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consent to her marriage, now that her at- far less embarrassing under those evertachment had stood the required test. As smiling skies, than it would be likely to prove she had hoped, the change in her father's in our cold-catching climate. own position had operated most favourably with regard to her wishes, and the following autumn saw her the happy and beloved bride of Edward Seymour.

M. S. A.

MEMORIES OF GIBRALTAR.

No. III.

CEUTA, anciently called 'Septa,' from its seven hills, is distant from Gibraltar about five leagues. Strabo calls it Abyla, and it is known as one of the pillars of Hercules. It commands the entrance to the Mediterranean on the African side, as Gibraltar does the European. It owes its corrupted name to the Arabs, and is celebrated as the seat of Count Julian's government, when, in revenge for his daughter Florinda's dishonour by Roderick, he betrayed his country into the hands of his neighbour, Muza the Saracen. Here it was that the remains of that heartbroken girl were interred, after her self-immolation at Malaga, where, to the grief and consternation of her parents, she threw herself headlong from a tower, and so ended the sufferings that had unsettled her

reason.

The houses have all a monastic, or rather prison-like appearance, their windows being strongly grated with iron bars, but from their balconies peep beautiful brunettes, with eyes that would pierce a coat of mail.

There are in the town two Spanish churches, one celebrated for some remarkable specimens of Mosaic. In the other I remember to have been startled by a most appalling painting of the Entombment; the monk who acted cicerone appeared to appreciate it highly, but at that time my taste was too unformed to permit me to pronounce upon its merits. There is also a monastery, the monks of which are celebrated for the exquisite manufacture of shell and featherflowers.

The district which covers the hillocks exterior to the town is the most agreeable, every house being furnished with its own grapery and garden, abounding with oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and melons; each has also its own fountain, or well of the purest water; in this respect the town is well supplied, as the public cisterns are said to be capable of containing a reserve sufficient for two years' consumption.

At the period I write of, one division of our regiment was stationed at Gibraltar, the other at the citadel of Ceuta, under the command of a general officer, whom, for the sake of avoiding identification, I shall call St. Here her young brother, the last of Julian's Clair; and as my little record involves the proud and noble race, was treacherously adventures of friends, I shall disguise other cast into the sea by the identical Moors ad- names, in order that the scenes which I depict mitted by his father. Here their majestic | may cause no embarrassment to such of the and royally-descended mother was inhuman-party as still survive our trip. Alas! too ly murdered; and the curious antiquarian many of those who might recognize resemmay still find remains of the ancient cita-blances of character are now numbered with del which she so gallantly defended in her the dead. last struggle to protect her boy; and over the gates leading into Barbary, when I visited Ceuta, still hung the iron cages which held the skulls of the rebel nobles, sacrificed by those whom they had plotted to enrich.

The fortified walls which separate the fortress from the Moorish frontiers are not inferior to some of the bomb-proof batteries of Gibraltar; and during the period when the place was nominally in possession of England, the citadel was garrisoned by a British force, and presented a very formidable defence to the Mediterranean entrance.

The civil government was, however, during that time under the national dominion, and being the penal settlement for Spain, Spanish troops were likewise stationed there, under the command of their own governor; but the discipline was so relaxed, that I saw him perform a day's duty as a private soldier, taking his regular course as a sentry; for the purpose, as he explained, of exciting the men to emulate his example.

The streets of Ceuta are ill-paved and narrow. The residences are commodious, but generally inaccessible to the approach of a carriage, a circumstance (be it remarked,)

My friend Sophia was the young and illassorted bride of Colonel Macgregor, who boasted a genealogical tree that might have rivalled the royal oak; he was proud of his family, his name, his fortune, and of his girlwife; not that he was capable of appreciating the higher qualities of her nature, but because upon his arrival from the Peninsula, he found her the reigning belle of the garrison, which determined him, nem. con., to make the prize his own.

