partial thaw; and early in March the involve many families in bloodshed weather improved so much, that he and pillage, Lord Balveny advanced, set out for Edinburgh, to ask the holding out the banner of peace; king's consent to his marriage; a re- but Oliver Sinclair's brother, who spect, invariably paid to high supe-headed the party, commanded them riors in that age. His bride exerted to destroy root and branch the proud all her firmness in parting from him, Douglas. Lord Balveny and his and to sustain her accustomed cheer-faithful followers made a gallant defulness after he was gone. To shew fence; they must have been all cut Lord Balveny that another was more in pieces by the large body opposed necessary to her happiness, she felt to them, if notice of their danger would be as indelicate as ungrateful. had not reached Sylvester as he reLord Balveny saw and appreciated turned from repulsing the Sinclairs. her duteous efforts, and soothed for He ordered a messenger to summon her the pains of absence by fre- the Master of Balveny and his forces, quent commendation of her affianced who were still in sight, and Sylvester spouse. with his horsemen galloped to support Lord Balveny-but Lord Balveny was no more. The priest had thrown a cloak over him, and concealed his death, aware that it would dispirit the remainder of his people. The priest met the Master, and gave the tidings, which made him Lord of Balveny. Even in the moment when natural affection ought to have prevailed, Archibald was influenced by party spirit. He perceived that now, or never, he could separate his sister from Drummond, and constrain her to marry Lord Ormond—a short delay might make her a ward of the king. His people were engaged un The tenth day after his departure, a horseman, in violent haste, called Lord Balveny to draw off his sons from a fray with some adherents of Oliver Sinclair. The aged leader embraced and blessed Wilmina, saying, he would endeavour to return before sunset, but did not intimate the cause of his leaving home. He repaired to the scene of disorder with a chosen band of followers, preceding them,, attended by a priest, bearing the symbols of peace in his banner. The Master of Balveny and his brother had put to flight the retainers of the king's favourite. They rallied on an eminence, with the intention of pursuing the Doug-der the command of Sylvester; only las men, and seeing Lord Balveny's people, concluded he was bringing a reinforcement to their antagonists. Without adverting to the pacific banner, they aimed a shower of darts from the vantage-ground, and the warrior of many hard-fought fields was wounded by a turbulent rabble. His men, though fewer in number, attacked the Sinclairs in their turn. Willing to hazard all to arrest the progress of a feud that could not but the priest had a certainty of Lord Balveny's decease, for he had walked from the struggling throng to a place where the priest offered prayers for his safety: he received the last office of religion on his bended knees, and expired. Father Congalus was not a disinterested, high-minded father Roderick: yet, had he been aware of the new lord's design, he would not have concurred in it. Archibald sent him to call out of the nearest rank one of the men from Balveny Castle, and, left alone beside his father's body, took the signet-ring from his finger, which he gave to the person brought by the priest, commanding him with all speed to see the Lady Wilmina, and to say the signet-ring was sent by Lord Balveny as a token for her Ito to escape from the castle instantaneously; Oliver Sinclair was in full march to force her away; Lord Balveny and his men were skirmishing to retard him; but his force was too well appointed and numerous to be resisted. He instructed the messenger whither he should conduct the Lady Wilmina, and empowered him to take the direction of her escort. Wilmina, suspecting no imposition, prepared to obey her father, who she knew was not easily alarmed; and therefore the danger must be very urgent when he ordered her to fly from it. Before her palfrey and escort were ready, she was in waiting, and having mounted, charged the attendants to proceed with all expedition. The guide brought her to a lone house, where, to her glad surprise, she found her brother Sylvester. Archibald had persuaded 5 him, that in preventing Wilmina from -becoming the wife of a younger brother, they should consult the honour of their family; and in justice to him it should be mentioned, he had no concern in hiring the foreign ruffians to carry her away. Lord Ormond and the Master of Balveny carefully concealed from him that transaction. He told Wilmina that -Lord Balveny commissioned him to -Stake the command of her escort, while he made a proper representation to the Parliament of Scotland Low Fol. IV. No. XXII. concerning