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Willy was saved; and, turning to thank the friend to whose boldness and address he owed his life, he burst into tears of delight, clapped his little hands together, and shouted, “Vinna! dear, dear Vinna!"

Three days after this, Vinna, bending in respectful salutation, with his arms folded upon his bosom, stood in the presence of the beautiful wife of the Candian king. She listened to his little story, and listened pityingly, for she was a woman and a mother. She promised, with the grace of conscious power, and nobly did she redeem her promise, to redress all Vinna's grievances, whether as regarded the oil of cinnamon, which she justly suspected Gatura to have stolen, or the pearl; and with regard to that pearl of pearls, the noble boy Willy, she made it her first business, her first pleasure, to send him home to his distracted parents, laden with presents, and accompanied by his brave preserver, the faithful Cinglese.

SCOTLAND.

SIR ALLAN AND HIS DOG.

"Therefore his age was as a lusty winter, Frosty, but Kindly."

SHAKSPEARE.

Her fair companion, the high-born and graceful Jessy Stewart, who, startled, as Agnes had truly said, at the sudden sound of Allan Macdonald's gun, had been standing in some dismay behind her friend, now that the: shock was passed, advanced smilingly, and found a seat upon the bank beside her.

"How fond you are, Agnes, of that huge dog! What would the exquisites who hovered round you in London and in Paris say, if they saw you in full dress, too, not as I am, snooded and plaided like a Highland lassie, with your jewelled hand resting upon that shaggy head, and his long, rough body reclining upon the satin skirt! What would they say to that, my dainty leddy,' as old Annot is wont to call you?"

"And what matters what they say or think, Jessy?" responded the warm-hearted maiden, kindling into a dignity of youthful beauty and unconscious stateliness, pure, delicate, and graceful as the attitude of a swan upon the mountain or lake, or the station of a doe, amongst her native glens. "What care I for the exquisites of Paris or of London? Not half as much as for the mountain posy which you have been collecting-the harebell, and the heather-sprig, and our own elegant and abundant Scottish rose. What is the worth of a 'wilderness of such 'monkeys,' compared with that of our noble, faithful Oscar? What would be the amount of their services in a whole century, measured with those which he has rendered to us? Why, did you never hear," continued Agnes, observing the sur"No, Oscar! no; your young master is prised look with which her friend regarded her deer-stalking to-day. Don't you hear the gun, evident excitement; "Did you never hear of which has startled Jessy so wofully? He poor Oscar's exploits in the hard winter, five does not want you just now, Oscar. His view, years back? No; you were in Germany at before firing that startling gun, which, wo is the time and it was before Allan's attachme! will have more than frightened the poor, ment and your return of affection (nay, Jessy, pretty deer; for Allan is such a shot, that he a princess would have no cause to blush for seldom misses his aim,-his view, before he loving such a man as my brother;) it was befrightened Jessy, and awakened the echoes fore this affiance, so gratifying to us all, had and brought down the red deer with that sud-given you a daughter's interest in the affairs den shot, was to creep towards them quietly and stealthily. He does not want the good hound, Oscar, to-day! Oscar must stay with his mistress." And as the lovely Agnes Macdonald spoke coaxingly these coaxing words, her small, fair hand thrown around Oscar's "You know the pride and delight of our neck, as he stood beside her, the noble animal family, my little sister, Jean; but you did not looked up in her face with his bright intelli- know the beloved and venerable relative, my gent eyes, delighting in the sweetness of the dear and excellent grandfather, of whom she voice, comprehending, or seeming to com- was, from the moment she could totter across prehend, the meaning of the words, and ac- the room, climb into his lap, and hang pratquiescing most contentedly in her decision. tling round his neck, the prime pet and faThere was, certainly, no great hardship in vourite. He doted upon the sturdy, hardy, merstanding at the side of Agnes Macdonald, the ry little girl, with her joyous smile, and her joybeautiful and the kind; and with looks that ous temper, so fearless, open, frank, and kind; spoke, as plainly as looks could speak, his af- and she, in her turn, idolised the fine, cheerfection and his gratitude, her honest and faith-ful, benevolent old man, her most alert playful favourite (somewhat of the largest and roughest for a lady's pet,) lay down in calm and quiet happiness at her feet.

of our house. If you are not afraid of a long story, I will tell you why it is that, from the oldest to the youngest, we all consider Oscar, not merely as a noble animal, but as a benefactor and a friend.

mate, and most indulgent friend! Oh! how they loved each other! And what a picture it was to see them together! He, at nearly

