may be shaken, after hearing the little tale I am about to disclose, is probable." "Never-I may, and doubtless shall, regard it as a singular aberration from general rules, not as an example of common occurrence. Is it historical ?" historian of her own injuries, the registrar of her own guilt. It was in the beautiful and romantic vale of Medellin, Estramadura, that I drew my first breath. My parents, in honest and contented industry, followed the humble occupation of peasants. They did not feel their poverty; they gained sufficient by diligence and frugality to supply the exigencies of life, and its meretricious wants were to them utterly unknown. The welfare of their offspring, consisting of myself and one brother, formed their whole care: him at an early age they were induced to confide to the charge of an opulent merchant, who traded in the Levant, and who stipulated to requite, at the expiration of a certain term of years, his heretofore unpaid services, by providing for and establishing him in his own profession. Thus relieved from anxiety on his account, my parents were left to concentrate their increased interest in me; and the sole aim and effort of their being appeared to be, to promote the happiness of their beloved Zidonia, and in this they were for awhile successful. My youth was passed in almost un "It is. During a sojourn at Cadiz, in pursuance of my uniform practice I visited the prisons of the city. In one of these the heroine of my story was confined-for what crime you will know hereafter; she was ill, and I attended her voluntarily in my medical capacity, for she interested me much. At one of my visits she placed in my possession a bundle of papers, with an injunction to give them into the hands of her child, who was not allowed direct communication with her. I sought, and found the house where the boy resided; but him to whom my visit was made I found a corpse! An accident had that very morning deprived him of life. I hastened back to his mother with the fearful news and here, by a singular and fatal coincidence, a scene of death awaited me also; she had been tried, condemned, and the following day fixed for her execution. To avoid the public ignominy of a scaffold, || earthly peace. My spirit's bloom, like the she had preferred the dreadful alternative air I inhaled, fragrant with the blossoms of self-murder, and swallowed a quantity that sighed around me, was balmy and of poison. I found her in the last agonies pure. Sickness approached me not, grief of dissolution-senseless and speechless came not near me. My life, as it were, a few brief minutes passed, and the strong resembled the tinted rainbow, where joy, convulsion subsided-the bosom heaved its happiness and serenity bent their soft and last sigh, and the body alone remained brilliant hues into one beauteous whole. tenant of the cell-the spirit was in eter- In the midst of a restless world of sorrow nity! and discord, I could have fancied myself some fairy creation exempted from the contagion of its sufferings-the palpable impersonation of a dream, the native of some celestial sphere, where the Madonna breathed over her children the exhalations of her heavenly grace. I yet love to lin "For awhile I kept the MS. without opening it; but ere I quitted Cadiz I perused it; I found a family of high distinction implicated in the narrative, and to his care whom most it involved, I transmitted the document. Before parting with the original, however, I made a sketch in my own lan-ger, O! I could for ever linger on this guage from it, of the leading events: this I have preserved, and shall have much pleasure in allowing you to inspect; the substitution of fictitious names for the real ones is the only alteration I have adopted." delicious portion of the past. But I must onward in my narrative; I must fling from my pen the odour that clings about it, while retracing the halcyon days of my infancy and youth, to steep it in the gall which embitters the record of after years. You have seen my picture, Sebastian; but, He opened a small portmanteau, and selecting from it a packet of papers, deposited them with his youthful fellow-though somewhat like me, it fails to afford traveller, who read as follows: any adequate notion of my then transcendent loveliness. I was stamped with the lineaments of an angel, only to be the fused to wipe away the indelible stain he had cast upon me, and, by throwing the protection of his name around me, shield me in part from the venomous sting of the world's contumely. No, no-I was to bear, medium of transforming my mind to that of a fiend. Perchance you may think your mother says false, when she tells you that these eyes now glaring in their sockets, which have often caused you to shrink back and tremble, had once a tender radi-patiently and alone, the soul-harrowing sight ance, soft as the blue depths of a summer sky; that these amber tresses, which the storm of grief hath bleached with its touch, were bright and shining as our orange groves! Why should I speak of beauty, but to curse and deprecate its possession. The deviation in the character of my beauty, from the complexion of my countrywomen, attracted universal regard and admiration, and collected around me all the youth of our village in homage and devotion. I smiled approval on all of them, but loved not any; when, on my eighteenth birthday, a village fête was prepared in my honour, at which I was elevated to preside as queen of the rural festivities. Though there were many assembled, I saw but one, and he was a stranger, who acknowledged himself drawn thither by the report that had reached him of the beautiful peasant's daughter. It was the young, the handsome, the gallant Marquis Velasco! It was thy father, boy! At that name let the healthful current, which has hitherto flowed in thy veins, be changed to bitterness ; let poison circulate through thy frame, and only rancour