Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

to us? I will never disturb thee in the exercises of thy religion, and among my own kindred are many who will join thee in them: let not that divide us. Say, dearest Theresa, that when peace is proclaimed, I may come for thee: and that thou wilt cross the sea with me, and dwell among the glens and hills of my romantic country.

The conversation had proceeded thus far; and Norman, unconsciously throwing his arm around the maiden's waist, had pressed her to his bosom, anxious and yet apprehensive of her reply; when their attention was suddenly called off to other subjects, by the report of a musket; ́a second and a third took place, then a volley from one of the outpiquets. Instantly the bugles sounded. "It is the enemy," cried Norman; “fly, Theresa, fly to the house; there you will be safe: we will defend it to the last." The lovers ran towards the chateau as fast as they were able. The troops were already under arms, and Norman's horse, always upon duty, was at the door in an instant. He sprang into the saddle, and, leaving another officer to take charge of the reserve, he gallopped towards the front. One of the out-posts was already forced; a column of fifteen hundred French infantry were advancing. Norman formed such of his men as were up to the best advantage among the woods; and, despatching a messenger with orders for the companies in the rear to throw an abbattis across the avenue, and to occupy the cottages on each side, he awaited the approach of the enemy. They came on, as French soldiers always come on, with the most determined resolution. The Cacadores, animated by the example of their colonel, bravely met them; but their numbers were inadequate to successful resistance, at least for any length of time; they gradually gave ground. The French, imagining that the whole body was engaged, concluded, of course, that all opposition was overthrown; they pursued in considerable disorder. This accorded well with Norman's plan; they were already at the head of the avenue, when the troops from behind the abbattis,

with those in the cottages, opened a tremendous fire: the enemy were thoroughly confounded. Norman had still about three hundred men with himself, whilst two hundred defended the approach to the chateau. He formed this body into line, and advanced to the charge. The French, by no means expecting an attack, lost all confidence, and fled. But at this moment when the victory was secured, and the assailants were escaping, as they best could, into the thickets, a shot from one of their skirmishers, struck Norman in the side. He fell from his horse; and having uttered but these words-" Oh! my mother!"-instantly expired.

The family in the chateau, were, as may readily be imagined, overcome with alarm at the suddenness of the attack; but Don Fernando retained too much of the spirit of an ancient Spaniard to seek his safety in flight. Having deposited in an inner chamber the priest, the duenna, and his daughters, all except Theresa, whom no entreaties could prevail upon to quit the window, he barricadoed the door, and planted himself and his two aged domestics, each armed with a rifle, in such a situation as would enable them to fire upon the enemy, in case the guard at the abbattis should be forced. They were standing thus, listening with anxiety, not unmixed with triumph, to the receding sound of musketry, when a party of soldiers made their appearance, bearing a body, wrapped up in one of the blankets, down the avenue. Theresa's palpitating heart instantly whispered to her the truth. "It is he!" she exclaimed, starting back, and rushing towards the door; "it is Norman! he has fallen, and fallen defending us." Her father vainly endeavoured to oppose her progress; she rushed down stairs, and, drawing aside the bars and bolts, met the party just as they had reached the lawn. The men were in tears, and her apprehensions received an immediate confirmation. She did not even look upon him; for, before the bearers had time to lay him down, or withdraw the covering from about him, her heart broke, and she was a corpse!

The lovers were laid, side by side, in a little mausoleum attached to the chateau of Alanjuez-the prejudices of Catholics giving way to personal regard. Theresa was long and deeply lamented by her relatives; and Norman's name received the applause which could no longer reach his own ears, but which, in no slight degree, served to alleviate the sorrow of his desolate parent.

THOUGH THE LAST GLIMPSE OF ERIN WITH SORROW I SEE.

[One of Moore's Melodies, with the additional Verses. *]

AIR-"Coulin."

I.

THOUGH the last glimpse of Erin with sorrow I see,
Yet wherever thou art shall seem Erin to me;
In exile thy bosom shall still be my home,
And thine eyes make my climate wherever we roam.

II.

