dow that he might still look at the pretty gown, or rather at the fine shape of the wearer. Meta, at that same instant, turned round her head just to tuck up her gown, when a look at the window of her neighbour, who still held his lute in his hand, convinced her that she had not been mistaken, and that the observer and the musician were but the same identical being. She felt overjoyed at the discovery, and the first thing she did on her return home, was to run to her flower pots. She was a long time about them, and placed the myrtle so near its companion, that a beautiful full blown rose got interwoven between the verdant branches of the shrub. Meta seemed delighted at the sight, at her neighbour still more so, for, at the very instant, his lute was heard, but words are insufficient to render all that it expressed. Alas! it will not unfrequently happen, that when we think ourselves the most happy, then the greatest misfortune is near at hand, and Frank experienced it most severely. Dame Brigite had been so pleased with her purchase of hemp, that in hopes of procuring more, and through gratitude for the vender, she invited her to a small collation. The repast being ended, Brigite enquired whether there was any more hemp to be got ating by the side of her mother, and wiping the same price? The guest replied, that she was not certain her employer would wish to continue so ruinous a traffic: this was the prelude to an explanation, in consequence of which the dame discovered that the musician and the hemp merchant were no other than the young profligate, whose assiduity at his window had created so much uneasiness to her; and what he had done with the hemp, evinced that he had neither quitted the neighbourhood, nor renounced his pretensions on the heart of Meta. She cast a look at her daughter, who, with a blush of similar hue to that of

of Meta, the new gown was sold, and the amount of what it fetched, together with what remained from the sale of the hemp, was carefully wrapped up, and directed to Frank, under the post-mark of Hamburgh. When the young man first received it, he thought that some of his father's former debtors were making restitution; he thanked his kind stars for the unexpected relief, and flew before his glass in hopes to enjoy the still greater happiness of seeing his Meta; when, alas! he only discovered the plaguy curtain, more closely drawn, and thicker, in his opinion, than it was before. The flower-pots, however, were still out. Dame Brigite's penetration had not gone so far as to suspect their meaning; the luxuriant rose still shone amidst the branches of the myrtle plant, and the sight of it kept the lover's hopes alive; the flowers must needs be taken care of, thought he, and he waited for the event. Towards the evening the curtain, indeed, was withdrawn; his heart began to beat; he drew nearer to his glass, when he saw the emaciated hauds of Brigite unmercifully separating the two vases, and successively taking them into the room; but love, with a view of alleviating his sorrow, allowed him to see Meta, stand

the

off her tears with her sweet hand. He immediately applied to his lute, in strains so expressive of blended grief and joy, that all who were passing by stopped to listen to them. Dame Brigite heard them also, but now put a right construction upon them; she recollected that her daughter's partiality to flowers was nearly of the same date as the first sounds she had heard of the lute; and by means of summing up what she knew with what had taken place, she guessed at their dumb intelligence, and immediately determined upon leaving so alarming a neighbourhood.

rose interwoven with the myrtle Frank, when he awoke on the next branches, cast down her beautiful eyes, and morning, enjoyed the lively, but short pleawas enraptured at what she had just heard; sure, of discovering every part of Meta's yet she wished she alone had been apprized chamber; no curtain, no mother, no obof it. Dame Brigite, on her side, was no stacle obstructed his view: but there was less grieved at her daughter being made no Meta, no spinning wheel, no rose, no acquainted with the circumstance. She ex-myrtle shrub to be seen, the whole had claimed aloud against the young prodigal disappeared, and all Frank's hopes vanishseducer, as she called him upwards of fifty || ed. times; however, she proceeded to farther extremities. Notwithstanding the tears

On his going to enquire what was become of his neighbours, the landlady in

him more and more dearly, till at last she condescended to let her's answer him in the same language.

