he waited not for further conviction, tion, which Diego fettled upon be hut, clofely pursuing her fteps, at and her children, as he did all the length overtook her ere the reached patrimony and legacy bequeathed to her intended retreat; when he haften him. A very pretty houfe in the ed, though we fear rather aukwardly, park, approximate to the cafe, to inform Rofelia that he tenderly neatly furnished, was prefented Loved her, fince his firft knowledge of Lorenzo to Diego for the refidere: ber virtues; fince he beheld her refift of himself and wife. The duca, 0lefs beauty through the touching charm lando, Matilda, Urfuline, and Al of tears, awakened by affection and berti, all evinced their friendship art diftrefs at the forlorn and perfecuted good-will to Rofelia by prefenting fituation of her beloved lady Victoria; her with gifts fuired to the fortune fince the evinced fuch humanity to- of the donors; and this union, form wards himfelf in the château of de ed under fuch propitious aufpice, Montfort. proved as happy as their moft zal ous friends could with. The life of Rofelia glided on in undisturbed conjugal and domeftic felicity; while her affectionate and indulgent Dieg as a husband and a father, as a faithfuliteward, a lenient mafter, the be nefactor of the poor, the champion, of the oppreffed, the alleviator of for row, the pious Chriftian, the upright honeft man, deferved the favour of Heaven, and obliterated from the minds even of the most faftidious, by his active virtues in his maturer years all recollection of the tranfgreffus of the former days. Rofelia heard him without any fymptoms calculated to announce his cafe a hopeless one: and Victoria fhortly after drew from the ingenuous Kofelia a fecret that the long fufpected that the interefting Diego, notwithstanding his being fixteen years her fenior in age, had ftolen imperceptibly into her tendereft affections and as Victoria firmly believed that in defiance of his former errors Diego was an honeft man, who would make her beloved Rofelia happy, readily gave her content to the union. . By the earneft defire of Rofelia, her old friend the good father Alberti performed. the. nuptial ceremony; and her beloved preceptiefs, the venerable and hoary-headed Urfuline, was her bridemaid. Conte di Ariosto gave her to the bridegroom; for both he and Matilda attended ar Manfredonia to evince their refpect to Rofelia and Diego. Victoria furwifhed the bride's wardrobe; and afifted, herfelf on the nuptial day to decorate the perfon of her beloved Rofelia, whom he feelingly reminded of having done. the fame for; her, but under every different anfpices; yet fervently the hoped Rofelia's road to happiness would prove Thomas, if he had the inclination, had not the power of returning 0 his native country, Thomas had been an orphan, the offspring of an honeft failor who had been reared s the workhoufe at Biddeford in De vonshire. When arrived at a pro per age, he was bound apprentice to a fitherman, by whom he was real | ed with exceffive kindness. Whet he became his own matter, hegre fied the first with of his heart be enlifting in the royal navy; and dur ing feveral cruizes, and in fome cele brated engagements at fea, he fi nalited his courage and good conduct fu much, that, young as he was, he was promoted to the poft of bedfwain. After feven years spent t the navy, with credit to himfelf a advamage to the profeffion, he was once more in England; and att to make the good old man's latter days happy by a cargo of prize-money, which he had hoarded for his kind master's use. Thomas went fecretly to work.— With fome planks of oak he made age of twenty-one obtained leave of abfence from his fhip to go and vifit bis old master at Biddeford, intending a kind of coffin; cut down the body of his friend, and interred him in a lonely part of a fequeftered churchyard in a neighbouring hamlet. The body was miffed. Inquiry led difcoveOn his arrival at Biddeford, he ry to poor Thomas, who was thrown was shocked to find his mafter's only into jail, and brought to trial; when fon (who had been his fellow ap- the irritibility of his feelings, and igprentice), a good-natured thoughtless norance of the law, led him into the youth, who had ever been wild and commiffion of contempt of court, afily led afray, had fallen under and this, added to his other crime, he penal law, and been executed for required all the intereft of poor piracy. The unhappy father, though Thomas's naval friends to have his overwhelmed by the dreadful odium fentence mitigated to fourteen years his fon's miscondu& had brought up- tranfportation. on his clofing life, was taught by Thomas, indignant at a punishaffection to mingle with his bitter ment his heart told him that he defervpangs a fond remembrance of all the ed not, quitted England; and as his good properties his ill-fated fon's heart native and much-loved Albian leffen poffeffed; and, never having follow- ed to his view, he rafhly made the ed his occupation upon a Sunday moft folemn and awful of vows never from the moment of his fon's execu- more to return. tion, inftead of attending at public worship (as he had on that day uniformly done), at dawn of morning he took his Raff, and with his days provifion at his back, and accompanied by his faithful dog, he traced his faltering fteps to the dreadful spot where the body of his child was expofed to public contumely; and at the foot of the gibbet, in fenfhine and rain, in keen froft and dritting