of his absent uncle, for whose misfortunes this amiable young man seemed strongly interested, and whose fate he sincerely sympathized in and commiserated. "No sooner, however, did Captain Singleton possess (from sure information) these particulars respecting the Braganza family, thau he instantly resolved to remove you, lady, from the Convent of the Holy Sisters, and to quit Denmark as soon as possible. “And whither will you now go, Sir?' asked I, the old Abbey will surely be no proper residence for the beauteous daughter of Braganza, now advancing into womanhood, and fit to adorn the society which so well becomes her exalted birth.' "Of which she is not likely to enjoy the privileges till that demon of infernal mischief is no more!' cried the Captain; but it is not to the old Abbey that I intend to take my lovely fosterchild, and yet I have potent reasons for not being far distant from that place. There is a period approaching, Paulo Michello, when the injuries of a much-wronged, innocent angel will call aloud for vengeance on the heads and hearts of those who cropt the sweetness of her early bloom; already does the messenger of Heaven await the awful sentence which will be inflicted on them for their remorseless cruelty to the unfortunate and martyred Agatha : whose lovely offspring shall flourish in happiness and honour when they shall be no more! I am going to the Convent of the Holy Sisters, there to commune with the Lady Matilda on the sudden intelligence I have gained; after which I shall shelter my nestling where Providence ordains!" " CHAPTER XXXIV. “A skipping, dancing, worthless tribe ye are, You talk of beauties that you never saw, And fancy raptures that you never knew!'' THE agitation of our lovely heroine, during almost the whole of the affecting recital given her by Paulo of the misfortunes of the dear unhappy authors of her being, had produced an involuntary paleness of complexion, and a universal tremour on her nerves; insomuch that, alarmed at the change he beheld in her beautiful features, Michello implored her to take some refreshment to revive her now completely harassed and distressed feelings, ere he finished the painful task he had so unwillingly imposed on himself, but which a conscientious sense of duty nevertheless obliged him to perform while Agatha, perfectly exhausted by the pangs which had been inflicted on her feeling and sensitive heart by the recital of her mother's wrongs and sufferings, very gladly accepted the glass of wine and biscuit Paulo now offered to her, who, greatly participating in the nature of her present sensations, begged that she would endeavour to compose herself, and to consider that the bitterness of those heavy and afflicting trials was now passed and gone for ever! that the celestial spirit of her departed mother now rested in peace from all those sufferings which cruelty and injustice had occasioned her to experience ;—and that a period was not far hence, when brighter and happier prospects than she had ever yet known awaited her. "What, when my dear unhappy father still remains in solitary exile," cried Agatha, at this moment dissolving into tears, “do you promise prospects of felicity to his child?-his unacknowledged, unknown child, whom he believes buried in one grave with her unfortunate mother? can Agatha taste of peace, or ever know a gleam of happiness, while her father is sorrowing in a far distant land, unconscious that his offspring is still in being, and mourning over his fate ?-no, Paulo! happiness is not for me till I behold my father!" “Which day is not far distant let us hope, dearest lady," replied Paulo; "Captain Singleton is now gone to ascertain an event, which, were we once certain of, you will not only behold your father, but speedily be restored to those rights of which you have so long been unjustly deprived;—namely, the death of the Duchess of Braganza, which only two days since was hourly expected at the Cottage on the Cliff. May Heaven be propitious to our prayers, and grant that her proud, rebellious, wicked spirit may now have terminated its earthly race, which she has rendered odious to humanity." "At the Cottage on the Cliff!" exclaimed Agatha, in the utmost astonishment; " Heavenly Powers! and is the Duchess of Braganza at the Cottage on the Cliff?" "It is even so, dear lady," uttered Paulo, "your perfidious grandmother is your tenant at the Cottage on the Cliff!” "Yes, yes, I see it clearly now!" cried the agitated Agatha, "and it was by her treacherous arts that I have been betrayed, and forced from the bosom of my protector, was it not, Paulo? was it not by the contrivance of the Duchess that I have been brought hither?" "To deny such truths, lady, as are incontestible, would be folly, and it is not my intention," cried Paulo: "for no sooner had we quitted Denmark, and arrived once more in the land of Great Britain, than your foster-father, Captain Singleton, anxious to conceal, in order to secure the safety of, the sacred deposit which had been placed in his hands, endeavoured to procure a habitation secluded and remote from all other earthly beings; and you became