Sophia was in the earliest blush of girlhood, and had she been a resident of her father-land, proposals of such a nature would have been deemed preposterous; but in more southern countries such early marriages are by no means uncommon. It may be imagined that love, beyond that which she bore to her parents, was known to her only by name; and when she acceded to their commands, it was without one feeling beyond duty, assisted by the youthful ambition to become the mistress of her own establishment, and to participate the honours and advantages, commanded as much by the colonel's stylish pretensions as by his rank and fortune.

The sudden transition, however, by which soldiers, having decided upon obedience, Juliet is made to pass in a few hours from and night, which in these latitudes falls in a childlike simplicity to the passionate depths few moments, having come suddenly upon of woman's nature, and to the perfection of us, we were forced to submit in silence to intellect, was scarcely more rapid than the our destiny, and following the doctor, who transformation which marriage wrought in enjoyed the reputation of standing high in my friend Sophia. That which in some court favour, through sundry dark and minds is a process of tedious accomplish-winding alleys, we soon arrived at our desment, seemed in her to have been effected in a few weeks.

tination, where, finding the hall-door open,
we entered unannounced; but scarcely had
we passed the threshold before a female
voice saluted us in a broad northern accent.
'Wha's there, Jenny? Is it ye, Jenny ?'
'Tis I, Mrs. Douglas,' responded our con-
ductor.

If a symptom of girlhood remained, it consisted in the gay and buoyant spirit gushing out in frank and sometimes dangerous irony; this she was flattered into indulging, until sometimes it fell irreverently even upon the colonel himself; but, to do her justice, this 'What, Smith? come up here—I'm brae fault was one of thoughtlessness, not ill-na-glad to see ye back again, mon. Laws a ture; for she had a heart teeming with phi- mercy! Macgregor! I beg pardon-ye lanthropic kindness; and, if it were a fault, hae gotten the step since I saw ye, Colonel it might be pardoned, for it was soon correct- Macgregor; troth, then, I'm glad to see ye, ed, as the events of our VISIT TO CEUTA left and the leddies too; but ye're amaist like her as sedate and self-possessed a woman of sisters-baith brides, I ken. But which am the world as though she had been ten years to ca' Mistress Colonel Macgregor? Then wedded-so sanative are the lessons that we turning suddenly to the colonel with a banread in our own hearts. tering air, she added, Hoot awa, I always set ye down on the old bachelors' list.'

Sophia and myself were early friends, of one age, had grown together, and married nearly at the same period into the same regiment; and when General St. Clair came to Gibraltar upon his half-yearly inspection, he invited our matrimonial quartette to visit his lady at Ceuta, and the anticipations with which we contemplated our excursion formed the sole occupation of our conversation and thoughts until our departure.

I

Now every one knows that most men have their antipathies; but what are cats, rats, squinting women, creaking paper, or even tight shoes, to the antipathy of an ancient bon-vivant to being reminded of his place amongst the antediluvian fraternity, three months after marriage with a reigning belle? Conscious that he had passed the uncertainty of a certain age, and testily tenacious of personal freedom, the colonel, bowing coldly, presented his wife.

'Ye're welcome to Ceuta, leddies, troth are ye-weel, weel, gin ye waited lang, colonel, ye hae got a bonny bride at last. Macgregor winced. But come, lads, there's wine;' and she unceremoniously heaped the table with refreshments.

Make yersels comfortable-Mistress St. Clair will be wi' us shortly. The leddies must put on their best looks, for the honour of the regiment. It's the general that has a kind heart, and its Mistress St. Clair that's sae elegant and magnanimous.'

