sides of the river, in a region where its left passing the Danube for an advance into Bulbank is one extensive and complete barren garia, the Turks were manifestly not in a swamp, extending from Hirshova to Silistria, position to prevent them, Omar Pasha having with only a narrow road across it at Rassova. concentrated his army at Shumla. The reaThe Dobrudscha itself is marshy, barren, and sonable inference has been, therefore, that the unwholesome, but is nothing in these respects invaders had in reality no serious intention compared with the tract from Hirshova to Si- of attack. But in that or in any case it is listria. It is impossible for two portions of an now for the Anglo-French and Turkish armies army to be in a worse position, and we last to assume the offensive. Austrian or Prussian week gave terrible proof of the decimation by co-operation they do not want. They are disease of the ranks of the invaders. strong enough to fling the Russians behind Yet here they have remained inactive for the Pruth, and to inflict all due punishment several weeks. The movement at present re- upon the Czar; and not to do so would be to ported against Silistria might have been made connive at the policy of Austria and Prussia, more than a month since. The fact has been who have been merely feigning disapproval obvious all this time that, if they were really to protect him from disgrace, and to facilitate in the force that pretended around Buchar- that retreat to which it is now evident he must est, and if they had seriously the intention of be driven.

leave the women to finish the ditty. Their prov ince seems rather to invoke the muse of the women at the games.-Musical Transcript.

ANECDOTE OF CHIEF JUSTICE ELLENBOROUGH.--Lord Ellenborough, at a large dinner party at the Chancellor's, was seated next to the Countess Lieven, a lady in that age of considerable fashion, but of very lean proportions, and much remarked upon for displaying to an unnecessary degree a neck not lovely to look upon. By some accident the Chief Justice remained unserved, his fair neighbor meanwhile being busy. The host, seeing at last the plight of the hungry and discontented judge, recommended to him "I wish I could get some particular dish. some," growled Ellenborough, casting a savage glance at the angular bust bending over the table at his side, "for I have had nothing before me this quarter of an hour but a raw blade bone."New Quarterly Review for April.

MUSIC OF THE ESQUIMAUX.-The voices of known. From the occasional introduction of the the women are soft and feminine, and when word "sledge, canoe, spear," and others of that singing with the men, are pitched an octave class, it is conjectured that their own exploits, by higher than theirs. They have most of them so sea and land, form the principal subjects. The far good ears, that in whatever key a song is com- men seldom sing, and probably consider it unmanmenced by one of them, the rest will always join ly. If they sometimes commence, they generally in perfect unison. After singing for ten minutes, their key usually falls a full semitone; but few of them can catch the tune as played by an instrument, which makes it difficult with most of them to complete the uniting of the notes; for if they once leave off, they are sure to recommence in some other key, though a flute or violin be playing at the time. There is not, in any of their songs much variety, compass, or melody. Unharmonious as they may appear to musical ears, they are pleasing when sung in good time by a number of female voices. The most common is that in which the well known Greenland chorus, "Amna Aya," commences the performance, and is introduced between each verse, constituting five-sixths of the whole song. When the words of the song are introduced, the notes rise a little for three or four bars, and then relapse again into the same hum-drum chorus as before, which, to do it justice, is well calculated to set the children to sleep. The words of the composition are as interminable as those of Chevy Chase;" for the women will go on singing them for nearly half an hour, and then leave off one by one-not with their story, but their breath exhausted. They have a song second in popularity to the preceding, varying from it very slightly in the tune, and accompaOne is astonished at turning over the pages nied by the same chorus, but with different words. That which ranks third in their esteem is the of this well-compiled Gazetteer to perceive the most tuneful of any of their melodies. The termi- immense number of territories, districts, counnation, which is abrupt and fanciful, is usu- ties, towns, villages, &c.. &c., which have received ally accompanied by a peculiar motion of the names after the heroes of America. Many pages head, and an expression of archness in the coun- are filled with Washingtons, Jacksons. Munroes, tenance, which cannot be described by words. Madisons, and Adamses, and derivatives from There is only one verse in the song, and that, their names, forming perhaps an instructive ilfrom its commencing with the word "pilletay," lustration of the manner in which names have is supposed to be a begging one. Of the mean- been applied in ancient as well as modern times, ing of their songs in general, from the imperfect and being themselves historical records of no knowledge of their language, little is accurately ordinary importance. Information concerning

