THE MINIATURE PICTURE: OR LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT. PART I. -What demigod Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? Seem they in motion? Here are severed lips, Should sunder such sweet friends.'- -Merchant of Venice. THE Rectory of St Owens, a small but ancient Episcopal church at Enniskillen, County of Farmanagh, was many years since situated at some distance from the town, on the banks of Lough Ern, one of the most celebrated and enchanting spots in Ireland. The scenery in this neighbourhood is beautiful beyond imagination, the bounty of nature having bestowed on the lake and its vicinity all those features calculated to produce a pleasing combination for the hand of art. The dwelling itself was partly shaded in front by aged sycamore trees, and looked out upon the transparent bosom of Lough Ern. On the north was a fine grove of weeping willows, which bent their long and graceful branches over the waters, and sighed mournfully to the passing breeze. On the western side arose mag nificent masses of irregular and fantastically sloping rocks, between whose rugged cliffs a cascade of water forced itself, and fell into the still clear lake below. In front of the Rectory swept a lawn, enamelled with flowers as varied in their hues as the tints of an evening sky. The banks of Lough Ern are fringed with the arbutus, which, with its bright scarlet berries, forms a charming contrast to its companion, the wild myrtle, studded with its snow white blossoms. The entrance to the dwelling was shaded by a trellis over which crept the honeysuckle and eglantine, in graceful wreaths mingling their sweets together. It is not possible for pen to do justice to the beauty of the scene; it appears as if nature had chosen it as a fit treasury in which to deposit each and all her charms. Dr Seabrooke, the incumbent of St Owens, was an amiable and pious man, far advanced in the vale of years. He had married when past his grand climacteric, and his wife dying when their only child was a year old, the care of the little Alicia devolved almost entirely on the doating father. She was his earthly idol. But Dr Seabrooke was a man of sense and did not spoil her. He took infinite pains to educate her, and engaged an accomplished lady, the widow of a British officer, to instruct her in those branches of knowledge proper for her sex. Alicia grew up lovely in her person, amiable in her disposition, and finished in acquirement. Dr Seabrooke's health was delicate, and he felt that when it pleased his Maker to call him to himself, his darling child would be left in an almost unprotected situation; for his wife was a pennyless and friendless orphan at the time he married her, and the only near relation of his own was a brother living at Dublin, a barrister, who was by no means rich, and who had a numerous family of his own besides. He therefore never failed to ask in his prayers at the Throne of Grace, to be permitted to see his child safe in the protection of some worthy man, who might know now to appreciate her worth. Hitherto she had appeared perfectly indifferent to all, though the town of Enniskillen contained two regiments, among the officers of which there were several very accomplished and elegant men by whom she was greatly admired. But notwithstanding their gallantry, their red coats, and the acknowledged power the latter are said to possess over the female heart, no one of them had as yet obtained the slightest influence with the lovely, but insensible Alicia Seabrooke. She was the belle of Enniskillen, whenever she went to the town; for Glentorf, the Rectory of St Owens, was some miles distant from it. She loved its retirement and adored her venerable parent, and therefore had no wish beyond his cheerful dwelling. The officers of the Enniskillen regiments gave a splendid ball, and Miss Seabrooke was the presiding goddess of the scene. But it so happened, that Major Montrose and Captain Dormer disputed which of the two should have the honor of dancing with her first. This reaching the ears of Alicia, she wisely declined dancing with either. On the following morning Montrose sent a challenge to Dormer. They met, exchanged shots, and the former received a bullet in hist right arm, which did not materially injure him. On the contrary, it was whispered in the garrison, that the Major, who had hitherto been a complete Hotspur, appeared to be cool and quiet since Captain Dormer had bled him so profusely. Though the custom of duelling is much more common in Ireland than in any other part of the world, yet Alicia was so shocked at the circumstance, that she instantly declared her abhorrence of the whole fraternity of red coats. She also determined not to go to Enniskillen again, except to attend her father to St Owens; and this resolution she firmly adhered to. Still, on Sunday, the saucy officers would assemble at church, more for the purpose of gazing at his lovely daughter than to listen to the language of inspiration that fell from the lips of the venerable Dr Seabrooke. But the modest girl kept her fair face so closely hidden in her Dunstable cottage bonnet, trimmed with blue, the color of her own melting and sometimes laughing eyes, that she at length wearied them of their impertinence. At this period of my story, Alicia Temple Seabrooke was in her eighteenth year. Her flaxen tresses, untortured by the hand of art, fell in curling profusion over her exquisitely formed shoulders and bosom. When her lips parted with a smile, they showed a set of teeth that looked like a row of pearl embedded in a vein of coral. Her figure was light and airy, and her movements as elastic as a wood nymph's. Happy and free from care, she bounded over her native hill and dale with one who for several years had been almost |