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gesting this absurd disposition; and vexation was gnawing at his heart when, with outward signs of grief, he followed his father to the grave, and remembered that for her life his mother must retain her authority.

stitious Papist. But before Madame Jacques terrogate their surviving comrades; and obfound occasion to repeat the tale, Maxime taining from all the same answer, that the was gone, and the Dumonts gone also. The poor Pearl could not have lived half an hour mother and daughter, having sold off their in such a sea as that of the 30th of Decem. scanty furniture, had retired to the village of ber, after she had been last seen by her conArgues, probably to be beyond reach of the voy. animosity of the Crosnier family, and to sub- No one, however, appeared to make fursist upon the funds left with them by Maxime. ther inquiries after Max! Old Crosnier was It is not to be supposed that Jacques Cros- on his deathbed, and his family in anxious nier (though his jealousy of his brother was attendance upon his last moments; and it stimulated a thousand fold by the unconceal-was noticeable that though the tidings of the ed misery of his parents at losing sight of loss of his son had broken the heart of the their favourite son) could consent without old man, so obstinately did he cling to the scruple to all the malpractices of his wife. hope of Maxime's survival, to reappear at It was only by pleading hypocritically the some future moment, that no persuasions of cause of the two infants of whom she was the notary employed by the ivoirier and his now the mother, and representing that, wife could induce him to frame his last will should Maxime once re-obtain a footing in and testament, otherwise than by bequeathhis father's house, he would inevitably retali-ing his whole property to his wife for her lifeate upon them and procure their expulsion,- time, with a request that she would divide it that Madame Jacques obtained his co-opera- by will between his representatives. It was tion. They had gone too far to recede; and conjectured by the disappointed Jacques that he silenced his conscience by reminding his uncle Bouzard had some share in sughimself that all stratagems were lawful to secure his brother's salvation, by preventing his marriage with a Protestant. Still, when at the close of the five months, which usually formed the limit of the absence of the Newfoundland fleet, Bouzard took his station Nevertheless, so thoroughly was Madame every morning, glass in hand, upon the jetty, Crosnier's spirit broken by the loss of her and announced that the Terre-Neuviers were husband and son, that it was easy for the not yet in sight, the heart of the elder brother ivoirier's wife to obtain sole ascendancy in began to wax heavy. Six months passed the house in the Pollet. Half the old woaway-the seventh was advancing-and still man's time was spent in that long-closed no tidings. On the exchange of Dieppe not chamber of the second floor, which still cona broker could be found to listen to the pro- tained a few personal tokens of her beloved posals of the owners. It was clear that the Max-foreign shells and feathers, and Indian ships and their crews had come to misfor-implements and toys, which the poor old tune. Bouzard was to be seen from sunrise mariner had chosen to have laid upon his to nightfall, watching upon the falaise; and deathbed, that he might stretch his wasted old Crosnier and his wife spent their lives on hand over something that had once belonged their knees at the foot of the Calvary erected to his boy. Amid these treasures, and oppoon the jetty. Already they had vowed an site to a rough canoe of birch bark, the handioffering of a full rigged frigate in ivory to work of the shipwrecked man, would the venthe shrine of Notre Dame des Grèves, in the erable Pierrette sit for hours, wandering back event of Maxime's return; and would have into the past; reviling her own hardness of rushed forward to clasp the truant in their heart towards her Maxime, and grieving that arms, even had he presented himself holding not one of the tame-hearted cunning children the hand of a Protestant wife. But it was fat- of her son Jacques should, in the slightest deed that Maxime should come no more. In gree, recall to mind the brave, rebellious, the eighth month, a letter from Prince Ed- curly-headed varlet who, twenty years beward's Island apprized the associated own- fore, used to tag after her along the shores ers of the Newfoundland fleet, that, having of the Pollet, watching for the return of the been dispersed by a frightful storm, four of Belle Gabrielle. The Belle Gabrielle was the vessels had reassembled in the most dis- sold to a stranger; and the little curly-headtressed condition, and with great difficulty ed lad a senseless corse beneath the howling made for the nearest port, to refit; the Pearl, waves of the Atlantic! No wonder that the the fifth vessel, having foundered at sea. Of afflicted mother should weep and bemoan the Pearl, the fated fifth, had Maxime Crosnier the command! The vessel had been seen for the last time, at nightfall on the 30th of December, battling with the rising tempest, and Maxime was then on the deck, encouraging the men, and exerting unexampled energies in working his dismasted ship. On the arrival of the Terre-Neuviers in the har. bour, amid the acclamations of multitudes who had dreaded never to behold their entrance into the port of Dieppe, it was a sad thing to see the widows and orphans of those who were lost in the Pearl, crowding to in

herself. No wonder that Madame Jacques, impatient of her continued control in the house, should reproach her with indifference towards her more deserving and still surviving son.