66

A New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States.
By THOMAS BALDWIN and J. THOMAS, M. D.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co.,
Trubner and Co., Paternoster row.

these different places is essential to foreigners if |" which are delineated its vast works of internal they wish to know which of the many Washing-communication," routes across the continent, &c. tons they are reading of in any work or para- It is one of the most useful literary productions graph referring to America; and, therefore, this we have yet received from the States, though Gazetteer will be very acceptable in Europe, and latterly they have sent us many; proving that it especially in England. It is minute and elabo rate, contains the latest information, including statistics of many places to 1853, and comprises in its 1.300 pages much topographical, statistical, and historical information. It is accompanied by a very distinct map of the States, on

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PLAY BEFORE THE CURTAIN.

"ARE you sure, Sara, your letter for Robert was despatched in proper time?" said the captain, as he entered the breakfast-room simultaneously with his sister the next morning.

Yes, dear uncle," replied Sara; "Molly put it herself into the post-office: but it probably reached his address when he was from home. He came here last night, but at too late an hour for me to see him."

"Too late for you to see him!" echoed the captain-"why, Sara, what is this? Would you not see poor Bob at any hour of the day or night, if you had not gone to bed?" He looked at her anxiously. She was pale and listless, like one who had not slept.

"Let it be camomile this morning, love!" Sara smiled faintly, and assured them that she was now better, and all impatience to see something of this wonderful London.

"We will first, dear uncle, go to "there was a knock at the street-door, stopped abruptly.

was only the necessity of attending to more urgent wants than books, which the old country supplied, that formerly prevented them from rivalling us in this as in so many other departments of art.-Economist.

tally, but not till the night was far advanced, that they were in town. Even then his informant would not give him the address, but compelled him to wait and attend her home.

"To me," added Sara, "she behaved still worse, for she gave me to understand that you had received our letter, but were determined not to sacrifice the evening's amusement."

"And did you believe that, Sara?" said the captain, sternly-"you who have so much sense and thought?"

"I have told you, dear uncle, that I felt unwell." But she had not told him that the gay apparition of the night, with her fluttering ring lets and snowy shoulders, had described Robert as the cynosure of all eyes in the ball-room; and, moreover, that she had included a name in the list of his admirers which made her heart stop "I was not very well," replied Sara, in a low and her brain reel, and so rendered her wholly voice. Her aunt glided up to her, and putting incapable of thought-the name of Claudia Falher arm round her waist with uncomfortable ten-contower. This was in reality what had deprivderness, whispered: ed the country-girl of her night's rest, by closing her mind against all impressions but those of astonishment and terror. It now seemed to her that this must be as untrue as the rest-includ ing the fantastic story of Robert's noble origin, Here which had somehow gained admission into the and she ball-room; but still she felt a superstitious oppression whenever the idea recurred to her, and she could not have mentioned that formidable name, if it had been to save her life. However agreeable, therefore, the éclaircissement may have been, it did not restore the full unbounded confidence of earlier years, and after a time she saw only too clearly that whatever her own feelings might be, there was something in Robert's manner which rose like a wall between them. So far from being less kind, she saw, on more than one occasion, that there was even passion in his feelings towards her; but a spectre seemed to warn him away whenever he seemed about to fall into the old familiar mode of address; and in walking out, it was always to her aunt he offered his arm, leaving her to the care of the captain.

