sprang to his lips. The poor youth tottered and reeled, fell forward, striking his forehead, as he fell, violently against a marble pedestal upon which stood an alabaster statue of the Madonna, and the warm blood spouted from his gashed temples over the cold, white robes of the image.

It was a spectacle of horror! - and the guilty being gazed wildly upon his prostrate brother, and thought of Abel and his murderer; upon the red-sprinkled image, and laughed, Ha! ha! ha!' as maniacs laugh, at the fitness of his first offering a mangled brotherat the shrine of the virgin mother.

The momentary but terrific spell upon his reason passed away; and throwing himself upon the senseless boy, he attempted to stop the ebbing current of life as it trickled in a small red stream down his pale forehead, steeping his auburn curls in gore, at the same time, calling loudly and madly for assistance.

6

His father, followed by the servants, rushed into the library.

Help Sir, my brother is dying!' he cried wildly.

The old man sprang forward and caught his bleeding child in his arms. His practised eye at once comprehended the extent of the injury he had sustained. He had received a deep cut in the shape of a crescent over the left eyebrow, yet not severe enough to endanger life. The free flow of the blood soon restored him to his senses, and opening his eyes, as his father, with a tender hand, staunched the bubbling blood, he fixed them upon his brother with an expression that eloquently spoke forgiveness.

God pity me!' exclaimed the repentant and now broken-spirited boy; for that look went to his heart: and burying his face in his hands, he precipitately left the room.

The long and bitter hours of grief, remorse and shame, he suffered in the solitude of his own room, no tongue but his who has felt like him, can utter. He experienced sentiments of hatred for himself, a loathing and detestation that tempted him to put a period at once to his own existence. When he recalled the reproving yet forgiving look of his suffering and magnanimous brother, he felt degraded in his own eyes, fallen, lowly fallen, in his own self-esteem. That he must be in his brother's he was painfully aware, and for the first time he felt that the gentle-natured Henri was his superior.

A STUDENT-THE RETURN-GERTRUDE LANGUEVILLE-LOVE. 'PLACE the lever of Archimedes in the hands of love, and he will find the point on which to rest it. Perhaps love has caused more evil than ambition. Let us search from the cot of the humblest villager to the tent of Mark Antony, and we shall find it has been the pivot upon which some of the most affecting domestic, and many of the greatest historical, events have turned. Doubtless, that love which is elicited at the first sight of the object, is the most legitimate, the purest, and the most enduring.'

ANONYMOUS.

DAY closed in night, and night opened into morning, for many long and tedious weeks, and still the old soldier sat by the bed-side of his wounded child.

The generous boy, too honorable to prevaricate, yet too forgiving and fond of his brother to expose all the truth, had told him that he had

fallen against the pedestal, but not that Achille had thrust him against it.

Their father never knew the agency of Achille in the accident; yet, bearing testimony to the truth of the maxim, that suspicion is the handmaiden of guilt, Achille suspected that he was informed of all the circumstances connected with the act. This suspicion, giving its own tinge to the medium through which he viewed and commented upon his father's deportment toward him after the accident, led him to conclusions as unjust as they were unmerited by his parent. Acting from these conclusions, he shunned his society, and never entered his presence but with a sullen air of defiance.

Occasionally he visited the chamber of his brother, when, in answer to his frequent inquiries of the nurse, he learned that he slept; and pressing the fevered hand, or kissing the cheek of the sleeping sufferer, he would watch over him with the tenderness of a mother till the restless motions of the invalid, indicating the termination of his slumbers, or the heavy footsteps of his father ascending the stair-way in the hall, warned him to return to the seclusion of his own room, or the deeper solitudes of the forests.

A few months passed away, during which Achille became a student within the walls of a university not far from his paternal home; while his brother, entirely recovered, accompanied his parent on his transatlantic voyage,

The period of Achille's residence at the university afforded no incidents which exerted any influence over his subsequent years. It glided away pleasantly and rapidly. He was known by the professors as one, who, never in his study, or a consumer of midnight oil, yet always prepared for the recitation room; and by his fellows, as a young man of violent passions, honorable feelings, chivalrous in points of honor, a warm friend, and magnanimous enemy. Often violent and head-strong in his actions, he was just and equitable in his intercouse with those around him. With a love for hilarity and Tuscan pleasures, he never descended to mingle in the low debauches and nightly sallies, which, from time immemorial, have characterized the varieties of college life.

