unambitious Emma, the pushed them from her with difdain. Once more, my lord, (faid fhe) let me affure you, that I have a heart impenetrable to vanity, or to any grandeur to which the power of wealth could raise me. the meannefs of your birth, and the grovelling fentiments of your foul. Uttering these words he took at key from his pocket, and throwing it on the ground, left her at liberty; the inftantly feized the opportunity to unfasten the door, and to But, (cried the baron, interrupt- efcape; haftening through the hall, ing her, foftening the natural fero-inftead of turning towards the ofcity of his features and gazing ten-fices by which fhe had entered it, derly on her) is your heart, impe- fhe took advantage of the great netrable to love, and cannot it be door, that stood open, and defcendmoved to yield a generous return to ing a flight of steps with a celerity fentiments fo fincere? Let me owe urged by her fears of detention, to mutual affection that which you fhe flew across the court, darted dený to ambition; and accept the through the iron gates, and gained honours which fhall be offered you, the end of the front avenue in a as tributes due from my gratitude few moments. She then ftopped, rather than as bribes to allure your for want of breath, and funk, almost compliance. fpent, under the fhade of a lofty elm.-Recollecting, however, that fhe was not beyond the reach of purfuit, fhould the enraged baron change his mind, and attempt to recall her, the arofe, and cafting an apprehenfive look towards the caftle, the perceived her father advancing towards her with flow steps. Affured by his prefence, fhe hefitated not to wait his approach; and he had no fooner reached the fpot where the food trembling to receive him, than they clasped each other in a filent embrace : but Emma, urged by the dread of a moment's delay, entreated her father to fufpend all interrogations till they fhould have regained their cottage, which they had no fooner reached, Never, never! (replied Emma) my heart will ever continue as untouched by love, as by your proffered gifts; it is proof against every fentiment, that would injure my honour and debase my virtue! I understand you, prefumptuous girl (returned the baron): you would raife your daring hopes to fhare by legal ties my name and rank. No, (exclaimed Emma) could you ftoop fo low as to demand my hand in an honourable alliance, my heart would reject the offer, and my tongue difclaim an union, which no entreaties could induce, no authority compel me to accept!-Af ter this honeft confeffion, my lord, you will fuffer me to quit your pre-than they each gave vent to the agifence. tations which mutually oppreffed them. The enraged baron was now raifed to a pitch of refentment which banished at the moment every paffion but that of anger. Mortified pride ftung him to the quick; and viewing her with a look of contempt, 'Tis well, (faid he) your audacity has difpelled the charm of beauty: unworthy of a prepoffeffion which covers me with difgrace, you may return to that obcurity and indigence, which befit The flory of Bernard's illness had been a fabrication, invented merely for the purpose of entrapping his daughter in the fnare laid for her.. As he paffed the caftle in the morning, he had been met by Monfieur Du Val, the fteward, and requested to wait there to receive the commands of his lord, who had fome defigns to communicate to him, greatly to his advantage The good good old man, who never yet had formed a wifh beyond the fufficiency which his humble ftation had always allowed him, heard this circumftance with cold indifference; but out of refpect to the baron, waited his pleafure. He was introduced into a pavilion in the garden, and requested not to quit it till the baron, who propofed to join him there, fhould have difmiffed him.. The enraged baron, in the first emotions of his refentment, haď been induced to banish from his prefence the woman who had prefumed to defpife his offers, and reject his love. A momentary hatred took poffeffion of his mind; but it foon" gave place to fofter fentiments; her beauty, the fimple elegance of her form, her unftudied graces, and even the innocence which he meditated to destroy, returned to his imagination; and difappointed paffion once more raged with greater violence than ever., In the first tranfports of his anger, he had commanded Du Val to difmifs Bernard with contempt as an object be He remained above two hours in vain expectation, the fteward at length entered, and informed him that he had liberty to depart, as the baron's fentiments were changed in regard to him, from the ungrateful rejection, which Emma had pre-neath his future notice; he now fumed to offer to propofals that did her but too much honour, and would have raised her and her family to a fituation which must have rendered them the objects of envy to the furrounding peafantry. Bernard, ftrongly agitated, replied to this harangue, then may I truly glory in my child, whofe fteady virtue teaches her to refift the treacherous arts of feduction, and to fpurn at an elevation which would fink her far beneath her lowly birth and humble education. Let me haften from a fpot once the refidence of worth and honour, but now become the fcene of infamy and