chief folace in that capital confifted in amufing her former English acquaintance at Paris, by whom she was well received, with spiteful pleasantries upon the new order of things, fanciful definitions of liberty, and ludicrous sketches of the raw parti-coloured volunteers, who, fince Madame de drew their pictures, have fcaled the Alps, and changed the face of Europe. While that lady was enlivening the various tea-tables where fhe vifited, with well-turned epigrams on democracy, fhe was fummoned by her friends to haften inftantly to France, in order to fave her property from confifcation, and herself from being comprised in the law, which placed those perfons on the fatal lift of emigrants who did not return within a ftated time. Madame de ——, however, with full confidence in her own pow ers of extricating herself from all fcrapes, and overcoming all obftacles, loitered in London till the day of grace was paft. She at length came to Paris, and opened her career in that city, by playfully jeft. ing in fociety, even with perfons in authority, on the subject of her emigration, the events of the revolution, and her own patriotic principles. But the bloody arena of revolutionary government was at that time prepared, the victims were already marked, the horrid forms of death were about to be let loofe, and Madame de -'s bon-mots, which were delightful in the fafe vicinity of Grofvenor-fquare, appeared very nearly allied to madness in the neighbourhood of the fquare of the revolution; as the flowering foliage of the light fhrub, which sports gracefully with the perfumed zephyrs in the fheltered valley, affumes a terrific character, when it waves over an Alpine precipice. Madame de finding, that under the fear of the guillotine, people were entirely infenfible to wit; and at length being convinced, that all her witcheries and enchant ments would be loft upon the fierce demagogues who were about to seize the reins of power, and that he was even in fome danger of the fcaffold, fet off for Swifferland with a falfe paffport, accompanied by a young nobleman, who had alfo procured one for the purpose of joining the army of Condé. Madame de had not fucceeded in faving her property from fequeftration, and her purfe was but lightly furnished when the left Paris; that of her fellow-traveller, however, was well filled, and Madame de was rich in fpells fo potent, that for her The Royal banner, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumftance of glorious war,' were forgotten, till his purfe became as vacant as her own, and the then fuffered him to leave her at Bellinzone, and halten to the army with funds fcarcely fufficient to pay the expences of his jour ney. During this interregnum in Madame de 's conquefts, Monf. C————, in an evil hour arrived. He was filent, dejected, and me choly, which little fuited Madame de 's tafle, but he was in poffeffion of a large fum of money, a circumftance which was not ill adapted to the state of her finances. Madame de foon transformed herself into a Penfive nun, devout and pure, It was a confiderable time before her When her dominion was fecurely eftablished, she infifted upon leaving the folitudes of Bellinzone, of which she had long been heartily weary, for the more congenial region of Conftance, which, for diffipation and pleasure, vied with the Paris of former times; and where Monf. de C's purte furnished her with all the means of voluptuous luxury. In the mean time, the unfortunate Madame C, heedlefs of the remonftrances of her faithful Victoire, and indifferent to the innocent prattle and fwest careffes of her child, paffed fome weeks at Bellinzone in that fituation of mind, when every care, every affection, and every thought, are abforbed in one deep, powerful, overwhelming fentiment of mifery. She was rouzed from this inactive defpondency by finding herself menaced with an evil which he had often pitied, but once had little chance of ever feeling; this evil was poverty, not that figurative poverty which pines in artificial want, but the laft terrible extreme of real mifery; mifery which weighs with its deepest preffure on a mother's heart, when the hears the complaining voice of her child, and has no power to fupply its neceflities. Madame C had left France with a fum of money money little more than fufficient to defray the expences of her journey; but fhe felt no anxiety on this account, as fhe was going to join her husband, who fhe knew was provided, at his departure, with funds which muft ftill be more than fufficient to fupply all prefent exigencies; and for the future fhe looked forward on the efforts of their friend in France, to refcue fomething from the wreck of their