At the early age of nineteen, he received its honors, and bidding adieu to the classic walls within which he had passed so many happy hours the happiest of his life- he proceeded to an adjacent port, where he expected his father to disembark, on his return from his long

residence abroad.

--

The little green coasting packet in that early day, when steam navigation had not superseded those teachers of patience to domestic voyagers, the sloop and schooner had passed up the river the previous evening. He crossed to the opposite shore, in a broad flat wherry, whose representative, in the shape of a neatly painted horseboat, propelled by the Ixion-like labor of a blind Rosinante, may still be seen plying frequently between the opposite shores.

The sun had just set in a sea of gold and crimson, and a rich mellow light hung like a veil of transparent gauze over land and water, when, after winding round one of the graceful bends of the romantic Kennebec, and ascending an abrupt and rocky eminence, up which the road wound, the beautiful and wooded glen, with the turretted chimnies

of his paternal roof appeared, lifting themselves above the oaks, in the midst of which it stood. Reining in his horse upon the brow of the hill, he gazed down upon the lovely scene, with its sweeping river, relieved by a little vessel at anchor upon its black glassy flood-its surrounding hills, its venerable oaks, and serpentine walks- with a thoughtful

eye.

Gradually as he gazed, the scene before him faded into indistinctness, in the approaching twilight, and the young moon had launched her silver barque upon the western sky-a timid sailor, venturing each night, farther and farther up into the heavens, and spreading her shining sail broader and broader as she gains confidence from temerity - before the young horseman shook off the spell which had rendered him indifferent to external objects a spell, whose workings, to judge from the knitted brow, compressed lips, and pale cheeks, were of no pleasant nature. We will not attempt to analyze his thoughts; he dared not do it himself-nor will we. Spurring his restless horse down the precipice before him, as he perceived the shades of night thickly gathering, he soon gained the winding avenue leading to his paternal dwelling.

Nearly four years had elapsed, and its halls had echoed to the fall of no familiar footstep. During that period, he had never visited it but once, when scenes and events he would fain forget were too vividly revived, and he shunned a second time to recall such unwelcome associations.

Now, as he rode forward, the retrospection of the past was clouded by a reminiscence that weighed depressingly upon his spirits. Entering the bridle-path which led to the dwelling, he slackened his rein and moved slowly onward, musing upon the approaching interview with his long absent parent and brother, when the sudden glare of a light flashed from one of the windows of the library full upon his face, and roused him from his meditations.

Dismounting at the spacious gate-way, he traversed the broad gravelled walk to the house, with a rapid step, anxious to hasten the meeting, which his heart foreboded would be tinged with both pleasure and pain. He had placed his foot upon the first step, to ascend the portico, when the apparition of a graceful female figure, gliding past the brightly-illumined window, stayed his ascent, while emotions of surprise and curiosity usurped for the moment every other feeling.

Who can she be?' was his mental interrogation, as her retreating figure disappeared. But he had no time for conjectures, for the old gray-headed gardener, Phillipe, who had followed his exiled master through all his fortunes, recognised him as he was taking his evening round about the grounds, and by a loud exclamation of joy intimated his arrival to the whole household. The next moment he stood in the presence of his father and brother!

We will briefly pass over the interview between them. By the former, his reception was dignified and condescending; yet there was an absence of affection in his manner, as he received his congratulations, imperceptible to an ordinary observer, but to which the lively feelings of the young man were keenly sensitive -a cold politeness in his look and tone, such as a father should not wear to greet a long absent son. And such was the proud spirit of Achille, that he assumed a bearing of hauteur and distant respect, which measured his parent's coldness.

Henri, whose slight form and girlish beauty were lost in a manlier elegance of person, met him as brother should meet brother frankly, affectionately, and ardently. Achille returned his embrace as cordially and sincerely as it was bestowed; but a cold chill curdled the blood in his veins, as unfolding him from his arms, the purple scar glaring, half-hid by his flowing hair, upon his beautiful forehead, caught his

eye.

Days and weeks glided by, and Achille loved!

M. Langueville, a distinguished Frenchman, his maternal uncle, and the only brother of his mother, had married an American lady of eminent beauty, and princely fortune. They both died within a short period of each other, leaving an only daughter, appointing his father the guardian both of her person and inheritance. To receive this trust, was the object of his visit to Europe; and on his return, his ward accompanied him to make her uncle's mansion her future home.

