This magistrate of easy conscience then affixed his name and official seal to the instrument, and Preston Randolph Dayton became possessor of the vast property of his uncle. There was, however, a witness to this instrument, whom they little suspected. It was a shrewd attorney, whom the son of the deceased had sent to see if he could not prevail on his father to make, at least, some bequest in his favour. He arrived a few moments before Preston commenced writing the will, and walking across the lawn came upon the gallery unobserved. As he passed along towards the main entrance, his inquisitive curiosity led him to peep in at the long windows which were trellised with vines. To his surprise and satisfaction, through one of these he beheld the invalid with Preston by his bedside. Unobserved, he heard and saw all that transpired.

With the possession of this important secret, he hastened away. He let Preston take full management of the property, and then privately charged him with the forgery, promising to compound with him for a third of the estate. Preston, after the first alarm and surprise had passed, refused to do it, and insulted him. The attorney then vowed to expose him, when the guilty young man, overcome with remorse, shame, and fear of punishment, fed. He was, eventually, arrested at Vicksburg; and on the requisition of the governor of Virginia, who despatched officers for him, he was taken from prison, and now placed in chains on board our boat.

one of the gentleman passengers, who preferred walking on the guards to sleeping.

'Genevieve, I will take these to him,' she said to her cousin, who felt almost as much interest in his escape as she did. You will see that, if the officer wakes, he listens to you, rather than to us.'

'Yes,' said Genevieve, laughing, 'I will try and amuse him if need be-but let us be cautious, and he may not wake. His sleep is that of a tired man.'

Louise crossed the cabin lightly. Genevieve took a book and sat on an ottoman close to the head of the officer. Louise softly opened the door across his body, and entered the state-room of the prisoner. He started with surprise. She laid her hand impressively on his arm, and placed a file in his hand. She closed the door and seated herself silently at his feet, and commenced filing his iron fetters. She was calm, quiet, resolute. Her look was elevated with high purpose. Was it real? Was it a spirit that had come to aid his escape? He pressed her hand gratefully to his lips, and took the other file and applied it to the steel-band of his manacles.

In two hours one of his manacles and a fetter released a hand and foot. In two hours more he was freed from his chains. They were then filed from the bolt. He knelt at the feet of his liberator, while she asked him to tell her his crime. Briefly he related to her what has already been narrated.

'Enough,' said she, 'I knew thou hadst been greatly tempted. The way is open before thee. Escape! If you do not swim, here is a life-preserver I have prepared for you. Let me buckle it about you. Now, while it is yet dark, spring with your chains in your hands, and with a loud clanking sound throw them into the water, and swim ashore. It will be thought you are drowned, as no man could swim with such a weight. There will no pursuit be made for you; and under another name, and in another clime, you may live and be happy.'

And to what glorious being am I indebted for life, liberty, and happiness?' he said, kneeling at her feet.

It matters not. Fly! If hereafter you should feel an interest awakened in your breast for her who has liberated you, come on next St Mary's eve, and ask at the convent of the Sacred Heart for Louise Claviere!'

It was indeed a hard lot for a noble youth like him. How great and irresistible the temptation! Stronger principle would have saved him this crime, even at the expense of a vast fortune. But Preston Dayton was ambitious, proud, and loved wealth for the power and pleasure it conferred. The temptation offered itself-he embraced it, and fell! His guilt was, it is true, unpremeditated. He intended no fraud the moment before. He had really only fulfilled his uncle's intention. Yet, it would have been better if he had left it as it was, with this intention so strongly apparent in the first two or three trembling letters he had signed of his name. How eloquent it would have spoken in a court of equity! But, at all events, truth and integrity are safest and best. Many men, good Christian men, who fear to do evil, though but the eye of God is upon them, would have resisted the thought; but many, alas! too many, would have done like Preston Randolph. It was midnight, and all was quiet in the vast cabins, all on board the immense steamer, save the watch on deck. He pressed her hand to his heart, and that of the noble But Louise and Genevieve were awake, and so was the Genevieve-who extended it to him-to his lips; and prisoner. Beside his door heavily slept the officer, trust-taking up his chains, as he saw them both vanish in their ing to chains to bind, and the waters to keep his charge in safety. Softly Genevieve opened the door of her stateroom, and stole forth into the cabin. The swinging lamp burned dimly and cast a pale glare around. She crossed to the state-room of the prisoner. She looked down and steadily watched the stern countenance of the slumbering guardian. His sleep was not feigned, it was deep and heavy. She reached her arm across him, and slipped a paper up between the blinds, and hastily retreated.