property. Since her arrival at Bellinzone, fhe had thought little on the subject; for amid the first fharp pangs of wounded affection, the lacerated heart, only awake to one fenfation, turns with difguft from all the cares, the anxieties, and views of ordinary life; the world feems one wide cheerless defart, and all that it contains, except the object we have loft, has no power to excite an emotion of pain or pleasure. From this lethargy of defpair, Ma-, dame C was awakened, by Victoire telling her that she had heard that the inn at which they lived was extremely expenfive. She immediately fent for her bill, though without much alarm, fince her repafts had, fhe thought, been too fimple to be coftly. The amount of the bill, however, fo far exceeded her expectation, that when it was paid, a few remaining livres and a few trinkets were the fole property poffeffed. Ma dame C looked at her child, and felt that he had no moments to lofe; the determined to leave the inn immediate ly, and Victoire, after some research, hired a fmall chamber, containing two wretched beds, to which the retired. Here Madame C, who had her whole life been nurfed in the bofom of affluence, scarcely allowing herself the fcanty fuftenance which nature requires for its prefervation, bathed her child with tears of bitterness, till fometimes the infant caught the infectious forrow, and wept because he faw her weep. Sometimes he inquired why his mama had no dinner; and fometimes afked why, fince he was a good boy, fhe gave him no bons-bons* now? Victoire cheer fully fhared her lady's dry cruft, and the only point on which they differed was, that the occafionally gave vent to a fharp reflection on her mafier, which Madame C inftantly repreffed; upon which Victoire ufually left the room, and indulged her feelings, as well as her loquacity, by relating the ftory, in terms little meatured, to the whole neighbourhood. * Sweetmeats. 3 B 2 an Madame C- perceived with guifh, which can be ill defined, that, notwithstanding all the privations maternal tendernefs could devife or prac tife, her little funds were almoft entirely exhaufted; and the had now recourie to her watch and rings, as the laft means of averting want from her child. Victoire was forced to part with these relics of former fplendour at a price far below their value: alas! in fuch fort of conventions there is ufually an unequal conflict between rapacity and distress; but at that period the fame fad neceffity had forced fo many unfortunate fugitives to relinquifh, like Madame C, the appendages of departed opulence, that the quantity of jewels, trinkets, and watches, offered for fale in Swifferland, had naturally diminished their worth, With a trembling hand Madame. C received the produce of her laft refources, while fhe anticipated the moment, when they would altogether fail. The people of the town, where she had alighted, had, before her arrival, difpatched the letter to Monf. C, which the had fent him from Bafil, but she had received no tidings of him in return; it was therefore evident, that he was unaffected by her fituation, that he was carelefs of her fate, that he thought of her no more! Amid the bitterness of those reflections, how eargerly would she have welcomed that death to which he abandoned her, but that the muft leave her child to perifh. She had not neglected to inform her friend in France of her circumftances; but her letter, which it was death to receive, had to travel by a route fo circuitous, and to pafs through fo many hands before it reached him, that nothing could be more uncertain than its arrival. With a frame languid from fuffering, and a heart defolate with despair, Madame C was one evening fitting in her wretched fhed, loft in gloomy meditation, when Victoire, who had been out in fearch of their little daily supplies, haftily entered the room, and told her, that having been to pay a vifit to the people of the inn, where they had lodged, and where the had been talking of her lady's misfortunes, a perfon who was prefent faid, that if Madame could embroider waistcoats, work cravats, or draw landfcapes, fhe would undertake to fell them to the mistress of the principal inn at Surfee, who made it her bufinefs to difpofe of fuch little fort of works, works, which were executed by fome emigrant ladies who lived in that town; and fhe was fure the fame benevolent perfon would do as much for Madame when the knew her ftory. Victoire had proceeded thus far, when Madame C threw herself on her knees, and poured forth a fervent thanksgiving: fhe then folded her little boy to her bofom, and inftantly difpatched Victoire to make known how thankfully the accepted this bleffed of