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Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848

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Title: Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3.  March 1848

Author: Various

Editor: Robert Taylor Conrad
        George R. Graham


        
Release date: June 25, 2009 [eBook #29236]
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Language: English

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Produced by David T. Jones, Juliet Sutherland and the
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GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.

VOL. XXXII. PHILADELPHIA, MARCH, 1848. No. 3.




THE CRUISE OF THE GENTILE.

BY FRANK BYRNE.


CHAPTER I.

_In which the reader is introduced to several of the dramatis personæ._


On the evening of the 25th of March, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, the ship Gentile, of Boston,
lay at anchor in the harbor of Valetta.

It is quite proper, gentle reader, that, as it is with this ship and
her crew that you will chiefly have to do in the following yarn, they
should be severally and particularly introduced to your notice.

To begin, then. Imagine yourself standing on the parapet of St. Elmo,
about thirty minutes past five o'clock on the evening above mentioned;
the Gentile lies but little more than a cable's length from the shore,
so that you can almost look down upon her decks. You perceive that she
is a handsome craft of some six or seven hundred tons burthen,
standing high out of water, in ballast trim, with a black hull, bright
waist, and wales painted white. Her bows flare very much, and are
sharp and symmetrical; the cut-water stretches, with a graceful curve,
far out beyond them toward the long sweeping martingal, and is
surmounted by a gilt scroll, or, as the sailors call it, a
fiddle-head. The black stern is ornamented by a group of white figures
in bas relief, which give a lively air to the otherwise sombre and
vacant expression, and beneath the cabin-windows is painted the name
of the ship, and her port of register. The lower masts of this vessel
are short and stout, the top-masts are of great height, the extreme
points of the fore and mizzen-royal poles, are adorned with gilt
balls, and over all, at the truck of the main sky-sail pole, floats a
handsome red burgee, upon which a large G is visible. There are no
yards across but the lower and topsail-yards, which are very long and
heavy, precisely squared, and to which the sails are furled in an
exceeding neat and seaman-like manner. The rigging is universally taut
and trim; and it is easy to perceive that the officers of the Gentile
understand their business. The swinging-boom is rigged out, and
fastened thereto, by their painters, a pair of boats, a yawl and gig,
float lovingly side by side; and instead of the usual ladder at the
side, a handy flight of accommodation steps lead from the water-line
to the gangway.

Now, dear reader, leaving the battlements of St. Elmo, you alight upon
the deck of our ship, which you find to be white and clean, and, as
seamen say, sheer--that is to say, without break, poop, or
hurricane-house--forming on each side of the line of masts a smooth,
unencumbered plane the entire length of the deck, inclining with a
gentle curve from the bow and stern toward the waist. The bulwarks are
high, and are surmounted by a paneled monkey-rail; the belaying-pins
in the plank-shear are of lignum-vitæ and mahogany, and upon them the
rigging is laid up in accurate and graceful coils. The balustrade
around the cabin companion-way and sky-light is made of polished
brass, the wheel is inlaid with brass, and the capstan-head, the
gangway-stanchions, and bucket-hoops are of the same glittering metal.
Forward of the main hatchway the long-boat stands in its chocks,
covered over with a roof, and a good-natured looking cow, whose stable
is thus contrived, protrudes her head from a window, chews her cud
with as much composure as if standing under the lee of a Yankee
barn-yard wall, and watches, apparently, a group of sailors, who,
seated in the forward waist around their kids and pans, are enjoying
their coarse but plentiful and wholesome evening meal. A huge
Newfoundland dog sits upon his haunches near this circle, his eyes
eagerly watching for a morsel to be thrown him, the which, when
happening, his jaws close with a sudden snap, and are instantly agape
for more. A green and gold parrot also wanders about this knot of men,
sometimes nibbling the crumbs offered it, and anon breaking forth into
expressions which, from their tone, evince no great respect for some
of the commandments in the Decalogue. Between the long-boat and the
fore-hatch is the galley, where the "Doctor" (as the cook is
universally called in the merchant service) is busily employed in
dishing up a steaming supper, prepared for the cabin mess; the
steward, a genteel-looking mulatto, dressed in a white apron, stands
waiting at the galley-door, ready to receive the aforementioned
supper, whensoever it may be ready, and to convey it to the cabin.

Turning aft, you perceive a young man pacing the quarter-deck, and
whistling, as he walks, a lively air from La Bayadere. He is dressed
neatly in a blue pilot-cloth pea-jacket, well-shaped trowsers,
neat-fitting boots, and a Mahon cap, with gilt buttons. This gentleman
is Mr. Langley. His father is a messenger in the Atlas Bank, of
Boston, and Mr. Langley, jr. invariably directs his communications to
his parent with the name of that corporation somewhere very legibly
inscribed on the back of the letter. He is an apprentice to the ship,
but being a smart, handy fellow, and a tolerable seaman, he was deemed
worthy of promotion, and as his owner could find no second mate's
berth vacant in any of his vessels, the Gentile has rejoiced for the
last twelve months in the possession of a third mate in the person of
Mr. Langley. He is about twenty years of age, and would be a sensible
fellow, were it not for a great taste for mischief, romance, theatres,
cheap jewelry, and tight boots. He quotes poetry on the weather
yard-arm, to the great dissatisfaction of Mr. Brewster, (to whom you
will shortly be introduced,) who often confidentially assures the
skipper that the third mate would have turned out a natural fool if
his parents had not providentially sent him to sea.

But while you have been making the acquaintance of Mr. Langley, the
steward has brought aft the dishes containing the cabin supper. A
savory smell issues from the open sky-light, through which also
ascends a ruddy gleam of light, the sound of cheerful voices, and the
clatter of dishes. After the lapse of a few minutes the turns of Mr.
Langley in pacing the deck grow shorter, and at last, ceasing to
whistle and beginning to mutter, he walks up to the sky-light and
looks down into the cabin below. Gentle reader, place yourself by his
side, and now attend as closely as the favored student did to
Asmodeus.

The fine-looking seaman reclining upon the cushioned transom, picking
his teeth while he scans the columns of a late number of the Liverpool
Mercury, is Captain Smith, the skipper, a regular-built, true-blue,
Yankee ship-master. Though his short black curls are thickly sprinkled
with gray, he has not yet seen forty years; but the winds and suns of
every zone have left their indelible traces upon him. He is an
intelligent, well-informed man, though self-taught, well versed in the
science of trade, and is a very energetic and efficient officer.

The tall gentleman, just folding his doily, is the mate of the ship,
Mr. Stewart. You would hardly suppose him to be a sailor at the first
glance; and yet he is a perfect specimen of what an officer in the
merchant service should be, notwithstanding his fashionably-cut
broadcloth coat, white vest, black gaiter-pants, and jeweled fingers.
He is dressed for the theatre. Mr. Stewart is a graduate of Harvard,
and at first went to sea to recover the health which had been somewhat
impaired by hard study; but becoming charmed with the profession, he
has followed it ever since, and says that it is the most manly
vocation in the world. He is a great favorite with the owner of the
ship; and when he is at Boston, always resides with him. He will
command a ship himself after this voyage. His age is twenty-eight. Mr.
Stewart is a handsome man, a polite gentleman, an accomplished
scholar, a thorough seamen, a strict but kind officer, a most
companionable shipmate, and, in one word--a fine fellow.

Next comes Mr. Brewster, the second mate. That is he devouring those
huge slices of cold beef with so much gusto, while Langley mutters,
"Will he never have done!" He with the blue jacket, bedizzened so
plentifully with small pearl buttons, the calico shirt, and
fancifully-knotted black silk cravat around his brawny neck.

Mr. Micah Brewster hails from Truro, Cape Cod, and, like all Capemen,
is a Yankee sailor, every inch of him. He commenced going to sea when
only twelve years old, by shipping for a four months' trip in a
banker; and in the space of fourteen years, which have since elapsed,
he has not been on shore as many months. He is complete in every
particular of seamanship, and is, besides, a tolerably scientific
navigator. He knows the color and taste of the water all along shore
from Cape Farewell to the Horn, and can tell the latitude and
longitude of any place on the chart without consulting it. Bowditch's
Epitome, and Blunt's Coast Pilot, seem to him the only books in the
world worth consulting, though I should, perhaps, except Marryatt's
novels and Tom Cringle's Log. But of matters connected with the shore
Mr. Brewster is as ignorant as a child unborn. He holds all landsmen
but ship-builders, owners, and riggers, in supreme contempt, and can
hardly conceive of the existence of happiness, in places so far inland
that the sea breeze does not blow. A severe and exacting officer is
he, but yet a favorite with the men--for he is always first in any
emergency or danger, his lion-like voice sounding loud above the roar
of the elements, cheering the crew to their duty, and setting the
example with his own hands. He is rather inclined to be irritable
toward those who have gained the quarter-deck by the way of the
cabin-windows, but, on the whole, I shall set him down in the list of
good fellows.

That swarthy, curl-pated youngster, in full gala dress for the
theatre, drawing on his gloves, and hurrying Mr. Stewart, is, dear
reader, your most humble, devoted, and obedient servant, Frank Byrne,
_alias_, myself, _alias_, the ship's cousin, _alias_, the son of the
ship's owner. Supposing, of course, that you believe in Mesmerism and
clairvoyance, I shall not stop to explain how I have been able to
point out the Gentile to you, while you were standing on the bastion
of St. Elmo, and I all the while in the cabin of the good ship,
dressing for the theatre, and eating my supper, but shall immediately
proceed to inform you how I came there, to welcome you on board, and
to wish you a pleasant cruise with us.

About two years ago, (I am speaking of the 25th of March, A. D. 1839,
in the present tense,) I succeeded in persuading my father to gratify
my predilection for the sea, by putting me on board of the Gentile,
under the particular care of Captain Smith, to try one voyage--so I
became the ship's cousin. Contrary to the predictions of my friends,
I returned determined to go again, and to become a sailor. Now a
ship's cousin's berth is not always an enviable one, notwithstanding
the consanguinity of its occupant to the planks beneath him, for he,
usually feeling the importance of the relationship, is hated by
officers and men, who annoy him in every possible way. But my case was
an exception to the general rule. Although at the first I was
intimately acquainted with each of the officers, I never presumed upon
it, but always did my duty cheerfully and respectfully, and tried hard
to learn to be a good seaman. As my father allowed me plenty of
spending money, I could well afford to be open-handed and generous to
my shipmates, fore and aft; and this good quality, in a seaman's
estimation, will cover a multitude of faults, and endears its
possessor to his heart. In fine, I became an immense favorite with all
hands; and even Mr. Brewster, who at first looked upon my advent on
board with an unfavorable eye, was forced to acknowledge that I no
more resembled a ship's cousin than a Methodist class-leader does a
midshipman.

Mr. Stewart and myself had always been great friends before I went to
sea. When I first came on board, Mr. Langley, who had been my
school-mate and crony, was, though one of the cabin mess, only an
apprentice, and had not yet received his brevet rank as third
mate--Mr. Stewart, of course, stood his own watch, and chose Langley
and myself as part of it. The mate generally kept us upon the
quarter-deck with him, and many were the cozy confabs we used to hold,
many the choice cigars we used to smoke upon that handy loafing-place,
the booby-hatch, many the pleasant yarns we used to spin while pacing
up and down the deck, or leaning against the rail of the companion. As
I have said, Mr. Stewart was a delightful watch-mate--and Bill Langley
and I used to love him dearly, and none the worse that he made us toe
the line of our duty. He always, however, appeared to prefer me to
Langley, and to admit me to more of his confidence. Since Bill's
promotion we had not seen so much of the mate, but still, during our
late tedious voyage from Calcutta, he had often come upon deck in our
watch, and hundreds of long miles of the Indian Ocean had been
shortened in the old way.

Gentle reader, you are as much acquainted with the Gentile, and the
quint who compose her cabin mess, as you could hope to be at one
interview.




CHAPTER II.

_News from Home._


Mr. Langley had just commenced his supper with a ravenous appetite,
stimulated by the tantalizing view of our previous gastronomic
performances, which he had had through the sky-light, the mate and
myself were on the point of going on deck to go ashore, the captain
had just lighted a second cigar, when Mr. Brewster, who had relieved
poor Langley in the charge of the deck, made his appearance at the
cabin door, bearing in his hands a large packet.

"She's in, sir!" he shouted, "she came to anchor in front of the
Lazaretto while we were at supper, and Bill here didn't see her. The
quarantine fellows brought this along. Bill, you must be a bloody
fool, to let a ship come right under our stern, and sail across the
bay, and not know nothing about it."

Langley, whose regards for the supper-table had drawn his attention
from the arrival of a ship which had been expected by us for more than
a week, and by whom we had anticipated the receipt of the packet the
skipper now held in his hands, Langley, I say, blushed, but said
nothing, and turned toward the captain, who, with trembling hands, was
cutting the twine which bound the precious bundle together.

Now our last letters from Boston had been written more than a year
before, had been read at Calcutta, since then we had sailed fifteen
thousand miles from Calcutta to Trieste, and from Trieste to Valetta,
and here we had been pulling at our anchor for three weeks, waiting
orders from my father by the ship which had just arrived; it is not
wonderful, therefore, that the group which surrounded Capt. Smith were
very pale, eager, anxious-looking men. How much we were to learn in
ten minutes time; what bitter tidings might be in store for us in that
little packet.

At last it is open, and newspapers and letters in rich profusion meet
our gaze; with a quick sleight the captain distributes them, sends a
half dozen to their owners in the forecastle by the steward, and then
ensues a silence broken only by the snapping of seals, and the
rattling of paper. Suddenly Mr. Stewart uttered an exclamation of
surprise, and looking up from my letter, I noticed the quick exchange
of significant glances between the captain and mate.

"You've found it out, then," said the skipper.

The mate nodded in reply, and gathering up his letters, retired
precipitately to his state-room.

At this juncture, Mr. Brewster, who had just finished the perusal of a
very square, stiff-looking epistle, gave vent to a prolonged whistle.

"Beats thunder, I swear!" said he, "if the old woman haint got spliced
again--and she's every month of fifty-six years old."

"That's nothing," cried Langley, "only think, father has left the
Atlas Bank, and is now Mr. Byrnes' book-keeper; and they talk of
shutting up the Tremont theatre, and Bob here says that Fanny Ellsler
is--"

"Avast there!" interrupted the skipper, "clap a stopper over all that,
and stand by to hear where we are bound to-morrow, or next day. Have
any of you found out yet?"

"No, sir," cried Langley and I in a breath, "Home, I hope."

"Not so soon," replied Captain Smith, "as soon as maybe we sail for
Matanzas de Cuba, to take aboard a sugar freight for the
Baltic--either Stockholm or Cronstadt; so that when we make
Boston-light it will be November, certain. How does that suit ye,
gentlemen?"

I was forced to muster all my stoicism to refrain from whimpering; Mr.
Langley gave utterance to a wish, which, if ever fulfilled, will
consign the cities of Cronstadt, Stockholm, and Matanzas to the same
fate which has rendered Sodom, Gomorrah, and Euphemia so celebrated.
Mr. Brewster alone seemed indifferent. That worthy gentleman snapped
his fingers, and averred that he didn't care a d--n where he went to.

"Besides," said he, "a trip up the Baltic is a beautiful summer's
work, and we shall get home in time for thanksgiving, if the governor
don't have it earlier than common."

"Matanzas!" inquired Langley; "isn't there where Mr. Stowe moved to,
captain?"

"Yes," replied the skipper, "he is Mr. Byrnes' correspondent there--"

"Egad, then, Frank, we shall see the girls, eh, old fellow!" and Mr.
Langley began to recover his serenity of mind.

"Beside all this," added the skipper, "Frank has a cousin in
Matanzas--a nun in the Ursuline Convent."

"So I have just found out," said I; "father bids me to be sure and see
her, if possible, and says that I must ask you about it. It is very
odd I never have heard of this before. By the bye, Bill, my boy, look
at this here!" and I displayed a draft on Mr. Stowe for $200.

At this moment Mr. Stewart's state-room door opened, and he appeared.
It was evident that he had heard bad news. His face was very grave,
and his manner forced.

"Frank," said he, "you must excuse my company to-night. Langley will
be glad to go with you; and as we sail so soon, I have a good deal to
do--"

"But," said I, hesitating, "may I inquire whether you have received
bad news from home?"

"On the contrary, very good--but don't ask any questions, Frank; be
off, it is very late to go now."

"Langley," said I, as we were supping at a _café_, after the closing
of the theatre, "isn't it odd about that new cousin of mine?"

"Ay,", replied my companion, "and it is odd about Stewart's actions
to-night; and it will be odd if I don't kiss Mary Stowe; and it will
be odd if you don't kiss Ellen; and it will be odd if I arn't made
second mate after we get home from this thundering long voyage; and,
finally, it will be most especially odd if we find all our boat's crew
sober when we get down to the quay."

Nothing so odd as that was the case; but after some little difficulty
we got on board, and Langley and myself retired to the state-room
which we held as tenants in common.




CHAPTER III.

_In which four thousand miles are gained._


We laid almost a week longer wind-bound. At last the skipper waxed
impatient, and one fine morning we got out our boats, and with the
help of the Pharsalia's boats and crew, we were slowly towed to sea.
Here we took a fine southwesterly breeze, and squared away before it.
Toward night we had the coast of Sicily close under our lee, and as
far away as the eye could reach, the snow-capped summit of Ætna,
ruddy in the light of the setting sun, rose against the clear blue of
the northern sky.

    *    *    *    *    *

We had as fine a run to Gibralter as any seaman could wish; but after
passing the pillars of Hercules there was no more good weather beyond
for us until we crossed the tropic, which we did the 10th of May, in
longitude about sixty degrees, having experienced a constant
succession of strong southerly and westerly gales. But having passed
the tropic, we took a gentle breeze from the eastward, and with the
finest weather in the world, glided slowly along toward our destined
port.

I shall never forget the evening and night after the 15th of May. We
were then in the neighborhood of Turks Island, heading for the Caycos
Pass, and keeping a bright look-out for land. It was a most lovely
night, one, as Willis says, astray from Paradise; the moon was shining
down as it only does shine between the tropics, the sky clear and
cloudless, the mild breeze, just enough to fill our sails, pushing us
gently through the water, the sea as glassy as a mountain-lake, and
motionless, save the long, slight swell, scarcely perceptible to those
who for long weeks have been tossed by the tempestuous waves of the
stormy Atlantic. The sails of a distant ship were seen, far away to
the north, making the lovely scene less solitary; the only sounds
heard were the rippling at the bows, the low sough of the zephyr
through the rigging, the cheeping of blocks, as the sleepy helmsman
allowed the ship to vary in her course, the occasional splash of a
dolphin, and the flutter of a flying-fish in the air, as he winged his
short and glittering flight. The air was warm, fragrant, and
delicious, and the larboard watch of the tired crew of the Gentile,
after a boisterous passage of forty days from Gibralter, yielded to
its somnolent influence, and lay stretched about the forecastle and
waists, enjoying the voluptuous languor which overcomes men suddenly
emerging from a cold into a tropical climate.

Mr. Langley, myself, and the skipper's dog, reclined upon the
booby-hatch. The first having the responsibility of the deck contrived
to maintain a half upright position, and to keep one eye open, but the
other two, prostrate by each others' side, slumbered outright.

"What's the time, Bill?" I asked, at length, rousing myself, and
shaking off the embrace of Rover, who was loth to lose his bedfellow.

"'We take no note of time,'" spouted the third mate, drawing his watch
from his pocket. "For'ard, there! strike four bells, and relieve the
wheel. Keep your eye peeled, look-out; and mind, no caulking."

"Ay ay, sir," was the lazy response, and in a moment more the
_ting-ting_, _ting-ting_, of the ship's bell rang out on the silent
air, and proclaimed that the middle watch was half over, or, in
landsmen's lingo, that it was two o'clock, A. M.

"Lay along, Rover," I muttered, preparing for another snooze.

"Oh! avast that Frank; come, keep awake, and let's talk."

"Talk!" said I, "about what, pray?"

"Oh! I don't know," replied Bill. "I tell you what, Frank, if it
wasn't for being cock of the roost myself, I should wish that Stewart
headed this watch now. What fine times we used to have, eh?--but he
has altered as well as the times--how odd he has acted by spells ever
since we got that packet at Malta. I'm d--d if I don't believe he got
news of the loss of his sweetheart."

"He never had any that I know of," I rejoined, "but he certainly did
hear something, for he has changed in his manner, and the skipper and
he have long talks by themselves, and I heard Stewart tell him one day
that after all it would have been better to have left the ship at
Gibralter, and not gone the voyage."

"Did he, though!" cried Langley; "in that case I should have been
second mate--however, I'm glad he didn't quit."

"Thank you, Bill," said a voice behind us; and turning in some
confusion we beheld Mr. Stewart standing in the companion. "How is her
head?" he continued, asking the usual question, to allow us to recover
from our embarrassment.

"About west, sir," replied Langley.

"Well, as the wind freshens a little and is getting rather to the
nor'ard, you'd better give your larboard braces a pull or two, and
then put your course rather north of west to hit the Pass."

"Ay ay, sir," said the third mate. "For'ard, there, come aft here, and
round in on the larboard braces. Keep her up, Jack, about west
nor'west."

After the crew had complied with the orders of the officer they
retired forward, and we of the quarter-deck seated ourselves on the
booby-hatch.

"We were talking about you when you came on deck, sir," said I, after
a short silence.

"Ah! indeed," replied the mate smiling.

"Yes," said Langley, "we thought it was rather odd you hadn't been on
deck lately, to see whether we boys were not running away with the
ship in your watch. It has been deuced lonesome these dark blowy
nights along back. If you had been on deck to spin us a yarn it would
have been capital."

