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every month, at 4d., payable by half cash, half property." The dealer's ear alertly drank in the latter information; and, instantly accepting the offer it implied, in the pride of heart which anticipated affluence too often awakens, he replenished the bottle, and joined his deluder in frequent pledges of unmeaning cordiality. By this time his guest was, in appearance, intoxicated, and lolling in his. chair, as if asleep, when, without speaking, he abruptly arose, opened the door, and applying a sportsman's whistle to his mouth, blew a preconcerted signal, which was soon recognized by some individual on a neighbouring hill, where a vivid blaze suddenly appeared for about a minute, and then became extinguished. "True as steel," cryed R, “ I know my men before I put any thing in their power; I was sure Mc would be watchful; so let us shut the door till he comes: Baldie won't detain him on the road, and (hiccuping) then we'll soon get the business over." He again was seated, and again (as a matter in keeping with his usual habits). drinking; when the stars, that had hitherto been conspicuously splendid, were seen no longer, and a slight flash of lightning, accompanied by the awful rolling of approaching thunder, betokened that the night was not to pass as it had begun. "Poor fellow," he at length shudderingly muttered, " he'll be, I fear, as wet before he comes, as but last night about the same hour, I would have given all the world to be." "Indeed! how's that?" inquired the host. "How's that," he repeated, with a ghastly countenance, "I dream't I was in hell-that my heart was on fire-and that I drank all the rivers dry, but could not put it out. I dreamt too, that I saw""Saw what?" (in most painful agitation, asked Mr. S)" why do you so tremble! why fix your eyes upon that wall? what dreamt you that you saw ?" "I see him now! There-therethank God, he vanishes!" "Who, or what mean you, I intreat you to mention!" "I mean, (convulsingly roared out the wretch, as he fell, an apparent corpse upon the ground, "I mean the Devil !” In a few minutes, however, he, with the aid of his alarmed host, was again seated; and not long after being so, cried, "Hark! there's Baldie!" Scarcely had he spoken, before the heavily laden animal, led by Mc, was in the court-yard. "Sit down, Mc," said Mr. after helping him and his master to lift into the house the sides of an exceedingly heavy bullock, which, enveloped in two large sheets, had been slung across the well-trained, and sturdy mare, "sit down, and refresh yourself, before you return for the other beast:-you must want a glass." The servant quietly did as he was told, took a dram in moderation, lit his bush pipe, and leaping on Baldie, was away without ceremony.

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Mc was scarcely out of hearing, when his master, taking off his jacket, and turning up his shirt-sleeves, desired Mr. Sto bring a saw, and a tomahawk," and taking from a leathern case a hideous looking butcher's knife, began with activity, as well as skill, to reduce the meat into pickling pieces. "Shall we weigh them by the steelyards, or, as it is so cursedly tedious a job, shall

we lump the whole of them at 600 weight ?-as you will-but Í know they are much nearer 700," said R— "I'll take them to save trouble at 600," replied the purchaser," and as you cut, I'll clap them into brine, until I can have time to get them regularly salted."

Long, however, before the first beast was thus disposed of, Baldie had arrived with the second, which, being offered and taken at the same weight, was subjected to the same operation.

And now, the first deed of darkness at the store being consummated, unknown to any upon earth but the three whom I have mentioned, they cleansed every implement that had been used; the sheets were washed by Mc-; the innocent carrier beast was well fed; every splinter of bone, or morsel of flesh removed carefully from the chopping block, and the remainder of a night, which by this time had become exceedingly tempestuous, exhausted in bacchanalian dissipation by R, in dreadful doubts by Mr. S, and in gloomily silent cogitations by Mc, who, now and again, glanced reproachingly at his master, as though he could have said, but would not, "If I am guilty you have made me so-but you fed me when I was hungry; cloathed me when I was almost naked; gave me drink when I thirsted; nourished me when I was sick; and come what come will, Mc never will betray you !" I shall merely at present say of this man, whose features were handsome, and whose mien was evidently superior to his circumstances, that, like the Corsair of Byron, he'd been

At length came morning's twilight, and with it preparations for the departure of himself on foot, and his master on Baldie. "As my servants have been purposely sent away (said Mr. S -,) one to Hobart Town; a second up the country; and the third to collect accounts, I can't give you much of a breakfast; but a fried steak after a night's carousing, will not prove burthensome, so Mc, my fine fellow, oblige me by doing the needful in that way; while I prowl into the hen house, and cull a few lettuces in my little garden, which, next season, I intend to convert into a second paradise."

