in them; she forgot at that moment the impending evil she had been contemplating.

By degrees this rapture subsided, and the separation from her daughter returned in all its force. "I will try to merit these kind praises :" she said faintly, "but my heart may not always have such strength: pardon me therefore Sebastian, if some moments of weakness should make me the selfish creature you feared to find me. Remember that in this discourse I have spoken my real sentiments, and do not attend to the temporary ravings of a mother, who cannot always hear the voices of Reason and Religion; who cannot always obey their commands. In my soul I am convinced we ought to make this sacrifice; as such, it shall be completed."

Again the tears of Kara Aziek ceased to flow, and her features resumed their former paleness. Sebastian still looked at her with a mixture of anguish and

delight. His affection was eloquent, and repeated tributes to the fortitude he admired, contributed to support and to console Kara Aziek.

One important matter yet remained to be discussed; should they or should they not suffer Blanche to depart without knowing the story of her birth?

Many arguments in favor of each line of conduct presented themselves during this interesting discussion; but those had the most weight, which dictated explanation.

Blanche was of

age and a character to feel the value of such a confidence: the knowledge of her parents misfortunes would surely endear them to her heart; and when widely separated, that anxiety which must result from her acquaintance with their critical situation, would form still a link of union. Their thoughts, their wishes, their solicitudes, would yet remain the same, though their persons might be divided; it would be impossible

for Blanche not to remember and to love her parents, when her dearest interests were inseparably interwoven with their images.

In addition to this consideration, Sebastian urged one equally important: Blanche would sooner attain the qualities requisite for her future guidance through life, by this early call upon them. Discretion, courage, attentive observation of persons and events, careful calculation of actions, and their consequences, would be the natural fruit of thus giving her a necessity for all these properties.

With the prospect of one day filling a station of responsibility, seeing in the example of her father the awful vicissitudes to which even monarchy is exposed, and feeling, in her own person, the dependance of man on man, she would avoid the risk of becoming intoxicated with a distinction which presented itself under a shape so forbidding.

Her imagination, chastized by experi

ence, and her heart disciplined by early care, would mature, fix, and ennoble her character: if Providence should call her to a throne, that education would enable her to fill it with honour; if destined to pass her life in obscurity, the memory of her parents lot, would teach her the emptiness of the world, and the rarer treasures of that benevolence which makes joy to itself in every station.

If blind to the advantages of candour, Sebastian should permit Blanche to depart in ignorance of her real condition, he reflected, that she must go with either a sentiment of curiosity about the concealed motives of her parents, or with a sentiment of disappointment at their seemingly-lukewarm affection: continual deception must be practised on her; and bearing away with her no quickening principle of anxiety, her filial love would soon languish.

The remembrance of her happy home, would, from its very happiness, only serve

to excuse her to herself for ceasing to feel an animated interest in its inhabitants; and delivering up her young mind to the charms and novelties of a gay life, she would perhaps lose much of her goodness and all her simplicity.

These reflections decided Sebastian, for Kara Aziek had decided at first, from the mere impulse of feeling.

Having left his Aziek seeking additional strength at that sacred source whence human virtue is derived, he sought Gas-par, and imparted to him the resolution to which he had brought himself: Gaspar's emotion was purely joyful; he neither dreaded dangers nor difficulties, oceans, nor dungeons, when the prospect of being useful to his King lay before him.

His sanguine nature made him certain that he should not be long separated from Sebastian the destruction of Spanish tyranny, and the restoration of Portugal, were events that he concluded must follow the interference of England; he was but