"Go where?" I asked the captain. "To-to"- Sara had forgotten; she was motionless, breathless; and when at length the room-door opened, she sat suddenly down in a chair. The sight of Robert reassured her. She watched his meeting with her aunt and uncle, and saw the flush of joy and yearning affection fade instantaneously into habitual paleness. How changed! Stronger, firmer, more noble-looking than ever, he bore, notwithstanding, like an unshaken rock, the tokens of the thunder and the storm. His brow was written over with ineffaceable memories, and his look seemed without hope as well as without fear. When he turned to Sara, who was behind backs, she rose slowly, and not without some maiden reserve, for she felt that her eyes were full. Robert knew at a glance that he had done her injustice, and his throb of joy was mingled with self-reproach for the feeling which, in his desperate circumstances, seemed ungenerous. And so they met again, this young pair, with a pressure of the hand, a long look, silent lips, and full hearts.

While they were at breakfast their attention was arrested by a noise of a peculiar kind in the hall as the street-door opened. Some disturb ance had taken place. There was shuffling of feet, shrill but choked voices, crying, sobbing, and laughing, and then the noise rolled away and sunk beneath the surface of the earth-probIn reply to the captain's questions, Robert ex-ably down the kitchen stairs. When the servant plained that he was at a dancing party the came into the room the captain asked her anxevening before, where he had learned acciden- iously whether there was anything the matter.

"It's Miss Jinks, sir," said the girl, "and a lever, was not present at the payment of the div. visitor."

The veteran pondered.

"Is that the name of our landlady, I wonder?" said he, when she had left the room. "No, it is an old familiar word; I am sure I have heard it somewhere. But she did not say what was the matter with Miss Jinks-I hope there is nothing amiss in the house. Hey, Elizabeth?"

"This is a world of meetings and partings," replied the virgin; "and the one is sometimes as affecting as the other, since the emotions of both receive their coloring from the things of the past. As for names, it is the doctrine of Sumphinplunger"- but here the essay was interrupted by the door opening. Sara and Robert had, in the meantime, exchanged a glance which brought them instantly back to the happiest times of Wearyfoot Common; the young lady's ripe cheeks swelling with suppressed mirth, and Robert's eye kindling up once more with the joyous light of youth.

idend, and the clerks replied only with a stare to the veteran's expressions of sympathy. But when he hinted delicately at his wish to return a portion of the money, the joke was received with cordial approbation; his friends had the satisfaction of seeing that he was voted from that moment a famous old file and no mistake, and one young gentleman in a corner ejaculated "Walk-er!" in a tone that produced a general laugh.

"Well," said the captain, a little puzzled, and taking up his hat, "we can settle it all between ourselves. Be sure to give him my kind compliments, and say that if he will take a run down for a week, we'll make a new man of him. We have a capital Common there-a celebrated Common is Wearyfoot Common-and he may march and countermarch in it all day long. Don't make a mistake now, but remember my name is "

"Walk-er!" cried the young gentleman in the corner, and the captain made his exit in the midst of unanimous applause.

"You here, too, Molly ?" cried he, as the damsel came into the room; and he shook hands Sara's business was as well settled, and almost with her heartily. Molly's face was radiant with as promptly, although the relation who had smiles and bedaubed with tears, and as she fixed brought her to the Common was not all at once upon Robert her great round eyes, glistening convinced of the identity of the beautiful young with a similar moisture, and as full of astonish-woman who now stood before him and the little ment as they could hold, he thought to himself pale orphan who had paddled so wofully through that she had grown into a prodigiously fine young woman, with the countenance of a barn-door Hebe, and the figure of a comfortable Juno. Her observation of Robert was not less favorable, and if any doubt of the theory of Mrs. Margery had ever assailed her, it was now given to the winds, once and forever.

"I say, Molly," said the captain, "what was that disturbance in the hall just now about? "O sir, replied Molly, "it was only Mrs. Margery come to see me, and to ask about us all."

"But I say, Molly, who is Miss Jinks?" "O, that's me, sir!" said Molly with her cheeks swelling like half a dozen of Sara's; "that's what they call me in London!"

"So it is you, I declare," said the captain-"I was sure I knew the name!-Bid Margery come in, and we'll tell her ourselves how we are."

