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apparently about twenty-two years of age We will not pause to inquire into the sitting up and giving suck to an infant. motives which may have weighed upon The arrival of the Chiffonier appeared to the mind of the parent, if indeed she was produce a momentary alarm upon the capable of any at the moment; nor atmother, who gazed upon him with an ex- tempt to censure or extenuate the act pression of sadness mingled with despair. whether it arose from a vicious constitu The two females then held a conference tion of society, or from exceptional de for several minutes, but in so subdued a pravity or weakness; certain it is, that not tone, that Jacques was unable to distin-only in Paris, but in every other part of guish a particle of the subject; the deep France; a receptacle is continually open and frequent signs, however which accom- for the gratuitous support of abandoned panied their words, convinced him that infancy; the present, therefore, may be some important question was in agitation. looked upon as an instance by no means At length the young person, who had not uncommon of a mother induced to "pluck addressed a single word to Jacques since her nipple from the boneless gums" of her she had spoken to him in the passage, sud- offspring, and lose sight of it probably for denly quitted the bedside and came tow-ever. ards him with the child in her arms which In one of those small streets, or rather she presented to him with a look at once alleys, which lead out of the Rue St. Denis wild, supplicatory, and determined, utter- in a garret or mansurde of a house, prining the following, which seemed to cost cipally inhabited by lodgers belonging to her considerable effort. "Aux enfans the poor class of Paris, was the humble trouves?" Jacques, who was at first residence of the Chiffonier. Jacques had quite at a loss to divine the part he was on quitting the Rue de | Universitie made called on to take in what appeared to him his way home in as direct a line as he little less than a pantomine, continued mo- was able, where he found his wife, to tionless and silent, casting his eyes, now whom he communicated the circumstance on the child, now on the person who held of his morning's adventure. The good it out to him and then looking towards the woman received the infant with maternal bed, he perceived that the mother had co-tenderness and having no child, she imme vered her face with her hands, and bu- diately agreed to her husbands proposal of ried her head in the pillow, as if desirous taking care as he said, of la petite mulhe to shun the sight of what was going on. reuse.

-Appearances were too strong to admit The first years of the foundling glided of doubt in the mind of Jacques as to the 'on prosperously, and the little Josephine, facts, and he felt little desirous of under- for such was the name the honest couple taking the part assigned to him when had given her, increased in health, strength just at that moment the sun, rising over and beauty; and as soon as her age permit. the roof of the opposite house, darted ated, she was sent to a day-school, where sudden ray of light through the window she acquired the rudiments of ordinary of the room, and gleamed upon the soft education with remarkable facility; nor and balmy features of the child as it slept, was it without a secret triumph that Jac nor is it too much to suppose that the si- ques beheld the unfolding graces of her lent eloquence of nature which those fea-mind and body, which daily and hourly tures conveyed, found an echo in the declared themselves, shedding a lustre heart of the chiffonier, whose eye seen.ed over his lowly habitation as sacred and as to gaze with admiration, perhaps with pure as the morning sun-beam which pity, on the beautiful infant thus abandoned played upon her infant traits at the mo by its unhappy parent. "Oui, je le veux nent she had been consigned to him. bien." said Jacques, taking his basket. Such was the obscure lot of this child, half filled with his morning's round from deprived of what are called the advan his shoulders, and placing it on the floor. tages of an early acquaintance with socie The principal difficulty thus surmount-ty, but placed beyond the reaches of those ed, the remaining arrangements were ea- prejudices which often vitiate the original sily made. purity of nature, and poison the better

