half across the room to meet me, exclaimed,
"How very fortunate! Mamma and I were
just saying how much we should have liked you

He had been out buying something for supper, he house entered, and, with a sweetness and a grace said. He had it in his hand in a little basket, altogether irresistible, insisted on our entering the and invited me to join them. I sincerely wished salon. When we did, Carlotta rose, and, coming I could, but my travelling companions would have thought it unkind; so, bidding the happy pair a good evening, and promising to call if I ever again passed through Nove, I took my leave- to be here. But we were not aware you knew not, however, without kissing the young Giuseppe, who took it, wrapt in balmy slumbers, without waking. At the end of the street I met my friends, who were coming back in search of me. We then continued our walk, and, shortly after sunset, reached the square, where, from the

the governor."

In reply, I related to her the manner of our introduction; at which she laughed very heartily, and then took me over to repeat it to Madame B. Never, perhaps, did three greater Guys make their appearance at a party. We were

windows of a large, fine house, we heard strains covered with dust from head to foot, had been of very delicious music, issuing like a flood. The smoking cigars, and, for my own part, with my Milanese affected a great passion for singing so, long beard and northern costume, I must have requesting us to wait a moment, he stepped, appeared the strangest of all figures. The govtowards the door of the house, which stood wide ernor's lady was puzzled, and, in the course of open, and, entering the hall, found there a soldier, the evening, asked Carlotta if I were not an Afriwho informed him it was the governor's house, cano. There is, in the Italians, an innate taste

adding, with extraordinary politeness, that he might go up stairs into an unoccupied room, and listen to the music, if he liked.

"The governor," said he, " is a very good gentleman; and I know I shall not offend him by taking the liberty to invite you."

"But I have two friends waiting for me in the square," answered the Milanese.

"Ask them in also," said the soldier.

When our free and easy friend came out, and related the circumstance to us, we laughed heartily; because, in the first place, we could hear the music much better where we were, and, secondly,

1

which enables them to do everything with grace. The apartment in which we were now assembled was full of elegance. The lamps, from which the light was diffused on all sides, were modelled after the antique. The furniture was rich, without being gaudy; and the dresses and figures of the women superb. Upon the whole, the men were less striking. Possibly I am incompetent to comprehend the physiognomies of musical men, which always appear to me wanting in expression, especially in countries like Piedmont, where the political feeling is not permitted to develop itself, and impart grandeur and decision to the counte

because we thought the soldier was exceeding his nance. Men are there musical, because they can duty, and that we should, probably, be ejected, be nothing else. It helps to plunge them into very unceremoniously by the governor when he that dreamy state in which a slave should pass his came to learn how matters stood. Upon the days-humming, whispering, crowding round assurance of our Carbonaro, however, that it pianos-fanning ladies' faces, and talking nonwould be all right, we entered the house, and sense. It is a woful existence, worse than that were conducted by the soldier up stairs into a led in many departments of Dante's Hell; and small room adjoining that in which the party yet men exist for ages under such circumstances! were assembled. Here, he said, we might sit as And the women, what are they born to? Let long as we pleased; and when we were tired, we had only to come down stairs, and he would let us out. At that moment there was a lady singing: and it immediately struck me that I had heard her voice before. It was so rich, so full, so sweet, there could be, I thought, but one such in the world. It must be it was-Carlotta's. I trembled slightly. This, then, was perhaps her home-this her father's house; and here I should lose her company. My speculations were cut

lago explain for me "To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer."

