and never, never, under any pretence whatever, permit you into my presence again!"

So saying, he rushed out of the room, and before she could recover from the shock she had sustained by such a severe reprimand, he re-entered accompanied by the young man, whom he at once introduced as Mr. Blr. On his entering the room, he was particularly struck with her appearance; she had not now that dazzling complexion, nor that animated countenance, which were once so dangerous to behold: she was pale and languid; her eyes had all their softness, but their lustre was diminished, and the enchanting sweetness which used to play about her mouth was now supplied by a melancholy smile, the effect of a faint effort to conceal the anguish of her heart. Such as she now appeared, however, Mr. Blr thought her very lovely; he saw in her interesting langour, in her faded cheeks and downcast eyes, a sentimental effect, which none of the beauties he had hitherto seen had ever so eminently possessed but if such were his sentiments before she spoke, his admiration arose to extravagance, when, after breakfast next day, he engaged her in a walk in the garden, where he found her mind corresponded with the elegance of her form, and that she had a good taste for poetry, of which he was enthusiastically fond. In short, he was so smitten with her many elegant qualifications, as enamoured with her beauty, that he at once proposed for her hand to her father, who agreed to their union forthwith; and in spite of her remonstrances and entreaaties in private, pourtraying the miseries of an unhappy marriage in the most glaring colours, and disclaiming all connections with one, whom, though she considered a very accomplished young man, she could never lovewith that tenderness becoming an affectionate wife, in three weeks from the time of his first appearance at C- -n House, Mr. Blr possessed the hand of the fair Miss R- -d, but not her heart, which was long the property of another.

young

Nothing could exceed the mortification Henry Br experienced on finding all his fondest hopes in life were thus frustrated, and that the only one he ever loved, or for whom he enter tained the slightest regard, was now locked in the fond embrace of another! For several days he was never seen outside his door, and when he did seek consolation abroad, it was in giving vent to his feeling in the most violent paroxysms of grief: calling on her by name, and listening as if he heard her sweet voice near him; anon, starting forward, and pacing the fields with rapid strides, and when weary, throwing himself on the damp cold earth; and, but for the interference of his domestics, who forced him back again to his house, he would have repeatedly perished on the open fields. A commission of lunacy having been issued against him. he was brought to trial, where, after the strictest examinations on him, nothing could be extorted form him to prove the fact, and consequently he was fully acquitted.

It was a beautiful spring day as he returned again to his residence, although so drear and dismal on his departure: within a few days the whole face of nature had changed; the snow, which had covered every object with cold uniformity, had now given place to the bright verdure of

infant spring; the earliest trees, and those in the most sheltered situation, had put forth their tender buds; the copses were strewn with primroses and March violets, and the garden glowing with the first flowers of the year; while, instead of the usually rude winds of the season, those gales only blew which

"Call forth the long expecting flower,

And wake the purple year."

Myriads of birds, who found food and shelter amid the shrubberies and wood-walks, seemed to hail with songs of joy their future protector,

"Hopp'd in his walks, and gambol'd in his eyes!" And, while every thing was thus gay and cheerful without, the house, when he entered it, showed him only contented faces; the old servants, its ancient and faithful inhabitants, who had loved him from his earliest childhood, rejoiced in the hope of ending their days in his service; the tenants, who loved him also, were glad to find their young landlord returning; that, instead of the rents going to Dublin, as they would in case of his retention, he was come back to spend the remainder of his days among them; and the poor, who had severely missed the bounty which had marked his residence, invoked blessings on his head, from whom they were assured of more constant consideration from his own noble nature, than was heretofore paid them. But their joy was of short duration; scarce one week had elapsed, ere he relapsed again into his former miserable condition, with this exception, that instead of fierce outbursting fits of raving and madness, he gave way to a more melancholy state of dejection and idiotcy-a complete simpleton, from whom reason had fled for ever! Again the commission of lunacy was issued, and as he would not permit himself to be conveyed away, except in his own carriage, he was accordingly placed in it-the last journey he was ever permitted to take in the same conveyance.

