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fice. Donna Mirabella, with tears in her beautiful eyes, withdrew from the garden where her parents permitted the interview. I stood some minutes petrified by the agony of resigning all I held most dear. I believe my first movement was to follow Mirabella, and to assent to her proposals; but honour, stern honour, withheld me: I returned to my lodging, and as I passed the threshold, a messenger from the chief of our confederacy put a letter into my hand, requiring me to go instantaneously to the frontier, to meet delegates from the French emperor. I ordered my horse and a trusty servant, and in fifteen minutes was on my way to the eastern boundary of Spain. Before I made the nearest stage I was arrested, cast into prison, and remained for some years in close durance, until liberated by the English arms, when I flew on the wings of eager affection to inquire how Donna Mirabella had fared amidst the struggles which convulsed the state. I could not trace her; but a house which was said to be occupied by the lady of Don Miguel Avallos happened to be pointed out, and I thought my son's wife might give some intelligence regarding Colonel O'Niel's family. I may literally say, that my heart died within me when Dorah Moran, the wife of an Irish soldier, who nursed Donna Mirabella, appeared at the door.

"Senhor!' she said, wiping her tearful eyes, 'Dorah, widowed and old, is the only domestic left to the Lady Mirabella. Her lord, Don Miguel, is with the French army: the British, God bless them! have neither pillaged nor disturbed the Donna. But you are ill, senhor! You was thin and pale when you came

here, now you are white as a sheeted corpse. Do come forward to the saloon, and be seated. The Donna is taking her siesta: sweet soul, she sleeps poorly at night.'

"I proceeded towards the saloon, but could neither stand nor walk, I leaned against the wall, till Dorah assisted me to the apartment, and brought some wine.

"Is my father with the French troops?' I asked.

"Lord love you, senhor,' answered Dorah, have you forgot that the old Don is dead long ago? No, it is I that am a forgetful tattling old woman: I should have remembered, that in prison you could not have heard that my lord, your father, sent the false messenger to take you to the eastern frontier; he got an order for arresting you, to keep you from plunging deeper in ruinous schemes, hoping he could soon obtain your release; and when all the interest he could make was ineffectual to shorten the term of your confinement, he broke his heart. Your family and ours have had grief upon grief. Colonel O'Niel was killed in a skirmish with the patriots. Mrs. O'Niel pined away with sorrow, and died soon after the French overran this country. Donna Mirabella was left without fortune, and far, far from all her relations. When her mother died she paid every debt, but little remained. She parted with all the household except Dorah, and we took a small house, or more properly a room, to serve us both; but poverty could not take away nor hide the fair face, the charming person of my dear, dear lady. A French officer saw and followed her. She behaved to him with the most distant civility; but

he was not to be disheartened. He est anxiety to resume the possession forced himself upon her day after was, that I might secure Donna Miday, though she several times shifted rabella from privations. I remitted her dwelling to another part of the to her a handsome income, till the town, to avoid him. He made dis- restoration of Ferdinand gave him graceful proposals to her, and but power to resent all former attempts for the strength of my old arms to limit the king's absolute authority. would have torn her from me, to put The political and warlike events in her into a carriage that waited his this distracted country are known to orders. He, however, kept hold of all Europe. I need not detail them. her, and we were struggling at the Ferdinand must have been conscious, door, which he had opened, when that, with my sword, and as a negoDon Miguel, passing to a serenade, ciator with our defenders, the British with servants carrying flambeaux, ob- || forces, I had served his interests, and served the contest, and joined us. promoted his restoration: however, In happier times he had asked Don- he has shewn himself more disposed na Mirabella in marriage, and was to remember my early opposition, rejected. He was now her deliver- than the more important services of er, her only friend, and in her res- later date. He could not, in comcue hazarded his own life. He kill- mon decency, refrain from acknowed the French officer; his servants ledging, by my reception at court, put his body into the carriage, and that my wounds, my pen, and my set it down in a distant part of the tongue had contributed to replace city, and it was never known who him on the throne. In the presencedealt the mortal blow. Donna Mi- chamber I first saw my son, after a rabella had only herself to give in separation of years. My temper recompence for Don Miguel's ser- was warm, but never revengeful. I vices. She was raised to the pin- accosted Don Miguel with paternal nacle of greatness and riches. All fondness: he has since confessed, believed you dead, and the fortune that having learned from his domeswas enjoyed by your son since the tic spy, that I was at his house imold Don had been no more; but too mediately when released from the sure Donna Mirabella and Don Mi-state prison, and that Donna Miraguel were never formed for each other.'

