sight of the cottage. I strained my sight years of misery, set not your heart too with intensity of feeling, and could per- fondly on an earthly being even a mother's ceive that the door, was partly open. I pure love for her own child, must be conhad not left it so; and therefore I conclu- trolled. Remember this, Rose, and you ded that he had returned and all was well. will have learnt one useful lesson from My heart felt as though it would burst its" Old Mary." cords with joy; and tears of thankfulness and rapture streamed from my eyes. They were the last I ever shed, since then I have prayed on my bended knees, in the glare of day and in the dead of night, in my own lonely dwelling and amid the desert waste, for the power to weep, but in vain. My eye-balls throb with agony, my brain feels scorching, but I cannot weep." JULIA DE LINDORF. A TALE OF THE GUILLOTINE That even the sun robed in beatitude THE NUN OF Heidelberg. The old woman passed her hand over her brow, and was silent for a moment. It was a fearful picture! that poor wither- On a fine evening in September, 179-, ed being suffering with anguish almost two college friends met in Nuremburg, aftoo much for mortals, and that young, gen-ter an interval of several years, at the tle girl her cheek blanched at the tale she Koenig von Preuessen, the headquarters was hearing and her hands clasped uncon- of the Prussian recruiting party, an oldsciously in her agitation. fashioned hotel, the gableend front of which Go, on, oh go on!" she murmured, and was richly studded with the picturesque started at the strangeness of her voice. and elaborate carvings of the sixteenth Her companion slowly raised her head century, and which the curious traveller and continued, but her breath came fast may still discover, opposite the southwest and thick. angle of the majestic Domkirche, or ca"I will go on," she said, "I entered the thedral of that venerable city. cottage but instead of the fond smile, and The older of the two friends, Leopold the kind words of welcome I had expect- Baron S., of an ancient family in Braned, I was greeted with a look of sorrow denburg, was a captain in the service of from three or four men who were standing Prussia. He was a young man of lively round a bed I rushed towards it, do I temperament, of daring courage, and no live to tell it thee, Rose Middleton. or is little indignant that he was doomed for past life all a dream ?-my boy, my Harry six months or longer, to the irksome and, the child of my young heart's passionate to his generous spirit, degrading duties of love, my brave, my noble one, lay there a the Prussian recruiting service. Recol lifeless and disfigured corpse! They had lecting, however, soon after he received met! The villian and my Henry had his order for immediate departure, that he fought with pistols. I know no more! I had a favourite college companion reșiremember the chill that ran through my dent within two hours' ride of Nuremburg, veins and settled in my heart, from whence, he left his pleasant quarters at Berlin someit has never moved. I caught him in my what reconciled to an appointment, the arms---but I remember nothing more. lucrative nature of which, in mercenary They said I went mad, and it may be that hands, made him an object of envy to I did. I sometimes think I am maddening brother officers of more calculating hanow; and then I kneel and pray, not with bits. my lips, they will not move, but with my The morning after his arrival at Nuheart, and I am more tranquil. remburg, he despatched a messenger to "Do not weep, Rose," she continued in apprize his friend, Theodore Walden, of plaintive accents, beholding her young his vicinity, and the same evening found companion in tears, " in the course of na- them in social converse over a bottle of ture my sufferings must soon end; but you Rhenish in the antique but cheerful apart. have a long life, before you. As you ment occupied by the youthful captain, in would choose between a happy one or the Koenig von Preussen. A few years. of garrison duty at Magdeburg and Ber-human will content you. But hold con lin had wrought a striking change in the tinued he, after a brief pause of recollec appearance and bearing of the baron. The tion, if I mistake not, I saw this very same period passed in seclusion and study morning, a young lady in that rickety old amidst the romantic scenery of his fine mansion over the way, whom you may estate near Nuremburg, had caused no venture to marry in half an hour. She perceptible difference in Theodore, who is as silent, and sentimental, as you please gazed with surprise athis friend's martialand will fix her beautiful dark blue eyes exterior, and wild freedom of manter. on yours; and exchange with you the mute The lively officer rallied his diffident com- eloquence of looks by the hour-ay, by panion on the classic elegance and fast the week or month, if you desire it. Come dious refinement of his language and de-along with me, my dear fellow he exportment. An hour of unrestrained com- claimed, starting from his chair,→→I know munion sufficed to convince the more acute her guardian, and will insure you a parti and observant soldier, that his friend was cular on in five minutes 12. still the same bashful, retiring, and senti- Theodore, who began to suspect the mental youth he had know at the univer-waggish disposition of his friend, followed sity, and that his more recent studies had him, doubting and yet credulous, across been confined to poetry and romance. It the street into the spacious entranco of an was evident also that his solitary habits old mansion usually appropriated to extr had made him a day dreamer-one