torted, knowing that it was a threat no English heart could execute, he remained silent, though his looks were evident of the deepest hate.

"Donna Santissima! who would believe I have been so many years your humble servant ?" continued the captain. "Set sail and be off, you used to say, when you crowded my vessel with slaves, and now you would quarrel with me for one baby girl, a particularly well-bred child, whom I will present as a specimen of the breed you intend dealing in.

"How can you prove such a lie?" "Here are my proofs," said the captain, taking out his pocket-book, and tapping with the other hand as he replaced it.

it

Villain that letter was written before the act had passed; restore me my papers. The captain laughed.

The baron surveyed him as if he were

measuring his powers; but if such were actually the case, he must have come very speedily to the conclusion that it was useless to cope with a son of Neptune whose gigantic arms appeared large enough to crush the baron's very slight figure.

"Well, well, as you say, it is of no use quarrelling with you, we had better change the subject.'

"With all my heart," said the captain, who, having often quarrelled with the baron, deemed the reconciliation pro tem. as good as any on previous occasions.

When the baron was once more in the boat he surveyed attentively the young seaman who was accompanying him. He was a handsome, open-browed youth, eighteen or nineteen years old, with a frank, sunny, expression of countenance, changing at times to crude reflection, as some graver thought, perhaps, crossed his mind. He was, appa

rently, a youth who would tell one exactly what he meant, and the baron, turning round to him, said abruptly,

"Are you glad the slave trade is abolished ?"

"Very glad indeed," replied the youth; "it may not please my captain, nevertheless it will save me many a heart-ache."

You have a young child of the name of

Rosa on board your ship?"

"Poor little creature," said the youth, "she has wrung my heart with her pitiful cries; not the screams of a savage were those I heard, there was gentle misery in the sound."

"The child has been well brought up for her condition," said the baron; "a young lady, her mistress, took an especial delight in listening to her quaint observations."

She often calls upon Lady di Lucia," said the youth.

"Does she?" said the baron, with considerable softness. After a pause, he said, "This trade must either cease altogether, or at least it will be attended with great risks. You are young to be in the midst of party feelings."

"I am old enough to be uncared for," said the youth, a tear trembling in his

eye;

I have a mother and a little sister in Spain, they pray, perhaps, for my safety; but in this wide world none else care for the portionless boy. Yours is a kind voice, sir, and yet you have no interest in me.”

Yes, I have," said the baron; "I am afraid I am thinking much of myself. Hearken now, my lad, for time passes swiftly, and we near the shore. If you can rescue the child Rosa, and bring her to the Baron de Scala's mansion, I will screen you from all blame, and I will provide for you as long as you deserve my confidence."

The boy's eyes literally swam in a flood of delight; he grasped the baron's hand, and thanked him in broken accents.-Proud men invariably like to meet with gratitude; if they have stooped to unwonted condescensions, they have been rewarded.

Mutually pleased with each other they separated, and the baron, remounting his horse, hastened on his way home; and although, as I have before stated, he was not a man." given to ruminate," still he did think deeply during that solitary ride.

Who can watch night waning in her beauty without experiencing mixed feelings of strange comparison between Nature and man's existence! Night wanes in her beauty

so man sinks in his bloom: the sun

disperses the gloom of the night — thus night-thus

man's soul, when released from its earthly chains, mounts the regions of eternal light. The summer months of tropical climes