Weary of these constant recurring remonstrances, and anxious to conceal her tears, Madame Crosnier was apt to wander out from the Pollet, on summer evenings; sometimes along the cliffs, as if she still expected that a future fleet of Terre-Neuviers might include the long-lost Pearl; but oftener along the green valley of the Scie and the

Saane. On one occasion, about four years churl had not only refused her relief, but after the loss of her husband, the poor old prevented her tale from reaching the ear of soul, no longer comely, no longer oppressed his mother. The widow of Max had been with embonpoint, was taking her sad and soli- led to believe, that if she presented herself tary way through the silence of a dreary before the family of Maxime, both she and September evening, up the ascent leading to her idolized boy would be exposed to injury the cemetery of the Pollet; without noticing and insult. Sheltering herself, therefore, in that, before her on the road, toiled a poor the obscure village where her mother had woman heavily charged with one of the breathed her last, she devoted herself subwicker hods of the country, who now and missively to the severest daily labour. Her then turned round to look after a little fellow comfort was in her child. It was sufficient as raggedly accoutred as herself. At length, for her consolation to breathe the name of a few paces in advance of Madame Crosuier," Max," and to find it answered by the sweet she paused to call the boy, who was seeking voice and fair looks of one who was the livberries in the hedge; and the name by which ing portrait of the lover of her youth. she addressed her child went straight to the heart of the sorrowing mother. It was Max! "How art thou called, little one?" inquired Madame Crosnier, taking the hand of the boy, when, tardily obeying the call, he at length followed his mother, who was proceed ing at some distance along the road.

My name is Maxime Crosnier-but I am only called Max. Now let me go, for I am tired and hungry; and mother has promised that if I step out, perhaps she will give me a bit of bread for supper.

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"And who is thy mother?" persisted the agitated Pierrette.

"She is yonder there, at the top of the

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"What was thy grandmother's name?" she continued in a scarcely audible whisper, dreading that the reply might crush the delightful hopes already dawning in her heart. And when poor little Max breathed in her ear the name of "Dumont," the sobs with which she threw her arms around him, and then, placing him at arms' length, considered and reconsidered his handsome intelligent little face, so terrified the boy, that he soon mingled his tears with those of his unknown relative. "Thou art his--thou art mine thou shalt remain with me!" cried the poor old soul-who, at the moment, felt as if one restored from the dead were folded in her arms; and while the boy struggled to extricate himself from her embraces, his mother, having returned along the road to seek her lost treasure, stood beside them in utter amazement. The explanation that ensued was heart-rending. The wasted cheek and callous hands of poor Louise, attested the tale of her sufferings, her wants, her labours, for the sake of Maxime's son. After the death of her mother, she had made known to Jacques Crosnier her situation, and the lawfulness of her wedlock with his brother, yet, at the instigation of his partner, the

In the dusk of that eventful evening, the two sorrowing women returned together to the Pollet; and, from that night, scarcely lived one hour apart, till the sister of Bouzard was laid in the grave. Together they wept over him they had lost; together, related to the young child the prowess and feats of his father. Old Pierrette felt that she could not lavish sufficient love and affection upon this recovered treasure,-this morsel of her favourite son,-this image of her darling Max; and old Bouzard was scarcely less delighted to perceive that the boy was likely to become a worthy representative of his favourite nephew. From the startling moment of Madame Max's appearance in the Pollet, under the protection of her mother-in-law, Jacques and his wife, as if hoping by submission to disarm inquiry and silence invective, gradually withdrew from the place, and established a household of their own; more especially on perceiving that Madame Crosnier, instead of shuddering at the heresies of her daughter-in-law, exerted herself with success to establish the legality of Louise's marriage, in order to bestow upon her grandson his lawful share of the property of his forefathers.