"Boys," said the mate, taking out his cigar-case, "I've a great mind
to spin you a yarn now."

"Oh! do, by all means," cried the third mate and the ship's cousin
together.

We lighted our cigars; the mate took a few puffs to get fairly under
way, and then began.




CHAPTER IV.

_The Mate's Yarn._


"I've told you about a great many days' works, boys, but there is one
leaf in my log-book of which you as yet know nothing. It is now about
six years since I was in this part of the world, for the first and
only time. I was then twenty-two, and was second mate, Frank, of your
father's ship, the John Cabot. Old Captain Hopkin's was master, and
our present skipper was mate. One fine July afternoon we let go our
anchor alongside of the Castle of San Severino, in Matanzas harbor. A
few days after our arrival I was in a billiard-room ashore, quietly
reading a newspaper, when one of the losing players, a Spaniard of a
most peculiarly unpleasant physiognomy, turned suddenly around with an
oath, and declared the rustling of the paper disturbed him. As several
gentlemen were reading in different parts of the room I did not
appropriate the remark to myself, though I thought he had intended it
for me. I paid no attention to him, however, until, just as I was
turning the sheet inside out, the Spaniard, irritated by another
stroke of ill luck, advanced to me, and demanded that I should either
lay the newspaper aside or quit the room. I very promptly declined to
do either, when he snatched the paper from my hands, and instantly
drew his sword. I was unarmed, with the exception of a good sized
whalebone cane, but my anger was so great that I at once sprung at the
scamp, who at the instant made a pass at me. I warded the thrust as
well as I could, but did not avoid getting nicely pricked in the left
shoulder; but, before my antagonist could recover himself, I gave him
such a wipe with my cane on his sword-arm that his wrist snapped, and
his sword dropped to the ground. Enraged at the sight of my own blood,
which now covered my clothes in front, I was not satisfied with this,
but applying my foot to his counter, two or three vigorous kicks
sufficed to send him sprawling into the street. Captain Hopkins
arrived just as the fracas was over, and instantly sent for a surgeon,
and in the meantime I received the congratulations of all present on
my victory. I learned that my man was a certain Don Carlos Alvarez, a
broken down hidalgo, who had formerly been the master of a piratical
schooner, at the time when Matanzas was the head-quarters of pirates,
before Commodore Porter in the Enterprise broke up the haunt. When the
surgeon arrived he pronounced my wound very slight, and a slip of
sticking-plaster and my arm in a sling was thought to be all that was
necessary. After Captain Hopkins and myself got on board that night,
he told me a story, the repetition of which may somewhat surprise you,
Frank. Do you remember of ever hearing that a sister of your father
married a Cubanos merchant, some thirty odd years ago?"

"I remember hearing of it when a child," I replied, "and father in his
last letter says that I have a cousin now in the nunnery at Matanzas.
I suppose she is a daughter of that sister."

"You are right," resumed the mate, sighing slightly. "Your grandfather
had only two children. When your father was but a small boy, the whole
family spent the winter in Havana, to recruit your grandmother's
health, while your grandfather collected some debts which were due
him. While there, a young Creole merchant, heavily concerned in the
slave-trade, became deeply enamored with your aunt, and solicited her
hand. The young lady herself was nothing loth, but the elders disliked
and opposed the match; the consequence was an elopement and private
marriage, at which your grandfather was so exceedingly incensed that
he disowned his daughter, and never afterward held any communication
with her. Your aunt had two children, and died some fifteen years ago.
Your father shortly after received this intelligence by means of a
letter from the son, and the correspondence thus begun was continued
in a very friendly manner. Señor Garcia, your uncle by marriage,
became concerned, in a private way, like many other Cubanos merchants,
in fitting out piratical craft, and one of his confidential captains
was this same Alvarez whom I so summarily ejected from the
billiard-room. Garcia died in 1830, leaving a large property to his
children, and consigning the guardianship of the younger, a girl, to
his friend Don Carlos Alvarez. The will provided that in case she
should marry any person, but an American, without her guardian's
consent, her fortune should revert to her guardian; and in the choice
of an American husband her brother's wishes were not to be
contravened. The reservation in favor of Americans was made at the
entreaty of the brother, who urged the memory of his mother as an
inducement. Now it so turned out that Don Carlos, though forty years
old, and as ugly as a sculpin, became enamored with the beauty and
fortune of his ward, and, hoping to win her, kept her rigidly secluded
from the society of every gentleman, but especially that of the
American residents. Pedro Garcia, the brother, whom Captain Hopkins
represented to be a fine, manly fellow, was, however, much opposed to
such a plan, and ardently desired that his sister should marry an
American, being convinced that this was the only way for her to get a
husband and save her fortune. 'If,' said Captain Hopkins, in
conclusion, 'some smart young Yankee could carry the girl off, it
would be no bad speculation. Ben, you had better try yourself, you
couldn't please Mr. Byrne better.'

"'Much obliged,' I replied, 'but Yankee girls suit my taste tolerably
well, much better than pirates' daughters, and I hope that I can
please my owner well enough by doing my duty aboard ship.'

"'Pshaw! she is not a pirate's daughter exactly; she's Mr. Byrne's
niece.'

"'For all that,' I answered, 'I should expect to find my throat cut
some fine morning.'

"'Well, well,' said the old skipper, 'I only wish that I was a young
man, for the girl is said to be as handsome as a mermaid, and as for
money, I s'pose she's worth devilish nigh upon two hundred thousand
dollars.'

"The next day but one was Sunday, so after dressing myself in my
go-ashore toggery, I went with the skipper to take another stroll in
the city. We dined at a _café_, and then hearing the cathedral bells
tolling for vespers, I concluded to leave the skipper to smoke and
snooze alone, and go and hear the performances. It was rather a warm
walk up the hill, and, upon arriving at the cathedral, I stopped
awhile in the cool airy porch to rest, brush the dust from my boots,
arrange my hair and neckcloth, and adjust my wounded arm in its sling
in the most interesting manner. Just as I had finished these nice
little preliminaries, a volante drove up to the door, which contained,
why, to be sure, only a woman, but yet the loveliest woman I have
ever seen in any part of the world. Yes, Bill, your little dancer at
Valetta ought not to be thought of the same day.

"Well, boys, I fell in love incontinently at first sight, and was
taken all aback, but inspired by a stiff glass of eau-de-vie which I
had taken with my pineapple after dinner, I forged alongside, before
the negro postillion, cased to his hips in jack-boots, could dismount,
and offered my hand to assist the lady to alight from the carriage.
She at first gave me a haughty stare, but finally putting one of the
two fairest hands in the world into my brown paw, she reached terra
firma safely.

"'Thank you, señor,' said she, with a low courtesy, after I had led
her into the church.

"'Entirely welcome, ma'am,' I replied, as my mother had taught me to
do upon like occasions, 'and the more welcome, as I perceive you speak
English so fluently, that you must be either an English woman or my
own countrywoman.'

"'I am a Cubanos, señor,' said the lady, with a smile, 'but my mother
was an American, and I learned the language in the nursery--but,
señor, again I thank you for your gallantry, and so _adios_.' She
dipped her finger in the holy-water vase, crossed herself, and then
looking at me from under her dark fringed eyelids with a most
bewildering glance, and a smile which displayed two dazzling rows of
pearls between her ruby lips, she glided into the church.

"'Who is your mistress?' cried I, turning to the negro postillion, but
that sable worthy could not understand my question. The most
expressive pantomimes were as unavailable as words, and so in despair
I turned again into the porch, and stood in a reverie. I was clearly a
fathom deep in love, and as my extreme height is but five feet eleven
and a half, that is equivalent to saying that I was over head and ears
in love with the strange lady. I began to talk to myself. 'By Venus!'
said I, aloud, 'but she is an angel, regular built, and if I only
could find out her name and--'

"A smothered laugh behind me reminded me that so public a place was
hardly appropriate for soliloquizing about angels. I turned in some
vexation and encountered the laughing glance of a well dressed young
man, apparently about twenty-five, who had probably been edified by my
unconscious enthusiasm.

"'You are mistaken, señor,' said he in English, and looking quizzical;
'those images in the niches are said to represent saints and not
angels, though I must own they are admirably calculated to deceive
strangers. As you said you wished to know their names, I will tell
them to you--that is San Pablo, and that is San Pedro, and that is--'

"'You are kind, sir,' said I, interrupting him angrily, 'but I've
heard of the twelve apostles before.'

"'I want to know, as your countrymen say,' retorted the stranger, with
a good-natured mocking laugh.

"I fired up on this. 'Señor,' said I, 'if my countrymen are not so
polished in their speech as the Castilians and their descendants, they
never insult strangers needlessly. I have been insulted once before
in your city within a few days, and allow me to add for your
consideration, that the rascal got well kicked--'

"'You are very kind to give me such fair warning,' replied the
stranger, bowing, 'but allow me to ask whether the name of this person
you punished is Alvarez?'

"'I have heard so, and if he is a connection of yours I am--'

"'Stay, señor, don't get into a passion; believe me, that I thank you
most heartily for the good service you performed on the occasion to
which we allude. I only wish that I can be of use to you in return.'

"'Well, then, señor,' I replied, much mollified, and intent upon
finding out my fair incognito, 'a lady just now passed through into
the church, and if you can only tell me who she is, I will promise to
flog you all the bullies in Cuba.'

"'Ah, that would be a long job, dear señor, but if you will accept my
arm into the church, and point out the angel who has attracted your
notice, I will tell you her name and the part of heaven in which she
resides. She was very beautiful I suppose?'

"'Oh! exquisitely beautiful.'

"'Come, then, I am dying to find out which of our Matanzas belles has
had the good fortune to fascinate you--this way--do you use the holy
water?'

"'In we went and found the organ piping like a northeast snow squall,
and the whole assembly on their knees. The stranger and myself
ensconced ourselves near a large pillar, and I stood by to keep a
bright look out for the lady.

"At last I discovered her among a group of other women, kneeling at
the foot of an opposite pillar.

"'There she is,' I whispered to my companion, who had knelt upon his
pocket-handkerchief.

"'Well, in a moment,' he replied. 'I'm in the middle of a crooked
Latin prayer just now, and have to tell you so in a parenthesis.'

"A turn came to the ceremonies, and all hands arose.

"'_Sæcula sæculorum_,' muttered my companion, rising, 'Amen! now
where's your lady?'

"'Yonder, by the pillar,' I whispered, in a fit of ecstasy, for my
beautiful unknown in rising had recognized me, and given me another
thrilling glance from her dark eyes.

"'But there are a score of pillars all around us,' urged the stranger,
'point her out, señor.'

"'Well, then,' said I, extending my arm, 'there she is; you can't see
her face to be sure, but there can be only one such form in the world.
Isn't it splendid?'

"'There are so many ladies by the pillar that I cannot tell to a
certainty which one you mean,' whispered my would-be informant.
Stooping and glancing along my arm with the precision of a Kentucky
rifleman, I brought my finger to bear directly upon the head of the
unknown, who, as the devil would have it, at this critical juncture
turned her head and encountered the deadly aim which we were taking
at her.

"'That's she,' said I, dropping my arm, which had been sticking out
like a pump brake, 'that's she that just now turned about and blushed
so like the deuce--do you know her?'

"'Yes, but I can't tell you here,' was the laconic reply of my
companion; 'come, let's go. You are sure that is the lady,' he
continued, when we had gained the street.

"'Sure! most certainly; can there be any mistake about that face;
besides, didn't you notice how she blushed when she recognized me?'

"'Maybe,' suggested my new friend, 'she blushed to see me.'

"'Well,' said I, 'I don't know to be sure, but I think that the
emotion was on my account; but don't keep me in suspense any longer,
tell me who she is; can I get acquainted with her?'

"'Softly, softly, my friend, one question at a time. Step aboard my
volante, and as we drive down the street I'll give you the information
you so much desire. Will you get in?'

"I climbed aboard without hesitation, and was followed by my strange
friend; the postillion whipped up and we were soon under weigh.

"'Now,' resumed my companion, 'in reply to your first and oft-repeated
inquiry, I have the honor to inform you that the lady is my only
sister. As to your second question--I beg you won't get out--sit
still, my dear sir, I will drive you to the _café_--your second
question I cannot so well answer. It would seem that my sister herself
is nothing loth--sit easy, sir, the carriage is perfectly safe--but
unfortunately it happens that the gentleman who has the control of her
actions, her guardian, dislikes Americans extremely; and I have reason
to believe that he has taken a particularly strong antipathy to you.
Indeed, I have heard him swear that he'll cut your throat--pardon me,
Mr. Stewart, for the expression, it is not my own.'

"Surprise overcame my confusion. 'Señor,' cried I, interrupting him,
'it seems you know my name, and--'

"'Certainly I do--Mr. Benjamin Stewart, of the ship John Cabot.'

"'Señor,' I cried, half angrily, 'since you know my address so well,
will you not be so kind as to favor me with yours?'

"'Mine! oh yes, with pleasure, though I now recollect that I have
omitted to state my sister's name--hers first, if you please; it is
Donna Clara Garcia.'

"'And yours is Pedro Garcia.'

"'Exactly, with a _Don_ before it, which my poor father left me. You
perceive, Mr. Stewart, by what means I knew you after your warning
about the kicking, eh? I suspected it was yourself, when I saw an
American gentleman with his arm in a sling, and so I made bold to
accost you in the midst of your rhapsody about angels--'

"'Ah! Don Pedro,' I stammered in confusion, when I recalled the
ludicrous scene, 'how foolish I must appear to you.'

"'For what, señor--for thinking my sister handsome? You do my taste
injustice. I think so myself.'

"We rode on in silence a few minutes. I recalled all that Captain
Hopkins had told me about my new acquaintance, his sister, and her
guardian. I took heart of grace, and determined to know more of the
beautiful creature whom I had now identified; but when I turned toward
my companion, his stern expression, so different from the one his
features had hitherto borne, almost disheartened me.

"'Don Pedro,' said I, with hesitation, 'may I ask if you are angry at
the trifling manner with which I have spoken of your sister before I
knew her to be such?'

"'Is it necessary for me to assure you to the contrary?' he asked,
with a smile again lighting up his face.

"'But if,' I continued, 'I should say that the admiration I have
manifested is sincere, that even in the short time I have seen her
to-day, I have been deeply interested, and that I ardently desire her
acquaintance.'

"'Why, señor, in that case, I should reply, that my sister is very
highly honored by your favorable notice, and that I should do my
possible to make you know each other better. If,' he continued, 'the
case you have supposed be the fact, I think I can manage this matter,
her old janitor to the contrary notwithstanding.'

"'I do say, then,' I replied, with enthusiasm, 'that the sight of
Donna Clara has excited emotions in my bosom I have never felt before.
I shall be the happiest man in the world to have the privilege of
knowing her.'

"'Attend, then. Don Carlos is absent at Havana, and will probably
remain so for a few days, until his wrist gets well; in the meantime,
his sister acts as duenna over Donna Clara. She is quite a nice old
lady, however, and allows my sister far greater liberty in her
brother's absence than ordinarily, as, for instance, to-day. I will
get her to permit Clara to spend a few days at my villa down the
bay--Alvarez himself would not dare to refuse this request, if--' my
companion stopped short, and his brow clouded. 'But I forget the best
of the matter,' he continued a moment after, in a lively tone. 'Señor,
you will dine with me to-morrow, and spend a day or two with me. I
keep bachelor's hall, but I have an excellent cook, and some of the
oldest wine in Cuba. Beside, you will see my sister. Will you honor
me, Mr. Stewart?'

"I was transported, 'Senior,' I cried, 'if Capt. Hopkins--'

"'Oh! a fig for Hopkins,' shouted my volatile friend, 'he shall dine
with me too. He is an ancient of mine--he dare not refuse to let you
go. But there is the fine old sinner himself in the verandah of the
_café_; now we can ask him.'

"We rattled up to the door, to the infinite astonishment of my worthy
skipper, who was greatly surprised to see Don Pedro and his second
mate on such excellent terms, and all without his intervention.

"'Hillo!' he shouted, 'how came you two sailing in company?'

"The worthy old seaman was briefly informed of my afternoon's
adventures over a bowl of iced sangaree; and when Pedro made his
proposition about the morrow's dinner, and a little extra liberty for
me, the reply was very satisfactory.

"'Sartainly, sartainly,' said he, 'and I hope good will come of it.'

"'Well, then,' said Pedro, 'as this matter is settled, I must take my
leave. I shall expect you early, gentlemen. _Adieu_'--and, with a
graceful bow, my new friend entered his carriage, and was driven away.

"'Now,' said the skipper, after our boat's crew had cleared their
craft from the crowd at the stairs, 'now, Stewart, what do you think
of the pirate's daughter, my boy? D'ye see, I never happened to sight
her, though her brother and I have been fast friends these five years.
Is she so handsome, Ben.'

"'Full as good-looking as the figure-head of the Cleopatra,' replied
I.

"'Egad! you don't say so!' exclaimed the skipper, who thought that the
aforesaid graven image on the cut-water of his old ship, far excelled
the Venus de Medici in beauty of feature and form. 'She must be
almighty beautiful; and then, my son, she is as rich as the Rajah of
Rangoon, who owns a diamond as big as our viol-block. Did you fall in
love pretty bad, Ben?'

"'Considerable,' I replied, grinning at the old gentleman's
simplicity.

"'By the laws, then, if you don't cut out that sweet little craft from
under that old pirate's guns, you're no seaman, that's a fact! Egad! I
should like to do it, and wouldn't ask only one kiss for salvage, and
you'll be for having the whole concern.'

"The next morning I packed my portmanteau and dressed myself with
unusual care. About ten the skipper and myself got aboard the gig, and
pushed off for Don Pedro's villa, which lay on the eastern shore of
the bay, two miles from the city, and nearly opposite the barracks and
hospital.

"We landed at a little pier at the foot of the garden; the house,
embowered in a grove of orange and magnolia trees, was close at hand.
Don Pedro met us on the verandah.

"'Welcome! welcome!' he cried; 'how do you like the appearance of my
bachelor's hall? But come, let's go in; my sister has arrived, and
knows that I expect Captain Hopkins and Mr. Stewart, of the Cabot,
and,' he added, with a significant smile, 'nothing more, though she
has been very curious to find who the gentlemen is with whom I entered
the church yesterday.'

"We entered the drawing-room, and there, sure enough, was my angel of
the cathedral-porch. Her eye fell upon me as I passed the doorway,
and, by the half start and blush, I saw that I was plainly recognized,
and with pleasure. We were formally presented by Don Pedro, and, after
the old skipper had been flattered into an ecstasy of mingled
admiration and self-complacency, Donna Clara turned again to me.

"'I do not know that I ought to have bid you welcome, Mr. Stewart,'
she said, with an arch smile, 'you treated my poor guardian
shamefully, I am told.'

"'Yes,' cried Pedro, 'and just to let you know what a truculent person
he is, know that yesterday he more than insinuated that he would serve
me in the same way that he did Don Carlos.'"

"Land ho!" sung out the man on the look-out.

"Where away?" shouted Langley, walking forward.

"Pretty near ahead, sir; perhaps a point on our starboard bow, sir."

"Land ho!" bellowed the man at the wheel, "just abeam, sir, to
loo-ard."

"What had I better do, sir?" inquired Langley, of the mate.

"I was looking at the chart just at night, and I should reckon the
land ahead might be Mayaguana, and the Little Caycos under our lee."

"Head her about west, then; but we shall have the lead going soon."

We filled away before the wind, which had now veered again to the
eastward, and in a few moments were dashing bravely on, sailing right
up the moon's wake toward the Pass, the land lying on each side of us
like blue clouds resting on the horizon. We settled ourselves again on
the hatch, lighted fresh cigars, and the mate resumed his broken yarn.

"It is getting late, boys, almost six bells, and I must cut my story a
little short. I will pass over the dinner, the invitation to stay
longer, Captain Hopkins' consent, the undisguised pleasure and the
repressed delight of Clara at this arrangement, and I will pass over
the next two days, only saying that the memory of them haunts me yet;
and that though at the time they seemed short enough, yet when I look
back upon them, it is hard to realize they were not months instead of
days, so much of heart experience did I acquire in the time. I found
Clara to be every thing which the most exacting wife-hunter could
wish--beautiful as a dream. Believe me, boys, I do not now speak with
the enthusiasm of a lover, but such beauty is seldom seen on the
earth. Added to this, she was intellectual, refined, accomplished, and
highly educated. I went back four years in life, and with all the
enthusiasm of a college student I raved of poetry and romance. We read
German together, and we talked of love in French; and the musical
tongue of Italy, it seemed to me, befitted her mouth better than her
own sonorous native language, and when in conversation she would look
me one of those dreamy glances which had at the first set my heart in
agitation, it perfectly bewildered me. You needn't smile, Langley,
(poor Bill's face was guilty of no such distortion,) but if your
little _danseuse_ should practice for years, she couldn't attain to
the delicious glance which my handsome creole girl can give you. The
heavily-fringed eyelid is just raised, so that you can look as if for
an interminable distance into the beautiful orb beneath, and at the
end of the vista, see the fiery soul which lies so far from the
voluptuous exterior.

"But, though I was madly in love, I had not yet dared with my lips to
say so to the lady, whatever my eyes might have revealed; but Pedro
was my confident, and encouraged me to hope.

"The third day of my sojourn on shore was spent in a visit to Don
Pedro's plantation in the vale, and it was dark when we arrived home.
After the light refreshment which constitutes the evening meal of
Cuba, Don Pedro pleaded business, and left the apartment--and for the
first time that day I was alone with Clara.