fer. Early the next morning the neceffary materials were purchased, and Madame C, with eager alacrity, began her task, While the contemplated the first elegant performance, which advanced rapidly beneath her creating hand, tears of foothing pleasure, tears which it was luxury to thed, gushed from her eyes. To have the power of applying thofe accomplishments, which The had only cultivated as the amufement of a folitary hour, to the dear, the precious purpofe of fuftaining her child, filled her mind with the fweeteft fenfations of maternal tenderness-it was delight, elevated by the noble confcioufnefs of duty-it was an effort of virtue, which, while it fhielded the object of her fond folicitude trom fuffering, was interwov. en with an immediate recompence in the foothing effect it produced on ber own mind. Since, amid continual occupa tion, that gloomy defpondency, which in ftillness and folitude brooded over its own turbulent wretchedness, was foftened into milder forrow, and engroffed by the unceasing care of providing for her child, the image of its father, which of ed to call forth the wild agonies of difappointed paffion, but now awakened a tender melancholy, which refignation tempered. The only moments which Madame C- gave to lifure, and the indulgence of her feelings, were thofe of twilight, when, after the unremmitting labours of the long fummer day, the ufually left her little boy to the care of Victoire, and walking out alone amid thofe fcenes of folemn grandeur, indulged that mournful mufing, when the mind wanders over its vanished pleasures, and tears, which flow without controul, embalm the paft! In one of thofe folitary walks, feated on the fragment of a rock, near the torrent-ftream, the hoarfe noife of whofe melancholy waters were congenial to her meditations, the chain of penfive thought was fuddenly broken by the read of an approaching footftep. She caft up her eyes, and beheld Monf. C who, pale, and trembling with emotion, threw himself at her feet, clafped her knees in unutterable agony, and at length told her in broken accents, that he came, not to folicit her forgiveness, but to die in her prefence that feeling he had but a fhort time to live, he had ventured to behold her once more, not to attempt any extenuation of his guilt or to declare how much he abhorred himself for the paft, but merely to explain the appearance of that barbarous neglect, in which fhe had been left at Bellinzone. Monf. C then, after execrating the delufion, by which he had been fo fatally misled, related, that having taken an excurfion into Germany, at the pe riod when her letter arrived, he had only received it two months after it was dated. Roused as from an hideous dream, feized with the pangs of remorfe at his own conduct, and feeling every fentiment of renewed tenderness awakened in his heart by the image of her sufferings, he inftantly declared to Madame his refolution to haften to Bellin zone. No intelligence, he perceived, could be more agreeable to that lady, and not long after he difcovered the reason, by hearing that he was gone to Vienna with a German count, the owner of a brilliant equipage, with whom the became acquainted during their excurfion, and who had followed her to Conftance, Monf. C added, that having himself fet out on foot from that city, being determined not to spend on the indulgence of a carriage the few louis he had yet in referve, the violent emotions of his mind, joined to exceffive fatigue of body, by taking journeys too rapij, in order to accelerate his arrival, produced a dangerous fever. At a little village-inn, where he lay for several weeks ftretched upon a folitary bed of fickness, he had perhaps, he said, in fome meafure atoned for the paft, by the bitternefs of his regrets, by that anguifh-he was proceeding, when Madame C threw herfelf upon his neck, bathed his bofom with her tears, conjured him for ever to forget the paft, and declared, that her fufferings had already vanished in the hope of his returned affection. When Madame C, with soft perfuafion, had fomewhat reconciled her hufband to himself, and a calm confidential converfation had fucceeded, the tumultuous emotions of their firft meeting, they bent their way to the little apart ment ment which was now their fole habitation, and which he had not yet entered; fince having learned from the people of the house, in Victoire's abfence, which path Madame C- had taken for her evening walk, he had inftantly haftened to the pot. They had fcarcely reached the chamber, when his little boy fprung forward to meet him, clung upon his neck, called him his dear, dear papa, and reiterated his care fles till Monf. C, overcome with faintnefs, agitation, and