respected his warm and merry heart. We consulted on the condition of the patient, in conjunction with the gentlemen resident at the institution.

“Milford,” said he in conclusion, “how this horrible disease baffles all our skill, as far as remedies are concerned-it is the insidious plague of England, and cuts as many off in a relative proportion as the endemic of Sierra Leone, or the Mal de Siam of the West. Her fate is sealed. Poor Senora with her Ιατρος ἰᾶται θανατος, is too veritably the fact.”

After our classical friend had, according to his wont, delivered himself of this bit of lore, conversed with the patient, asked in the name of his august friend the Duchess, if she could fancy any nice concoctions, or delicate edibles, and after having extracted from his coat-pocket a huge, silver-lidded mull, surcharged with his favourite Martinique, and offered the same to the other gentlemen and myself, and then dipped his own digits therein, he shook hands, and bade a bustling good bye.

Not more than three weeks from this

Senora Juana Mendoza rejoined her Donaldo in the realms of the brave. In compliance with her dying request, the glittering brooch and the lock of golden hair were placed near that heart now cold and still, where they had for years been treasured when it palpitated with warm and never-to-be-forgotten love!

CHAPTER XIII.

"And then away to Venice."-SHAKSPEARE.

Ir is now many years since, on one of those stilly, breathless summer evenings, when Nature seems to make a general pausewhen earth assumes that quiet serenity of heaven, and which is nowhere more fully and more beautifully witnessed than beneath the deep blue of an Italian sky-it was when the broad moon, and myriads of silver beaming stars, were shiningly reflected on the placid bosoms of the lagoons of Venice, that a foreign gentleman stood in contemplative revery on the far-famed Rialto. The place, the hour, were favourable to meditation; and the many associations which were

awakened by the survey of a thousand objects thrown out in dim perspective of nocturnal shades, led him into a variety of reflections. In subdued tone he soliloquised:-" Tyre, in ancient days, was the store-house, the mart of the world-the genius of commerce once shielded it under the shadow of her wings; she flew away, and long since a melancholy air of solitude has settled over a spot once thronged by merchants who were princes! After a lapse of centuries, a hardy band, the descendants of the Imperial Legions, reclaimed a site 'deep in the bosom fixed of wondering seas,' and in process of time the 'fair Queen of Adria's stormy Gulf' became the empress of the waves! The Venetian name rose to be the synonym of maritime enterprise and commercial wealth. The treasures of Europe, of the radiant East, were poured into her harbours; the wines of Spain, the rich fabrics of France, the cloths of England, the gems and the gold, and silks and the ivory of India, were thither borne by the barks of every country. She advanced in opulence, and a state geographically so

insignificant became a beacon from afar, in ages of rudeness and barbarity. The heroism of spirits like unto Pizanio and Zeno, exalted her name from insignificance to power, until the 'seeming god-built city' emulated her departed sister of old time, and possessed riches costlier than the scarlets and purples of the Tyrian dyes.

"A change gathered over the spirit of her people; the sparks of old Roman fame' began to burn dim and deadly. Indolent luxury and perfidious avarice criminally bartered independent nationality, public virtues, and the holier and better blessing of religious sincerity, for the lust of effeminating gain. They who had bravely fought and defended their ocean-home with a prowess worthy of the valour of old Rome, now lost their patriotism, and were humbled by a hardier foe. The Turkish scimitar flashed over their haughty heads with avenging zeal. The murder of Carrara, the sedition of Falier, the war of Chiozza, the tears of Dandolo, and the humiliation of Barbarossa beneath the portal of St. Mark's, stand out on the historic