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And there while reposing,
Her eyelids half-closing,

Young Janet low murmur'd her sonnet of love;
It listen'd from under,

With side-glance of wonder,

And mimick'd in sport the soft songs that she wove.

While thus she lay whiling,
The moments beguiling,

Young Janet has heard a soft step at the door;
All timidly wishing,

All flutter'd and flushing,

Her linnet forgotten, she starts to the floor.

How sweet is the meeting,
From absence when greeting,

With blush and with sigh the soft lord of the heart!
His answer, his question,

How thrilling to listen,

And hide the soft gladness with maidenly art.

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Is follow'd by sadness,

And pain after pleasure each mortal must prove.

When leisure now found her,
Young Janet gazed round her,

And missed her gay play-mate so sportive and kind,
A foot and a feather,

Were lying together,

And the down of its bosom was strew'd on the wind.

And purring demurely,
On the carpet securely,

Her tortoise-shell cat in a corner was hid;

With lips unrelenting.

The traces still scenting,

Where the poor linnet's blood on the floor she had shed.

She long had been watching,

Fit moment for catching,

And enter'd when Cupid (blind god) was the guard; And Janet's sad feeling,

Too deep for concealing,

Her love all forgotten, now weeps for her bird.

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THE STEAM-BOAT; OR, THE VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF THOMAS DUffle, CLOTH-MERCHANT IN THE SALT-MARKET OF GLASGOW.

No. I.

HAVING been for several years in what Mrs MacLecket, my worthy landlady, called a complaining way, I was persuaded by her advice to try the benefit of the sea air several times in the steam-boat to Greenock; indeed I sailed once as far as Inverary, and saw the Duke's House there, which is a becoming residence for his Grace of Argyle; and found myself greatly advantaged by the same. I am not, however, sure that the benefit which my strength and appetite received in those sea voyages was so much owing to the change of air, and the wholesome fume of the salt-water that I breathed, as from the conversible and talkative company which I found among the other passengers; by which my spirits were maintained in a state of jocund temperance, and my thoughts so lifted out of the cares of business, that I was, for the time, a new creature, bringing back with me to behind the counter a sort of youthiness that lasted sometimes more than a fortnight; keeping off what Mrs MacLecket called the hypochonders, till my bowels again fell out of order, by that constant constipation to the shop, which I now understood was the original cause of all my complaints.

I have often since reflected on my jaunts and travels, and the many things that I saw, as well as the extraordinary narrations, of which I was participant in the hearing; and it seemed to me, that I could not better employ my time and talent, during the long winter nights, than in putting down some account of the most remarkable of the stories which medicated so veritably towards the gradual restoration of that brisk and circling state of my blood, that has made me, in a manner, as Mrs MacLecket judiciously says, a very satisfactory

man.

When I had tried my hand at two or three of the stories, I read them over to Mr Thomas Sweeties, my neighbour, the grocer, and he thought them so vastly entertaining, that, by his encouragement, together with the pleasure Mrs MacLecket seemed to take in the bits she now and then heard, when she could spare time from her householdry to listen, I was led to proceed farther and farther, until I compiled this book; which I hope will reward the courteous reader who may vouchsafe to favour it with an attentive perusal, as much as it did to me in the inditing, and no author can wish his reader a more delectable benefaction. For I was so taken up, not only with the matter, but the manner of the different narrations, while I brought them back to mind, that I was transported, as it were, out of my own natural body, and put into the minds of the narrators, so as to think with their thoughts and to speak with their words, by which, as Mr Sweeties observed, an instinct for learning has been manifested on my part, such as he had never met with, and is altogether wonderful in a man who has lived in the Salt-market since the eighty-three, in which year I gave up travelling the country with the pack, having at that time two hundred pounds gathered in the Ship Bank, besides a character for sobriety and cannyness among the merchants, which was worth more than double that sum in the way of credit.—Thank God, through all the changes that have happened since, I have kept aye my feet, and can afford to take my pleasure may be another year, although I should have no occasion for the sake of health, and that without wronging any body. I don't, however, say this of VOL. VIII. 3 T

way

my means as a brag; but only as I am now venturing to come before the public in the book-making line, it may be known that I am not led thereto in the of bread, but to solace myself; with a reasonable probability, at the same time, of bringing forth something that may contribute to the pastime of other folk of a sedentary habitude. I shall not, therefore, expatiate in this place at any greater length; for having thus heard the origin and occasion of my writing and sending out a book, the reader will naturally now be anxious to know of what it consists ;-on which account I will stop my prefatory pen, and open with the substantiality of the matters of which I design to treat.

VOYAGE FIRST.
The Russian.

It was, I think, on the 16th day of June, in the year of our Lord, A.D. 1819, that I embarked at the Broomielaw, on board the Waterloo steamboat, bound to her head port, the town of Greenock, with an understanding that passengers were to be landed at any place in the course of the voyage, wheresoever their needs and affairs might require. As my adventure was for health and pleasure, I resolved to go with her to all the different places which she might be obligated to visit, and return home with her in the evening, Mrs MacLecket telling me, that there might be a risk, at my time of life, in changing my bed. Embarking then, as I have said, we got under way at eight o'clock, and shortly after, the passengers that had not breakfasted before they came out in the morning, retired to the steward's room, where they were very comfortably entertained at an easy rate-in so much, that for the ploy of the thing, I wished I had not taken mine with Mrs MacLecket; but I was over persuaded by her of the danger of going upon the water with an empty stomach. However, I had not much cause to repine at this, for while the rest were busy with the eatables, I entered into some discourse with a decent elderly gentleman, concerning foreign parts, and such matters as were material to a man like me, in going upon his first voyage. This stranger I found of a great solidity of mind that was surely past the common: he had seen much of the world, and had read the book of man through and through.