Preston was sitting with his hands on his knees, and his face buried in his hands, in deep and painful thought. He was calmly contemplating suicide. He heard the paper fall at his feet. Hope gleamed through the darkness of his destiny. He gathered his chains carefully together that they should not clank, and picked it up. It read as follows, in a delicate female hand :

Guilty or innocent, thou art unhappy! There are friends near thee who will aid thy escape. Prepare to receive whatever instruments may be passed through the blinds, lest they fall, and the noise wake your guardian.'

He pressed his lips to the note, and hope revived in his heart." In a few moments afterwards, Louise Claviere was seen traversing with a light step the silent cabins, wrapped in a cloak and hat she had taken from one of the tables. She descended to the engine-room and secretly obtained two files. With these she returned to her stateroom, having met only the watchman, who took her for

With these words she opened the door, and pointed to the way of escape over the body of his sleeping keeper, and through the cabin to the outer 'guard.'

state-room, he fled through the cabin to the outer guard. The officer, awaked by the clanking, sprung up, looked first into the state-room for his prisoner, then beheld him flying along the cabin. He started in pursuit, giving the alarm, and only reached the guard to see his prisoner spring with his chains into the dark flood.

'Stop the boat!' he shouted aloud; but as she was already far beyond the spot, he immediately countermanded the order; no, no, it's of no use; with twenty pounds of iron on him, he is gone to the bottom like a stone!'

The boat kept on her way, and ere we reached Louisville, the prisoner was forgotten. That some of the females in the cabin had connived at his escape, and furnished him with the files, was very generally believed but suspicion was not fastened on the right persons.

On the eve of the succeeding St Mary's, a mounted cavalier rode up to the gate of the convent De l'Sacre Cœur in Louisiana. He was dressed like a Texan country gentleman, with a short horseman's cloak, a broad Panama hat, a sword at his side, and pistols in his holsters. He was of noble presence, with an exceedingly dark but handsome countenance. He asked of the portress of the convent for permission to see Louise Claviere, if such a person abode there. The aged portress retired, and in a few moments Louise Claviere appeared at the grate. The cavalier dismounted, and kissed the hand she extended towards him,

Every sportsman knows that the common woolpigeon (the ringdove) is one of the shyest birds we buy, That same day the convent chapel witnessed their and so wild, that it is very difficult indeed to get with bridal; and the bride and bridegroom, a few days after, shot of one. This wild bird, however, has been kuca: took their way to Randolph Claviere's (for that is the lay aside its usual habits. In the spring of 1839, seme name he assumed) fair Texan domain, which he had won village boys brought two young wood-pigeons taken fro by courage, virtue, and integrity-a far nobler and fairer the nest to the parsonage-house of a clergyman in Gestate than that which he had criminally sought to en-cestershire, from whom I received the following anerdate: joy in his native land. No man hath so far fallen that he may not rise again.

of love and pity. No sooner is the feeble and plaintive cry of distress of their young heard by the parent, than these two incentives are immediately called into action. Pity prompts the female to afford the necessary relief, and love renders the task, however arduous, a pleasurable one. I never think of this interesting fact without admiring that law of nature, or rather of a beneficent Creator, who has thus provided for the wants of the young in their most helpless state, and thrown the shield of affection over them. What perseverance, anxiety, and courage are shown by the parent in providing for and defending her young, and at the same time what an absence of all selfishness! When they are in danger, the most fearful female becomes the bravest. Affection then appears in its strongest light. We may see a feeble bird, a timid quadruped, a little insect, sacrifice even life itself in defence of its young.

