MISS

ELIZA ANN DUPUY.

ISS DUPUY, one of the pioneer authors of the South, and perhaps one of the most widely known, is the descendant of that Colonel Dupuy who led the band of Huguenot exiles to the banks of James river. Colonel Dupuy's grave is still exhibited in the old church whose ruins consecrate the ancient site of Jamestown. Her maternal grandfather was Captain Joel Sturdevant, who raised a company at his own expense, and fought gallantly throughout the war of the Revolution. Miss Dupuy is also related by blood to the Watkins family of Virginia. She is thus by birth related to the best and oldest families in the "Old Dominion". a fact she has never forgotten, but has kept carefully her escutcheon clean in all the vicissitudes of a varied life. One of her best novels is founded on the story of "The Huguenot Exiles;" many of the incidents therein are drawn from family tradition. Miss Dupuy was born in Petersburg, Va. After the death of her father, her family experienced heavy reverses of fortune, and this girl, then a handsome, stately, dark-haired maiden, with a spirit worthy of her lineage, stepped boldly forward to aid in the support of her younger brother and sister. She was competent to teach. She became a governess in the family of Mr. Thomas G. Ellis, of Natchez, where she had charge of the education of his daughter, now known as the author of several books, publishing under the name of " Filia.” Miss Dupuy found a pleasant home here, where she was thrown continually into the society of such women as Eleanor and Catherine Ware, and such men as S. S. Prentiss, John Ross, Boyd, and Bingaman. Natchez at that time boasted a brilliant circle of wit and intellect, and the handsome young governess, with her dignified reserve and noble pride, was one of its ornaments. Miss Dupuy began to write very early. While at Natchez she wrote the " Conspirator," and read it aloud to her little circle of friends and admirers. Eleanor Ware and she used to have grand literary symposiums, where they would read their productions to each other and to gentle Mrs. Ellis, who

sympathized warmly in their tastes, and little "Filia" would often hide in a corner to listen. Miss Dupuy was badly treated about one of her novels, which she loaned to Prof. Ingraham, who was then a wild and unprincipled man. He afterward became a man eminent in virtue and religion, and wrote "The Prince of the House of David," etc.; but at this time he was a reckless man, though considered very gifted. He took Miss Dupuy's manuscript and never returned it to her; afterward he worked it up into a book, which he called "Lafitte, the Pirate of the Gulf."

With some difficulty Miss Dupuy succeeded in getting her "Conspirator" published. It is a story of the conspiracy of Aaron Burr. It was very successful, -over 25,000 copies of this novel have been sold. She now devoted much of her time to writing, and gradually was enabled to give up the irksome confinement of a teacher's life. She taught after this in a "Country Neighborhood," near Natchez, where she wrote her novel of that name. She has written constantly ever since. She was unfortunate in the failure of her publisher and the consequent loss of her copyrights, which would have supplied her now with a handsome income. She has always been wonderfully industrious, a patient worker, and very exacting of herself. She labors usually about four hours every morning, and her MSS. are only corrected when sent to the printer. Her physical health has been firm and vigorous, else she could never have endured such a drain upon her mental powers. She is a tall, large, nobly developed woman, with healthy nerves-meus sana in corpore sano. She has always been calm, firm, simple, but reticent in nature and deportment, woman everywhere respected and often much beloved. She has preserved her friends through life unchanged. She is a friend in the rainy days of existence as well as in sunshine — immaculate, pure, highprincipled and companionable; her features are large and well moulded, Greek in outline; her eyes blue; and her hair, which was very abundant in early womanhood, rippling and satiny, fell in ebon waves, a flood of tresses, below her knee. She wore it usually in a broad, heavy braid around her head, like a diadem, while a multitude of ringlets streamed over her cheeks; the crown of hair a coiffure not unsuited to her large head and stately frame. She moves softly and tranquilly, but decidedly. Her voice is sweet and pleasing in tone, but distinct and clear in its low articulation. Miss Dupuy is the sole support of a brother who is blind from amaurosis, and she herself

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now suffers from a weakness of the eyes, which may end in the same disease. She has been engaged for several years past in writing for Bonner's "Ledger." She is bound by contract to furnish Mr. Bonner with a thousand pages annually. She is really a literateur by profession, and an honest and faithful one. In consequence, she improves in her writings. She is faithful to her art. Her recent novel of “The Evil Genius," furnished to the Ledger, is regarded by many persons as the best of her numerous writings. It is very difficult to make a selection from such abundant material, and scarcely necessary, as Miss Dupuy's novels are so generally popular.

She resides now at Flemingsburg, Kentucky.

She says, in a letter to a friend, these remarkable words, in answer to a question: "As a Southern woman, I would sooner have thrust my hand in a blazing fire, as the Roman youth did, than have taken a pen in it, to throw discredit on my own people."

None who ever knew her intimately, could conceive of Miss Dupuy's failing in any duty, toward God, or friends, or country.

The following is a list of the novels furnished to the "New York Ledger": "The Lost Deeds," "Mysterious Marriage," "White Terror," "Outlaw's Bride," "Life Curse," "Warning Voice," "Secret Chamber," "Family Secret," "Lady of Ashhurst," "Fatal Error," "Evil Genius," and "The Dead Heart;" and she has published in book-form, "Merton; a Tale of the Revolution," "The Conspirator," "Emma Walton, or Trials and Triumphs," "The Country Neighborhood," "Celeste, or The Pirate's Daughter," "The Separation," "The Divorce," "The Coquette's Punishment," "Florence, or The Fatal Vow," "The Concealed Treasure," " Ashleigh," "The Planter's Daughter," and "The Huguenot Exiles."

