all of your nation have a soft, and winning exterior, calculated to soothe women into confidence and trustingness? Alas! I know not yet must I hope; there are some hearts who delight in acts of goodness, and mean not to betray to future misery, The singular providence by which I and my child escaped from almost certain death, induces me to believe that the Great Spirit wills me to live; perhaps happiness is in store, at least for my son. Oh! I knew not, until I saw him (as I thought) expire, the utter bitterness of death and despair. But to you an account of the circumstances that sent me hither is due; and though my actions may not in your polished country be justifiable; yet do I think your kindness will appreciate the motives of my conduct, and pronounce my sufferings an unkind return for such a prodigal love." Alvarez thanked the lady for her promised confidence, assuring her that nothing could be more interesting to him. And now, while the child gambolled before the door with the spaniel, Alvarez and the lady enjoyed the fresh breeze and the glowing reflections of evening, whose bright tints lent a deeper colour to the sunny check of the beautiful stranger, who, with arms crossed on her lap and her head a little inclined, related her story as follows:

"My name is Zulema: my mother was the favourite wife of a Moorish merchant, and as his fortune increased, his fondness for, her and myself was daily shewn by some rare and costly present; but what I shall ever esteem as the most valuable of his gifts,

was an European slave of your nation, whom he presented to my mother as a nurse for me and a companion for herself; she being well skilled in music and many kinds of needle-work. I soon became more attached to Olinda than to any other person around me. My mother, with the usual indolence and indifference of our women, left me almost entirely to her care, by which fortunate chance I became mistress of the few acquirements 1 possess. It was her constant and greatest pleasure to instruct me in the Spanish, Italian, and French languages, and to inspire me with a love for their literature and manners. She often lamented that my fate would probably condemn me to be the wife of some wealthy Moor, to whom all my accomplishments would be indifferent, and would then frequently blame herself for having bestowed them upon me, since they would probably be the source of repinings and discontent. But who that has known the bliss of knowledge wishes not to impart its treasures to those whom they love? For my own part, my gratitude to her was unbounded; I joyed in each new ray of information, and would not have exchanged my sweet discourses with Olinda, or my private musings, for all the indolence and finery of the Sultan's Harem. My heart was light and hopeful; my imagination, romantic and blissful; I constantly pictured some happy chance which would conduct me to Europe, and restore my beloved instructress to liberty and her friends. I communicated these day dreams to Olinda, and sought to dissipate her melancholy forebodings.

"She would smile, and unwilling to render my young mind gloomy, forbore to shew how unlikely such an event was to occur. She frequently assured me, that she had no longer any desire of returning to her native country unaccompanied by me; for that she loved me with the fondness of a mother, and could not bear to part with the only object of her affection. From her story, I gathered that she had been left with an only brother, an orphan; that though of a noble family, their fortune was not large, and that she had been educated in a Convent, whither her friends wished her to end her days, that a larger portion of wealth might devolve on the brother, who was some years younger than herself. To this she would have consented, had she not loved, and been beloved, by a young and handsome Cavalier, whose family however refused their consent on account of her want of fortune. For sévéral years she struggled with the importunities of her friends and the pleadings of her lover; at length the latter prevailed, and she consented to elope with him. But a little, very little time were they blessed in each other's society.

"They had withdrawn to an obscure village on the sea coast, thinking that in case of pursuit they might embark for Italy: the place was attacked by Corsairs, who frequently land for the sake of pillage. The youth and beauty of Olinda made her a desirable prize; she, with two or three more young women were led off to the Pirates vessel, when a party of peasants, headed by her husband, attempted a rescue; but in vain were their desperation and bravery against

;

well-armed barbarians. Olinda saw the party take to flight, and her husband killed with repeated wounds she was conducted to Barbary, and, as I have before informed you, became the property of my father.

"The violence of her first grief had subsided into a gentle calm, and her attachment to me had subse-. quently rendered her situation even pleasant. She had never attempted to regain her liberty by application to her friends, well knowing that her marriage had offended them, and that they would have refused her assistance; her brother, she feared, might partake in their sentiments, and who, being moreover of a gay and dissipated disposition, was the less likely to forego his pleasures and diminish his resources by ministering to her misfortunes. She would frequently lament that his impetuous temper and libertine pursuits had disappointed the early promise of his generous and talented mind. Yet more frequently would she dwell with sisterly delight on his fine and manly form, and the hardy, gallant feats of his boyhood. Strange as it may appear, by frequently listening to her recitals, I became as intimately acquainted with his person (or with a phantom of my own imagining) as though he had actually stood before me.

"In my lonely musings, my romantic sketches, my waking and sleeping dreams, he was the hero of my fancy-reformed, noble, and enterprising. With sucha delicious vision absorbing all my thoughts, was it wonderful that I shrunk with horror from the idea of being given to some old and apathetic Moor as a

wife? that I still maintained as girlish an appearance as possible? and, that I might escape notice, requested my father to allow me almost constantly, to reside with my dear Olinda at a small country house?—I had lost my mother some years before, and about this time I observed, that although my father was equally indulgent and fond, he passed less of his time with me. I therefore remained unmolested in my loved retreat, attended only by Olinda and a few slaves of both sexes. The gardens were extensive, but had been neglected and suffered to run wild and luxuriant. A stunted plantation, or rather wilderness, formed the boundary toward the sea coast, whose sharp and briny vapours distorted the forms and shrivelled the foliage of these sturdy dwarf cedars. Hither it was my custom to walk, both at evening and when the sun was at the hottest; the shade of the trees, and the refreshing sea breeze, afforded a cool retreat. Here too was a small marble pavilion, refreshed by a clear fountain, whose waters, gushing from a grotesque head, fell with gentle plashings in an ebony basin; round which roses of brightest hue and fullest perfume clustered profusely. From some cause, this little building was shunned by our household slaves. Some faint remains of a legend were yet extant, of a lady who had been there murdered by her husband for visiting a concealed lover; while others deemed it the haunt of some Peri, who would surely punish the rash intruder upon her solitude.

"Notwithstanding these reports, Olinda and mysel