It was a truly distressing spectacle to witness the dear young landlord on his departure from his beautiful mansion, to which he was destined never again to return. As he passed along the avenue, the bench underneath one of the great elms, where he had so often sat with his brother in childhood, and where but a few months before he had been recalling those delightful times to recollection, struck him most; it looked like a monument to lost happiness! As the great gate at the entrance shut after the carriage, he felt himself exiled for ever from the only spot in the world that contained any thing interesting to him, and although little disposed to think of poetry, almost involuntarily repeated:

"O unexpected stroke! worse than of death,

Must I then leave thee, Paradise? thus leave Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades!" His insanity being now easily proved, he was consigned to one of the lunatic asylums of our metropolis, where he spent the remainder of his days in peace. His whole occupation, during the solitary hours of his confinement, consisted in writing letters to her to whom he had sacrificed his reason, and consequently his liberty, generally commencing with the words" My dear Mrs. Br, but which I do not believe you to be;" and which were regularly taken from him every

day, as if they were forwarded to the proper me-
dium like other letters. And although Mrs.
Blr passed away from this world of misery,
like a flower that prematurely withers on its stem,
before it is permitted to waft its sweetness to the
world, he remained unconsious of the same, and
continued his letters to her without cessation; and
the young recluse from the rest of mankind derived
a pleasing consolation from that, when every other
pleasure was denied him.
He continued his cor-
respondence for upwards of forty years, age
having not in the least abated his ardour; and at
his death, the last words he uttered were Mrs.
Blr's name!

The facts of this case are unfortunately too true. This deserted mansion still remains a lasting memorial of its proprietor's former happiness; but we trust our tale will have the effect of inculcating the moral intended an awful warning to parents not to be too avaricious in the settlement of their children; but let them recollect, that, without content, all the riches of the earth are of no avail; and also, that almost half the miseries of mankind are produced from unhappy marriages.

** M.

SAXON WOMEN. We took our standard of woman's worth, as well as other free customs and institutions, from the Saxons and their forests. From the earliest period of their history, (says Miss Lawrence in her " History of Woman in England,") woman among the Saxons occupied a station far higher than that assigned to her among the later Britons, is proved by their laws and their usages, no less than by the accounts of the later Greek and Latin historians, who remark with astonishment the lofty station maintained by the Teutonic matron, compared with that assigned to women among the polished but degenerate Greeks. "It was in Germany," says the eloquent but accurate Michelet, "that woman became the companion of man in his dangers, united to his destiny in life as in death. She withdrew not even from the battle-field, but watched and hovered over him the fairy president of the combat-the fair and awful walkyriur, who bore away, as a gathered flower, the spirit of the expiring warrior;" and anxiety to prove himself worthy of her applause nerved the arm of the Saxon chieftain in many a perilous conflict, and to deck his bride in the gold and gems of southern climes, launched "the long ship" of many an adventurous pirate on the stormy ocean.

Although a rude, and in the ealier periods of their history a savage people, the Saxons never excluded woman from their feasts or their amusements. The queen took the place of honour in the festive hall, and presented the mead cup to the most honoured of the guests, as the highest inark of distinction they could receive. Thus, when Beowulf entered King Hrothgar's "meal hall," the queen Walthcowa, "encircled with gold, mindful of her high station, greeted the warriors in the hall," and presented the cup, and then taking her seat beside her husband remained "while the cup continued to flew, the song to arise, and the revelry to increase." And thus in the monkish chronicles we read of high-born ladies presiding at splendid feasts given by them to the monarch and his numer ous retinue; and lady-abbesses, too, welcoming their clerical and royal guests to the noble banquet; and thus many a rude illumination exhibits the male and female guests seated alternately round the well covered table, engaged in conversation or listening to the songs of the minstrel.

IMPROMPTU,

ON PRESENTING A LAURESTINA TO MISS KATE
I plucked by chance a tender flower,
And bore it from its native bower,
Where it in modest beauty grew,
A lowly, lovely thing to view.

I watched with care its fragile form,
Which flourished 'neath affection warm;
But shrunk whene'er the chilling blast
Of cold neglect was o'er it cast.

Its destiny was linked with mine;
I carried it to beauty's shrine,
Where first with joy I gazed on THEE,
The sole presiding deity!