Oliver Sinclair's misbehaviour. He spoke truth, though not in the sense apparent to his sis ter. He spoke of Archibald Lord Balveny, while she doubted not the || title was still vested in her father. By along and rapid journey she reached Glammis Castle. Lady Glammis was rejoiced to see her, and led her to a hall that bore the signs of || ruined grandeur: she fainted before Lady Glammis could introduce her to her nieces. A' contagious fever raged in Scotland. It began 'among the poor, owing to the bad quality and deficiency of food, and infection spread the distemper to those who might have prevented or mitigated the famine in which it originated. The charities instituted by Wilmina saved the people on Lord Balveny's estates from extreme dearth of the necessaries of life; but she was not on that account exempted from the malignity of the disorder. Divine Providence, however, brings good out of the most afflicting dispensations for the pious and benevolent; the fever saved Wilmina from falling a helpless prey to Lord Ormond. Sylvester hastened away to attend his father's obsequies, and was but a few hours gone, when Lord Ormond arrived with a strong party of men to force her to his ship, which waited in the firth of Tay. An alliance with her was not so inportant to his political schemes as during her father's life; but a vehement passion, not unmixed with resentment for declining his hand, impelled him to seize her, lest Drummond should discover her retreat. Being informed she had caught the epidemic, he burst out into a thousand execrations on the fever, and hurG G SKETCHES OF CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND THE STATE 1- BUT the fiera is not yet over- The fiera is at length completely at an end; the Signori Spazzastrade and Parabolani are already gone, the operatic company have quitted the town immediately after the last representation, and with them Signora Lódola has withdrawn herself, to the profound regret of the gentlemen, but to the supreme satisfaction of the ladies. That in the night fixed for her departure, hundreds of the in habitants assembled beneath the windows of this divine Lodola; that uninterrupted evvivas rent the air; and, finally, that when she appeared to mount the travelling-carriage, the crowd was immense, and she was es corted with torches, lanterns, rand morcoli beyond the gates of the town, are circumstances which it were su perfluous to mention, as this is but the usual and regular mode of pro ceeding. It only remains therefore to remark, that Signor Gallinaccio has immortalized himself by an air; that all the ladies, with and without voices, sing this air, without omitting one of the flourishes whieh Galli naccio introduced in such profu sion: moreover, that Count Ciealone, whose occupation is suddenly gone in consequence of the departure of the performers, exhibits a genuine image of misery; that he has neither eaten nor drunk since the departure of the divina Lodola, excepting in the morning half a portion of aqua ealda. The usual silence and quiet || violently at this to him so obnoxious now pervade the good town, and they are not likely to suffer any interruption till the next carnival. whim of his lady-wife's; but as it is only at the said botteghe that he has a seat and vote, whereas at home he enjoys only a seat but no vote, the lady stays where she is, in spite of all this head-shaking: nay, she would not issue orders for departure on Christmas-eve itself, had he not hit upon the lucky thought to apply to the cavaliere sercente, who has just arrived from town on a visit, and to request his kind intercession, This delay of the lady is not, how ever, by any means to be ascribed to caprice, as her husband very er roneously imagines. Ladies never act from caprice; their conduct is the result of a maturely considered and well-digested plan. She shall be missed in the social circles of the town, at the casino, in the botteghe, &c.; when she at length makes her appearance, she will be welcomed with rapture, assailed with questions, and loaded with tender reproaches. Accordingly, it is the intention of pre In the first days of autumn, indeed, you observe a more than ordinary degree of bustle; but it is soon over, and announces the deathlike stillness which immediately succeeds. Whoever has an estate, a villa, or four posts in the country which he can call his own, prepares at the commencement of autumn to leave town, for the purpose of enjoying the pleasures of rural life. Even those marchesi, conti, and cavalieri, who, for certain reasons, do not choose to pass the autumn at their own country-seats, are, nevertheless, not left behind; they are engaged by the owners of estates and villas for the time of the villeggiatura, and go out of town with them. Hence the casino, the corso, the botteghe, and the very streets