qualities of the heart at their very source. France, seemed to shun society to a deFrom her childhood she had been accus-gree of eccentricity, employing the great. tomed to hear her foster father recount est portion of his time in directing the the history of his military career, and her studies of a yonth, whom some supposed mind had thereby acquired a strong bias to be his real, others his adopted son; and in favour of martial glory, an admiration young Albert was in every way worthy of danger, and scenes of war; in fact, of that extraordinary period of the French Josephine became a genuine daughter of history-a period in which the whole enimperial France, and imbibed the fullergies of the whole nation, in arts, as in measure of that militury spirit which so arms, seemed concentrated in one and the deeply tinctures the national character of same purpose. That aspiring tendency both sexes in that country, and to which to gigantic effort, and sublimity of cor the history of the world presents no paral- ception, the peculiar inheritance of this lel. On the other hand, principles of a epoch, was largely participated in by this milder, and indeed different description, youth, who had prosecuted his studies, were daily instilled into her mind by the in painting especially, with so much sucuniform precept and example of her sup-cess that no doubts were entertained as posed mother, who never failed to accus-to his final distinctions. Pred, as he had tom her adopted child to the regular dis- been, in the house, and under the immedicharge of those duties which the Catholic ate eye of the Compte, his morals had in church so rigidly inculcates; and if the a great measure escaped the pestilental beauty of holiness consists in unaffected atmosphere of Paris, and when alone, his devotion, and in the absence of ostenta-habits were of a more serious turn than is tion, it was surely never more effectually usually found among the generality of the portrayed than in the parental solicitude metropolitan students. The reader will of this poor woman for the moral welfare not be surprised then, that it was no other of her protegee. than this youth who had caught a view of It happened that Josophine, thus con- the interesting features of Josephine, in ducted, went one morning to the Eglise the place and under the circumstances St. Marie, at an hour so early that day- we have described. It must be allowed light had not completely made its way that there was little in the countenance of through the sombre aisles, when just as the young woman calculated to attract she was crossing her forehead with holy particular attention at first sight; it is not water, placed as it usually is against the the less certain, however that Albert had pillar, near the portico, a young man, ap- experienced a secret, and, as it were, parently about twenty years of age, hap-magnetic impression, which can only be pened to catch a glimpse of her features explained by the accideutal circumstanas he passed: continuing his way, how ces under which the parties happened to ever a looker on woul! have said that he be at the moment. The youth was prodid not appear to be in the least affected bably raised above the glare of mere phyby the circumstance, but he had no soon-sical beauty, and his young imagination er laid his hand on the door, than he turn- had, doubtless, no small share in attaching ed round, looked in the direction the two to the mild and supplicatory expression of females had taken, and then. as correct- her up-turned eye, engaged, as Josephine ing an involuntary movement, suddenly was; in an aet of devotional exercise, the left the church. idea of something superior to carthly be

During a period of several years, in- ing; and this idea clung to his thoughts, cluding the last days of the French Em- however unconscious of it he might be, pire and the beginning of the restoration, so closely, that every time the same image Mons. le Comte de V., who had retired recurred to him, it appeared to absorb his from the army in consequence of habitual whole attention. "What a study!" he ill health, occupied an apartment on the would internally exclaim; "what an exsecond floor of the house of the Bouvelard pression of seraphic devotion!" Can we du Temple. The gentleman, although wonder, then, that Albert proceeded to still in the prime of life, unmarried, and the church at about the same hour a few belonging to one of the best families of days afterwards? Is it extraordinary

sion.

that he felt an intense desire to obtain a ter parents was to be admitted to see it. sketch of those features which his enthu- On the morning, therefore, that the humsiastic fancy had so quickly wrought ble family presented themselves in Albert's up to the beau ideal of intellectual expres-room for that purpose, he happened to be He had not been long in the church engaged in conversation with the Comte, before the object of his search appeared. which kept him from his studies beyond He took care to place himself in a position the usual time, the servant, also, having which enabled him to take a deliberate received instructions to admit them, not survey of Josephine's face, and in a pro- considering it necessary to announce their portion as his eye analysed each feature arrival, the young artist was quite ignowith the pleasure an artist experiences rant of their being present. .when wrapt in the contemplation of a fa- The ancients,' observed the Comte, 'in vourite subject, he becaine more and the extreme justness of their allegorical more persuaded that he had discovered a descriptions, represent the arts hand-inmodel he should vainly expect to find else-hand, but painting and poetry may be con where, carried away, as he evidently was sidered twins as regards their origin and by the full force of those convictions effects, the attributes of either are precisewhich are produced by the silent opera-ly the same, their mission is the representions of nature alone, and which, on this tation of nature in all her shades and vaoccasion, presented the whole traits of rieties of form. Josephine to his mind, replete with beauty, with poetry, and with truth.