an inmate of a private lodging which he had provided for you two months before you retired with him to the Cottage on the Cliff, which it seems he had made choice of in preference to any other residence about the coast, and had much difficulty in purchasing from Peter Blust, merely because that honest and benevo leut man had too much principle to receive money for a habitation which at the time that Captain Singleton inspected it was intrinsically not worth a farthing: but the Captain, charmed with the delightfully romantic beauty of the prospects which surrounded it, persisted in making it habitable for his future residence, by taking it entirely out of the fisher's hands, and bestowing such repairs on it as were found immediately necessary for the reception of a tenant; and after unwearied pains and considerable expense, the Cottage on the Cliff was at length rendered habitable, and convenient for the uses of a small family; and you and your foster-father, with your attendant Claribelle, and myself, became the inmates of it even before the workmen who were employed on it had completely finished their duty.-During the time, however, that the repairs were going forward, the Captain permitted me to take up my abode at the old Abbey, to which I had carried Marinetta and my infant daughter on the moment of my quitting the ship which had conveyed us from Denmark:-but you, lady, till now were never suffered to enter its walls! and it is remarkable that Captain Singleton would never permit Marinetta or her child. to come into your presence, for which reason he procured a stranger to wait on you in the person of your woman Claribelle, whom I have every reason to suppose was highly recommended to his notice by the Lady Matilda St. Clare ;-for Claribelle lived in the Convent of the Holy Sisters, as one of the domestics, though she had nothing to do with the holy orders of the profession, and was certainly in all respects a very fit person to attend you. I have nothing to say against poor Claribelle, though probably she would never have arrived to her distinguished post, had not your former nurse, the faithful Jacquelina, died of a complaint which suddenly attacked her soon after she had entered the walls of that holy sanctuary, while you were yet unconscious of the loss of so faithfully an attached domestic." "And how highly should I have prized her as being also the favourite domestic of my poor mother," cried Agatha, deeply sighing," and yet why should I wish to recal her to this earthly vale of sorrow? Alas, how far, far preferable her state to any condition in which I could have placed her, and how enviable, compared to mine, the most wretched, the most miserable!' "Say not so, dearest lady," uttered Paulo, "for you are innocent, you are virtuous, you are good; and to the truly good and : innocent, misfortunes, though they seem heavy, will pass over lightly as the breeze which fans the leaves of summer roses!—But to proceed.——On my arrival at the old Abbey, I found my confederates in a state of tranquillity aud subordination such as I could little have expected from the irregular mode of life they had formerly led and I commended most highly the management of Manfrida and Hasrac during the term of my long absence, rewarding them liberally for their pains.-In short, I had nobody to find fault with but my mother; who, though aged and decrepid, constantly indulged in the habit of drinking to such an excess, that Hasrac assured me he had often discovered her lying senseless on the floor and even when perfectly free from those fits of inebriety, she would invite the men to nightly feasts and carousals in the -old Abbey. At one of these nightly revels, I learnt, she had caused one of the men to take her to Cromer to purchase some new apparel, which she pretended she wanted, and did not return from thence for three days. "Shocked as well as incensed at such imprudent and ridiculous conduct in so near a relative, and one of such advanced years, to whom I had entrusted the whole of my household concerns, which had probably suffered most materially from her carelessness and wilful neglect, I reproached her in terms of the utmost asperity, and assured her, that although she was my mother, if a speedy reformation did not shortly take place, I would send her back to Italy, and wholly withdraw the kindness and support she had hitherto so liberally received from my hands. Nay, I threatened to report her conduct to Captain Singleton, if she did not immediately abandon the disgraceful habits she had contracted during the time of my absence; and this last threat prevailed; for Mysis had always stood in awe of the captain, and was excessively afraid of doing any thing to incur his displeasure. "To inform Captain Singleton of my mother's misconduct, lady, I had really no serious intention, or he would not have permitted her to have remained much longer an inhabitant of the old Abbey, after such gross and indecent irregularity of character, rendered still more inexcusable at her advanced season of life; but when the first emotions of anger towards her had subsided, I looked upon |