Let us view a mother watching over a sick and helpless child which requires all her care and attention. How delightfully has Providence smoothed the path of the parent in this case! Instead of anxiety, fatigue, and constant watching and attention becoming insupportable or irksome, we find that affection overcomes every difficulty, and that parental care is bestowed with cheerfulness and pleasure.

It is pleasant to reflect on the perfection of the female character-to indulge in the remembrance of having seen women perform those offices of affection and love which they alone are capable of showing. If we refer to the Bible, how delightfully are their best attributes there portrayed, and bow conspicuous are they for the warmest and kindliest feelings! It was a woman who watched over her little brother when he was hidden in the bullrushes. It was a woman who urged her father to perform his vow, although her own life might be the sacrifice. It was a woman who so beautifully said, 'all was well,' when she came to implore the prophet to restore her dead and only son. It was a woman who followed her mother-inlaw in all her distress and poverty. It was a woman who offered her last mite in charity. It was a woman who washed our blessed Saviour's feet with her tears, and afterwards wiped them with the hair of her head. It was a woman who said, 'Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.' It was a woman who stood at the foot of the cross. It was a woman who went first to the sepulchre. It was to a woman our Lord first made himself known after his resurrection; and, it was not a woman who betrayed our Lord and master.

the care of rearing, feeding, and protecting the yo devolves on the female. She it is who hatches the ye brood, and fosters them under her wings. In some case her indefatigable exertions procure the necessary suy of food. In others, her milk nourishes them; but the same love and affection is to be found in all. The sha amidst its agonies of pain and death, is said to attend t her young one with the utmost anxiety to the last momer of her life. If the young whale has been wounded by the harpoon, after the mother has eluded it, the latter then becomes an easy prey to the whalers, as it is wel known that nothing will induce her to desert her offspring so strong is female affection.

I am furnished with another instance of this in m immediate neighbourhood. A number of schoolbors, a tended by their master, were wandering about the Gre Park of Windsor, when one of them discovered a black. bird's nest, with young ones in it, at some distance beyinl the top of the Long Walk. He immediately made prize of it, and was conveying it homewards, when the cries d their young were heard by the old birds. Notwithsta ing the presence and noise of so many boys, they did at desert their helpless offspring, but kept near them, for a distance of about three miles, flying from tree to tree, and uttering those distressed and wailing notes which are so peculiar in the blackbird. This circumstance indav the boy to place the young birds in a cage, and he han it outside of the house, which was close to the town d Windsor. Here they were fed regularly by their parents As they grew up, the boy sold first one and then another, as he was able to procure customers for them, until they were all disposed of. The morning after the last bud was sold, the female blackbird was found dead beneath the cage in which her beloved offspring had been confined as if she had been unable to survive their loss. So strang indeed is the attachment of these birds for their you that a boy was struck violently on the head by one d them, while he had a young blackbird in his hand, whit he was taking from a nest.

The affection of animals is not confined entirely to their kind and offspring. A clergyman informed me, the when he resided at Cambridge, he had a young stock dove given to him, which soon became extremely attached to him. It roosted in an open cage in his hall, and always recognised, with great joy, his ring at the house-bell As he had long journeys to make, it was often late at night when he reached home. On these occasions, the instant he rang the bell the bird would descend from its cage, run along the hall with extended and quivering wings, hop upon his shoulder, cooing and fondling him with is wings, and exhibiting the utmost pleasure and delight'

ECONOMY OF NATURE.

