by the apprehension, in spite of the strong hope to the contrary, of a renewal of the attack.

'You know,' continued the narrator, almost exhausted, the remainder. When Bertha rejected the wine and water, I knew that the disease had fastened irrevocably on her, and, in the anguish of my heart, willingly complied with her request to leave the saloon. On passing our coach she drew from under one of the seats a case of pistols, and then led me to the remote spot where you found us. "Frederick," she said, "the time is come for the fulfilment of your promise."

'I started; my brain was all confusion, and I felt unable to make the least exertion. My vague sense of religion would not let me steep my hands in human blood-the blood of her I loved with so much intensity, and yet I could not consent to see her live a thing of pity, the victim of a horrible agony. She marked my irresolution, and said, kindly, Frederick, you are right; I did wrong to exact such a promise from you, and now absolve you from its obligation. Adieu for ever !"

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I rushed forward with extended arms, but I was too late; she aimed the pistol but too accurately for her heart, and she fell without a groan.

In the madness of the moment I regarded her last words as full of reproach; and, in the paroxysm of feeling, did that for which Heaven, I trust, will pardon me-I discharged the contents of the other pistol into my right temple. I wonder it was not fatal; but I recollect nothing further until I found myself in this chamber.'

He now sank exhausted on his pillow; and the count, seeing that he was extremely weak, merely expressed his sympathy in his misfortunes in very unequivocal terms, and withdrew for the night. Next morning the patient was somewhat worse, his fever had increased, and the count was apprehensive that the exertion of the preceding evening had been the cause of increased illness. Do not needlessly alarm yourself, my dear friend,' said Monsieur Palowski, 'I felt yesterday that

I could not recover: my enfeebled frame, in spite of appearances, had been daily getting weaker, and, although the wound might exhibit external symptoms of healing, there was an internal sensation which apprized me that surgical skill could not avail. I die, however, happy; a holy man has been with me-I have repented of my rashness, and hope for forgiveness. Adieu, dear count,' he continued, let me detain you no longer from the court of your sovereign; I have already trespassed too far on your kindness.

The

All present were dissolved in tears; and the count tenderly took his leave. In less than a week he returned from Vienna, but his friend was no more. necessary honours were paid to his remains, and the bodies of Bertha and her husband were laid, side by side, in the spot where the beautiful stranger fell. The generous count mourned their untimely fate, and erected over them that monument which is known to all who visit Lyons by the name of The Tomb of the Lovers.'

STANZAS.

THE hope that tells me I may wear
Some laurels round my temples yet,
Reminds me of that maiden fair,

And of those days I ne'er forget;
The leaf I love may flourish there,
But fame must be my Ella's debt ;-
For it was she who led me where
I first the sacred sisters met.
Them, or their charms, I little knew,

And loved not,-till my Ella said,

'See, yonder maids your pathway strew

With flowers,-go, follow where they tread ;'

Then to their sunny ways I flew,

By Love, their little pilot, led;

And every draught of bliss I drew,
My early passion nourished.

MY UNCLE ZACHARY.

My uncle Zachary is the great man of the family; his individual shoulders have long sustained the glory of the Toplofts; and I have had the good fortune to be educated in strict reverence for the virtues of the worthy representative of ancestors, illustrious as expert foxhunters and immaculate justices of the peace. My mother, a good kind woman, has always looked up to her only brother, Zachary, with sentiments of laudable pride with a vain eagerness, not altogether inexcusable, she cherishes the reflected light derived from the splendour of Clodhall, and it is no fault of hers if it do not dignify the obscurity of our shop in Bishopsgatestreet Without. My uncle Zachary' supplies her with prefaces and conclusions to all questions, and on every possible occasion. If a fair customer objects to the quality of an article, my mother is certain to reconcile her to it by observing that it is constantly made use of at Clodhall; and when she wishes to vend an old shopkeeper,' she never fails to announce that it has had the approbation of 'my brother Zachary.' The Duke of Vellington,' says the common councilman of our ward the other day, 'is awery great man.' 'Just like my brother Zachary,' responded my mother, he is fonder of acting than talking;' and when Mrs. Fustian, the alderman's lady, plethoric with fashionable news, declared with well affected seriousness that the king was again ill of the gout, Alas!' said my mother, and so is my brother Zachary.' My uncle, poor man, is likened to any thing and every body; and, if you were to believe my mother, half the good things which are consumed on our table come from Clodhall. My uncle is an example which I am constantly urged to imitate; and when my mother wishes to persuade from what she considers undignified habits, she is sure to remind me that her brother Zachary is not only a magistrate in Devonshire, but a descendant of the Toplofts long settled at Clodhall.