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good hound, Oscar, bounding on before them. He had an innocent pride in dropping in with Jeanie in his hand at houses at a considerable distance, particularly at the residences of his daughters and grandchildren (for his daughters, older than my father, an only son, and early married, had scattered his descendants over the country), and replying, with a chuckling glee, when questioned about horses and servants, that he had walked; that he left such effeminacies as coaches and flunkies to those who needed them, and was ready to dance a reel with the youngest lassie present; and it should go hard but he would tire her down: and Jeanie hersel' will keep it up with any lad of her inches; won't you, Jeanie?' and the vaunt would end by the good old man tossing Jeanie upon his shoulder, and cutting the Highland fling to his own music. This was his delight: a ball was nothing without his presence. If you had but seen the nod and the wink, the fulness of his glee, the overflow of his good-humour, his archness in suspecting, and sagacity in detecting which lad and lassie would like to come together for the dance; ay, and sometimes for longer than the dance! How he would reconcile old feuds, and cement new friendships; ay, and how he would use the influence of age, and character, and property, even to the very stretch of his

eighty, still upright, robust and vigorous in form, with a regular, oval countenance, high, noble features, hazel eyes, bright and keen as a falcon's, a mouth of feminine sweetness, a fine open forehead, a magnificent bald head, and long curling hair, as white as the snow on Ben Nevis, contrasting with his clear, ruddy complexion, the very hue of a ripe peach. Oh, what a sight it was to see that beautiful old man, so full of health, and life, and glee, and kindliness, tossing about that rosy, laughing child with the activity of youth! never weary of humouring her pretty fancies, and even going beyond her in innocent mirth, and fun, and frolic. How Jeanie loved him! How we all loved him, the dear and venerable man! so generous and frank, so open-hearted and guileless himself, so unsuspicious of guile in others; so full of honourable thoughts and disinterested and affectionate feelings! How proud we all were of a relative, whose cheerful and venerable age accorded so well with his virtuous and active youth! The Southrons, estimating little except the conventional benefits of wealth or station, are apt to sneer at our pride of ancestry; and perhaps we may a little overvalue that mere string of names, that long roll of parchment, a pedigree; but a progenitor like Sir Allan Macdonald, or as he preferred to be called, Kilburnie,-a living example of all that is true, and just, and honour-interest, to smooth difficulties, and turn dim able, and kind, cannot be too highly appreciated. His family, his clansmen, his very countrymen, were proud of the good old man, whose sweet and genial temperament diffused gaiety and happiness around him. He was a blessing to the whole country. You will be a happy woman, Jessy, if my dear brother, the heir of his estates and his name, should (as Heaven grant he may) fulfil the promise of his youth, and inherit also the frank and winning virtues to which his grandfather owed his extensive and remarkable popularity.

"Sir Allan being a widower, and my mother a widow, she and her three children, Allan, Jeanie, and myself, lived with him at Kilburnie; Jeanie, younger than either of us by ten years, and a posthumous child, being, as I have said, his companion; whilst Oscar, then in his prime, whom my grandfather, still a keen sportsman, valued above all greyhounds for his speed (if my venerable kinsman, in his universal candour and charity, had a prejudice, it was against the sleek, high-bred, fine-limbed dogs, which form the pride of the southern courser, and Oscar had won a cup from a round dozen of competitors from Newmarket, brought on purpose to oppose him), and whom Jeanie delighted in for his gamesomeness, was the constant attendant of their long rambles. In spring, summer, autumn, and winter, in every season, and in all weathers, would the active old man sally forth with the hardy little girl, sometimes holding him by the hand, or when weary carried in his arms, and the

and distant wishes into present realities!Many a hopeful youth has owed his prosperity, many a gentle maiden her happiness, to the unwearied benevolence of the kind and merry Sir Allan.

"One Christmas he went to Glenmore, accompanied, as usual, by Jeanie and Oscar, to keep the birth-day of his favourite daughter, Lady Macleod. My brother was detained at home by a slight indisposition; and the weather was so severe, that my mother, always delicate, was afraid to venture, I myself being too young for parties of any kind. Sir Allan had fixed to return on New Year's Eve, the succeeding day being always one of high festivity at Kilburnie, the servants and neighbours dining in the great hall, and the whole castle being alive with feasting and jollity. It was an occasion on which we felt that he would be very unwilling to absent himself, and yet the day fixed for his return was so tremendous, that we took for granted Lady Macleod would detain her honoured guest at Glenmore. Snow had fallen during the whole of the preceding night, accompanied by a drifting wind, so that to send carriages and horses was impracticable; every vestige of the road, a wild mountain-track, at the best, was impassable, or my brother would have gone under pretence of fetching Jeanie; for we all knew well, that the only shade that ever crossed the brightness of our dear grandfather's countenance, was occasioned by his suspicion of being taken care of,-an affront which the

