"If," said he, "it were nothing more than to fight all her brothers, cousins, uncles, I would think nothing of it; but they will treat it as great lords do such matters. They will denounce me as a Carbonaro, and have me thrown into a prison, where I may wait for ten years before my case is examined."

I listened to these absurd stories with the credulity of a child. Leoni had never busied himself with politics, but I still loved to persuade myself that whatever was problematic in his life was connected with some great enterprise of this sort. I consented to pass for his sister in the hotel, to go out but seldom and never with him, and in fine to do just as he pleased.

This was a life of vexation, but I bore with it. As yet I had been spared the tortures of jealousy. They awoke within my bosom, and I felt their full force. I made up my mind to die; I felt myself ill enough to expect death. My ennui was greater at Milan than at Venice; I had more to endure and less to disturb my attention. Leoni was still, as he said, gradually withdrawing from his position beside the Princess. He spent the evening in her box at the opera, or in attending on her at parties. He supped with her, and came home at six o'clock in the morning. He went to bed fatigued and often out of humour; got up at twelve, silent and distracted, to take a carriage airing with her. I saw them pass the windows frequently Leoni looking as gay and as happy as he did once with me, but now the Princess had all his smiles while I had nothing but his complaints.

One evening, at sunset, I was coming out of the Cathedral where I had fervently begged of God to accept my sufferings in expiation of my faults; I was moving along slowly beneath the magnificent portico, sometimes leaning for support against the pillars, for I was weak and a burning fever was scorching up my blood: I looked like a ghost that had just issued from the sepulchral pavement to gaze once more upon the last beams of departing light. A man who had followed me for some time without my once noticing the circumstance, spoke to me from behind.

Without betraying fear or surprise, I turned round and beheld Henryet.

The recollection of my country and my family rushed upon me with impetuosity. I forgot the strange conduct of this young man towards myself; the terrible power he exercised over Leoni; his unrequited love for me, and the hatred I had MARCH, 1840.

R

subsequently felt for him. I only thought of my father and mother, and holding out my hand to him, I overwhelmed him with questions. He was in no hurry to reply, although he seemed touched with my emotion and eagerness.

"Are you alone?" said he, "and can I converse with you without exposing you to any danger?"

"Yes, I am alone," said I. "Come set down on this stone bench, and for the love of heaven tell me all about my parents. It is a whole year since I heard their names mentioned."

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"Your parents!" said Henryet, with melancholy emphasis, one of them will never weep for you again."

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My father is dead!" said I, springing up, "God forgive a wretched sinner," and I sank again upon the bench.

"Your mother," said Henryet, "was for a long time an invalid. She made an effort to shake off her affliction, but she could find no consolation in society."

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My father dead!" said I, clasping my hands, and "my mother old and care-worn-and my aunt?"

"She devotes herself to console your mother, by proving to her that you do not deserve her regret, but your mother will not listen to her, and day by day she wears away in solitude and grief. And you Madam?"

The last words were uttered in a cold tone, in which however compassion was perceptible beneath contempt.

"I am dying as you may observe." He took my hand, and his eyes filled with tears: "Poor girl," said he, "it is not my fault, I did all I could to prevent your falling into this gulf, but you would have it so.'

"Don't speak of that," said I, "I cannot bear it from you. Tell me, did my mother cause an active pursuit after my flight?"

"She did, but it was not conducted with spirit," said he. "Poor woman, she was thunderstruck, she lost her presence of mind. Juliet, there is no energy in the blood of the Ruyters."

"Ah! tis too true," said I carelessly. "We were all indolent and quiet. Does my mother entertain a hope of my return?"

"She did cling fondly to such a hope, and I believe she will cling to it to her last sigh."

I burst into tears. Henryet did not interrupt my grief. I believe he too was in tears. As soon as I could check the current of my sorrow, I asked him if my mother had been much afflicted at my disgrace, if she had felt ashamed of me, and if she could bring herself to mention my name.

"It is always on her lips," said Henryet. "She is for ever telling the story of her loss; people have now grown tired of it, and they smile when your mother begins to cry, or else they get away, saying, “ There's poor Madam Ruyter still harping on the old story of her daughter's elopement.'

I listened to this without being affected, and raising my eyes to his I said, "and you, Henryet, do you despise me?"

"I neither love you nor esteem you as I once did," replied he, "but I pity and would serve you: my purse is at your disposal. Shall I write to your mother? shall I accompany you back to her ? speak, you must not fear being too troublesome. I do not act from friendship but from duty. You know not Juliet how it smoothens the path of life to have good principles and to act upon them."

I was silent-"Do you mean to stay here alone in this deserted condition? How long is it since your husband left you?" he enquired.

"He has not left me," replied I; "we are living together. He will not let me return to Brussels; I have frequently intended, though now I fear I shall not find strength for the effort."

I relapsed into silence. He gave me his arm and we walked to my hotel. I was unconscious of the circumstance until we reached the door. "Shall I call to-morrow," said he, "to learn your intentions ?"