The two oaken presses of the mansion of the Pollet are accordingly now disunited; and the twelve silver couverts have diminished to six. For Pierrette, great as was to the last her adoration of the Max of her own Max, was strictly just in her division of her belongings between her two grandsons. According to the desire of the widow Jacques, her eldest son received in money, from his grandmother, an equivalent for the family dwelling, and is now a flourishing tailor in the town of Dieppe. But the jolly mariner, who may be seen to this very hour upon the quays, in affectionate discourse with his cousin, the Bouzard of the present day, and who inhabits, with a pretty, merry, little wife, and a grave but happy old mother, a house in the Grande Rue of the Pollet, (the win dows of which are bright with geraniums, and seem to be alive with linnets and canaries,) is no other than Maxime Crosnier! His children still delight in showing to strangers the shells and curiosities gathered in foreign parts by their shipwrecked grandfather; and the family may be visited and regarded by travellers as an advantageous specimen of the mariners of the Pollet.

THE FOG-GUN.*

THE day is closing on the sea,—
A day of storm and dread,-
The trembling ship meets wearily
Each wave's foam-crested head;
The creaking poles like willows bow
To still-increasing blasts,
The gallant crew, exhausted now,
Are clinging to the masts,
And calling on the sailor's Friend,
His strong and pitying aid to lend.

They drift along before the gale,—
Whither they cannot know,
For the fog is hanging like a veil
Around them as they go.
Darker and darker grows the day,
Loud and more loud the storm,
The fog so dense each sailor may

Scarce see his neighbour's form.
The brave turn pale to think that night
May yield them to the wild sea's might.

A mother with her only child

Is in the wave-tost bark,
And as the tempest grows more wild,
The eve more drear and dark,
She clasps the baby to her heart,
And prays for him alone;
For she is ready to depart,

So he, her precious one,

Might still be saved by Him, who trod O'er raging waves-the Son of God!

And others, who, few hours before,
Were full of joy and hope,
All telling of the days of yore,
And giving boundless scope
To visions of their future hours-
Alas! how altered now!
The gayest of the hopeful cow'rs,

The young girl bends her brow,
And weeps that over dreams so fair
Should fall the shadow of despair!

A sound comes booming o'er the deep,
Solemn, and sad, and slow;
Yet instantly the sailors leap

Once more to man the prow.
The mother's tears fall thick and fast
Upon her baby's face;

She trusts that they may reach at last
Their home, their native place,
And though she did not weep for fear,
She weeps at thought of safety near.

The young are full of hope again,

The girl hath dried her eyes,
While through the fog and driving rain
The lab'ring vessel flies.
Again, again the welcome sound,
Nearer and nearer still;

It cometh from their native ground-
The steep and well-known hill

*It is customary at St. John's, Newfoundland, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, as well as in many other situations where fogs are frequent and dense, to fire a gun every hour, as a guide or warning to any vessels that may be near the coast. VOL. VIII.

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No social institutions are perfect. Laws and customs, the most beneficial to the general mass, are often cruel and unjust to individuals. The gliding speed of a railroad train, which daily contributes to the ease of thousands, may sometimes inflict a horrible death on slow age or heedless infancy; but we cannot weigh the occasional suffering of one against the perpetual advantage of many. Still even to the steadiest eye and the sternest heart there will come a momentary doubt, when circumstances, compel attention to these "Victims of Society." Was, it indeed, necessary that they should undergo such a doom? Could no plan be discovered to promote the general good without this sacrifice of happiness? And if justice answer, No; if it be unreasonable for the sake of a few to disturb the career of a nation, or to hope that the sun of a system will stay his course at the voice of a man, still there is an aching assent, an unsatisfied reluctant acquiescence, rather than a firm persuasion of real and invincible necessity. It is hard in all cases to keep in view the ultimate good of present misery; but when that misery arises from torturing the very instincts of human nature-when, to preserve a level regularity, society crushes and rolls down the tenderest feelings,-respecting neither a mother's love nor a woman's outraged affection,-how is it possible to avoid a heartfelt sympathy with the victims-how can we check "the rebel tear and the traitorous humanity?" Those whose only object in life is to keep the even tenor of their way undisturbed by the sufferings of others, had better not interest themselves in Anna Wyndham's history, but, with the Levite's selfishness, pass by on the other side.

