a

molesting and unmolested, the strange. they glanced sarcastically at Chris. visaged monsters move about on all tianity. After many years I fell in sides. Man alone is foolish enough with the illustrious Pietro d'Abano, and base enough to make a mockery and became his famulus. I after. of his fellow.creatures.

wards was a hermit, and many other “ And yet,” said the old woman, things besides ; but the best of it is, r wherein does all the mighty differ that, in whatsoever situation I was ence between one man and another thrown, there I was sure to accumulate consist? I never yet saw a nose an money, so that I am under no fear of ell long. It is but an inch, or at the spending my old age in poverty and most two, which makes the whole dif. need. And now, my good aunt, tell ference between beauty and deformity us your history.” in this feature. And as for a hump- My history," answered she, “ is back, if it were not so confoundedly not unlike your own. Innocence is inconvenient in bed, I know not that every where alike persecuted. I have I should not prefer it to a straight one, stood in the pillory-I have been bain which none of the beautiful bends nished my native land—I have been and flourishes of nature are to be within an ace of being burned alive. seen.”

It was alleged that I practised sorcery, “ You're right there," replied the stole children, bewitched the people, drunken dwarf, nodding to his drunken and brewed poison." companion; “I know not what nature “ And was there not a spice of truth means by throwing off so many in all these allegations ?" asked Berestraight people from her potter's cynth with a chuckle. “ I can answer wheel. Surely it is a great waste of for myself at least—and I believe it runs labour, for they are not in general in the family—that I do not stand quite worth their clay. But, mother, we clear of such practices. Believe me, who have been more highly favoured, my fair friend, he or she who has once must not be too vain of our superior dabbled in witchcraft, retains a liquorcharms. We must remember that we ish liking for the same as long as life did not make ourselves."

lasts. Sorcery in this resembles dram. • Well, then," answered the old drinking; once fairly wet your tooth woman, “let us change the subject. with either, and tongue, throat, palate, Come, tell me what trade you are now liver, lights, and the whole alimentary driving, and where you live.

canal, are filled, day and night, with “ To tell the truth," replied Bere- clamorous cravings for the stimulacynth, “ I have been leading a sort of ting enjoyment." vagabond life-at one time here-at - You know mankind well,” said another there. But now I am deter. the hag, laughing. No doubt, innomined to settle down; for, hearing cent people like us are permitted to that I had a near relation alive, I re- practise a little murder, witchcraft, solved to search her out ; you are she, stealing, and poisoning. There is no and with you I shall henceforth live. great harm in all that ; but what are In my early youth I was an apothe. we to think of the ingratitude of our cary's apprentice in Calabria ; but my own children? There is my ughmaster drove me from his shop, be ter, or at least she whom I have cause it was alleged that I compounded brought up as such—have I not pinchlove-potions. Ah, happy days! I ed myself in all manner of ways to put still look back upon them with delight. decent clothes on her back, and to get I then became a tailor, but was found her handsomely married ? Did I not to cabbage too much cloth ; and next throw her in the way of Ildefons and a pastry-cook, but had soon to give Andrea, and other men, any one of that up—the outcry against me being, whom would have made her a husband that my mutton-pies were made of the ten times better than she deserved ? flesh of dogs and cats. I then became but the ungrateful monkey would have a monk, but no monastery would ad- nothing to say to them, on the ground, mit me.

Having passed doctor, I forsooth, that they were robbers and narrowly escaped being burned for murderers ; and now she has fled from witchcraft. I devoted myself to study her own home to a nunnery, and I wrote poetry and so forth--but my cannot get her back. That is the effusions fell into discredit, the people way in which parents are treated now, having taken it into their heads that A-days,"

“ Let her go," said Berecynth,"we -it was that stupid word that demoshall get on very well without her, so lished my great master Pietro. He admirably do our dispositions har- might have been a professor to this monize."

hour, and fed his young goslings with “ But wherefore should she have philosophy, but he tumbled over love, run away from me, ungrateful baggage and broke his neck ; and so, farewell that she is? If we were to part, why to him and farewell to you also, dear could we not part friends ? Confound aunt. To-morrow night I shall reher, though! I might have made a turn to you about the same hour; and good market of her, and would have then we meet never to part more.". done so, had she not obstinately held “ Farewell !" responded Pancratia. out in the strength of her love for that “ Since you entered I have felt myself silly young gallant who came to our quite a different being. What a joycottage in the forest."

ous time we shall have of it !” “ Hold there!" cried Berecynth, hic- • That we shall," stammered Bere. cuping, and reeling, and half asleep. cynth, who, staggering forth into the “ if you begin to talk of love, I have street, went in the direction of his own done with you-ha, ha, ha! Love! dwelling.

1

66 But my

or have

CHAP. XIII.

