DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, ss. REMEMBERED, That on the tenth Bday of May, in the Thirty-second year of the Independence of the United States of America, St. s. DAVID LONGWORTH, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the Title of a Book, the right nowhereof he claims as Proprietor, in the words following, to wit "The Foundling of Belgrade; a translation from the french, by W. Jennings. "Sit Medea ferox invictaque, flebilis Ino, In conformity to the Act of Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men. tioned ;" and also, to an Act, entitled " An Act, Supplementary to an Act entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." EDWARD DUNSCOMB, Clerk of the District of New-York. THE FOUNDLING OF BELGRADE. CHAPTER I. "VILLAIN!" exclaimed a voice from behind, while a rapier passed under the arm of Alfonso. Bleak and stormy was the nights and, the alternate brightness, and total absence of the moon, served but to perplex the way-lost traveller on the heath. Alfonso had discovered the intricacy in which he was involved; but he had no alternative. Revolving in his mind the singular occurrences of the past, inadvertently, he quitted the road he was pursuing; and, when too late to retrace his steps, had plunged into a common equally dreary and unfrequented. His past life had been chequered by incidents of no ordinary cast; and he was become used to difficulties insurmountable by the common run of individuals. Eager reach the appointed spot where should be unfoldperhaps, the mystery of his birth and the origin of the persecution which had pursued him for years is an apology, sufficient, for his inquietude on the first discovery of his embarrassment ; but he soon regained the customary temper of his mind, and without abandoning himself to despondency he at once resolved to proceed, with slow and cautious steps, in the hope of meeting with some hamlet in which to shelter from the impending storm. We may buffet against the ills of life, cast but a vacant eye upon the extravagant follies of the world, seem undaunted amid the peril of open danger, and assume the stoick in morbid contemplation of futurity-but to know the condition of Alfonso's mind would be sufficient to rouse the generous feelings of our nature, and to disclose the horror which assailed him at the sudden and unlooked-for attack of the midnight assassin. His life was preserved by an impulse of the moment. Having wrenched the rapier from his antago nist he buried it in his body, and fearful of encountering the weapon of an associate prudently fled, not without sufficient apprehension of falling a sacrifice alike to the ruggedness of the ground, and the pursuit of a bandit. Overcome with fatigue, and drenched by the rain which now fell in torrents, he paused to listen for the sound of footsteps. Fortunately he had preserved the rapier of his antagonist, and having no means of escape, he resolved to abide the issue of the adventure or perish in the attempt. Scarcely had he formed this resolution, when his ears were assailed by a deep and hollow groan, which issued but a few paces from where he stood, and which seemed to indicate the last struggle of exhausted nature. Nothing again was heard but the howlings of the wind, and he began to be suspicious that it was the convulsive agonies of the wounded assassin, when the faint glimmering of a light shone through an adjoining coppice. Thither he groped his way, not without considerable alarm, and though it were less likely to prove the hamlet of some honest peasant than the haunt of robbers, he was unwilling to wander about when a shelter presented itself to his view. in It was indeed a house; but miserable and mean in appearance it had proven an uncomfortable lodging any other predicament. The door stood wide open. At such an hour, and in such a place, this was enough to excite alarm; but curiosity is not unfrequently inseparable from suspicion, nor shall we attempt to defend the imprudence of Alfonso thus blindly to hazard his safety in such a refuge. Great god! what a spectacle presented itself; two females, one a lifeless corpse, lay stretched along the floor and bathed in blood: the other on a miserable pallet, with the head severed from the body-painted in desponding colors the danger which surrounded him, and reverberating on every fibre of the heart, he stood paralized with horror! Awful as was the spectacle, and terrible as were the forebodings of his imagination, he hesitated between the dreadful alternative of again committing himself to the invisible dangers of the common, or to remain a prey to the poignards of overpowering numbers. What had he to expect from the relentless fury of ferocious desperadoes? but whither was he to retreat from danger? true, he had little of value to enrich the spoil of the freebooter; but the heart, already stained with blood, stands aloof from pity and void of every generous sentiment, depreciates the value of gold untainted with the blood of the unhappy tra veller. No spot presented itself for concealment ; and the bright blaze of the newly added faggot to the fire, bespoke the bloodhound at no distance from his kennel. Each succeeding moment presented the last; and, thus writhing under the agonies of suspense, the sound of distant footsteps shoot distinctly upon his ear! what was he to resolve? tame submission to deliberate butchery? or bravely to sell his life in fruitless combat against a band of ruffians? The thought was sudden, and in a moment carried into effect-behold him concealed under the bed-clothes, an animated carcase almost insensible of existence as the headless trunk prostrate by his side. Thus was Alfonso disposed of when a man entered the apartment. whose dress, and venerable appearance, announced something above the level of a peasant and very distant from the character his frenzied imagination had induced him to expect."O god!" exclaimed the unknown, as his eyes met the mangled corpse upon the floor" O god! o god! that I should be reserved to witness the butchery of my wife my only child too!- -both torn from me by a ruffian protagee-yet was the monster kind!happily I missed my aim- -hah! -I come-yes, my Elvira and my child, I come.- -The villain's aim was sure-deep has his dagger plunged into the vitals of the once happy house of Aranza.-Stript of its foliage, and blasted by the reptile nourished by its shade, behold the trunk totters- 1'" Scarcely had he sunk into a chair when another entered, whose ferocious aspect identified the monster just alluded to. Starting back, as if the meeting was unlooked-for, a savage grin of satisfaction glowed upon his cheek. Instantly drawing a poignard from his bosom, and brandishing it in the air,-"Now," cried he, his eyes sparkling with demonian joy, |