fnow the agonifed father kept his heart rending fabbaths, until the cloting hour of day forced his return to his now miferable home. Poor Thomas was led by affection to his old maffer to keep one of thefe direful vigils with him. The father's half-averted eye, in which the mingled tear of grief and humiliation trembled -the bluth of fhame that flushed This furrowed check the agonifing figh that convulfed his bofom-were all too much for the fufceptible feelings of Thomas, and he determincd the wretched parent fhould never pafs fuch another heart-rending watch... December, 1808. On his voyage to America the tranfport he was in was wrecked: many of the crew and convicts perifhed, while he with a few other individuals were faved from the fury of the ftorm by a Portuguese merchantman on its way from Mexico to Lifbon. As they approached the thore of Portugal, they fell in with and were taken by Achmet the corfair, from whofe power our reader already knows he was taken by don Manual, in whofe fervice he was fettered by links of compulfion which his natural honefly could not find out means to break. But even in the fervice of this predacious fociety he could never be prevailed upon to join in plundering a prize his valour had affifted to take and on every poffible occafion he failed not to evince the virtues of his heart; while he trove to reconcile himfelf to his fate by thinking, that as he could never more fight for his country, he would not fight againft it by enlifting in the navy of any other maritime power; and that, as he must fight upon the fea to be happy, he might as 4 Y well any other. Emancipated from the power of don Manual, and fettled amongft the vaffals of Manfredonia, Thomas's heart whispered to him that he once again knew happiness; he could once again look ftedfaftly upon an honeft man, and own without blufling who was his master. E well do it in don Manuel's fervice as tion of any of the predacious fociety, he haftened effectually to difge himfelf; and by a fatiguing and fearinfpired circuit from Marseilles, where he landed, through Langeudoc, Gaícony, acrofs the Pyranees into Nava re, and through Old and New Caftile, at length reached Murcia; wha making his rapid way to Carthas, in a state of the most pjuable anxiety, he cautiously annouced hemfelf to an old prieft, his family's confeffer, when he had the fingular happines of her hearing little to difturb his peace or effect his feelings but the unfeigned grief of his family os fa myfteriously lófing him. His la bella was a real mourner, and her forrow as poignant as upon the mo ment of his ambiguous difappearance being authenticated; and the would ( have tetired to weep in the gloom of a cloifter had not maternal duty bound her to the world, for Pedia had left her in the way that women with to be who love their lord; and on his return to Carthagena he was hailed as father by a lovely boy. To afford him employment, and contribute to his happiness, the good duca and Orlando gave to the care of Thomas all the fishing and plea fure boats, with all the armed veffels belonging to the duchy of Manfredonia; or when failing upon the Adriatic, whether protecting the fhore from the incurfions of fome predacious Tuk, or proudly guiding the helm when the duca aud his family took a marine excurfion poor Tho mas felt himself little less than a British admiral. Hugo, Orlando's faithful camereiro, and prompt agent for obtaining views of lady Victoria for him in the château de Vicenza, was fummoned from Rouffillon to Manfredonia upon Orlando's first arrival at the caitle of his ancestors; and the happy Hugo reinflated in the fervice of his beloved mafter. Pedro had bound, by a folemn oath to Francifco, to return to the cattle of the Pyrenees in the brigantine after leaving lady Victoria in a place of fafety; but the implacable fury of the tempeft had prevented his fulfilling that facred engagement:-and as he had only fworn to return with the brigantine, and as the brigantine was irrecoverably loft, he believed himfelf abfolved from his oath, and by no means bound to return ( nor did he know the way) to a horde of villains, who had bafely dragged him from happiness to mifery and bondage; and the moment Providence permitted him to reach the rocks he made for, he determined to return immediately to Murcia. Yet fearing the recogni The happy intelligence of her hufband's return was cautioutly communicated to Ifabella by Pedr's now joyful brother. But to defcribe Pedro's first interview with his wife, child, and other relations, baffles our attempt at defcription, and we muft leave them to our reader's own imagination to pourtray. Pedro, restored to domestic happinefs, forgot not the dreadful fate, which he believed inevitable, of his hipwrecked friends, or the mournful commiffion he had promifed to execute. He tore himself from his now even more tenderly beloved Ifabella; and, attended by an efcoit of his brothers, relations, and friends who all feared his again failing in the power of the predacious fociety, he journeyed to Cadiz, where he fuppofed conte Ariofio was, when he had therapture of hearing, from Alphonfo's colonel, that lady Vie eria was faved from the fury of the empeft, and then in Provence, whither conte Ariosto was gone to vifit her. nity conveyed to the family maufoleum of Manfredonia, where all that remained of this faithful domestic was laid at the foot of Viola's monument, Pedro, full of joy and gratitude to where a plain