In the autumn of 18-, the year before my neither O'Rourke nor myself noticed it. I articles expired, I went to pass a month with felt very happy, and never took the trouble a fellow pupil at his brother's house in the to ask why. One morning, however, Biddy, County Cavan, where we certainly lived in the old housekeeper, began curtseying while the genuine style of Irish bachelors. The we were at breakfast, and informed his brother was away, and my friend commenced honour that the stock on the farm had all operations by taking stock, as he called it been consumed, poultry, sheep, and all, that is, by getting from the old woman, who barring the big pig, which the "Masther" took care of the cottage, a return of every- was keeping for Christmas. O'Rourke thing eatable upon the premises. There looked astounded at this bad news, and exwas a large supply of ducks and fowls, seve- pressed his indignation at the small supply ral turkeys, a small sheep in the paddock, his brother kept on the farm;-fowls, he and a large pig with three piglets in the stye. grumbled, no bigger than a jack snipe, and Two cows on the farm gave reasonable hopes a sheep that it would be worth any man's of milk, and butter, and buttermilk; the while to show about the country, as a specimeal-tub was full, and there was plenty of men of the dwarf breed. After venting his wheaten flour in store for griddle cakes; spleen on the departed poultry and defunct eggs of course, while the poultry survived; sheep, he proposed a survey of the big pig, wine we had brought from Dublin; a keg of as the last resource of the garrison. whiskey was procured in less than no time; and considherin', as O'Rourke judiciously observed, that we should probably dine out half our time, besides adding to the stock in hand by slaughtering incalculable numbers of snipe, quail, woodcocks, hares, and wild ducks, there was no great fear of a famine any way. From this well-provisioned garrison we sallied every morning on some foray against the snipes in the bogs, or the wild ducks on Lough Shillen; now and then varying our amusements, by attending a coursing match in the county Meath, or a pic-nic party to Lord Farnham's, or on Lake Virginia; but, for at least three evenings in the week, we were always to be found at the fireside of O'Rourke's uncle, the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, of Kilmore House.

She was a huge creature, weighing eight or ten score at least, and as she lay on her side grunting and twisting her tail, O'Rourke "discoorsed" the old woman how easy it would be to make hams and bacon of part, and eat part fresh, &c.; but it was evident that Biddy had scruples, though she only ventured to suggest, What would the "Masther" do at Christmas? However, this little interruption led us to consider how the time was passing; and when it turned out that we had already been six weeks at the cottage, and that it wanted but ten days to Michaelmas Term, it was quite evident that we had far outstayed our leave of absence, and ought to start for London immediately. The case was clear, there was no room for doubt; yet O'Rourke, as he turned away, cast a truculent look at old Grumphy, and seemed to grudge her the involuntary reprieve.

This punctual attendance was not alto. gether owing to a general respect for the church, nor to an individual regard for the That very evening we took leave of the worthy parson; but the fact was, that he circle at Kilmore. My friend made a capital had three daughters, all pretty, lively girls, story about the pig, expressed his regret at who were as glad to see us come in as we going away a hundred times over, and shook were to join the party. Harriet, the young- hands most warmly with every one. I tried est, was a black-eyed saucy thing of four- to follow his example, but was afraid to say teen, who liked a laugh and a romp, as her a word to Anna, and manoeuvred to press her eldest sister had probably done before she hand last, that I might leave the house imreached her then matronly age of twenty.mediately after. I have often thought since, But it is with Anna, the second sister, then about seventeen, that the narrative is princi. pally concerned. She was generally thought to be the least beautiful of the three; her eyes were not so bright, nor her colour so brilliant; she was less animated, and never gave way to that flow of spirits, and abandon to the impulse of the moment, which sometimes carried her sisters a little beyond bounds. But she had a more womanly look than either; there was a conscientious expression, a something that invited trust and confidence; every word and action displayed extreme and innate gentleness, and she possessed, in the highest degree, that invaluable blessing, a temper of sunny cheerfulness. To borrow from a poet, who unfortunately has little good to lend,—

"Her face was like the milky way in the sky,
A meeting of gentle lights without a name."
The allotted month had passed away,yet

how different might have been her fate and mine, had we been united. I was not actually in love, yet she certainly had a hold over my feelings; and as at that time I really believe she herself was not quite indifferent to me, in all likelihood a little more opportunity would have brought about a mutual attachment. But it was not to be:

"There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will."

Though it is curious enough to reflect that, in the present instance, the future destiny of two human beings probably turned on the question whether O'Rourke would or would not-slaughter the big pig!

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Five years passed away before I saw Anna again, and in that brief period how many changes had occurred! She was Anna Hamilton no longer, but the wife of Mr.

