WOMAN! fond, confiding woman! in what various shapes have thy young heart's best affections been deceived, betrayed, by the instability of man! How often, in the fragile years of infancy, when fondly thy little arms entwined around thy mother's neck, to gain the oft-repeated fond maternal kiss (the sum of all thy little joys)-how often, then, hast thou wiped the unbidden tear from her loved face, whilst anxiously she marked the quick sensibilities of thy sex, in thy gentleness, thy fearfulness to offend, and all the nameless winning grace of infant love, which told of feelings deep, acute, beyond thy years. Nor could the bounding step, and sprightly laugh, that echoing on the ear, bespoke its joy, sooth into forgetfulness the sorrowing care and deep solicitude of a fond mother's heart: whilst sadly she scanned the future for the darling of her hopes, her cherished child;-lest a sensibility so extreme, should in life's drama, become the source and heightener of every grief.

But in thy father's heart perchance there mingled nought so sad. His pride repressed his fear, whilst fondly he gazed on that sweet face, and those laughter-loving eyes, which sparkled so beautifully with intelligence. Nor deemed he man's neglect could ever dim their brilliancy: or that for the animation of those joyous smiles would be exchanged the flickering light of wasted intellect, whose beams were set in sorrowing despair.

Ah! quickly fled the gleesome hours of childhood; and for its fairy step is seen the far superior grace and dignity of woman's form, adorned with woman's mind, with feelings warm and fresh as childhood innocence. For a little while she basks in the sunshine of hope,

the world before her, and the world's joys,-while surrounded by the friends of her youth, and caressed by the many, her young heart's inexperience dreams not of a sorrow! Behold her as a Bride! Midst smiles and tears she leaves her parent's home, for one her love hath

decked with fancy's fairest colouring, unmindful of a change, loving and beloved. Oh, who may tell the self-devotedness that clings to woman's nature! See her bright eye grow brighter 'neath the gaze of him her soul delights in! Mark well her anxious watching in the tediousness of absence; or, when sickness pales his brow, her agonizing fears;-then ask, if this be love! Or, if assailed by poverty, mark her unwearied self-denying gentleness, and seek the cause in unfeigned love like hers, which gilds with brightening hue all things it lights upon, cheating with smiles the hard, rough-featured brow of care, and turning all to joy.

Again we view her ;-not, as once, the gladsome child, the happy, serene, contented girl, rich in the charms of mind as well as form, the joy of her fond parents, the object in which their sum of happiness was centred. Alas! we find her now sorrowing in deepest grief, at man's inconstancy, neglect, contumely! Friends, home (so dear) and all her heart and soul could give, she hath given up for him, that one loved being, for the continuance of whose affection she could meekly have suffered any ill, so he was spared!

Yet man can view the wreck his power hath made in beauty such as this! Ay, can suffer her early bloom to fade beneath his eye, who needed but the halo of his heart, to shed delight on all around her, diffusing (as by reflection) a charm woman alone can give to the domestic hearth, the bright emporium of man's existence.

Thrice happy ye, whose kindlier fate hath met the soft return of peace and love! Blessed in the heart's dearest joys, the cherished wife and tender mother wrecks not of a sister's blighted, withering hopes, which too had owned a happiness like thine, if, like thine unchecked, the warm

sensibilities of her nature had been suffered to expand; then would they have shed their benign influence, tender and gentle as thine own!

Hapless woman! when rankling grief preys on thy cheek, and gathers in thine eye; when lost to happiness, and unsustained by the consolations of religion, how doth the quick susceptibility of thy sex become thy scourge; hurrying thee with maddening impulse into deepest, direst misery! Alas! most fearful then are its effects, ending oft in apathetic, dull despair,-insanity !—and often, alas! too often, without an anchor for her stay, on which to rest those hopes that lie beyond the grave, she plunges deep in guilt!

Warped to wrong, then, were her best feelings, in early life, by man's unkindness! The scorn of the world hath she now become! Unsorrowed for, unwept, she fades and droops with nothing left to her but bitter, ah! sad repentance! Alas! but too happy should this become her mind's bent;-cut off from every human being to sooth, to comfort her, in her heart's agony !

Such are the dangerous results of an overweening sensibility-woman's peculiar characteristic! But, if happily repressed within the bounds of holy resignation, then does it yield a fragrance like the rose; turning what else were gall of bitterness into a source of holier joy, befitting one whose home is in the skies; whilst often, even in this world of tears and strife, her patient, mild endurance will meet its own reward, reclaiming perhaps the heart, which, but for influence like this, had been for ever lost to her and to himself. Such woman's weakness, and such the end where virtue triumphs over the pangs of wounded sensibility. F. F.

VOL. IV.

T

the clear transparent waters murmuring along the shores, spoke alone of peace and tranquillity; the peace of nature, in her most enchanting form, undisturbed by ought save sights and sounds, which might well beseem a fairy region. Felipe's soul was centred in his lovely companion, and Inez loved with an intensity of passion which made her feel that all her world was here. Their days were calm and pure as the clime in which they dwelt, and their occupations befitted the scene of which they were the brightest ornaments. A shade of melancholy would sometimes oppress Dona Inez in Felipe's temporary absence, when she thought of her poor father and the strange lot which had consigned her for ever to this silent land; but the return of her lover invariably dispelled this transient expression of care, and perhaps served to heighten the enjoyment which had otherwise been too perfect!

Those their bright rays had lighted to such joys

As rarely they beheld throughout their round;

And those were not of the vain kind which cloys,

For theirs were buoyant spirits, never bound By the mere senses; and that which destroys Most love, possession, unto them appear'd A thing which each endearment more endear'd!