It is a godsend in the country to catch four or five strangers at once, just to break the monotony of life. Persons who circulate perpetually among each other gradually subside into a sort of animate clocks, that go on ticking for years, neither louder nor lower, beside each other. Tick, tick, tick, from morning till night, without the slightest variation. They may be very good people,

short by the entrance of the governor, who ap- altogether, and, as the phrase is, without vice; proached us with a smile and a bow, and begged but their conversation is like ratsbane, and enough we would do him the honor to join his party, to kill one with a single dose-and yet, as I have which consisted, he said, of a few musical friends said, it does not kill, but only induces mental got together in a hurry to hear a lady who had lethargy, in which state men reach the age of just arrived in Nove. We excused ourselves on Methuselah. Yet their existence, methinks, very the ground of being covered with the dust of the much resembles that of a toad in a stone; they

road; and, at the same time, made a thousand apologies for the liberty we had taken. He felt quite gratified, he said, that we should have done him so much honor. Finding his persuasions unavailing, he left us; and we were beginning to think of beating a retreat, when the lady of the

turn about, they hum, they mutter, they dream, they lie for ease now on this side, and now on that, and their blood congeals within them into a sort of virtuous paste, which has no more motion in it than a standing pool.

At supper, Carlotta could not avoid whispering to me, "What would you take to settle down often made me forget whether we were going up

here at Nove for the rest of your life?"

"Nothing short of yourself," I replied; "but with you, I could settle anywhere, and be happy." "I doubt it," answered she; "and I frankly confess that I don't believe either you or any one else could make me happy long in a place like this. A night and a single party exhaust all its vitality. I am glad we are to be off to-morrow."

This was one side of the picture. Shortly

or down hill, whether the prospect was picturesque or otherwise-in short, everything but ourselves. We picked up at Nove a new set of companions, consisting of an English officer and his family, who intended to proceed with us as far as Genoa. They were all of them very agreeable; and the father, who had often gone the road before, proposed, when we became tolerably familiar, that we should spend the following Sunday

after, I found myself beside the lady of the house, at a lovely village in the Apennines, where, he

who asked me what pleasure I could find in wandering about the world, leaving all my friends, breaking all my old associations, " and laying in," added she, a store of restlessness for the remainder of your days." She said she had never quitted Nove, which every year acquired fresh charms for her.

"In its quiet little churchyard," said she, "all my forefathers lie buried; and I often go there to count them over, and sit down and shed tears of pleasure on their graves. What tranquillity we enjoy! what a blissful ignorance of all that passes in the great world! My husband is contented with me, and I with him; and neither of us would

said, he had once staid a whole day. We then began to compare notes, and found that we had for some time been neighbors, he having lived at a chateau near Morges, while I was at Lausanne. Of that chateau he related many curious particulars, of which, at the present moment, I only remember the following. As he spoke Italian perfectly, he related it in that language, for the benefit of Carlotta and her mamma :

"One night," he said, " in the depth of winter, having staid up late in my library, I retired late to bed. The snow had been falling for hours, so that the whole country round was deeply covered with it. A strong wind, mean

change our situation for the best in Italy. We while, was blowing, and beating the flakes against have three dear little children asleep; and if you my window, which shook and rattled and concould but see their happy faces when they first spired, with uneasy thoughts, to keep me awake. awake and kiss me in the morning! They send The old clock of the chateau had already told a thrill of delight through my whole frame; and twelve, and one, and two; and still I could not morning and evening, on my knees, I offer up sleep. There is an odd sensation produced, even only this prayer, that such as my state now is, it in the neighborhood of the Alps, by a snow-storm.

may continue forever. With all the friends you see here, we have been familiar from childhood. The women were brought up in the same convent; the men went to school with my husband. We are like one family. We pray in the same

which seems to be engaged in wrapping a winding-sheet around the earth, and preparing it for its everlasting rest. I had a blazing wood-fire in my room; and I got out of bed every now and then to cast fresh logs upon it, and keep myself

church, we shall all be buried in the same church- comfortable. Now and then, too, I went to the

yard; and we hope," added she, with a sweet smile, "that we shall all hereafter meet in the same heaven."

"God grant it!" cried I, greatly touched by the earnestness of her manner. I felt my spirit rebuked, and saw that happiness may be tasted everywhere, though, not, perhaps, by one who has once known what it is to wander and be alone, and craves the excitement of perpetual change.

