they could give me no information, and after a fruitless search I bent my way to Paris. "One day having dined with several British officers, we took a stroll in the evening through the city, and on arriving at the Palais Royale, a number of persons had assembled round an itinerant singer; but as she was not then engaged, we were passing on, when our steps were suddenly arrested by a sweet plaintive voice, pouring forth those thrilling notes which, like inspiration, almost enchant the soul. We drew near the crowd, but how shall I describe my agitation when I heard the self-same chanson which Adele had sung so exquisitely when I first beheld her? Old remembrances rushed upon my mind, and unconsciously putting aside those who opposed my progress, I advanced close to the singer. Her back was toward me, and her voice seemed faltering as if shaken by bitter recollections; but when she arrived near the close, her tones were scarcely audible. At that moment she turned; I gazed upon her features, and the next instant she was in my arms,-it was herself-it was Adele! "Why need I repeat every transaction? Together we returned to England, and she became my wife;-yes, mine by every tie, both human and divine. She told me her tale of sorrow, but I cannot relate it now. Her sufferings had been on my account, and I was determined to heal the wounded spirit and bind up the broken heart. The world condemned and shunned me, but what had I to do with the world? Adele was all to me, and in her dear society I forgot my sorrows. Not but that she was changed: circumstances had much altered the natural sweetness of her temper, and the mode of life she had pursued contributed to deaden the finer feelings of the heart; but she was the deliverer who saved me from destruction, and I thought only of our meeting at the gathering in of the vintage. "We lived happily together, away from the bustle, the turmoil, and what is falsely called the pleasures of life. A small cottage in the country was our home, and there we enjoyed peace and contentment. My fortune was ample, with but few desires to be gratified; and I have deeply to regret that I was unacquainted with your residence in my neighbourhood, for your society would have been an additional happiness. "But ah! how fleeting are all our joys. It was on the early part of that day, when you saw me kneeling over a new-made grave, that I had consigned the last remains of my Adele to the narrow home appointed as a resting-place from earthly trouble. Yes, she is gone, I trust, to the realms of everlasting bliss, where no sorrow can disturb; no pain be felt; but where there is fulness of joy for evermore?" THE CONVICT. "Alas! the constancy of my sad mind It was some short time after the storming of Monte Video by the British troops, when the guerilla bands were formed in the neighbourhood of the city, that a party of young men took it into their heads to ride into the adjacent country; and though the inhabitants were decidedly hostile to the English, yet with the carelessness and impetuosity natural to youth, they resolved to seek adventures, cost what they might. With hearts elate, and mounted on swift horses, they passed the city gates and swept round the bay that forms the extensive harbour. After riding through some villages, they considered it as not accordant with their plan to keep the beaten road,-nor indeed was there any road which merited the name, after they had gained a certain distance from the town. The meridian sun saw them scouring across the plain, where neither tree nor shrub could mark their track, or serve as guides for their return. Frequently, from behind the jutting rock, the paysano* would display his hardened and ferocious features, and muffling himself in his poncho, or long robe, grin defiance at the adventurers. His long fusee held in one hand, with his lasso coiled at his side and a terrific knife stuck in his girdle, the marauder stood undaunted by danger and undismayed by the fear of death. The young men had frequently been led to pursue the wild ostrich in its course, and to chase the numerous deer; but this hunting produced consequences which might have terminated seriously, for it scattered the number into parties of two or three, who might easily have been cut off and destroyed by the enemy:-and now for my own individual portion of the excursion. Having been, with one other, separated from the rest, we used every possible exertion to discover them, but without effect. Whenever we shouted, our voices reverberated from the rocky piles that reared their heads upon the plain like monuments of ancient grandeur, and seemed to revive recollections of the field of graves. The sun, whose journey was even more rapid than our own, threatened to leave us in obscurity and darkness; and when once his beams had disappeared, we had no certain direction to ascertain our way. It was in the month of June, and * Literally countryman, or peasant; but here designed to represent a guerilla. consequently winter in that part of the world; but accustomed to privations of almost every kind, we cared but little for the season, and as for attacks-we had weapons of defence. Yet still, at times, an indescribable emotion agitated my heart. The countenances of the paysános, and the certain death which awaited capture-death, too, the tortures of which might be increased by malignity and rendered lingering in the extreme, left no very pleasant sensation on the mind. The recollections of home crowded upon me-for the delights of domestic society never come more sweet to the memory than when they threaten to be torn from us for ever. Still we had come out for adventures, and the buoyant spirit of sailors urged us on. We had already travelled, at a moderate calculation, upwards of twenty miles without seeing a habitation, or the least trace of civilized society, when the bright luminary of day disappeared from the western horizon, and all became murky gloom and darkness. To have continued on without knowing whither we were going, (for not a star was visible to act as a friendly pilot in our navigation,) would have been downright madness; so reining in the horses, we suffered them to pursue their own way. Often could we hear the jaguar growling near us, and the enraged buffalo would dart across our path, while the bellowing of the wild cattle from the distance floated on the breeze. Frequently mis |