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excess of the annual yieldings, as you perceive, have regularly been invested in the best security of your country. With you it rests to fulfil the only remaining injunction of my inestimable friend. Your edu. cation has not been neglected, and the proficiency you have made in the classics will entitle you to or. ders with little additional study.'

I assured him I was by no means disposed to pursue a profession so little in unison with my inclinations, the rather, as the desire of my father had been regulated by an emergency which human foresight could not penetrate. My circumstances

affluent contrary to the forebodings he had formed; and I assured Mr. Kinghorn he was correct when he presumed that entering into orders was ini. mical to my wishes. Nor could the preference have been given to that profession, in particular, by my father, but from an idea that the interest of powerful relatives would be exercised in my favour with surer success. Idleness, I observed, was my abhorrencebut I might profit much by travelling—and I proposed the propriety of making the tour of Europe.

Your sentiments, replied Mr. K. are candid and judicious, as I expected. You have anticipated the plan I was desirous you should adopt; and I look forward with delight to the improvement you will derive by a thorough knowledge of the laws, constitutions, customs and manners of foreign nations, without the fear of ever pursuing the frivolities, or being seduced by the excesses of the generality of our giddy youth, who boast of being travelled, after returning more baboons than men. I have long observed your conduct with keen penetration, and when absent from my sight information was not the less correct. Veneration for the man who was my bosom friend, first exacted my affection for his son-and I am proud to mention that the many virtues you inherit do honour to your mind. Farewell, Charles, I have but one advice to bestow : be careful of your constitution—and whatever befalls you, in your career thro' life, by holding in recollection the amiable maxim “Do unto others as you would others should do unto you” you will, in the evening of that life, look back upon the hey-day of existence with a happy mixture of pleasing satisfaction. It is the arcana of happiness and enviable felicityhis who enjoys the tranquillity of a mind at ease!

Having arranged my affairs for an absence of some time,I reluctantly bade adieu to the friend of my heart, and repaired to London, in order to await passports from Paris, as I was desirous of visiting France in the first instance, in consequence of the threatened hostilities between the two countries, the prelude to a disastrous warfare, in which France gained every thingBritain nothing, but an accumulated load of debt and heavy imposts to her people.

CHAPTER II.

“Times, and occasions, and provocations, teach their

own lessons.”

WITH

ITH a view of being gratified with Mrs. Sid

dons's far famed talents in the character of Isabella, I had partaken of a quiet dinner with my friend Lorenzo, at our chambers in the temple, and at an early hour we hastened to Drury Lane. The House was already unusually crouded, and it was not without considerable difficulty, accompanied with a little bribery, that the Box-keeper permitted us to enter, under a promise of quitting our seats without altercation should the party who had engaged it be more numerous than he apprehended.

Scarcely had we seated ourselves before three ladies, accompanied by a gentleman, appeared at the door. Remindful of our engagement, we of course stood in respectful silence during the oratory of the Box-keeper, who was employing all his eloquence to prove that we were persons of distinction, concluding, in just peroration, by an appeal to the feelings of his Honour, whether his Lordship and the Honor. able" Mr. St. John should or should not remain.

“ I've no objections,” replied the stranger, in a gruff repulsive lone.

“ O yes, yes, my lord”—cried an elderly female, addressing herself to Lorenzo_" certainly, by all means my lord, stay where you are ; we shall be infinitely honoured by your agreeable society."

It was impossible to repress a smile at the ingenuity of the box-keeper; aud in order to support our character a la Noblesse, we of course became ceremonious and polite to a fault.As · His Lordship’ Lorenzo's society was more in request, his supporters were the lady that welcomed us to a seat, and the younger of two very beautiful daughters, as I fancied.

Much as I envied his Lordship's situation, I soon forgot the bauble precedence in the contemplation of the angel by my side. I endeavoured to lead her

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into conversation, but it was ineffectual, and she struggled successfully against all persuasion. A more bewitching countenance I had never witnessed. Beaming with sweetness unspeakable, it seemed ani. mated with a celestial fire. Never shall I forget the tumultuous throbbings of my soul, nor lose remembrance of the impressions of my first interview.Dull and insensible must the heart have been that could withstand the object which I beheld. I saw her but to love her, and I resolved in a moment to win her affections. I am far from being a perfect character-naturally vain and presumptive, already I began to flatter myself with every pleasing hope. I was young, she was younger perhaps by one year my heart asked not if she could love for how could she feel insensible to that passion which it never owned for any but herself. My person was good, and though untried in the mysteries of the softer passion I was already in my imagination a perfect mas. ter of the art. I sat pensively gazing upon the rich symmetry of her interesting countenance, until the blush of convicted rudeness whispered the impropriety. How awkwardly we disguise the sudden impulses of the heart. My eyes caught those of the gentleman behind. They seemed to pry into the real secrets of my breast, and to glisten with insufferable indignity at the arrogance of my pretensions. Covered with confusion, I know not how I should have borne the goadings of self reproach, had the raising of the curtain been another moment delayed. This incident alone is sufficient to protect my me. mory from the

of recurring to the piece itself, the first scene is indelibly engraven on my heart.

The dark insidious villainy of Carlos was lost in the appositeness of his remarks, and, like the unsuspecting constancy of the impassioned Vileroy, I was ready to sacrifice my reputation with the fair— If it would establish me with—' Here I was obliged to pause. Alas! I knew no substitute for Isabella!'

How greedily we catch the least presaging hope -with what extacy did I devour the interruption of his supposed friend- - Troy town was won at last !

Infatuated with the pleasing dream, I was lost to the comparative treachery of the design, and once more relapsed into the forlorn hope of his disconsolate dupe, again to revive by the specious retort of the crafty friend—was I but one stage short of the possession of my mistress.' Alas! I proceeded, , rather from my wishes, than any encouragement she had given me ! Brooding on my own reflections, I was deaf to the remaining dialogue. The entrance of Isabella roused me from my reverie, and as she emphatically demanded, why do you follow me?'

? my eyes insensibly met those of my fair companion. Great God! how wonderful the dispensations of thy Providence! They seemed to express the perfect feelings of Isabella, and portray in lasting colours the foreboding characters—I am a bankrupt every way; too far engag'd ever to make return.'

The tear I had observed to tremble on her eyelid dropped upon her cheek, and a stifled sigh gave vent to the sensibility of her soul !

I knew not how it was that this apparently trivial incident sunk deeply on my mind. The sensibility

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