My friend the Carbonaro had been trying hard all the evening to get up a flirtation with a musical young lady, but without success. The Dalmatian listened to the music almost in silence, but yet appeared to enjoy the evening much. It was one o'clock in the morning when we returned to our inn, where innumerable oaths had been showered on us by cooks and waiters for ordering a dinner, and not coming back to eat it, though, of course, it was not forgotten next morning in the bill.

CHAPTER XVII.-" MONSIEUR DUFF EST MORT." It is a great pity that pleasure should be so monotonous, otherwise I should never grow weary of relating my conversations with Carlotta, which

window, and looked out. There was nothing to be seen, for the snow fell so thick that it filled the air, and allowed no passage for a single ray of light, though the moon was at that moment shining, I knew, on the backs of the clouds, and rendering them luminous for the wandering spirits of the Alps. Presently I heard the bell of the castle sound faintly, as it shook the snow off its back, and tried to thaw itself with motion. Ding, dong, it went, with a chill and low sound; which, however, wakened my man Francois, who, in anything but the best humor in the world, dressed, and descended to the gate. Presently I heard him knocking at my bed-room door.

""What do you want, Francois?' inquired I. "If you please, sir,' answered he, 'here are two young women who wish to speak with you.' ""With me,' I exclaimed, 'at such an hour as this? Tell them I am in bed, Francois, and that they had better come to-morrow.'

""They say, sir,' answered Francois, 'that Mr. Duff is dead, and that they must speak with you.'

""Mr. Duff!' cried I; 'Mr. Duff! - Who is this Mr. Duff?"

""Don't know, sir,' answered Francois; 'but

"Francois shrugged his shoulders, and said no silliness. Presently we got into a road, as we more, but evidently looked upon me as a doomed | discovered from the hedges and trees on both sides; but had not walked on it long before we were startled by an infernal noise behind. I had been in the East, and fancied it could be nothing else than a troop of jackals sweeping over the desert after a gazelle. Every moment the frantic yells came closer and closer. It was clearly a chase of some kind of dogs or devils. We stood aside to let it pass; and, by lantern-light, caught a glimpse of some large animal darting through the snow, and several others in pursuit of it.

"Ils sont les loups, monsieur!" cried the girls. "The greyhounds hid themselves, trembling,

""Ah, mon Dieu!' she exclaimed, 'Monsieur

Duff est mort.'

""Je le vois bien,' said I; 'who is Monsieur Duff, and why do you lament his death ?'

"She was one of the tallest and most handsome French women I have ever seen; of most elegant figure, and polished manners. Raising her large, dark eyes, and casting on me a deprecating look, she replied,

""I loved Monsieur Duff.'
"And

""Was not his wife! I met him in Paris.

behind the ample petticoats of their mistresses; He persuaded me to fly with him. We came to and we all three, I fancy, felt extremely uncom- | Switzerland; and here, in this house, he took to fortable. At all events, I can answer for myself. drinking brandy, and never paused till he died. The wolves had driven Monsieur Duff out of the Nothing I could say had any influence over him. heads of the girls, who repeated, again and again, Every day he plunged deeper and deeper into in'They are wolves, sir.' We listened atten- toxication. Yesterday morning the post brought tively. The yelling swept on, grew fainter and him an English letter, which I have here in my

fainter, and at length ceased to be heard. We then pushed on, and, in a short time, had the satisfaction to see a few lights twinkling in the windows of Morges. I had swallowed a great deal of snow, which, every time I opened my mouth, blew into it; and was now longing for a sip of eau de vie, to melt my inner man, and set my blood in motion. This I promised myself as soon as we should enter the town, whatever might become of Monsieur Duff; but, to my extreme disgust, I found, what I ought in all reason to have expected, that every door was close shut, and every soul in the town asleep, save some few lone watchers, who sat by the bed of sickness or death. Presently we arrived at the house in which lay the remains of the unfortunate Monsieur Duff; and a very strange appearance it presented. A narrow staircase, sheltered by vast projecting eaves, led up to the entrance of the first floor; and on every step was a candle burning in a horn lantern. The girls mounted, and I followed them. By this

bosom, though I cannot read it. He glanced over its contents, and, drunk as he was, turned pale and trembling. He then drew a little miniature from his bosom, which he kissed several times, after which he called for a bottle of brandy, and, drinking off a large tumbler of it, fell back in his chair, stiff dead.'