"You may," replied I, without once thinking that he might meet Leoni. "At what hour?" demanded he.

"Any you please," said I, without knowing what I said.

He came the next day a few minutes after Leoni had left. I forgot all about the appointment, and I exhibited such surprise at his visit, that he was obliged to remind me of it. Then it was that some expressions which I had overheard in the conversation of Leoni and his companions at Venice, came back upon my memory. Until then their meaning had not struck me, but they seemed applicable to Henryet, and contained a threat of death. I started at the thoughts of the danger to which I was exposing him. "Let us go out," said I to him with trepidation; "you are not safe here." He smiled, and his manner showed the utmost contempt for the danger I apprehended.

"Believe me," said he, seeing that I was about to insist on it: "the person you allude to would not dare to raise his arm against me, since you have seen he dared not raise his eyes to mine."

I could not have Leoni spoken of in this way.

With all

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his faults he was my husband. I begged of Henryet not to speak of him in this way before me. Heap your contempt upon me," said I; " say that I am without pride, without affection for having abandoned the best of parents and trampled under foot all the laws imposed upon my sex, I will not be offended, nor shall I be less grateful for the offer of your service which you made me yesterday: but let me respect the name of Leoni, the all I have to oppose to the anathema of the world."

Respect the name of Leoni," said Henryet, with a laugh of scorn: "poor woman! However, I shall consent to do so if you will set out for Brussels. Go and console your mother; return to the path of duty, and I shall promise not to molest the base miscreant who has wrought your ruin, and whom I could break as I would a reed." "Return to my mother," replied I; yes, my heart impels me, but pride forbids me to return to Brussels. How should I be treated by all those women who were jealous of my eclat, and who now exult in my debasement."

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I fear this is not the chief reason," said Henryet; "your mother has a country-house, where you may live with her far from the censorious world. With your fortune you may select any other abode, where your disgrace shall not be known, and where your beauty and your sweetness of disposition will soon draw new friends around you. But you do not wish to leave Leoni? be candid."

"I do wish it," said I, with tears in my eyes; "but I cannot." "Unhappy woman," said Henryet, dolefully, "you are good and devoted, but you are deficient in pride. Where there is no noble pride, there are no resources. Poor helpless being, I pity you from my soul-your heart has been profaned, polluted by the proximity of infamy-you have bowed your hed beneath a vile hand-you love a wretch. I begin to ask myself how I could have loved you; but I feel that I must still pity you."

"But," said I, alarmed at the vehemence of his air and language, "what has Leoni done, that you should think. proper to treat him as you do?"

"Do you doubt my right to do so? Madam, explain to me then how comes it that Leoni, who is unquestionably a man of courage, has never thought proper to send me a challenge. 1, who never handled sword or pistol in my life, expelled him from Paris by a word, from Brussels by a look?" "It is inexplicable," said I, completely confounded.

"What!" said Henryet, with vehemence; "I suppose you don't know what your husband is. Has nobody been so kind as to tell you the wonderful adventures of the Chevalier Leoni. Have you never blushed at having been his accomplice; of plundering your father's shop, and then flying with a sharper?"

I uttered a piercing scream and buried my face in my hands. Presently I raised my head, exclaiming with all my might "'tis false. I was never guilty of such baseness, and Leoni is as incapable of it as I am. We were not forty miles on the road to Geneva, when Leoni stopped in the middle of the night, called for a box, packed up all the jewels, and sent them back to my father."

"Are you sure of that?" said Henryet, with a smile of contempt.

"I am sure of it," said I; "I saw the box; I saw Leoni pack the jewels in it."

"And are you sure the box did not go with you the remainder of the way? Are you sure it was not unpacked at Venice?"

The words were like a burst of light. On a sudden I recollected, what I had in vain tasked my memory to recal; the first occasion of laying my eyes on that fatal box. At that instant, the three epochs of its apparition passed before me, logically connected together, to force upon me a crushing conclusion; first, the night spent in the mysterious chateau, where I saw Leoni put the jewels in the box; second, the last night we spent at the Swiss cottage, where I had seen Leoni mysteriously exhuming his treasure which he had confided for safety to the earth; thirdly, the second day of our abode at Venice, when I found the box empty, and the diamond pin upon the floor. The visit of the jew Thadæus, and the hundred and fifty thousand francs, which, according to the conversation I had overheard between Leoni and his companions, he had paid him down on our arrival at Venice, coincided exactly with my recollections of that morning. I clasped my hands, and raising them to heaven,-"So and so," said I, speaking to myself, all is lost-even to the esteem of my mother-all is poisoned even the remembrance of Switzerland! Those six months of love and happiness were devoted to the concealment of a robbery !"

"And to elude the pursuit of the police," added Henryet. "But no, no," resumed I, musingly; directing at the same time an interrogating glance at his countenance. did love me, that's positive. I cannot recur to those times

"He