Charming, however, as the female character may be, it possesses another quality which has not yet been referred to. I allude to that extraordinary tenderness and affection which a mother generally shows to a deformed, diseased, or idiotic child. That this feeling has been im- There are many facts in the economy of nature which planted in her by a merciful Creator for a benevolent are truly surprising, and which serve to prove with what purpose cannot, I think, be doubted; nor can I imagine tenderness, care, and wisdom everything has been either any being more wretched than one in any of the conditions created or regulated. An instance of this may be shown I have mentioned, deserted by its mother, and deprived with respect to the nests of some of those birds what of her tenderness and care. Even some animals show the build on slender branches of trees, or amongst reeds and same affection under almost similar circumstances. I have rushes, where their nests would be liable to be mach watched a little feeble bird on a lawn, which some acci- blown about and shaken. In this case the birds have had dent or disorder has rendered weaker than the other a peculiar instinct implanted in them of bending in, nestlings, receiving the constant attentions of its mother, rather of making a sort of rim round the upper part d who hovered near it, and evidently brought food to it the nest. But for this foresight and peculiar architecture, oftener than she did to her other young ones. I have it is evident that the eggs would roll out of the nest w noticed the same in a weakly fawn. When I resided on the branches were much agitated in high winds. T the border of Bushy Park, I had many opportunities of apparently trifling fact shows how beautifully and delight observing this, and other instances of the great affection fully Almighty God has attended to the well-being of his which exists between a doe and her fawn. The latter, creatures. Nothing has been overlooked. Even in the when very young, hides itself amongst the fern, but on structure of its nest, the little bird has been taught to hearing the peculiar bleat of the dam, recognised from make it of the size exactly necessary to contain the future amongst many others, it quits its retreat, and is in an young, and to line it, as the case may require, either with instant by her side. A scene of mutual affection then the warmest feathers, or with hair or cobwebs. Th takes place. The fawn rubs its head against the shoulder small fan-tailed fly-catcher of Australia makes its elegant of its mother. The mother licks the fawn, then satisfies little nest on the slender stalk of a tree. It resembles a its hunger, and turns round and looks at it with an affec-wine-glass in shape, without the bottom part, and th tion which cannot be mistaken.

Throughout nearly the whole of the animal creation,

stem is fastened to a lower stalk, thus preserving a dee balance. It is outwardly matted together with the wes

of spiders, which not only serve to envelop the nest, but are also employed to strengthen its attachment to the branch on which it is constructed. The whole is woven together vith exquisite skill. This also is the case with some of he nests of the humming-bird, where the use of the rim s very apparent.

of the Wye. A very beautiful river is that same Wye, surrounded with rich green meadows, and dark woods, and wild mountains, and its banks here and there ornamented with some token of bygone grandeur in ancient castle or venerable abbey. I dare say you have seen Tintern. Well! I say, when I was a lad I lived on the Wye. Ah! how my heart warms up at the thought of my own native village, and my school days, and my holydays spent away far up the lonely hills, fishing for our own Welsh grayling! But these happy days are gone, and they shall

In our village there lived a poor widow. She was an industrious creature and a good; few there were to speak an ill word of Dame Morgan, and none ever saw either of her two boys ill clad or ill cared for. Oh, no, poor thing! She worked hard, sitting up late and rising early, and eating the bread of sorrow, and all for her two dear boys. And they were twin-boys too; and, poor lads, they had never known a father's love or a father's blessing; before they had entered life, their young mother had become a widow, for the husband of her early love had found a grave in the deep sea; so the twins were born fatherless babes.

If writers on natural history, who make their remarks in animals as they see them in a state of captivity, could vatch them in their native haunts, much that has been aid of them would have been omitted. In some instances he wisdom of the Great Creator has been called in ques-return no more. ion, as if everything that he had made was not perfect, nd afforded proofs of infinite wisdom. Buffon and some ther naturalists have described the sloth, for instance, as n unhappy miserable animal, almost incapable of crawlng on the earth, shedding tears instead of defending tself, and so imperfectly formed as to require two days o enable it to ascend a tree. But what a different acount do those give of it who have seen it in the localities o which it has been assigned by Providence! Instead of eing the helpless animal that has been described, it is, n the contrary, wonderfully adapted, from its formation nd habits, for the mode of life it was destined to lead. Vor are we to suppose that this animal has not his full hare of enjoyment, as compared with that of other quarupeds. The sloth may be called a tree animal, with uite as much propriety as the horse or cow may be called errestrial animals. When this fact is known, and the natomy of the sloth examined with reference to it, we hall find that nothing can be more perfect than its organzation. It lives on trees, and dies on trees; nor is it ecessary to descend them to procure water, as it does ot require any. Its legs are extremely muscular, and re perfectly capable of supporting the weight of the aninal. In suspending itself from branches of trees, all the our legs are used, and this is evidently its natural posiion. In moving from tree to tree, also, the body always angs downwards. When in search of food, or of its own pecies, the sloth can show considerable activity. So careul has Providence been of the preservation of this harmess and apparently defenceless animal, that its fur is of he same colour as the moss on the trees on which it lives. This circumstance must render it difficult to be seen in he dense forests which it inhabits.

