with their bayonets. One of them inflicted a deep wound on the arm of Madelina, but no cry, no murmur escaped her, her child was only pressed closer to her breast, as her warm blood flowed over it. A second bayonet wounded Joseppa, and his involuntary movement discovered them. They were dragged forth amidst the shouts and execrations of the soldiers; but their violence was less appalling to Madelina, than the maledictions with which Joseppa greeted her; when with eyes glowing with fury and malice, he fiercely accused her of being the sole cause of his detection. Some hard blows from the soldiers, who were manacling his arms, betrayed their sense of his barbarity; but she threw herself between them and him, and implored them not to injure him.

And now it was that Madelina turned her eyes on her child;-but, oh, heaven! who can paint her despair and horror, when the moonbeams falling on its face, showed her its countenance, blackened and distorted, and she felt that she held a corpse in her arms! The

savage and unnatural father, to silence its cries -had strangled it!

Joseppa was conveyed a prisoner to Rome, where, being convicted of the murder of the curé, and also of having assassinated the father of his wife, and old Thomaso, he paid the penalty of his guilt, with his life. Madelina's reason never recovered the fearful shock it had sustained on discovering the death of her child; and she has ever since been the inmate of a madhouse, whence her gentleness, and uncomplaining melancholy, have won the pity of all.

183

ANNETTE; OR, THE GALERIEN:

A TALE.

ANNETTE MORAN was the prettiest girl at a village in the department of the Isère, famed for the beauty of its female inhabitants. She was the only person who doubted this fact; and her evident freedom from vanity, joined to the unpretending simplicity and mildness of her nature, rendered her beloved, even by those of her own sex, who might have felt inclined to contest charms less meekly borne by their possessor. Among the many candidates for the hand of Annette, Jules Dejean was the one who

had won her heart. Their marriage had been

long agreed on, and they only waited to have a sufficient sum laid by, the fruits of their earnings and economy, to enable them to commence their little ménage. Annette might be seen, every evening, busily engaged in spinning the yarn that was destined for the linen of her future establishment, while Jules sat by her, reading aloud, or indulging with delight, in anticipations of their marriage. How often did he endeavour, during the period of their probation, to persuade his Annette, that they already had sufficient funds to commence housekeeping. Charles Vilman and his Marie, with many other notable examples, were produced to prove that a couple might marry and be happy with less than five hundred francs, and Annette, half convinced, stole a timid look at her mother, who answered it, by shaking her head, and saying, "Ah! that's all very well, because Charles and Marie have no children as yet, so that they are as free to work as if they were single. But people are not always so fortunate as to be married three years without having a family;

and when a young woman has one child in her arms, and another beginning to walk, she can attend but little to her work."

This reasoning never appeared quite conclusive to the comprehension of the lovers, though it brought a brighter tint to the cheeks of Annette, and a roguish smile to the lips of Jules, and neither seemed to think it was peculiarly fortunate, for married persons who loved each other, not to have children, though they did not dispute the point with la bonne mère Moran.

About this period the curé of the village died, and his place was supplied by a young clergyman, who came from a distant part. The regret felt by all his flock for the good old pastor, was not lightened by seeing in his successor a man, whose youth excluded the hope that his advice or experience could replace that of him they had lost. Nevertheless, the urbanity and kindness of Le Père Laungard soon reconciled them to him, and he became popular. Le Père Laungard was a young man