A fearful spectacle now met their eyes. I not the slightest resistance. As the boy reMargaret and the infant lay cold and life- marked this, however, he escaped from the less upon the bed; the little boy was sunk tailor's arms and hastened to his father. in a deathlike torpor; and the father, after bending over them for a while, sank upon their remains, uttering a wild and maniac laugh. 66 "O God!" exclaimed Master Nicholas, in deathlike terror, "what a fearful night! What sin have I committed, that Heaven should visit me with all this misery? What shall I do? How will it end? My chamber is desolate, two lifeless bodies lie upon my bed, and before me sits a madman with his dying child!" He sank upon an old arm-chair, concealed his face in his hands, and wept bitterly. The worthy man's faint-heartedness did not last long, however. The necessity of succoring the unhappy beings whom Providence had intrusted to his care, stood clear and plain before his soul. He sprang from his seat, hastened into the street, and soon returned, accompanied by three or four soldiers, with an armful of wood and a small portion of brandy, both of which he had obtained from the sentinels who were stationed at the gate. While the soldiers lighted a fire, he took the little boy in his arms, and seating himself with him near the chimney, he succeeded at last in restoring warmth to his chilled frame. In the mean time the sol diers mended the broken window with old boards. When they had completed this task, which rendered the chamber somewhat more comfortable, they took the lifeless bodies from the bed, laid them side by side in a small adjacent room, which Master Nicholas used as a workshop, and then turned to lead away the maniac, who made "Take me with father too," he cried. "Oh, how cold it is here! I want to be with him!" The heart of Master Nicholas was near breaking at these words. "It is true, indeed," he said; "if I watch the dead, I can watch the living also; leave the poor child and his father with me here; the man's madness seems nowise dangerous. Early to-morrow morning I will pay a visit to Master Rembrandt; as hard and miserly as he is, he will not, at least, refuse me a little money, that I may provide a coffin for the dead. He must use his influence also with the magistrate to have the father sent to the hospital, and then, after all, he cannot entirely forsake the child of his own. niece. Perhaps he will even undertake to provide for it in future. So, then, farewell, comrades; I thank you." The soldiers retired, but not without first having emptied their brandy-flasks into Master Nicholas's jug. When they had gone, the tailor took a small ivory crucifix from the wall, together with a consecrated branch of a box-tree, and laid them upon the breasts of the two corpses. He then crossed himself devoutly, locked the door that led to his workshop, wrapped Antonio in the bed-clothes, and returned to the fire, in front of which the painter was seated. Master Nicholas gazed, not without terror, at the maniac, but he armed himself with the sign of the cross, and muttered prayers from a breviary which he drew from his bosom, until the faint light of dawn penetrated the desolate chamber. [TO BE CONTINUED.] [The writer of the following lines has endeavored to catch the great characteristic of Celtic poetry, its musical irregularity.] I WILL go to holy Ireland, the land of Saint and Sage, Where the pulse of boyhood is leaping in the shrunken form of Age; Where the shadow of giant Hopes for evermore is cast, And the wraiths of mighty Chieftains are looming through the Past. I will go where the Galtees are rising bare and high, With their haggard foreheads fronting the scowl of the clouded sky; .I will go where Killarney is sleeping in peaceful rest, Where the branches of oak and arbutus are weaving a pleasant screen, I will go to beautiful Wicklow, the hunted outlaw's rest, Which the tread of rebel and rapparee in many a struggle prest; I will go to the lonely graveyard, near the pleasant fields of Kildare, I will seize my pilgrim staff, and cheerily wander forth I will learn from their voices, with a student's love and pride, To live as they lived, and to die as they died. Oh, I will sail from the West, and never more will part From the ancient home of my people-the land of the loving heart. DONA PAULA; OR, THE CONVENT AND THE WORLD. A TALE OF PERU. (Concluded,) CHAPTER XII. WHEREIN THE STORY CLEARS A HEDGE, AND STARTS OFF AT A CANTER. "Si nunquam Danaën habuisset ahenea turris, Non esset Danaë de Jove facta parens."