True,' replied Albert, 'how unhappily for the painter, his power is slow in its The circumstances under which the developements and circumscribed in its poor girl was placed, presented little dif- effects, compared with poetry.' ficulty in the way of Albert's desire of Painting,' continued the Comte, 'may taking a careful likeness, and he intended be considered less prompt in the execution the portrait as a study for the exercise of of its productions, but I question whether the best efforts of his pencil; losing no we ought to allow it to be less compre time, therefore in the execution of his pro-hensive in its expression; for wherever ject, the painting was finished in the there is a mind to conceive, and an ima course of a few weeks. gination to lend a colouring to the subBut the turn which this circumstance ject, more ideas may be drawn out by had imparted to the mind of Albert, gave painting than can easily be expressed by a new existence to his thoughts, and the power of words. But painting has breathed new life into his imagination, other and superior qualities. It uuques which appeared to glow and fructify un-tionably brings us more directly into the der the influence of a power which he presence of nature. Still, nature is not had evinently neither the will nor the always consistent; nor can her exterior ability to controul. Till this period he form be entirely depended upon. One of had been more under the impressions of the English poets, of whom I have read the rules of his art, than in immediate a translation, I remember says, 'there is correspondence with nature, so that every no art to find the mind's construction in time he reviewed the picture it seemed to the face a truth, which I believe few breathe forth some hitherto undiscovered will venture to question.' beauty, some latent expression of poetic And yet,' replied Albert, whose thoughts excellence, which associated itself with had for some time been vibrating towards what he felt to be the very reflection of the subject which was uppermost in his intelligence. mind, there are features, and I have at

It is necessary to remind the reader that this moment such a set in my eye, where this production had been kept strictly se- the mind seems to be shadowed out with cret as far as the Comte was concerned such irresistible expression, that it would its author considering it a chef d'auver seem almost sacrilege to doubt. their sinhaving prudently determined not to pre-cerity. For instance, sir,-will you step sent it for inspection till completely fiuish-into my study ?

ed, and as soon as it had received the last The Comte assented, and had scarcely touches, Josephine, together with her fos-proceeded half the distance of the corri

dor, when he beheld the portrait of Jose-'rent reluctance, and bowing to the Comte, phine, which was placed directly opposite left the room.

the door. It would be impossible to con- As soon as the Chiffonier and his family rey an adequate idea of the scene which had quitted the house, Albert was sum presented itself at this moment. The moned into the apartment of his foster Comte stood amazed like one unable to parent, whom he found plunged into a credit the testimony of his eyes. A pause state of deep reflection, so much so, that of several minutes ensued, during which his entrance seemed unperceived, but his the Comte's hand seemed to be directed impatience to arrive at the solution of the by some mysterious agency, towards his mysterious appearances which had transbosom, from whence he drew forth a min-pired, induced him to awaken the atteniature portrait, which was a fac-simile of tion of the Comte. I believe you sent the painting, and presenting it to the us- for me,' said the youth.

tonished Albert, he exclaimed with evi- "I did, Albert-sit down and tell me dent emotion, 'Good heavens, what can how you became acquainted with the this mean?' Albert started as he seized Chiffonier and his family.'

the hand of the Comte and recognized Albert immediatley related the circumthe likeness of the miniature to the paint-stances nearly as we have stated them ing and Josephine, who stood lost in which the comte heard with evident interamazement at the inexplicable sensation est and surprise. After the youth had answhich the Comte and Albert betrayed. wered the comte's inquiries, the latter reAs the convictions of the Comte origin- lapsed into his previous reverie, and paced ated from what had already a positive ex- to and fro in his room for a considerable istence, and were, therefore, in a great time, leaving Albert in the same state of degrec allied to recollections, so those of wonder and anxiety. The remainder of Albert had their source in possibility. and the day passed on and nothing escaped the were, therefore, more of the nature of per- lips of the comte which could afford the slightest clue to what was passing in his Immediately after the extraordinary mind his conversation at dinner was rescene in Albert's study, the Comte retired served aud limited to the most ordinary to his apartment, making a sign to Albert topics. It was evident however, to Albert that he wished to be alone. A few min- that the thoughts of his friend were abutes afterwards Jacques was requested to stracted indeed, the long and frequent injoin him, when the following dialogue took tervals of reverie which he remarked, deplace. noted a total unconsciousness of every ex'Tell me, my brave fellow, who is the terior object, It was in vain that the young person who accompanied you here youth endeavoured to draw out the usual this morning?' communicative habits of his patron, and 'My adopted daughter,' replied Jac-thereby gain some intelligence that might

vision.

ques.

'And how came this young woman to be adopted by you?'