In his appearance there was nothing particular; he stooped a degree forward, and for the most part, was disposed to rest his brow upon his staff, and to mind more what others said than to say much himself; but it was

plain, from his looks, that this was not owing to any lack of ability or information, as I presently found. For, in mentioning to him the reason of my being in the steam-boat, and talking concerning the profit of travelling, how it opened the faculties and enlarged the understanding, he made some very pithy and sagacious responses; until from less to more, he told me that in his youth he had visited many famous cities, as well as towns of repute, in foreign lands. One thing led to another, and it would be needless in me to relate all that passed; but in speaking about the barbarous Russians, he said, "I cannot better give you a notion of the strange mixture of savage passion and refined corruption which are often met with among them, than by a domestic story which a relation of the parties told me, and which, I doubt not, is in all its most remarkable circumstances substantially true."

One night, as Prince Tobloski, with his son, was returning from the Taurian palace, where they had been present at a magnificent entertainment, which the late Empress gave to the Court, his carriage was stopped in the street for a short time, by an accident that had befallen a wain loaded with timber. The Prince was a hale and stout old man, and possessed of a singular vigour of character. His usual residence was at Moscow; but desirous of introducing Demetrius his son to the Empress, with all the advantages to which his rank and fortune entitled him, he had come to spend some time at Petersburgh. It had been previously agreed between him and Count Ponatowski, a Polish nobleman, who also resided in the ancient capital, that Demetrius should espouse

the daughter of the Count; but this match was not one of those which are made in heaven.

Demetrius was in the prime of youth. It could not be said that he had reached the full maturity of manhood, for he was only 19; but he was finely formed, and of a gallant and manly presence. Elizabeth, his destined bride, was younger; and the report of her beauty and accomplish ments was such, that it might be said, this elegant couple were formed for each other. They had, however, never met. Elizabeth having early lost her mother, had been educated at Warsaw, under the care of her grandmother, a French lady of the old school, and a passionate admirer of the New Eloise; but she was expected at Petersburgh while Prince Tobloski was there, and Demetrius, with the anxiety of a young man, it could not entirely be said of a lover, was, at the time I am speaking, become impatient for her arrival.

While Demetrius and his father were waiting till the impediment was removed which had arrested their carriage, a travelling equipage came furiously along, and, regardless of the cries of the people, drove full tilt against the timber wain, and was upset. The shrieks of a female instantly induced Demetrius to spring out to her assistance, and he had the happiness to rescue a beautiful girl unhurt; but her companion, an elderly matron, had received a severe contusion on the forehead, and was almost senseless.

By their language, dress, and manners, they appeared to be Frenchwomen, and persons of some consequence, and Demetrius begged his father to take them to his own house in his carriage, till their friends could be informed of their situation.

Prince Tobloski in his manners, was a rude and unlettered man, but he had still much of the national hospitality in his disposition, and at once received the strangers into his coach, and carried them home to his palace, which was but a short distance from the scene of the accident. All this did not occupy many minutes. The two ladies, on reaching the palace, were committed to the care of the domestics, and the father and son retired to their respective apartments.

Medical assistance was immediate ly procured for the old lady; and, in

the meantime, the strangers learnt that it was to the Prince Tobloski and his son they were indebted for the assistance they had received. This information afforded them much pleasure. In a word, it was the fair Elizabeth, and her grand-mother, the old Countess Ponatowski.

The Countess, notwithstanding the pain of her wound, had the presence of mind to whisper Elizabeth to conceal their names. The fantastic old woman was delighted with the romantic incident which had brought the fated lovers so unexpectedly together; nor was the gentle victim of her stratagem averse to the plot of the little drama in which she was to bear the principal part.

The contusion which the Countess had received proved very slight, but it so disfigured her appearance, that next morning she could not be persuaded to allow a male eye to look at her; even the doctor, who was perhaps in some degree requisite to the redification of her face, was admitted with difficulty.

In the meantime it was concerted between the ladies, that the Countess should be represented as the widow of an Amsterdam banker, who had been ruined by the French revolution, and Elizabeth as her niece; and that their object in coming to Petersburgh was to establish an academy for young ladies, Elizabeth having been purposely educated for that profession. Accordingly enough was given out to the servants of the palace to enable them to understand this, which being reported to the Prince, served materially to abate the degree of consideration with which he was previously disposed to treat his guests. It had also, in some degree, the same effect on Demetrius, who had been much struck with the beauty and elegance of Elizabeth, and was not altogether satisfied that her image should take the place in his mind which had been previously occupied with the fancy portraiture of the unseen daughter of Ponatowski. However, during the morning, he resolved to pay the ladies a visit in their apartment, and was not displeased, on being admitted, to find that the Countess would not permit herself to be visible, on account of the swelling and contusion on her forehead, so that he had an agreeable conversation with Elizabeth, who played off all the pretty

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