thame." fummoned again into his prefence N When Bernard had received frou his daughter a minute detail of her late vitit, although he rejoiced at her ker prefent escape, he forefaw her future danger, and trembled at the fatal confequence which might yet enfue. He knew Morenzi to be devoid of every principle of honour and humanity; he dreaded the influence of his power; and felt his own defenceless fituation, which he feared would not enable him to protect his devoted child from arbitrary force and lawless violence. After revolving in his mind every poffible circumstance, he had worked up his apprehenfions to fuch a height, as to decide fuddenly that an immediate flight could afford the only means of fecurity from an euemy fo formidable. The caftle of Brinon was the fole afylum which he could fix on as eligible: there -a fifter of his late wife had lived for many years fuperintendant of the family; and here he hoped he might be permitted to conceal his daughter without danger of difcovery: it was diftant from Bernard's village about twenty miles, and he hoped that they fhould be able to reach it in a couple of days. He propofed the scheme to Emma, who readily undertook a journey which would remove her beyond the power of the dreaded Morenzi, -They had no time to lofe, and, therefore, without further deliberation, began the preparations neceffary for an expedition fo important to their fecurity. Bernard prudently determined to repofe no confidence in any of his neighbours; although he knew himself to be beloved by them fufficiently to fecure their fecrecy, yet he was unwilling to expose them to the baron's re ntment, by intrufting them with the fecret of his journey. Bernard took with him his little ftore, the honeft earnings of induftrious years; Emma made up a fmall parcel of linen; and neither of them being inclined to repofe, they fat down to a fimple meal, of which, for the fake of each other, although devoid of appetite, they mutually forced themselves to partake, that they might the better be enabled to encounter the fatigues which they had to undergo. The village clock struck eleven,→ the hour when they had agreed to begin their journey. Emma took a mournful furvey of the beloved cottage, where the had paffed her life of innocence; fhe caft her eyes upon her fpinning wheel, and fighed; then turning to a wicker armed chair which was the conftant feat of her father, fhe funk into it, and burst into tears.-. -Alas! (faid fhe) I had hoped for happy years to come, to watch here the calm repose of him who gave me being to tend with duteous affection his declining age, who reared my infancy with anxious love. I, who would wish to be his dearest companion, am doomed to bring forrow on his filver head! Rather (replied Bernard, extending his hand to lead her from a fpot where fond remembrance feemed to arrest her lingering fteps) fay that my Emma was born to bleis her father by her exemplary virtues. I triumph in my child who,nobly prefers honourable indigence to fplendid infamy!et us haften from impending perfecution ;--let us quit a place, where every moment endangers her liberty and innocence. Emma ftarted up, caft a fearful look around, and encircling her arm in that of Bernard, they quitted the cottage, paffed through the fleep-. ing hamlet, and reached the road which led to their destined asylum. The moon fhone in penfive majefty, -all was lill,—the gentle breeze of night wafted refreshing odours,and folemn filence reigned,-fave the foft notes of warbling nightin-1 gales chanting their tuneful fong among the fragrant hedges, or perchance, the diffant bleating of fome wakeful lamb. Emma's delicate frame felt fometimes rather exhaust td, ed, and obliged her to reft for a few moments; but her fears did not permit her to indulge long in a repofe which endangered her fafety: Bernard comforted her by the affurance that they approached a village where there was a public inp, in which they might venture to take fome refreshment, and where he hoped to procure a chaife, to convey them about twelve miles further, which would place them at an easy diftance from the caftle of Brinon, and confequently diminish the danger of purfuit. Thus encouraged, the timid Emma moved onwards with renewed courage; and the fugitives reached the inn juft as a travelling carriage drove into the court-yard. While the landlord and his wife were bufily engaged in attending to the newly-arrived guefls, Bernard applied to one of the fervants to accommodate him and his daughter with a room, until a chaife could be got ready for their ufe; his request was granted, and they were fhewn into a small apartment that looked into a garden, where they waited with fome impatience the arrival of the carriage in which they were to purfue their little journey. Having urged their request to be ferved with expedition, the landlord entered and informed them that by fun-rife they might depend on a chaife, but that he would not fuffer his horfes to leave the ftables, until they had been fufficiently refrefled to do their duty. Obferving Emma to caft a difconfolate look upon her father, he faid, "your young companion may be weary, I recommend her to take fome reft in a quiet chainber, whither my wife fhall conduct her." Enima, oppreffed