scene our city exhibited on the 14th of January, 1827, than would be consistent with the gravity of a mere daily chronicler of facts.-ED.]

It was on the of 17, that the fearful rise in the waters of the river Clyde carried away the stone bridge which crossed it at the foot of the SaltmarketStreet of Glasgow. It is a day memorable in the annals of that city, but still more so in my private history, and the records of my recollection, and my love; for, old, and dull, and cold, as now I am, I have loved. There is, far up on the wall of a building at a great distance from the usual channel of the stream, an indentation cut, to show the height to which its waters rose, and an inscription to tell the tale. The tablets of my heart have a deeper engraven linea more enduring impress and record of that day of desolation. The waves passed not the limits of the one, and they left every thing beneath as it was before. From me, all that preceded that tidemark of fate is reft away, or left shattered and broken; and still it would appear as if the gloomy waters rose above and passed beyond even that boundary-for, welling out from the fountains of a melancholy memory, the flood yet seems to sweep along the heart it left a desert, but which must dree its loneliness till the spring-tide of fate shall bear me away in its ebb to peace-and Isabella.

She was the first-the only woman I ever loved. Dark-haired, bright-eyed, and nineteen, it was little to be wondered at. Yet it was her heart that secured the love her charms excited-her mind that fixed into esteem what had else been but fleeting admiration. But I cannot go on to descrive her. Suffice it, that in all her girlish beauty she seems still before me: could I paint that vision it would not add to my pleasure, nor yet increase the interest of my story. Her father was a highly respectable tradesman, who resided-fatally for me—in the lower part of the city. Modern improvements have swept away the last relics of a building where Cromwell

resided for a time, and Prince Charles is said to have lodged for a night. Its historical associations and venerable exterior long made it an object of interest to the antiquarian and the stranger: its having been the dwelling of Isabella Oswald made me weep its fall.

We never had a cross in our love till-but let me not anticipate. My mistress was too artless and candid to seek to conceal that my passion was reciprocated, and her widowed father too indulgent to his only child to throw any obstacle in the way of her happiness. The day was fixed which was to see her mine, and the wedding garments already waited for the wearers. A trivial circumstance had deferred my happiness and our union for a whole-month, as we then thought, for the corresponding day of the succeeding one was determined upon as the one fittest for the festivity, which could not be celebrated on the 16th of but we could then see

nothing to prevent its being so on the 16th of Isabella's father was married on this day of the kalendar, and he had been so peculiary happy as a husband, that he seemed almost to think that no man could be equally so unless he was wedded on that identical day. Alas! this month was to be-eternity I had almost said—yet, yet surely I shall meet with my Isabella, and be again united with her in the bonds of enduring affection! It was fated to be lengthened, however, into all the weary years which have since crept along, and have yet to elapse before it is the will of the Giver of my life to resume it to himself, and ask me for my compt.

The winter had been very open, and the great quantities of rain which fell around Glasgow, and in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, had repeatedly swollen the river Clyde to an uncommon height. But the house in which resided Mr. Oswald was so far from its banks, that the successive spates never reached, nor even nearly approached it. At length, however, the frost set in with sudden and keen severity. A temporary thaw followed in a day or two,

but was speedily succeeded by a considerable fall of snow, which lay on the hills above the county town, and around Tinto, to a great depth. The frost again became intense, but was of brief duration, for, returning from a wedding party at an early hour on the morning of Saturday, it seemed to me increasing in bitterness; but, on rising from bed after a short rest, I found torrents of rain pouring down, the wind blowing a gale from the westward, and the air unnaturally warm. In the city the thaw was instantaneous, and almost magical in its operation, sweeping the streets of their accummulated frost in a few hours. The gale increased as the day wore on, and the rain descended without intermission till evening, when the fury of both seemed to abate. About nine o'clock on the Saturday evening, there was almost what the sailors call a "lull," and every one thought that the storm had ceased altogether.