-Ovid. We had resolved in our own mind to learn in some way or other by what means Doña Paula was released from the convent whose gates had closed upon her; and well knowing that our naval friend alone could enlighten us, determined to make one more desperate attempt. We prepared ourselves for the task by reading Phillips on Evidence, and Sam Slick on Impertinent Questions. Matters looked unpromising enough when we reached the vessel. Crocket was on watch, and in a detestable humor. He was scarcely civil to us. We almost despaired. But Fate befriended us in the end. Crocket was walking the quarter-deck, "growling" at every body and every thing. We watched him as we conversed with some verdant mids on the larboard, or rather, (since Mr. Bancroft's secretaryship,) the port side of the deck. All at once an incident turned the current of his temper. As he walked up and down, rolling his eyes and seeking whom he might devour, he chanced to pounce upon "Jack o' the Dust," a privileged character on board. We forget what sin of omission or commission poor Jack had been guilty of; but Crocket "fell afoul" of him on this occasion in a way that made him tremble in his purser's shoes. Jack pleaded innocence with a fervor worthy of a righteous cause. "Christopher Columbus !" roared the VOL. VII. NO. VI. NEW SERIES. young lieutenant, "these rascals are always innocent. I'll have you in irons, sir; I'll have you seized up at the gangway; I'll "I didn't do it, sir; indeed I didn't." "You did, you son of a sea-cook! you know you did." "Indeed, sir, I didn't. By, sir, I didn't!" Jack could not, by any artifice, have done or said any thing better calculated to please his superior. The young man had begun to fear that he had lighted upon the wrong victim. He felt quite uncertain as to the guilt of poor Jack; but here was a palpable offense, evident to all as well as himself. Here was a case provided for in the Articles of War. Profane language on the quarterdeck, on that sanctum of rank! The angry lieutenant felt his wrathful spirit rejoice. He was sure of his prey. His manner therefore became greatly mollified; and it was in a voice soft as a girl's that he asked the trembling culprit the following "stumper:" "Please, sir," answered Jack, "I didn't lines. Among these summits, shrouded in know you wanted to swear first." part by genuine Peruvian clouds, the sun is constantly producing the strangest and most unexpected effects of light. Far in the distance, and above those clouds, an occasional peep at a stupendous mountain-top, and that general disposition of a heavy, humid atmosphere, called by sailors 'the loom of the land,' intimate the neighborhood of the Cordilleras. The plain itself is amazingly fertile; and among its beautiful green shades you can perceive at a distance of eight miles the stately steeples of Trujillo, the first city which the Spaniards ever founded on this coast. This retort was put in with so much apparent simplicity, that our lion of the quarter-deck scarcely knew what countenance to put on. He bit his lip, muttered, "Go below," turned on his heel, and after taking a look forward and a look aft, and giving a few unnecessary orders, by way of maintaining his dignity, he turned to join us in the best imaginable mood. He readily consented to go ashore with us, and accept a seat in our box at the wretched play-house in Lima. As soon as we had got out of sight of "our flag," he gave full career to his exhilarated spirits, acceded to every thing, laughed at our jokes, tried his hand himself at a pun, and finally, in the fulness of his heart, proposed to communicate to us the details of the elopement of Doña Paula. We were seated at a balcony of the Plaza Mayor, sipping "Italia," puffing “pajalitos," and enjoying to the utmost that delicious atmosphere of Lima, every puff of which counsels and dignifies indolence, when our companion of his own accord branched off at a tangent. "I had full opportunity to study the bearings of the place. Indeed, I had nothing else to do. Nor was Saint Clair better occupied. At night he either went ashore, or, if the fog was very thick, he remained on board wrapped in a heavy cloak. A light canoe would sometimes emerge from the mist and come alongside. With these visits I never meddled; but I clearly saw sundry suspicious packages hoisted on board and stowed away into the launch; so that the bundles of staves which embellished her bottom daily grew more and more elevated. During the day he passed a great part of his time in watching through a spy-glass a large building which stood aloof from the rest on the road to Trujillo, and was sur ing was the convent where Doña Paula languished, and I am free to confess that when I surveyed its proportions, and considered its great strength, I despaired of our enterprise. This I hinted to my friend. "My dear boy,' answered he in a most desponding tone, I care nothing for stonework and iron gratings. I do not fear the vigilance of the authorities. Were I so disposed, I could muster a forcé sufficient to storm the city. But a woman's will is a brazen wall.' "Well, that Saint Clair was a trump! He was, by Christopher Columbus! Nothing baulked him. He persuaded our skipper to send me with the launch to survey the Guano Islands. Precious little sur-mounted with a gigantic cross. This buildveying did we do, though. All the report of that expedition I ever sent in was a map of the coast with hap-hazard dots represent ing islands. I dare say, Saint Clair handed in quite a different one, in the shape of a bill of lading for silver bars. But that's another affair. We started off with a spanking breeze, and came-to off Huanchaco. Were