bella had regular remittances from me, his infatuated jealousy ascribed "Dorah ceased speaking. She my frank cordiality to a device for might have talked many hours with-securing easy access to her. How out interruption from me. All my senses, all my powers, were benumbed by anguish. Donna Mirabella rung her bell. I could not bear to see her, and telling Dorah I had an engagement, I threw my agitated frame into my carriage, with orders to drive to the British head-quarters. My offers of service were accepted. 1 recovered my estates, and my great

ill did he appreciate her pure virtue, and my principles of rigid honour! Let me, however, check this rising indignation, and forgive the penitent. Our errors and our miseries have arisen from the ever-fertile cause of woe, a contrariety of political sentiments in a family. Let parents and children shudder at disunion!

"My son and I were at variance

from his earliest years, and fatal to || I escaped to this province, aware that my enemies would least suppose it to be my chosen place of refuge. I found faithful hearts to conceal me, and hands ready to take arms in my defence. But I had no wish to raise the standard of revolt, and I did not join the Constitutionalists until the tyranny of the court made a compromise in behalf of the people a hopeless attempt. My son and I were again opposed in warfare. If the highest and lowest classes in Spain had been true to their own cause, with the spirit and determination of which the intermediate ranks gave an example, the sanguinary conflict must have terminated happi

both have been the consequences. Even after we accorded in loyalty to Ferdinand, Don Miguel created food for dissension. He was envious of my distinguished consideration at the court. A junto of young men, his avowed intimates, flattered the prejudices which led the king to acts oppressive to the subject, and derogatory to his own character. They influenced him to give me a command of troops in this province, for the purpose of aiding the taxcollectors. This was an invidious duty. To extort from the peasantry all the produce of their labour I could not endure; but the king's revenue did not suffer from my lenity.ly for the king and for his subjects. When a labourer or artisan was too But desertion and treachery paralizpoor to pay the impost, I advanced ed the patriotic efforts, and the hosts the money for him; and thus furnish- of France are the dictators of our ed my enemies with grounds to de- laws, the devourers of our substance. nounce me as seeking popularity, All the limitations of the royal prewith some dangerous secret view. I rogative required by the Constitution was summoned to Madrid, to answer would not have crippled the power for my conduct, and did not shrink of Ferdinand so much as it is, and from the investigation. I went fur-will be, thwarted by the domination ther. In a private audience I represented to Ferdinand the discon- "I can only console myself by retents of his people, and the abuses flecting, that while I could wield a frequently bearing his name. On sword, I was true to the good cause. my knees I besought him to consi- Wounded and bereft of sense, I fell der, that being the seat of war so into the hands of my son. He sent long, his kingdom was impoverished, me to a castle on our estate in Murand required his fostering tender- cia. Unhappily, Domma Mirabella ness. He heard me with seeming had come thither for sea-bathing the complacency; but he is an accom- day before my litter reached the casplished dissimulator. He desired tle. She first saw me a captive, apme to return next day to Guipuscoa.parently dying, after the lapse of "I took my measures accordingly, years since we parted in the garden. and was prepared to depart, if the To her care and the assiduity of intimation from a true friend had not Dorah I owed the prolongation of apprised me, that an order for my life, and I lived, though to tell the arrest was to be executed that night. truth, I wished to die. To expect a fair trial would have been self-deception. By mountain paths

of France.

"I had been about ten days able to sit up in the afternoons, when my

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touched the hilt of a poniard. I was glad to meet any weapon, and tried to take it with me. It held fast. I felt for the obstruction, and discovered that it stuck in a dead body. I had perceived a putrid effluvia, but ascribed it to the confined air. In this place not a ray of light appear

son came to the fortress. I had never seen Donna Mirabella; for when she beheld me carried from the litter, I was insensible to her presence. Don Miguel scarcely took the trouble of throwing a veil of decency over his chagrin at seeing I could leave my pillow. That same night four ruffians broke my rest, dragginged; nor had I any guide in my peme from my bed. I was so weak that I could not walk across the room, unless supported by Dorah, my indefatigable attendant; my arms were not within reach, or the villains should not have approached me with impunity. I did resist, but resistance only exhausted my strength. I was thrown into a waggon, and after several hours' jolting, the conductors halted, forced me to alight, having tied a bandage over my eyes, and conveyed me to a dungeon. A man with a black crape over his face brought daily a pittance of food to my damp and noisome cell.

