boys who looked up to him for, light-he thought they deferved it. He had tried his fword-it could not open the way the mounting was too expenfive-and fimple economy was not a match for it-there was no refource but commerce.

In any other province in France, fave Britany, this was Imiting the root for ever of the little tree his pride and affection wished to fee ré-blossom-But in Britany, there being a provifion for this, he availed himfelf of it; and taking an occafion when the flates were affembled at Rennes, the Marquis, attended with his two fons, entered the court; and having pleaded the right of an ancient law of the duchy, which, though feldom claimed, he said, was no lefs in force; he took his fword from his fide-Heresaid he take it; and be trufty guardians of it, till better times put me in a condition to reclaim it.

The prefident accepted the Marquis's fword-he staid a few minutes to fee it depofited in the archives of his house -and departed.

The Marquis and his whole family embarked the next day for Martinico, and in about nineteen or twenty years of fuccessful application to bufinefs, with fome unlooked for bequests from diftant branches of his houfe-returned home to reclaim his nobility, and to fupport it.

It was an incident of good fortune, which will never happen to any traveller but a fentimental one, that I should be at Rennes at the very time of this folemn requifition; call it folemn-it was fo to me.

The Marquis entered the court with his whole family; he fupported his lady-his eldest fon fupported his fifter, and his youngest was at the other extreme of the line next his mother--he put his handkerchief to his face

twice in

There was a dead filence.-When the Marquis had

approached within fix paces of the tribunal, he gave the Marchionefs to his youngest fon, and advancing three fteps before his family-he reclaimed his fword.-His sword was given him; and the moment he got it into his hand he drew it almoft out of the fcabbard-it was the fhining face of a friend he had once given up. He looked attentively a long time at it, beginning at the hilt, as if to see whether it was the fame-when obferving a little ruft which it had contracted near the point, he brought it near his eye, and bending his head down over it-I think I faw a tear fall upon the place: I could not be deceived by what followed.

"I fhall find (faid he) fome other way to get it off."

When the Marquis had said this, he returned his sword into its fcabbard, inade a bow to the guardian of it-and, with his wife and daughter, and his two fons following. him, walked out.

O how I envied him his feelings!

STERNE.

CHAPTER XI.

MARIA.

FIRST PART.

THEY were the fweeteft notes I ever heard; and I inftantly let down the foreglafs to hear them more diftinctIy'Tis Maria, faid the poftillion, obferving I was liftening Poor Maria, continued he, (leaning his body. on one fide to let me fee her, for he was in a line between us,) is fitting upon a bank playing her vefpers upon her pipe, with her little goat beside her.

The young fellow uttered this with an accent and a look fo perfectly in tune to a feeling heart, that I infant

ly made a vow, I would give him a four-and-twenty fous piece, when I got to Moulines

And who is poor Maria? faid I.

The love and pity of all the villages around us, faid the poftillion-It is but three years ago, that the fun did not fhine upon fo fair, so quick-witted, and amiable a maid; and better fate did Maria deserve, than to have her banns forbid, by the intrigues of the curate of the parish who published them

He was going on, when Maria, who had made a short paufe, put the pipe to her mouth and began the air again -they were the fame notes; yet were ten times sweeter. It is the evening-fervice to the Virgin, faid the young than but who has taught her to play it-or how she came by her pipe, no one knows we think that Heaven has affifted her in both; for ever fince fhe has been unfettled in her mind, it feems her only confolation-she has never once had the pipe out of her hand, but plays that fervice upon it almost night and day.

The poftillion delivered this with fo much difcretion and natural eloquence, that I could not help decyphering fomething in his face above his condition, and should have fifted out his hiftory, had not poor Maria taken fuch full poffeffion of me.

We had got up by this time almoft to the bank where Maria was fitting: fhe was in a thin white jacket, with her hair, all but two trelles, drawn up in a filk net, with a few olive leaves twifted a little fantastically on one side→ fhe was beautiful; and if ever I felt the full force of an honeft heart-ache, it was the moment I faw her—————

God help her, poor da.nfel! above a hundred maffes, faid the poftillion, have been said in the several parish churches and convents around for her-but without effect: we have still hopes, as she is fenfible for short inter

vals, that the Virgin at laft will restore her to herfelf; but her parents, who know her beft, are hopeless upon that score, and think her fenfes are loft for ever.

As the poftillion fpoke this, Maria made a cadence fo melancholy, fo tender and querulous, that I fprung out of the chaife to help her, and found myfelf fitting betwixt her and her goat, before I relapsed from my enthusiasm.

Maria looked wiftfully for fome time at me, and then at the goat-and then at me—and then at her goat again, and fo alternately

-Well, Maria, faid I foftly-What refemblance do you find?

I do entreat the candid reader to believe me, that it was from the humbleft conviction of what a beast man isthat I asked the question; and that I would not have let fall an unfeasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Mifery, to be entitled to all the wit that ever Rabelais fcattered.

Adieu, Maria!-adieu, poor hapless damfel !-fome time, but not now, I may hear thy forrows from thy own lips but I was deceived: for that moment he took her pipe, and told me fuch a tale of woe with it, that I rofe up, and, with broken and irregular steps, walked foftly to my chaife.

SECOND PART.

WHEN We had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I dif covered poor Maria fitting under a poplar-she was fitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one fide within her hand a small brook ran at the foot of the tree.

I bade the poftillion go on with the chaife to Moulines, -and La Fleur to befpeak my fupper-and that I would walk after him.

She was dreffed in white, and much as my friend defcribed her, except that her hair hung loofe, which before was twisted within a filk net. She had fuperadded likewise to her jacket, a pale green ribband which fell across her fhoulder to the waift; at the end of which hung her pipe; her goat had been as faithlefs as her lover; and she had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she had kept tied by a ftring to her girdle. As I looked at her dog, the drew him towards her with the firing-" Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio!" faid fhe. I looked in Maria's eyes, and faw. fhe was thinking more of her father, than of her lover or her little goat; for as fhe uttered them, the tears trickled down her cheeks.

I fat down close by her, and Maria let me wipe them away as they fell, with my handkerchief. I then fleeped it in my own and then in hers-and then in mine-and then I wiped her's again-and as I did it, I felt fuch undefcribable emotions within me, as I am fure could not be accounted for from any combinations of matter and motion.

I am pofitive I have a foul; nor can all the books with which materialifts have pestered the world, ever convince me of the contrary.

When Maria had come a little to herfelf, I asked her if fhe remembered a pale thin person of a man who had fat down betwixt her and her goat about two years before? She faid, fhe was unfettled much at that time, but remembered it upon two accounts-that, ill as fhe was, the faw the perfon pitied her; and next, that her goat had ftolen his handkerchief, and fhe had beat him for the theft-fhe had washed it, fhe faid, in the brock, and kept it ever fince