Or through embroidery rich and rare, Ah! she looks as if a shriek were rising to her lips, as a pebble from the garden below extinguishes the lamp; but the next moment beholds her at the doorits sashed panel is opened, and shews a short flight of stone steps to the turf walk, and the noblest youth that ever love made lowly, stands in a a peasant's garb before her." Hist, John! my father scarcely sleeps,-where are the steeds?" "Fair Princess of the Peak, they wait behind the Bowling Green. Art sure all's safe? Where are thy maidens?" Mary waits by my lady mother, who is somewhat indisposed to-night, woe the while." And here the false page wept and Margaret! has e'en such another flattering loon as thou to listen to; and a smile chased the natural tears as she spoke. She hurried down, but at the last step her broidered slipper caught in the dewy clusters of the clematis that wreathed the stone banister; she staid not to recover it, and with breathless haste the heiress of Vernon fled with her lover, and united for ever the ancient blazonry of the King of the Peak to the hostile house of Man ners. Look at that skeleton of a poplar leaf, as it lies strewn with myriads of its companions, amid the juicy verdure of the green tufts that border the brook! Doubtless it hath once felt the genial influences of spring as gladly as any of us who are still left to rejoice in them. It hath danced and fluttered to the evening air, it hath glowed and glittered greenly in the noontide sun, it hath exhaled fragrance as it drooped with the richness of midsummer-night's dew-and now there it lies amid the full sorrelknots, the tiers of joint grass, and the flaunting array of purple, white and yellow florets, matted with its seared and forgotten brethren,— Brown skeletons of leaves that lay ANTIENT MARINER. There it lies beneath the very grove where once it hung aloft, and where a brilliant throng of rustling successors are silently mounting the staircase of the kindling trunks, to peer out timidly from the windows of the buds, and then enjoy a whole summer's gala in the balconies of the boughs. They will sing and nod and gleam amongst the arches and tapes tries of the tree-tops, while this poor bankrupt lies smothered and rotting in the turf below. At least it is happy in this, that the mantling herbage will have securely shielded it from the mortification of witnessing, in its last moments, the pomps it once partook, and from which it is cast down for ever. Yet to my eye it is beautiful-exquisitely beautiful! What loom of Brussels or of Mechlin can rival the delicacy of those million fibres, which, unbroken by the gusts that hurled it from its stem, and unimpaired by the damps that robbed it of its autumnal dies, meander in the most elegant sinuosities and the most gracile veins-myriads and myriads of streamlets that fall into larger ducts, as these last empty themselves into the grand canal that bissects the whole. From this canal the lively sap diffused itself in all this net-work of aquaducts, over the bright green leaf which this withered its figures and more delicacy than the wreck once was. It has more variety in spider's web, and it never was guilty of the stratagems and bloodshed that stain that beautiful piece of mechanism. (To be continued.) TENACITY OF RANK. George Colman the Younger, as he pleases to term himself, although on the wrong side of youth, tells us in his 'Random Records, the following facetious tale of offended pride which occurred to himself in his nonage, while sojourning at the Aberdeen seminary, to pick up his learning. lege, there was a very worthy old gentleman, living in the Old Town, who wore a gold chain round his neck, and whom I always understood to be the Provost. This was Mr. Maclean, the Laird of Col, one of those Scotch Western Islands called the Hebrides.* "During my residence in King's Col I met him at dinner, in a mixed party, soon after my arrival in North Britain, when I had everything to learn which appertains to the manners, and etiquette, of the inhabitants;-and, observing that mark'd attention was paid to this ancient chieftain, I was desirous of getting into his good graces. Every body at table addressed him as Col, which appeared to me a familiarity inconsistent with respect; but, concluding that they were all his old friends, while I was a stranger, I said to him, -- He was, for several years, an inhabitant of Old Aberdeen, leaving his son (a Captain who had served for some time in the East Indies,) to govern his Hebridean territory. Mr. Col, will you do me the honour to drink a glass of wine with me?' He stared me full in the