Frank was not the only one who looked at, and found her handsome. A young brewer, a mau in very good circumstances, and much inclined to get married, was in the habit of seeing her daily, and always imagined he could read in her countenance that she was possessed of those qualifications that are so desirable in a wife. "How modest she looks," would he say to himself. "How much more so will she ap-pear in the fine clothes I shall buy for her! Her piety will draw blessings from above on my brewery! How happy I shall be when I return home in the evening to drink some liquor of my own make in her company!-how-how-!" The final result of all these exclamations was, that the young brewer made a vow of offering a huge wax taper to St. Christopher, in case he succeeded in his undertaking. He next put on his best suit; and as soon as he saw Meta passing by on her way to church, he went to speak to Dame Brigite. Agreeable to the custom of those days, all preliminary compliments being over, he very respect fully asked the mother for her daughter's hand, and entered into a detail of all he possessed; namely, an extensive brewhouse, a fine town-house, a rich plantation of hops, a country residence, beautiful gardens, and a large fortune, which increased daily: he next spoke of elegant gowns, fine lace, and costly jewels, both for his intended bride and her mother. The little eyes of Dame Brigite sparkled when she heard of all those fineries, and at the idea of possessing a daughter deserving of them. At length her chimera was realized, she had found the son-in-law who was to restore her to her former comfortable situation: what made her still more happy in her mind was, that her daughter must like the man as much as she did herself; he was not thirty, but so comely in his person, so well made, and so rich, that he had been surnamed the "King of Hops," and that all such mothers as had girls, to dispose of, always curtseyed very low to him wherever they met him, in hopes of getting the prefer

To the most dreadful agony of despair, sweet hope succeeded on a sudden. "If they continue in Bremen," thought the amorous youth, "I shall soon find them out." He had noticed her regularity in going to hear mass every morning, and he accordingly went from church to church, chapel and convent, having scarce any other habitation. "If love can inspire talents, wherefore should it not also suggest devotion?" No sooner did Frank enter the house of God, than he would fall on his knees, and pray for the restoration of his Meta. One day, that his prayer no doubt had been more fervent than usual, as he was casting his inquisitive looks over the congregation, he descried, at a certain distance, a young person kneeling;-it was she!-it was Meta! who also prayed to heaven to be granted the high blessing of hearing again the dulcet notes of her former neighbour's lute. When she rose from her devotions, she saw him, she met his eyes fixed upon her; she then cast down her's with the blush of simplicity and innocence, and slowly proceeded to her new residence, whilst Frank, timid and respectful, as true lovers generally are, followed, without daring to accost her, for fear Dame Brigite should see him, and carry Meta to such a remote distance that he should be unable to find her again. He, therefore, hid himself, as well as he could, from that formidable Argus, which, indeed, cost him no little trouble. In order to lose no time, she did not always accompany her daughter to church, but she kept a watchful eye over her on her way to church and back home; Frank, accordingly, must be satisfied with seeing her read her prayers, hoping he came in for a share. Neither was he deceived: Meta, who always met ence. his eyes turned towards her, and who found them no less eloquent than his lute, loved No. 65. Vol. X.

LI

(To be continued.)

HISTORY OF AN INDIA SHAWL.

WITHOUT intruding on my fair readers || she died six weeks after her arrival at Casby recounting the many adventures that simbazar, after having recommended to occurred to me prior to my arrival in the me her son, who was brought to my house year 1771, at the valley called Cassemira, in the night by a young Indian woman. and which the Persians have most judiciously The babe was wrapped up in that very surnamed the Valley of Happiness, suffice same shawl, at the manufacturing of which it to say, that the Aldee, or village in which I had, as it were, assisted in the valley, and I resided for several months, was in high which I thought it incumbent on me to renown for its beautiful wool, and the par- make a present of to the female who had ticular skill of its weavers, whose huts brought me over the infant prince. Six stood on each bank of a stream, to the months had scarce elapsed when I was waters of which was ascribed the superior recalled into France, and forced accordingquality of the stuffs manufactured there.ly to part from the child, whom I committed All the harems and zenanas of Persia, Moto the care of the Governor of Chandernagul, and Turkey, were tributary to the gor. elegant produce of the Aldee of Serinagor. During my stray in that delightful country, I would frequently visit the warehouse of an opulent India merchant, of whom Almas Aly Kan, Raja of one of the provinces in Bengal, had bespoke a shawl of most exquisite workmanship, and intended for the only one amongst his legitimate wives that had brought him children. This shawl, besides its extraordinary fine-stay in India, I had carefully avoided being ness, was still more remarkable on account of the curious design of the palms of the border, composed of negroes' heads, linked together by means of a kind of garland, below which were written, in Arabic characters, two lines of the poet Saadi, of which this is a literal translation:

"To be good, is wisdom; to do good, is virtue."