She was placed in my hands by her

mother?

guide his conjectures through, the inexpli cable maze in which every circumstance connected with Josephine was enveloped That there existed some fatal secrte to be disclosed he felt convinced that it was in'And were you not directed to take the timately connected with the comte, in some child to the Fondling Hospital?' way or other he could not prevail upon 'Yes sir,' replied Jacques with astonish-himself to doubt, several times he was on the point of requesting another look at 'Enough,' added the comte, 'here is an the mysterious miniature: but the moment order upon my banker for a small sum of his eyes were raised towards those of his money for your immediate use. I request friend for that purpose the imposing serious you to allow your adopted daughter to ness of the latter awed him into silence: he Come here to-morrow morning at this therefore determined to wait patiently till time should afford the wished-tor denoueJacques received the paper with appa-ment. Had Albert been a youth of ordinJary cast had his habits partaken of a

ment.

mour.'

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prying or restless curiosity whcih is as have more than repaid my care; I am inconsistent with respect to the feelings proud in the possession of a son who des of others as it is alien to that pious confi- honour to myself, and promises to become dence which a well conditioned mind is an ornament to his country. If I have wont to have in the ultimate solution of hitherto left the secret of your birth unevents-he would perhaps have, on leaving known to yourself and to the world, I the dinner-table sought out the chiffonier's have done so from motives which you will garret for the purpose of iuquiry: but such know how to appreciate. proceedings, he could not help feeling, were "But how shall I discharge the debt! unworthy of that frank and implicit respect owe to you, Albert?" continued the comte he owed to the character of the comte whose voice began to falter with the whom he had ever been accustomed to re- movement of tenderness and satisfaction: verence with more than filial attachment" you have been the instrument in the The hour of repose arrived, and the hands of Providence of discovering my comte and Albert retired to their respec- only child, and the daughter of a being tive chambers: the youth passed the night whose lot has been hard, as will appear in calm and refreshing oblivion, the comte by these letters. Yes Albert, Josephine in wakefulness and reflection. the apparent child of this poor couple

The following morning saw Josephine. Josephine, whose features you have so at the comte's lodgings; the eye of Albert faithfully depicted-is my lawful daugh brightened, and his beat quickly, why he ter?" As he uttered these words, his emoprobably knew not when, being called in- tion deprived him of further articulation; i to the comte's apartment, he found the and instinctively stretching out his arms whole party there, and his friend engaged towards Josephine who was seated immein examining a packet of letters, from diately beside him he embraced her with which he appeared to pe taking notes. convulsive rapture. There was a breathless silence for several! The scene which the heart alone can minutes, which the count interrupted in conceive, we will not attempt to analyze the following words. A it was one of those incidents of real life

Inexplicable are the workings of des- of which an adequate estimation is impos tiny strange are the vicissitudes of hu- sible and embellishment were superfluous; man existence, and the ultimate conse- a scene which nature's self will be proud quences of human actions as will appear to inscribe in the fairest peaces of her e by what I am about to disclose" Then cords, and triumphantly point at " for her fixing his eyes steadily upon Albert, he oon" Let us therefore, like prudent dracontinued." At the battle of Wagram matists, allow the curtain to close over my superior officer Captain by it while we prepare our last and necessa whose side I was fighting, received his ry act, which the spectator, however, is death wound; and while breathing his wont to arrive at by anticipation, and hot last in my arms, he assured me that the unfrequently leaves the theatre, as though only circumstance of regret at the loss of unwilling to allow his impressions to be life in the field of honour, was his leaving effaced by the representations of minet an only son, till that moment dependant importance. It merely remains to be upon him for support. I immediately stated that the comte briefly demonstrated made him a solemn promise to adopt that by written and incontestible documents, son, and bring him up as my own. Al the identity of Josephine, "A few weeks bert you are the son of the brave and dis- previously to my departure for a cam tinguished officer who bequeathed me that paign in the detachment of the imperial www.army, in opposition to the express com » Albert whose heart burst forth in a tor- mands of my family," observed the comle rent of tears, roshed into the arms of his "I was privately married to the only benefactor, exclaiming, "Indeed, indeed daughter of Madame de L widow sir you rude faithfuily kept your word. of an illustrious officer, whose name is How shalins show myself worthy of so conspicuous among his country's glories much gene, osiy ?" It unfortunately happened that Madame "Albert," continued the Compte, "you de paid the debt of nature almost

duty."

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