"'Now,' thought I, 'now or never.'

"If upon the impulse of the moment a man proceeds to make love, he
generally does it up ship-shape; but if he, with malice aforethought,
lays deliberate plans, he finds it the most awkward traverse to work
in the world to follow them--but I did not know this. I sat by the
table, and in my embarrassment kept pushing the solitary taper farther
and farther from me, until at last over it went, and was extinguished
upon the floor.

"'I beg ten thousand pardons!' cried I apologizing.

"'_N'importe_,' replied Clara, 'there is a fine moon, which will give
us light enough.'

"She rose and drew the curtain of the large bow-window, so common in
the West Indian houses, and the rich moonlight, now unvexed by the
dull glare of the taper, flowed into the apartment, bathing every
object it touched with silvery radiance. Clara sat in the window, in
the full glow of the light, leaning forward toward the open air, and
I, with a beating heart, gazed upon her superb beauty. Shall I ever
forget it? Her head leaned upon a hand and arm which Venus herself
might envy; the jetty curls which shaded her face fell in graceful
profusion, Madonna-like, upon shoulders faultless in shape, and white
as that crest of foam on yonder sea. Her face was the Spanish oval,
with a low, broad feminine forehead, eyebrows exquisitely penciled,
and arching over eyes that I shall not attempt to describe. Her lovely
bosom, half exposed as she leaned over, reminded me, as it heaved
against the chemiset, of the bows of a beautiful ship, rising and
sinking with the swell of the sea, now high in sight, and anon buried
in a cloud of snowy spray. One hand, buried in curls, I have said,
supported her head, the other, by her side, grasped the folds of her
robe, beneath which peeped out a tiny foot in a way that was rather
dangerous to my sane state of mind to observe.

"We had sat a few moments in silence, when Clara suddenly spoke.

"'Come hither, señor,' said she, 'look out upon this beautiful
landscape, and tell me whether in your boasted land there can be found
one as lovely. Have you such a sky, such a moon, such waters, and
graceful trees, such blue mountains--and, hark! have you such music?'

"I approached to her side and looked out. The band at the barracks had
just begun their nightly serenade, and the music traveled across the
bay to strike upon our ears so softly, that it sounded like strains
from fairy land.

"'They are playing an ancient march of the days of Ferdinand and
Isabel,' whispered Clara; 'could you not guess its stately measures
were pure old Castilian? Now mark the change--that is a Moorish
serenade; is it not like the fitful breathings of an Eolian harp?'

"The music ceased, but it died in cadences so soft that I stood with
lips apart, half in doubt whether the spirit-sound I yet heard were
the effect of imagination or not. Reluctantly I was compelled to
believe myself deceived, and then turned to look upon the landscape. I
never remember of seeing a lovelier night. It was now nine o'clock,
and the sounds of business were hushed on the harbor, but boats,
filled with gay revelers, glided ever the sparkling surface of the
water, whose laugh and song added interest and life to the scene.
Nearly opposite to us, upon the other side of the bay, were the
extensive barracks, hospital, and the long line of the Marino, their
white stuccoed walls glowing in the moonlight. On our left the
beautiful city rose like an amphitheatre around the head of the bay;
the hum of the populace, and the rumbling of wheels sounding faintly
in the distance. Behind the town the blue conical peaks of the
mountains melted into the sky. On our right was the roadstead and open
sea, the moon's wake thereon glittering like a street in heaven, and
reaching far away to other lands. All around us grew a wilderness of
palm, orange, cocoa, and magnolia trees, vocal with the thousand
strange noises of a tropical night. Directly below us, but a cable
length from the overhanging palms which fringed the shore, lay a heavy
English corvette in the deep shade of the land; but the arms of the
sentry on her forecastle glinted in the moonbeams as he paced his
lonely watch, and sung out, as the bell struck twice, his accustomed
long-drawn cry of 'All's well!' Just beyond her, in saucy propinquity,
lay a slaver, bound for the coast of Africa--a beautiful, graceful
craft. Still farther out the crew of a clumsy French brig were
chanting the evening hymn to the Virgin. Ships from every civilized
country lay anchored, in picturesque groups, in all directions, and
far down, her tall white spars standing in bold and graceful relief
against the dark, gray walls of San Severino, I recognized my own
beautiful craft, sitting like a swan in the water; and still farther,
in the deep water of the roadstead, lay an American line-of-battle
ship, her lofty sides flashing brightly in the moonlight, and her
frowning batteries turned menacingly toward the old castle, telling a
plain bold tale of our country's power and glory, and making my heart
proud within me that I was an American sailor.

"'Say,' again asked Clara, in a low, hushed voice, 'saw you ever aught
so lovely in your own land?'

"To tell the truth, I had forgotten my sweet companion for a moment.
'I am sorry,' said I, taking her hand, 'very sorry, that you think the
United States so unenviable a place of residence. I hope, dear lady,
to persuade you to make it your home.'

"The small hand I clasped trembled in mine.

"'Señora,' said I, taking a long breath, and beginning a little
speech which I had composed for the occasion, while sitting at the
table pushing the candle-stick, 'Señora, I have your brother's
permission to address you. I am--a--sure, indeed, convinced, that I
love you--ahem--considerably. I have known you, to be sure, but a few
days, but, as I said before--at least--at all events--I could be quite
happy if you were my wife--you know. Señora, and if you could--a--'

"I had proceeded thus far swimmingly, except that a few of the words I
had previously selected seemed, when I came to pronounce them, as
extravagant, and so I had substituted others in their place, not so
liable to be censured for that fault; beside, a lapse of memory had
once or twice occasioned temporary delay and embarrassment; but I had
got along thus far, I say, as I presumed, exceedingly well, when, oh,
thunder! Donna Clara disengaged her hand, curtseyed deeply, bade me
good-night, and swept haughtily out of the room. Egad! I felt as if
roused out of my berth by a cold sea filling it full in the middle of
my watch below. 'Lord!' thought I, aloud, 'what can I have done? There
I was, making love according to the chart, and before I knew it, I'm
high and dry ashore. One thing is clear as a bell, she is a
regular-built coquette, and all her fine looks to me are nothing but
man-traps, decoys, and false lights. Yet how beautiful she is, how she
has deceived me, and how much I might have loved her. Shall I try
again? No, I'm d--d if I do! once is enough for me. Egad! I can take a
hint without being kicked. To-morrow I'll go aboard again, and to work
like a second mate as I am; that's decided. But--'

"Absorbed in very disagreeable reflections, I sat by the window,
insensible to the charms without, which had before been so
fascinating, when I was suddenly aroused by the opening of the door. I
looked around, and saw Don Pedro. 'Where's Donna Clara?' he asked.

"'Gone,' I replied, in an exceeding bad humor.

"'What! so early? I made sure to find her here as usual.'

"'Well,' said I, 'you perceive that you were mistaken, I presume'--I
was _very_ cross.

"'Why, señor, something has gone wrong; you appear chagrined.'

"'Oh! no, sir; never was so good-natured in my life--ha! ha! beautiful
evening, Don Pedro! remarkably fine night! How pleasant the moon
shines, don't it?'

"'Mr. Stewart,' said Don Pedro, gravely, 'I do not wish to press you,
but you will greatly oblige me by telling me what has passed between
yourself and Donna Clara this night?'

"So, rather ashamed of my petulence, I recounted my essay at
love-making.

"'Carramba!' ejaculated Don Pedro, 'how d--d foolish--in her, I mean.
She is a wayward girl, sir, but yet I think she loves you. I tell you
frankly that I ardently desire her to marry you; pardon me, then, when
I say, that if you love her, do not be discouraged, but try again.'

"'I think not,' said I, decidedly, 'I go on board to-morrow.'

"My usually lively and mercurial friend sighed heavily, and then
drawing a chair, sat down opposite me. 'Listen to me a moment, sir,'
said he. 'Cast aside your mortified pride, and answer me frankly. Do
you really love my sister? Would you wish to see her subjected to the
alternative, either to become the wife of Don Carlos Alvarez, or else
to be confined in a convent, perhaps be constrained or influenced to
take the hateful veil? You alone can save her from this dreadful
dilemma.'

"My Yankee cautiousness was awakened, but I replied, 'I do love your
sister, sir, and would do any thing but marry a woman who does not
love me to save her from such a fate as you represent; but still, sir,
I cannot perceive how that I, till lately unknown to you, can have
such an influence over you and yours. Is not your own power sufficient
to prevent such undesirable results?'

"I saw by the moonlight that my companion's eyes flashed with anger,
but he made a strong effort to control himself.

"'I do not wonder,' he said, a moment after, 'that you are angry, Mr.
Stewart, after the conduct of my madcap sister, or indeed that you
deem it strange to find yourself of so much importance suddenly,' he
added, a little maliciously, 'but I will explain the last matter to
you, relying upon your honor. About two years ago, I accompanied
Alvarez to Havana, upon some business relative to Clara's estate.
While returning late one evening to our hotel, we heard in a retired
street the cries of a woman in distress. Midnight outrages were then
very common in the city, and usually the inhabitants, if they were not
themselves interested in the issue, paid very little attention to
calls for assistance, and Alvarez, upon my suggesting to him to go
with me to the aid of the lady making the outcry, advised me to
consult my own safety by keeping clear of the _fracas_, but when a
louder cry for help reached my ears, I could restrain myself no
longer, but started for the scene of action. I soon perceived a
carriage drawn up before a house which had been broken open. Two of
the professional bravos were forcing a lady into this carriage, whom,
by the light of the lanterns, I recognized to be an actress at the San
Carlos. A gentleman in a mask stood by, apparently the commander of
the expedition. I called to the ruffians to desist, but was hindered
from attacking them by the gentleman, who drew his sword and kept me
off, while the robbers forced the lady into the carriage and drove
rapidly away. My antagonist seemed also disposed to retreat, but I was
very angry and kept him engaged, until, growing angry in his turn, he
seriously prepared himself to fight. He was a very expert swordsman,
nevertheless in a few minutes I ran him through the body, and he
instantly fell and expired. At this juncture Don Carlos stepped up,
and when we removed the mask from the face of the corpse, I found to
my consternation that I had killed the Count ----, an aid-de-camp of
the captain-general, and a son of one of the most powerful noblemen
in the mother country. Horror-struck, we fled. The next day the whole
city resounded with the fame of the so-called assassination. The
government offered immense rewards for the discovery of the murderer.
Since that time I hold my life, fortune and honor by the feeble tenure
of Don Carlo's silence. His power over me is very great. I distrust
him much. Unknown to but very few, I have a yacht lying at a little
estate in a rocky nook at Point Yerikos, in complete order to sail at
any moment. On board of her is a large amount of property in money and
jewels, but still, alas! I should, in case of flight, be forced to
leave behind the greater part of my patrimony, which is in real
estate, which I dare not sell for fear of exciting Alvarez' suspicion.
I live on red-hot coals. Clara alone detains me. It is true that she
might fly with me, but she would leave her large fortune behind in the
hands of her devil of a guardian. Now, with what knowledge you already
have of my father's will, you can easily guess the rest. You are no
stranger to me. I know your history, your family, your education, and,
under the most felicitous circumstances, would be proud and happy to
call you brother. Now, then, decide to try again. Clara shall not
refuse you; she does not wish to do so; on the contrary, she loves
you; but some of her oddness was in the ascendant to-night, and so it
happened as it did. At any rate I can no longer trifle with my own
safety, and have no authority or means to prevent Don Carlos from
exercising unlimited power over my sister's actions. Good-night,
señor, you can strike the gong when you wish for a servant and a
light. I shall have your answer in the morning.'

"Don Pedro left the room in great agitation, and soon after I retired
to bed. I lay a long time thinking over the events and revelations of
the evening; love and pride alternately held the mastery of my
determinations. I loved Clara well and truly, and sympathized with her
and her brother in their unfortunate situation, but I had been
virtually refused once, and my pride revolted from accepting the hand
thus forced into mine by the misfortunes of its owner. At last, as the
clock struck three, I fell asleep, still undecided. The sun had first
risen in the morning when I started from an uneasy slumber. I dressed
myself, passed through my window to the verandah, and down to the
water, where I bathed, and returning through the garden entered an
arbor and stretched myself on a settee, the better to collect my
thoughts.

"I had been here but a very short time when I heard voices approaching
me, and upon their drawing nearer, I perceived Don Pedro and his
sister engaged in earnest conversation. It was now too late to
retreat, for they were approaching me by the only way I could effect
it, and I was upon the point of going forth to meet them, when they
paused in front of the arbor, and I heard Clara pronounce my name so
musically, that I hope you will not think I did wrong, when told that
I drew back, determined to listen, and thereby to obtain a hint
whereupon to act. Clara leaned upon her brother's arm, who had
evidently been expostulating with her, for his voice was earnest and
reproachful, and Clara's eyes looked as if she had been crying.

"'And yet you say,' continued Pedro, 'that you can love this
gentleman.'

"'Can love him!' cried Clara passionately, 'oh! Pedro, if you only
knew how I do love him!'

"'Why, then, in the name of all that is consistent, did you act so
strangely last night? In your situation an offer from any American
gentleman deserved consideration, to say the least; but Mr. Stewart, a
friend and _protégé_ of our uncle's, a refined, educated man, a man
whom you say you love. Clara, I wonder at you! What could have been
the reason?'

"'This, Pedro,' said Clara, looking at the toe of her slipper, which
was drawing figures in the gravel-walk. 'You must know that I did it
to punish him for making love so awkwardly. Now, instead of going down
on his knees, as the saints know I could have done to him, the
cold-blooded fellow went on as frigidly as if he had been buying a
negro, and that too with a moon shining over him which should have
crazed him, and talking to a girl whose heart was full of fiery love
for him. Pedro, my heart was chilled, and so, to punish him, I--'

"'Diablo!' swore Pedro, dropping his sister's arm, and striding off in
a great rage.

"'Oh! stay, brother!' sobbed poor Clara; 'indeed, I could not help it.
Oh, dear!' she continued, as Pedro vanished from her sight, 'now
_he's_ angry. What have I done?' She buried her face in her hands,
entered the arbor, threw herself on the settee, and began sobbing with
convulsive grief. Here was a situation for an unsophisticated youth
like myself. Egad! my heart bounced about in my breast like a shot
adrift in the cook's biggest copper. I approached the lady softly,
and, grown wiser by experience, knelt before I took her hand. She
started, screamed faintly, and endeavored to escape.

"'Stay, stay, dearest Clara!' cried I, detaining her, 'I should not
dare to again address you after the repulse of last night, had I not
just now been an inadvertent, but delighted listener to your own sweet
confession that you loved me. Let me say in return that I love you as
wildly, tenderly, passionately, as if I, like you, had been born under
a southern sun; that I cannot be happy without you. Forgive me for
last night. It was not that my heart was cold, but I was fearful that
unless I constrained myself I should be wild and extravagant. Dearest
Clara, will you say to me that which you just now told Pedro?'

"Her head sunk upon my shoulder. 'Señor,' she murmured, 'I do love
you, and with my whole heart.'

"'And will be my wife?' I asked.

"'Whenever you please.'"

Here the mate paused, and gave several very energetic puffs, and
lighted a new cigar.

"I clasped the dear girl to my heart," he resumed, "and kissed her
cheeks, her lips and eyes, a thousand times, and was just beginning on
the eleventh hundred, when, lo, there stood mine host in the doorway,
evidently very much amused, and, considering that it was his sister
with whom these liberties had been taken, extremely satisfied.

"I came immediately to the conclusion, in my own mind, to defer any
farther labial demonstrations, and felt rather foolish; but Clara
arranged her dress and looked defiance.

"'I beg ten thousand pardons,' said Don Pedro, entering, hat in hand,
and bowing low, 'but really the scene was so exquisitely fine, so much
to my taste, that I could not forbear looking on awhile. Clara, dear,
has Mr. Stewart discovered the way to make love _à la mode_? I
understood you to say he did it oddly and coldly; but, by Venus! I
think he does it in the most natural manner possible, and with some
warmth and vigor, or else I'm no judge of kissing--and I make some
pretensions to being a connoisseur.'

"'And an amateur also,' retorted Clara.

"'I won't deny the soft impeachment--but, my friends, breakfast is
waiting for you, if Mr. Stewart can bring his appetite to relish
coffee after sipping nectar from my sweet sister's lips.'

"We made a very happy trio that morning around the well-spread board
of my friend Pedro. Just as we were rising, however, a servant brought
in a note for his master. Don Pedro's brow darkened as he read it. 'It
is from Carlos,' said he, folding it up, 'and informs me that he will
be at home to-night, and will call for you, Clara--for it seems he has
been informed of your visit here, and is determined that it shall be
as short as possible. We must work quick then.'

"'But what is to be done?' I inquired.

"'You need do nothing at present but keep Clara company, while I go to
town to see Capt. Hopkins. We will arrange some plan.'

"Clara and I passed the morning as you may imagine; it seemed but a
few minutes from Pedro's departure for the city, till his return in
company with my skipper.

"'Ben,' shouted the latter, seizing my hand, 'may I be d--d but you're
a jewel--begging your pardon, Donna Clara, for swearing in your
presence, which I did not notice before.'

"When Clara retired to dress for dinner, Capt. Hopkins divulged to me
the plans which had been formed by him and Pedro. 'D'ye see, Ben, my
child, Don Pedro and I have arranged the matter in A No. 1 style; and
if we can only work the traverse, it'll be magnificent--and I don't
very well see why we can't. To day is Thursday, you know. Well, I
shall hoist my last box of sugar aboard to-morrow night, and, after
dark, Don Pedro is going to run a boat alongside with his plunder and
valuables. Your sweetheart must go home, it appears, but before she
goes you must make an arrangement with her to be at a certain window
of Alvarez' house, Pedro will tell her which, at twelve o'clock
Saturday night. You and her brother will be under it ready to receive
her; and when you have got the lady, you will bring her aboard the
ship, which shall be ready to cut and run, I tell you; up killock,
sheet home, and I'll defy all the cutters in Havana to overhaul us
with an hour's start! Those chaps in Stockholm are almighty
particular about your health, if your papers show that you left Havana
after the first of June, and so, to pull the wool over their eyes, and
save myself a long quarantine, I was intending to stop at Boston and
get a new clearance, so it'll be no trouble at all to set you all
ashore, for Don Pedro and his sister will not wish to go to Sweden;
and my second mate, I suppose, will want to get married and leave me.
Now, Ben, my boy, that's what I call a XX plan; no scratch brand about
that; superfine, and no mistake, and entitled to debenture.'

"'Excellent, indeed!' replied I.

"'Well, after dinner, we'll give you time to tell your girl all about
it, and to kiss her once or twice; but you must bear a hand about it,
now I tell you, because we must be out of that bloody pirate's way
when he comes, and there's a sight of work to do aboard.'

"After dinner the whole matter was again talked over and approved by
all, and then the skipper and myself took our leave and went aboard.

"As Captain Hopkins had arranged, we finished our freight on Friday
evening, and in the night Pedro came off to us with a boat-load of
baggage, pictures, heirlooms, and money. The next day we cleared at
the custom-house, and in the afternoon hove short on our anchor,
loosed our sails, and made every preparation for putting to sea in a
hurry. A lieutenant from the castle came off with our blacks after
dark, and while he was drinking a glass of wine in the cabin, Don
Pedro, most unfortunately, came on board. I heard his voice and
started to intercept him; but he met me in the companion, and seizing
me by the hand, exclaimed, 'Well, Stewart, you are all ready to cut
and run, I see; by this time to-morrow I hope we will be far beyond
reach--'

"'Hush! hush! for God's sake!' I whispered, pointing to the companion;
'there is an officer from the castle below.'

"We walked to the sky-light and looked down.

"'Diablo!' muttered Pedro, with a start, 'do you think he heard me?'

"'No, I think not; the skipper and he did not cease conversation. The
steward is so glad to get back amongst his crockery, that he was
kicking up a devil of a row in the pantry; that may have drowned your
voice.'

"'If he did hear me I'm ruined. He is Don Sebastian Alvarez, a nephew
of Carlos', and dependent on him; he has watched me closely for three
months. What is his errand?'

"'He brought off our cook and steward, who have been confined in the
castle.'

"'Well, I dare say all is right; he is a lieutenant in the castle, and
there is nothing strange in his being here on such business; but I'll
keep out of sight.'

"The officer soon came on deck, shook hands with Captain Hopkins,
wished him a pleasant voyage, and then went down into his boat,
ordering the men to pull for the castle.

"'All right, I trust,' cried Pedro, emerging from the round-house,
'if he had started for the city, it would have been suspicious.'

"The skipper called the crew, who were principally Yankees, upon the
quarter-deck, and in a brief speech stated the case in hand to them.
'Now, my men,' said he, 'which of you will volunteer to go with Don
Pedro Garcia and Mr. Stewart?'

"Every man offered his services. We chose six lusty fellows, and
supplied them with pistols and cutlasses. Don Pedro gave them a
doubloon a-piece, and to each of the rest of the crew a smaller sum.
At eleven o'clock we descended into the boat and pushed off for the
shore. The night had set in dark and rainy, with a strong breeze,
almost a gale, from the south. The men rowed in silence and with
vigor, but the wind was ahead for us, and when we landed at the end of
the mole, behind a row of molasses-hogsheads, it wanted but a few
moments of twelve. Leaving two men for boat-keepers, Don Pedro and
myself, with the other four, traversed the silent streets until we
stopped in a dark lane, in the rear of a large house, which appeared
to front upon a more frequented street, for even at that late hour a
carriage occasionally was heard.

"'Now, hist!' whispered Pedro, 'listen for footsteps.'