My laurestina and my heart

By fate were joined, and could not part!
The emblem and reality,

The flower-beloved, I gave to thee:

And with it all the burning fire
Which new-felt love and hopes inspire,
Whose flame consumes my faithful breast,
Where cherished doth THINE image rest!
Feb. 1843.
P. W. M'C-

It is

IRISH ARTISTS.-The best picture in the British Institution collection is by Mr. T. C. Thomson, R.H.A.; it is that of a beautiful Irish girl. pleasant to perceive Irish artists taking their rightful place in natural art, as they have done in this exhibition. The country which produced such a painter as Barry, and such a critic as Burke, should not yield to any other in the race of glory, where art and intellect are in the field.- London Observer. Feb. 19, 1843.

VALUABLE RELIC.-A travelling Jew residing in Barnardcastle, in the course of his barterings, lately got possession of a gold ring, having received it with 4d. boot for a trifling article, from a housekeeper. Having a latin inscription on the inside, it was forwarded to the London Antiquarian Society, who decided that it belonged to Queen Mary, and that the value of it was about £250.

mysteries! How long and how much will it unchangTHE HUMAN HEART.-How inexplicable are its ingly endure of unkindness, injustice, and neglect; and yet, at some critical moment, a word, a tone, a look, like that of the Medusa, is sufficient to change its softest yearnings into eternal stone! Affection, every other species of ill usage, and yet dissolves at least, is a pearl, which often passes uninjured thro' instantly in the sharp acid of a taunt.

OLD FRIENDS.-A chance meeting of an old school-fellow in a foreign land, or the unexpected appearance of a college chum in a crowded city, will excite a train of pleasurable emotions in our hearts, which. whether by recalling welcome associations of time past, or by suggesting plans and problems for future happiness, bestows a boon fupon our solitary wanderings, that would not willingly be exchanged for even a more self-advantageous turn of fortune. It is a little offset against the vaunted selfishness of humanity, to say even this much, and shows that misanthropy is not so universal a doctrine as many think after all. The visit of an old friend confers more intense gratification than almost any other contingency; and what with prospection and retrospection, it must be a long day indeed, that the conversation cannot make short withal.' A quiet evening spent in this way between two old friends, is a most delectable enjoyment, and evokes a series of thoughts which, but for that friendly mental attrition, might have remained eternally dormant in the heart.

THE WAR IN INDIA.
RETREAT OF THE BRITISH ARMY FROM CABUL,
JANUARY, 1842.

A HIGHLAND ANECDOTE. Duncan, for so I shall call him, had been engaged in the affair of 1746, with others of his clan; and was supposed by many to have been an accomplice, if not the principal actor in a certain tragic affair, which made much noise a good many years after the rebellion. I am content with indicating this, in order to give some idea of the man's character, Traces which was bold, fierce, and enterprising. of this natural disposition still remained on Duncan's very good features, and in his keen grey eye; but the limbs had become unable to serve the purposes and obey the dictates of his inclinations; on the one side of his body he retained the proportions and firmness of an active mountaineer; on the other he was a disabled cripple, scarce able to limp along the streets. The cause which reduced him to this state of Twenty years or more infirmity was singular. before I knew Duncan, he assisted his brothers in farming a large grazing in the Highlands, comprehending an extensive range of mountain and forest land, morass, lake, and precipice. It chanced that a sheep or goat was missed from the flock, and Duncan, not satisfied with despatching his shepherds in one direction, went himself in quest of the fugitive in another. In the course of his researches he was induced to ascend a small and narrow path, leading to the top of a high precipice. Dangerous as it was at first, the road became doubly so as he advanced. It was not much more than two feet broad, so rugged and difficult, and at the same time so terrible, that it would have been impracticable to any but the light step and steady brain of a Highlander. The precipice on the right rose like a wall, and on the left sunk to a depth which it was giddy to look down upon; but Duncan passed cheerfully on-now whistling the gathering of his clan-now taking heed to his footsteps, when the difficulties of the path peculiarly required caution. In this manner he had more than half ascended the precipice, when in midway, and it might almost be said in middle air, he encountered a buck of the red deer species, coming down the cliff by the same path in an opposite direction. If Duncan had a gun, no rencontre could have been more agreeable; but, as he had not this advantage over the denizen of the wilderness, the meeting was in the highest degree unwelcome. Neither party had the power of retreating, for the stag had not room to turn himself in the narrow path; and if Duncan had turned his back to go down, he knew enough of the creature's habits to be certain that he would rush upon him while engaged in the difficulties of the They stood therefore perfectly still, and retreat. looked at each other in mutual embarrassment for some space; at length the deer, which was of the largest size, began to lower his formidable antlers, as they do when brought to bay and preparing to rush on hound and huntsman. Duncan saw the danger of a conflict in which he must probably come by the worst, and, as a last resource, stretched himself on the little ledge of rock which he occupied, and thus awaited the resolution which the deer should take, not making the least motion, for fear of alarming the wild and suspicious animal. They remained in this posture for three or four hours, in the midst of a rock which would have suited the pencil of Salvator, and which would have afforded barely room enough for the man and the stag, opposed to each other in At length the buck this extraordinary manner. seemed to take the resolution of passing over the obstacle which lay in his path, and with this purpose approached towards Duncan very slowly, and with excessive caution. When he came to the Highlander, he stooped his head down, as if to examine him more closely; when the untameable love peculiar to his country began to overcome Duncan's fears. Seeing