An event was, however, destined to occur, which wrought a sad revolution in these happy isles. Three years had now elapsed since the terrible night which rescued the lovers from danger in the cavern, and formed the era from whence they dated the happiness they had since uninterruptedly enjoyed. It was a bright day at that season of the year when in other lands the gloom of winter awakens regret for the faded beauty of the scenery here the changes of the seasons were only marked by the renewal of flowers where fruits had ceased to glow, and the only indications of the waning year were those external signs of ligtning and tempest, which sweeping over the wide Atlantic, were wont for a few hours to envelop the Bermudas in the characteristic features of the storm, and deface for a short period the beauty

of the smiling scenery. Felipe was absent in a light canoe, which he had fashioned with much ingenuity from the ever-durable cedar, and was pursuing his morning's amusement and occupation of fishing in one of the small secluded bays along the sound, while Inez remained in her fairy bower, intent upon the progress of a net which she wove from the fibres of the cocoa-nut. She sat beneath the natural arch of a rock which formed the entrance to a beautiful grotto, the walls and roof of which glittered with pendant stalactites of snowy hue. The exterior of the cave was overgrown with flowering creepers of every possible combination of form and colour, and the graceful branches of the pride of India mingled their delicate foliage with the broad palmetto's shadowy leaf. A narrow alley, bordered thick with high bananas, formed an agreeable vista, terminating in the wide expanse of the blue ocean, which "glittered like a lake." Felipe had now been absent some hours, and Inez at length raised her eyes from her work, to note by the shadow of the rocks if it were time for her to prepare the midday repast. As she looked in the direction of the sea, a momentary idea struck her that she could discern something gleaming on its surface which resembled a sail; it was, however, so remote, and so imperfectly defined, that she set it down at once for the effect of imagination, perhaps a consequence of the train of thought which she had been pursuing. She therefore resumed her intended employment; and in a short time the board glowed with the produce of the islands. She now turned again to leave the cave in search of Felipe, when her eye was again arrested by a repetition of what she had before seen, but this time it was more distinct; indeed, so much so, that she could no longer doubt its reality. She paused a moment in great agitation, a thousand conflicting ideas rushing at once on her brain; then rapidly pursued the path which led to the shore where she expected to find Felipe. With more delight than usual, she hailed the approach of his little skiff, as he obeyed her signal from the beach; and in a few minutes she had clasped him in her arms, and told him what she had just witnessed. Felipe hastened with her to their dwelling, and gazing in the direction in which she pointed,

he also distinguished a gallant bark, which sailing along the shore, was apparently examining the coast, as if to seek some convenient spot to run in and anchor. They watched her progress attentively; on a sudden she seemed to alter her course, and standing directly parallel with the island, they lost sight of her behind a high projecting promontory. The appearance of this vessel was a theme of much conversation to the lovers, and recalled events over which oblivion had long cast a veil Inez felt agitated and oppressed with a secret fear, though she endeavoured to disguise even from herself that she was so. As the day wore away, the remembrance of the stranger also faded; and towards the evening, if they still thought of her, it was in the supposition that she was now far distant.

The sun was sinking with a ruddy glow beneath the wave, and Felipe and Inez silently watched his beams, as seated on a rock on the shore, they "yielded to the deep twilight's purple charm." Absorbed in the contemplation of all that was most beautiful in nature, and thinking only of each other, they heeded not if aught was passing around them which could mar the lovely scene. On a sudden a shrill cry reechoed along the coast! The lovers turned, and to their utter astonishment, beheld a party of several men rapidly approaching them: to fly would have been impossible as well as impolitic, since they knew not whether the new comers were friends or foes, though the fears of Inez prophetically augured the latter. Felipe shrouded Donna Inez with one arm, and extended the other towards the men, whose dresses he now discovered to be those of his native country. He perceived, too, that they were well armed, but had scarcely time to make the observation, before a stern voice, whose accents time had not obliterated from his memory, commanded him to yield, as a traitor and deserter.

In the leader of the band, Felipe and Inez both recognised the hateful features of Don Gaspar, doomed to the last to be their implacable foe. Inez clung to Felipe with the energy of despair, while he scornfully refused to surrender to men in whom he recognised no lawful authority to compel him. His refusal was fatal. A signal from Don Gaspar to a wretch by his side who carried a matchlock, was the warrant for his death. The murderous tube was raised, and scarce had the flash announced its deadly purpose, when a ball pierced the breast of Felipe. He uttered no cry, but straining Inez in his embrace, fell lifeless on the ground. A long wild shriek which ascended reproachfully to Heaven was the only sound uttered by Dona Inez, as she sunk on the body of her lover. The murderous crew in a few seconds encircled the fallen pair: Don Gaspar knelt down on the sand to watch for returning life, but they both were dead!

*

That night the demon of the storm came winged with vengeance above the dreary islands; and late in the month of December, a vessel returning to Europe from the coast of Mexico, fell in with a shapeless hulk, shattered and dismasted, which drifted above the ocean like a burden she was unwilling to swallow, and seemed as if rejected by every element. A boat's crew boarded her, and found the emaciated bodies of two miserable objects, one of whom was dead, and the other in the last stage of existence. Famine was evidently the cause. The dead man was the murderous associate of Don Gaspar; the living one was himself! The nourishment he received on board the vessel restored him strength sufficient to record his dismal story; but he shortly expired in the agonies of despair and impenitence, bequeathing with his last breath a curse upon the fatal shores of the lovely Bermudas!

D. C.