which I am about to adduce is a singular one; that it is not so, I have reason however to fear; but I trust, that the history which I propose to bring forward will induce Christian parents to watch more carefully than many have hitherto done respecting the characters and religious opinions of those to whom they intrust their little ones.

Victoria is the name of the little girl whose history I am about to relate. It may perhaps be thought too fine a name for any but a princess, and scarcely fit for one descended from a family which is neither royal nor noble; but this will presently be explained.

There is little question but that you, my young reader, have heard of the town of Nice. A person travelling from the south of France into Italy, having crossed the river Var, enters at once into a small province under the King of Sardinia, to which the name of Niké, now Nice, was given, by an ancient Grecian colony : this colony took possession of it from Marseilles, above three centuries before the birth of our Lord. It lies on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea; and the Alps, that range of mountains which extend from the sea into Germany, and which in this place are called the Maritime Alps, so enclose this territory by their various branches as to form of it a little world of itself. This city of Nice, which was founded, as I before said, by the Greeks from Marseilles, afterward fell under the Romans, who had a magnificent seat near to it, of which vestiges still remain; in later times it became the property of the Counts of Provence, and it is now a part of the dominions of the King of Sardinia; its established religion being Roman Catholic, and the people being subjected to a very severe discipline, under the authority of the priests, insomuch that there are few countries on the continent, with the exception of Spain and Portugal, to which less liberty of Conscience is allowed.

But this little territory being enclosed, as I said before, by the Maritime Alps, and being thus sheltered on three sides from the winds, and being also much nearer the course of the sun than we are in England, cold is as little felt through all its charming coasts as in many places on the torrid zone; hence, the olive-trees and cypresses which adorn its heights being ever green, it presents on every side prospects so charming, that a person who has learned to see the Creator in his works

finds himself continually drawn out in acts of praise in beholding these manifold wonders of the Divine handiwork; for, to the instructed mind, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament telleth his handiworks, although it is to be feared that there are many to whom their language is unintelligible. But if the arrangement of hill and dale, with the various points of view in which the sea intrudes itself into the landscape, is supremely beautiful throughout this small territory, the various brilliant colours which blend themselves in every prospect add greatly to the marvellous effects of every scene; the clear bright blue of the heavens, the deep green of the ocean, the glittering hue of the white foam, which forms a line along the bay, the violet tint of the distant mountains, and the browner glow of those which are nearer, with not unseldom the addition of some far distant snow-crowned peak,—and all these seen, as they often are, over groves of orange-trees, which might vie with the gardens of the Hesperides,-form a whole which can hardly be imagined by persons who have always inhabited a northern region, where, if the natural beauties are not inferior, they are undoubtedly of a very different character. Nor are all the beauties of this place such as would meet the eye of a traveller at once, for one of the remarkable features of this sequestered spot, this mountain region, which is thus protected from the winds of the north, is the amazing quantity of flowers which are found on the sides of the hills; here are anemones of every colour, sown in the earth, and springing forth in the early part of the year without the assistance of man's hand; long ranges of aloes are seen on the acclivities of the rocks where no human foot can tread. The arbutus, too, is here in abundance with its wax-like blossoms, and the sweet acacia, shedding perfumes in every breeze from its golden tassels. The almond-tree, which is the first to blossom after the cold season, for which it has been chosen in Scripture as the emblem of the guardian of the church who watches and wakes, is found also in this climate; and the vine which gives its blood for the refreshment of man, and the tall majestic cypress, all these are here, nor is there a cottage garden in which they are not assembled, with thousands of lesser shrubs, which if I could enumerate, I should be wiser than Solomon, who knew every plant from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall. But that

which is the principal among the trees at Nice is the olive, of which groves of an immense extent cover the mountains; and as the almond and vine are used in Scripture for highly important emblems, so is the olive also chosen as the figure of a church supposed to be richly endued with the graces of the Spirit; and for this reason, because its berries produce a delicate oil, which is of great value to the owners of the trees.

The leaves of this tree are narrow and glossy, and are of a dark green on one side and of a white colour on the other hence, when the sun shines, and the leaves are agitated by the breeze, the whole tree seems to glisten as with dew. Such as I have endeavoured to describe it is the country about Nice; I say less of the town, which is built on the side of a mountain torrent called the Paglion.

This bed of the torrent, which is very wide and strong, is generally nearly dry; but when there has been rain in the mountains, or at the time of the melting of the snows in the higher regions, the waters come roaring down with a great noise, and meeting those of the sea, the waves are troubled, and the confluence is terrible. There are also a high rock and a castle on one side of the town; but as these things are not particularly to our purpose, we will leave them for the present.

