a human voice; my heart trembled, and a thousand thoughts immediately shot across my mind: I drew in my legs as gently as I could, and called upon the clusters to conceal me: in the course of a few seconds, I saw a person advance; he called to me in a gentle voice, and bade me not to be afraid. I collected sufficient courage to tell him, that I was not afraid he came up to me, took me by the hand, and sat down by my side. "You see by my dress," said he, “that I am fled from society as well as yourself, and Heaven, no doubt, has brought us together." If I was charmed with his words, I was still more so with his countenance; there was so much sweetness in it, that my fears immediately vanished, and without any hesitation I told him my whole history, and in, return he favoured me with the following outline of his own:

"My father is one of the wealthiest lords in all Hungary; and in point of antiquity, if not the first, our house may be ranked in the first line. Our hall is hung with the trophies of war; we have often stood in the pass, sought the foe in his own camp, and died the field with his blood. Our chaplain was a very good kind of man; he was a German; he had the honour and happiness of our family at heart, and my father was guided by him in temporal as well as in spiritual affairs. He advised him to send me to the university

versity of Jena, where I passed eight years under the superintendence of one of the most learned and pious men in that seminary. I returned to my native home in the eighteenth year of my age. As I was the only person in my family that had been brought up to the knowledge of letters, I used to amuse myself with reading; and if at times I mingled in the chase, it was rather on account of health than amusement. On one of these occasions, I happened to fall into a train of reflections on a passage which I had read the preceding night, so that I rode some miles without ever thinking of the hunt, or whither I was going; and when I looked about me, I could not tell where I was. I paused for some minutes, cast my eye around, but could not espy even a cottage; I rode on, and when I had gained the summit of a gently rising hill, I observed a castle, that out-topped a group of lofty trees at a distance. I made up to it, and was received in the most hospitable manner. The master of this Gothic mansion was, perhaps, the proudest of our magnates, as he traced his blood up to the founder of the Hungarian empire; but I found that he had little else to boast of except his herds, his slaves, and precious minerals.-I mistake-he had a daughter, worth all the herds, and slaves, and bleeding rubies in the world. Nature had formed her of the choicest mould,

and

and her education was far superior to those of her rank. Such beauty demanded a tribute, and I laid my heart on the altar. This visit was succeeded by another, and every visit added fuel to my passion it was refined; it was the purest flame, and I was happy to find that it warmed the most angelic bosom on earth. I must not detain you long -one morning, as we stood together under a spreading palm, the emblem of our loves, her father and brother discovered our retreat. Regardless of my own life, I was only solicitous for that which was dearer to me; I thought to screen her from the fury of both. The son fired at me; I presented my breast to receive the ball, but the cruel fates were not so kind; it entered the bosom of his sister, and she sunk in my arms with a sigh. As soon as I saw that she was dead, I rushed forth like a boar

galled with the dart of the huntsman: I drew my scimitar, and with one stroke laid him at my feet. The second brother by this time had reached the fatal spot; I flew at him, and in an instant his lifeless trunk sunk on the ground. The father levelled his pistol at me, but it missed fire; I raised my arm, but the breathless corpse of his daughter, beautiful even in death, rcstrained my fury, or I would have widowed the proud house of A young man came up to

VOL. I.

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me;

me;

I know not as yet who he was; he led me by the arm to a large gate, where I found a horse ready saddled, which I mounted, and in an instant I was out of view. My wounds bleed afresh; but as I have proceeded thus far, I'll go on. What was to be done?-I could not think of returning to my father's; I knew the enmity that subsisted between the two families; the pride of blood-the pride of domain-the pride of military exploits-these were the never failing sources of that enmity; my return would only increase it. I rode, or rather flew, not from the pursuit, but from myself, rather; but I could not fly from myself. Tired at length, I alighted, and left the horse to chance-the faithful horse, that scarcely left the form of his hoof behind. The shades of night, and the shades of a still darker wood, enveloped me from every view but the view of Heaven. The next day I traversed the wood, unknowing what I sought; at night I ascended a tree, and about the hour of twelve I thought I heard the sound of a bell, slowly advancing on the undulating breeze. I was soothed with the sound; it spread a pleasing melancholy over my frame at first I thought it might have been the effect of imagination, but in a few hours. afterwards I heard the sound again, solemn, like the knell of some departed spirit. I began to

think that it proceeded from some monastery, and I was right; for in a short time I saw the spires glittering in the beams of the morning sun. As I now had no interest in this world, it came into my mind, that I could not do better than to spend the rest of my days in such a retreat, in prayer, abstinence, reading, and meditation, as the only balm of a mind wounded like mine. Accordingly, I went up to the porter, and required to see the abbot, a venerable old man; I told all that had happened to me; he sympathized with my sorrows; I changed my name,

and was admitted. I now bade adieu to the world, and seemed for some days to think, if every one knew the happiness of a monastic life, we should have nothing but monks and nuns ; but I was soon disgusted with it. Instead of shutting out those passions that embitter human life, the gate was rather thrown open to them: such bickerings, contentions, superstition, ignorance, laziness, gluttony, &c. that I took the first opportunity that presented itself to make my escape, with a few books which I purchased, the dear companions of my solitude. I have now remained in this wood these three years; she that was once the idol of my heart, is now my guardian angel, and I have just finished an epitaph, which, if Heaven permit, I will inscribe to her memory, on a slab of white marble, which I have

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polished