Mc- went to work with the beef; Mr. S- - collected about a dozen eggs and a sallad, and in half an hour a repast was on the board, so savoury and attractive, that previous hunger, if such had existed, must have proved an additional zest to luxury.

"Upon second thoughts Mr. S, I think Mc shall remain behind me; he can cure the meat, and your men will have NO DOWN!" "Thank you, Mr. R-," answered the devoted dupe, "I meant to have craved as a favor what you are kind enough to suggest: yes, I particularly wish the affair to be kept quite snug; and as you do, I can trust to Mc-." The thing was thus settled: the warm

hearted and grateful adherent of a most hospitable, but lawless protector, yielded with readiness to his wish; and after a parting glass had been swallowed by Baldie's owner, the latter in a few minutes was enshrouded by the woodland, on his homeward route, Mr. S proceeded to assist in the process of curing his animalpayment, and whilst so assisting was miserable! His partner in the toil smoked incessantly, but said nothing.

There was a weight on both coadjutors; but why ?-had not Rjustly stood indebted to the storekeeper? and, was not, therefore, the receipt of satisfaction justifiable? He had been so indebted, and satisfaction was therefore just! Such consciencelulling questions occurred to the subsequent martyr of conspiracy; and a darkly-meaning change of countenance had shown itself in Mc, when on his being invited to take an enlivening glass at noon, he expressively said-no!-but your generous proffer, Sir, shall not prove valueless :-it binds me to your interest so far as previous bonds have left me freedom-beware! not of my master, for, though rough in manner, and excessive in indulgence, he'd rather guard and perish for, than injure you-beware! there live those who wish you dead! Again I say, beware!" and with this mysterious caution Mchaving done the work he had been left to accomplish, left precipitately, with a bow of solemn humility, and a tear trickling down his sunburnt visage, and was beyond re-call, ere the astonished, and almost distracted trader could command composure to articulate,

(To be continued in our next.)

G

THE CASTLE OF JUTELLA,

Iro Amantium. OVID.

Youth is given to folly love is its chiefest in the eyes of the wise, and jealousy they justly consider a species of madness, Yet, the little god will still delude his votaries, by the flowers with which he strews their path, and the fairy visions by which he enchants their eyes; and fleeting though they are, as those rays which illumine the earliest footsteps of Aurora, he has failed to experience the nearest approach to happiness which this earth affords, who has not been dazzled, delighted, and deceived by them. The castle of Jutella, the seat of the noble Spanish family of that pame, is situated on an eminence, which overhangs the banks of

the Duero, and presents on the side of the river, an appearance of rugged grandeur, which well contrasts with the beauty of the prospect that is discerned from the summit. From thence the front of the castle overlooks one of the most extensive, and wellcultivated plains of the Peninsula, bounded in the extreme distance by mountains, of a diversified and picturesque outline, while the grounds immediately belonging to the residence itself, sink in gentle declivities to the level of the plain, and are enriched by vineyards, plantations, and meadows. To the right, at no great distance, was a monastery of considerable extent, whose lofty chimnies, which incessantly poured forth smoke from an early hour in the morning, seemed to indicate the office of cook to the holy brotherhood, to be no sinecure, and that they considered the best preparation for the good things of the next world to be a careful study of those of this, and in a word, that they mortified the flesh, in a manner, the most perfectly consistent with the experience of sages-while their continual visits to a convent, at about the same distance on the left of the castle, evinced their fraternal and tender solicitude for the eternal welfare of those pious virgins, who inhabited it.

