attempted to lead her to her carriage, but involuntarily shrinking from him, she gave her hand to Don Julio, whom the king had commanded to conduct her to it, and who obeyed in silence, indignant at her conduct towards his beloved friend,

CHAP. XI.

Some solitary cloister will I choose,

And there with holy virgins live immured.

DRYDEN..

HAD Don Julio, however, been able to look into her heart, he would rather have pitied than condemned her, so great was the anguish she endured at the thoughts of the danger to which she had exposed Don Ferdinand. Every moment decked him with new charms in her eyes-the glory he had just acquired rendered him still more interesting to her, and the more she revolved the provocation he had received from the duke, the more justifiable appeared his conduct.

"Would it not have been sufficient," she involuntarily exclaimed, "to have interdicted our union, not have compelled me to promise to pursue him unrelentingly? yet having that promise, I am bound to keep it, in order to avoid incurring the imputation of being still attached to him. Oh, my father! what misery has your fatal quarrel entailed upon me!"

The anxious Olivia listened with regret to the recital she gave her-she deemed Don Ferdinand deserving of forgiveness, and could not help greatly condemning her for not having availed herself of the pretext with which the king had furnished her for pardoning him" Beware," she cried, unused to disguise her sentiments, "lest Heaven, offended with such inflexibility, should take the side you least wish,

Must you

and permit your champion to conquer. have loss on loss, and death on death?-will Ferdinand's blood restore your father's life."

"Cease, cease, Olivia," returned the weeping Elvina, "to augment my misery-instead of thus aggravating, rather try to sooth it by your sympathy, for alas! I have nothing to hope, but all to fear-no ray of comfort, no glimpse of hope my anguish to allay. I behold either my father unrevenged, or lover slain. Can any destiny be more severe, forced to espouse the object of my anger or my hate?"

"Why then incur such a one, by disregarding the wishes of the king, and all that has been urged in defence of Don Ferdinand ?”

"What would the world say, should I not avenge my father?"

"Nothing," replied Olivia, "did it know what I

do."

"What you do!" repeated Elvina, with quickness, and looking earnestly at her; "why know you aught that can release me from so sacred an obligation ?"

"Question me not," cried Olivia, with a look of embarrassment; 66 my tears and prayers have hitherto been unsuccessful; and all I could further urge on the subject would, I make no doubt, be equally so. Heaven grant the issue of to-morrow's combat may be as you wish! if not, I tremble to think of the misery you must suffer, at being compelled to insult the manes of the noble Ferdinand, by giving your hand to him who slew"

"My hand to him!" exclaimed Elvina, with a look of horror; "oh, never, never! No," suddenly starting from her seat, and throwing herself on her knees, "I swear no person on earth shall ever force me to become the bride of Don Rodolph."

Ere the words had well escaped her lips, Zelim, her Moorish page, who, from an adjoining apartment, had overheard the whole of what had passed, rushed forward, and throwing himself on his knees beside her, seized her clasped hands in his, and holding them up to heaven-"Repeat the oath," he cried, with lips trembling with emotion, and eyes wildly rolling in his head, "again swear not to let any circumstance induce you to become the wife of Don Rodolph."

Elvina, forcing her hands from him, rose from the floor in silent astonishment. He followed her, and clinging to her robe-“ Ah, you hesitate!" he exclaimed; your resolution falters!"

"No," returned his beauteous mistress; "but why should you be interested in my not becoming Don Rodolph's ?"

"Because-because," replied Zelim, after a momentary hesitation, "I know you do not love him, and therefore I should be sorry you were either overpersuaded, or forced to marry him."

"And is that the only reason?" asked Elvina.

"What other should I have?" he replied; "must not this heart be lost to every sense of gratitude, if not deeply interested in your fate; for how great are the obligations I owe you! Poor and destitute, when the canopy of heaven was my only covering, and the bare earth my resting place, without a friend to speak in my behalf, nor say I merited your pity, did you not take me under your protection?"

"Well, my kind Zelim, believe me, I shall not," giving him her hand as she spoke, "forget this proof of your concern for my happiness; sorrow can never so entirely absorb me, as to cause me to overlook any instance of attachment: but retire, and endeavour to compose yourself, for your countenance is wild and haggard."

Zelim, respectfully kissing her hand, obeyed, lea

ving her deeply impressed with the regard he had manifested for her. Some months had now elapsed since she had received him beneath her roof. As she was sitting one evening at a lattice, she heard the voice of distress beneath it, a voice to which her heart had never been inattentive, and looking out, beheld a boy weeping bitterly; she inquired the cause of his affliction, and was informed he was a young Moor from Grenada, where he had been brought up as an orphan, till of an age to comprehend his misfortunes; when informed that during his infancy his parents were taken in a voyage they had occasion to make by the Spaniards, and brought captive to Seville, he directly formed the resolution of repairing to that city, for the purpose of endeavouring to ascertain their fate, and, if still living, sharing their captivity; but on his arriving there, had the grief to find they had some years before paid the debt of nature. Accordingly, he was on his way back to his native kingdom, when overpowered by the hardships he had gone through, his journey having been undertaken without any means of rendering it easy, he had been compelled to pause beneath the castle walls, where, spite of his efforts to prevent them, his tears burst forth at the thoughts of his forlorn situation.

Elvina scarcely waited to hear the conclusion of this pity-moving tale, ere she offered him her protection, an offer which he gladly accepted; and finding he excelled in many accomplishments, particularly that of music, appointed him one of her pages, and daily became more pleased with him.

But nothing could long detach her thoughts from her present sorrows: the idea of the approaching combat harrowed up her soul. Involuntarily she addressed Heaven in behalf of her Ferdinand "But, oh, spirit of my father!" she cried, "be not offended at this supplication-I wish him not to conquer, but