hardy sportsman would have regarded with as much jealousy and displeasure as would be evinced by a veteran of the wars at any precaution that should imply a doubt of his personal prowess. This consideration alone deterred my brother from setting forth to Glenmore in person; and as the day grew wilder and wilder, all around, hill, plain, and valley, covered with a sheet of fragile glittering white, with scarcely an hour's intermission of incessant snowfall, and the night closed in with bitter gusts of wind, which blew the frozen and feathery particles against the face with blinding violence, even my mother, a nervous and timorous woman, with a revered parent and a beloved child at stake, made up her mind to believe that, as it was evidently impossible that the expected guests would reach Kilburnie Castle on the morrow, its master would be content to remain where he was. Weather less formidable, so that it might have afforded some chance of his finding the road, or some probability of the arrival of his guests the next day, would have been more alarming. To have stirred out in such a fall as this seemed impossible. So we went to bed in comfort.

last year, just before we had the happiness of renewing our friendship with your family; and Jeanie is, you know, as lively and as lifelike a little personage as treads this most excellent earth. And now, my dearest Jessy, do you wonder that Oscar-look at him, poor fellow, he knows that we are talking of him! Do you wonder that this noble and sagacious animal should be my pet?"

CASTILE.

THE SIGNAL.

"Mine honour is my life."-SHAKSPEARE. "BE waiting soon after dark, my dearest Leonora, at the balcony of your apartment, and when you see me holding up a torch in the little boat upon the lake, steal unobserved, if possible, from the castle, and come to meet me at the water side. I must see you; must pour my sorrows into your sympathising bosom; must take leave of you-possibly for ever! Your unhappy brother,

FERNANDO JUAN CARLOS DE GUZMAN." For the twentieth time, Donna Leonora read her beloved brother's letter, as she stood lean

"About an hour after midnight we were awakened by a tremendous noise at the gate of the castle, a mixture of scratching and howling. Upon opening the door, it was found to be our friend, Oscar, who, instantly singling out my brother, leaped upon him with a piteous cry, and then went on a little waying upon the beautifully carved stone-work of beyond the gate, returning to see if Allan followed him (who delayed a few minutes to furnish himself with a lantern, and men with hurdles, mattresses, and ropes,) pulling him by the coat-skirts with a most urgent whine, wagging his tail when he began to move, and enticing him forward by every means in his power. Oh, I shall never forget the poor dog's piteous ways, his trembling earnestness, his eager looks, and the expression of his anxious cry-no human voice could have conveyed his meaning more distinctly. Never shall I forget that moment, nor the hour of agonising suspense that followed."

66

They were saved?" inquired Jessy, anxiously, breaking silence for the first time.

"Oscar led his party to a hollow by the hill-side, about three miles distant; and there the venerable old man was found leaning against the rock in a half-recumbent posture, so as to shelter the child, who was clasped to his bosom. The snow was gathering around them. Sleep had crept upon both, and, in another hour, all help would have been unavailing."

"But they were saved?" again inquired Jessy.

"Thanks to Oscar's fidelity and intelligence, they were. By proper care, they both recovered sufficiently to dance at the postponed festival on Old New Year's Day. Our dear grandfather lived in health and happiness until

the balcony, watching the appointed signal.
Her husband was absent; and the mystery in
the delivery of the billet, which had excited
the attention of her serving maidens, Livia
and Ursula, and had even awakened in their
coarser minds, -accustomed to the not unfre-
quent flirtations of Spanish beauties,-suspi-
cions that their grave and high-minded lady,
hitherto so inaccessible and so spotless, was,
at last, about to listen at least to one amongst
her innumerable admirers. The disguise of
the letter-bearer, and the silence and secresy
of his own approach, were, as far as Don Pe-
dro was concerned, wholly unnecessary. But
Donna Leonora, aware of the untamed,-per-
haps untameable-impetuosity of her brother's
character (an only and a twin brother, and
most fondly beloved), and of his impatience
of contradiction, and doubtful, also, how far
w
what she had to hear might be connected with
the political convulsions of these troubled
times, and certain of her husband's just re-
liance upon her affection and prudence, re-
solved to obey implicitly Don Fernando's
directions, to wait in the balcony until she
perceived the signal-torch, and then to hasten
to meet him by the edge of the lake.