Nor is this a solitary instance of the peculiar care of a Denevolent Creator for his creatures. When birds have been found on little rocky islands, where no fresh water vhatever is to be met with, the bills of the birds are all trong, enabling them to squeeze the juice from berries nto the mouths of their young, and thus to supply the vant of water. If we examine and inquire into the recent liscoveries of plants and animals in Australia, we shall ind much that is new to us, but all beautifully organized and arranged, and affording proofs of the inexhaustible power of Almighty God. These discoveries are bursting upon us day after day, surprising us with wonder at their novelty, and exciting our curiosity to discover the cause of their peculiar formation.'

LLEWELLYN MORGAN;

OR, THE DEAF AND DUMB BOY. THE following striking incident is extracted from a manuscript volume by one of the clergymen of Edinburgh. It Is the substance of a statement made by a highly intelligent gentleman belonging to the medical profession, durng a discussion on the subject of instinct, in a scientific Society of which the clergyman was a member. The deaf and dumb boy being, if not quite an idiot, extremely deicient in understanding, the remarkable circumstance is that he should have been able to detect the presence of the fire-damp, when it was imperceptible to others. The reverend gentleman who has kindly favoured us with the interesting narrative attests its truth on the authority of his medical friend :

Oh, how the poor young mother worked for her two boys! On and on did she work, and not a whisper of repining, not a murmur of discontent escaped her lips. She was sad indeed, but not cheerless; for she knew whither to go for consolation. Things went on pretty smoothly in her clean little cottage, and she seemed to be happy; till at last one of her sons would go to sea. Ah, it was a bitter day for her when her dear boy sailed from Newport-for, alas! her other child had been born with the hand of affliction upon him. The tender mother had never heard a word from her silent and voiceless son, nor had that sweetest of music, the voice of a mother, ever fallen on his ear. Llewellyn was deaf and dumb; and, what was still more melancholy, he was of that helpless class in whose souls the lamp of reason burns but dimly.

Months went and came, but brought no tidings of the widow's son. Months at last amounted to years, but he came no more. Hope deferred, they say, maketh the heart sick; but I know not if it made the heart of poor Dame Morgan sick, for she hoped on and on, even against all hope, clinging to a mere shadow, as the drowning man clings to a straw on the surface of the deep waters. But the sailor boy never came again. His mother heard his voice no more. He had slept his sleep in his father's grave, beneath the waste of waters, far, far from his dear mother's home; and far away from the lovely Wye and the beautiful mountains of Monmouthshire!

Deaf and dumb Llewellyn! and what must the poor widow do with her helpless boy! And now he was everything to his mother; and time too was dealing harshly with her; for his iron hand was pressed heavily down on her heart, already crushed and broken by many cares and much anguish, and she now required the tender offices of filial devotion to smooth the path of her pilgrimage as she she went along, in a world which was to her truly a vale of tears. Surely Llewellyn might support his mother by his labour.

But then Llewellyn was a solitary being, even as his affliction led him to be. But then he was very cheerful and very happy. Behind his mother's cottage there ran a little river, and there, after he had worked at the flowers and plants in the little garden, he would sit and while away the silent hours, watching the bubbles as they floated by. It was a marvellous thing how greatly the deaf and dumb and almost idiot youth delighted in the beauty of woods and fields, and rivers and mountains! Nature, it is true, did not speak to him in sounds, but nevertheless he perceived a voice stronger than that of many waters. The music of the bubbling brook he had never knownthe notes of the lark, as he poured forth his shrill song in the clear sky at morning, or the tune of the seed-thrush chanted by moonlight from among the long sedges by the brink of his favourite river, these notes and that tune 'When I was a boy (says the writer) I lived by the banks he had never heard-even the tremendous diapason of the