face, without speaking, or even deigning to give me a nod of assent. I repeated my proposition;'Mr. Col, do me the honour,' &c. &c.; -Mr. Col maintain'd his silence, and did not move a muscle. Is he deaf,' said I, turning to a gentleman on my right hand, C or what is the matter with him?". "Gude troth,' he whisper'd, ye've e'en affronted him, by ca'ing him Mister :'he then explain'd to me that a Chieftain in the Hebrides, being look'd upon as a kind of petty sovereign, is always styled according to the appellation of his dominions. If, therefore, Clapham Common could be a Western Island of Scotland, and Mr. Maclean had been the Laird of it, I ought not to have call'd him Mr. Clapham Common, but Clapham Common, short and blunt, without any prefix or addition whatever;—just as, in Shakspeare's Play, Cleopatra is occasionally call'd, both by Mark Antony, and her attendants, Egypt. "This custom is, now and then, awkward, when the uncouth names given to some of the aforesaid Western Isles are consider'd; and a well-bred Englishman, in accosting Scottish petty Kings, feels some difficulty in pronouncing, by way of a respectful salutation,- How do you do, Muck*?' "Neither are EGG and RUM very lofty titles ;-but, then, there is MULL;-and when these three are mention'd together, they produce combined recollections in a Londoner who has travell'd the North Road, (particularly in winter,) of a hot beverage, comfortable to the stomach, though not grand to the mind. "SKY, also, excites no vast idea of landed property, nor any deep deference to the autocracy of a terrestrial proprietor. "I hasten'd to repair my error, as soon as I was aware of it, and attack'd the Chieftain for a third time, with—' Col, allow me to hob-nob with you.' With all the pleasure in life, young gentleman,' roar'd the mighty Col, relaxing his fea tures, and with a Highland accent which struck me as first-cousin to the Irish brogue; and, thenceforward, was the Old King Col most condescending, and even attentive, to the Younger Colman. once sent to him, late at night, when I was laid up by a fever, for a little Lisbon Ou reference to authorities, I find that the Laird of this place, thinking the appella tion too coarse for his Island, likes it still less for himself, and he is therefore address'd by the title of Isle of Muck.-I cannot help think. ing that this title is not less coarse, but more Judicrous. I wine, of which I could get none, and which had been prescribed to me, as the best to be taken in whey,-my servant return'd to me with a bottle of it, and, with the Chieftain's compliments, expressing his regret that he had but two dosen more, which should be sent to me early in the morning, and he hoped it would do me good. This little trait of generous kindness, characteristic, I believe, of Highland Chiefs, even in the rude times of their ferocity, had an Uncle Tobyism about it, which speaks much more home to the human heart than all the 'obliging enquiries' with which invalids are flatter'd in London. Having no need of the proffer'd present, I did not accept it, but I was not the less grateful. "That persons above the level of general society should be tenacious of their rank and titles, is natural enough; and without similar feelings in every class of civilized men, according to their graduated stations, we should soon have to deplore that "The Falcon, towering in his pride of place, Was, by the mousing Owl, hawk'd at and kill'd.' "When my very dear friend, Francis North (afterwards Earl of Guilford, of whom I shall make further mention, and who, alas! is departed,) dined, for the first time, with the late Earl of Llandaff, an Irish nobleman, who had somewhat of the veille-cour dignity about him,-a certain (or rather uncertain) quantity of excellent Claret had been drank, and the party was about to break up; when the joyous Francis, who sat next to the noble host, put his hand upon the Earl's shoulder, saying, Come, Old Daffy! let us have one more bottle of your Elixir !' "The requested Elixir was producedbut the Earl never gave my friend a second invitation." His eyes were red and flash'd with dread, His cheeks were ghastly blue; And his armour, white as the clear moonlight, Was wet with the evening dew. Sir Edgar came to an old grey tower, And the clock rang forth the midnight hour He fiercely glanced on the ruffian train Who sat at the banquet board, And his torn heart seem'd as 'twould burst in twain As he grappled his shining sword. "I come," he cried, " for my promised bride, The daughter of Helvellein's lord!" Count Roderic flew from his lofty seat Sir Edgar avoided the deadly aim