marble table was erectHeaven for the miraculous efcape of ed over him; upon which was fimply, himfelt and friends, retured to Car- though beautifully, recounted his atthagena; to where at length the tachment and fidelity to Viola, with Courier of Orlando, entreating the the fatal termination of his life, while, refence of Pedro, at Manfredonia, haftening to clear her fame and reftore raced him. Pedro, full of amaze her happiness. ment at the wonderful and happy The true Hippolyto Orlando failed difcoveries the packet of Orlando con- not to trace out and invite to Manfre ained, and no longer having the donia, where that amiable young predacious fociety to fear, was hallen. man fpent much happy time with the ing to obey his fummons, when an- friends he had known and loved in other exprefs arrived to inform Pe- the Pyrenean caftle; but upon the Iro that the marchefe and marchefa death of his friend, the good abate, of Palermo were gone upon the al- he found himself in poffeffion of an ready-mentioned tour. But upon ample fortune, with which he returnOrlando and Victoria's return to ed to his family; and after his long Manfredonia' they fent to request a estrangement from them, was vifit from Pedro, his wife, and child; length happily and refpectably fettled, and this humane man, his Ifabella, among his own connexions. and, boy, cheerfully undertook this CHAP. LXXX. long voyage and journey, wirich they ALTHOUGH the crimes of Fran had never caufe to repent. The cifco had been enormous, his virtues kindness and attention of Lorenzo had alfo been great. He had been a and his children gratified every feel- faithful affectionate guardian to Oring of their hearts; while the mu- lando and Matilda, and reared them nificent friendship of the duca di Manfredonia, and the marchefe and marchefa of Palermo, amply repaired the injury done to the fortune of Pedro by his long estrangement from his family, and fequeftration from his practice as a furgeon. The wounded mariners who found fhelter in the monastery of St. Lewis, with all the crew of the brigantine, who had aided in Orlando's and Victoria's efcape from the Pyrenean caftie, that the families of Manfredonia and Ariofto could trace out, were rewarded, and put into the way of carning an honeft fubfift ence' With infinite expence and difficulty the pious and greatful Lorenzo had the bones of the ill-fated and affectionate Bernardo traced to his unhallowed fepulchre in a wood near Aifdence, and with refpectful folem at in the path of virtue-he had ever been kind and attentive to the fuppofed Sebaftian, and had preferved Victoria from deftruction. The families of Manfredonia and Ariofto were therefore bound to him by affection and gratitude; and although they condemned his offenfes, they trained every nerve to fave him from the dangers that encompaffed him. The connexion of Francifco with the predaceous fociety had long been no fecret to the inquifition (whom he had dexterously bribed to forbearance), and had been fome time fufpected by the Obfervantine monks; but upon the annihilation of the predaceous brotherhood, and the razure of the caftle, its communication with the cave of the holy hermit could no longer be concealed from the multitude of Catalonia; and it required every ! every exertion of the duca di Manfre- all, but embraced the little Viola, donia and conte Ariofto to fave Fran- For many years after the re- At length, one morning the children met the melancholy father Julio, He feemed even unufually depreffed; and his fteps were faltering and uneven yet, on fight of the children, a fluth of energy feemed to renovate his drooping frame. He ruthed forward to meet them: he bleffed them and, as he preffed her with fervor to his heart, he threw a chain and craf of the most precious brilliants round her neck; bade her wear them as the gift of a man who loved her family; and, giving his folemn benediction, haftily retreated through a by-path in an adjoining wood. The nurfes haftened home with the children to give the jewels to the marchefa, and recount to her all that had occurred. Victoria, amazed and affected, fummoned Orlando; who, participating in her feelings, haftened to the Francifcan monaftery to de mand an interview with father Julio; but that melancholy man was no where to be found. Orlando, in the impetuofity of his feelings, related the anecdote and fhowed the gems to Francifco, who inftantly knew them: and his anticipating heart conjectured what he had not before fufpected. Julio was diligently fearched for; but not until the fucceeding morning was he difcovered, when he was faced to the caftle chapel, and, on the bale of Viola's monument, was found by Diego extended a breathlefs corfe! His body was removed to his convent, where beneath the cowl and facerdo tal habit appeared all that now re mained of the once beautiful, brave fometimes virtuous, but too often vi cious-Ambrofio de Montalvan; and in the convent church was he inter red with every poffible refpect, at tended by all the monks of his order, by the deeply-affected Juca di Man fredonia, and marchese di Palermo; the weeping Diego, and forrowful Thomas: and he was mourned in death, as a man who had for the lat few years of his exiftence evinced a conduct fo exemplary, that all arou admired and withed to imitate it. When don Manuel fled from h caftle, he took refuge in a neighbour ing bay, where the confeffions Elfridii, and real fate of Viola, reach ed their knowledge. He attended the |