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not fhine upon fo fair, fo quick-witted, and amiable a maid; and better fate did Maria deferve, than to have her banns forbid, by the intrigues of the curate of the parish who published them――

He was going on, when Maria, who had made a short pause, put the pipe to her mouth and began the air againthey were the fame notes ;-yet were ten times fweeter. It is the evening service to the Virgin, faid the young manbut who has taught her to play it-or how she came by her pipe, no one knows: we think that Heaven has affilted her in both; for ever fince fhe has been ufettled in her mind, it seems her only confolation-she has never once had the pipe out of her hand, but plays that fervice upon it almost night and day.

THE poftilion delivered this with fo much discretion and natural eloquence, that I could not help decyphering fomething in his face above his condition, and should have fifted out his history, had not poor Maria taken such full poffeffion of me.

We had got up by this time almoft to the bank where Maria was fitting: fhe was in a thin white jacket, with her hair, all but two treffes, drawn up in a filk net, with a few olive leaves twisted a little fantastically on one fide-fhe was beautiful; and if ever I felt the full force of an honest heart-ach, it was the moment I saw her

GOD help her! poor damfel! above a hundred maffes, faid the poftilion, have been said in the feveral parishchurches and convents around for her-but without effect; we have still hopes, as fhe is fenfible for fhort intervals, that the Virgin at laft will restore her to herself; but her parents, who know her beft, are hopeless upon that score, and think her fenfes are loft for ever.

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As the poftilion fpoke, this, Maria made a cadence fo melancholy, fo tender and querulous, that I fprung out of the chaife to help her, and found myself fitting betwixt her and her goat, before I relapfed from my enthufiafm.

MARIA looked wiftfully for fome time at me, and then at her goat-and then at me—and then at her goat again, and fo on alternately

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-WELL, MARIA, faid I foftly-What refemblance find?

DO entreat the candid reader to believe me, that it was from the humbleft conviction of what a beast man is—tha I asked the queftion; and that I would not have let fall an unfeasonable pleafantry in the venerable prefence of Mifery, to be entitled to all the wit that ever Rabelais fcattered:

ADIEU, Maria!-adieu, poor hapless damfel!-fome time, but not now, I may hear thy forrows from thy own lips but I was deceived: for that moment she took her pipe, and told me fuch a tale of wo with it, that I rofe up, and with broken and irregular fteps walked foftly to my chaife

SECOND PART.

WHEN we had got within half a league of Moulines,

at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I difcovered poor Maria fitting under a poplar-fhe was fitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one fide within her hand-a small brock run at the foot of the tree. I BADE the poftilion go on with the chaife to Moulines and La Fleur to befpeak my fupper-and that I would walk after him.

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SHE was dreffed in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a filk net. She had, fuperadded likewife to her jacket, a pale green riband, which fell across her shoulder to the waist; at the end of which hung her pipe. Her goat had been as faithlefs as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which the had kept tied by a ftring to her girdle; as I looked at her dog, fhe drew him towards her with the firing-" Thou shalt not leave me Sylvio!" said she. I looked in Maria's eyes, and faw she was thinking more of her father than of her lover or her little goat; for as fhe uttered them, the tears trickled down her cheeks.

I SAT down clofe by her, and Maria let me wipe them away as they fell, with my handkerchief. I then steeped it in my own-and then in hers-and then in mine-and then I wiped hers again—and as I did it, I felt fuch undeferibable emotions within me, as I am fure could not be accounted for from any combinations of matter and motion.

I am pofitive I have a foul; nor can all the books, with which materialifts have peftered the world, ever convince me of the contrary.

WHEN Maria had come a little to herfelf, I asked her if fhe remembered a pale thin person of a man who had fat down betwixt her and her goat about two years before? She faid, fhe was unfettled much at that time, but remembered it upon two accounts-that, ill as fhe was, the faw the perfon pitied her; and next, that her goat had stolen his handkerchief, and she had beat him for the theft-she had washed it, fhe faid, in the brook, and kept it ever fince in her pocket,. to restore it to him in cafe fhe fhould ever fee him again, which fhe added, he had half promifed her. As he told

me

me this, fhe took the handkerchief out of her pocket to let me fee it: fhe had folded it up neatly in a couple of vine leaves, tied round with a tendril-on opening it, I faw an S marked in one of the corners.

SHE had fince that, she told me, ftrayed as far as Rome, and walked round St. Peter's once-and returned back:that fhe found her way alone across the Appenines-had travelled all over Lombardy without money-and through the flinty roads of Savoy without fhoes: how he had borne it, and how she had got fupported, she could not tell · -but God tempers the wind, faid Maria, to the fhorn lamb.

SHORN indeed! and to the quick, faid I: and waft thou in my own land, where I have a cottage, I would take thee to it and shelter thee; thou shouldft eat of my own bread, and drink of my own cup-I would be kind to thy Sylvio -in all thy weakneffes and wanderings I would feek after thee, and bring thee back-when the fun went down I would fay my prayers, and when I had done, thou should it play thy evening fong upon thy pipe; nor would the incenfe of my facrifice be worfe accepted, for entering heaven along with that of a broken heart.

NATURE melted within me, as I uttered this; and Maria ⠀ obferving as I took out my handkerchief, that it was steeped too much already to be of use, would needs go wash it in the stream.—And where will you dry it Maria? said I. -I will dry it in my bofom, faid fhe-it will do me good.

AND is your heart ftill fo warm, Maria? faid I.

I TOUCHED upon the string on which hung all her forrows -fhe looked with wiftful diforder for fome time in my face; and then, without faying anything, took her pipe, and played her service to the Virgin-The ftring I had touched ceafed to vibrate-in a moment or two Maria returned to herfelf-let her pipe fall-and rofe up.

AND

And where are you going Maria? faid I. She faid, to Moulines. Let us go, faid I, together.-Maria put her arm within mine, and lengthening the ftring, to let the dog follow in that order we entered Moulines.

THOUGH I hate falutations and greetings in the marketplace, yet when we got into the middle of this, I stopped to take my last look and laft farewel of Maria.

MARIA, though not tall, was nevertheless of the first order of fine forms-Affliction had touched her looks with fomething that was fcarce earthly-ftill she was feminine:and so much was there about her of all that the heart wishes, or the eye looks for in woman, that could the traces be ever worn out of her brain, and thofe of Eliza's out of mine, she should not only eat of my bread and drink of my own cup, but Maria should lie in my bofom, and be unto me as a daughter..

ADIEU, poor lucklefs maiden !-imbibe the oil and wine which the compaffion of a ftranger, as he journeyeth on his way, now pours into thy wounds-the Being who has twice bruised thee can only bind them up for ever.

STERNE.

CHAP. XII.

THE C A M E L ION.

OFT it has been my lot to mark

A proud, conceited, talking spark,
With eyes, that hardly ferv'd at most
To guard their mafter 'gainst a post:
Yet round the world the blade has been
To fee whatever could be feen,

Returning

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