Deep stillness reign'd in the castle hall The night-bird shriek'd round the castle wall, "My father's voice!" the maiden eried,-her lover drew his sword, And forward rush'd with lightning speed that sacred life to guard. A moment more and both return'd,-the sire his guardian press'd, And held him in an ecstacy of fondness to his breast! "Brave youth! my child is thine," he cried; "she's thine for evermore! Henceforth thou art my chosen friend-our fatal feuds are o'er." The scene is changed, a sturdy form in glittering gear is seen, He claims the damsel for his bride with high and haughty mien; The sire accepts the sparkling boon, the bridal morn is plann'd, And 'neath her faithless father's frown the maiden yields her hand. . Again the scene is changed, and now a bridal train appears, And the bridegroom smiles a withering smile on the bride's fast falling tears The minstrel ceased-a deafening din Looming frightful and grim in the fire's red gleam. The darkness fled, and a chapel soon And the forms, no longer involved in gloom, The minstrel eyed the spectral band And his wild harp fell from his trembling hand INDIAN CUNNING DEFEATED. For the Olio. DURING the war in Canada, previous to the engagement that took place between the armies of England and France on the plains of Abraham, a circumstance took place that is well worthy of remembrance. The Indians have long been noted for a truly characteristic of these uncultivated species of sagacity and cunning, that is savages. At the time referred to above, the picquets of the British Army extended country; and from one of these outposts along the whole frontier of the Indian's the sentinel never returned to tell his alarmed comrades the tale of his disasters. Sentinel after sentinel was posted, and when the relief guard went their rounds, the man was missing, and no one could give any information on the subject. The bravery of the men to whose lot it had fallen to guard this hitherto fatal spot, had never been called in question, and it be ་། came a subject of dispute whether they had deserted to the French camp, or had fallen victims to the wiles of their more cunning enemies, the Indians. Still the men disappeared, and still the cause of their disappearance remained as inexplicable as ever. Unwilling that this state of things should continue any longer, the commander of the regiment called his men together on the parade, and spoke to them of his fears that the inen missing had been by some means or other thrown off their guard by the Indians, and then put to death in their peculiarly savage manner. This became necessary from the fact, that the sudden and unaccountable disappearance of the men, had awakened in the minds of their comrades those superstitious fears and feelings that were almost naturally caused by the circumstances. Far from wishing to compel any man under his command to guard so dangerous a post against his will, he related the dangers that had attended it, and endeavoured to convince the men that there could be no supernatural power armed against them, but that the disappearance of their comrades was the result of some successful stratagem of their crafty foes; and that any man of courage and prudence would be enabled to elicit the cause, and be the means of saving many valuable lives. He therefore proposed that one of them should volunteer, for the safeguard of the outpost, to go on duty in the place of the man just missed. One of the men convinced by the language of his officer stepped out from the ranks, and offered to go immediately to the outpost. "Your honour, "said he, "can depend upon me, for if the wind whistles, a leaf falls, or a crow chatters you shall be sure to hear the report of my musket." His offer was accepted, and he went to his duty, not without receiving the hearty good wishes of his comrades and the thanks of the officer under whom he served. He had not been long at his post when the report of his piece was heard and repeated by the numerous sentinels till it reached the camp. Assistance was immediately sent to him, and on reaching the spot he was found examining what appeared to his comrades the body of an enormous bear; further inspection however proved that it was an Indian disguised in a bear's skin. On being solicited to relate his singular adventure, he informed his comrades that on arriving at the post, he was somewhat alarmed at the stillness and solitude of the place, and was not altogether free from feelings of dread and apprehension. Banishing, however, every idea from his mind that had no connexion with his duty, he proceeded calmly and coolly to examine the