are as empty as if that scourge of mankind which of old snatched from the tender and learned Petrarch his celebrated Lau-paring a brilliant triumph for female ray and which the modern Italians vanity in which the above-mention are accustomed to class under the ed delay and late arrival originate same head with the presence of the but these are honourably distinguishGermans, had lately raged there. ed from other late appearances, and In this state the town remains till arrivals already adverted to, inas towards Christmas; for, as a propen-much as nobody is incommoded, b sity to come late and to go late is, them but the husband, which is a as it were, innate in the Italian fair thing of no consequence whatever, you will recollect what I have since he is perfectly accustomed to said of the theatres and the botte- the being incommoded, in every pos ghe every one of them strives to sible way. The fair lady-for, that stay in the country as long as possi- she possesses some beauty is a matble. The husband of the lady, in-ter of course, a conditio sine quâ teed, who now sits before the botte- she would have no reason to expect ga of his village, and chats with the questions, or tender reproaches or Signor Parroco, at the same time congratulations, were she even, to yawning most significantly, longs take a fancy to stay so long, at her heartily to be back in the botteghe campagna as the persevering St, Siof the town, and shakes his head || mon stood upon his pillar the fair บ by lady, I say, is actually surrounded by all the fashionables of the other sex, young and old, who are joined by her intimate friends, though with rather heavy hearts and somewhat elongated faces-and questions, tender reproaches, and congratulations || follow in anticipated succession. The lady, on her part, assures them, that she never ceased to think of her dear friends, and longed sincerely to be with them again; but as they knew how passionately she is attached to a rural life, and she has found the country this autumn particularly interesting, she trusts they will pardon her the more readily, as she should never have supposed that she could be missed, or that her absence would even be remarked. trinsic resources both carry with them into the country, and how ignorant they are of the art of living there. All those occupations which else where render a country life so interesting and agreeable, are to the Italian a terra incognita. He cares neither for horses nor field sports; he reads little or nothing; he dislikes walking, and makes neither long nor short excursions; and as for agricul tural experiments, improvements, and the like, he not only feels no inclination to engage in them, but considers them as totally beneath his dignity. Hence his knowledge of rural economy extends but just so far, that he is aware that it is necessary to sow before one can reap, and that his horses prefer a feed of oats to a mess of stubble. Whether his ragged and beggarly tenants have any thing to eat, and what, is to him a matter of perfect indifference. It follows of course that, under such circumstances, the Italian, who merely visits his villa for fashion's sake, neither does nor can enjoy himself there; and that this villa, though adorned with all the charms of Nature, must be to him an abode of ennui and misery. This observation equally applies to the fair sex. As to the passion for rural life, and the interest found in the country, we must not implicitly believe what the lady is pleased to say on these points; for to her, who speaks with such enthusiasm of the cara campagna, this cara campagna, where nobody admires the corsetto alla Greca, where nobody is enraptured with the cintura di pelle which encircles her elegant waist, where even the most tasteful morning dress excites no envy, and where there are to be sure trees and plants and hills and dales, but no casino and no botteghe, is an abode of misery; and it would be impossible for any thing but the fortitude and perseverance of a lady, when bent on realizing some favourite idea, to purchase a short triumph by torments thus voluntarily prolonged. How a residence in the country can really become a torment, those will easily conceive who have had opportunities of closely observing the inhabitants of Italy, male and female, and consequently know how few in-voluntarily to gaiety: but there you Whoever has attended any of our country wakes or feasts, will be but little edified by an Italian Sagra, where all is so cold, so sober, so tedious, that it is impossible to help admiring, in the highest degree, the abstinence of the Italians, who really regard this Sagra as a festival. In ours and other countries, such days are celebrated with feasting, drinking, dancing, singing; you meet at every step with jovial countenances, the aspect of which disposes you in |