you ever there? In no place but Peru would Huanchaco be called a sea-port. A kind of point, with a line of reefs, protects you from the swell, and that is all you require in a country where the wind always blows one way. I have the place and the landscape now before my eye. An open roadstead under the lea of a point; a group of houses on the beach; a lofty church in the rear. Beyond that stretches a level plain, called the valley of Chimu. Level spots are so rare in this country that they deserve notice. This Chimu is hemmed in on all sides by high, barren, inaccessible rocks, whose abrupt features offer the most fantastic variety of "It appeared that Saint Clair was in frequent communication with his beloved, and that the latter still clung to her cherished scruple. She would sacrifice any thing but one to follow her lover. She did not feel bound by her reluctant vows. But she dreaded having her father's curse upon her head. Were he dead, she would readily brave the anger of the Church and the perils of the Canonical Law. Saint Clair, after exhausting his powers of eloquence-and they were not inconsiderable-began to look | There would be no such thing in this cligloomy and despondent. So infatuated had mate as restoring dust to dust' and 'ashes he become with his nun, that without her to ashes,' were it not for the agency of the life was worthless in his estimation. At wild beasts, the ounces, foxes, and dogs who last, just as the staves in the bottom of the haunt the grave-yards at night and prey launch had reached a most preposterous upon the tenants of the tomb. As if to elevation, and the gunwales of the little facilitate the operations of these hideous exvessel began to look rather close to the humers, interments are carried on in the water-just as I had determined to shape most careless manner. The poor Cholos of my way back to Callao, an expedient oc- this region may be said to have originated curred to Saint Clair. the Burying Societies. For many years it has been usual for them to insure a decent burial by the weekly payment of a premium. The avaricious undertakers who accept those bargains naturally wish to perform their part of the contract at as small an outlay as possible. Consequently they have been known to make one coffin and one shroud serve for many successive interments. "One afternoon he came to me in high spirits. "My dear boy,' said he, 'you can weigh to-morrow at daylight. Meanwhile, come ashore with me; we have a hard night's work before us.' "Without answering a word-I knew my man, you see-I buckled on my sword and pistols, passed a poncho over my uniform, and followed him. It was getting dark just as we reached a little grave-yard in the neighborhood of the convent. Here we were joined by two suspicious-looking characters, one of whom took charge of our horses while the other accompanied us into the church-yard. The low adobe walls that inclosed the holy ground were easily scaled, and we soon commenced groping our way among the tombs; not in utter darkness however, for our new companion, who acted as a guide, produced a small lantern, which threw a little red light through the fog. "I had no more idea of the object of our expedition than a thirty-two pounder has of the nature of Paixhan shells. But though ignorant of our aim, shuddering with cold, and somewhat awed at the solemnity of the scene, I followed my mute guide and my no less mute friend with perfect readiness. Indeed, I should have followed Saint Clair any whither, so great was the influence which he had gained over my young mind. There were circumstances in the scene we were traversing calculated to fill one with horror. Burying is a most superficial operation in Peru. Such is the nature of the soil, that decomposition does not take place here in the same way as elsewhere. Bodies placed in the earth do not decay, but dry up. At every step of our progress we stumbled against a crumbling mound, a skeleton or a skull. Now and then the plaintive howl of a wild beast sent a chill through our very bones. At last we came to a fresh grave. Our guide stopped, dropped his lantern, produced a couple of spades, and said, ‘Està aqui!' "I was at a loss to know whether we were to turn treasure-hunters or resurrectionists; and I entertained an inward horror of breaking the turf of a consecrated ground. Nevertheless, I grasped a spade and fell to digging with great ardor-glad to have something to do, and to escape my thoughts. After a few minutes' hard work, our spades struck against wood. With the assistance of our guide we dug around the obstacle, and we soon raised from the ground a couple of rough boards, between which was bound the body of a young Chola, with her beautiful black hair plaited in long glistening tresses, and wreaths of faded almencai encircling her head and neck. "Now then!" said Saint Clair. Without more ado we shouldered the corpse. My companion exchanged a few words with the guide, took his lantern, and led the way. I followed as best I could; stumbling at every step, and half faint with horror. I was very young, you see, at that time." |