frame; he sunk senseless on the ground, In this stuation he was discovered the following morning, by the domestic, whose office it was to air the apartments: medical aid was immediately procured, and the physician gave it as his opinion, that the disorder was a fever, occasioned by fatigue and agitation of spirits, in all probability, augmented by the chill of an apartment which had been unoccupied for more than four months. To whatever the origin of the disease might be imputed, certain it is, that for a long time it baffled the skill of medicine; many weeks elapsed ere he was pronounced conva lescent, and when at length permitted to quit his room, he was scarcely able to support himself, for the languor and weariness which the malady had left behind it. During this interval, a new commander had taken possession of the castle, and the remembrance of the

2

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lieutenant was obliterated from all but a few grateful hearts, whose sorrowful countenances were the best memorial of his numerous virtues.Lewisham was now reluctantly compelled to turn his thoughts towards the prosecution of his studies at the University, as it was unlikely that his stay in his present residence would be permitted after the recovery of his health, and the settlement of the affairs of his departed friend; nor could he wish to continue in a state of inactivity and indolence: and since the period of his separation from the habitation of his youth must one time or other inevitably take place, he busied himself in arranging the pa pers of his deceased friend, and making preparations for his departure-Every thing being settled, he demanded an audience of Mr. Nugent (the new governor), that he might in person render up the trust which had thus devolved

on him as the lieutenant's executor, and, receiving a polite answer, he followed a domestic into the great parlour, where the whole of Mr. Nugent's family were assembled, which consisted of himself, his wife, and an only sister: the person of Mr. Nugent was uncom monly handsome, his manners polished by education, and refined by a perfect knowledge of polite life; yet at times they were tinctured with a severity which in general rendered him little loved, and much feared. The favorable impression our hero imbibed, at his first entrance into the apartment, was instantaneously expunged by the cold and repulsive condescension with which he addressed him, and the hauteur visible on his countenance, when Miss Nugent spoke to him with easy familiarity on the common topics of conversation. Mrs. Nugent, to a remarkably plain face, added no particular elegance of

form;

form; yet her manners had in them that seductive sweetness, her voice that melodious tone, her smile that bewitching naivette, which more than compensated for the want of personal attractions, and could not fail to interest every beholder in her favour: her heart was liberal, her temper good, and her mind well informed. With such a woman, could Mr. Nugent fail of being happy? Alas! happiness is not the lot of mortality-A certain pensiveness in the countenance of Mrs. Nugent, appeared to indicate affliction long combated in vain; at length with difficulty subdued, the storm, as it passed over her head, had shed desolation in her path, and the spirit was crushed, never to rise again, either to energy or vivacity. She was habited in deep mourning, which added interest to a face, every feature of which was clouded with melancholy and languor, the mind

was

weighed to the earth, and the body ap peared too fragile and weak, to combat with suffering.-Miss Nugent had passed her youth in solitude, and her maturity in the circle of a court; and, like most ladies, and beauties, had been admired, followed, and courted, while her beauty lasted-laughed at, ridiculed, and forsaken, when arrived at the formidable period of old maidism. She had attained the age of forty; her lovers had long vanished, with the summer of her charms, when a distant relation died, and bequeathed to her an immense fortune, which once more reinstated her as a beauty, and a belle esprit; but she had, by this time, unmasked the butterflies by which she had been surrounded, and with an effort of heroism rarely to be met with, she formed the resolution of living and dying in single blessedness; her mind was naturally of a romantic turn, which had been heightened