LINDA MUNROE'S STORY.

Here Lenox lost no time in perusing the brief manuscript left by Linda Munroe, which ran as follows:

"Until I attained the age of twenty-five, I believed myself the legitimate daughter of a man of wealth. I was reared amidst the most lavish indulgence, and my father, who was indifferent to everything else, seemed to regard me with pride and affection.

"From my childhood I was betrothed to the son of a neighboring planter, and the attachment I formed for him was so interwoven with the very fibres of my being, that death alone may sever the links that bound me to him. I was fierce, wayward, and unfeminine; he, noble, generous, and considerate. I mistook his forbearance toward me for love, but I was terribly undeceived. When he understood that his union with me was looked on by our families as settled, he refused positively to fulfil the contract.

"His friends urged on the marriage, and strong in his resolution to give up everything sooner than his freedom of choice in an affair of such importance to his happiness, he abandoned his home, emigrated to the Southwest, and assumed the control of his own future fate.

"Rage, astonishment, but above all, bitter anguish, seized on me. It was my first disappointment, and God knows it was terrible enough to punish me for the life of idle self-indulgence I had hitherto lived. Words can never paint my sufferings, for I loved George Lenox with that fierce passion with which the lioness regards her young. I could have borne death for his sake, but the idea of another occupying toward him that relation I had long looked on as indubitably my own, filled me with frantic anger.

"My mind was soon made up as to my future course. My father's health was failing very fast, and the dissipation he habitually practised I knew must soon hurry him to the grave. As his only child, I should then become mistress of a large estate, and my first intention was to seek out my recreant lover, insist upon the fulfilment of the engagement he had permitted to deceive me so long, and in the event of his refusal, destroy both him and myself.

"Several years passed away, and still the old man lingered, while his unnatural child watched his wasting strength with fierce impatience. I did not make any efforts to overcome the passion I felt for the absent one. I was resolved that he who had refused me should yet reverse his decision, or become the victim of the woman whose pride he had so deeply outraged.

"At length the hour I regarded as that of my release arrived. My father died suddenly, and I believed myself free to act as I pleased. His body was scarcely consigned to the grave, when I commenced my preparations for departure. I intended to set out at once for New Orleans, where I doubted not I should be able to trace him I desired to find. An agent was placed in charge of my plantation.

"Mine! oh, mockery! — yet, let me not anticipate. The last evening of my intended stay beneath my paternal roof arrived, and wearied with the varied employments of the day, I retired early to rest. I had slept but few moments, when the dashing of a carriage to the door, attended with the bustle of an unexpected arrival, aroused me. I sent a servant down to ascertain who honored me with so late a visit; the answer returned was, that Edward Munroe, the son of my father's only brother, was below, and would

be glad to have an interview with me at as early an hour as possible on the following morning.

"This announcement filled me with amazement and indignation. The two families had been estranged for years, and I knew that my deceased father would have regarded the presence of his nephew beneath his roof as an insult to himself. I arose instantly, dressed myself, and descended to my usual sitting-room, where I found my cousin established as much at his ease as if he had spent his life on the spot. He arose with an air of familiarity, which at once revealed his want of refinement, and offered me his hand. I coldly repulsed it, and asked him to what cause I was indebted for the honor of his visit. He bluntly said,

""The old cove's dead, Miss Linda, and it is time for his heirs to look about them.'

"His heirs!' I haughtily replied. 'Who should be his heir but his daughter.'

"A-h! did the old fellow leave a will, my pretty cousin? for you are pretty, in spite of -'

"He paused, and regarded me with such an expression as made me grow faint and cold. I rallied, however, and replied, that no will was necessary, as I was undoubtedly entitled to all my father died possessed of.

"We shall see to that. No will then the case is a very plain one.' "I do not understand you,' I said. 'Your language is as incomprehensible as your presence is unwelcome beneath this roof. You well know that during the life of my father you would never have dared to enter his house.' "But times are changed, Miss Linda,' he said, with insolent coolness. 'The old one's gone, and a man always has the right to enter his own house.'

"I was nearly speechless with rage at this assertion. Yet there was a confidence in my cousin's manner of proclaiming his right that frightened me. I answered in such a manner as to arouse his anger, and then, without further preparation, came the appalling revelation he came prepared to prove.

"My father married a feeble and weak-spirited woman, whom he treated with that want of delicacy and tenderness a man of his habits would naturally be destitute of. She was one of the numerous offerings at the shrine of necessity; she was poor, and imagined that in obtaining a home and wealth, contentment at least would be secured. Too late she found her mistake, and the few years she lived sufficed to prove to her that a life of labor would have been far preferable to the one she embraced. She died in the fourth year of their union, a victim, it was said, to a broken heart. On her death-bed she found means to make a well-attested revelation, which was conveyed at once to my uncle. By him it was sedulously kept from the knowledge of my father, lest a will in my favor should defeat his son's accession to the coveted wealth of his brother.

"Mrs. Munroe stated that her only child - a daughter-had perished