It had been arranged that we should accompany the surgeon of our regiment, who was to follow the general in a few days, and by special favour our kind old governor gave us the use of his yacht, so that we left the garrison in gallant style; but as we stood on the deck of our little vessel, looking up at the gloomy tower which frowns over the harbour, and which then enclosed a mysterious state-prisoner most jealously guarded, most of our gay expectations were chased by certain misgivings as to the impressions we might chance to make upon our destined hostess, who, besides being the presiding deity of the place, was a personage It was thus made pretty evident to our of prodigious regimental importance, and comprehension, that however we might be was in that little circle celebrated by a thou- disposed to regard our general's wife as high sand piquant anecdotes, all calculated to priestess, she was worshipped by our worthy excite the curiosity, if not the apprehensions, and outspoken entertainer as the voice of the of youthful guests. As if purposely to in-oracle itself. This deference, however, was crease these nervous trepidations, scarcely quite excusable, as Mrs. Douglas was a was the anchor aground before an express person who had raised herself from a very arrived alongside, to request that Dr. Smith humble station, mainly through the force of would conduct the visitors to the house of her own benevolent nature. the general's aide-de-camp, a command We were not held long in suspense, for which seemed so out of course, that I be- scarcely had we re-entered the drawinglieve, had it not been for the more wary room after the arrangement of our attire, bejudgment of the colonel, we certainly should fore a loud and authoritative knocking at have returned without landing; it was for- the hall-door announced visitors of no comtunate, however, that his national charac-mon importance. Mrs. Douglas started to teristic guided our inexperience, as it after- her feet, the gentlemen broke off their conwards proved that our transfer was only for versation, the piercing screams of children two nights, owing to Mrs. St. Clair's prepa-issuing from the nursery ceased, the dog in ration for a grand ball. the court gave loud warning, and the cat

The gentlemen of our party, like good that lay snugly on the rug, enjoying the ge

nial warmth of a cheerful fire, rose with dignity, stretched herself lazily into the form of an arch, and took refuge under her mistress's chair.

to render a woman agreeable, for perhaps few possessed so plain a face, and yet fewer a more fascinating manner than the gobernordora of Ceuta.

*

*

**

It is Mistress St. Clair,' whispered our hostess, and hurried from the room. Presently a loud masculine voice was heard. 'Well, and where are they? What are they doing? We simultaneously rose as a tall bony woman, habited en militaire, in a close braided dress and regimental forage-cap, strode into the room, followed by Captain Douglas, and a posse of young officers, and roughly shaking the colonel by the hand, vowed, almost swore, that she was glad to see him. Upon Dr. Smith she bestowed the embrace Espagnole, greatly to the amusement of her attendants, who grouped giggling behind, and no less to our edification; at last she turned to us, and having graciously signified her approval of the choice made by our worthy lords and masters, and felicitated us upon arriving in time to be present at her ball of the ensuing evening, she enjoined us to consider ourselves entirely at her command,' and informed us, that although she used the house of the obliging aide-de-camp as our temporary quarters, she considered herself as the arbitress of our movements during our visit. All these pre-jewels, claimed her acquaintance. liminaries being satisfactorily settled, without more ado she took her seat at the cardtable, and was soon deeply lost in the anxieties of lansquenette.

Perhaps it was secret vanity that induced my friend to delay her entrance into the ballroom until the guests were all assembled; and as, both by the precedence of rank and bridal honours, the duty of leading the dance devolved upon her, Mrs. St. Clair was thrown into considerable dudgeon by this coquetry; but when she entered, dressed with the most elaborate attention to English rules of taste, and looking the very queen of smiles, that lady could not but feel proud of her countrywoman; forgetting, therefore, her displeasure, and hurrying her to the head of the room without having been introduced to a single individual, Sophia found herself in a moment whirling through all the intricate mazes of a Spanish dance; but long before she had completed the figure, she became aware of being the object of general attention, and when she found herself undergoing the process of individual introduction, made doubly irksome by the embraces superadded by Spanish etiquette, she was not sorry to be relieved by the gobernordora, who now, sparkling with