Now, because Nice is so warm and healthy, many English families come here to spend the winter. They generally take ready-furnished houses, and hire servants for the time being. These servants are generally thought tolerably honest, but their manners are rough and unpleasant; they speak bad French to their masters, their own language being unintelligible even to persons who understand French. This language, which in the mountains is well preserved, is the language of Provencethe language, in fact, of the ancient troubadours, or minstrels, as has been proved by comparing it with what remains of the poems of these renowned bards. This language is nearly lost in Provence itself, by having been mixed with the French; and it is in the same danger in Nice from the mixture with Italian. Having, however, so far explained the nature of the place which is the scene of my history, I hope, without further loss of time, to proceed to my narrative.

It happened some years ago—I should prefer not to say how many-that a certain English family, having

resolved to spend some years on the Continent, came to Nice, and being pleased with the place, took a house, resolving to spend their winters there and their summers in Switzerland, or wherever else they might find it agreeable.

The family was large : it consisted of a Mr. and Mrs. Rosebury, whom we must consider as the principal persons; Mrs. Morley, the mother of Mrs. Rosebury; Mr. Morley her brother, and two younger sisters; added to these were two children of Mr. and Mrs. Rosebury; the eldest, whose name was George, being about eleven years of age at the time his father left England, and the second, Julia, being about nine. There had been two sons younger than Julia, who had died in infancy; and Mrs. Rosebury was expecting an addition to her family when she arrived at Nice. With respect to the characters of this family, I may sum them up very shortly.

Of the old lady I shall say little, but that she bought a new wig at Paris, and attended the theatre every night during her residence there. Of her son Mr. Morley, that he was a bachelor of about forty, who was very exact in his dress, very particular respecting his horses, and one who must have his game of cards every evening. Of Mr. Rosebury, that he was a mild amiable man, and very much under the influence of his wife. And of Mrs. Rosebury, that she was a woman of a strong mind, which had been perverted by a worldly, ambitious mother, and encouraged in all its follies by too great indulgence on the part of Mr. Rosebury. What the world calls pleasure was her idol, and as she never pursued any object by halves, she sacrificed every duty to this infatuation. As to the Misses Morley, they were like most other young ladies who are brought up in worldly families. And whereas George was very like his father, who was a remarkably well-looking man, Julia was the very image of her mother, and was hence an especial favourite of all her relations by the mother's side.

There was no want of money in the family on either side; indeed, Mr. Morley was supposed to be rich, and the old lady had a large jointure; in consequence of which, when they came to Nice, they provided themselves with a handsome house, hiring it ready furnished from a family who resided in the town; for of late years, that is, since the French Revolution, the country-houses

of the gentlemen and nobility of Nice are almost entirely abandoned.

The house is still standing, and has a less modern ap pearance than most of the edifices in the environs of the town; it is a square building, having turrets at each end, and each turret being surmounted by a vane or weathercock. The building is simple, having no fresco paintings, so generally seen on the walls of gentlemen's houses in this part of the world; it stands on a ridge of Mont Moran, but clear of the principal eminence, and just in a parallel with that line of the hill which is covered with olive woods, so that it has a protected appearance, the whole domain being encircled with olive groves. All the grounds above and below this house are laid out in terraces, chiefly covered with vines, but having some cypress and many orange-trees mingled with the vines, and on the southern front there is a splendid palm-tree, such as is not very common in this part of the world. Being thus situated, the prospects from this house are uncommonly fine. To the north, or rather to the northeast, is the principal summit of Mont Moran, crowned by the castle of Mont Alban. On the south, the descent towards the sea is so precipitous and so richly wooded, so rough with rock, so bold and broken, that the house is only approachable in that direction by steep and craggy pathways, such as persons accustomed to mountainous regions only could overcome; and beyond this rocky and woody region, some thousand feet below, is the harbour of Nice, with all its shipping, and beyond, the whole extent of coast towards the west, as far as Antibes, and even as far as the islands of St. Marguerite and St. Honoré, near where the Alps of l'Estrelles obtrude themselves into the ocean. On the west the town of Nice, with its castellated rock, is spread before the eye, and beyond it those various heights which, forming a termination of one of the branches of the Maritime Alps, approach so near the sea as to leave only a very small line of plain, over which passes the road from France. And on the north-west, over an immense ravine, were visible the bed of the Paglion, the hill and convents of Cimïes, and the monastery and church of St. Pons, with other hills rising above, and terminated by the often snow-crowned mountains of the Col de Tende.

The approach to this house is through a narrow way which passes from the Płazza Victoria up to the castle