fatigue, funk fenfelefs on a chair. Madame C- wept at obferving his emaciated figure, and his pale and haggard look; and Victoire, the perceived, tried to fqueeze our a tear too, but not fucceeding, all he could do was to wipe her eyes carefully with her handkerchief. Victoire was probably thinking more of the dry crufts on which the had dined occafionally, and which fort of repafts fhe attributed to her mafter's conduct, than of his fickly countenance. Madame C found nothing more difficult than to reftrain Victoire's loquacity, who contrived, whenever fhe had an opportunity in the courfe of the evening, to relate the hardships they had fuffered with a spiteful minuteness of detailhow Madame breakfafted upon cold water inftead of coffee, and dined fometimes upon lentil-foup, and fometimes not at all; and how the gained two livres a day by drawing and embroidery. This laft intelligence was more than Monf. C could bear; he hid his face with his hands, fprung from his chair, and walked in a difordered manner up and down the room. Madame angrily imposed filence on Victoire, who, taking the hint, declared that he was au defef poir at having afflicted Monfieur, tor whom the felt the most profound refpect, and then left the room, in order, proba bly, to talk over his tranfgreffions to the whole neighbourhood. She ftaid fo long, that Madame C- was forced to go in fearch of her, and as the approached, heard her faying, to be fure I don't forget that Monfieur is a cordon rouge after all, and therefore not made to give an account of his actions to any body; but then when I think of my dear lady' here Victoire was interrupted in her unfioifhed fpeech. Monfieur had a return of his fever, which lafted fome weeks; and, at length, believing he had fuffered fufficient penance, Victoire graciously accorded him her forgiveness. A fhort time after the return of Monf. C, a letter arrived from their friend in France, with tidings that he had fecured for Madame C a fum fufficient to produce a little revenue, which would place her out of the reach of want, and which fum was depofited in the hands of a Swifs banker. Upon receiving this intelligence, they determined to leave their wretched apartment, and having, in their rambles along the wild valley leading to the Grifons, difcovered a neat vacant cottage, they hired it for the fummer; there Monf. C― hoped to recover his health amid the falubrious breezes from the hills, and his peace of mind amid the calm and foothing fenfations, which the fimple beauties of unadorned nature can beft excite. After repeating vifits to her charming cottage, I bade Madame C a long, reluctant farewell; and have fince heard, with delight, that the continues in the privacy of her retreat to enjoy that do meftic blifs, which, to fenfibility like hers, is the firft of bleffings; fhe has a mind capable of relinquishing rank and fplendour without a figh, fince she has found happiness in exchange. And he lick'd me for kindness, my poor dog Tray. Though my wallet was fcant, I remembred his cafe, Nor refus'd my last crust to his pitiful face, And I play'd a fad lament for my poor dog Where now fhall I go, poor forfaken, and blind, Can I find one to guide me so faithful and kind? To my sweet native village, fo far, far a- I can never more return with my poor dog T. C. Or (envious neighbour) Cloacina, stain Th' effect is certain, though the cause ob- My figure ought to frighten, not allure; Not as a statue, but a beacon, stand. To view the pillars, or to try the springs, The Lord Erector's regimen be thine, FROM THE SAME. love writs, now a days, are far gone ;. with a pedantic jargon, Be warn'd, young poet, and take heed On the Statue of HYGEIA, at St. Bernard's Well, near Edinburgh. Built by Lord Gardenfton. From the following Latin Epigram the deceafed Lord Hailes. FROM LORD DREGHORN'S WORKS, VOL. I. He aquarum, Quifquis es, et damno difce cavere meo; Namque ego morborum domitrix Hygeia, liquorem Guftavi imprudens facta videbar anus, Jam demilla humeros, et crure informis utroque Rifubus a populo pretereunte petor. A FINISH'D Beauty I from London came Grace and proportion had adorn'd my frame, But rafh I tafted this empoifon'd well, And straight ('tis true, tho' wonderful to tell) To fize gigantic all my members fwell. Whether through coal the fountain urge its course, Or noxious metals taint its hidden fource, Suffice this ti og fpecimen Bids he me not his velitation fhare? Me miferable! that th' Aonian hill Which Hippocrene humectates, nothing But feril laurels, and aquatics four To dulcify th' abfinthiated cup Riches This, and all the other hard words that follow, are to be found in the Dictionary. |