the field flowers had blossomed under

many suns which had shone upon my footsteps. I knew their histories, their natures, and their properties; and as we walked along, enjoying the full measure of their beauty, I made them the topic of our conversation. I felt that enthusiasm for the subject, which nature loves to awaken in the breasts of her worshippers; and as I increased in the fervour of my language, I observed her eyes kindling with more than usual lustre, while her smiles seemed expressive of as much approbation as pleasure.

Lucy was one of those high-souled natures which we find it impossible to mingle with without loving; and as I enjoyed so many opportunities of becoming acquainted with those generous qualities of heart and mind with which she was gifted, I could not help being influenced by them in an extraordinary degree. Always violent in my passions, and led by impulse more than by reason, my love for her became a portion of my nature, giving to it a power which I thought nothing of human origin could counteract. I was fortunate in possessing her with similar sentiments, and of winning from her an avowal of their existence. Our life then for many months seemed to possess a charm, over which no evil power was allowed an influence. The earth looked fresher, and the sky brighter, and the air seemed to breathe with a balmier and more grateful breeze. To me all things appeared to smile upon my happiness, and I walked over the green sward with an elastic step, with the delighting consciousness of loving and being loved.

As there could be no objection to our union, it was agreed that my coming of age should be the realization of my felicity. The union of the two families became the conversation of the neighbourhood, and I was congratulated by all parties on my good fortune and excellent prospects. Preparations were being made that my approaching nuptials should be celebrated with appropriate honour, and it seemed the general desire to make it a day of festivity and rejoic- || ing. About a week previous to its taking place, I received a letter from my mother's agent, saying that my presence was re

quired in town immediately, to witness. the settlement of my affairs. As I did not expect to be absent more than two or three days, my separation from Lucy and my mother was not characterized by any violent expression of feeling: with the fond wishes of both for my safe return, I leaped into a post-chaise, and was whirled rapidly onward to my destination. As I proceeded, I found a sweet solace in the temporary estrangement from the being I loved, by recalling to mind the rich mine of immeasurable wealth I had been so fortunate to discover and to obtain. The many virtues which had appeared to me one by one during the progress of our intimacy, then rose up before my remembrance in all their excellence and in all their worth; and I felt how impossible it was for me to estrange myself from a being so worthy of man's deepest and sincerest devotion.

The business for which I was called to town progressed but slowly; but it did not prevent me from writing home every day, announcing a speedy termination to my labours, and my sure return on the day of my intended nuptials. One evening, while at the Opera, deeply engaged in observing Pasta's extraordinary performance, I noticed two men dressed in the highest style of fashion, who appeared to be watching me. As soon as they caught my eye they came up to me, and I immediately recognised one of them as a young baronet whom I had previously met in my own neighbourhood. He seemed overjoyed at our meeting, and introduced his companion as a person well known in the fashionable circles. This gentleman was evidently a man of taste as well as of fashion; his conversation was brilliant, and his remarks were apparently the result of mature judgment and sound knowledge. He conversed on music, and from that went into a variety of different subjects connected with intellectual pleasures, with all of which he appeared familiar, as if he had made them the particular objects of his study. He then introduced to my notice the people of rank and fashion by whom we were surrounded, and related some piquante anecdotes of their private history in a manner perfectly irresistible. I never was so much delighted with any person on a first acquaintance, and he seemed

equally well pleased with me. I invited them to sup with me at my hotel. The evening passed very pleasantly; the conversation was lively and well kept up, and I was still more delighted with my new friend. I received a very pressing invitation to dine with him, and we parted on the most excellent terms with each other.

His house was fitted up in the most magnificent style, and even in the splendour with which I was surrounded, I could discern the taste of the master. The dinner was composed of every luxury which wealth could procure, and served in a manner suitable to the grandeur of every thing around me. There