My father, though a perfect example of conjugal

patience, sometimes suffers his temper to be ruffled by my mother's family pride. The habits of amiable subjection in which he has passed his life do not admit of open revolt, but he is occasionally to be heard muttering treasonable reflections, very discreditable to the honour of the Toplofts. But in these he does not, by any means, indulge abroad: and is sure to talk a great deal,even at home, about Clodhall, unless while suffering under a recent infliction of conjugal anger. Notwithstanding these

fits of the spleen, it is obvious enough that he is proud of the alliance: at the Hare and Greyhound' he puffs his pipe with a conscious dignity of being the brotherin-law of Zachary Toploft, and he has been heard to boast more than once that he had for wife the descendant of a race of gentlemen.

Brought up under the exclusive tutelage of my mother, it necessarily followed that I regarded my uncle with sentiments of the utmost deference: he had stood sponsor for me, and bestowed upon me his own name. From that day I was set down, by the whole family, for his heir; and with a view apparently of familiarizing me to the scene, I have spent a considerable portion of my time at Clodhall. My uncle is a good-natured, hardriding foxhunter, and although in his sixty-eighth year, has been out with the hounds last season. Though healthy himself, his affairs wear a sickly hue. Report says the estate is sadly burdened; and I have learned, from actual observation, that the family mansion is in a condition not very flattering to the heir presumptive of the Toplofts. My mother, however, says that this is as it should be: it would destroy the antiquity of the place by attempting to repair it, and my uncle appears to be of pretty much the same opinion; for the dilapidated state of the hall gives him no concern: the walls support the sylvan spoils, and still occasionally echo with the sound of mirth and revelry.

It must be unnecessary to mention that my uncle is a bachelor; he never could love any thing but his hounds and his horse, except his bottle; and on a heart so constituted the darts of Cupid could make no

impression. In his younger days, when urged to marry, he used to observe that there was time enough; and in latter years, when, to my great regret, the advice is given, he usually replies by telling a story. A worthy neighbour,' he says, 'of mine, Squire Horseleya good natured man, but a fool-an excellent rider, but no conjuror-took it once into his head, when it had little hair without and less brains within, to marry. He could not possibly live long, and was therefore considered an eligible husband by half the ladies in the country; the abundant variety which quickly presented itself greatly perplexed the amorous beaux of sixtyfive; and his hesitation ultimately banished all the fair aspirants but two, who paid him almost daily visits, both frequently at the same time: the one had attained a certain age; her eyes required the artificial assistance of spectacles, and her more prominent features had assumed a sharpness which amateurs in beauty have long agreed to consider detrimental to female loveliness. The other was the reverse of this: her form was as elastic as a willow, and as straight as a poplar; there was a bewitching gracefulness about her smile; and her eye! a kind of gimlet eye-(here my uncle always laughs at his own wit)-that would pierce, in its vividness, through an oak plank. Mr. Horseley was greatly attached to this charming creature, who assured him that he was still young enough to wed a young girl of eighteen; but her matronly rival declared that one of her age was much better adapted for one of his years. "Look here," said she one day, seizing the lover's head," what a profusion of grey hairs you have got, "and she commenced extracting the black ones which intermingled. "You are mistaken, madam !" exclaimed the other, "there are very few grey hairs indeed," and without further ceremony she applied her scissors to remove the snowy locks that yet remained upon his brows. In a short time he was as bald as a barber's block. The farce, however, continued until his friends stepped in. On application, the Lord Chancellor determined that he was no longer qualified to decide between