she would weep, and invoke Maximilian to come and aid her. But seldom indeed did that name pass her lips that she did not again begin to strain her eyeballs, and start up in bed to watch some phantom of her poor fevered heart, as if it seemed vanishing into some mighty distance.

After nearly seven weeks passed in this agitating state, suddenly, on one morning, the earliest and the loveliest of dawning spring, a change was announced to us all as having taken place in Margaret; but it was a change, alas! that ushered in the last great change of all. The conflict which had for so long a period raged within her, and overthrown her reason, was at an end; the strife was over; and nature was settling into an everlasting rest. In the course of the night she had recovered her senses; when the morning light penetrated through her curtain, she recognised her attendants, made inquiries as to the month and the day of the month, and then, sensible that she could not outlive the day, she requested that her confessor might be summoned.

About an hour and a half the confessor remained alone with her. At the end of that time he came out, and hastily summoned the attendants, for Margaret, he said, was sinking into a fainting fit. The confessor himself, might have passed through many a fit, so much was he changed by the results of this interview. I crossed him coming out of the house. I spoke to him-I called to him; but he heard me not he saw me not. He saw nobody. Onwards he strode to the Cathedral, where Maximilian was sure to be found pacing about upon the graves. Him he seized by the arm, whispered something into his ear, and then both retired into one of the many sequestered chapels in which lights are continually burning. There they had some conversation, but not very long, for within five minutes Maximilian strode away to the house in which his young wife was dying. One step seemed to carry him up stairs; tho attendants, according to the directions they had received from the physicians, mustered at the head of the stairs to oppose him. But that was idle: before the rights which he held as a lover and a husband, before the still more sacred rights of grief, which he carried in his countenance, all opposition fled like a dream. There was,

besides, a fury in his eye. A motion of his hand waved them off like summer flies; he entered the room, and once again, for the last time, he was in company with his beloved.

What passed, who could pretend to guess? Something more than two hours had elapsed, during which Margaret had been able to talk occasionally, which was known, because at times the attendants heard the sound of Maximilian's voice evidently in tone of reply to something which she had said. At the end of that time, a little bell, placed near the bedside, was rung hastily; a fainting fit had seized Margaret, but she recovered almost before her women applied the usual remedies. They lingered, however, a little, looking at the youthful couple with an interest which no restraints availed to check. Their hands were locked together, and in Margaret's eyes there gleamed a farewell light of love, which settled upon Maximilian, and seemed to indicate that she was becoming speechless. Just at this moment she made a feeble effort to draw Maximilian towards her, he bent forward and kissed her with an anguish that made the most callous weep, and then he whispered something into her ear, upon which the attendants retired, taking this as a proof that their presence was a hinderance to a free communication. they heard no more talking, and in less than ten minutes they returned. Maximilian and Margaret still retained their former position. Their hands were fast locked together; the same parting ray of affection, and the same farewell light of love, were in the eye of Margaret, and still it settled upon Maximilian. But her eyes were beginning to grow dim; mists were rapidly stealing over them. Maximilian, who sat stupified and like one not in his right mind, now, at the gentle request of the women, resigned his seat, for the hand which had clasped his had already relaxed its hold; the farewell gleam of love had departed; one of the women closed her eyelids; and there fell asleep foreeer the loveliest flower that our city had reared for generations.

But

The funeral took place on the fourth day after her death. In the morning of that day, from strong affection-having known her from an infant-I begged permission to see the corpse. She was in her coffin; snowdrops and crocuses were laid upon

her innocent bosom, and roses of that sort which the season allowed, over her person. These and other lovely symbols of youth, of spring-time, and of resurrection, caught my eye, for the first moment; but in the next it fell upon her face. Mighty God! what a change! what a transfiguration! Still, indeed, there was the same innocent sweetness; still there was something of the same loveliness; the expression still remained; but for the features-all trace of flesh seemed to have vanished; mere outline of bony structure remained; mere pencillings and shadowings of what she once had been. This is indeed, I exclaimed, "dust to dust-ashes to ashes!"

