apprehension, you feel a conscious

ness

ness of error; your heart reproaches you ; ere the die is cast, it points to the precipice, into which, you say, weakness and indecision will plunge you. Strange, infatuated man! take for your cloak the plea of mercy; think that you save a life, and turn aside the shaft of conscience; but remember, when once embarked in an enterprise so profound, silence and secresy must be observed, must be the ruling law of action; no start of piety, no religious fanaticism must breathe the tale, for the hour which witnesses your apostacy, witnesses the darings of my revenge."

FRAGMENT THE FIFTH.

"Still repining, still the victim of pusillanimous fear! 'tis no matter, the deed is done, and you cannot recant; the die is cast, and Fortune favoured the project. If still ungrateful for the riches I have lavished on you, if still a slave to the silly axioms of the world, if still scared by the bugbear conscience, turn beadsman and repent;