"This short, sad recital was interrupted every moment by sobs and tears; and at the conclusion she took the letter from her bosom, and gave it me to read. The mystery was solved in a moment. It was from Monsieur Duff's wife, who, in the most gentle and loving manner, reproached him for having deserted her and her children. There was not a single word of bitterness from beginning to end-nothing but expressions of the most tender love and unshaken fidelity. It pierced the hardened and corrupt heart of her husband, who had not, however, the courage to face the woman he had wronged. He preferred taking refuge in death. And there he now lay before me, a fine,

time, we were thickly crusted with snow, which tall, handsome figure; he had evidently not passed

the prime of life.

"And why, I inquired, 'is Monsieur Duff's body laid out in this preposterous manner?'

""Is it not the way, she inquired, in which all Englishmen are laid out after death? There is an old Swiss officer here, in Morges, who has been in the English service, and says it is always customary; and so I would not deprive poor Monsieur Duff's body of the honor due to an Englishman.'

had frozen to our dress, and given us the appearance of three bears just rolled out of their den in the mountains. When I reached the door of Monsieur Duff's apartment, I saw a lady sitting by a bed at the further extremity, and on either side a row of women, each with a candle in her hand; and as we entered they all rose simultaneously, and muttered, in a sepulchral voice, 'Monsieur Duff est mort! For the moment, I almost fancied myself present at some melodrama in a theatre, so wild and fantastic did the whole scene appear. However, I marched forward towards the bed, where I hoped to obtain an explanation of the mystery. There, as I said, sat a lady, crying bitterly, with her right hand supporting her head, and her left arm grasped by the hand of a corpse, dressed in military uniform, and with a long pipe ""Far from it,' I replied. 'We treat death in its mouth. At first I was rather puzzled to seriously in England; and this is making a farce determine whether I ought to laugh, which I felt of it.'

""That old officer is an ass,' I exclaimed, a fool-a dolt! No Englishman's body is ever thus travestied after death.'

""What,' cried she, 'is it not in England the practice to put a pipe in the mouth of the corpse?"

strongly inclined to do, or to be sympathetic and "I then ordered the pipe to be removed; the sentimental. I decided in favor of the latter, and, lady disengaged her arm from the grasp of the addressing the lady in French, inquired whether I dead man, and I had Monsieur Duff decently laid could do anything for her. On the rest of the story I need not insist. I furnished the lady with the necessary money to return to Paris, where, as I found, she had respectable friends. I buried Monsieur Duff; and, the day after the funeral, met in the street an old officer with whom I was acquainted. He came up to me in a stiff and stately manner, and complained of my having called him a fool and an ass, for which he ought, he said, to demand satisfaction. My dear sir,' I exclaimed, it is a mistake; I never spoke disrespectfully of you in my life.' What,' inquired he, 'did you not tell Monsieur Duff's lady that the man who had given her advice-'

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""Ah, monsieur!' cried I, interrupting him, 'say no more of that. Had I known it was you, I would not have objected had they put fifty pipes in his mouth. But come, who told you that such was the practice in England?'

