Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

remained long silent. At length we began to lecture each other on morals-wonderful! we quoted Shakespeare,

He that is robb'd not wanting what is stolen,

Let him not know it, and he 's not robb'd at all.’

"I really know not how these lines came into her head or mine, but certain I am that we quoted them together, and convinced am I, that in a few minutes after, my friend's dishonour and my disgrace would have been effected, notwithstanding all our resolution and confidence, if an accident had not prevented foul crime.

66.

Judge of our astonishment, when crash went something in the hall; the door came into the parlour with a bang, and on the table jumped what I verily believed at the time to be the devil! He began to make the most horrible faces at Mrs. Arden and me that ever I beheld. I was absolutely petrified with fear. The candles seemed to burn blue, and the room to smell of brimstone. All this was the work of a moment; for the object of my

terror had not made more than a dozen grins when he was seized by his chain, which had made an alarming noise in his approach, by the butler—and I found that my guilty conscience had magnified a moderately sized monkey into a huge devil! Poor Mrs. Arden had fainted. At length, we recovered her; and she was conveyed to bed. The butler had purchased Jacko that day in town, and secured him, as he thought; but our devil had found a way of liberating himself, and, attracted by the light, had come to us a most unwelcome visitor.

"When Mrs. Arden and I met next morning

6

[ocr errors]

we looked very silly. Fly,' said she, from this house and dishonour; never see me more whilst I am the wife of your friend; there is no safety but in flight.' I obeyed her; feigning business of importance I came over to Dublin, where I had in reality something to do. That being settled, I am now for Scotland, where perhaps I may take up my quarters for some time.”

"Well done," said I, "friend Hal.-I thank thee for thy interesting story.-But pray what became of Sir Harry L--? Did the doctor conquer death

in tetanus, or were 6

existing circumstances' too

many for his depth and skill ?"

"Sir Harry," said my friend," recovered without

a lock-jaw, but he will halt for life, which he well deserves."

N. V.

THE GIFT.

Wear this for me; one out of suits with fortune;
That could give more, but that her hand lacks means.
SHAKSPEARE.

"So, Charles," continued my friend Henry, after he had finished the foregoing story, "thy time is at present occupied in preparing sketches for the amusement of the public? I shall feel much pleasure in sending you a manuscript, which describes particulars in the lives of a few individuals; and I have no doubt, from such parts of it as I have perused, that you will find it worthy of a place in your Port-Folio. How it fell into my hands, I need not relate. You are at liberty to make what use you please of the incidents, substituting feigned names for real ones.

"My dear Hal," answered I, " you will infinitely oblige me by such a gift; for you cannot do an

VOL. III.

G

author a greater piece of service than to enable him to write without expending thought."

And so, fair lady, or gallant sir, I proceed to lay before you Harry's present.

LIONEL AND EMILY.

Ah, me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Go, when the hunter's hand hath wrung
From forest cave her shrieking young,
And calm the lonely lioness:

But soothe not-mock not my distress.

SHAKSPEARE.

BYRON.

Lord Conamore appeared to me nearly sixty, when I became acquainted with him. He had long since forsaken the thorny paths of ambition, and secluded himself much from the great world, passing his time on an estate, most beautifully situated on the sea-shore, and surrounded by romantic mountain scenery. A high chain of hills rose, not with disagreeable abruptness, from Conamore Lodge, and sheltered it on the north. Immediately to the south was the blue ocean, whose summer waves rippled

« AnteriorContinuar »