rilous adventure, except where a moonbeam pierced the few ventilators in the massive walls. I again handled the corpse; handled the corpse; its delicate proportions told me it was a female, and a dreadful presentiment seized me. I took the sad remains on my shoulder, and pursued my way. A door stood ajar, and shewed the moon gliding before a large window. I advanced, and soon recognised the chapel of the castle. A monument of white marble appeared to be newly erected. Wax candles burned on each side. I laid down my burden to examine the features. My fore"I was so ill that little sustenance boding soul could no longer doubt sufficed for me; but a determination that the victim of assassination was to burst my bonds roused every ener-Donna Mirabella. I raised her again gy of my nature. I felt returning in my arms, came round the high vigour; but so conducted myself that monument, and beheld Dorah kneelthe gaoler supposed I was dying. He ing in fervent prayer before it. I put became negligent in securing the my hand on her mouth, while the doors, and I was all ear to observe other placed Mirabella in her view. whether the locks and bolts were The ecstasy of devotion was susfixed. I seemed to him near disso-pended. Dorah would have screamlution. He looked over me, and re-ed if I had taken less precaution to tired without undergoing the labour | stifle her voice. She took her belov of drawing the ponderous bars. I waited till past midnight. I knew there could be no sentinel on the -northern side of the fortress, where the rock was too steep to require it, tif, as I suspected, I was a prisoner in my own castle. I ascended stairs; stole through several doors and passages: in a recess of the last, while groping my way in the dark, my hand

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ed nursling to her bosom; then, with admirable presence of mind, reverting to my danger, she said in low accents, Take, take us from this accursed den of murder!' She opened a wicket, and we were soon far from the castle, which stood on the confines of Valencia. We got into an unfrequented part of the mountains. The heat was extreme. The

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state of the corpse made interment || murderer of his lady. He had kept necessary without delay; and besides, if strangers as we were should have been detected carrying a dead body, we must have been detained as murderers.

"I had drawn the dagger from the Donna's breast; I employed it to dig her grave; Dorah gathered grass and flowers to form a last bed for the child of her love, and when I covered in the earth, she said, ' Here will I also be laid. I cannot live, since I have the certainty that Mirabella fell || by the hand of Don Miguel. His poniard gave the death-stroke. I should know it among ten thousand. Fool that I was to go at his order to Madrid, to take papers from his cabinet! I might have suspected harm, when he gave his carriage and an escort to bring me thither. At my return, I was told my dear lady died || suddenly, and her body was in a state to require instant burial: the hypocrite murderer placed a marble monument over her, and I have prayed and mourned beside a pile of stone where she was never laid. But I had a hand in her death by leaving her, and my heart is broken!'

"Dorah's heart was broken. She lived but a few days, and never moved from beside the Donna's grave. I brought water from limpid streams and a variety of fruits to my companion in sorrow; she hardly tasted them. Death was to her a messenger of joy. I buried her with the dearest sharer of her faithful cares. I watered the earth with parting tears, and took my course towards Guipus

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her body, intending to place it in my, dungeon, as a perpetual memento of my supposed crime; but hearing from his confidential gaoler that I was dying, he went to the recess to throw the remains of Mirabella into the sea. They were gone, gone he believed by miracle. I had also by supernatural means escaped through bolts and locks impenetrable. The gaoler on missing me made all fast, and gave no notice of my evasion till Don Miguel, going to visit my cell, made the discovery for himself. Gracious God! Spain has been, during years, the theatre of imposition, of crime, and tragedy: yet there I must wear out a melancholy existence. I live like a wild beast in his den, though I am not, would not be, subsisted by rapine: the common boun ty of nature alone supplies my nutriment."

"If you wish to leave Spain, we will endeavour to assist your escape," said the Russians.

"I must now see the event of my young patient's condition," answered the hermit.. " If he lives, will you, generous strangers, assist him to accompany me to England? I have friends among the gallant officers of that blessed land, and I would prefer the toil of a peasant under a free government, to affluent leisure as the subject of a despot."

The Russians revealed their name and rank, and explained the means they possessed for the security of the venture they proposed. They returned from time to time to concert their plans with the hermit. The grandson of Don Zelos was cured of his wounds. The Russians hired a vessel for a short excursion to England. Don Ignatius and the grand

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