""An officer of the Indian army.' ""Ah! he was a wag.

but it was a mere joke.'

towards the plain below; on the other with a matted wood, where the interspaces were carpeted with fallen leaves-red, brown, yellow, of every variety of shade and tint. Above and below us, on all sides, were chateaux, villages, farm-houses, convents, and churches, bathed in that delicious light which the dawn diffuses over the earth. The breeze was busy among the trees over our heads, and birds without number chirped and carolled as the growing light awakened them. In the east, streaks of clouds, extending in long bands one over the other, were already beginning to be flushed below with crimson, while their dark upper rims appeared to support so many layers of clear blue sky. Then a flood of rich saffron seemed to surge up into the firmament, mingling with the crimson below and the bright amethyst above.

"Oh!" exclaimed Carlotta, "what would this earth be without clouds? They are the very cra

He meant no harm; dle and birth-place of poetry. See how they

""Ah, le coquin!' exclaimed my friend.

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Come,' said I, 'dine with me to-day at the chateau; there are several questions I wish to ask you about the deceased Monsieur Duff. I am desirous of writing to his unhappy wife, and should be glad to be able to say anything calculated to mitigate her sorrow.' It was the first time he heard that the Frenchwoman was not his wife. My inquiries proved unavailing. Monsieur Duff had done nothing during his residence at Morges but drink, swear, and smoke; so I made the best I could of the matter. I erected a tomb over his remains, on which you may read these words, 'Ici git Monsieur Duff.'"

CHAPTER XVIII.- THE APENNINES.

deck her countenance with the ornaments of a bride. How she blushes as they stretch and nestle over her like a nuptial veil. What infinite beauty! What sublimity! Ah! my friend, would it not be the extreme of happiness to live forever in these mountains, apart from the world, and cradled in delicious dreams born of the imagination?”

"Last night, Carlotta," said I, "you thought differently."

"True,” answered she; "our feelings are the offspring of circumstances. I am happy now-I was unhappy then."

"What," exclaimed I, "when you was displaying the wonders of your voice, and surrounded by admirers!”

"To be admired," she replied, "is not to be happy. But look; the sun is kindling the whole east, and the Apennines are literally flaming with the reflection of heaven. Tell me, tell me! is earth not a paradise?"

"You would make it so, Carlotta," I replied, " if it had nothing but one barren moor stretching interminably round its whole circumference."

Spenser, in his "Faery Queen," presents us with numerous pictures of sunrise, which are all beautiful, fresh, and cool, like the lovely hour they describe; and I should like to borrow his pen, in order to convey some idea of the dawn I beheld amidst the scenery of the Apennines. One of the greatest delights of travelling is the early rising it necessitates, and the rapturous sensations inspired We had stood still in an open space between by the fresh face of nature. We left Nove before the trees to admire the view, and were now joined it was quite light, and quitted the level of the plain by Madame B--, with the English officer and for the ascent of the mountains. Here, as soon his family. The landscape had rendered them all

as the presence of the day began to make itself felt, we got out to walk; and Carlotta, as usual, joining me and taking my arm, we preceded the rest of the party, as we both habitually walked very fast. We usually talked very fast, also;

poetical. They remembered and recited scraps of poetry, English, and Italian; and we went on thus together in perfect good humor with the world and ourselves. Here and there, small clear streams, gushing from the rocks, were sparkling and flash

but on the present occasion there was something ing across the road; and anon we came to a cot

so delicious in the air, so serene and beautiful in tage, whose inmates were still sleeping, and gathearth and sky, that we were almost silent. Perhaps ering strength to encounter the toils of the day. -I wish to put the matter sceptically-perhaps Madame B was a widow; our new miliCarlotta's loveliness extended itself to the scene tary friend had acknowledged himself to be a widaround, and imparted to it a charm it might not ower. Why could they not join their fortunes, otherwise have possessed-I mean, for me. Yet, and face the troubles of the world together? I in itself, it was sufficiently fascinating. Immense saw that this idea had taken possession of Madame old chestnut trees, covered with ripe fruit, stretched | B's mind, for she always, when speaking to here and there in arches over the road, which was him, threw an additional sweetness into her voice, bordered on one side with soft grass, sloping away and smiled and sighed alternately, just as she fan