"We strained our ears, but heard nothing but the clang of the
deep-toned cathedral bell, striking the hour of twelve. A moment after
a window above us opened, and a female form stepped out upon the
balcony.

"'Pedro, whispered the musical voice of Clara, 'is that you?'

"'Yes, yes--hush! Mr. Stewart is here, and some of his men. Are you
all ready?'

"'Yes,' replied Clara; 'but how am I going to descend?'

"'Catch this line, which I will throw to you,' said I, making a coil.

"The fair girl caught the line as handily as--as--a monkey, I suppose
I must say.

"'Now, haul away,' I said; 'there is a ladder bent on to the other
end, which you must make fast to the balustrade.'

"'What!' cried Clara, quite aloud, 'a ladder!--a real, live
rope-ladder! how delightfully romantic!'

"'Hush! hush! you lunatic!' said Pedro, in a hoarse whisper.

"'Oh, Pedro!' continued his sister, 'just think how droll it is to run
away with one's lover, and one's brother standing by aiding and
abetting! Oh, fie! I'm ashamed of you! There, now, I've fastened this
delightful ladder--what next?'

"I ascended, and taking her in my arms, prepared to assist her to the
ground.

"'Am I not heavy?' she asked, as she put her arms about my neck.

"My God! boys, I could have lifted twenty of her as I felt then.

"'This is the second time, señor, that you have helped me to the
ground within a week; now get me on the water, and I will thank you
for all at once.'

"'In a few moments more all danger will be behind us, dearest.'

"Clara leaned upon my arm, enveloped in a boat-cloak, while we rapidly
retraced our steps to the boat, which we reached in safety, but,
behold, the men whom we had left were missing. Hardly had we made
ourselves sure of this unwelcome fact when a file of men, headed by
the same officer who had boarded us in the evening, sprang out from
behind the molasses-hogsheads. In a moment more a fierce fight had
begun. I seized Clara by the waist with one arm, and drew my cutlas
just in time to save my head from the sabre of Carlos Alvarez, who
aimed a blow at me, crying, 'Now, dog of a Yankee, it is my turn!'

"'In the name of the king! in the name of the king!' shouted the
officer--but it made no difference, we fought like seamen. Clara had
fainted, but I still kept my hold of her, when suddenly a ton weight
seemed to have fallen on my head; my eyes seemed filled with red-hot
sparks of intense brilliancy and heat; the wild scene around vanished
from their sight as I sunk down stunned and insensible.

"When I came to myself, I was lying in my own berth aboard the ship. I
felt weak, faint, and dizzy, and strove in vain to collect my thoughts
sufficiently to remember what had happened. My state-room door was
open, and I perceived that the sun's rays were shining brightly
through the sky-light upon the cabin-table, at which sat Capt.
Hopkins, overhauling the medicine-chest, which was open before him. I
knew by the sharp heel of the vessel, her uneasy pitching, and the
cool breeze which fanned my fevered cheek, that the ship was close
hauled on a wind, and probably far at sea. I looked at my arms; they
were wasted to half their usual size, and my head was bandaged and
very sore and painful. Slowly and with difficulty I recalled the
events of the few hours preceding that in which I had lost my
senses--then I remembered the _mélée_ on the mole. Evidently I had
been severely wounded, and while senseless been brought off to the
ship. Then came the inquiry, what had been the fate of Clara and her
brother. Were they safe on board, or were they captured or killed in
the _fracas_? I hardly dared to ask the skipper who still sat at the
table, with a most dolorous face, arranging the vials and gallipots.
At last the suspense became intolerable.

"'Captain Hopkins,' said I, but in a voice so weak that it startled
me. Faint as it was, however, the worthy skipper started to his feet,
and was by my side in an instant.

"'Glory to God!' he shouted, snapping his fingers. 'I know by your
eyes that reason has hold of your helm again. You'll get well now!
Hurrah! D--n, though I mus'n't make so much noise.'

"'But, Captain Hopkins--'

"'Can't tell you any thing now, you're too weak to bear it; that
is--you know, Ben, good news is--ahem! dreadful apt to kill sick
people; and you've been horrid sick, that's a fact. I thought four
days ago that you had shipped on a voyage to kingdom come, and was
outward bound; but you'll do well enough now, if you only keep quiet,
and if you don't you'll slip your wind yet. Shut up your head, take a
drink of this stuff, and go to sleep.'

"Capt. Hopkins left me, and, anxious as I was, I soon fell sound
asleep. When I awoke I felt much better and stronger, and teazed the
skipper so much, that he at last ventured to tell me that after I had
been struck down by a sabre-cut over the head, Don Pedro, also badly
wounded, and Donna Clara, had been captured by the soldiers. The two
boat-keepers also were missing, and one of the others left, either
dead or badly wounded, on the mole. Our other three men, finding
themselves overpowered, succeeded barely in gaining the boat with my
insensible form, and pushed off for the ship. Capt Hopkins, upon
hearing their story, had no other alternative but to cut and run, and
favored by the strong southerly gale, he managed to make good his
escape, though fired on by the castle before he had got out of range.
In the hurry and confusion my wound was not properly attended to, and
a brain fever set in, under which I had been suffering for a week; but
the kind care of Capt. Hopkins and Mr. Smith, and the strength of my
constitution, at last prevailed over the disease. Dismal as was this
story, and the prospects it unfolded, my spirits, naturally buoyant,
supported me, and I determined that when the ship should arrive in
Boston I would leave her and return immediately to Cuba, to make an
effort for the release of my friends. Wild as was this resolve, I grew
better upon the hope of accomplishing it; and when we anchored off
Long Wharf, after a tedious passage, I was nearly well.

"Notwithstanding the advice of my friends I made arrangements for an
immediate return to Matanzas, but the day before my intended departure
the Paragon arrived from that port; and I learned from her officers
that Don Pedro was closely confined, awaiting his trial for the murder
of Count ----, the result of which would be, without doubt, against
him. Clara, believing the general report of my death, had entered the
Ursuline Convent to begin her novitiate; and I was told that if I was
to be seen in Matanzas, the _garrote_, or chain-gang, was all that I
could expect. Your father then told me that if I would consent to
accompany Captain Hopkins, he would sail in my place to Matanzas, and
do his utmost for his nephew and niece. I could not help but see the
wisdom of this arrangement, and acceded to it. We sailed from Boston
to Stockholm, from thence to Rotterdam, and from thence to Batavia. A
freight offering for Canton, we went to that port, and from thence
came home, after an absence of two years and a half. In the meantime
Don Pedro had been tried, and sentenced to death; but by the exertions
of your father, who wrought faithfully in his behalf, his sentence was
commuted, first to twenty, and then to twelve years in the gallies,
or, as it is in Cuba, the chain-gang. His efforts to see Clara, in
order to disabuse her mind of the belief of my death, was abortive;
and she, after finishing her year as a novice, took the veil--and she
is now a nun in the Ursuline Convent at Matanzas, while her noble
brother is a slave, with felons, laboring with the cursed chain-gang
in the same city to which we are bound. Now, boys, do you wonder that
when I found myself under orders to go again to the scene of all this
misery I was affected, and that a melancholy has possessed me which
has increased as the voyage has progressed? I did determine at first
that I would leave the ship at Gibralter and go home, but I dreaded to
part with my shipmates. I shall not go ashore while we lay at Matanzas
for many reasons, though I should incur no risk, I think. Everybody
who knew me in Matanzas believes me dead long since; and six years of
seafaring life in every climate, changes one strangely. But the wind
has veered again and freshened considerably since I began my yarn. It
looks some as if we might catch a norther by way of variety. Brewster
will have to shorten sail in his watch, I reckon, and maybe keep the
lead going if we make much leeway. Come, Bill, it is 4 o'clock, and a
little past."

"Eight bells, there, for'ard!" shouted the third mate. "Call the
watch! Rouse Brewster, Frank, will you?"

The sleepy, yawning starboard watch were soon on deck, half-dressed,
and snuffing the morning air very discontentedly. We of the larboard
division went below to our berths.

"Langley," said I to the third mate, while we were undressing, "I've
got a plan in my head to get my cousins clear from their bad fix. Will
you help me work it?"

"Marry, that I will," answered Langley, throwing himself into a
theatrical attitude. "Look here, Frank, this is the way I'll run that
bloody Alvarez through the gizzard!"

The last sounds I heard that night were the hurried trampling of feet
over my head on deck, and the shouts of the watch shortening sail. I
fell asleep and dreamed that I was in the _fracas_ at the end of the
mole.

                                           [_Conclusion in our next._




WHITE CREEK.

BY ALFRED B. STREET.


[This is a picturesque little stream in Washington county, State of
New York. It flows through the broad and beautiful meadows of the Hon.
John Savage, late Chief Justice of the State.]


Over the stirless surface of the ground
The hot air trembles. In pale glittering haze
Wavers the sky. Along the horizon's rim,
Breaking its mist, are peaks of coppery clouds.
Keen darts of light are shot from every leaf,
And the whole landscape droops in sultriness.
With languid tread, I drag myself along
Across the wilting fields. Around my steps
Spring myriad grasshoppers, their cheerful notes
Loud in my ear. The ground bird whirs away,
Then drops again, and groups of butterflies
Spotting the path, upflicker as I come.
At length I catch the sparkles of the brook
In its deep thickets, whose refreshing green
Soothes my strained eyesight. The cool shadows fall
Like balm upon me from the boughs o'erhead.
My coming strikes a terror on the scene.
All the sweet sylvan sounds are hushed; I catch
Glimpses of vanishing wings. An azure shape
Quick darting down the vista of the brook,
Proclaims the scared kingfisher, and a plash
And turbid streak upon the streamlet's face,
Betray the water-rat's swift dive and path
Across the bottom to his burrow deep.
The moss is plump and soft, the tawny leaves
Are crisp beneath my tread, and scaly twigs
Startle my wandering eye like basking snakes.
Where this thick brush displays its emerald tent,
I stretch my wearied frame, for solitude
To steal within my heart. How hushed the scene
At first, and then, to the accustomed ear,
How full of sounds, so tuned to harmony
They seemed but silence; the monotonous purl
Of yon small water-break--the transient hum
Swung past me by the bee--the low meek burst
Of bubbles, as the trout leaps up to seize
The skipping spider--the light lashing sound
Of cattle, mid-leg in the shady pool,
Whisking the flies away--the ceaseless chirp
Of crickets, and the tree-frog's quavering note.

Now, from the shadow where I lie concealed,
I see the birds, late banished by my form,
Appearing once more in their usual haunts
Along the stream; the silver-breasted snipe
Twitters and seesaws on the pebbly spots
Bare in the channel--the brown swallow dips
Its wings, swift darting round on every side;
And from yon nook of clustered water-plants,
The wood-duck, slaking its rich purple neck,
Skims out, displaying through the liquid glass
Its yellow feet, as if upborne in air.

Musing upon my couch, this lovely stream
I liken to the truly good man's life,
Amid the heat of passions, and the glare
Of wordly objects, flowing pure and bright,
Shunning the gaze, yet showing where it glides
By its green blessings; cheered by happy thoughts,
Contentment, and the peace that comes from Heaven.




THE ALCHEMIST'S DAUGHTER.

A DRAMATIC SKETCH.

BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.


PERSONS REPRESENTED.


GIACOMO, _the Alchemist_,

BERNARDO, _his son-in-law_,

ROSALIA, _his daughter, and Bernardo's wife,_

LORENZO, _his servant_.


SCENE I. FERRARA.

_The interior of Giacomo's house. Giacomo and Lorenzo discovered
together. Time, a little before daybreak._

  _Gia._ Art sure of this?

  _Lor._ Ay, signor, very sure.
'Tis but a moment since I saw the thing--
Bernardo, who last night was sworn thy son,
Hath made a villainous barter of thine honor.
Thou may'st rely the duke is where I said.

  _Gia._ If so--no matter--give me here the light.

                                            [_Exit Giacomo._

  _Lor._ (_Alone._) Oh, what a night! It must be all a dream!
For twenty years, since that I wore a beard,
I've served my melancholy master here,
And never until now saw such a night!
A wedding in this silent house, forsooth,--
A festival! The very walls in mute
Amazement stared through the unnatural light!
And poor Rosalia, bless her tender heart,
Looked like her mother's sainted ghost! Ah me,
Her mother died long years ago, and took
One half the blessed sunshine from our house--
The other half was married off last night.
My master, solemn soul, he walked the halls
As if in search of something which was lost;
The groom, I liked not him, nor ever did,
Spoke such perpetual sweetness, till I thought
He wore some sugared villany within:--
But then he is my master's ancient friend,
And always known the favorite of the duke,
And, as I know, our lady's treacherous lord!
Oh, Holy Mother, that to villain hawks
Our dove should fall a prey! poor gentle dear!
Now if I had their throats within my grasp--
No matter--if my master be himself,
Nor time nor place shall bind up his revenge.
He's not a man to spend his wrath in noise,
But when his mind is made, with even pace
He walks up to the deed and does his will.
In fancy I can see him to the end--
The duke, perchance, already breathes his last,
And for Bernardo--he will join him soon;
And for Rosalia, she will take the veil,
To which she hath been heretofore inclined;
And for my master, he will take again
To alchemy--a pastime well enough,
For aught I know, and honest Christian work.
Still it was strange how my poor mistress died,
Found, as she was, within her husband's study.
The rumor went she died of suffocation;
Some cursed crucible which had been left,
By Giacomo, aburning, filled the room,
And when the lady entered took her breath.
He found her there, and since that day the place
Has been a home for darkness and for dust.
I hear him coming; by his hurried step
There's something done, or will be very soon.

(_Enter Giacomo. He sets the light upon the table and confronts
Lorenzo with a stern look._)

  _Gia._ Lorenzo, thou hast served me twenty years,
And faithfully; now answer me, how was't
That thou wert in the street at such an hour?

  _Lor._ When that the festival was o'er last night,
I went to join some comrades in their wine
To pass the time in memory of the event.

  _Gia._ And doubtless thou wert blinded soon with drink?

  _Lor._ Indeed, good signor, though the wine flowed free,
I could not touch it, though much urged by all--
Too great a sadness sat upon my heart--
I could do naught but sit and sigh and think
Of our Rosalia in her bridal dress.

  _Gia._ And sober too! so much the more at fault.
But, as I said, thou'st served me long and well,
Perchance too long--too long by just a day.
Here, take this purse, and find another master.

  _Lor._ Oh, signor, do not drive me thus away!
If I have made mistake--

  _Gia._ No, sirrah, no!
Thou hast not made mistake, but something worse.

  _Lor._ Oh, pray you, what is that then I have made?

  _Gia._ A lie!

  _Lor._ Indeed, good master, on my knees
I swear that what I said is sainted truth.

  _Gia._ Pshaw, pshaw, no more of this. Did I not go
Upon the instant to my daughter's room
And find Bernardo sleeping at her side?
Some villain's gold hath bribed thee unto this.
Go, go.

  _Lor._ Well, if it must be, then it must.
But I would swear that what I said is truth,
Though all the devils from the deepest pit
Should rise to contradict me!

  _Gia._ Prating still?

  _Lor._ No, signor--I am going--stay--see here--

          (_He draws a paper from his bosom._)

Oh, blessed Virgin, grant some proof in this!
This paper as they changed their mantles dropt
Between them to the ground, and when they passed
I picked it up and placed it safely here.

  _Gia._ (_Examining it._)
Who forged the lie could fabricate this too:--
But hold, it is ingeniously done.
Get to thy duties, sir, and mark me well,
Let no word pass thy lips about the matter--
                                            [_Exit Lorenzo._
Bernardo's very hand indeed is here!
Oh, compact villainous and black! conditions,
The means, the hour, the signal--every thing
To rob my honor of its holiest pearl!
Lorenzo, shallow fool--he does not guess
The mischief was all done, and that it was
The duke he saw departing--oh, brain--brain!
How shall I hold this river of my wrath!
It must not burst--no, rather it shall sweep
A noiseless maelstrom, whirling to its center
All thoughts and plans to further my revenge
And rid me of this most accursed blot!

(_He rests his forehead on his hand a few minutes, and exclaims,_)

The past returns to me again--the lore
I gladly had forgot comes like a ghost,
And points with shadowy finger to the means
Which best shall consummate my just design.
The laboratory hath been closed too long;
The door smiles welcome to me once again,
The dusky latch invites my hand--I come!

(_He unlocks the door and stands upon the threshold._)

Oh, thou whose life was stolen from me here,
Stand not to thwart me in this great revenge;
But rather come with large propitious eyes
Smiling encouragement with ancient looks!
Ye sages whose pale, melancholy orbs
Gaze through the darkness of a thousand years,
Oh, pierce the solid blackness of to-day,
And fire anew this crucible of thought
Until my soul flames up to the result!
          (_He enters and the door closes._)


SCENE II. _Another apartment in the alchemist's house. Enter Rosalia
and Bernardo._

  _Ros._ You tell me he has not been seen to-day?

  _Ber._ Save by your trusty servant here, who says
He saw his master, from without, unclose
The shutters of his laboratory while
The sun was yet unrisen. It is well;
This turning to the past pursuits of youth
Argues how much the aspect of to-day
Hath driven the ancient darkness from his brain.
And now, my dear Rosalia, let thy face
And thoughts and speech be drest in summer smiles,
And naught shall make a winter in our house.

  _Ros._ Ah, sir, I think that I am happy.

  _Ber._ Happy?
Why so, indeed, dear love, I trust thou art!
But thou dost sigh and contemplate the floor
So deeply, that thy happiness seems rather
The constant sense of duty than true joy.

  _Ros._ Nay, chide me not, good sir; the world to me
A riddle is at best--my heart has had
No tutor. From my childhood until now
My thoughts have been on simple honest things.

  _Ber._ On honest things? Then let them dwell henceforth
On love, for nothing is more honest than
True love.

  _Ros._ I hope so, sir--it must be so!
And if to wear thy happiness at heart
With constant watchfulness, and if to breathe
Thy welfare in my orisons, be love,
Thou never shalt have cause to question mine.
To-day I feel, and yet I know not why,
A sadness which I never knew before;
A puzzling shadow swims upon my brain,
Of something which has been or is to be.
My mother coming to me in my dream,
My father taking to that room again
Have somehow thrilled me with mysterious awe.

  _Ber._ Nay, let not that o'ercast thy gentle mind,
For dreams are but as floating gossamer,
And should not blind or bar the steady reason.
And alchemy is innocent enough,
Save when it feeds too steadily on gold,
A crime the world not easily forgives.
But if Rosalia likes not the pursuit
Her sire engages in, my plan shall be
To lead him quietly to other things.
But see, the door uncloses and he comes.

(_Enter Giacomo in loose gown and dishevelled hair._)

  _Gia._ (_Not perceiving them._)
Ha, precious villains, ye are caught at last!

  _Both._ Good-morrow, father.

  _Gia._ Ah, my pretty doves!

  _Ber._ Come, father, we are jealous of the art
Which hath deprived us all the day of thee.

  _Gia._ Are ye indeed? (_Aside._) How smoothly to the air
Slides that word _father_ from his slippery tongue.
Come hither, daughter, let me gaze on thee,
For I have dreamed that thou wert beautiful,
So beautiful our very duke did stop
To smile upon thy brightness! What say'st thou,
Bernardo, didst thou ever dream such things?

  _Ber._ That she is beautiful I had no cause to dream,
Mine eyes have known the fact for many a day.
What villains didst thou speak of even now?

  _Gia._ Two precious villains--Carbon and Azote--
They have perplexed me heretofore; but now
The thing is plain enough. This morning, ere
I left my chamber, all the mystery stood
Asudden in an awful revelation!

  _Ber._ I'm glad success has crowned thy task to-day,
But do not overtoil thy brain. These themes
Are dangerous things, and they who mastered most
Have fallen at last but victims to their slaves.

  _Gia._ It is a glorious thing to fall and die
The victim of a noble cause.

  _Ber._ Ay, true--
The man who battles for his country's right
Hath compensation in the world's applause.
The victor when returning from the field
Is crowned with laurel, and his shining way
Is full of shouts and roses. If he fall,
His nation builds his monument of glory.
But mark the alchemist who walks the streets,
His look is down, his step infirm, his hair
And cheeks are burned to ashes by his thought;
The volumes he consumes, consume in turn;
They are but fuel to his fiery brain,
Which being fed requires the more to feed on.
The people gaze on him with curious looks,
And step aside to let him pass untouched,
Believing Satan hath him arm in arm.

  _Gia._ Are there no wrongs but what a nation feels?
No heroes but among the martial throng?
Nay, there are patriot souls who never grasped
A sword, or heard the crowd applaud their names,
Who lived and labored, died and were forgot,
And after whom the world came out and reapt
The field, and never questioned who had sown.

  _Ber._ I did not think of that.

  _Gia._ Now mark ye well,
I am not one to follow phantom themes,
To waste my time in seeking for the stone,
Or chrystalizing carbon to o'erflood
The world with riches which would keep it poor;
Nor do I seek the elixir that would make
Not life alone, but misery immortal;
But something far more glorious than these.

  _Ber._ Pray what is that?

_Gia._ A cure, sir, for the heart-ache.
  Come, thou shalt see. The day is on the wane--
Mark how the moon, as by some unseen arm,
Is thrusted upward, like a bloody shield!
On such an hour the experiment must begin.
Come, thou shalt be the first to witness this
Most marvelous discovery. And thou,
My pretty one, betake thee to thy bower,
And I will dream thou'rt lovelier than ever.
Come, follow me. (_To Bernardo._)

  _Ros._ Nay, father, stay; I'm sure
Thou art not well--thine eyes are strangely lit,
The task, I fear, has over-worked thy brain.