"O sir, she can't come in. She left home in such a hurry she hasn't cleaned herself."

the pools of Weary foot. Her little inheritance had been so judiciously managed that the amount was now about doubled, and Sara found herself the absolute mistress of property yielding enough to constitute a competent independence for a single lady in her station. When this fact was established, and the writings completed, she looked furtively at Robert; but he was gazing at the blank wall before him, silent and abstracted. She felt hurt, for even her cold relative had paid his congratulations, and the captain at the moment was shaking her hand nervously. Accordingly, when Robert turned round like a man awaking from a dream, he found no consciousness in the looks he sought; the heiress put her arm within her uncle's, walked coldly and gravely away, and left the office without turning her head.

The serious business of their journey being now finished, they got into a vehicle, which transported them to the gayer streets of the town, where, dismounting, the ladies amused themselves with gazing and shopping, while their escort lounged in the rear.

That's very extraordinary!" said the captain; I never knew anything like it but when I was in garrison once in the Peninsula. And then it wasn't exactly a cook that was invisible, but a friar; and he wasn't-no, he wasn't just invisi- "There is something I want to ask you, Bob," ble neither; he rather stuck to me, as it were, he said the captain, "and now is the best time for did-in fact, I couldn't get him out of my sight; it. Margery has been putting all sorts of stuff he haunted me like a shadow, wanted to convert into Molly's head about you, and your brilliant me. I think; but I once knew my catechism prospects, and your intimacy with a great famiwhen I was a boy, and was determined to stand ly, and so on, and I am anxious to know what up for it like a British officer and a loyal sub-it all means. Have you really anything opening ject. And so it was no go; but this friar, you out before you such as she writes so mysterioussee- What now? You are impatient, Sara ?ly about? and do you know what it is?" Well, it's a hard case; but I'll tell you the story "Surely," replied Robert, "you must be aware again, and it's all very natural that you should that if I knew anything absolutely, you—my want to see London now you are in it." earliest friend, to whom I owe even my intellec The first thing set about was the transaction tual being-would be the first to hear of it! of business, and the captain found himself en- But poor Margery is as sanguine as she is lovriched with what appeared to him to be a very ing; and her cousin Driftwood, to whom she is considerable sum. The bankrupt himself, how-doubtless indebted for the report you allude to,

has no means of obtaining correct information. | anywhere at all. As for the captain, he had been To say that he has no foundation to proceed up- admonished by his sister that regimentals were on, would be untrue; but I know nothing abso- not the thing in London, and so he appeared on lutely myself; I am now almost afraid to hope, this occasion in the common mourning attire of and it may be that even before you leave town, I an English gentleman when he means to make shall have settled down "-and he smiled sadly merry. -"into a position more befitting the heretofore vagrant of the Common than the guest and intimate of Sir Vivian Falcontower."

"But can nothing be done to aid you?" said the veteran anxiously. "You know I am now comparatively rich, and if you were to go to law, perhaps "

"My dear sir, law is out of the question! My claims depend upon favor, not force, and I will never stoop to beg for what is my due."

Robert, whose experience of the theatre was not extensive, had omitted to take places; and when they were set down by their vehicle in the midst of a crowd of elegantly dressed persons, male and female, so dense and so unceremonious as quite to alarm the country girl, they learned for the first time that it was a command-night, that the Queen was to be present. They tried the dress-circle first, but entrance there was out of the question; for the first circle was equally "You are right, my boy. If the people have full; but in the second they were at length no sense of honorable or natural feeling, the less fortunate enough to obtain places, although you have to do with them the better. Don't be only in the corner box next the stage. The in a hurry, however-don't condemn them with- novelty of the scene, the crowd, the rush, the out trial; but if it turns out so, forget your claims, pressure, almost took away Sara's breath; but whether they are well or ill founded, and rely she pressed on, blindly conscious of safety when upon yourself. But law or no law, you must under Robert's care, and opened her eyes to obhave money, Bob. I have no use for one-half servation only when seated in the front of the of this wind-fall, as Sara is now so rich. that I box between the captain and Elizabeth, and don't mean even to make her a present, so, here with her protector guarding her jealously behind. is your share, old fellow." Robert squeezed the The scene before, beneath, above her, presented offered hand, and put it away without speaking. a picture almost sublime as a whole, but merely "What! you wont ? You are too proud-exciting and amusing when the mind had time

even to me?"