live in thy breast. Humiliating it is, indeed, to confess to a child his mother's infamy; to seek the smothered curse he must breathe on her head for the disgrace she has affixed to his birth: yet it must be done-I would fain deceive the world, but my child shall know my most secret imaginings. Among the highest grandees of our land the Marquis Velasco had for centuries boasted the proudest name, the purest escutcheon, and the richest inheritance. The present youthful descendant shamed not his ancestry; in outward appearance he was princely-sembled my animosity, and constrained nay godlike: to be brief, he won my love, myself to receive him with an appearance and, by the degrading use of perfidy and of affection. I wreathed my lip with falsehood, obtained the splendid victory smiles, while my heart frowned beneath. over a fond, weak, credulous woman's I thanked him for his kind condescension, virtue. When he first approached me, he in remembering me when all the world talked, nay swore, indeed, of marriage; but had forsaken me-but I did not remind when the prospect of a double claim upon him through whom I had been thus divorchis faith and love appeared, he shranked from society. I blessed him with an from the ratification of his promise, he re-air of humble gratitude for his liberality! of my wretched parents sinking into the || it was, a very superficial one must have been instituted, or distrust would have been awakened. How he, your father, felt, Liberality!-when the pittance he awarded me from his ample revenue scarcely availed for the subsistence of myself and thee! I hid the flame that was smouldering|| I had no means of ascertaining; but that in my bosom, whose fire should one day light the altar of everlasting wretchedness in his, nor denounced him as the intended victim of a woman's hate. Various were the schemes of vengeance that I resolved in my mind; but discarded them all, as inadequate to cancel the amount of my injuries; when himself pointed out the means, and placed the weapon of destruction in my hand. My subdued manners had so imposed on him the belief that my passion for him had subsided into a calm and steady friendship, that he was accustomed to seek my judgment in the regulation of his conduct. But he went farther: he made me the confidant of a new passion which he had acquired for Leona, the fair daughter of one of our nobles. Great heaven! the fire that burns in the bosom of Etna is cold to that which raged in mine as I listened to the announcement.And from his lips, too! Those lips, which, while fondly pressed to mine, had so often vowed to love me alone, and love me ever! He asked my sympathy and assistancethese I gave whilst swearing to myself to hurl back my wrongs a thousand-fold on the head of him and my detested rival. Let it suffice, that in a few months I was entirely neglected, and I saw my seducer | and deserter caressing his bride! Now it was that I began to arrange my system of revenge. Finding it essential to the success of my plan, that my existence should be supposed terminated, I actually wrote a farewell to Velasco, in which I stated my intention of setting fire to the little cottage which contained myself and thee. This I did, and the night of the day on which I had despatched my letter, beheld our humble habitation in flames. During the development of this event I concealed myself with you in the neighbourhood. || The event created but a slight sensation : I had been avoided by all when living, and my supposed death was matter of regret to none. But I cared not for sympathy-my plan was better assisted by the absence of it; had I been an object of strong interest,|| it is probable a longer and stricter search might have been made for my remains; as he suffered little or nothing I may infer, as he mingled at the period in all the diversions of the city, nor manifested any anxiety to prove the falsehood of the current opinion, that we had perished in the conflagration. One evening, when the thick-spreading shadows of approaching night favoured the disguise I wore, I ventured a visit to the ruins of what had been my home of love. What was it now? A scene of black desolation! I gazed on the little garden, whose fragrance used to perfume the cottage, but the blossoms were withered, the bloom was fled. I beheld it as the emblem of my own destiny. Where was the sweetness of the flowers? And where was my spirit's balm? Gone, gone, for ever! The elements of destruction had passed alike over each, and quenched them in their consuming wrath. One plant (and I fancied it a type of thee, dearest child) alone survived, and smiled amidst the darkness that surrounded it— yet some of its leaves were scorched and withered, the parent sap was corroded; and when next I passed that way it was lying lifeless, faded and dead, with its once beautiful associates. Shall it be so with thee, Sebastian ?-Previously to commencing my retributive operations, in order to disencumber myself of every tie of affection, and divest myself by degrees of every tender sympathy, I resolved to part with thee. I prevailed on Theresa Gomez, a young person who had formerly been a favourite playmate of mine, to take charge of your existence, until such time as I might come again to claim you. I left with her my miniature, and, as the only valuable I possessed, a splendid diamond cross, the last relic that remained of your father, As it was my wish to absent myself from Cadiz for some months, I accepted, through the recommendation of Theresa, a situation as attendant on an invalid lady travelling to Gibraltar. Thither we repaired, and had remained for nearly a year, when myself and Donna Olivia, the name of my mistress, were seized with an infectious fever, that proved rapidly fatal to her, though I escaped with life. After her death, find of the christening of the infant heir. The splendid decorations were completed, and the night