by the fatigue which he had undergone, and finding they had no chance of purfuing their journey for the next two hours, accepted the propofal, and confented to retire into an upper 6, chamber;' where reclining upon a bed, juft as fhe was, notwithstanding the agitations of her mind, the funk into a profound repofe. Let us now quit awhile the virtuous fugitives, to follow Albert into Switzerland. He quitted the village where Emma dwelt, with a heart deeply impreffed by the perfections of a woman, whose noble rejection of his hand, from the most delicate motives, had raifed her in his esteem. The count de Bournonville, his father, was a man truly refpectable in rank and character; he lived but to promote the happiness of his friends; and had been fo uniformly indulgent o the wishes of Albert, that he had every thing to expect from his generofity and kindness. The education of this only furviving fon had been cultivated with the utmost attention; he poffeffed a brilliant genius, a folid understanding, and a heart replete with honour, fenfibility, and virtue. The count welcomed his fon with thofe marks of tenderness which promised every thing to the ardent hopes of Alfred. On the evening of his return, impatient to urge a fuit, upon the fuccefs of which his happinefs depended, he requested a private audience of his father, who appointed an interview in his clofet, before they fhould retire to their feparate apartments for the night, They met at the ftated hour, each bearing teftimony in his expreffive countenance of the important fecret which oppreffed his heart. The youthful impetuofity of Albert arrested the count's attention, by an inftant confeffion of his pai fion, and by his reliance on parental indulgence to crown his wifhes. The count de Bournonville liftened, without interruption, to the charafter of Emma, painted with all the ardent enthufiafm of love in the glowing colours of perfection. Albert ceafed;-the paufe of a mo ment into his family a fervant, discharged from the caftle of Clairville on the death of the late marquis, and who, being a native of switzerland, had returned to an uncle refiding there in credit, by whom he had been recommended; that Prevot, of his quitting France, had given him a circumftantial account of the occurrences which had paffed in the family of the marquis, including the fatal death of the marchioness, and the lofs of her young fon. ment fucceeded; when his father, looking ftedfaftly upon him, thus replied, "Ever ready to promote your felicity, I fhall not attempt to reafon you out of an attachment, which you defcribe fo worthy of your choice, in every thing but birth and fortune. You are un-interrogated relative to the motive doubtedly the fafeft judge in a point of fuch confequence as an union for life. But a fubject of still more prefent importance now demands your attention. You must in future decide your own destiny:-I no longer can claim from you the dutyThefe events, (continued the count) of obedience: you are the child only of my adoption, but the real, the indifputable fon of a noble and unfortunate marquis, the heir of a princely fortune, the real Henry de Clairville! wronged of your natural rights by an ufurper, who doomed you to a death in early infancy, from which Providence refcued your innocence." i found from Prevot's recital, paffed at a period when I was returning with my wife through France to Switzerland: but fo expeditious was my journey, that the foregoing circumftances never reached my ears. An infant fon had accompanied our tour; and by a fudden illness incident to children, it pleased heaven to recall the gift with which it had bleffed us for a short time. The countess was inconfulable, and I feared grief would have had a fatal effect upon her delicate frame; when an extraordi And who murdered with barbarian hand my honoured mother (exclaimed Albert, attentive with increafing wonder to the words of the count; and whose imagination had been wrought up almoft to anary incident roufed her attention pitch of phrenfy at the clofe of the from the indulgence of her private fpeech.) This arm (continued he) woes, to exercise it on an objec fhall revenge her facred blood in whofe interefting age claimed the that of an affaffin ! offices of humanity from her maternal care. But fuddenly his features foftened to a look of grateful tenderness: recollecting himself, and falling at the feet of Bournonville, he thus continued: "Forgive, oh parent. of my deserted infancy, the force of nature, that fufpended in my breast the endless debt of gratitude which I owe you. Here let my heart ever acknowledge the tribute due to filial love, while my fword avenges the blood of murdered innocence; from whofe honoured fource I drew my own existence.-- (To be concluded in our next.) STORY of the EXPLOITS and DEATH of CAPTAIN RAGGADO and his BRAVOS. (From the Arabian Tales: or a Continuation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments.) But fay, my lord, whence do you G derive this ftrange intelligence? The count then informed him, that in his late absence he had taken VOL. XXVII. (Continued from p. 31.) UILLARICH caft his eyes all over the earth, and perceiv ing what no human eye could ever have perceived by the best telescope. L -Ah! |