pine bitions of painting and other public purto indulge in morbid longings after some poses. The vestibule, gloomy even at nameless and indefinable happiness; some inid-day, was now, at the approach of good inconsistent with human infirmity. night, illuminated with lamps, which threw When questioned by Leopold concerning a strong light upon the figure of the Swiss the civic beauties, and whether he had door-keeper, a tall man, in gold laced ap discovered one among them worthy to be-parel, and wielding a silver header caze, come the inistress of his fine estate, he nearly as tall as himself. Instead, howanswered that, although not wanting in over, of asking their business, the man external graces and attractions, nor even silently fixed his large eyes upon them, in good temper and good intentions, the and reinained, motionless as a statue. young ladies of Nuremburg were miseta While Theodore was gazing at him in bly deficient in the graces of sentiment, surprise, he heard some one approachings trifling in conversation, and devoted to and, lvoking round, beheld with amaze public amusements and dress.E ment, not unmingled with alarm, another With a deep sigh, he added, that he had man at his elbow, the very counterpart never yet seen a woman at all approach of the Swiss in features, stature, and cosing his standard of female excellence-in tume. short they were all, so far as his expe- This doublette of the dumb door-keeper rience extended, destitute of that exqui was equally taciturn, and rivetted a pair site sensibility, that faculty of deep and of. large unmeaning blue eyes upon the unalterable attachment, which he thought bewildered, Theodore, who was retreating indispensable to happiness in married life in terror towards the door, when he was The captain, who had listened with con-stopped by the loud laugh of his friend. strained gravity to "Theodore's lamenta-The truth began to break in upon his pertions, could no longer controul his coun-plexed faculties; with returping courage, tenance, and indulged in a burst of mer he again approached the two still motionriment which jarred painfully upon the less Janitors, and discovered, that the one nerves of the refined and sensitive idealist, he had first seen was dwarfigure, admir Excuse me, my dear Walden!" he be.frably modelled from the original, who now gan, when he had subdued his laughter, made his bow, apologized for the practi"excuse me if I answer you in the words cal joke, and begged they would honour of Sancho Panza.You want better this incomparable exhibition of waxfigures bread than is made of wheat. In short, with their presence. you should marry a lusus nature, for, Theodore, however, upon whom the according to your own showing, nothing conviction fashed, that the silent sentiVoi III-2 mental fair one was no other than one of victed and executed for the murder of her the models within, declined seeing the ex ather. Ibition that evening, but promised to view My companion, who was an imagiit the following morning. In haste andative youth, besides a poet and in deliobvious agitation, he seized his fiend' ate health, was, strongly excited by the arm, and led, or rather forced him to reontemplation of the innocent and lovely tire. When they had returned to the hocatures of this noble-minded woman. tel, Leopold, who feared that he had car- Surely, said he, addressing the Italian, ried his joke too far, began to explain and to judge from that pure and guileless apologise, but was interrupted by a coun-countenance, paral justice must have been ter apology from Theodore, for withdraw guilty of deliberate murder?', ing him so abruptly from the exhibition. E possible, Signor, answered the To confess the truth," he continued, “Italian, with a shrug, 'tis said in Rome, have an involuntary horror of waxfigures that she was condemned by his Holiness, by lamplight, which throws a tint so ghast hat he might confiscate with better giace upon their stiff and lifeless features, tha the large property of the Cenci family,' they appear to me like so many corp es "Carlsberg shook his head, as he conin a catacomb, and the abominable odour (inued; You must be an able artist to of the wax strengthens the illusion. I had. have wrought so perfect a facsimile of moreover, a strange and painful adven Guido's beautiful picture. Would to heature last year at a similar exhibition in ven,' he added, with a deep sigh, "that you Vienna, which still haunts my dreams, had power to rekindle the departed soul, and may account to you for my agitation again to irradiate those angelic features at the sudden appearance of the door with life and motion!' 66 6 keeper's double, and my reluctance to en- You are by no means the first to utcounter his collection at this hour. er that wish,' answered the Italian, with "I had been prevailed upon by our fel- a smile. Twas but last week I had a low student Carlsberg, to accompany him visitor who expressed the same. He gazed as far as Vienna, on his way to Italy, in at the features of this model until his face quest of relief from a pulmonary disorder. grew pale, and his limbs trembled "I We arrived late in the evening, and find always feel," said he," a strange and uning that we had half an hour to spare be-accountable terror when I gaze long upon fore supper, detertained to view a collec, the picture or statue of any one whose tion of waxfigures then exhibiting on the death has been violent and untimely; more ground-floor of our hotel. As we entered, especially when the original has died on the proprietor, expecting no more compa-the scaffold. Indeed," he added, “I canny, had extinguished most of the lights, not divest myself of a