veux tu le croire? Elle fait la modeste. She won't dance any more,' said the fifer, and I was teaching her to dance so well.'

6

"Perhaps,' observed the eldest female, to whom he addressed himself, and who was his sister, you were too rough with her, Jacques; you know I always told you she was not made for roughness; elle est trop delicate, pauvre fille, outre ses malheurs.' Jacques gave her a look, at first angry; but afterward softened into great seriousness, he added, 'Oui, tu as raison, Jacqueline; et moi, comme toujours, j'ai tort.' With that he flung out of doors, and we heard no more of dancing that night, for Jacques seemed the life and soul of the party.

"By this time my little supper was ready, and I sat down to it with appetite enough; but somehow or another I could not help thinking of Zerlina, and was only consoled by the hope of seeing her in the morning."

CHAPTER XXI.

THE MAN OF IMAGINATION CONCLUDES HIS STORY.

Thou, dearest Perdita......

Or I'll be thine, my fair,

Or not my father's, for I cannot be
Mine own, nor any thing to any, if

I be not thine.-SHAKSPEARE.

"NOR was the hope disappointed; for as the family were all cottagers, though at their ease, they could not afford separate apartments, still less separate meals. I was delighted, therefore, to find all my hosts (Zerlina among them) seated on a stone bench under a luxuriant vine, at their cheerful early breakfast, made still more cheerful by the freshness of the morning. To be sure, the repast was at first but of brown bread and goats' milk but not only was I accustomed to that, but it was soon reinforced by œufs frais, and a tasse de chocolat, which I found was meant for me. The romance of the thing gave the whole scene a zest which more sumptuous entertainments to me often wanted. But who would have thought of the quality of a breakfast, or even of breakfast itself, when Zerlina was there?

;

"She arose with the rest on my approach; and while they all opened in little babbling compliments, she made me a silent but so graceful a courtesy, and the courtesy was accompanied by such a blushing air of retiredness, and yet, as it seemed to me, it was so polite (if I did not even think it so high-bred), that my interest, already much on the qui vive, was all hers in a moment.

"She was the clearest brunette I ever saw; and full of expression, at least I made her so, which is the same thing. She had the finest-turned arms, and wrists, and hands; and her head was as well set on her neck as a statuary could have wished. But even if it had been illshaped, the gipsy had contrived to set it off with a crimson silk net, the tassels of which were intermixed with a profusion of her dark tresses, in a manner so piquante that there was no keeping one's eyes off it. Then her shape, form, figure, action, oh! they were inimitable. I cannot tell you, sir, how soon and how entirely she got possession of me; and yet without speaking a word.'

De Vere would have smiled, had not some too interesting recollections come across him; so contenting himself with saying he could perfectly well understand this, Mr. Rivers continued. "But she set herself off so by her dress! I cannot describe her dress; but you shall see it in her picture, as I sketched it, though it was no more than that of a Pyrenean paysanne. It was a simple boddice of black silk, laced with crimson riband, and having a stand-up collar in the nature of a ruff, which left open a graceful throat, ornamented by a string of coral and a cross of gold. Beneath, a crimson petticoat, not silk, but of the fine stuff of the country, was just short enough to show the prettiest foot in the world. Well, I had often been in love at first sight, but now I prepared for it in earnest. Jacques was at her side, and showed her all rustic attentions. He cut her loaf for her, culled her eggs for her, and pressed her to eat. I thought Jacques looked particularly ugly. Yet she did not seem to encourage him, and said little in return for a thousand country compliments.

"You may suppose I was much questioned by my good-humoured hosts, but not by her. She did not utter a word. But I observed she was very attentive to all I said, and I translated that into a great deal. We talked of England. 'Man'selle entend l'Anglois,' said Jacque line.Est-il possible?" said I. 'I hate l'Anglois,' said

Jacques; c'est une vilaine langue.' 'Vous êtes malhonnête,' said his mother.

"Toujours tort,' cried Jacques, looking sulky, and was silent for the rest of the breakfast.

"I could enlarge much on all this, but will not detain you. It is sufficient, as you may suppose, that upon Jacqueline's information, I addressed myself in English to Zerlina, who answered me with some shyness, but very prettily, and only kindled my interest more and more to know who she was, and how she came to be domesticated with beings evidently so much her inferiors. Besides, I remembered the expression of Jacqueline the evening before, 'Outre ses malheurs.' No! there was no stirring till I had discovered what they were.

"Discover them I did, and strange they proved; strange enough even for me. You will perhaps scarce believe me when I tell you the native country of Zerlina was Poland: the seat of her misfortunes as well as those of so many others at that cruel time. I have told you I was no politician, and I never thought much about the rascally partition just then going on, though dinned daily in my ears by my patron Sir John, from whom I had escaped. But I now thought of nothing else.