As soon as the shawl was finished, it was locked up in a casket of sweet scented wood, and forwarded to its destination. Fifteen months after I was appointed to a military command at Cassimbazar, one of the French settlements on the Ganges. Upon my arrival in Bengal, I found that two-thirds of the population had perished, and that all the princes of that wealthy, but unfortunate country, were suffering from unrelenting persecution. The estates of Almas Aly Kan had been confiscated, the Raja was dead, and one of his wives, with a tender infant in her arms (the only heir to the late monarch), was come to solicit from my generosity an asylum, which, however, she did not enjoy long, for

On my return from Sirampour, a Danish settlement, where I had gone to bid adieu to some friends of mine, I was on the point of embarking for Europe, when the cries of an innumerous crowd on the banks of the Ganges, induced me to make towards the spot, where a funeral pile was erected, on which a young widow was going to be burned alive. During all the time of my

present at the horrid spectacle, although repeated opportunities had offered of my being an eye-witness. I intended, after having viewed the object of those sad preparations, to hasten away, when I accidentally cast my eyes on the victim, who stood erect on a little eminence, from whence she was dividing her jewels amongst the women who accompanied her. Judge you of my surprize!-that young Indian widow was the same female who six months before had brought me the son of Almas Aly Kan: she recognized me in her turn, smiled at me with graceful kindness, detached the shawl which she wore round her waist, and sent it to me by one of her slaves: it was the same which she had received from me. I feel under an obligation of sparing to my readers the recital of the consequences attending this meeting; but it nearly cost me my life, for having endeavoured to save that of a young woman from the banks of the Ganges, who, notwithstanding every argument. I could urge, was determined to die at the age of twenty-two, on the corpse of a husband who was seventy. Over

whelmed with grief, and shuddering with || horror, I quitted the dreadful pile, reflecting at the same time on the contrast between the cruel religion that prescribed such a sacrifice, and the sweet morality of which I could read one of the precepts on the widow's shawl:

"To be good, is wisdom; to do good, is virtue."

When I arrived at Paris, in 1773, the name was not known of those Asiatic webs, that in the present days are so generally worn. The Duke of Aiguillon, to whom I was introduced, appeared desirous of hav

ing some of the rarities that I had brought

over from India; and, much against my inclination, I was compelled to dispose, in his favour, of the shawl, which recalled to my mind interesting recollections. Soon after I was informed that the Duke had

offered it to Madame Dubarri. For a whole month nothing else was spoken of in the petits appartements :* all the ladies at court came to try it on at the toilet of the favourite, and decided unanimously, that the dress was entirely destitute of grace. The shawl was consequently placed as a mere object of curiosity in a cabinet of Sacca, where it might have remained to this day, if the famous tragedian Lekain, who had performed the part of Gengis Kan at Fontainebleau, had not suggested to the King the idea of improving the dress of the Tartar prince by the addition of the shawl.

I had an opportunity for several years of seeing my Cachemire at every representation of Voltaire's Zaïre and Orphelin de la

Chine. On the death of Lekain it was sold for an extravagant price to a wealthy financier, who made a present of it to a celebrated courtezan, the famous Isabeau, a mulatto woman, who, during some few months, drew the attention of the whole metropolis, and found means, in the course of five years, to squander away the value of two rich plantations; and in less time still, to ruin three opulent noblemen, five

* Whenever the Kings of France had private parties, those apartments in which they met were distinguished by the appellation of les petits appartements, which no one was allowed to enter except such of the nobility of both sexes as had been invited.

wealthy magistrates, and as many farmers general without being able to enrich an opera-dancer, whom she loved to distraction.

The tawny Cyprian, in the wreck of her fortune sold the widow's shawl to an amateur, who, during all his life-time had been engaged in purchasing and collecting in a gallery the Persian costumes, from the days of Cambyses down to Thamas Kouly Kan, the astronomical observations of the Chinese, from Yu the Great, to Fohi Tzing Li,

and models of all the different stones that
trial globe.
enter into the composition of this terres-

He had paid a thousand crowns for a slipper of Solyman II.; a huudred louis d'ors for a spur of Fernand Cortez; and two hundred dollars for a feather of Guatimosin's helmet. The widow's

shawl figured away in this historical frippery, till on the demise of the owner it was once more brought to the hammer.