  _Gia._ Dearest Rosalia, what were eyes or brain
Compared with banishment of sorrow? Come.

  _Ber._ (_Aside to Rosalia._)
I will indulge awhile this curious humor;
Adieu; I shall be with thee soon again.

  _Gia._ (_Overhearing him._)
When Satan shall regain his wings, and sit
Approved in heaven, perchance, but not till then.

  _Ber._ What, not till then?

  _Gia._ Shall he be worthy deemed
To walk, as thou hast said the people thought,
Arm in arm with the high-souled philosopher:--
And yet the people sometimes are quite right,
The devil's at our elbow oftener than
We know.

(_He gives Bernardo his arm, and they enter the laboratory._)

  _Ros._ (_Alone._) He never looked so strange before;
His cheeks, asudden, are grown pale and thin;
His very hair seems whiter than it did.
Oh, surely, 'tis a fearful trade that crowds
The work of years into a single day.
It may be that the sadness which I wear
Hath clothed him in its own peculiar hue.
The very sunshine of this cloudless day
Seemed but a world of broad, white desolation--
While in my ears small melancholy bells
Knolled their long, solemn and prophetic chime;--
But hark! a louder and a holier toll,
Shedding its benediction on the air,
Proclaims the vesper hour--
Ave Maria!

                                            [_Exit Rosalia._


SCENE III. _Giacomo and Bernardo discovered in the laboratory._


  _Gia._ What say'st thou now, Bernardo?

  _Ber._ Let me live
Or die in drawing this delicious breath,
I ask no more.

  _Gia._ (_Aside._) Mark, how with wondering eyes
He gazes on the burning crucibles,
As if to drink the rising vapor with
His every sense.

  _Ber._ Is this the balm thou spak'st of?

  _Gia._ Ay, sir, the same.

  _Ber._ Oh, would that now my heart
Were torn with every grief the earth has known,
Then would this sense be sweeter by tenfold!
Where didst thou learn the secret, and from whom?

  _Gia._ From Gebber down to Paracelsus, none
Have mentioned the discovery of this--
The need of it was parent of the thought.

  _Ber._ How long will these small crucibles hold out?

  _Gia._ A little while, but there are two beside,
That when thy sense is toned up to the point
May then be fired; and when thou breathest their fumes,
Nepenthe deeper it shall seem than that
Which Helen gave the guests of Menelaus.
But come, thou'lt weary of this thickening air,
Let us depart.

  _Ber._ Not for the wealth of worlds!

  _Gia._ Nay, but thy bride awaits thee--

  _Ber._ Go to her
And say I shall be there anon.

  _Gia._ I will.
(_Aside._) Now while he stands enchained within the spell
I'll to Rosalia's room and don his cloak
And cap, and sally forth to meet the duke.
'Tis now the hour, and if he come--so be it.

                                            [_Exit Giacomo._

  _Ber._ (_Alone._)
These delicate airs seem wafted from the fields
Of some celestial world. I am alone--
Then wherefore not inhale that deeper draught,
That sweet nepenthe which these other two,
When burning, shall dispense? 'Twere quickly done,
And I will do it!

          (_He places the two crucibles on the furnace._)

Now, sir alchemist,
Linger as long as it may suit thy pleasure--
'Tis mine to tarry here. Oh, by San John,
I'll turn philosopher myself, and do
Some good at last in this benighted world!
Now how like demons on the ascending smoke,
Making grimaces, leaps the laughing flame,
Filling the room with a mysterious haze,
Which rolls and writhes along the shadowy air,
Taking a thousand strange, fantastic forms;
And every form is lit with burning eyes,
Which pierce me through and through like fiery arrows!
The dim walls grow unsteady, and I seem
To stand upon a reeling deck! Hold, hold!
A hundred crags are toppling overhead.
I faint, I sink--now, let me clutch that limb--
Oh, devil! It breaks to ashes in my grasp!
What ghost is that which beckons through the mist?
The duke! the duke! and bleeding at the breast!
Whose dagger struck the blow?

          (_Enter Giacomo._)

  _Gia._ Mine, villain, mine!
What! thou'st set the other two aburning?
Impatient dog, thou cheat'st me to the last!
I should have done the deed--and yet 'tis well.
Thou diest by thine own dull hardihood!

  _Ber._ Ha! is it so? Then follow thou!

  _Gia._ My time
Is not quite yet, this antidote shall place
A bar between us for a little while.

          (_He raises a vial to his lips, drinks, and flings
            it aside._)

  _Ber._ (_Rallying._) Come, give it me--

  _Gia._ Ha, ha! I drained it all!
There is the broken vial.

  _Ber._ Is there no arm
To save me from the abyss?

  _Gia._ No, villain, sink!
And take this cursed record of thy plot,

          (_He thrusts a paper into Bernardo's hand,_)

And it shall gain thee speedy entrance at
Th' infernal gate!

          (_Bernardo reads, reels and falls._)

  _Gia._ (_Looking on the body._) Poor miserable dust!
This body now is honest as the best,
The very best of earth, lie where it may.
This mantle must conceal the thing from sight,
For soon Rosalia, as I bade her, shall
Be here. Oh, Heaven! vouchsafe to me the power
To do this last stern act of justice. Thou
Who called the child of Jairus from the dead,
Assist a stricken father now to raise
His sinless daughter from the bier of shame.
And may her soul, unconscious of the deed,
Forever walk the azure fields of heaven.

          (_Enter Rosalia, dressed in simple white, bearing a
            small golden crucifix in her hand._)

  _Ros._ Dear father, in obedience, I have come--
But where's Bernardo?

  _Gia._ Gone to watch the stars;
To see old solitary Saturn whirl
Like poor Ixion on his burning wheel--
He is our patron orb to-night, my child.

  _Ros._ I do not know what strange experiment
Thou'dst have me see, but in my heart I feel
That He, in whose remembrance this was made

          (_looking at the cross_)

Should be chief patron of our thoughts and acts.
Since vesper time--I know not how it was--
I could do naught but kneel and tell my prayers.

  _Gia._ Ye blessed angels, hymn the word to heaven.
Come, daughter, let me hold thy hand in mine,
And gaze upon the emblem which thou bearest.

          (_He looks upon the crucifix awhile and presses it
            to his lips._)

  _Ros._ Pray tell me, father, what is in the air?

  _Gia._ See'st thou the crucibles, my child? Now mark,
I'll drop a simple essence into each.

  _Ros._ My sense is flooded with perfume!

  _Gia._ Again.

  _Ros._ My soul, asudden, thrills with such delight
It seems as it had won a birth of wings!

  _Gia._ Behold, now when I throw these jewels in,
The glories of our art!

  _Ros._ A cloud of hues
As beautiful as morning fills the air;
And every breath I draw comes freighted with
Elysian sweets! An iris-tinted mist,
In perfumed wreaths, is rolling round the room.
The very walls are melting from my sight,
And surely, father, there's the sky o'erhead!
And on that gentle breeze did we not hear
The song of birds and silvery waterfalls?
And walk we not on green and flowery ground?
Ferrara, father, hath no ground like this,
The ducal gardens are not half so fair!
Oh, if this be the golden land of dreams,
Let us forever make our dwelling here.
Not lovelier in my earliest visions seemed
The paradise of our first parents, filled
With countless angels whose celestial light
Thrilled the sweet foliage like a gush of song.
Look how the long and level landscape gleams,
And with a gradual pace goes mellowing up
Into the blue. The very ground we tread
Seems flooded with the tender hue of heaven;
An azure lawn is all about our feet,
And sprinkled with a thousand gleaming flowers,
Like lovely lilies on a tranquil lake.

  _Gia._ Nay, dear Rosalia, cast thy angel ken
Far down the shining pathway we have trod,
And see behind us those enormous gates
To which the world has given the name of Death;
And note the least among yon knot of lights,
And recognize your native orb, the earth!
For we are spirits threading fields of space,
Whose gleaming flowers are but the countless stars!
But now, dear love, adieu--a flash from heaven--
A sudden glory in the silent air--
A rustle as of wings, proclaim the approach
Of holier guides to take thee into keep.
Behold them gliding down the azure hill
Making the blue ambrosial with their light.
Our paths are here divided. I must go
Through other ways, by other forms attended.




LINES TO AN IDEAL.

BY ELIZABETH LYON LINSLEY.


  I wandered on the lonely strand,
A setting sun shone brightly there,
  And bathed in glory sea and land,
And streamed in beauty through the air!

  A playful breeze the waters curled,
Touched their light waves and passed them by,
  Then fanned a bird whose wings unfurled
Were waving on the sunset sky!

  The bird had gone. The sun had set.
His beams still tipped the hills and trees,
  And flung a rainbow radiance yet
On clouds reflected in the seas!

  A distant boatman plied the oar,
All sparkling with its golden spray,
  His voice came softened to the shore,
Then melted with the dying day!

  And when the last bright lines on high
Departed as the twilight came,
  A large star showed its lone, sweet eye
All margined with a cloud of flame!

  The winds were hushed. Their latest breath
In soft, low murmurs died afar--
  The rippling of the wave beneath
Showed dancing there that one bright star!

  So fair a scene, so sweet an hour,
Were felt and passed. In stilly calm
  They shed around me beauty's power,
Yet gave no peace, and brought no balm.

  I was alone! I saw no eyes
With mine gaze on the twilight sea--
  No heart returned my lonely sighs--
No lips breathed sympathy with me.

  I was alone! I looked above.
That star seemed happy thus to lave
  Its fairy light and glance of love
Deep in the bosom of the wave.

  I gazed no more! The blinding tear
Rose from my heart, and dimmed my sight.
  Had one dear voice then whispered near,
That scene how changed!--That heart how light!

  My soul was swelling like the sea!
Had thine eyes gleamed there with mine own,
  That soul a mirror true to thee
On ev'ry wave thyself had shown!




MRS. PELBY SMITH'S SELECT PARTY.

BY MRS. A. M. F. ANNAN.


"Mrs. Goldsborough's party is to-night, is it not?" said Mr. Pelby
Smith to his wife; "are we going my dear?"

"_Apropos_ of parties," returned she, waiving the question; "I don't
see how we are to get on any longer without giving one ourselves."

"Why so, my dear? We cannot afford to give a party, and that will be
an apology all-sufficient to a woman of Cousin Sabina's sense."

"Cousin Sabina!" exclaimed Mrs. Smith; "as if I, or any one else, ever
thought of going to the trouble of a party for a plain old maid, like
cousin Sabina Incledon!"

"My dear, I wish you would not speak in that way of Cousin Sabina; she
is an excellent woman, of superior mind, and manners to command
respect in any society."

"That may be _your_ opinion, Mr. Smith," answered the lady tartly;
"mine is that a quiet old maid, from somewhere far off in the country,
and with an income of two or three hundred dollars a year, would not
make much of a figure in _our_ society. At all events, I shan't make a
trial of it."

"I thought you alluded to her visit as making it incumbent on us to
give a party," said Mr. Smith meekly; "there is no other reason, I
believe."

"You will allow me to have some judgment in such matters, Mr. Smith. I
think it is absolutely necessary that we should, that is, if we wish
to go to parties for the future. We have been going to them all our
lives without giving any, and people will grow tired of inviting us."

"Then, my dear, why not make up our minds to stay at home. I would
rather."

"But _I_ would not, Mr. Smith. I shall go to parties as long as
possible. My duty to my children requires it."

Mr. Smith opened his eyes as wide as his timidity would let him.

"My duty to my children, I repeat," pursued she with energy; "they
will have to be introduced to society."

"Not for seven or eight years yet, any of them," interposed Mr. Smith.

"Sooner or later," continued the lady; "and how is that to be done
unless I keep the footing which I have attained--with trouble enough,
as I only know, and without any thanks to you, Mr. Smith. If I give up
parties, I may fall at once into the obscurity for which you have such
a taste. People of fortune and distinction can voluntarily withdraw
for a while, and then reappear with as much success as ever, but that
is not the case with persons of our position."

"It is only the expense that I object to, my dear; my business is so
limited that it is impossible for us to live in any other than a
plain, quiet way. The cost of a party would be a serious inconvenience
to me."

"The advantages will be of greater consequence than the sacrifices,"
returned the lady, softening as she saw her husband yielding; "the
loss will soon be made up to you through an increase of friends.
Party-giving people are always popular."

Mr. Smith saw that his wife was determined to carry her point, which
was nothing new. He had learned to submit, and to submit in silence,
so, after sitting moodily for a few minutes, he took up his hat to go
to his place of business.

"I knew, my dear," said Mrs. Smith smoothly, "that you would soon see
the matter in a proper light; and now about Mrs. Goldsborough's party.
I shall lay out your things for you. I can go with some satisfaction
now that I have a prospect of soon being on equal terms with my
entertainers."

Mrs. Smith walked round her two small and by no means elegant rooms,
reassuring herself as to the capabilities of her lamps, girandoles and
candlesticks, for she had mentally gone through all her arrangements
long before; the act of consulting her husband being, generally, her
last step toward the undertaking of any important project. She was
joined by the object of some of her recent remarks, Miss Sabina
Incledon, a cousin of Mr. Smith's, who, until within a few days, had
been a stranger to her. She was a plainly dressed person of middle
age, with an agreeable though not striking countenance, and
unobtrusive, lady-like manners.

"I am sorry you are not going to Mrs. Goldsborough's to-night, Cousin
Sabina," said Mrs. Smith; "I have no doubt she would have sent an
invitation had she known I had a friend visiting me."

"Not improbable. I do not, however, feel much inclination just now to
go to a party. Had it not been for that, I should have sent my card to
Mrs. Goldsborough after my arrival. I met her at the springs last
summer, and received much politeness from her."

"Mrs. Goldsborough is a very polite woman--very much disposed to be
civil to every one," said Mrs. Smith; "by the bye," she added, "Pelby
and I have it in contemplation to give a large party ourselves."

"Indeed? I thought you were not party-giving people; Cousin Pelby
assured me so."

"And never would be if Pelby Smith had his own way. To be sure, we are
not in circumstances to entertain much, conveniently, but for the sake
of a firmer place in society, I am always willing to strain a point.
As to Pelby, he has so little spirit that he would as soon be at the
bottom of the social ladder as at the top. I can speak of it without
impropriety to you, as you are his relation, not mine. He has been a
perpetual drag and drawback upon me, but, notwithstanding, I have
accomplished a great deal. Five or six years ago we were merely on
speaking terms with the Goldsboroughs, and the Pendletons, and the
Longacres, and the Van Pelts and that set, and now I visit most of
them, and receive invitations to all their general parties. I have
always felt ashamed of not having entertained them in return, and now
I am resolved to do so, as a favorable opportunity offers of doing it
advantageously. I mean the coming out of Julia Goldsborough, Mrs.
Goldsborough's only daughter. It will be something to say that I have
given her a party."

"Do the family expect the compliment of you?" asked Miss Incledon,
looking at her in surprise; "I did not know that you were on such
intimate terms."

Mrs. Smith smiled in conscious superiority. "Ah, Cousin Sabina!" said
she, "you are very unsophisticated. Don't you know that a party goes
off with much more _eclât_ for being associated with some name of
importance. Now Julia Goldsborough, from her beauty and vivacity, and
the fashion and fortune of her family, is to be the belle of the
season, and a party got up for her must necessarily make a sensation.
All her friends, and they are at the head of society, will attend on
her account, if for nothing else, and everybody else will be glad to
go where they do. Then the Pendletons and the Longacres and the Van
Pelts, several of them, will give her parties--so it is
understood--and it will be worth an effort to make mine one of the
series."

A faint expression of sarcastic humor passed over the placid
countenance of Miss Incledon, but she made no comment.

Mrs. Pelby Smith entered the brilliant rooms of Mrs. Goldsborough that
night with an elated spirit, seeing in herself the future hostess of
the fashionable throng there assembled. Instead of standing in a
corner, listening with unctuous deference or sympathy to any who
chanced to come against her, as was her wont, proffering her fan, or
her essence-bottle, or in some quiet way ministering to their egotism,
she now stepped freely forth upon the field of action, nodding and
smiling at the young men to whom she might have been at some time
introduced; whispering and jesting with some marked young lady, while
she made an occasion to arrange her _berthe_ or her ringlets, and
adding herself, as if by accident, to any trio or quartette of
pre-eminent distinction. She had at length the anxiously desired
opportunity to put out her feelers at Mrs. Goldsborough.

"What a lovely creature Julia has become, Mrs. Goldsborough!" she
exclaimed; "it seems but a few months since she was a little fairy
only _so_ high, and now she is so well grown and so commanding in her
figure! and her manners, they are as pronounced and _distingué_ as if
she were twenty-five; they appear the more remarkable for her sweet,
youthful face. I have been watching her the whole evening, and seeing
every one offering her their tribute, I have gotten quite into the
spirit of it myself. I'm sure you will smile at me, for you well know
that I am not at all in the habit of such things, but I really must
give her a party. I have known her so long, almost since she could
first run about, and I always loved the little creature so much! I
feel as if I have almost a right to be proud of her myself. Have you
any engagements for the beginning of next week? If not, unless you
positively forbid it, I shall send out invitations at once."

"You are very kind, indeed, Mrs. Smith," said Mrs. Goldsborough,
smiling cordially, for she was a fond mother, and also was full of
courtesy and amiability; "it will be an unexpected compliment to
Julia. She will be flattered that your partiality for her is as warm
as ever. We have no engagements for the first of next week. The
parties with which my friends will try to spoil Julia do not come on
so soon."

Her scheme having been not unfavorably received, Mrs. Smith whispered
it to one and another, until it was known to half the company before
they dispersed that Miss Goldsborough was to be _fêted_ next by Mrs.
Pelby Smith.

Our heroine ought to have overheard the conversation which took place
at the late breakfast of Mrs. Goldsborough the following morning.

"You could hardly guess whom you have charmed into party intentions
toward you, Julia," said Mrs. Goldsborough; "I suppose you have not
heard? Mrs. Pelby Smith."

"Defend me from Mrs. Pelby Smith!" laughed Julia; "but are you in
earnest, mamma?"

"Certainly, my dear; she told me last night that she intended to give
you a party in the beginning of next week."

"That intolerable, toadying Mrs. Pelby Smith!" exclaimed young Frank
Goldsborough; "I would not allow her to cover the iniquities of her
ambition with my name, Julia, if I were you. Depend upon it, she has
some sinister design in this thing."

"I agree with Frank," rejoined Miss Pendleton, Mrs. Goldsborough's
sister; "such as elevating herself in society on your shoulders,
Julia, or rather those of your family."

"Charity, charity! you know I don't like such remarks," interposed
Mrs. Goldsborough, but with little show of severity; "we have no
reason to decide that Mrs. Smith does not really mean a kindness. She
always seemed very fond of Julia when a child."

"And so she would have appeared, mamma, of any other that might have
happened to be a grandchild of General Pendleton and Judge
Goldsborough. I had sense enough to understand her even then. She used
to call me in on my way to school, to warm my hands, when they did not
need it, and inquire after the health of my mother and grandmothers
and grandfathers and aunts and uncles, and admire my clothes, and wish
her little Jane was old enough to run to school with me, and flatter
me on the beauty of my hair and eyes and complexion, in such a way
that very few children would have been so stupid as not to have seen
through it. Could you not have said something to discourage the new
idea, ma'ma?"

"Not without rudeness, Julia, though, I confess, I would rather it
could have been done. Even presuming that she is sincere in her
professions of regard, I do not like the thought of a person in her
circumstances going to what to her must be serious trouble and expense
on our account. The easiest way to reconcile myself to it would be by
believing with you all, that she has some personal motive in it."

At that same hour Mrs. Smith was immersed in her preliminary
arrangements.

"I shall have to ask you to write some of the invitations, Cousin
Sabina," said she to Miss Incledon; "I am not much in the habit of
writing, even notes; and Pelby, who has not time to attend to it, says
that you write a very pretty hand. Here are pen and paper to make out
the list--I will give you the names. In the first place, there are all
the Goldsboroughs and Pendletons, and Longacres, and Van Pelts--"

"You forget," interrupted Miss Incledon, "that it is necessary to name
them individually."

"True, I had forgotten--I have so many things to think about.
Beginning with the Goldsboroughs--Mrs., Miss, and Mr.; then General
and Mrs. Pendleton, Miss Pendleton, Mr. and Mrs. John, Mr. and Mrs.
Henry, and Mr. and Mrs. James Pendleton;" and so Mrs. Smith kept on in
continuous nomenclature for a considerable time. It was only as she
came down into the lower ranks of fashion, after a regular gradation,
that she hesitated for a moment--and then her pauses grew longer and
longer.

"Perhaps I can assist your memory, Cousin Sarah," said Miss Incledon;
"I have seen several of your acquaintances, and have heard of a good
many more; there is Mrs. Wills, with whom you were taking tea the
evening of my arrival."

"I have reflected upon that, and conclude that I shall not ask Mrs.
Wills," replied Mrs. Smith; "she is a plain person, and seldom goes to
parties, which I can make a sufficient excuse for leaving her out,
though, to be sure, she would come to mine, if I invited her; and to
prevent her from being offended, I shall send for her a few days after
to come socially to tea, with a few others of the same set. There
will, of course, be plenty of refreshments left, and it will,
therefore, be no additional expense."

"Then Mrs. Salisbury and her two daughters, who called yesterday."

"I believe not; they are not decidedly and exclusively of the first
circle, though, as you seemed to consider them, quite superior
women--very accomplished and agreeable. They have not much fortune,
however, and have no connections here. On the whole, I do not see that
any thing could be gained by inviting the Salisburys."