"Zerlina was the daughter and sister of the Staroste Zerlinsky. Her mother was English, and a Mordaunt ; hence her pretty English tongue. And as Miss Mordaunt

had travelled much in Italy for her health, hence Zerlina's Italian name. The family settled some time at Bagnieres, the Bath of the Pyrenees, to which people of all nations flocked; and here the match took place between Miss Mordaunt and the Staroste Zerlinski, and here Zerlina was born. Afterward they went to Poland with a Pyrenean nurse, of whom hereafter.

"All was happy for some years; till those miseries arose which afford no play to the imagination but such as I am by no means fond of.

"Zerlina's mother was dead, and her father had nobly opposed the three crowned birds of prey who were devouring his fine country. But he perished in unequal battle against the Russians, who claimed him, his son, and Zerlina too, as subjects, by a law of their own making. The son was seized in his own house, and hurried to head-quarters to be tried for treason, though he had not yet been in arms, and had never heard of any sovereign but Poniatowski. Think of my glory, when I

tell you his life was saved, though his liberty could not be preserved, by the energy of the gentle girl I have just described to you!"

Here the whole company became elevated with pleasure as well as curiosity, and Mr. Rivers, greatly animated, went on.

"As soon as she heard of his capture, and of what he was accused, ignorant as she was of the world, and even of Poland, where she had never stirred from her father's house, unaccustomed even to the sight of men (in truth but then barely eighteen), she conceived the great, the romantic design, God bless her for it," said Rivers, with an emotion caught by all his guests, " of appearing before the military tribunal that was to try him, with the hope to save his life."

The company were breathless.

"And nobly she performed it," continued Rivers; "though she had two hundred miles to travel; through roads full of savages, and of which she was wholly ignorant. With no male friend to protect her-nothing but a guide-she traversed her smoking country to the Russian head-quarters, and presenting herself to the general, besought him to hear her.

66 6

I have no hope,' said the tremulous girl, in tears, 'that begging a brother's life, as a favour, will do; but if a trial is allowed, and proofs that he has never been in arms, I have brought them with me to throw at your feet.'

66 The astonished old Scythian to whom she addressed herself had some heart left. He looked at her, then at her papers, and then at her again; and for the first time in his life hesitated about a military execution. But the proofs were clear, and Zerlina touching: and somehow or another he felt that Zerlinsky was innocent—so he sent him to Siberia.*

"As for Zerlina, after being allowed to embrace her brother, the same good Providence which had protected her to head-quarters protected her back again. But she found the family fortune confiscated, her house in ruins, and had nowhere to lay her head but in the cottage of her nurse, then a widow, about thirty miles off. Here she remained in safety for three months, and passed for, and dressed like, her nurse's daughter. But in vain; for the province in which she now resided had been seized by Prussia, and the good Frederick, finding a number of

* For the honour of woman let it be known that this is a story of real life,

his beloved Prussians without wives, thought it but right to provide them with that necessary comfort. He had just issued an order, therefore, for every family in which there was a marriageable girl to send her with a portion of household stuff to the husbands whom he had selected for them, on the other side of the Oder. The general who had the execution of this order had already pitched upon Zerlina.

"There was nothing left for her but to fly, and no place to fly to but England or the Pyrenees, the old nurse's native country.

"England was too far off, and Zerlina knew not her relations; so they flew, that is, they came in a wagon to Bagnieres, where the good nurse hoped to find her family. She found only an uncle; but he was grown old, and had retired to die in the hamlet where I met Zerlina It was a beautiful hamlet, as I have told you; and Zerlina, who courted privacy, entreated her nurse to settle there. She had saved some ducats from the wreck of her fortune, and all her mother's jewels: and luckily the Poles are very fond of jewels. Her nurse, too, had a little hoard. So they established themselves humbly but comfortably at St. Elmo. Alas! in twelve months Zerlína lost this faithful old friend, and was glad to be received as a boarder by the respectable old lady in whose cottage I found her."

Here Mr. Rivers stopped, as if doubtful whether he had not told enough; but no one seeming to relax in his disposition to listen, he went on.

"In this sequestered spot she endeavoured to forget herself. She liked the females, and all showed her attention. Too much attention for Jacques-but hang Jacques-he did not succeed, and was so unhappy, poor fellow, that one morning he left us, with his Montero cap on his head, a long gun on his shoulder, and a leathern bottle and wallet at his back. He said he would just go and fetch us an iserre. I shall never forget his blue stockings, and red garters tied under the knee. A fine figure, sir, for a picture; and I wish I had taken him. But I never saw him afterward. He said he would only climb the mountains; but he climbed into Savoy, and never came back while I was in the village."

Here Mr. Rivers concluded, saying, "My tale is done; for, as you may suppose, the admiration I had conceived for the beauty of Zerlina did not diminish by learning