A female pedlar, who bought it very cheap, contrived with a foreign lady to bring shawls into fashion. Now begins the most brilliant part of the history of our hero, if I may be allowed to use the expres

sion.

The wife of an army contractor, resplendent with youth and beauty, bought the widow's shawl for five hundred thousand francs in assignats, and was taught by an eminent artist how to adjust the drapery in the most graceful style, and made her appearance, with it on, in one of the stage boxes at the opera-house; on the following day she exhibited it to no less advantage, in the public walks and other places of fashionable resort; the commotion instantly became universal; the whole female tribe had no longer but one thought, one wish, one will, namely that of procuring an India shawl, without which it might be said they could enjoy no manner of happiness upon earth. The Journal des Modes gave a description of it, besides a copperplate of the same in one of its Numbers. The immediate consequence was, that a Turk and two Armenians, whom commercial pursuits had brought to Paris, were stripped of the greasy shawls which they wore round their waists, and for which they received in payment their weight in gold. Our East India tradesmen neglecte

not this means of making their fortunes, || ing a diamond aigrette, and accordingly

and speculating on the duration of a whim supported by luxury and vanity, established in Paris two repositories for shawls, which it is said the Parisian husbands and beaux subscribed to fit up. This concurrence, however, only served to enhance the merits and value of the widow's shawl, to the beauty whereof nothing yet could be compared.

sent to be pledged at a notorious money. lender's, who partly supplied the belle with the sum requisite for the purchase of the delightful aigrette.

It was redeemed by a Jew, who sold it on credit to a young gentleman under age, who made a present of it to a handsome actress of the French theatre, on her return from one of the watering-places.

The fair pupil of Thalia, on the very first night of her re-appearance, through attentive regard as she was leaving the house, spread her shawl over the shoulders of the wife of a journalist, a lady who was very apt to catch cold; but the next day it ap

that it is not every husband that feels inclined to pay his wife's debts.

Here the glory of the first of shawls begins to decline. Confined for two long years in a large chest, overloaded with furs, pieces of different stuffs, and of cloths of all colours, under heaps of table, bed, and kitchen linen, the moths took possession of the widow's shawl. The journalist's lady was preparing to make it into under petticoats, when a young author, bargaining for success, politely offered to give her some old plate.

The rage after this new fashion had just come to the highest pitch, when I trembled for the life of my best friend, whom despised love was sending to his grave. Possessed at once of all the gifts that nature, birth, and fortune can bestow, it had been his inconceivable misfortune to pay his ad-peared from a paragraph in the journal, dresses to the only woman, perhaps, from whom he had nothing to hope. This modern Artemisa was five-and-twenty, full of vanity, and secretly devoured with a desire of being noticed. The only expedient that she had found out was to display a savage virtue, in which she had persevered without the least deviation, owing most likely to her being naturally of a very cold dis- || position. I knew the lady well, and had discovered that above all she wished to attract public attention. I availed myself of this discovery to effect the cure of my poor friend. Having been informed that the proprietor of my shawl was summoned to have his cash-book examined, and that in order to be able to settle his accounts, he was under an obligation of selling his wife's jewels, I offered him a pretty round sum of money for the shawl with the negroes' heads; it once more became my property, and I sent it to my friend, with directions how to make use of it. I am still ignorant how far he followed my advice; but he recovered his former good health, and I met him some days after in one of our public walks, arm-in-arm with the object of his affection, surrounded by an admiring crowd at the sight of the widow's shawl.

About a twelvemonth after, the fair lady, in consequence of a new whim (few ladies perhaps would have tarried so long to manifest one), thought proper to set the India shawl on another course of travels. It was sacrificed to the longing desire of procur-?

Now again it fell into the hands of an eminent milliner, who, by means of darning it nicely, passed it as a new article, in the wedding basket of the daughter of a stockbroker, who sold it six months after to discharge her baker's bill. 1 entirely lost sight of it ever since, till on the fourteenth of last August I was told that it was exposed for sale at Rag-Fair. I instantly ran to bid for it, but came too late; the widow's shawl had been knocked down to a certain lady, who shall remain nameless, but who the very next day cut it into pieces, of which she made as many presents to her numerous male friends, to make waistcoats of.

She has kept to herself the border with the characters in Arabic, which she wears in lieu of a girdle: and people are anxious to know wherefore our learned orientalist L, cannot look at her without a laugh.

A.