To the gloom of some desert or cold rocky shore,
Where the eye of the stranger can haunt us no more,
I will fly with my Coulin, and think the rough wind
Less rude than the foes we leave frowning behind.

III.

And I'll gaze on thy gold hair, as graceful it wreathes,
And hang o'er thy soft harp as wildly it breathes;
Nor dread that the cold-hearted Saxon will tear

One chord from that harp, or one lock from that hair.

IV.

And though sorrow and time may those bright tresses blench,
The fire of thy patriot song they'll ne'er quench,

While an exile from Erin and peace thou must pine,
And the conqueror lords in the home that was thine!

V.

As the farther from Erin her children can roam,
The more deep thrills their love of their own island home,
So, my Coulin, while riches and youth from us flee,
The more close will my heart twine its fondness round thee.

* See No. I.

THE INQUISITIVE GENTLEMAN.

BY MISS MITFORD.

ONE of the most remarkable instances that I know of that generally false theory," the ruling passion," is my worthy friend Samuel Lynx, Esq., of Lynx Hall in this countycommonly called the Inquisitive Gentleman. Never was cognomen better bestowed. Curiosity is, indeed, the master-principle of his mind, the life-blood of his existence, the main-spring of every movement.

Mr. Lynx is an old bachelor of large fortune and ancient family;-the Lynx's of Lynx Hall, have amused themselves with overlooking their neighbour's doings for many generations. He is tall, but loses something of his height by a constant habit of stooping; he carries his head projecting before his body-like one who has just proposed a question and is bending forward to receive an answer. A lady being asked, in his presence, what his features indicated, replied with equal truth and politeness -a most inquiring mind. The cock-up of the nose, which seems from the expansion and movement of the nostrils to be snuffing up intelligence, as a hound does the air of a dewy morning, when the scent lies well; the draw-down of the half-open mouth gaping for news; the erected chin; the wrinkled forehead; the little eager sparkling eyes, half shut, yet full of curious meanings; the strong red eye-brows, protruded like a cat's whiskers or a snail's horns, feelers, which actually seem sentient; every line and lineament of that remarkable physiognomy betrays a craving for information. He is exceedingly short-sighted; and that defect also, although, on the first blush of the business, it might seem a disadvantage, conduces materially to the great purpose of his existencethe knowledge of other people's affairs. Sheltered by that infirmity, our "curious impertinent," can stare at things and persons through his glasses, in a manner which even he would hardly venture with bare eyes.

No. 4.

D

He

can peep and pry and feel and handle with an effrontery, never equalled by an unspectacled man. He can ask the name and parentage of every body in company, toss over every book, examine every note and card, pull the flowers from the vases, take the pictures from the walls, the embroidery from your work-box, and the shawl off your back; and all with the most provoking composure, and just as if he was doing the right thing.

The propensity seems to have been born with him. He pants after secrets, just as magpies thieve, and monkeys break china, by instinct. His nurse reports of him that he came peeping into the world; that his very cries were interrogative, and his experiments in physics so many and so dangerous, that, before he was four years old, she was fain to tie his hands behind him, and to lock him into a dark closet to keep him out of harm's way, chiefly moved thereto by his ripping open his own bed, to see what it was made of, and throwing her best gown into the fire, to try if silk would burn. Then he was sent to school, a preparatory school, and very soon sent home again for incorrigible mischief. Then a private tutor undertook to instruct him on the interrogative system, which, in his case was obliged to be reversed, he asking the questions, and his tutor delivering the responses—a new cast of the didactic drama. Then he went to college; then sallied forth to ask his way over Europe; then came back to fix on his paternal estate of Lynx Hall, where, except occasional short absences, he hath sojourned ever since, signalizing himself at every stage of existence, from childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, from manhood to age, by the most lively and persevering curiosity, and by no other quality under heaven.

Mere quiet guessing is not active enough for his stirring and searching faculty. He delights in the difficult, the inaccessible, the hidden, the obscure. A forbidden place is his paradise; a board announcing "steel-traps and spring-guns" will draw him over a wall twelve feet

« ПредишнаНапред »