"I have not your neighbor, Mrs. Streeter down," observed Cousin
Sabina.

"No; I don't see the necessity for having Mrs. Streeter; she is a good
creature--very obliging when one needs a neighbor, in cases of
sickness, or the like, but would be far from ornamental. I can have an
excuse for omitting her in never having received an invitation from
her--she does not give parties. She will be very well satisfied, I
dare say, if I send her a basket of fragments afterward. You must
understand, Cousin Sabina, that as this is my first party, I mean it
to be very select."

"Then you will also, I presume, leave out Mrs. Brownell."

"By no means; I calculate a great deal on Mrs. Brownell. She has the
greatest quantity of elegant china and cut-glass, which it will be
necessary for me to borrow. My own supply is rather limited, and I
must depend chiefly on my acquaintances. It was on that account that I
set down the Greelys. They have the largest lot of silver forks and
spoons of any family I know--owing, it is whispered, to their having,
where they came from, kept a fashionable boarding-house. Also, you may
put down Mrs. Crabbe."

"Mrs. Crabbe?--did I not hear you describe her as a very low person?"

"Peculiarly so in her manners--but what am I to do? I must have
persons to assist me; and Mrs. Crabbe makes the most beautiful jellies
and the most delicious Charlotte-Russe I ever tasted. She has a
natural talent for all sorts of nice cookery, and with my little
experience in it, she will be of the greatest service to me. It saves
a great deal to make every thing except the confectionary at home; and
I shall go at once and ask Mrs. Crabbe if she will prepare the
materials for my fruit-cake, and mix it up."

"You have said nothing about your Aunt Tomkins, of whom Cousin Pelby
has talked to me, and of the different members of her family--they are
to have invitations, of course?" suggested Miss Incledon.

"No--that is--I shall attend to it myself--I mean you need not mind;"
and Mrs. Smith hurried to the door, beginning to perceive something
she would rather escape in the countenance and interrogatories of
Cousin Sabina. "Bless me!" she exclaimed, turning back, "I almost
forgot--and what a mistake it would have been! put down Miss Debby
Coggins; I should never have been forgiven if I had neglected her. She
has a great many oddities, but she is related to all the first
families, and one must keep on her right side. Have you the
name?--Miss Deborah Coggins."

We shall not follow Mrs. Smith into the turmoil of her preparations,
which would have been much more wearisome and bewildering, from her
inexperience in getting up a large entertainment, had it not been for
the good judgment and quiet activity of Miss Incledon, and which the
night of fruition at last terminated.

All was ready, even the lighting of the rooms, when Mrs. Smith, before
commencing her own toilette, entered the apartment of her guest. Miss
Incledon, who considered herself past the time of life for other than
matronly decorations of the person, was laying out a handsome
pelerine, and a tasteful cap, to wear with a rich, dark silk dress.

"My dear Cousin Sabina," said Mrs. Smith, "do help me out of a
difficulty; I have no one to remain on duty in the supper-room, and
there certainly ought to be some one to sit there and see that nothing
is disturbed--for there is a great quantity of silver there, mostly
borrowed, and with so many strange servants about, I feel uneasy to
leave it a moment."

"Are you not able to get some one for that service?" asked Miss
Incledon.

"No, indeed; I thought of Aunt Tomkins, but the truth is, I could not
request her to do it without sending invitations to the whole family,
which I concluded would not be advisable: there are so many of them,
and as they would not be acquainted with the rest of the company, it
seemed best not to have any of them. I thought, too, of old Mrs.
Joyce, who sometimes does quilting and knitting for me, but she has a
large family of grandchildren, some of whom she always drags with her
when she goes to where there is any thing good to eat; and it would
never do to have them poking their fingers into the refreshments. So
it struck me that perhaps you might oblige me. You don't appear to
care for parties, and as you would be a stranger in the room, it is
not likely you would have much enjoyment. Of course, if I believed you
would prefer the trouble of dressing, and taking your chance among the
company, I would not ask it of you."

Nothing daunted by the glow of indignation which followed a look of
astonishment on the face of Cousin Sabina, she paused for a reply.
After a moment's reflection, Miss Incledon answered calmly, "I am your
guest, Sarah--dispose of me as you please;" and returning her cap and
white gloves to their boxes, she refastened her wrapper to enter upon
the office assigned to her.

The party passed off with the crowding, crushing, talking and eating
common to parties. The supper was a handsome one--for Mr. Smith wisely
decided that if the thing must be done at all, it should be done
well--and therefore he had hinted no restrictions to his wife as to
the expense. Many "regrets" had been sent in, but still Mrs. Smith was
at the post she had coveted for years--that of receiving a fashionable
assemblage in her own house; and if her choicest guests courted her
notice as little as they would have done any where else, she was too
much elated and flustered, and overheated to think about it. One of
her principal concerns was to keep her eye on her husband, who, being
a shy, timid man, with very little tact, was not much calculated for
playing the host on such an occasion. He had, however, been doing
better than she expected, when, a little before supper, he wandered
through the crowd to where she was standing, for the moment, alone,
and asked, "Where is Cousin Sabina?"

"In the supper-room. It is necessary at such times to have some one
behind the scenes, and I had to get her to remain in the supper-room,
to watch that things went on properly; and, in particular, to see that
none of the silver was carried off, nor the refreshments wasted after
supper."

Mr. Smith looked disturbed, and exclaimed, rather too loudly, "Is it
possible that you could ask a woman like Sabina Incledon to do such a
thing! one of my most respectable relations, and a visiter in my
house?"

"Don't speak so loudly. I left out all my own relations, and I dare
say they would, any of them, have looked as creditably as Sabina
Incledon. When we have established our own standing, Mr. Smith, it
will be time enough for us to bring out such people as your Cousin
Sabina. To be sure, if I had had any one to trust in her place, I
should not have objected at all to her coming in."

Mrs. Smith was turning away, when she saw, at her elbow, Mrs.
Goldsborough and Miss Pendleton, who must have overheard the
conversation. To her it was the mortification of the evening.

The next morning at the breakfast-table Mrs. Smith was too much
occupied in descanting upon the events of the night, describing the
dresses, and detailing the commendations on different viands of the
supper, to notice that Miss Incledon spoke but little, and when she
did, with more dignity and gravity than usual. On rising from the
table, she unlocked the sideboard, and taking from it a basket of
silver, she said, "I would thank you, Cousin Sabina, to assort these
forks and spoons for me. It will be something of a task, as they have
to go to half a dozen different places. When you have got through I
will look over them to see that all is right;" and she was hurrying
off to commence some of the multifarious duties of the day.

"Excuse me, Sarah," said Miss Incledon; "I'll expect that a carriage
will be here in a few minutes to take me into the country."

"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Smith, looking disappointed and somewhat
displeased; "I thought I should have your assistance in putting away
things--I had no idea of your leaving us to-day."

"You may remember my telling you, Cousin Pelby," said Miss Incledon,
addressing Mr. Smith, "that I would be but a few days with you. I took
advantage of traveling in this direction to renew our old family
intercourse; but the principal object of my journey was to visit a
very particular friend, Mrs. Morgan Silsbee."

"Mrs. Morgan Silsbee!" said Mrs. Smith--"are you not mistaken, Cousin
Sabina? I presume you mean Mrs. Edward Silsbee. Mrs. Morgan Silsbee
lives ten or twelve miles out; their place is said to be magnificent,
and I know that she and her husband drives a coach-and-four on state
occasions. Mrs. Goldsborough made a splendid dinner for them a short
time ago. Mrs. Edward Silsbee I have met often; I didn't know that you
were acquainted with her."

"I am _not_ acquainted with Mrs. Edward Silsbee," said Miss Incledon,
with dignity; "I mean her sister-in-law, Mrs. Morgan Silsbee. She is
an old friend of mine, and I have been under engagement to her since I
met her last summer, at the Springs, to make this visit. I had a note
from her last night, written from one of the hotels, saying that she
would stop for me this morning at nine or ten o'clock--your party
preventing her from calling in person."

Had a halo suddenly appeared around the head of Cousin Sabina, Mrs.
Smith could hardly have changed her countenance and manner more
markedly. "If I had only known it," she exclaimed, "how gratified I
should have been to have had an invitation, with my card, sent to her,
and to have had her at my party. But, surely, Cousin Sabina, you will
soon return to us?"

"I shall certainly pass through town on my way homeward, but will stop
at a boarding-house," said Miss Incledon.

The conscious Mrs. Smith reddened violently, but was relieved by the
interruption of a handsome carriage, though not the coach-and-four,
stopping before her house. Miss Incledon stepped to the parlor-door,
to answer the footman, who inquired for her.

"Mrs. Morgan Silsbee's compliments, ma'am," said the man, "and the
carriage is at your service whenever you are ready. We are to take her
up at Mrs. Goldsborough's, where she got out to wait for you."

It took but a moment for Cousin Sabina to reappear bonneted and
shawled, and to have her baggage put on the carriage. Then kindly
bidding Mr. Smith farewell, she gave her hand to his wife, escaping
the embrace in preparation for her, and was rapidly driven away.

"You see there are some persons who can appreciate Cousin Sabina,"
said Mr. Smith; and afraid to wait for a reply, he hastened to his
place of business.

"And so Cousin Sabina is the friend of Mrs. Morgan Silsbee, the friend
of Mrs. Goldsborough!" said Mrs. Smith to herself, while a series of
not very satisfactory reflections ran through her mind. But her
attention was claimed by other things. What with putting away and
distributing the fragments of the feast, washing and sending home
table-furniture, gathering up candle ends, and other onerous duties,
the day wore on. At last, late in the afternoon, with aching head and
wearied limbs, she sat down in her rocking-chair in the dining-room to
rest. A ring at the door-bell soon disturbed her. "Say I'm engaged,
unless it is some person very particular," said she to the servant.

"It is Miss Debby Coggins, ma'am," said the colored girl, returning,
with a grin; "I let her in, because she's very partic'lar."

Miss Deborah Coggins, from being connected in some way or other with
each of the great families of the town, and having money enough not to
be dependent on any of them, was what is called a privileged
character--a class of individuals hard to be endured, unless they
possess the specific virtue of good-nature, to which Miss Debby had no
claim. She talked without ceasing, and her motto was to speak "the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." She was of a thin
figure, always dressed in rusty black silk, which must sometimes have
been renewed or changed, though no one could ever tell when, and a
velvet bonnet, of the same hue, with a peculiar lateral flare, which,
however, was really made to look something like new once every three
or four years. She wore a demi-wreath of frizzly, flaxen curls close
above her shaggy eyebrows, which were of the same color; and her very
long, distended nose was always filled with snuff, which assisted in
giving a trombone sound to as harsh a voice as ever passed through the
lips of a woman.

She had drawn up the blinds, and opened the sash of the windows when
Mrs. Smith entered the front parlor. "How're you this evening, Mrs.
Smith?" said she, in answer to the bland welcome she received; "I was
just telling your black girl that if you ever should happen to have a
party again, she should open the rooms and have the air changed better
the next day; and as you are not used to such things yourself, I
thought I might as well let you know it, too. I raised the windows
myself. Now," she added, "the room is too cold to sit in, and I would
prefer going to your dining-room, or wherever you were when I came
in."

"Certainly, certainly, Miss Debby," said Mrs. Smith, marshaling the
way.

"Stop!" said Miss Debby, "I want to take a look at your wall paper--I
never noticed it before. I can't say I like your taste; though, no
doubt, you took it for the sake of economy--ugly papers sometimes go
very cheap."

"You are quite mistaken, I assure you, Miss Debby," began Mrs. Smith,
eagerly.

"Well, it's of no consequence," interrupted Miss Debby, "only I heard
Matilda Shipley say yesterday, that there would be no use in dressing
much for Mrs. Pelby Smith's party, as her low rooms, with their dingy,
dirt-colored paper, could never be lighted up to make any one look
well."

Mrs. Smith cleared her throat, but said nothing, recollecting by this
time that all retort or explanation was lost upon Miss Deborah
Coggins. To change the subject she remarked, "How disappointed I was
at your not coming last night, my dear Miss Debby--one of the friends
I most wished to see."

"I have been rather sorry myself that I did not come, since I heard
that the party turned out better than could have been expected. I
supposed that there would have been a great many here that I did not
know, and that my own set, mostly, would have stayed away, like
myself, not caring much to meet them."

"What an idea, Miss Debby! there was scarcely one in the room that you
did not know. My company was very select."

"So I was told to-day. Mrs. William Van Pelt said that you had invited
every body that would not thank you, and, as she had been told, had
left out those that had the best right to expect invitations. I should
like to have had a share of the supper," continued Miss Debby. "I
heard that you had worried yourself nearly to death preparing it, and
that it was really good, considering that you were not used to such
things. Young John Pendleton said that it made him some little amends
for being forced to go to a place where he made a mistake every time
he addressed his entertainers and called them Joneses."

Sorely wincing as Mrs. Smith was, she did not forget Miss Debby's
notoriety for following close upon the heels of a party for a share of
the good things left. Accordingly, she opened her sideboard, and
produced a choice variety of her store.

"I suppose it is too late to get some of the ice cream?" said Miss
Debby, losing no time in attacking what was set before her; "you have
used it, or let the ice run out, I dare say?--though, now that I think
of it, I made up my mind that I would not care to have any of it, for
old Mrs. Longacre told me that what she got was bitter, from being
made partly of milk, she supposed, that had been burnt in boiling."

This was more than Mrs. Smith could stand. "It is totally erroneous!"
she exclaimed; "I used none but the purest cream, and that without
boiling; I don't know how the old lady could have made such a mistake,
unless it was that she got some of the almond, which, perhaps, had too
much of the bitter-almond flavor for her taste."

"Perhaps so; and she said that she did not venture to taste the
Charlotte-Russe, fearing it might turn out to be nothing but
sponge-cake and custard, without jelly or whipped cream. But if it was
all like this, nobody could complain of it;" and, absorbed in the
gratification of her palate, Miss Debby gave her auditor a few minutes
respite.

"Your party, on the whole, made something of a talk, Mrs. Smith," she
resumed.

Mrs. Smith bowed and smiled, taking the observation for a compliment.

"I was out making calls the day the invitations went round. You know
making calls is a business with me, when I undertake it. I commence
directly after breakfast, and keep on till night, eating my dinner
wherever I suppose dinner chances to be ready. Well, the first I heard
of your intentions was from Mrs. Harvey, who said she wondered you
could think yourself under obligations to give a party to Julia
Goldsborough, though, to be sure, like some other of your devices, she
supposed that was only a _ruse_; and she was surprised that the
Goldsboroughs were willing to be cat's paws to help you along in
'society.'"

Mrs. Smith's face grew as red as the _bon bon_ paper she was nervously
twisting.

"That was to Mrs. Nicolas and me," pursued Miss Debby; "and Mrs.
Nicolas wondered how upon earth the Pelby Smiths could afford to give
a party at all. She concluded that you would have to live on bacon and
potatoes for the remainder of the season, to retrieve the cost, and
would have to turn that changeable silk of yours the third time."

"Oh, I don't mind what people say," observed Mrs. Smith, with a
distorted smile.

"I know you don't, or, at least, that you don't resent any thing
toward persons of such standing as those two, or I would not have
repeated the conversation. But, is it true, that you had some trouble
to get the party out of your husband?"

"Mr. Smith and I always act in concert," said Mrs. Smith, looking
dutiful.

"Do you? well, that's a happy thing. I understood quite the contrary,
though, that you always carried the day, from what Mrs. Joe Culpepper
said. I was at her house when your invitation came in, and after she
had opened it, she exclaimed, with her sly laugh, 'Only think, Miss
Debby, that manoeuvring, pushing Mrs. Pelby Smith has at last worried
her poor husband into giving a party!' and from the way she pitied Mr.
Smith, I inferred she must have some reason to believe that if you did
not wield a pretty high hand, he would not be quite such a man of wax
as he seems."

Had Miss Debby been any thing less than a relation in common to the
"Goldsboroughs, the Pendletons, the Longacres, and the Van Pelts,"
Mrs. Smith would have been tempted to request her to leave the house;
but as it was, her policy taught her to endure whatever Miss Debby
might choose to inflict. So she leaned back hopelessly in her chair,
while the old lady snapped and cracked a plate of candied fruits with
a vigor of which her teeth looked incapable.

"Had you any of your borrowed things broken?--for I heard that you had
to borrow nearly every thing," resumed her torturer.

"Not any thing at all but two or three plates, which can easily be
replaced," replied Mrs. Smith, not knowing what next to expect on that
point. But Miss Debby tacked about.

"I believe," said she, "you had a visiter staying with you for a few
days?"

"Yes--a cousin of Mr. Smith's--Miss Sabina Incledon--"

"That's the name," interrupted Miss Debby, nodding; "the person that
went out home with Mrs. Morgan Silsbee, this morning, I presume?"

"The same," replied Mrs. Smith, feeling her consequence looking up;
"Cousin Sabina is a very particular friend of Mrs. Morgan Silsbee, who
for a long time had been soliciting the visit."

"Then, surely, she could not have been the person you set to watching
the kitchen and supper-room! Susan Goldsborough and Lydia Pendleton
were talking about it, and repeating to each other what they overheard
of a conversation between yourself and your husband, who seemed
greatly shocked that you had done it. Susan Goldsborough remarked that
if she had known that you had so little sense as to undervalue such a
woman in that way, or so little feeling and good-breeding as to
violate the laws of common hospitality and politeness so grossly, she
would assuredly have declined the party for Julia when you proposed it
to her."

Mrs. Smith had grown quite pale, and could only answer tremulously,
"What a misconstruction!--dear me--it was Cousin Sabina's wish--how
strange a mistake."

"It certainly is strange if they were so mistaken, and stranger still
that a woman of so much dignity, and so accustomed to society as Miss
Incledon, should have preferred watching your servants to taking her
proper place among your guests. I thought to myself whilst they were
talking, that it seemed hardly consistent with your usual way of doing
things, to put upon such duty a person who in all probability would
soon be Mrs. Colonel Raynor, and the aunt of Mrs. Morgan Silsbee. I
shouldn't wonder if the match came off in a month."

"Cousin Sabina likely to be married in a month!--and to Colonel
Raynor!" exclaimed Mrs. Smith, startled out of her usual tact, and her
lips growing yet bluer.

"Bless me! didn't you know the story?" said Miss Debby, in her turn
looking surprised; "they met last summer at the Springs, and the
colonel was so pleased with her unpretending good sense, excellent
principles, and superior mental cultivation, that he proposed to her
before she went away. She deferred her answer until she and his
children should have become acquainted. You know he is a widower with
three daughters--two of them married. She has been in correspondence
ever since with Mrs. Morgan Silsbee, the colonel's niece, who has been
trying to make the match, and who, that her cousins may meet her, has
insisted upon the present visit. They are lovely young women, the
daughters, whom she cannot fail to like, and as they know how to
appreciate such a woman as Miss Incledon, there is no doubt of the
marriage taking place. It will be a great thing for you, Mrs. Smith;
the connection will do more for you than a dozen parties. And such a
charming place as you will have to visit! The colonel lives like a
prince, and at only a few hours' drive from here. You can go there in
the summer with your children, and meet a constant run of company more
choice than at a watering-place, and all without any expense. When
your cousin comes back to town, be sure to let me know, that I may
call upon her. Susan Goldsborough is fretted enough that she was not
apprised of her being here, and so are some of the Longacres; they
blame you with it all."

Mrs. Smith did not attempt to reply, and Miss Debby rose to go.

"It is getting late," said she, "and I must walk. If you have no
objection I will take those slices of fruit and almond cake, and a
paper of candied fruit and _bon bons_ with me--and perhaps you can
spare some more Malaga grapes--or could you send them home for me by
one of your servants? I should like to stop at Susan Goldsborough's to
tell her that you knew nothing about the good fortune in prospect for
your cousin, and it is probable she will wish me to stay for tea."

Mrs. Smith restrained herself until she had escorted her visiter to
the door, and then returning to her rocking-chair, she indulged in a
fit of weeping that looked very much like hysterics. Her most
prominent thought was, "If I had only given the party to Cousin
Sabina!"

This she had ample opportunity to reiterate--for time proved to her
that the prime object of her grand effort had failed--those who
comprised her select party never including her in any of theirs. More
particularly did it recur to her, when, some months afterward, Mrs.
Colonel Raynor, though she sometimes stopped to exchange a few kindly
words with Mr. Smith at his place of business, evaded every invitation
to his dwelling, while she went the rounds of sumptuous fêting among
the Goldsboroughs, Pendletons, Longacres & Co.




SPIRIT-VOICES.

BY CHARLES W. BAIRD.


"Hast thou heard ever a spirit-voice,
  As in morning's hour it stole
Speaking to thee from the home of its choice,
  Deep in the unfathomed soul:
Telling of things that the ear hath not heard,
  Neither the mind conceived;
Bringing a balm in each gentle word
  Unto the heart bereaved?"

O, I have heard it in days of the spring,
  When gladness and joy were rife.
'Twas a voice of hope, that came whispering
  Its story of strength and life.
It told me that seasons of vigor and mirth
  Follow the night of pain;
And the heaven-born soul, like the flowers of earth,
  Withers, to live again!

"Hast thou heard ever a spirit-voice,
  At the sunny hour of noon;
Bidding the soul in its light rejoice,
  For the darkness cometh soon;
Telling of blossoms that early bloom
  And as early pine and fade;
And the bright hopes that must find a tomb
  In the dark, approaching shade?"