As she stood leaning on the carved stonework, her guitar at her side, the beams of the full-moon striking on her rich jewels and her commanding beauty, and illuminating the splendid mansion, of which she was the un

disputed mistress (from one of whose opened the deepest affliction; "can you speak thus windows peeped forth the inquisitive and of leaving your country, of abandoning the laughing serving-maidens), the contrast-that princely name and the princely home of your contrast so frequent in this world of contra- ancestors, of deserting now, in the moment dictions between the splendour and gaiety when she most needs the defence of every of outward circumstances, and the cares and loyal cavalier, the young and innocent soveanxieties of the interior mind, the wide differ- reign, in the assertion of whose rights you ence, in short, between appearance and reality, took so vivid an interest;—above all, can you was most strikingly exemplified. To the eye think of forsaking me! True, I have a kind she was bright, fair, sweet, and calm, as the and an honourable husband; but even his afflowers clustered in their sculptured vase, that fection would not suffice for my happiness, if waved above her head, diffusing beauty and you, the playmate of my childhood, the comfragrance around her; but, as the flower-leaf panion and friend of my maturer years, my is subject to influences from without, shaken twin brother, my only living relation, were to by the night-wind, and battered by the rain, become a wanderer and an exile! Speak to so is that sentient and delicate blossom, the my husband, Fernando; he, too, is a soldier, human heart, liable to be swayed by the and a noble Castilian! Consult him. What changeful gusts of passion and feeling; and, was the commencement of this unlucky quareven when in itself equable and firm, it is but rel? Don Manuel Hernandez has a lovely too often torn and shattered by sympathy with daughter, the Donna Serafina, respecting the sufferings and injuries of the objects of its whom he is known to be singularly tenacious. best affections. And so it fared with the gen- Surely, her name was not mentioned between tle Leonora at this moment, when, awakening ye?" from a long revery, occupied in vain guesses as to the purport of the letter which lay by her side, she glanced suddenly down towards the lake, and saw the signal-torch gleaming high above the waters.

In a few minutes the brother and sister were standing together, in earnest conversation beneath a group of cedar, and cypress, and Portugal laurel, through whose dark foliage the moonbeams struck in bright fitful gleams, as the cool breeze of evening swayed the huge branches.

"He insulted me, Leonora, before the whole regiment called me a rash, hot-headed boy; and when I sent the young Conde de Merida to him, to demand an apology, or to appoint the time and weapons for a meeting, he refused to listen to him or answer him, otherwise than by saying that his regard for my father's memory, his old comrade in arms, alone prevented him from putting me under arrest for sending a challenge to my superior officer; and that for this time he forgave me, but that I had need look to it, for that the next breach of discipline should be visited upon me with all the rigour of military law. And this from Manuel Hernandez to a descendant of the house of Guzman! And he survives, and I survive! And all redress is closed against me by military discipline, forsooth! Military discipline!!! Well, I have removed that barrier, have thrown up my commission; and if, upon my return to Madrid, he refuses me the satisfaction which I require, I will leave Spain-leave Europe! The world does not want in ways in which the son of an old Castilian, even if he abandon his estates, his rank, his country, may win for himself enough to maintain life, without forfeiting that without which life is worthless-honour."

"Alas! my dearest Fernando! my most dear brother!" exclaimed Donna Leonora, in 48* 3 W

"His daughter, quotha!" replied the fiery youth. "I never saw her, have hardly heard that such a person existed! Don Diego Velasquez and myself were speaking of a stranger, clearly a lady of distinction, a beauty whom we had met together on the Prado, and whom I had subsequently seen, oftener indeed than I cared to tell him, at early mass at the church of San Isidro. He dared to compare with this angel, pure, dignified, gracious, and graceful;-I have never spoken to her, but I am sure that she is all this; there is an evidence of bearing and of countenance, to say nothing of the careful attendance of two old domestics, whose appearance vouches for the station and character of their mistress;-he dared to compare with her a Jewish girl, picked up in some of the alleys of the city; and it was my indignation at this insult, offered to a virtuous lady, which provoked the interference of Colonel Hernandez, who had entered unobserved during the dispute. Don Diego apologised. He is a slight boy; a trivial jester, who would crack jokes at his mother's death-bed, or his father's tomb: but Hernandez! And to refuse me all explanation! all redress! To disgrace me before my comrades, and then to stand upon his seniority! his military discipline! The day would come,' he said, 'when I should repent my violence.' Death will arrive before that day! Farewell, my Leonora! Women cannot comprehend these feelings! Schooled before all his officers! And he expects that I shall submit! that I shall rejoin the regiment, to be pardoned, it may be or to be schooled again! By St. Jago, the gentleman is modest! Farewell, my precious sister, my own Leonora! May the Holy Virgin watch over you! Forget me, my best Leonora; I can never forget you!" And he broke from her affectionate embrace,' leaped into the boat that awaited him, and rowed

rapidly to the opposite shore; where Jose, his faithful domestic, attended with his horses.

preserver, how can we repay such services? Don Fernando! Is it, indeed, Don Fernando de Guzman?"