The lovely vision of the library was this cousin. Gertrude Langueville, at the period of our tale, was a noble creature, with a form of faultless symmetry, voluptuously rounded, and just developing into womanhood- -a rich bud bursting into a full-blown rose.

Neither too tall nor too short, her figure was of that indefinite size which a graceful poet has termed 'beautifully less.' In her manner she combined the dignity of a woman with the naturalness and infantile grace of a wayward child. The infinite delicacy of her chiselled features, and the finely turned contour of her expressive head, were unsurpassed.

Just turned sixteen, she knew the power to charm, while she seemed not to use it, as, with the bewitching grace of a girl and the refinement of a woman, she enchained the admiration of those around her, while they bent forward to listen to the rich, harp-like tones of her voice in conversation. Her eyes were of the mildest blue of heaven - the indices of a pure and faultless mind. They spoke of a spirit mild and gentle; yet her lofty forehead told that also a spirit proud and high slumbered within their gentle radiance. Intellectual, she was both romantic and imaginative. Few of her sex were gifted with a mind of higher order, or more accurately cultivated.

Obedient to the waywardness and contrarieties of her character, she was at one moment a Hebe, charming by her grace and vivacity, heightened by the sparkling expression of her eloquent eyes and beaming face, upon which every thought brilliantly played, like the reflection of a sunny landscape upon a shadowed lake, mantling it with a richer beauty—or, now a Minerva, commanding admiration and esteem by her originality of thought, and the lofty character of her mind.

Achille admired-loved worshipped her!

We will not linger over the recital of his first meeting with this charming girl, and the wild impassioned progress of his love. With the impetuosity of a mountain torrent, it merged every passion in it itself, absorbing all the faculties of his soul.

His love was unrequited.

A MORNING EXCURSION - SCENE ON THE ICE-AN ESCAPE - LOVE AND JEALOUSY.

'YOUR true lover is a monopolizer. He must himself receive all favors and do all favors. He can bear no participator. He will sooner forgive acts of indignity against himself, than the man who steps between him and his mistress' danger. If he cannot aid her himself, he would rather lose her than that another should boast of the honor. If I wished to make him my enemy, I would save his mistress' life.' BROWN.

SPRING was just opening in that enlivening and rapid manner peculiar to northern latitudes, when Achille and his brother accompanied their cousin on a morning excursion along the beautiful shores of the river. The earth was clothed with the mantle of green and gray, which young Spring loves to throw around her, and the morning was bright and warm for the season, as if June had usurped the wand of rude and blustering March.

They had reined in their horses on the verge of a lofty cliff overhanging the river, and remained gazing upon its icy surface, which, as far as the eye could reach, north and south, presented one vast plain of chrystal. The lateness of the season rendered it imprudent to venture upon it, although, except in its soft, white appearance, under the warm sun, it presented no indication of weakness. Gertrude, excited by the gay canter along the cliff, and in unusually high spirits, proposed galloping across the river, which, during the winter they had frequently done, and ascend a hill on the opposite side, from whose summit there was an extensive prospect she had repeatedly admired.

By no means, Gertrude,' exclaimed Achille, it would be rashness to attempt it.'

'I think not, cousin,' she replied, with that love of opposition which is the prescriptive right of the sex. It is evidently very firm; only three days ago, I saw several horsemen passing down the river at a hand gallop.'

'But you forget the warmth of the sun, Gertrude ?'

'Not enough to affect this solid mass before us,' she replied; 'at all events, I can but try it.'

So, slightly shaking her bridle, she cantered down the smooth road to the foot of the cliff, rapidly followed by the brothers.

'Do not venture upon the ice, cousin Gertrude, I beseech,' mildly remonstrated Achille, when they gained the beach; you will certainly endanger your life!'

How very pathetic and careful, cousin of mine,' she replied, with a playful, yet half-vexing air; if you really think there is so much danger, we will excuse your attendance. I am fearless as to the result, and quite confident that the ice will bear Léon and me. See, now,' added she, as her beautiful jennet bounded forward, on hearing his name, Léon is more obedient to fayre ladies' commands than their sworn squires;' and her fine eyes glanced mischievously as she spoke. This badinage touched Achille, who was sensitively alive to ridicule, especially from the lips of the lady of his love. Biting his lips to suppress his feeling, he calmly observed, I regard not myself, Gertrude; it is for you I speak. If you are resolved to go, I shall certainly accompany you, although the greater the weight, the more imminent will be the danger.'

'So will Henri, will you not, Henri?' she said, half-assuredly, half