"Believe me," said Robert, huskily, "I should not be too proud to be your servant if you could not afford a hireling! But as for money, I am really in no want of it. I am always able to support myself singly in reasonable comfort, and if fortune has decreed that I am never to be able to do more-why, then, I will not accept at her hands of a single additional luxury!"

At this moment they were joined by Elizabeth and Sara, and when the veteran saw the flushed cheek and radiant eyes of the young girl, who had probably been purchasing some article of female bravery, he could not help contrasting in his own mind her appearance and her position with those of his protégé. His reverie, and the obvious depression of Robert, affected insensibly the spirits of the ladies, and all four pursued their walk in silence through this attractive quarter of the metropolis.

But if the earlier part of the day had been wanting in the enjoyment one expects to find from a visit to London, the evening was to make up for it-for the evening was to be spent at the theatre. It was Sara's first night before the curtain, and as the hour approached, she began to be almost as unquiet as if she was to make her début behind it. The thing most trying to her nerves at the outset was the dress scene; and as she came on from behind through the foldingdoors of the parlor, and presented herself to Robert for the first time since she was a girl in evening-costume, she was adorned with so many graceful blushes, superadded to the tasteful elegance of her attire, that the young artist forgot all his miseries in admiration. Then followed Elizabeth in the triumphant dress that had won for her the suffrages of the Wearyfoot hall, but looking so terribly composed that one might have imagined she had forgotten that she was going

to examine it in detail. The young girl looked at first with alarm at the torrent of human figures filling gradually every corner of the house; then she was struck with the almost comic tran quillity of the company in the boxes, in the midst, as it seemed of that rush and roar; and then she was able to syllable the appalling sound from the gallery into words that threw an air of ridicule upon the whole tumult.

The house was at length full. The boxes-all but one next the stage, which was still vacantwere like a parterre of thickly set flowers-the loveliest in the world; the tumultuous sea of heads in the pit subsided into a deep calm; and even the howling gallery was silent in expectation, when all on a sudden the concourse rose simultaneously, the men uncovering their heads, and a terrific shout burst from every corner of the vast building. Sara now observed that a lady and gentleman had come quietly to the front of the before empty box; and as the roar of greeting thundered through the house, the lady a handsome and elegant but kindly-looking woman---bowed gracefully her acknowledg ments. Then the shout died away as suddenly as it had arisen, lost as it seemed, in the swell of the national hymn which rose from the orchestra and stage; and Sara felt the veteran by her side tremble, and saw the tears roll down his cheeks, as he joined inwardly in the burden-God save the Queen! She was herself agitated almost to weeping. She had no time to analyze her feelings, but she recognized in the midst of these a sensation of pride swelling in her breast and a deep and sisterly sympathy with every individu al of that vast multitude.

'Robert, she said in a broken voice, and turning to him with the frank confiding look and tone of other days, 'is not this wonderful?'

'I am glad you are here, Sara, he replied in

the same tone, 'for this is truly a fine and sug-ployed herself in gazing with much interest at gestive scene.'

'But what does it mean, Robert? Why do I feel as proud as if I were the sister of that noble lady-whom I can scarcely see for the tears that are standing in my eyes?'

the company descending an opposite stair. They appeared to have come from the dress-circle, and were either not so numerous, or were more ceremonious in their sortie, for she could see to full advantage a very lovely young person, who looked like the queen of them all, and who was surrounded by gentlemen, vieing with each other in obtaining for her free passage. Sara, indeed, could have believed that she was the Queen herself, had she not known that Her Majesty had already retired by another egress.