was only one stranger present. I felt flattered by the particular manner in which our host distinguished me above his other guests; and even these noticed me with more attention and respect, than I ought to have expected from so short an acquaintance. It seemed as if they were anxious to make me agreeable with myself and with all around me. They listened to my opinions, and, though older men, seemed gratified with my observations. After dinner, when the wine had circulated pretty freely, cards were introduced, and I was invited to make one of a rubber, merely to pass away an hour or so. I accepted willingly, and we sat down to a quiet game at whist. "Mine host" and I were partners; the stakes were not high, and we made small bets against each other to give a little more excitement to the game. I won almost every time, and as my confidence increased, I increased the amount of my stakes. After a few rubbers we changed the game and began playing at a higher rate. Fortune seemed to favour me in all my undertakings, for I met with success at the end of every game, and left at an early hour with a considerable amount in my possession which I had won from the others. I accepted with the rest an invitation from the gentleman to whom I had been last introduced, to dine with him at his club, and afterwards allow him his revenge. When I retired to rest I could not sleep for thinking of the money which had so unexpectedly come into my hands. I felt that I had no right to it, and wished to restore it to those who had a juster claim.

But I knew not the different portions which belonged to each. I knew that I should be laughed at if I offered to return any part of it; and I therefore determined to lose my ill-gotten wealth as quickly as possible, as the only means of satisfying my conscience.

me.

The club of which my new friend was a member, was a magnificent edifice. There seemed to be nothing wanting which money could procure or art supply. After dinner we again sat down to cards. I proposed very high stakes, but one of my friends begged that I would excuse him, for he had never played for such an amount in his life; his objection was overruled by the other two, and seeing that we were all willing but himself, he acceded to the proposition. The result of the games varied, sometimes being in my favour and sometimes against Fortune was getting more and more fickle as the night proceeded, and when I left off, I discovered that I had lost what I had previously won, with about fifty pounds beside; all the ready money I had about me. It was with a feverish brow that I pressed my pillow after I returned home. The excitement I had undergone, and the wine I had drunk, gave me a headache, which made me restless and weary during the night. I vowed not to touch another card. rectly I left my bed-room, though ill and sleepless, I wrote a letter home, announcing my immediate departure, and my certain arrival the next day; which was the day appointed for the celebration of my marriage, and my coming into possession of my estates. Just as I had sent it off, one of my companions called upon me, and after some preliminary conversation, very delicately inquired into the amount of my losses. He then in the most generous way imaginable, begged my acceptance of a bank bill for a hundred pounds until I had an opportunity of returning it.

Di

After some hours spent in amusing conversation, we went to the clubhouse, but why should I detail the artifices made use of by this nest of gamesters, who had marked me for their prey? Already that hateful passion of gambling had taken full possession of my soul; for full four and twenty hours I played without intermission, except

during an interval of a few minutes now and then to take refreshment ;—wine,— wine, of the most exciting quality: yet it produced no more effect than if I had quenched my thirst with water.

When I returned to my hotel, (but I know not how I got back,) I found myself a beggar. I had lost all. Lands, which had been in the family for centuries; wealth, which it seemed the pride of each possessor to leave more than he had found; an honourable name, and something to me more valued still, the heart of a loving and lovely woman. When I thought of the phrenzy which had possessed me, the passion which had infused itself into my nature like a deadly poison, and the fatal consequences which had followed, my brain throbbed as if it would have burst. I thought of the anguish of my poor mother at the disgrace of her name: I thought of the shame which would be heaped upon my head as the author of this unlooked for misery; I thought of my fond, expecting being, waiting at the altar to call me by Oh God! a weight lay upon my heart like a devouring fire. I could not meet the eyes of those I had so deeply wronged; I could not bear my mother's look. Lucy, I felt assured, I should never be allowed to see again. A fearful thought flashed across my mind-the consummation of a dreadful purpose. My pistols lay in the room-I commended my soul to Heaven-my hand was on the trigger --when I heard a voice upon the stairs, and in another instant I was in my mother's arms.

Ill news travels with inconceiveable rapidity. My agent had heard of my situation, knew the character of my associates, and fearful that he should be unable to undeceive me, had instantly set off to acquaint my friends with the circumstances, but too late to save me from ruin and disgrace. My mother did not reproach me, but her look sank deeper into my heart than all that language could have expressed. The next day I received a letter from Lucy's father, couched in the most resolute terms, and forbidding me ever to see or write to his daughter again. Not a line from her. One word, if it had even been coupled with censure, still, coming from her, I

would have looked upon it with glad ness; but no farewell-no regret-but a dreadful silence, which seemed to portend that contempt was the only feeling left for so base a wretch. Could one day's madness have erased years of love? But I felt that I deserved my punishment, and resolved to bear it let it be what it might.