Yes, I have heard it in summer's hour,
  When the year was in its strength:
'T was a voice of faith, and it spoke with power
  Of joys that shall come at length.
It told how the holy and beautiful gain
  Fruition of peace and love;
And the blest ones, freed from this world of pain,
  Flourish and ripen above.

"Hast thou heard ever a spirit-voice,
  At the solemn noon of night,
When the fair visions of memory rise
  Robed in their fancied light.
When the loved forms that are cold and dead
  Pass in their train sad and slow;
And the waking soul, from its pleasures fled,
  Turns to its present wo?"

Oft have I heard it when day was o'er;
  And the welcome tones I knew:
Like the voices of those who have gone before,
  The Beautiful and the True.
And it turned my thoughts to that blissful time
  When ceaseth cold winter's breath;
When the free spirit shall seek that clime
  Where there is no more death.




THE ISLETS OF THE GULF;

OR, ROSE BUDD.

    Ay, now I am in Arden; the more fool
    I; when I was at home I was in a better place; but
    Travelers must be content. AS YOU LIKE IT.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "PILOT," "RED ROVER," "TWO ADMIRALS," "WING-AND-WING,"
"MILES WALLINGFORD," ETC


[Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1846, by J.
Fenimore Cooper, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
United States, for the Northern District of New York.]

(_Concluded from page 98_.)


PART XVII.

    The trusting heart's repose, the paradise
    Of home, with all its loves, doth fate allow
    The crown of glory unto woman's brow.
                                        MRS. HEMANS.


It has again become necessary to advance the time; and we shall take
the occasion thus offered to make a few explanations touching certain
events which have been passed over without notice.

The reason why Capt. Mull did not chase the yawl of the brig in the
Poughkeepsie herself, was the necessity of waiting for his own boats
that were endeavoring to regain the sloop-of-war. It would not have
done to abandon them, inasmuch as the men were so much exhausted by
the pull to windward, that when they reached the vessel all were
relieved from duty for the rest of the day. As soon, however, as the
other boats were hoisted in, or run up, the ship filled away, stood
out of the passage and ran down to join the cutter of Wallace, which
was endeavoring to keep its position, as much as possible, by making
short tacks under close-reefed luggs.

Spike had been received on board the sloop-of-war, sent into her sick
bay, and put under the care of the surgeon and his assistants. From
the first, these gentlemen pronounced the hurt mortal. The wounded man
was insensible most of the time, until the ship had beat up and gone
into Key West, where he was transferred to the regular hospital, as
has already been mentioned.

The wreckers went out the moment the news of the calamity of the Swash
reached their ears. Some went in quest of the doubloons of the
schooner, and others to pick up any thing valuable that might be
discovered in the neighborhood of the stranded brig. It may be
mentioned here, that not much was ever obtained from the brigantine,
with the exception of a few spars, the sails, and a little rigging;
but, in the end, the schooner was raised, by means of the chain Spike
had placed around her, the cabin was ransacked, and the doubloons were
recovered. As there was no one to claim the money, it was quietly
divided among the conscientious citizens present at its revisiting
"the glimpses of the moon," making gold plenty.

The doubloons in the yawl would have been lost but for the sagacity of
Mulford. He too well knew the character of Spike to believe he would
quit the brig without taking the doubloons with him. Acquainted with
the boat, he examined the little locker in the stern-sheets, and found
the two bags, one of which was probably the lawful property of Capt.
Spike, while the other, in truth, belonged to the Mexican government.
The last contained the most gold, but the first amounted to a sum that
our young mate knew to be very considerable. Rose had made him
acquainted with the sex of Jack Tier since their own marriage; and he
at once saw that the claims to the gold in question, of this uncouth
wife, who was so soon to be a widow, might prove to be as good in law,
as they unquestionably were in morals. On representing the facts of
the case to Capt. Mull and the legal functionaries at Key West, it was
determined to relinquish this money to the heirs of Spike, as, indeed,
they must have done under process, there being no other claimant.
These doubloons, however, did not amount to the full price of the
flour and powder that composed the cargo of the Swash. The cargo had
been purchased with Mexican funds; and all that Spike or his heirs
could claim, was the high freight for which he had undertaken the
delicate office of transporting those forbidden articles, contraband
of war, to the Dry Tortugas.

Mulford by this time was high in the confidence and esteem of all on
board the Poughkeepsie. He had frankly explained his whole connection
with Spike, not even attempting to conceal the reluctance he had felt
to betray the brig after he had fully ascertained the fact of his
commander's treason. The manly gentlemen with whom he was now brought
in contact entered into his feelings, and admitted that it was an
office no one could desire, to turn against the craft in which he
sailed. It is true, they could not and would not be traitors, but
Mulford had stopped far short of this; and the distinction between
such a character and that of an informer was wide enough to satisfy
all their scruples.

Then Rose had the greatest success with the gentlemen of the
Poughkeepsie. Her youth, beauty, and modesty, told largely in her
favor; and the simple, womanly affection she unconsciously betrayed
in behalf of Harry, touched the heart of every observer. When the
intelligence of her aunt's fate reached her, the sorrow she manifested
was so profound and natural, that every one sympathized with her
grief. Nor would she be satisfied unless Mulford would consent to go
in search of the bodies. The latter knew the hopelessness of such an
excursion, but he could not refuse to comply. He was absent on that
melancholy duty, therefore, at the moment of the scene related in our
last chapter, and did not return until after that which we are now
about to lay before the reader. Mrs. Budd, Biddy, and all of those who
perished after the yawl got clear of the reef, were drowned in deep
water, and no more was ever seen of any of them; or, if wreckers did
pass them, they did not stop to bury the dead. It was different,
however, with those who were first sacrificed to Spike's selfishness.
They were drowned on the reef, and Harry did actually recover the
bodies of the Señor Montefalderon, and of Josh, the steward. They had
washed upon a rock that is bare at low water. He took them both to the
Dry Tortugas, and had them interred along with the other dead at that
place. Don Juan was placed side by side with his unfortunate
country-man, the master of his equally unfortunate schooner.

While Harry was absent and thus employed, Rose wept much and prayed
more. She would have felt herself almost alone in the world, but for
the youth to whom she had so recently, less than a week before,
plighted her faith in wedlock. That new tie, it is true, was of
sufficient importance to counteract many of the ordinary feelings of
her situation; and she now turned to it as the one which absorbed most
of the future duties of her life. Still she missed the kindness, the
solicitude, even the weaknesses of her aunt; and the terrible manner
in which Mrs. Budd had perished, made her shudder with horror whenever
she thought of it. Poor Biddy, too, came in for her share of the
regrets. This faithful creature, who had been in the relict's service
ever since Rose's infancy, had become endeared to her, in spite of her
uncouth manners and confused ideas, by the warmth of her heart, and
the singular truth of her feelings. Biddy, of all her family, had come
alone to America, leaving behind her not only brothers and sisters,
but parents living. Each year did she remit to the last a moiety of
her earnings, and many a half-dollar that had come from Rose's pretty
little hand, had been converted into gold, and forwarded on the same
pious errand to the green island of her nativity. Ireland, unhappy
country! at this moment what are not the dire necessities of thy poor!
Here, from the midst of abundance, in a land that God has blessed in
its productions far beyond the limits of human wants, a land in which
famine was never known, do we at this moment hear thy groans, and
listen to tales of suffering that to us seem almost incredible. In the
midst of these chilling narratives, our eyes fall on an appeal to the
English nation, that appears in what it is the fashion of some to term
the first journal of Europe(!) in behalf of thy suffering people. A
worthy appeal to the charity of England seldom fails; but it seems to
us that one sentiment of this might have been altered, if not spared.
The English are asked to be "_forgetful_ of the past," and to come
forward to the relief of their suffering fellow-subjects. We should
have written "_mindful_ of the past," in its stead. We say this in
charity, as well as in truth. We come of English blood, and if we
claim to share in all the ancient renown of that warlike and
enlightened people, we are equally bound to share in the reproaches
that original misgovernment has inflicted on thee. In this latter
sense, then, thou hast a right to our sympathies, and they are not
withheld.

As has been already said, we now advance the time eight-and-forty
hours, and again transfer the scene to that room in the hospital which
was occupied by Spike. The approaches of death, during the interval
just named, had been slow but certain. The surgeons had announced that
the wounded man could not possibly survive the coming night; and he
himself had been made sensible that his end was near. It is scarcely
necessary to add that Stephen Spike, conscious of his vigor and
strength, in command of his brig, and bent on the pursuits of worldly
gains, or of personal gratification, was a very different person from
him who now lay stretched on his pallet in the hospital of Key West, a
dying man. By the side of his bed still sat his strange nurse, less
peculiar in appearance, however, than when last seen by the reader.

Rose Budd had been ministering to the ungainly externals of Jack Tier.
She now wore a cap, thus concealing the short, gray bristles of hair,
and lending to her countenance a little of that softness which is a
requisite of female character. Some attention had also been paid to
the rest of her attire; and Jack was, altogether, less repulsive in
her exterior than when, unaided, she had attempted to resume the
proper garb of her sex. Use and association, too, had contributed a
little to revive her woman's nature, if we may so express it, and she
had begun, in particular, to feel the sort of interest in her patient
which we all come in time to entertain toward any object of our
especial care. We do not mean that Jack had absolutely ever ceased to
love her husband; strange as it may seem, such had not literally been
the case; on the contrary, her interest in him and in his welfare had
never ceased, even while she saw his vices and detested his crimes;
but all we wish to say here is, that she was getting, in addition to
the long-enduring feelings of a wife, some of the interest of a nurse.

During the whole time which had elapsed between Jack's revealing her
true character, and the moment of which we are now writing, Spike had
not once spoken to his wife. Often had she caught his eyes intently
riveted on her, when he would turn them away, as she feared, in
distaste; and once or twice he groaned deeply, more like a man who
suffered mental than bodily pain. Still the patient did not speak once
in all the time mentioned. We should be representing poor Jack as
possessing more philosophy, or less feeling, than the truth would
warrant, were we to say she was not hurt at this conduct in her
husband. On the contrary, she felt it deeply; and more than once it
had so far subdued her pride, as to cause her bitterly to weep. This
shedding of tears, however, was of service to Jack in one sense, for
it had the effect of renewing old impressions, and in a certain way,
of reviving the nature of her sex within her--a nature which had been
sadly weakened by her past life.

But the hour had at length come when this long and painful silence was
to be broken. Jack and Rose were alone with the patient, when the last
again spoke to his wife.

"Molly--poor Molly!" said the dying man, his voice continuing full and
deep to the last, "what a sad time you must have had of it after I did
you that wrong!"

"It is hard upon a woman, Stephen, to turn her out, helpless, on a
cold and selfish world," answered Jack, simply, much too honest to
affect reserve she did not feel.

"It was hard, indeed; may God forgive me for it, as I hope _you_ do,
Molly."

No answer was made to this appeal; and the invalid looked anxiously at
his wife. The last sat at her work, which had now got to be less
awkward to her, with her eyes bent on her needle, and her countenance
rigid, and, so far as the eye could discern, her feelings unmoved.

"Your husband speaks to you, Jack Tier," said Rose, pointedly.

"May _yours_ never have occasion to speak to you, Rose Budd, in the
same way," was the solemn answer. "I do not flatter myself that I ever
was as comely as you, or that yonder poor dying wretch was a Harry
Mulford in his youth; but we were young and happy, and respected once,
and loved each other; yet you see what its all come to!"

Rose was silenced, though she had too much tenderness in behalf of her
own youthful and manly bridegroom to dread a fate similar to that
which had overtaken poor Jack. Spike now seemed disposed to say
something, and she went to the side of his bed, followed by her
companion, who kept a little in the back-ground, as if unwilling to
let the emotion she really felt be seen, and, perhaps, conscious that
her ungainly appearance did not aid her in recovering the lost
affections of her husband.

"I have been a very wicked man, I fear," said Spike, earnestly.

"There are none without sin," answered Rose. "Place your reliance on
the mediation of the Son of God, and sins even far deeper than yours
may be pardoned."

The captain stared at the beautiful speaker, but self-indulgence, the
incessant pursuit of worldly and selfish objects for forty years, and
the habits of a life into which the thought of God and the dread
hereafter never entered, had encased his spiritual being in a sort of
brazen armor, through which no ordinary blow of conscience could
penetrate. Still he had fearful glimpses of recent events, and his
soul, hanging as it was over the abyss of eternity, was troubled.

"What has become of your aunt?" half whispered Spike--"my old
captain's widow. She ought to be here; and Don Wan Montezuma--where is
he?"

Rose turned aside to conceal her tears--but no one answered the
questions of the dying man. Then a gleaming of childhood shot into the
recollection of Spike, and, clasping his hands, he tried to pray. But,
like others who have lived without any communication with their
Creator through long lives of apathy to his existence and laws,
thinking only of the present time, and daily, hourly sacrificing
principles and duty to the narrow interests of the moment, he now
found how hard it is to renew communications with a being who has been
so long neglected. The fault lay in himself, however, for a gracious
ear was open, even over the death-bed of Stephen Spike, could that
rude spirit only bring itself to ask for mercy in earnestness and
truth. As his companions saw his struggles, they left him for a few
minutes to his own thoughts.

"Molly," Spike at length uttered, in a faint tone, the voice of one
conscious of being very near his end, "I hope you will forgive me,
Molly. I know you must have had a hard, hard time of it."

"It is hard for a woman to unsex herself, Stephen; to throw off her
very natur', as it might be, and to turn man."

"It has changed you sadly--even your speech is altered. Once your
voice was soft and womanish--more like that of Rose Budd's than it is
now."

"I speak as them speak among whom I've been forced to live. The
forecastle and steward's pantry, Stephen Spike, are poor schools to
send women to l'arn language in."

"Try and forget it all, poor Molly! Say to me, so that I can hear you,
'I forget and forgive, Stephen.' I am afraid God will not pardon my
sins, which begin to seem dreadful to me, if my own wife refuse to
forget and forgive, on my dying bed."

Jack was much mollified by this appeal. Her interest in her offending
husband had never been entirely extinguished. She had remembered him,
and often with woman's kindness, in all her wanderings and sufferings,
as the preceding parts of our narrative must show; and though
resentment had been mingled with the grief and mortification she felt
at finding how much he still submitted to Rose's superior charms, in a
breast as really generous and humane as that of Jack Tier's, such a
feeling was not likely to endure in the midst of a scene like that she
was now called to witness. The muscles of her countenance twitched,
the hard-looking, tanned face began to lose its sternness, and every
way she appeared like one profoundly disturbed.

"Turn to Him whose goodness and marcy may sarve you, Stephen," she
said, in a milder and more feminine tone than she had used now for
years, making her more like herself than either her husband or Rose
had seen her since the commencement of the late voyage; "my sayin'
that I forget and forgive cannot help a man on his death-bed."

"It will settle my mind, Molly, and leave me freer to turn my thoughts
to God."

Jack was much affected; more by the countenance and manner of the
sufferer, perhaps, than by his words. She drew nearer to the side of
her husband's pallet, knelt, took his hands, and said solemnly,

"Stephen Spike, from the bottom of my heart, I _do_ forgive you; and I
shall pray to God that he will pardon your sins as freely and more
marcifully than I now pardon all, and try to forget all that you have
done to me."

Spike clasped his hands, and again he tried to pray; but the habits of
a whole life are not to be thrown off at will; and he who endeavors to
regain, in his extremity, the moments that have been lost, will find,
in bitter reality, that he has been heaping mountains on his own soul,
by the mere practice of sin, which were never laid there by the
original fall of his race. Jack, however, had disburthened her spirit
of a load that had long oppressed it, and, burying her face in the
rug, she wept.

"I wish, Molly," said the dying man, several minutes later, "I wish I
had never seen the brig. Until I got that craft, no thought of
wronging human being ever crossed my mind."

"It was the Father of Lies that tempts all to do evil, Stephen, and
not the brig which caused the sins."

"I wish I could live a year longer--_only_ one year; that is not much
to ask for a man who is not yet sixty."

"It is hopeless, poor Stephen. The surgeons say you cannot live one
day."

Spike groaned; for the past, blended fearfully with the future,
gleamed on his conscience with a brightness that appalled him. And
what is that future, which is to make us happy or miserable through an
endless vista of time? Is it not composed of an existence, in which
conscience, released from the delusions and weaknesses of the body,
sees all in its true colors, appreciates all, and punishes all? Such
an existence would make every man the keeper of the record of his own
transgressions, even to the most minute exactness. It would of itself
mete out perfect justice, since the sin would be seen amid its
accompanying facts, every aggravating or extenuating circumstance.
Each man would be strictly punished according to his talents. As no
one is without sin, it makes the necessity of an atonement
indispensable, and, in its most rigid interpretation, it exhibits the
truth of the scheme of salvation in the clearest colors. The soul, or
conscience, that can admit the necessary degree of faith in that
atonement, and in admitting, _feels_ its efficacy, throws the burthen
of its own transgressions away, and remains forever in the condition
of its original existence, pure, and consequently happy.

We do not presume to lay down a creed on this mighty and mysterious
matter, in which all have so deep an interest, and concerning which so
very small a portion of the human race think much, or think with any
clearness when it does become the subject of their passing thoughts at
all. We too well know our own ignorance to venture on dogmas which it
has probably been intended that the mind of man should not yet
grapple with and comprehend. To return to our subject.

Stephen Spike was now made to feel the incubus-load, which
perseverance in sin heaps on the breast of the reckless offender. What
was the most grievous of all, his power to shake off this dead weight
was diminished in precisely the same proportion as the burthen was
increased, the moral force of every man lessening in a very just ratio
to the magnitude of his delinquencies. Bitterly did this deep offender
struggle with his conscience, and little did his half-unsexed wife
know how to console or aid him. Jack had been superficially instructed
in the dogmas of her faith, in childhood and youth, as most persons
are instructed in what are termed Christian communities--had been made
to learn the Catechism, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed--and had been
left to set up for herself on this small capital, in the great concern
of human existence, on her marriage and entrance on the active
business of life. When the manner in which she had passed the last
twenty years is remembered, no one can be surprised to learn that Jack
was of little assistance to her husband in his extremity. Rose made an
effort to administer hope and consolation, but the terrible nature of
the struggle she witnessed, induced her to send for the chaplain of
the Poughkeepsie. This divine prayed with the dying man; but even he,
in the last moments of the sufferer, was little more than a passive
but shocked witness of remorse, suspended over the abyss of eternity
in hopeless dread. We shall not enter into the details of the
revolting scene, but simply add that curses, blasphemy, tremulous
cries for mercy, agonized entreaties to be advised, and sullen
defiance, were all strangely and fearfully blended. In the midst of
one of these revolting paroxysms Spike breathed his last. A few hours
later his body was interred in the sands of the shore. It may be well
to say in this place, that the hurricane of 1846, which is known to
have occurred only a few months later, swept off the frail covering
and that the body was washed away to leave its bones among the wrecks
and relics of the Florida Reef.

Mulford did not return from his fruitless expedition in quest of the
remains of Mrs. Budd, until after the death and interment of Spike. As
nothing remained to be done at Key West, he and Rose accompanied by
Jack Tier, took passage for Charleston in the first convenient vessel
that offered. Two days before they sailed, the Poughkeepsie went out
to cruise in the gulf, agreeably to her general orders. The evening
previously Capt. Mull, Wallace, and the chaplain, passed with the
bridegroom and bride, when the matter of the doubloons found in the
boat was discussed. It was agreed that Jack Tier should have them; and
into her hands the bag was now placed. On this occasion, to oblige the
officers, Jack went into a narrative of all she had seen and suffered,
from the moment when abandoned by her late husband down to that when
she found him again. It was a strange account, and one filled with
surprising adventures. In most of the vessels in which she had
served, Jack had acted in the steward's department, though she had
frequently done duty as a fore-mast hand. In strength and skill she
admitted that she had often failed; but in courage, never. Having been
given reason to think her husband was reduced to serving in a vessel
of war, she had shipped on board a frigate bound to the Mediterranean,
and had actually made a whole cruise as a ward-room boy on that
station. While thus employed she had met with two of the gentlemen
present; Capt. Mull and Mr. Wallace. The former was then first
lieutenant of the frigate, and the latter a passed-midshipman; and in
these capacities both had been well known to her. As the name she then
bore was the same as that under which she now "hailed," these officers
were soon made to recollect her, though Jack was no longer the light,
trim-built lad he had then appeared to be. Neither of the gentlemen
named had made the whole cruise in the ship, but each had been
promoted and transferred to another craft, after being Jack's shipmate
rather more than a year. This information greatly facilitated the
affair of the doubloons.

From Charleston the travelers came north by railroad. Harry made
several stops by the way, in order to divert the thoughts of his
beautiful young bride from dwelling too much on the fate of her aunt.
He knew that home would revive all these recollections painfully, and
wished to put off the hour of their return, until time had a little
weakened Rose's regrets. For this reason, he passed a whole week in
Washington, though it was a season of the year that the place is not
in much request. Still, Washington is scarce a town, at any season. It
is much the fashion to deride the American capital, and to treat it as
a place of very humble performance with very sounding pretensions.
Certainly, Washington has very few of the peculiarities of a great
European capital, but few as these are, they are more than belong to
any other place in this country. We now allude to the _distinctive_
characteristics of a capital, and not to a mere concentration of
houses and shops within a given space. In this last respect,
Washington is much behind fifty other American towns, even while it is
the only place in the whole republic which possesses specimens of
architecture, on a scale approaching that of the higher classes of the
edifices of the old world. It is totally deficient in churches, and
theatres, and markets; or those it does possess are, in an
architectural sense, not at all above the level of village or
country-town pretensions, but one or two of its national edifices do
approach the magnificence and grandeur of the old world. The new
Treasury Buildings are unquestionably, on the score of size,
embellishments and finish, _the_ American edifice that comes nearest
to first class architecture on the other side of the Atlantic. The
Capitol comes next, though it can scarce be ranked, relatively, as
high. As for the White House, it is every way sufficient for its
purposes and the institutions; and now that its grounds are finished,
and the shrubbery and trees begin to tell, one sees about it something
that is not unworthy of its high uses and origin. Those grounds,
which so long lay a reproach to the national taste and liberality, are
now fast becoming beautiful, are already exceedingly pretty, and give
to a structure that is destined to become historical, having already
associated with it the names of Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, and
Quincy Adams, together with the _ci polloi_ of the later Presidents,
an _entourage_ that is suitable to its past recollections and its
present purposes. They are not quite on a level with the parks of
London, it is true; or even with the Tuileries, or Luxembourg, or the
Boboli, or the Villa Reale, or fifty more grounds and gardens, of a
similar nature, that might be mentioned; but, seen in the spring and
early summer, they adorn the building they surround, and lend to the
whole neighborhood a character of high civilization, that no other
place in America can show, in precisely the same form, or to the same
extent.