also some change stealing over his features as if from some subtle poison beginning to work upon his frame, awe-struck I consented to listen, and sate still. "It is well that you do so, for my time is short. Here is my will, legally drawn up, and you will see that I have committed an immense property to your discretion. Here, again, is a paper still more important in my eyes; it is also testamentary, and binds you to duties which may not be so easy to execute as the disposal of my property. But now listen to something else which concerns neither of these papers. Promise me, in the first place, solemnly, that whenever I die you will see me buried in the same grave as my wife, from whose funeral we are just returned. Promise." I promised. "Swear." I swore. “Finally, promise me that when you read this second paper which I have put into your hands, whatsoever you may think of it, you will say nothing -publish nothing to the world, until three years shall have passed." I promised. "And now farewell for three hours; come to me again about ten o'clock and take a glass of wine in memory of old times." This he said laughingly; but even then a dark spasm crossed his face. Yet, thinking that this might be the mere working of mental anguish within him, I complied with his desire and retired. Feeling, however, but little at ease, I devised an excuse for looking in upon him about one hour and a half after I had left him. I knocked gently at his door; there was no answer. I knocked louder; still no answer. I went in. The light of day was gone, and I could see nothing. But I was alarmed by the utter stillness of the room. I lis tened earnestly, but not a breath could be heard. I rushed back hastily into the hall for a lamp; I returned; I looked in upon this marval of manly beauty, and the first glance informed me that he and his splendid endowments had departed forever. He had died probably soon after I left him, and had dismissed me from some growing instinct which informed him that his last agonies were at hand.

Maximilian, to the astonishment of every body, attended the funeral. It was celebrated in the Cathedral. All made way for him, and at times he seemed collected; at times he reeled like one who was drunk. He heard as one who hears not; he saw as one in a dream. The whole ceremony went on by torch-light, and towards the close he stood like a pillar, motionless, torpid, frozen. But the great burst of the choir, and the mighty blare ascending from onr vast organ at the closing of the grave, recalled him to himself, and he strode rapidly homewards. Half-an-hour after I returned, I was summoned to his bed-room. He was in bed, calm and collected. What he said to me I remember as if it had been yesterday, and the very tone with which he said it, although more than twenty years have passed since then. He began thus: "I have not long to live;" and when he saw me start, suddenly awakened into a consciousness that perhaps he had taken poison, and meant to intimate as much, he continued,- You fancy I have taken poison;-no matter whether I have or not; if I have, the poison is such that no antidotes will now avail; or if they would, you well know that some griefs are of a kind which leave no opening to any hope. What difference, therefore, can it make, whether I leave this earth to-day, to-morrow, or the next day? Be assured of this that whatever I have determined to do is past all power of being affected by a human opposition. Occupy yourself not with any fruitless attempts, but calmly listen to me, else I know what to do." Seeing a suppressed fury in his eye, notwithstanding that I saw

I took up his two testamentary documents; both were addressed in the shape of letters to myself. The first was a rapid though distinct appropriation of his enormous property. General rules were laid down upon which the property was to be distri

buted, but the details were left to my discretion, and to the guidance of circumstances as they should happen to emerge from the various inquiries which it would become necessary to set on foot. This first document I soon laid aside, both because I found that its provisions were dependant for their meaning upon the second, and because to this second document I looked with confidence for a solution of many mysteries of the profound sadness which had, from the first of my acquaintance with him possessed a man so gorgeously endowed as the favourite of nature and fortune of his motives for huddling up, in a clandestine manner, that connection which formed the glory of his life-and possibly (but then I hesitated) of the late unintelligible murders, which still lay under as profound a cloud as ever. Much of this would be unveiled-all might be: and there and then, with the corps lying beside me of the gifted and mysterious writer, I seated myself, and read the following statement :

March 26, 1817. “My trial is finished; my conscience, my duty, my honour, are liberated; my warfare is accomplished.' Margaret, my innocent young wife, I have seen for the last time. Her, the crown that might have been of my earthly felicity her, the one temptation to put aside the bitter cup which awaited me-her, sole seductress (oh, innocent seduc tress!) from the stern duties which my fate had imposed upon me-her, even her, I have sacrificed.

"Before I go, partly lest the innocent should be brought into question for acts almost exclusively mine, but still more lest the lesson and the warning which God, by my hand, has written in blood upon your guilty walls, should perish for want of its authentic exposition, hear my last dying avowal, that the murders which have desolated so many families within your walls, and made the household hearth no sanctuary, age no charter of protection, are all due originally to my head, if not always to my hand, as the minister of a dreadful retribution.

"That account of my history and my prospects, which you received from the Russian diplomatist, amongst some errors of little importance, is essentially correct. My father was not so immediately connected with English

