With that methodical distribution of time which marked the old commander, he might always be seen, at a certain hour of the day, in the far vista of the forest road, which led from his white gates, mounted on a favourite Arabian, gentle as a tame fawn, but vigorous and fleet as the flying stag, or fierce and red-eyed as the same animal, angrily at bay. My father and I often joined him in his ride. I had always looked with a sort of sad veneration on him; for his wife and all his little ones had perished at sea, the vessel in which they had left India having foundered on her passage home. Ignorant of his loss, he had followed his darling treasures and passed unconsciously over their watery grave. An elderly sister had hurried to him, as affectionate consoler, and still cheered his melancholy home.

Though I respected this single-hearted Mr. Frankland, and liked his manly, intelligent son, yet I far preferred the society of Colonel Hamilton. Of love I never thought; for the Miss Franklands, though pretty, amiable, well-informed, and well-bred, inspired me with no other feeling than that ready liking, or kindness,

which we always have for the cousin or the sister's friend, seen daily from our boyhood.

Edward was all too young to be my companion, at that time: constantly, therefore, was I to be found at Colonel Hamilton's, sitting by, listening, or reading to him; or else among his arms, curiosities, and antiquities; out, perhaps, on his lawn, trying the Tartar bow, the Mogul lance, or the Damascus blade; or, farther in the wood, practising at a mark with his Tyrolese rifle; or, trying against a villanous kite the treacherous blow-pipe of the Malay; or, yet happier, spurring by his side through the long, long avenues of our noble forest.

One day, as after a rapid course we checked our generous animals to breathe them, I observed two men seated by the way side, so entirely different in their appearance to any I had ever seen, that the sight drew from me an exclamation of surprise and pleasure.

One of them was a middle-aged man, with a very brown complexion, very black eyes, white teeth, a beard covering and hanging from his chin, and large ear-rings golden or gilt. — The

colour and fashion of his garb was bright and oriental; his robe of pale blue; his cap red, the turban folds around it of white cotton.

His companion was an elderly hale man, with a dark, foreign aspect, and small ear-rings, his dress common. A small square mahogany case with leathern straps, a bundle of red slippers, and a huge pack of basket-work, filled with rude and gaudy prints, spy glasses, small mirrors, toys, and other trifles, lay between them.

The Colonel readily saw what they were, and addressed them accordingly. The one was a Levantine, a common vender of Turkey rhubarb; a Christian he told us, though hooted after in some places; shunned and fled from in others, for a Turk. The other was an old itinerant merchant of that happy lowly class, who have homes and families on the beauteous shores of the Lake of Como. I remember, now, how animatedly they replied, and how all their features sparkled up as the Colonel, with a winning art, peculiarly his own, conversed with them for many minutes in Italian, concerning their

countries, and their wanderings: the questions and replies were laughingly interpreted to me. They were all trifling, but not inconsequent, that is, not inconsequent to me; and, as we rode back, the Colonel unconsciously added fuel to the fire which the sight of these strangers, acting on an idle mind, had kindled in my youthful bosom. He was in a frank communicative mood; I, eager and inquiring. With thirsty ears I drank in all that fell from a lip carelessly yet naturally eloquent. Past scenes and days seemed rising before him, as he spoke of the delight with which in early life he had traversed Italy, the isles of Greece, the Levant, the silent forsaken plains of Troy; and of the unrivalled glorious grandeur of the site of Constantinople: saying of this last, I well remember, that it were worth the trouble and confinement of a voyage, to pass one day, from rise to set of sun, merely gazing on it from a vessel's deck. After dismounting, he led me to his study, took down a large portfolio of valuable engravings, which I had never before seen, and pointed out to me several very striking

and picturesque scenes from nature, and many others, in which massive and majestic ruins were shadowed forth in so bold a manner, that the gazer at once felt a something of that awe, which the gray monuments themselves might be supposed to inspire. The subjects were all Italian ; and I thought Italy, from these specimens, a land, or rather a paradise, of wonders. He continued to dwell on the subject of his travels with a cheerfulness of tone, and brightness of the eye, unusual in him. I could have looked at these prints, and listened to him for hours; but we accidentally alighted on one, which, as it met his glance, caused him with a sudden shuddering to close the case, and, with a strong pressure of the hand, silently to dismiss me.

The print which had so moved him was a celebrated storm-piece; the helpless vessel in her last struggle with the fury of a gale. The crested top of a giant wave, on whose dark bosom lay a dismasted, ungovernable hull, seemed in the very act of breaking upon her, in its destroying strength.

With a ready sympathy I had felt my eyes