It having been signified to us that a visit to the Spanish governor and his lady was indispensable, early the next morning we set out to pay our respects. The governmenthouse overlooks the bay, and is built in the usual way, with a large courtyard in the centre. At the entrance lounged two lazy sentinels, and on the staircase lolled others, playing cards. Having passed these watchful guardians of official dignity, we found ourselves at the entrance of a suite of apartments, forming one side of the quadrangle, the scanty and mean furniture of which, uncarpeted brick floors, and uncurtained windows, strongly contrasted with the comforts of the government residence at Gibraltar. One apartment alone was exempt from the desolation which chilled us in the rest; here the floor was covered with a fine mat dyed in brilliant colours, rose-coloured silk draperies floated round the windows, and the furniture of Brazilian wood was light and elegant. This we also passed, and, conducted by Captain Douglas, were admitted into a boudoir of most tiny dimensions, where, in a dishabille perfectly inconceivable to English beaux and belles, we found the governor and his donna in conversation with their confessor; but whatever was wanting in costume was amply compensated by the graceful urbanity and unembarrassed ease with which we were received and entertained; and an hour's sprightly conversation sufficed to place us all on a footing of intimacy at the government-house, and served to convince us that beauty is not requisite 41

VOL. XI.

I wish,' said she, especially to bespeak your friendship for a young relative of mine,' and added more confidentially, who may require your kindness.'

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As she spoke she led Sophia to another apartment, where, in seemingly earnest conversation with one of our officers, sat a young girl, whose voluptuous person, dark eyes, now languishing in liquid light, now sparkling with vivacity, jetty hair, white teeth, and clear brown complexion, presented a perfect specimen of Spanish beauty.

Patrisinia Vialli received Sophia's compliments with the most ingenuous grace, kissing her on each cheek after the manner of her country, while Captain Westron, looking as though he wished the intruders at the antipodes, arose, and offering his arm to the gobernordora, with her left the room.

'Mercy, how tired I am!' exclaimed Sophia, sinking on the seat which had been so hastily vacated. 'I have undergone a round of salutations that would have wearied twenty prudes, and flatteries of all kinds have been showered so thickly upon me, that had it not been for the gobernordora's charitable extrication, I should have expired under the load. Your countrywomen, my dear, have criticized each article of dress, from my feathers to my shoes; my English corsets were a theme of supereminent admiration, while their astonishment at my fortitude in submitting to be strait-laced exceeds all bounds; in short, they have twisted me about like a humming-top, and squeezed me until I have lost all sense of feeling.'

6

This admiration, signora, should convince you of their good-nature,' laughingly replied Patrisinia.

'Do not suppose that I am displeased,' said

6

Sophia, for we easily forgive the inconvenience of being too much commended.'

You are a happy woman, signora,' returned her companion, with a scarcely perceptible sigh.

Am I? then the merit is entirely my own.' Possessed of beauty, rank, and riches, how could you be otherwise?'

Beauty is a compendious word, signoretta a single good feature not unfrequently suffices to elevate a woman into a popular idol, especially if aided by wealth or position.'

Then again,' added Patrisinia, 'what a fortunate fate, united to the man of your choice, the object of your fond affections!'

;

'The one worshipper,' pursued Sophia, selected from all to idolize me in my hours of mirth, and shed tear for tear in those of my affliction; is not that a pretty picture?' The Spanish girl nodded.

I think so too; but unfortunately, my dear girl, it is like all pictures, unreal.'

• Unreal!'

'Yes! the theory of marriage is extremely beautiful, but the practice is, I assure you, tout au contraire.'

You astonish me!' exclaimed Patrisinia. • And Colonel Macgregor would be equally astonished if he heard you accuse him of the inconceivable barbarity of being in love with his wife.'

'And is it possible that he is not?'

'Your notions,' went on Sophia, 'are so exceedingly charming and natural, that it is almost a pity to spoil them; however, there is Colonel Macgregor: do you think he looks like the very interesting person you have been so prettily imagining?'

'And is the colonel never jealous?' Sophia laughed. 'No! that would be too amusing.'

'Yet flattery is dangerous.'

It may be to those who seldom hear it; but when constantly buzzed in one's ears, it loses its influence.'

'And you are really happy?

'If you mean contented, yes; but as to that exquisite bliss which young ladies so religiously believe necessarily to belong to marriage, I must confess that 1 have found no cause to become a proselyte to their faith.'