We had gathered together what remained of our ruined fortune, and resolved to lay it out to the best advantage. A change of scene was advisable, and we were on the eve of departure for the continent, when I was surprised by a visit from my agent, and no less surprised with the occasion of his visit. He came to inform me that there was yet some chance of recovering the bulk of my property. He informed me that a powerful friend, whose name was not to be mentioned, had shewn great interest in my behalf, and had directed him to spare no expense in endeavouring to make the villains relinquish their plunder. A prosecution, and the exposure with which it would be accompanied, made them willing to agree to the terms of my agent, and in a short time my title-deeds, and in fact every thing I had lost, except some things of trifling value, were once more placed in my possession. I was now in a restless fever of anxiety to know who was the friend to whose kind offices I was so deeply indebted.

What could describe my transport, my gratitude and affection, to find that the friend, the more than friend, to whom I was under such heavy obligation, was no other than the generous, faithful, and devoted girl, whose affections, my fears had told me, I had forfeited for ever!

I am now a wiser and a better man, enjoying in the society of a happy circle the full measure of that earthly felicity, which is sometimes, though rarely, left to the enjoyment of humanity and I cannot help acknowledging, when gazing on the happy countenances around me, that for all the bliss which shines upon my household hearth, and for all the joy which has made a home beneath my threshold, I am indebted to the firm devotedness of a woman's love, and the holy sanctuary of a woman's heart.

W *.

WHETHER, according to the doctrine of the soul's transmigration, mine was originally in the possession of sexton or morrice-dancer, camel-driver or dustman; or that I have by nature a greater inclination to the head-tire of Folly than to the leaden pages of Reason, I know not: but I have all my life been partial to the sound of bells. My ear and my fancy have ever been interested in this the most simple of musical noises, mingling as it does in almost every situation of our varied existence. In joy or in sorrow, amidst the acclamations of patriotism, or the most hopeless grief of domestic life, it is heard, rejoicing with our happiness, or mourning with us over the cold grave of departed worth.

Perhaps in my zeal for this species of melody, my ideas on the subject may sometimes approach the boundaries of the fanciful; but it seems to me, that the ear has more to do with the formation of the human character than we are apt to imagine; and that, for the most part, the dispositions of men may be almost guessed at by observing the peculiar bells in whose vicinity they have been reared: inasmuch, as in my perambulations I have thought I could perceive, that where the bells have been of a gay sprightly character, the inhabitants have appeared particularly amiable and debonnaire, as if they moved but in a hop step and jump; while on the other hand, a dull and dismal peal of bells may be prognosticated, long before having the slightest auricular acquaintance with the worthies themselves, by the care-worn faces, and the lumpish step, of those who have listened from their childhood to the doleful jingle; a sound which, though they might be unaware of the origin of the feeling, must have had, by its sepulchral, or more properly speaking,its Saint

Sepulchral peal,-the effect of keeping them in continual remembrance of their needing no life-preservers to secure them from a watery grave.

It may be that in this I am carrying my theory of sounds to an extravagant extent; but it is certain that many of the sweeter reminiscences of our lives are brought to us by the sound of the bells which have been familiar to us in the earlier periods of our existence, ere the world, with all its train of follies and of vices, had chilled or embittered the generous feelings of youth.

Stories might be related, which would at once shew the influence these sweet notes are supposed to possess over the roughest and apparently the most insensible beings. How much then does it behove us to compassionate the followers of Mahomet, and who can wonder at the superstition, idleness, effeminacy, and opium-eating of the Mussulman race, when we remember the scarcity of bells among them? For beautiful as may be "the solemn sound of Allah Hu," and we have the evidence of one whose taste at least we never doubted, that it is solemn and beautiful in the extreme to listen to it on a still evening, as it floats from the highest gallery of the minaret; yet in my poor estimation, this can never equal the melody of our own village bells. Besides, from Lord Byron's own account of this matter, the beauty of the sound must entirely depend upon the fineness of the performer's voice; but, we would inquire, in what shall consist the solemnity of this call to evening prayer, should the Muezzin, or crier, chance to grow old and lose his teeth, or happen at the least to have a cold, or an asthma ?—circumstances by no means uncommon to humanity in general, if we may judge