(From Lieutenant Eyre's Narrative.) Dreary indeed was the scene over which, with drooping spirits and dismal forebodings, we had to bend our unwilling steps. Deep snow covered every inch of mountain and plain with one unspotted sheet of dazzling white, and so intensely bitter was the cold, as to penetrate and defy the defences of the warmest clothing. The order of march in which the troops started was soon lost, and the camp-followers with the public and private baggage, once out of cantonments, could not be prevented from mixing themselves up with the troops, to the utter confusion of the whole column, On the second day, after being harassed by repeated attacks from hordes of Giljyes, we arrived at the entrance of the Khoord-Cabul Pass. Here, again, the confusion became indescribable. Suffice it to say, that an immense multitude of from 14,000 to 16,000 men, with several hundred cavalry horses and baggaged cattle, were closely jammed together in one monstrous, unmanageable, jumbling mass. Night again closed over us, with its attendant train of horrors-starvation, cold, exhaustion, death, and of all deaths, I can imagine none more agonising than that where a nipping frost tortures every sensi. tive limb, until the tenacious spirit itself sinks under the exquisite extreme of human suffering. The idea of treading the stupendous pass before us, in the face of an armed tribe of blood-thirsty barbarians, with such a dense irregular multitude, was frightful; and the spectacle then presented by that waving sea of animated beings, the majority of whom a few fleeting hours would transform into a line of lifeless carcasses, to guide the future traveller on his way, can never We had be forgotten by those who witnessed it. so often been deceived by Affghan professions, that little or no confidence was placed in the present truce and we commenced our passage through the dreaded pass in no very sanguine temper of mind. This truly formidable defile is about five miles from end to end, and is shut in on either hand by a line of lofty hills, between whose precipitous sides the sun at this season could dart but a momentary ray. Down the centre dashed a mountain torrent, whose impetuous course the frost in vain attempted to arrest, though it succeeded in lining the edges with thick layers of ice, over which the snow lay consolidated in slippery masses, affording no very easy footing for our jaded animals. This stream we had to cross and recross about eight-and-twenty times. As we proceeded onwards, the defile gradually narrowed, and the Giljyes were observed hastening to crown the heights in considerable force. A hot fire was opened on the advance, with whom were several ladies, who, seeing their only chance was to keep themselves in rapid motion, galloped forward at the head of all, running the gauntlet of the enemy's bullets, which whizzed in hundreds above their ears, until they were fairly out of the pass. From this time up to the crowning catastrophe at Gundamuck, were daily thinning of the ranks by cold, famine, and slughter. During this period of multiplied horrors and hopeless desolation, the unflinching spirit of the British officers never once flagged, but all to no purpose; meantime, General Elphinstone, with the married and wounded officers and their wives and familes, had been claimed as hostages by Akbar Khan, and severe as were their sufferings and gloomy their prospect, it was well for themselves that they had been so for of all that numerous host, Dr. Brydon alone reached Jellalab ad alive!

:

Oh, God! what beings then would fill this banquet-possesses none; the ear does not tire because there