This much have we said on the subject of the White House and its
precincts, because we took occasion, in a former work, to berate the
narrow-minded parsimony which left the grounds of the White House in a
condition that was discreditable to the republic. How far our
philippic may have hastened the improvements which have been made, is
more than we shall pretend to say, but having made the former
strictures, we are happy to have an occasion to say (though nearly
twenty years have intervened between the expressions of the two
opinions) that they are no longer merited.

And here we will add another word, and that on a subject that is not
sufficiently pressed on the attention of a people, who, by position,
are unavoidably provincial. We invite those whose gorges rise at any
stricture on any thing American, and who fancy it is enough to belong
to the great republic to be great in itself, to place themselves in
front of the State Department, as it now stands, and to examine its
dimensions, material and form with critical eyes; then to look along
the adjacent Treasury Buildings, to fancy them completed, by a
junction with new edifices of a similar construction to contain the
department of state; next to fancy similar works completed for the two
opposite departments; after which, to compare the past and present
with the future as thus finished, and remember how recent has been the
partial improvement which even now exists. If this examination and
comparison do not show, directly to the sense of sight, how much there
was and is to criticise, as put in contrast with other countries, we
shall give up the individuals in question, as too deeply dyed in the
provincial wool ever to be whitened. The present Trinity church, New
York, certainly not more than a third class European church, if as
much, compared with its village-like predecessor, may supply a
practical homily of the same degree of usefulness. There may be those
among us, however, who fancy it patriotism to maintain that the old
Treasury Buildings were quite equal to the new, and of these intense
Americans we cry their mercy!

Rose felt keenly on reaching her late aunt's very neat dwelling in
Fourteenth Street, New York. But the manly tenderness of Mulford was
a great support to her, and a little time brought her to think of that
weak-minded, but well-meaning and affectionate relative, with gentle
regret, rather than with grief. Among the connections of her young
husband, she found several females of a class in life certainly equal
to her own, and somewhat superior to the latter in education and
habits. As for Harry, he very gladly passed the season with his
beautiful bride, though a fine ship was laid down for him, by means of
Rose's fortune, now much increased by her aunt's death, and he was
absent in Europe when his son was born; an event that occurred only
two months since.

The Swash, and the shipment of gunpowder, were thought of no more in
the good town of Manhattan. This great emporium--we beg pardon, this
great _commercial_ emporium--has a trick of forgetting; condensing all
interests into those of the present moment. It is much addicted to
believing that which never had an existence, and of overlooking that
which is occurring directly _under its nose_. So marked is this
tendency to forgetfulness, we should not be surprised to hear some of
the Manhattanese pretend that our legend is nothing but a fiction, and
deny the existence of the Molly, Capt. Spike, and even of Biddy Noon.
But we know them too well to mind what they say, and shall go on and
finish our narrative in our own way, just as if there were no such
raven-throated commentators at all.

Jack Tier, still known by that name, lives in the family of Capt.
Mulford. She is fast losing the tan on her face and hands, and every
day is improving in appearance. She now habitually wears her proper
attire, and is dropping gradually into the feelings and habits of her
sex. She never can become what she once was, any more than the
blackamoor can become white, or the leopard change his spots; but she
is no longer revolting. She has left off chewing and smoking, having
found a refuge in snuff. Her hair is permitted to grow, and is already
turned up with a comb, though constantly concealed beneath a cap. The
heart of Jack, alone, seems unaltered. The strange, tiger-like
affection that she bore for Spike, during twenty years of abandonment,
has disappeared in regrets for his end. It is succeeded by a most
sincere attachment for Rose, in which the little boy, since his
appearance on the scene, is becoming a large participator. This child
Jack is beginning to love intensely; and the doubloons, well invested,
placing her above the feeling of dependence, she is likely to end her
life, once so errant and disturbed, in tranquillity and a home-like
happiness.




THE BELLE.

BY MARY L. LAWSON.


She stands before the mirror--she is fair,
  And soft the light within her beaming eyes,
But unshed tears are slowly gathering there,
  Like passing clouds that float o'er summer skies;
Her cheek is wan, as blanched by thoughts of pain,
  And on her snowy brow a shadow sleeps:
Are such surpassing gifts bestowed in vain?--
  The pale, sad beauty turns aside and weeps!

Long, long in anguish flows the burning tide--
  Dark storms of feeling sweep across her breast--
In loneliness there needs no mask of pride--
  To nerve the soul, and veil the heart's unrest,
Amid the crowd her glances brightly beam,
  Her smiles with undimmed lustre sweetly shine:
The haunting visions of life's fevered dream
  The cold and careless seek not to divine.

Night after night unheeded glides away
  'Mid mirth and music, flattery's whispered tone,
Her dreary penance--ever to be gay,
  Yet longing, oh! how oft--to be alone;
But when all other hearts seek needful rest,
  And heavy sleep the saddest eyelids close,
Her dreams are those the wretched only know,
  As memory o'er her soul its shadow's throw.

Friends that had shared her girlhood's happier day,
  And forms now mingling with the dust arise,
The early loved recalled with pensive tears,
  Though once in pride half scorned and lightly prized;
Fair pictured scenes long vanished from her sight,
  Soft tones of songs and voices loved of yore.
And words of tenderness and looks of light,
  And fresh young hopes that bloom for her no more.

But this one hour has crowned in deep despair
  The many sorrows of life's galling chain,
Yet mid those sighs that rend her aching soul
  The heart's wild struggle is not felt in vain,
For she has turned to Him whose smile can cheer
  The darkened mind and hopes lost light reveal,
And learns to feel 'mid trembling doubt and fear--
  That HE whose power can wound is strong to heal.

While loftier thoughts to nobler purpose given
  Than those long wasted amid fashion's glare,
And deep resolves the future shall be fraught
  With holy deeds, her earnest musings share--
Though in the dance her step no more may glide,
  The glittering circle miss its chosen queen,
Around the vacant place a closing tide
  Will leave no record where her form was seen.

But where the widow's tear-drop may be dried,
  And where the orphan wanders sad and lone,
Where poverty its grieving head may hide,
  Will breathe the music of her voice's tone;
And if her face was blest with beauty rare
  'Mid gilded sighs and worldly vanity,
When heavenly peace has left its impress there
  Its loveliness from earthly stain is free.




LE PETIT SOULIER.

A STORY: IN TWO PARTS.

BY IK. MARVEL.


PART I.

I have said that the Abbé G---- had a room in some dark corner of a
hotel in the Rue de Seine, or Rue de la Harpe--which of the two it was
I really forget. At any rate, the hotel was very old, and the street
out of which I used to step into its ill-paved, triangular court, was
very narrow, and very dirty.

At the end of the court, farthest from the heavy gateway, was the box
of the _concierge_, who was a brisk little shoemaker, forever
bethwacking his lap-stone. If I remember right, the hammer of the
little _cordonnier_ made the only sound I used to hear in the court;
for though the house was full of lodgers, I never saw two of them
together, and never heard them talking across the court from the upper
windows, even in mid-summer.

At this distance of time, I do not think it would be possible for me
to describe accurately all the windings of the corridor which led to
the abbé's door. I remember that the first part was damp and low, and
after it I used to mount a crazy stone staircase, and at the top
passed through a passage that opened on one side upon a narrow court;
then there was a little wicket of iron, which, when it turned, tinkled
a bell. Sometimes the abbé would hear the bell, and open his door down
at the end of the corridor; and sometimes a lodger, who occupied a
room looking into the last-mentioned court, would draw, slyly, a
corner of his curtain, and peep out, to see who was passing. Sometimes
I would loiter myself to look down upon the lower windows in the
court, or to glance up at story resting above story, and at the peaked
roof, and dot of a loop-hole at the top.

A single small door opened into the court, and occasionally an old
woman, or bustling, shabbily-dressed man would shuffle across the
pavement; the faces at the windows seemed altogether sordid and
every-day faces, so that I came to regard the quarters of the abbé,
notwithstanding the quaint-fashioned windows and dim stairway, and
suspicious quiet, a very matter of fact, and so, very uninteresting
neighborhood.

As the abbé and myself passed out sometimes together through the
open-sided corridor, I would point into the court, and ask who lived
in the little room at the top.

"Ah, _mon cher_, I do not know," the abbé would say.

Or, "who lives in the corner, with the queer narrow window and the
striped curtain?"

"I cannot tell you, _mon cher_."

Or, "whose is the little window with so many broken panes, and an old
placard pinned against the frame?"

"Ah, who knows! perhaps a _chiffonier_, or a shopman, or perhaps--"
and the abbé lifted his finger, and shook his head expressively, and
continued,

"It is a strange world we live in, _mon ami_."

What could the abbé mean? I looked up at the window again; it was
small, and the panes were set in rough metal casing; it was high up on
the fourth or fifth floor. I could see nothing through but the dirty
yellow placard.

"Is it in the same hotel with you?" said I.

"_Ma foi_, I do not know."

I tried to picture satisfactorily to my own mind the appearance of the
chamber to which the little window belonged. Small it must be, I knew,
for in that quarter few were large even upon the first floor, and
looking upon the street. Dirty, too, it should surely be, and
comfortless, and tenanted by misery, or poverty, or sin, or, very
likely, all together. Possibly some miserly old wretch lived there,
needing only a little light to count up his hoard, and caring little
for any intrusive wind, if it did not blow away his treasure. I
fancied I could see him running over the tale of his coin by a feeble
rushlight--squat, perhaps, on the dirty tile-floor--then locking his
box, and placing it carefully under the pillow of his straw pallet,
then tip-toeing to the door to examine again the fastening, then
carefully extinguishing the taper, and after, dropping into an
anxious, fevered sleep.

I even lingered very late at the abbé's room, to see if I could detect
the old man; but there was never any light to be seen.

Perhaps it was the home of some poor gentleman who had seen better
days, and whom necessity obliged to deny himself the poor luxury of a
centime light. Possibly it was a little shopman, as the abbé had
suggested, struggling with fortune--not scrupulous in honesty, and
shunning observation; or it might be (who could tell) a sleek-faced
villain, stealing about in the dusk, and far into the night, making
the dim chamber his home only when more honest lodgers were astir in
the city.

All sorts of conjectures came thronging on me, and I cast my eyes up,
day after day, at the little window, hoping some change of appearance
might give plausibility to some one of my fancies.

Week after week, however, the corridor wore its old quietude; the
striped curtain in the wing window, and the yellow placard in the
suspicious window at the top, still kept their places with provoking
tenacity; and I could never, with all my art, seduce the good-natured
abbé into any bugbear story about the occupant of the dim chamber on
the court.

I dare say I might soon have neglected to look up at all, had I not
observed one day, after my glances had grown very careless, and almost
involuntary, a rich lace veil hanging against the same little window
where had hung the placard. There was no mistaking it--the veil was of
the richest Mechlin lace. I knew very well that no lady of elegance
could occupy such apartment, or, indeed, was to be found (I mean no
disrespect to the abbé) in that quarter of Paris. The window plainly
belonged to some thievish den, and the lace formed a portion of the
spoils. I began to be distrustful of late visits to the abbé's
quarters, and full of the notion of thievish eyes looking out from the
strange window--I used half to tremble as I passed along the corridor.
I told the abbé of the veil, and hinted my suspicions.

"It is nothing," said he, "princes have lived in worse corners."

"And yet you are not curious to know more?"

"_Mon cher_, it is dangerous to be too curious, _je suis un prêtre_."

Some days after--it was on a winter's morning, when a little snow had
fallen--I chanced to glance over into the court on which the
mysterious window looked, and saw the beautiful foot-mark of a lady's
slipper. It was scarce longer than my hand--too narrow and delicately
formed for a child's foot, least of all the foot of such children as
belonged to the Rue de Seine. I could not but associate the
foot-track--so small, so beautiful, and so unlocked for in such
scene--with the veil I had seen at the window.

Through all of my morning's lesson--I was then reading _La Grammaire
des Grammaires_--I could think of nothing but the pretty foot-track in
the snow. No such foot, I was quite sure, could be seen in the dirty
Rue de Seine--not even the shop-girls of the Rue de la Paix, or the
tidiest Llorettes could boast of one so pretty.

I asked the abbé to walk with me; and as we passed the corridor, I
threw my eye carelessly into the court, as if it were only my first
observation, and said as quietly as possible, "_Mon cher abbé_, the
snow tells tales this morning."

The abbé looked curiously down upon the foot-marks, ran his eye
rapidly over the windows, turned to me, shook his head expressively,
and said, as he glanced down again, "_O'etait un fort joli petit
soulier._" (It was a very pretty little shoe.)

"Whose was it?" said I.

"_Mon cher_, I do not know."

I still kept up, day after day, my watch upon the window. It shortly
supplied me with an important link in the chain of observations. I saw
lying within the glass, against which the veil yet hung, nothing more
nor less than the same little shoe, I thoroughly believed, which had
made the delicate foot-marks on the snow in the court. Not a prettier
shoe could be seen on the Boulevards, and scarce one so small. It
would have been very strange to see such delicate articles of dress at
any hotels of the neighborhood, and stranger still to find them in
the humblest window of so dismal a court.

There was a mystery about the matter that perplexed me. Every one
knows, who knows any thing about Paris, that that part of the city
along the Rue de Seine, between the Rues Jacob and Bussy, and though
very reputable in its way, is yet no place for delicate ladies, not
even as a promenade, and much less as a residence. It is assigned
over, as well by common consent as custom, to medical students,
shop-men, attorneys, physicians, priests, lodging-house keepers,
market-men, sub-officials, shop-women, second-class milliners, and
grisettes.

Indeed a delicate lady--and such only, I was sure, could have left the
foot-print in the court, and be the owner of the shoe I had
seen--could hardly pass through the Rue de Seine without drawing the
eyes of all the lodgers on the street. Dried up hag faces would have
met the apparition with a leer; the porters would have turned to
stare, and she would have had very suspicious followers.

I loitered about the outer court of the hotel, under pretence of
waiting for the abbé, in hope of seeing something which would throw
light upon the mysterious occupant of the chamber. But the comers and
goers were all of the most unobtrusive and ordinary cast. I ventured
to question the concierge concerning his lodgers. They were all _bons
gens_.

"Were there any ladies?"

The little shoemaker lifted his hammer a moment while he eyed me--"But
one, monsieur; the wife of the old tobacconist at the corner."

I asked about the windows in the little court, beside which I
passed--did they belong to his hotel?

He did not think it.

I prevailed on him to step with me a moment into the corridor, and
pointed out to him the window which had drawn so much of my attention.
I asked if he knew the hotel to which it belonged?

He did not. It might be the next, or the next after, or down the
little alley branching out of the Rue de Seine. I asked him of the
character of the neighborhood.

It was a good neighborhood, he said--a very reputable neighborhood. He
believed the lodgers of the quarter to be all _honnêtes gens_.

I took occasion to loiter about the courts of the adjoining houses,
frequently passing the opposite side of the way, with my eye all the
time upon the entrance gates. The lodgers seemed to be even inferior
to those who passed in at the court where the abbé resided.

One individual alone had attracted my attention. He was a tall, pale
man, in the decline of life, dressed in a sort of half-uniform; he
walked with a stooping gait, and seemed to me (perhaps it was a mere
fancy) as much weighed down by care as years. Several times I had seen
him going in or coming out of the court that opened two doors above
the abbé's. He was unlike most inhabitants of the neighborhood in both
dress and air.

I ventured to step up to the brisk little concierge in the court one
day, and ask who was the tall gentleman with the tarnished lace who
had just entered?

"It is _un Monsieur Very_," said the concierge.

"And poor Monsieur Very lives alone?" said I.

"How should I know, monsieur?"

"He always walks alone," said I.

"It is true," said the concierge.

"He has children, perhaps?" said I.

"_Très probable_," said the concierge.

He was little disposed to be communicative, yet I determined to make
another trial.

"You have very pretty lodgers," said I.

"Pardon, monsieur," said he, "I do not understand you."

"Pretty--very pretty lodgers," said I.

"You are facetious, monsieur," said the concierge, smiling.

"Not at all," said I; "have I not seen (a sad lie) a very pretty face
at one of the windows on the back court?"

"I do not think it, monsieur."

"And then there are no female lodgers?"

"_Pardon, monsieur_--there are several."

Here the little concierge was interrupted by a lodger, and I could ask
no more.

I still, however, kept up my scrutiny of the attic window--observed
closely every female foot that glanced about the neighboring courts,
and remitted sadly my attention to the _Grammaire des Grammaires_, in
the quiet room of my demure friend the abbé.

Sometimes, in my fancies, the object of wonder was a young maiden of
the _noblesse_, who, for imputed family crimes, had hid herself in so
humble a quarter. Sometimes I pictured the occupant of the chamber as
the suffering daughter of some miserly parent, with trace of noble
blood--filial, yet dependent in her degradation. Sometimes I imagined
her the daughter of shame--the beloved of a doating, and too late
repentant mother--shunning the face of a world that had seduced her
with its smiles, and that now made smiles the executioners of its
punishment.

In short, form what fancies I would, I could not but feel a most
extraordinary interest in clearing the mystery that seemed to me to
hang about the little window in the court. Unconnected with the
foot-track and the slipper, the window on the court would have been
nothing more than half the courts to be seen in the old quarters of
Paris. Or, indeed, the delicate foot-prints, and articles of female
luxury would have hardly caught attention, much less sustained it with
so feverish curiosity, in any one of the courts opening upon the Rue
de Rivoli, or Rue Lafitte.

The concierge next door, I was persuaded, knew more of his inmates
than he cared to say. I still, as I have said, glanced my eye, each
morning, along the upper angles of the court, and sidled now and then
by the gate of the neighboring hotel; but the window wore its usual
look--there was the veil, and the placard, and the disjointed,
rattling sash; and in the neighboring court was, sometimes, the tall
gentleman picking his way carefully over the stones, and sometimes the
stumpy figure of a waiting woman.

Some ten days after my chat with the neighbor concierge, I reached
the hotel of the abbé an hour earlier than my usual morning visit, and
took the occasion to reconnoitre the adjoining courts. The concierge,
my acquaintance of the week before, was busy with a bowl of coffee and
a huge roll; and, just as I had sidled up to his box for a word with
him, who should brush past in great apparent haste, but the pale, thin
gentleman who had before attracted my observation.

I determined to step around at once into the open corridor of the
abbé's hotel, and see if I could detect any movement--so slight even
as the opening or shutting of a door in the chamber of the narrow
window.

It was earlier by a half hour at the least than I had ever been in the
corridor before. The court was quiet; my eye ran to the little
window--at a glance I saw it had not its usual appearance. A light
cambric handkerchief, with lace border, was pinned across it from side
to side; and just at the moment that I began to scrutinize what seemed
to me like a coronet stitched on the corner, a couple of delicate
fingers reached over the hem, removed the fastening, first on one
side, then on the other--the handkerchief was gone.

It was the work of an instant, and evidently done in haste; but I
still caught a glimpse of a delicate female figure--sleeve hanging
loose about the arm a short way below the elbow, hair sweeping, half
curled and half carelessly over a cheek white as her dress, and an
expression, so far as I could judge, of deep sadness.

I shrunk back into a shadow of the corridor, and waited; but there was
no more stir at the window. The yellow placard dangled by one
fastening; a bit of the veil was visible, nothing else, to tell me of
the character of the inmate.

I told the abbé what I had seen.

The abbé closed his grammar, (keeping his thumb at the place,) shook
his head slowly from side to side, smiled, lifted his finger in
playful menace, and--went on with his lesson.

"Who can it be?" said I.

"Indeed, I cannot tell you, _mon ami_," said the abbé, laying down his
book with a look of despair.

The morning after I was again in the corridor a full half hour before
my usual time, but the window wore its usual air. The next day, again
I was an hour beforehand, and the abbé had not put off his priest
robe, in which he goes to morning mass; still there was no
handkerchief at the little window--no wavy mesh of hair--no taper
arm--no shadowy form moving in the dim chamber.

I had arranged to leave for the south in a few days, and was more than
ever anxious for some explication of the mystery. A single further
mode only occurred to me; I would go to the concierge next door, and
under pretence of looking for rooms, would have him conduct me through
his hotel.

It had dismal corridors, and steeper stairways than even the abbé's. I
was careless about the second and the third floors; and it was not
till we had mounted a half dozen crazy pair of stairs, that I began to
scrutinize narrowly the doors, and sometimes to ask if this or that
chamber was occupied. I made my way always to the windows of the rooms
shown me, in hope of seeing the little court I knew so well, and the
abbé's half-open corridor, and yet

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