THE END OF PIETRO. Mean-while Antonio apprised Po. “ Who are you?" cried the latter, desta and his wife of his absolute con- turning pale and recoiling a few paces viction that he had seen the old wo. before the presence of the dwarf. man, and should yet succeed in resto- " He is a miscreant of the worst ring their lost daughter to their arms. description," answered Antonio..." a The mother placed implicit confidence sorcerer, whom we must deliver up to in what he said, but the father still the Inquisition. This is the accursed continued sceptical. Before sunset, Berecynth himself, whose story you he went, in company with his friend are already acquainted with." Alphonso, to visit the wise Castalio. “ So you think, youngster!” said

Castalio received them with much the dwarf, with an expression of the cordiality, and said to Antonio—“Here, profoundest contempt. my friend, take this paper ; you will business is not with you, child. Do find marked upon it the particular you not know me?" roared he aloud street and house in which that wicked to Castalio,“

you no need of old woman is to be found. When you my services at present ?" have discovered her, I think you will " How should I," said Castalio, no longer doubt the accuracy of my with faltering voice, “ when I never science.'

saw you

in
my

life before ? Begone, “ I am already convinced of its cer- I must decline your services ; my poor taiaty,” replied Antonio.

house is too small to accommodate certainly the wisest of mortals; and, any more than myself.” through your means, ' I expect to be Berecynth paced up and down the made the happiest. I shall straight- floor. “ You do not know me, then ?" way proceed to the old woman's house, said he. “ It may beso-people change, and, if Crescentia be not dead or car- and a man is not always in his prime. ried off, I shall at once restore her to Yet, I think, that any one who has her parents.”

once seen me, would not easily forget Full of these expectations, he laid And you, my young gentlemen, his hand on the handle of the door, (turning to the youths,) do you not and was about to leave the house, know who this precious wisdom-hunter when a knocking was heard from is ?" without, accompanied by a violent “ To be sure we do," answered coughing and a scraping of feet. Antonio, he is our friend, the ex“ Who is there?” cried Castalio- cellent Castalio." Antonio opened the door, and in walked The little man shouted with laughter Berecynth.

till walls and roof rang; “ Castalio ! • Your most obedient," said he, Castalio !” cried he, like one possess. making a variety of grimaces as he ed, “and why not Aganippe or Hippaid his respects to Castalio.

pocrenc? Where are your eyes, my

• You are

me.

Its eyes

" It was my

a

good sirs ? What can have bewitched in which they stood. these pumpkins of heads of yours ? streamed with fire, and its arms were Take another look at him, and tell me stretched forth like eagles' wings. whether the man before you be not Pietro prostrated himself, shrieking the renowned Pietro d'Abano, the for mercy at its feet. great artist of Padua ?”

might,” said the demon, “which upCastalio had sunk down into a chair, held thy hellish machinations; it was trembling violently, while the muscles I that gave success to the jugglery of his countenance worked so fright with which thou didst dazzle the eyes fully, that not a feature could be

of men. But all the while thou rightly distinguished; but, after the madest me thy scoff, and didst trample young men had viewed him attentive. me under foot. Now my time has ly for some time, they traced with come, and thou must be my servant. horror, in the distorted lineaments of Thou must go down with me into my his face, the expression of the old sor- kingdom, to be my slave throughout cerer of Abano.

eternity. Begone, ye strangers !" The magician started from his seat, continued he, addressing the young and, rising into giant stature, exclaim

" He and I have accounts to ed, in a voice of thunder, “ Yes, I am settle, and ye may not be present at that Pietro! and you, caitiff, you have the reckoning." A violent peal of crossed me in the schemes by which thunder shook the house to its foundaI intended to have crushed these youths tion, as Antonio and Alphonso rushed into the dust-tremble, worm, before out of it in terror. They got into the the vengeance of your master!" streets they knew not how, and fled

Berecynth again laughed a loud to a neighbouring church, while the laugh of mockery : “ The vengeance storm broke over their heads with ever of my master!" echoed he—“ Fool increasing fury. They looked back without an equal, to apply such lan- to the house from which they had fled, guage unto me!

Knowest thou not, and saw that it was enveloped in thou wretched juggler, that one glance fames. Two dark shadows were seen of my eyes-one grasp of my hand, wavering and wrestling among the can blast you for ever?- Thou earth- blazing rafters; and howlings of born tamperer with the things of despair, blended with the loud laughhell-were not all thy power and suc- ter of scorn, drifted towards them cess derived from me ?”

between the pauses of the loud-raging A phantom of horror filled the hall tempest.

men.

CHAP. XIV.

THE CONCLUSION,

a

It was a considerable time before “ How can you prove that she is Antonio was strong enough to go in their child?" asked Antonio. quest of the old woman whose house • In a hundred ways," answered the had been pointed out to him. When old woman. “ I have still by me the he did so, he found the old lady gaily dress she wore when I carried her off. attired, and she welcomed him with She has a mole upon her right shoulder, smiles.

which her mother cannot fail to re“ Ah! my young Florentine," said member; and besides, I still have in she, “ have you again come to pay a my possession the letters themselves of visit to your old friend of the forest?” the Marconi family, urging me to the

" Where is your daughter?” asked deed. All these shall be laid before Antonio, trembling with anxiety. you; but I must have gold in a good