forest, No sound was heard for some time that could have awakened the fears of even timidity itself. At length, when he had almost made up his mind that he should escape the visitation of that mysterious power that had deprived the regiment of so many of its brave members, he heard a rustling among the leaves that the wind had swept from their parent branches, and after a minute inspection, he observed what appeared to him to be a bear making a sidelong progress among the trees towards the place where he stood. Thinking that if he fired at such an object he should only excite the ridicule of his companions, he for some time desisted, but occupied himself in still further observing its motions. Suspicious from the actions of the animal that it was not altogether what it seemed, he aimed at it with his piece and fired, and by the groan that was heard in the direction in which the ball had gone, he was convinced that he had solved the mystery hitherto so inexplicable. On examining the skin in which the Indian was enclosed, the tomahawk and scalping knife were found with him, the usual instruments with which Indian cruelties are inflicted. There was now no longer any doubt as to the way in which the former sentinels had gone. The wary Indian in his disguise had watched a favourable opportunity of taking his victim by surprise, and springing upon him before he had time to give the alarm, buried his tomahawk in his scull and carried him off in triumph as a trophy of his cunning. It is needless to say that after the defeat of this stratagem the men were no longer missing from their posts. This is an anecdote that I have frequently heard related by the inhabitants on the borders of Canada; and that the circumstances took place during that contest between England and France, in which General Wolfe ended his glorious career on the far-famed plains of Abraham. CELEBS. bride, whom the Bohuns, the Warrens, and the Mordaunts consigned to its knightly walls. "And is it not a shame," thus did I say within myself, "is it not a shame, that the quarried pavement which once disclosed its yellow and red pattern thro' the layers of green rushes in the banquetplat of pastures! hall should be superseded by this dull And that mosaic of gold and ebony, which the sun points off through the branches and leaves of yonder ash-tree-what, I say, is it to the feudal hearth with its armorial carvings, and crown of antlers which once on that very spot diffused its ruddy blaze, every bicker of its flame bring the tongue of some legend, or the conjuror of some spirit! "How free the evening wind sweeps over this old close! It could tell of ancient days, when it was not so free, when it was rebutted by the broad mullions of the arched windows, or imprisoned howling in the great hall chimney, an envious listener to the goblet's clang, the tradi tion, and the song by the fireside. The roaring flame mocked its thundering then, and its very roars were a fresh source of enjoyment to the revellers. Well, Nature, untamed Nature, is undoubtedly a fine thing-but I hate to see it master where it has once been a vassal :-I abhor Nature in a state of revolution!" My feet were on my ancestral acres, and my heart in the ages of their opulence. A noble sunset displayed its manifold colours in the west; and the calm vault overhead, where a solitary star began to twinkle, reposed above burnished slopes of corn. The massy wheat, red with its dusky gold,-the lemon tints of the spiky barley,-and the cold pale plumage of the feathery oats-were all slothfully rippling and rustling in the awaken--that dear old village, most justly ed night breeze. Forthwith did I begin to pile up into the beautiful sky the pictured phantom of the original manor hall, that, from the time of the Norman bastard to that of the Stuarts, rose the proud paramount of the surrounding country. Ever he watch'd, and oft he deem'd It alter'd to his eyes; Fain would he hope the rocks 'gan change, He saw gray turrets rise. BRIDAL OF TRIERMAIN. I caught the gold sunbeams in lattices where they struggled through dimly lo zenged panes,-I led their light through painted oriels upon tapestry that rivalled them in Tyrian tints, or oaken wainscots, whose deep polish reflected their lustre. I made the bright fields dark with the pompous shadows of the venerable hall, and the gigantic groves of beech and elm that duskily disclosed its ancient towers. In short, I invested it with the appearance that my fancy told me it presented to the noble, the beautiful, and the youthful Right pleasantly it predominates in the so called, since not only is it tinted in |