Ah, heaven, not even in death may we be joined!
These lowly limbs the foot of pride would spurn

From the high pile, where sleeps Prince Albert's daughter!

GENEVIEVE (starting).

Prince Albert's daughter!-hast thou dared to name
A name the spirits dare not whisper to me.

It is a dream—and yet that look-that look !—
Speak!-who art thou?

GERTRUDE.

I am Prince Albert's daughter!

GENEVIEVE.

Where is thine other parent?

GERTRUDE.

That none may know, save heaven and thee alone!
Ten summers now have passed, since on one eve,—
An eve that seemed even beautiful as this,
(When the fair lake, beneath the deep blue sky,
Streamed on like molten silver),—she desired
Her faithful servant, Hugo, to transport
Herself and my younger brother o'er the wave,
To where proud Ritzsburg's lofty turrets spring
From out the sleeping waters. Darkness arose,
And gathered storm burst forth in dreadful might,
Lashing the lake to madnesss, ere the bark
Sped forth on its return. O, fearful seer,
Spare me the dread recital, and bestow

Your pity on me, that I thus hath lived

To tell the dreadful tale: they perished!

GENEVIEVE.

Yes, they perished ;—and yet not so, sweet trembler; There is a crime which cries aloud to heaven:

Nay, cling not to me, maiden! From her grave

Thy mother breathes her blessing :-be thou blest!

THE TWO PICTURES.

Alike, but oh! how different!

Wordsworth.

WHEN I was at Florence, I do not care to mention how many years ago, I was one day lounging in the gallery, thinking how vastly different the Medicean Venus was rom my beau ideal of female beauty; when, in one of the less frequented rooms, and in a situation not eminently con spicuous, my eye chanced to light upon a picture, which, at once, rivetted its gaze, and on which it-I may sayfeasted for several weeks afterwards. It was a half-length, and consisted of a single figure-the portrait of a young lady of apparently from nineteen to twenty-one years of age. She was dressed in a low gown of puce-coloured velvet, without lace or tucker of any kind intervening between it and the skin of clear, pearl-like whiteness, against which it appeared in strong and remarkable relief. In the centre, however, the boddice, according to the mode of the period, seemed in some degree to rise, so as just to give to view a small portion of very delicate lace, yet not in sufficient quantity to fall over upon the velvet. Immediately below this a diamond ornament was placed,

which was matched by two others that formed the loops to the short sleeves, from beneath which appeared arms of a symmetry and whiteness it would be idle to attempt to paint with only description for my pencil. Their fine rounded fulness in the upper part; their delicate gradation to the wrists, and the beautiful hands which terminated them, were, indeed, among the most conspicuous parts of the picture; inasmuch as the person represented was in the act of drawing a golden bodkin, headed with diamonds, from her hair, which was falling in profusion over her shoulders. In her right hand she held the bodkin, whilst her left was employed in throwing back from her face the hair which, in falling, had crowded to cover it. The colour of the hair, and general complexion of the face, (of its character I shall have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter), were by no means Italian; though from the name both of the person painted and of the painter, I concluded that the former must have been so. The catalogue gave it as Ritratto d'AGATHA LANZI; and added, as the name of the painter, that of one of the mmediate successors of Titian. The piece, indeed, had all the richness of colouring of that celebrated school. The brows and eye-lashes were of a deeper tint of the same colour; and the latter were, or, from their length, appeared to be, darker than the former. From the action, and, moreover, the position of the figure, as well as from

the corner of a toilet-table which the artist had introduced, it seemed to me that the moment represented was

just after she had retired to her chamber for the night; and that the withdrawing the golden bodkin from the hair was the first act of beginning to undress. The figure was standing, and apparently, from the direction of the eyes, before a mirror; but this was not represented in the picture.

As the hair showered down in the luxuriance of its brilliant beauty, the face was lighted with a radiant smile, as if of conscious triumph in the pride and profusion of loveliness, which added to that very loveliness of which it was at once the effect and the indication. It showed, indeed, infinite taste on the part of the painter to have chosen such a moment and action; and to have rendered them to such advantage, and yet with so much truth. The fine form, blooming into the ripeness of womanly beauty; the dress relieving the perfect and admirable expression of which I have spoken;-the smile which showed the eye more bright, and the rich lips parting like a bursting rose under its influence ;-the arms raised and bent; the falling waves of hair ;-all served to present each individual beauty to the greatest individual advantage; and yet combined into a whole so exquisite, that one would have thought that every merit of detail must have been sacrificed to procure it.

I was so struck with this enchanting picture, that I believe upwards of an hour elapsed before I moved from before it. Day after day, I used to repair to the gallery,