In the spring of the year 181—, the castle was the abode of Don Juan, who wanted but a few weeks of becoming its master and his noble fortune, by arriving at the period which the law assigns as that of discretion, in contradiction of the immemorial experience, which serves to prove it one of headstrong and inconsiderate folly. His mother, the Donna Isadora, his cousin Ines, and lastly, the Major Douglas of the regiment, who visited the castle, on leave of absence from the English army, then advancing against the French, under Marmont, and who was a Scotchman, remarkable for his freedom from those national prejudices, which some attribute to his countrymen, of which we need instance no better proof, than that he considered Wellington fully equal to Sir John Moore-the Quarterly little below the Edinburgh, in literary criticism, and political foresight-Ossian not exactly on a par with Homer, although decidedly surpassing all other poets, and the climate of Scotland, inferior, certainly, to that of Madeira-in the winter

season.

Idleness has been long recorded as the mother of mischief, but there is too much reason to believe, an error has crept into the tradition, and that the fact was, his sex was different, and that he, in truth, in one of the many faux pas, which the annals of scandal have omitted to preserve, of the frail spouse of Vulcan, became the father of love; than which he certainly could not have performed an exploit, more fitted to obtain the reputation proverbially attributed to him; such a belief, the course of events at the castle of Jutella, most certainly seemed to support, for within a fortnight after the arrival of Donna Ines, her cousin, who previously had made heavy complaints of the want of something to interest and occupy him, no longer seemed to yield to the assaults

of the demon of ennui, and in the society of his fair relative, appeared to forget the past, disregard the future, and only exist for the present. Never, in fact, was there seen a more beautiful pair, and as they strayed together in the moonlight nights, through the gardens of the castle, he might have been taken for a full-grown Cupid, disguised in a cloak, and she for a Hebe, of a corresponding stature, masquerading in a mantilla. Nature had given to both, that charming outline of countenance, which is so rarely met with out of Italy, or Greece, and which, in Don Juan, might have appeared almost effeminate, had it not been redeemed from that defect, by a brow, rather contracted, and a dark, expressive, and almost restless eye, and lips, whose expression, although soft in their outline, and beautiful in their colour, indicated firmness, not easily to be moved. Yet, this prepossessing exterior, and the tender assiduities of her cousin, had failed, during a former visit, to make that progress in the favor of Donna Ines, to which, at the time we are now recording was rapidly advancing every day. It was difficult to say, to what his first failure could have been owing: his beauty was the same, his love equal, and his attentions not the less;-to what, then, can we attribute his failure, but the want of the happy moment, which, let it always be observed, occurs oftener in love affairs, in the spring, than in the winter. The flowers, which disappeared since the former autumn, penetrated by new shoots through the surface, which concealed them; the birds renewed their carols, and all nature seemed employed in a joyous change. The heart of Donna Ines was then, perhaps, effected by the universal mutation, and she condescended to smile on those efforts to please her, which she had before regarded with indifference. Be this, however, as it may, (for the speculation on a woman's heart is far more remote from certainty in its results, than the attempts which have been made to discover a principle of perpetual motion,) the wooing of Don Juan suffered a change, corresponding to that of his mistress; while, in the "Winter of her discontent, he was solely employed in his endeavours to excite a flame, in a heart, which seemed formed of asbestos, he now seemed determined to revenge her former indifference, by a series of fancies, and fickleness, which, if ever an edition of the miseries of human life shall be undertaken by a female, might afford ample contents for the last and most important chapter. One day, he would doubt, like the hero of Marmontel's tale, whether he was beloved for himself alone, and more than suspect, that his immense fortune had some share in inducing the favor, which his fair cousin shewed him; another, if he alone had ever touched her heart, and first taught it to feel the agitation, which affected his own: a third, whether, without fairly encountering, and overcoming a rival in her affections, he could be as sure of his ascendancy over them, as though he had totally omitted that most important ceremony; and a fourth, he would be assailed with doubts, on the unchangeable nature of his own. By none of these fantasies, however, was she