belief that the souls and to save time and the trouble of ref those who have thus died Inger near lighting them, we requested him to take a their semblances, and even partially reantaper in each hand, and show us the best imate them at the earnest wish of the bemodels in his collection: holder." "After viewing the elder and the youn Exhausted by long travelling, and im ger Brutus, Casur, Louis XIV., Robes patient for food and rest, regarded this ierre, and many other ancient and modern strange story of the proprietor as one of notables, and laughing at the ludicrous ef his customary concetti, uttered daily to fect produced by the bizarre grouping and amuse or excite his visitors, My compa distribution of the historical characters, mion, however, was differently affected. we followed our cicerone, an intelligent le took one of the lights from the proItalian, into a small inner room, covered prietor, and continued to gaze with intense with black cloth, and containing a single, interest at the beautiful model. Beware, but exquisite figure, which the proprietor arlsberg! I said, of touching that image told us was the gem of his collection, and of one who died on the scaffold. The modelled by himself after the well known slightest pressure fron, that cold hand of portrait by Guido, in the Barberini palace, wax would suffice to turn your brain.' of the unfortunate Beatrice Cenci, con- "At this moment the Italian was sum moned to the outer room. I followed him every pretty girl of wax in this heteroto look once more at a group of figures geneous collection." which had awakened my uriosity, and But where is the surpassing fair one," before a minute had elapsed I was startled inquired Theodore, smiling, "you recomby a scream and a noise like that caused mended to me last night for a wife?". by a heavy fall. A suspicion of the truth "Look around you," responded Leoflashed upon me, Deploring my untimely pold," and you will find her. I may safejest, I hastened. back into the inner room, ly leave the discovery to the natural maand found my invalid. friend prostrate and gic of your own sympathies," he added, senseless at the feet of Beatrice Cenci turning away to glance at a group of las and by the light of his still burning taper, dies then entering the apartment. Some I beheld one of her hands broken off and minutes had elapsed before, he thought of lying on the floor. With the assistance rejoining Theodore, whom he discovered of the Italian, I conveyed Carlsberg up in the inner exhibition room, intently constairs. He was in a deep swoon, and re-templating a female figure of singular quired medical aid for some days before loveliness in form and features, reclining his constitution recovered from the effect with pensive aspect in a chair, holding a of this singular delusion, He subsequent book in her hand, and displaying, not only ly told me, that as he gazed on the fair in the elegance of her Greek costume, but face of Beatrice, and recollected the in grace of attitude and benign intelligence strange anecdote related by the Italian, he of feature, a woman of rank and intellecthought he could perceive the hues of lifetual refinement.. reddening in slow diffusion beneath the Theodore was so lost in admiration of waxen surface. He fancied, too, that the he fascinating object, that he did not diseyes displayed a hamid lustre he had no cover his volatile friend looking over his before observed. Strongly excited by shoulder, until he was roused from his ab what he had heard, he yielded to an irre straction by a hearty laugh. "Ha ha! sistible impulse, and gently grasped the Theodore!" said Leopold, caught, by delicately moulded hand, which, to his love! and doubtless ready to marry her indescribable horrour, returned the pres in half an hour. See you not how the hues of life are stealing, as you gaze, be sure. "He did not hesitate to acknowledgeneath those cheeks of wax? Mark, too, that it was a mere phantasy, growing out he humid and growing lustre of those of distempered sensibility and infirm healdark blue orbs-but, beware! beware of but I observed with deep regrot that his the iey hand-touch it, and you die!" constitution had received a severe shock, "Nonsense!" exclaimed the disconcertand my last accounts of him from Nad Theodore," I am not so far gone in ples give me but slender hopes of his re romance as poor Carlsberg, nor do I be covery." tieve in ghosts; but I can discern in that The lively, but kindhearted soldier ad face of wax, graces such as I.never yet mitted that his friend had given a valid beheld in living woman. Precisely such. reason for declining to view the waxfigures a combination of feature and expression by lamplight; but, before they retired for as this, have I sought for years, and the the night, he exacted a promise that The maiden I would marry must possess just odere should, on the ensuing day, accom-hose radiant eyes and magnificent eyepany him to the exhibition. brows, that lofty intelligence of forehead, that angelic purity of character about the lips. By heavens! Leopold! Raphael himself never copied or composed so per:" fect a combination of human features " Regardless of the laughing soldier, The"In truth, my good Theodore," said theodore continued long to gaze with flushed captain, as they were surveying the wax cheeks and growing emotion, at the fair figures on the following morning, "your object of his admiration, when suddenly horrible story about Beatrice Cenci's mo- starting, as if struck by some inspiring del haunts me strangely, and my fingers fancy, he exclaimed, must know, and tingle with inclination to shake hands with instantly, Leopold! whether the original |