“ If you are determined to have her,” round sum-mind you that.” said the old woman, “ I won't keep her Antonio told down all the money he back from you. But either you or the had with him, and added a diamond Podesta family must pay for her right ring and golden chain to the heap. handsomely, for she is their child, The old woman greedily scraped the having been kidnapped by me in her gold towards her, and laughed as she infancy, under the temptation of a large said, “ Do not be surprised that I am bribe which I received from the family so easily satisfied; the truth is, the of Marconi."

girl has fled from me, because she did

not like the lovers I wished to provide never perceived it, so light of heart her with. She has taken refuge in a was he as he winged his way to the cloister near Trajan's pillar, and the parents of Crescentia. abbess refuses to deliver her up to me. The happy parents were soon conBut just mention your pame at the vinced that the twin-sister of Crescendoor, and the gipsy will leap into your' tia was still alive; and on the follow. arms;

for she can dream and think of ing morning her father took her from nothing but you, so much has her silly the cloister. The maiden's joy was heart been bewitched since that night unspeakable in being restored to her on which you met her in my cottage parents, and in again finding the youth in the forest. Indeed, I am glad to be to whom she had given up her whole quit of her. I have got a better sort heart from the moment she first saw of person to keep me company in my him in the forest. declining years. Farewell, young

Shortly after this she and Antonio man; go to your Crescentia, and may were married, and went to reside with you be happy with her.”

Podesta and his wife in the neighbourAntonio carried with him all the hood of Naples. In the happiness and letters, the child's clothes, and the repose of love, Antonio forgot the other proofs of her identity. As he afflictions of his youth; and in their was leaving the house he met Bere- children and grandchildren the parents cynth at the door.

A storm passing were recompensed for the loss of their at the time, showed who it was beautiful and deeply-beloved Cres.. that was abroad ; but the young man

OY

SONG-WRITING.

Burns.

No composition, not even a sonnet, and subdued surprise. Any thing filat seems to us to concentrate within so or feeble-any thing subtle or strainsmall a bound so much delight and so ed—is out of the question. Homer much difficulty as a good song, We may sometimes nod, and may almost cannot say of it what was said, by a in his slumbers approach within a sweet poet, of the ribbon that en. measurable distance of M•Henry's circled his mistress's waist

snore; but Sappho and Alcæus must

always be wide awake. The epic, the “ A narrow compass, and yet there

didactic, the Pindaric poet, may be Dwelt all that's good, and all that's fair."

sometimes turbid as the torrent, or Minor poetry, however pleasing or dark as the sea ; but the song-writer perfect, must never be exalted to the must be clear and transparent as the same level with the sublimer efforts of living fountain or the pebbled stream. the muse_with those massive monu. His work must have the purity, the ments of poetic genius, in which wis- ease, the modesty, of nature ; and it dom and beauty are united with ma- must have another of nature's attri. jesty and power-in which the suscep- butes, which perfect art can alone aptibilities and destinies of the human proach, that of wearing the freshness soul are better developed than even in of novelty on the hundredth repetition. the loftiest attainments of pure science, “Enough,” perhaps our reader inay and in which ordinary minds find a say, after the prince in Rasselas; source at once of docile veneration “ you have convinced me that no man and of pious pride. Yet as the epos,

can write a song." But such a conor the drama, abstractly, are superior clusion would be rash and erroneous. to the sonnet or the song, in the same, Innumerable lyric jewels are to be or rather in a still greater proportion, found in the treasuries of poetic gedoes a good poem of the slenderest nius. In all times, and in all tongues, style transcend a bad epic or tragedy. songs have been written and sung, There is far less difference between the realizing enough of their proper atIliad and the Flowers of the Forest, tributes to delight the hearts and live than between the Flowers of the Forest in the memories of the multitude, and the Antediluvians. The popular while they were capable of pleasing lyric, however, is not a slender, though the most fastidious and baffling the it is not a long-sustained, exertion of most critical. How many a palace, poetry.

Within its limited extent it how many a cottage, how many solitary affords scope for very high talent, and glens and crowded alleys have resound. exercises in its perfection avery power. ed, and at this hour resound, with vocal

The best feelings of our verse, in wbich the spirit of poetry is nature may and must be here address. breathed around with more or less of ed; the fairest, the vividest images power and loveliness, exhilarating the must be evoked ; the ideas must be de. happy, cheering the sad, softening the veloped in the most rapid and direct sullen, and reclaiming the depraved ! manner; the language must be emi. The themes which befit the lyric muse nently precise, polished, and appro- are not many, but they are exhaust. priate. Every thought must go straight less; they may be disfigured in their to the hearer's heart-every word must form, or perverted from their purspeak magically to the ear and the pose, but they are in their nature nofancy. The choice of a subject for a ble and good. Love is the essence of song, is as difficult as the task of doing them all love in all its forms and justice to that subject. Its essence and phases; whether the love of lovers, or object imply that the theme shall be po- of friends, or of kindred, or of papular but not commonplace; simple and triots, for the dear objects which ensingle in its conception, but stirring gage their hearts-love, whether exand striking in its progress, and in its ulting in the happiness of hope, and close complete and satisfying, and presence, and enjoyment, or enduproducing, for the most part, a sober ring the trials of absence, disappoint