'I have been taught to think that marriage without love must be misery,' said Patrisinia.

'A mere girlish fallacy,' pursued Sophia, with a most matronly air; and if I might offer the results of my own observations, I should pronounce love to be rather destructive to the comforts of wedlock.'

You have uttered an enigma.'

'Love,' said Sophia, ' has a thousand fears, jealousies, and caprices; it wastes its energies in petty contentions, and destroys its boasted bliss by endless anxieties. The life of a woman who loves is one series of continued disappointments. She enters marriage with all her expectations raised, all her enthusiastic hopes awakened; she lavishes on her idol all the treasures of her heart, and naturally expects to receive a correspondent return. He, meanwhile, who as the lover had been all devotion, as the husband becomes all apathetic. Like the sportsman, whose ardour is sustained by the enterprise of the chase, he becomes listless and inert when the prize is won; and she, looking vainly for those delicate attentions which he had taught her to appreciate, grows surprised and shocked at finding them nearly all withdrawn. She consults her glass, and finds the beauty he extolled still bright as before; she examines her heart, it is full of affection; and when each hourly action is subjected to a critical scrutiny, they prove to be so many indices of that voluminous record which registers her thoughts. Bewildered and wretched, she weeps in secret over her lost happiness, nor dreams of looking into the metaphysics of nature for the solution of her difficult problem. Thus she becomes No, no-give us English credit for more fretful, perhaps perverse; while he, provokcommon sense than romance. The colonel ed, abjures the tiny god, yet, with admirable selected me to please his vanity, and I took inconsistency, demands from her increasing him to please those I loved more than all the testimonies of affection, even though he find world. He has no pride so great as seeing their exhibition wearisome. He demonstrates his wife an object of admiration, and consid- his power by groundless jealousies, construes ers the honour of his name as a receipt in her silence into coldness, her eagerness for full for personal attentions; and I am so his society into an attack upon his liberty, amiably acquiescent to his views, that I nev-and, rather than yield an iota of those boaster trouble my head about the goddess at whose shrine he may chance to pay his temporary devotions.'

Now as there are certain feminine prejudices against diminutive stature, red hair, white eyes minus eyebrows, and a complexion where the rose blushes on the nose instead of the cheek, it must be confessed that the colonel did not come up to the beau idéal of an Adonis in any one's opinion excepting his own, and the contiguity in which he was placed, beside a very majestic and remarkably handsome Spaniard, did not contribute to the éclat of his appearance; the look, therefore, with which Patrisinia scanned him, was perfectly intelligible to her companion, who, as though the opinion had been expressed in words, went on in her rattlingway.

'And you are yet a bride?'

'Lud, child, I have been married three whole months; and you have no idea how much knowledge a sagacious person may acquire within that period of married life.'

ed rights which are unassailed except by the nervous fears of the sensitive despot, he rushes to dissipation for which he has no taste, and leaves the wife of his bosom to a solitude of tears. Perhaps time and the meekness of submission may rend away the chains that bind his reason captive; he returns in penitence to his victim; but, alas!

she has learned to doubt him in whom she Don Pedro that day had arrived at Ceuta had confided, to fear him who was her idol. on a visit to the government-house, and hav He then becomes sensible of the change, and ing been greatly excited by the gobernorfinds that forgiveness is a poor substitute for dora's praises of the beautiful Englishwoaffection, and fruitlessly mourns over the man, his first object on entering the ballwithered heart whose brightest blossoms his room was to secure an introduction. Accruelty has blighted.' cident led him into conversation with Macgregor, and, little suspecting that he was speaking with the husband of the lady, he poured forth his admiration, by which the colonel's vanity was so flattered, that he did not hesitate to carry on the jest until the moment of introduction.

Really,' said Patrisinia, 'you argue most learnedly for one who is ignorant of the pas.

sion.'