blood as is there represented. How ever, it is true that he claimed descent from an English family of even higher distinction than that which is assigned in the Russian statement. He was proud of this English descent, and the more so, as the war with Revolutionary France brought out more prominently than ever the moral and civil grandeur of England. This pride was generous, but it was imprudent in his situation; his immediate progenitors had been settled in Italy-at Rome first, but latterly at Milan; and his whole property, large and scattered, came, by the progress of the Revolution, to stand under French domination. Many spoliations he suffered; but still he was too rich to be seriously injured. But he foresaw, in the progress of events, still greater perils menacing his most capital resources. Many of the states or princes in Italy were deeply in his debt; and in the great convulsions which threatened his country, he saw that both the contending parties would find a colourable excuse for absolving themselves from engagements which pressed unpleasantly upon their finances. In this embarrassment he formed an intimacy with a French officer of high rank and high principle. My father's friend saw his danger, and advised him to enter the French service. In his younger days, my father had served extensively under many princes, and had found in every other military service a spirit of honour governing the conduct of the officers; here only, and for the first time, he found ruffian manners and universal rapacity. He could not draw his sword in company with such men, nor in such a cause. But at length, under the pressure of necessity, he accepted (or rather bought with an immense bribe) the place of a commissary to the French forces in Italy. With this one resource, eventually he succeeded in making good the whole of his public claims upon the Italian States. These vast sums he remitted, through various channels, to England, where he became a proprietor in the funds to an immense amount. Incautiously, however, something of this transpired, and the result was doubly unfortunate; for, whilst his intentions were thus made known as finally pointing to England, which of of itself made him an object of hatred and suspicion, it also diminished his means of bribery, These considerations, along with

as Jewesses, which in my mother's ears (reared in a region where Jews are not dishonoured) always sounded a title of distinction, summoned a subordinate agent, who in coarse terms demanded his toll. We presumed this to be a road-tax for the carriage and horses, but we were quickly undeceived; a small sum was demanded for each of my sisters and my mother, as for so many head of cattle. I, fancying some mistake, spoke to the man temperately, and, to do him justice, he did not seem desirous of insulting us; but he produced a printed board, on which, along with the vilest animals, Jews and Jewesses were rated at so much a head. Whilst we were debating the point, the officers of the gate wore a sneering smile upon their faces; the postillions were laughing together; and this, too, in the presence of three creatures whose exquisite beauty in different styles, agree ably to their different ages, would have caused noblemen to have fallen down and worshipped. My mother, who had never yet met with any flagrant insult on account of her national distinctions, was too much shocked to be capable of speaking. I whispered to her a few words, recalling her to her native dignity of mind, paid the money, and we drove to the prison. But the hour was past at which we could be admitted, and as Jewesses, my mother and sisters could not be allowed to stay in the city; they were to go into the Jewish quarter, a part of the suburb set apart for Jews, in which it was scarcely possible to obtain a lodging tolerably clean. My father, on the next day, we found, to our horror, at the point of death. To my mother he did not tell the worst of what he had endured. To me he told, that, driven fo madness by the insults offered to him, he had upbraided the court-martial with their corrupt propensities, and had even mentioned that overtures had been made to him for squashing the proceedings in return for a sum of two millions of francs; and that his sole reason for not entertaining the proposal was his distrust of those who made it, They would have taken my money,' said he, and then found a pretext for putting me to deaththat I might tell no secrets.'

This was too near the truth to be tolerated; in concert with the local authorities, the military enemies of my father conspired against him; witnesses were

suborned; and, finally, under some antiquated law of the place, he was subjected, in secret, to a mode of torture which still lingers in the east of Europe.

"He sank under the torture and the degradation. I, too, thoughtlessly —but by a natural movement of filial indignation-suffered the truth to escape me in conversing with my mother. And she; but I will preserve the regular succession of things. My father died: but he had taken such measures, in concert with me, that his enemies should never benefit by his property. Mean-time my mother and sisters had closed my father's eyes; had attended his remains to the grave; and in every act connected with this last sad rite, had met with insults and degradations too mighty for human patience. My mother, now became incapable of self-command, in the fury of her righteous grief, publicly and in court denounced the conduct of the magistracy; taxed some of them with the vilest proposals to herself; taxed them as a body with having used instruments of torture upon my father; and finally, accused them of collusion with the French military oppressors of the district. This last was a charge under which they quailed, for by that time the French had made themselves odious to all who retained a spark of patriotic feeling. My heart sank within me when I looked up at the bench, this tribunal of tyrants, all purple or livid with rage; when I looked at them alternately and at my noble mother with her weeping daughtersthese so powerless, those so basely vindictive, and locally so omnipotent. Willingly I would have sacrificed all my wealth for a simple permission to quit this infernal city with my poor female relations, safe and undishonoured. But far other were the intentions of that incensed magistracy. My mother was arrested, charged with some offence equal to petty treason, or scandalum magnatum, or the sowing of sedition : and though what she said was true, where, alas! was she to look for evidence? Here was seen the want of gentlemen. Gentlemen, had they been even equally tyrannical, whould have recoiled with shame from taking vengeance on a woman. And what a vengeance! Oh, heavenly powers! that I should live to mention such a thing! Man that is born of woman, to inflict upon woman personal scourging on