Wyndham, and the mother of a little girl. in the warm earth, and watered by the gentle On calling at the house in Bedford Square, dew. And so it is with human beings; many I felt an indefinable reluctance to ask for germs of character lie buried in the heart, Mrs. Wyndham. Although I had been in- unknown to and unsuspected even by ourformed of the marriage three years before, selves, until the favouring circumstances ocand busy life had greatly weakened early cur which call them into life and energy. impressions, and my feelings were no longer Whether this was the case with Mrs. Wynd"in the gristle of youth, but hardened into ham, or whether my own observation was in the bone of manhood," still there must ever fault, I cannot say; but certainly to me it be a strange uneasy sensation at meeting, as was a new trait in her character to find that the wife of another, one whom you once she was a Protestant, "sincere, austere, as thought of for your own. She received me far as her own gentle heart allowed," and with the utmost kindness; she would not imbued with a perfect horror of the Roman notice that my hand shook on touching hers, Catholic creed. Yet, after all, it was nothing nor that I was afraid to look at her; but very surprising that the daughter of an Irish talked on the subjects of the day, until I clergyman, himself a thorough Orangeman, had regained my composure. Even then and boasting a descent from the far-famed she said little of her husband, nor sent for "Prentice Boys" of Derry, should feel nurse and the baby, selon les règles on such strongly on a subject impressed on her mind occasions; all mention of old times was by precept and example from earliest childavoided, and our conversation turned entire- hood. Perhaps, too, she felt that "besoin d' ly on the changes which had occurred since aimer," that wish for some object to call forth our parting five years before. I was obliged the full devotion of the heart, which her to give a minute account of my proceedings husband could neither excite nor appreciate. since leaving Kilmore, and she took such in- "Ah!" writes Madam de Sevigné, "ah! terest in my difficulties, and congratulated jamais, jamais je ne serai pas aimé comme me so warmly on my success, that I was sur- j'aime !"-and it was obvious to me that such prised, and perhaps a little vexed, to find a feeling had often crossed the mind of Anna how soon my embarrassment disappeared. Wyndham. At all events, the family arrangeNothing destroys a mere sentiment so tho-ments were strict and almost austere; attenroughly as a frank and open demeanour. dance at morning and evening prayers was These weakling fancies are like the animals rigidly enforced on the household; works of which are sometimes found shut up in blocks of wood or stone, existing for a length of time, while closely shut up in their cavities, but perishing at once when exposed to the sunny light and free air of heaven.

From this time forward my intercourse with Mrs. Wyndham was that of true friendship. I felt and expressed an open and undisguised interest in all that concerned her or her husband, and when I myself burst forth from the chrysalis state of bachelordom into the full splendour of a married man, Anna was the first to welcome my beautiful Ellen with a sister's sincere affection.

fiction were banished from the drawing-room, and a solitary pack of cards was consigned to the fire without remorse. Controversial tracts abounded both in the parlours and kitchen; and the servants, whenever they wanted to take a walk with a "sweetheart," always made a pretence of wishing to hear a sermon or lecture against the Papistical dogmas.

One of these damsels was the orphan child of Roman Catholic parents, and had been taken into Mr. Hamilton's family when only twelve years old: she was now about eighteen, heavy-browed, ruddy, and with rather a showy figure, but possessed of a pair of When the two families became intimate, bold black eyes that had something dangerI found Mr. Wyndham to be a pleasing, gen- ous in their expression. There was a latent tlemanly man, of remarkably easy temper, fierceness in her manner at times, which told flexible to a fault, and rather formed to be of strong passions kept down but not quelled, liked by many than to be loved by one. He and altogether I had no great liking for had that vague indiscriminate benevolence" Alley," as she was called. Her mistress of disposition, which, if it gives no provoca- however looked upon the girl with great tion to hatred, offers little incentive to love. favour, as a proselyte of her own making, and His character, like the portrait which good frequently congratulated herself on having Queen Bess desired the painter to draw, was rescued one fellow-creature at least from the without shade; and the consequence was Papistical idolatries. Whether she had inuch not, as the royal critic expected, an increase cause for congratulation, will appear from of brilliancy, but a dull monotony of colour- the extracts which I shall now make from my ing, without relief or expression. He was private journal. about eight-and-twenty, tall, with a good figure, large hazel eyes, regular features, and brown curled hair. His profession was that of an architect, in which he showed considerable taste and ingenuity.

It is a remarkable fact, that the seeds of plants, which have lain for two thousand years in a mummy's hand, shut up in its porphyry sarcophagus, have yet been found to shoot and burst into blossom, when placed

May 10.-Ellen called at Bedford Square to-day, and found Mrs. Wyndham much excited by the discovery that her proselyte, Alley, was as good a Roman Catholic as ever." A string of beads, accidentally found in her room, gave rise to inquiry, during which the damsel entirely lost her temper, and not only avowed her determined adherence to the old church, but also loaded her mistress with the fiercest abuse. The very necessity for

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