'I had a friend,' replied Sophia, somewhat mournfully, who was its victim, and I had the misfortune to be introduced into society when I ought to have been working tent-stitch in the nursery. But pray let us waive these gloomy topics-only take my advice, marry a husband for whom you feel a comfortable indifference, and let the little petted urchin go to Jericho! You will be happier without than with him, depend upon it.'

If your code be true, it is well worth consideration,' said Patrisinia.

'Still,' replied Sophia archly, 'I fancy that yonder Irish hero, who watches us so impatiently, will contrive to efface every word of my lecture before the end of the hour. But remember, men are sad deceivers! That is the first lesson that meets our ears, but it is the last that we will condescend to learn by heart. Our self-love prompts us to believe that we have a right of exemption from the misfortunes that befall the rest of the world, and we constantly expect that a miracle will be wrought for our particular advantage. But here comes my liege lord, and smiling as though he were still a lover.'

'I could not endure my husband to be less than a lover,' said Patrisinia.

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'National prejudices,' whispered Sophia, as the gentlemen advanced. Your countrymen are equally ready to serenade a mistress or stiletto a rival; now mine are, nine times out of ten, either mere humdrums, who care nothing about the matter, or else fashionable gallants, who pique themselves upon a wife's beauty as they would upon that of their horse, and are equally flattered by the commendation of either."

'Permit me to present Don Pedro Valdigo, governor of Seville, to the fair Englishwoman whose charms he pronounces to be irresistible,' said the colonel; 'I have promised to use my influence for the next set.' Sophia curtseyed assent, whilst her eyes sank abashed before the ardent gaze that was rivetted upon her. The colonel contemplated her blushing face with a self-satisfied air, and, erecting his figure to about five feet nothing for a grand climax, turned to his companion-Don Pedro, I have great pleasure in introducing you to Mrs. Macgregor!

The Spaniard started, a flush crossed his cheek, a sudden frown shaded his brow, and, looking rapidly from one to the other, he nearly dropped the hand that had been placed in his own.

The colonel had produced an effect, but the pleasure of the jest was entirely confined to himself.

There is in woman an intuitive perception, which distinguishes at a glance the nature of the sentiment which she inspires, and it is only when her own heart becomes attached that love binds his fillet over the eyes of her discernment; so, though her husband failed to discover more than ordinary gallantry in the avowals of Don Pedro, she, more learned, shrank before the lustrous look that rested so passionately upon her.

Soon recovering from his momentary confusion, the Spaniard uttered a hasty apology to the colonel for the freedom of his remarks, and then led his partner to the ballroom; neither, however, attempted for some moments to break a silence more dangerous than speech. Sophia felt it to be impossible; Don Pedro, perhaps for the first time in his life, found it difficult, and, when he did speak, his voice trembled.

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Will Mrs. Macgregor condescend to pardon an involuntary error?'

'I were indeed to blame,' said Sophia, endeavouring to rally, 'to deem that offensive which is intended to compliment.'

'It were as impossible to compliment you, donna, as it were unwise to betray the sentiment which you inspire.'

'Cease to tax your gallantry,' replied Sophia, resuming her usual playful manner, for I promise you that I shall not accord any attention, until you find some other theme for conversation.'

They now joined the dancers, and Sophia found ample occupation in dispensing smiles and brief words among her new ac quaintances, but ever as she turned to her partner, the expression of his look became too eloquent to be misunderstood. She was fond of conquest, but it was the conquest of the hour, not the wreck of the heart's peace, that she delighted in, and the tale she now read was one that gave her sorrow.

Suddenly the dance ceased, a rumour rose, and then came a sad account of poor Doctor Smith;-he who but the previous evening had landed with us so full of activity and health, and who had been so conspicuously welcomed by Mrs. St. Clair, had fallen while preparing for the ball, and was soon after found dead. On receiving the intelligence, Mrs. St. Clair had retired into an adjoining room, whither Sophia's considerate partner hastily conducted her, on perceiving the deadly paleness that overspread her countenance on being made acquainted with the lamentable catastrophe. They

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