this the sprightly Américaine who won all hearts the other day on the St. Lawrence,-from that magnificent British officer, to the quiet old priest whose very beard seemed to laugh, at least". "That, indeed, Col. Lunettes!-but for your everready gallantry I would exclaim "Man delights me not, nor woman either!' but here we are at the entrance of the famous donjon keep! We spent some time in examining the-to the ladies-novel attractions of the place. By-and-by, the fair Virginia, who had strayed off a little by herself, called to me to come and explain the mode of using a port-hole to her. In a few minutes, she said, in a low tone, sitting down, as she spoke upon a dismounted cannon, "Col. Lunettes, I beg you not to allude again to that to the dinner, yesterday, or, at least, to my embarrassment". "Your embarrassment, my dear girl!" I exclaimed, "you astonish me! Do explain yourself". "Hush," returned my companion, looking furtively over her shoulder, "that young Englishman seems to be engrossing the attention of the rest of the party, and, perhaps, I shall have time to tell you". "Do, my dear, if anything has annoyed yousurely so old a friend may claim your confidence." "I have heard of the son of a gun," replied she, evidently making a strong effort to recall the natural sprightliness that seemed so singularly to have deserted her of late; "I don't see why I am But about this Mr. not the daughter of a gun, at this moment, and so entitled to be very brave! E, colonel," she almost whispered, bending her head so as to screen her face from my observation. "You know Mrs. M— called for me the other morning to go and walk with her alone, because, as she said, she wanted to talk a little about old times, when we were in the convent school at Ctogether. Well, as we came to a little "shop," as she styled it a hardware store, we should say-she begged me to go in with her a moment, while she gave some directions about a hall-stove, saying, with an apology: "We wives of government officers here, do all these things, as a matter of course." While she walked back in the place, I very naturally remained near the door, amusing myself by observing what was passing in the street. sently, a fine horse arrested my eye, as he came prancing along. His rider seemed to have some ado to control him, as I thought, at first, but I suddenly became aware that he was endeavoring to stop him, in mid career, and that, when he succeeded-he-I Pre there was no mistaking it—his glance almost petrified me, in short, and I had only just power to turn quickly in search of Mrs. M The slight form of the speaker quivered visibly, and she paused abruptly. "Why, my poor child," said I, soothingly, "never mind it! How can you allow such a thing to distress you in this way?" "If anything of the kind had ever happened to me before, I should have thought it my fault, in some way; but when I got back to our hotel, and reviewed the whole matter, and-but there come. the rest of the party "-she added, hurriedly. "Do you wonder now at my manner at the dinner? I knew his face the moment the man entered the dining room; and when Mr. M introduced him, and requested him to conduct me, the burning glow that flashed over his swarthy brow convinced me that he, too, recognized me. I would sooner have encountered a basilisk than your elegant, parlia mentary Frenchman !" "Doctor, what may I eat?" inquired a dyspeptic American, who had just received a prescription from Abernethy-the eccentric and celebrated English physician. "Eat?" thundered the disciple of Galen, "the poker and tongs, if you will chew them well!" What a commingling of nations and characters there was in the little party of which I made one, on a serene evening, lang-syne, at Constantinople! We floated gently over the placid bosom of the sunset-tinted Golden Horn, rowed by four stout Mussulmans, and bound for that point of the shore of the Marmora nearest the suburb of Ezoub where horses awaited us for a brisk canter of some miles back to the city. There were, Lord, an Eaglish nobleman; a Hungarian refugee; a Yankee scacaptain; a dark-eyed youth from one of the Greek Islands; and myself-men severed by birth and education from communion of thought and feeling, yet united, for the moment, by a similarity of purpose; associated by the subtle influence of circumstance, into a serene commingling of one common nature, and capacitated for the interchange of impressions and ideas, at least in an imperfect degree, through the medium of a strange jargon, compounded originally of materials as varied as the native languages of the several individuals composing the group in our old Turkish Caique, which may have been, for aught we knew, the identical one that followed Byron in his Leander-swim! The conversation naturally partook in character of the scene before us :-Near towered the time-stained walls of the Seraglio-so long the cradling-place of successive Sultans, and then furnishing the embryo of the voluptuous pleasures of their anticipated paradise. Beyond rose the ruin-crowned heights, the domes and minarets of old Stamboul, rich in historic suggestions, glowing now in the warmly-linger ing smile of the departing day-god, "Not, as in Northern climes, obscurely bright, Before us, in our way over the crystal waters, As loomed up the gloomy, verdure-draped turrets of the "Irde Koule" of this oft-rebelling and oft-conquered seat of Oriental splendor and imperial power. with the "Tower" of London, the mere sight of this now silent and deserted castle, conjured up recollections replete with deeds of wild romance, and darker scenes of blood and crime. Around us flowed the waters whose limpid depths had so oft received the sack-shrouded form of helpless beauty, when midnight blackness rivalled the horror of the foul murder it veiled forever from mortal ken. Argosies and fleets had been borne upon these waves, whose names or whose conflicts were of world-wide renown -from the mythical adventurers of the GoldenFleece to the triumphant squadrons of the Osmanlis, all seemed to float before the eye of fancy! From the broken sentences that, for some time, seemed most expressive of the contemplative mood. engendered both by our surroundings and by the placidity of the hour, there gradually arose a somewhat connected discussion of the present condition of the Ottoman Porte, It is not my purpose to inflict upon you a detailed report of our discourse; but only to relate, for your amusement, a fragment of it, which somehow has, strangely enough, floated upwards from the darkened waters of the past, with sufficient distinctness to be snatched from the oblivion to which its utter insignificance might properly consign it. "There is not," said the British noble-a man curious in literature, and a somewhat speculative |