"Colonel Hernandez !" and, without their at all knowing how it happened, the two brave hands were joined in the most cordial grasp of affectionate amity.

"Well, is this not better, now, than fighting for neither could tell what?" said Don Manuel, after a few minutes passed in the warmest expressions of gratitude on the part of the father and daughter. "You will understand, my good young friend, that I had heard enough of your conversation with Don Diego, to be convinced that you were speaking of Serafina, without exactly knowing the degree or the manner of your acquaintance with her. This occasioned my taking up the matter with undue warmth. Upon discovering, however, how matters stood, I was actually on my way to your excellent sister, Donna Leonora, to commission her to mediate between us; and, as you confess to having left her in some trouble, why, I think, with your permission, we had better proceed thither now. She will forgive our untimely visit for the sake of its object."

The weather was singularly fine even for that delicious climate. The moon, nearly at full, reigned in the clear and deep-blue sky like a milder sun, throwing a silvery light upon the wild and beautiful scenery, the deep and richly-wooded glens, threaded by mountain streams, and surmounted by the abrupt precipices and rugged steeps of Sierra Guadarrama, into the defiles of which a few hours' riding had now brought them. Even the stormy passions of man were insensibly soothed by the peaceful sights and the harmonious sounds of nature, the calm sweetness of the night, the lulling sound of the wind amongst the willows, the distant fall of waters gushing from a rock, and the balmy odours of the cistuses, the wild thyme, and the thousand aromatic herbs that sprang around him on every side. Unconsciously, his anger was yielding to milder thoughts, as he wended his way, taking, at the guidance of Jose, or the will of his steed, the nearest but least-frequented road to Madrid, when, on emerging from a grove of cork-trees, and entering a strait and narrow valley, where the rude cart track wound between tall and almost inaccessible crags, celebrated as the resort of the banditti, formed in these times of civil war by the refuse of either army, he was startled from his meditations by the repeated sound of a pistol-shot, and the shrill screams of female voices; and saw right before him, in the moonlight, a carriage drawn by mules with one or two unarmed attendants, who, over-side of his beloved. powered by superiority of numbers, and the suddenness of the attack, were on the point of surrendering to half-a-dozen ferocious-looking savages, armed to the teeth, who were so intent on their booty, that they did not perceive the new-comers.

"Carry off the trunks, Pablo! Take care of the lady, Joachim! She looks like one for whom we may demand good ransom!" cried the ruffian, who seemed to be their leader.

The reply to this injunction was a shot from Fernando's pistol, which levelled the wretch to the earth. The faithful Jose seconded his master; the driver of the carriage and the attending servants, encouraged by the unexpected succour, rallied round their lady; and, in a few minutes, the assailants, dismayed by the loss of their captain, and alarmed also by the sound of horses advancing along the highway, fled the field.

Don Fernando advanced to the trembling and frightened travellers, (for they were two females ensconced in the calèche,) whom he had rescued from worse than death.

"The beauty of the Prado!" cried he, in ecstasy. "The lovely devotee of San Isidro !" "Serafina, my beloved daughter!" exclaimed the newly-arrived cavalier, joining the group; "and you, señor, her protector, her

There is little need to say with how much delight Don Fernando acceded to this proposition, or how much more delicious the silver light of the moon, the lulling sound of wind and waters, and the balmy scent of the herbs, which hung heavy with the nightdew from the romantic defiles of the sierra Guadarrama, seemed to the lover, when traversed at the

It was long past midnight when they arrived at the castle, to the unspeakable pleasure of its fair mistress, and a little to the disappointment of her waiting-maids, who found to their no small amazement, that the cavalier of the signal-torch was no other than their lady's twin brother.

THE RETURN FROM THE FAIR. "For love, thou knowest, is full of jealousy."

SHAKSPEARE.

Ir was on a bright balmy evening towards the end of July, that half the population of this sunny side of Berkshire were pouring through the suburbs of Belford Regis, on their return from the annual festival, popularly called the Cherry Fair, because it forms the great mart for the wagon-loads of that luscious fruit, which blacken the orchards, skirt the beech woods, and dot the commons, of that wild and beautiful tract of country which runs along the northern banks of the Thames. Carriages of every variety, from the fordly landau (our story bears date some thirty years back), with its

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