here, gay with light balconies and green venetians — there, displaying on their terraced roofs small gardens, as it were, of plants; and marked, where, near the castle, on the higher ground, there rose with tall, bending, yet stately stem, one solitary palm, I felt the measure of my transport full.

How very bright all objects looked in the rich flood of the strong sun-light!

to me, too, who had just come from the shady retirement of the forest.

The Captain pressed my hand with great kindness at parting, and I returned the pressure with gratitude. From young Howard I parted as from a brother. It was not, however, with the less of joy that I quitted the vessel, and was rowed to the steps of a handsome and thronged square, whence I was conducted by a Gallician porter to the residence of the Conde de Alegrete, in the Rua de San Bento, My walk, in spite of a few dirt-heaps, was one long sensation of delighted and ill-repressed surprize; the barefooted Franciscan with his shaven crown; the brown-throated, black-eyed, white-teethed, peo

ple in their novel garbs; the many negroes, with black, shining faces, and curly heads; the halfconcealed faces of the veiled women; the gentry in their cocked hats and long chin-covering cloaks; the gilded caleças, and the tall, stout, shining mules; the market asses, and their jingling bells; the rude and creaking bullockcars; and around, the voices, and the din of labour, cheerful labour; while, rising above all these sounds, might be heard the incessant tinkling of the small chimes, which, in that country, till the hour of noon, give constant warning of the ever-ready Mass.

The Conde received me with unaffected pleasure, promised to make my stay as agreeable as he could; and, after cordial enquiries for Colonel Hamilton, and listening with grave surprise to the rapidly told tale of my late misfortune, and merciful preservation, he led me to the apartment I was to occupy during my stay, and left me to myself. It was about ten o'clock in the forenoon. Every thing in the house-the furniture, the attendance, the customs,—was so totally different from what I had left behind me, that per

haps, had I arrived in the depth of winter, I should have felt little satisfaction in the change; but it was the first week in September-the weather intensely hot, and every thing around seemed to have an air of the most studied and luxurious preparation to endure it with the least possible inconvenience. The chamber was very spacious, and paved with those broad, thin, adorned bricks, so common among the ruins of Moorish palaces; three large windows, lofty above, and descending to the floor, looked towards the Tagus; at this hour they were flung open inwards, the green venetians being carefully closed; and far out over the balcony, there hung slanting down thick blinds of coarse texture, kept constantly wetted from above by a negro boy.

The bed was very high, and very broad. From a coronetted canopy of white damask silk, depended mosquito curtains of a white gauze, fine as if the spider had woven it; the mattresses were light and firm, receiving no indent from the frame: the sheets of the very finest cotton, with very broad flounces of India mus

lin; the pillows low, round, and flounced in like manner; a richly embroidered satin quilt. The fixture wall-tables of white marble were supported by griffin claws, carved and gilt; the heavy chairs with white damask, and gilding to correspond; broad mirrors shone dark and cool above the tables, in rich, costly frames; and the walls of the apartment were hung with a tapestry so beautifully vivid as to realize the colourings of Arabian Fable-trees, fruits, flowers, birds— all bright, and gaudy as they are in sunny climes. Adjoining this chamber, was a small closet bath, floored with marble, and provided with large brimming waterpots ever ready to pour over the exhausted frame. On a stand of ebony in the chamber was an ewer, and basin of silver; and beneath many small narrow-necked vessels of a porous clay filled with cool water. I am particular in calling up the picture of all these things, because we are certainly often acted upon by the circumstances, in which we are placed; and very trifles, as adjuncts, operate through our senses on the moral tone of the feelings, and have some influence on our conduct.

Above all things luxury breaks down the strength, if not of our principle, at least of its resisting power.

a

Here was I, with less experience of the world than a boy trundling a hoop among his playfellows. With an imagination all fire heart swelling and impressible-a face, and form, and figure inherited from a father lofty in his stature, strong yet faultless in his symmetry, and having himself the black eye, and prominent nose of manly beauty, to which in me was added the mouth and smile of a mother, whose countenance was ever full of sweetness and expression. Here was I, abandoned to my own weak reason and strong will. It far less frequently happens that they, who rough it among their fellows as boys, and see life early, feel, or allow themselves to form, a false and ill-placed attachment than those, who, coming late, and ignorant into the world, are exposed suddenly to the fierce assaults of passion from without, and know not, or forget, that they bear in their own ardent bosoms enemies under the semblance of friends, ever treacherous, and ever