Although dwelling in a quarter of the city remote from Isabella's home, as might have been expected, many of my evenings were passed there in the delightful anticipation of the approaching time when all our hours of leisure should be spent together. The business of the week concluded, I hastened to seat myself beside my untiring betrothed, who would hardly cease to ply her needle, or lay aside her work, even when my arm, hanging over her chair, and perhaps even intruding upon her waist, interfered with the swift but ever graceful motion of her hand in sewing. My request itself, that she would be idle for a time, was but half conceded. But then-it was upon preparations for her new station-household comforts for her future husband-becoming garments for a young wife-that she was occupied! And she could speak and look-oh! speak by snatches, and look in glances, as she raised her eyes from her task-when so employed-more beautifully as it seemed to me, than any other one could, with nothing else to do, and no other object to attain but admiration.

Thus seated, we noticed not that the wind had again risen, and the rain begun to pelt against the casement, until I gave my first threatening motion of departure. This, of course, preceded the actual effecting of it about an hour, but during that time it was evident that the storm had resumed all its violence. We were told, too, that the river was rising, and that those who lived near it were deserting their houses; but the thought of danger to the place where we sat never occurred. Eleven o'clock arrived, and, with a reluctance I was loath to exhibit, and could not then account for-but which was the sensation the very brutes feel at impending calamity—I bade my Isabella good night, and proceeded to my distant home. It was in vain that I sought by occupation to weary myself into sleepiness when I had arrived there. The tempest increased, and with it my restlessness and agitation. To bed, however, I went; but certainly not to rest—for as the watches of midnight wore on, the gale became a hurricane, and came in such terrific gusts of violence, as at each of them to threaten the destruction of every thing that opposed its fury. In the midst of that, and even louder than its voice, was heard, ever and anon, the crash of some chimney that had given way, or the rattle of slates and shingles torn up from the roofs of tenements, and precipitated into the street. The scream of human voices and the yelling of dogs followed these, and added to their horror; and, Sabbath morning as it was, the rattle of the wheels of carts, hastily summoned to bear away household furniture from dwellings that the affrighted tenants deemed insecure, on account of their exposure to the tempest, to places of greater strength, or better sheltered, had a very peculiar effect in heightening the impression of sudden danger and well-grounded fear. It was as if another element-that of fire-had been ravaging the neighbourhood. And it occurred to almost every one, that if that were to break out, with such a wind to fan it, the consequences would be terrible beyond even appre

hension. Twice or thrice the terror led to the anticipation, and the alarm was actually, but erroneously given. -It was impossible to remain in bed.

The frightful thought flashing across my brain, that the gale setting so from the westward, and the snow melting with such unprecedented rapidity-the one swelling, and the other stemming the river-might bring its stormy waters even to the dwelling of my Isabella, I hastily grasped at my clothes, that I might personally ascertain whether there was a chance of her suffering inconvenience. Danger I could not dream of from the stream, and the lowness of the site of her residence, while it might expose it to the flood, protected it from the gale. I dressed, and made for the door. It was impossible, however, to pass through it. Beset by an agitated mother, and screaming sisters, and younger brethren, I was alternately taunted with caring for my own safety above theirs, or for that of another individual rather than my "born relations," and assured and reasoned with that there could be no possible danger elsewhere, as the Clyde had never been known to rise to the height of Mr. Oswald's dwelling-house. This I was aware of, and hope and entreaty prevailed. I returned to my pillow; but, it is needless to say, I could not sleep. After having, however, procured the promise, that, with the first light of the morning, a messenger would be sent to ascertain if our friends in the lower part of the city were in safety, and hearing the wind gradually abate, and the rain cease, I fell into a slumber which continued-agitated, indeed, with dreams of alternate vague delight and dim and dreary horror, but unbroken-until far in the morning, whose rays had been religiously excluded from my pillow. Once awake, it was but the work of a moment to ascertain that no messenger had been sent, and to prepare personally to ascertain the welfare of my future wife. By this time the day was shining as unclouded and bright as if it had been a forenoon in spring, and the wind blew with no