'You will comprehend your feelings by and by, when you have time to think, and you will read in them the solution of more than one social and historical mystery. The principle of cohesion in the feudal regime,in clanship and in free governments, is identically the same: in all, the chief is the head of a system to which the subject as essentially The young lady was in the middle of the stair, belongs, and the homage of the latter is only a descending in this regal state, and so slowly, refined and unconscious self-laudation. The that Sara had abundant time to study a portrait Queen belongs to us as much as we belong to the most exquisite she had ever seen. She was her; and that sublime anthem did not arise for certainly not above the middle height of woman her as an individual, but in her mystical char--not so tall as Sara herself; but there was a acter as the representative, or rather the common union, as it were, of us all. This feeling is of course subject to modification. In a free government, a sovereign may divorce himself from public regard by betraying an obvious want of sympathy with his people. This was the case in recent times with an ancestor of the lady for whom your heart is even now yearning--and of a very different nature were the cries that rang in the ears of that unhappy man! But in the instance now before us, where we find public duties nicely understood and conscientiously fulfilled, and in the midst of the splendors of the palace everything we have been taught to love and honor in domestic life, our feelings of natural loyalty, as it is called-loyalty to ourselves -not only receive free play, but are to a certain extent exaggerated by our confounding unconsciously the princess with the woman.

queenly dignity in her air and carriage, which seemed to command as much as it attracted. The dignity, however, was not assumed; it seemed a natural manner exhibiting itself, as it were, above a simplicity as natural, while a strange radiance was flung by the most remarka ble eyes in the world over features that would have been radiant of themselves. Her dress, though rich, was fastidiously simple; and her magnificent hair descended in clustering ringlets upon shoulders, in the chiselling of which nature seemed to have realized the ideal.

While Sara gazed, from the same level as the object of her admiration, she was unconscious that she herself presented a portrait as remarkable in its way; but the look of admiring surprise she observed in the stranger as their eyes met, and she felt herself shone on as if by a glare of sunlight, sent a flush of modesty to her face, The play was a comedy, and afforded to our strangely mingled with alarm. The next mo country girl a novel and fascinating entertain- ment the lady had observed Robert, who was ment. But the absorbing interest it had for the behind, and apparently not belonging to Sara's captain, and the remarks in which he gave vent party, and singled him out with a look of intellito his feelings, were a drama in themselves, and gence, followed by a graceful bend of recognition. as amusing as the other. He was particularly This was succeeded, when the two descending struck with a passion contracted at second-hand streams came nearer each other, by a look, or by one of the personages, from his friend's de- gesture-she could not tell which-of beckoning; scription of his sister, whom the former had nev-and Robert, making his way past her, and through er seen; and it was obvious from his manner that he was afraid the episode would distress Elizabeth. That the virgin did indeed feel it, was clear from the faint color that rose into her waxen cheeks; and she was seen during the rest of the performance to pay marked attention to the incomings and outgoings of the actor who recalled to her memory the great event of her own life-drama.

At the end of the play, the royal party left the theatre, and the boxes immediately began to

the almost obsequiously yielding crowd, received into his the hand of this remarkable person, while a few words of familiar greeting passed between them. Sara grew blind. Supported by her uncle, she groped her way through the crowd, and had hardly returned to recollection when she found herself seated in a vehicle, with all her companions of the evening, and on the way back to the lodgings.

"Who was that prodigiously fine girl you were speaking to? said the captain, as they drove off.

Miss Falcontower.' The answer was not requisite for Sara. The moment she was shone upon by the remarkable eyes, she felt her presence, and knew that it would stand forever between her and the sun.

thin. Our visitors would not be out of the fashion; and, at any rate, a five-act comedy had given them about as much of this kind of amusement as they wanted at a time. The crush was not so eager when they were going out as it had been when they were coming in; but still the crowd When they reached home, the ladies retired to was dense enough to make their progress through take off their shawls, and the captain ordered the lobbies and down the stairs extremely slow. supper. Robert cheerfully consented to stay, The captain led the march, piloting his niece, for his brief interview with Claudia had revived and Robert followed, making way for Elizabeth, his hopes. Her manner had been kind, her who came close behind him. When they were glance confidential: it looked as if she had somenot very far from the place of egress, Sara cm-thing to say, and would have said something