at length arrived. I assisted in attiring the Marchioness and her child in the magnificent habiliments selected for the occasion. The sight of their unclouded happiness wrought me to madness, and determined me to the immediate execution of my design. The lady whom I had ac ing, from the legacy that she had left me, I was not under the immediate necessity of farther servitude, I resolved on my return to Cadiz. I kept you in strict concealment, nor even ventured near the spot where my only child lived, from the fear of recognition-though I might have dismissed such apprehensions; for who that looked on me, and beheld the wreck which sorrow, sickness, and the constant brood-companied to Gibraltar, as I have before ing over the darkest passions of our nature had made, could believe that I was the same Zidonia whose beauty had once been gazed on as a wonder? My very parents, had they lived, could not have known their offspring. I wandered one day to the castle of Velasco, and there saw him, with his Leona, still in all the pride and bloom of youthful loveliness, in the gardens; they were fondling their infant heir; and the sight of the child, who usurped thy rights in the affections of thy father, was madness to me. It was my wish and aim to obtain establishment in their house, in any capacity, however servile: this I had some difficulty in effecting, but by perseverance and stratagem at length accomplished. I was admitted, and I trod the same rooms, breathed the same air with Velasco. Little did he imagine that the poor pale haggard menial, who flitted occasionally before him, was to be the instrument to hurl him, despite his pride and luxury, to a level with herself in lowliness and desolateness of spirit. Some of the more immediate attendants of the Marchioness aroused her curiosity respecting me, by a recital of some of my travelling adventures with which I was wont to entertain them. She ordered me into her presence, to amuse her during the temporary absence of Velasco on a foreign mission. I obeyed her mandate, and stood before her-I conversed with Velasco's wife! Oh! these four letters comprized for me a circle of torment beyond the extent of imagination.|| On dismissing me from her, she expressed The hours flew by-the guests departed. her intention of promoting me to assistant- || The castle was silent. All slept save myattendant on herself to robe her for the self; I watched by the kindling flame of feast, the masque, and the dance, and con- vengeance, and fanned its embers with the tribute to make her still lovelier in his eyes, retrospect of my past wrongs. Suddenly whose devotion to her already only added the Marchioness's bell sounded! The a fresh stimulant to my purpose. On peal sent the first note of joyousness to my Velasco's return, a brilliant ball was an- heart, that had vibrated there for months. nounced to be given at the castle, in honour || I awakened her attendant, and made my stated, died of a contagious fever, and so excessive had been the virulence of the disease, that all her apparel was directed to be destroyed. Among it was a Persian shawl of curious and rare manufacture; this so attracted me by its beauty, that I resolved to preserve it for the sake of making it profitable by selling it-reckless that the purchase of it might prove fatal to the life of the wearer. This shawl I now hastily snatched from its remote concealment; and as the Marchioness, having added the final adornment to her dress, stood admiring her noble figure in the spacious mirror, I respectfully tendered it to her, to throw over her neck, urging my fears, that in her light costume she might take cold from the dampness and chilliness of the evening air. She availed herself of my offer, and passed many encomiums on the warmth and exquisite texture of it— nor cast it aside till the moment arrived for entering the ball-room. I then seized the opportunity of closely wrapping the infant heir in its envenomed folds. I retired to a lone room in the castle, and whilst the revellers were feasting below, I banquetted my soul with the dark food of revenge! Not one compunctious throb wrung my breast-it heaved with wild intoxicating joy: the object which so long induced me to bear with the galling load of a wretched existence, was about to be attained-I should witness Velasco bowed down and humiliated by sorrow, as he had seen me, nor sympathized in my distress. alarm and curiosity an excuse for accompanying her to the door of her lady's chamber. The cause was soon communicated the Marchioness and her child were seized with strange and dangerous indisposition. Medical aid was summoned, only to confirm the worst fears of Velasco, and realize my best hopes. They were pronounced to exhibit symptoms of incipient plague! I will not waste my precious moments by detailing the affliction of the household, the sufferings of the sick, and the agony of the husband. Enough, that despite the united efforts of the ablest professional assistance Cadiz afforded, the close of three days beheld the consummation of my scheme-the death of the Marchioness and her child, and the distraction of Velasco. Suspicion had never attached to me. All were in horror and surprise at the suddenness and malignity of the disease. I might have escaped untainted and innocent in the eyes of all, had such been my desire. But this was never my intent; it seemed as though my deed were yet incomplete, if I ratified it not with the seal of my avowal, and acknowledged myself to Velasco the avenger of my own injuries. I paused a few days to let the tempest of his grief subside, that the double pleasure might be mine of awakening the storm again. On the evening before that appliance for your bounty and love, but as pointed for the obsequies, when I knew he was in the chamber of the dead, I softly entered the apartment. He was standing absorbed in grief by the side of the coffin, nor perceived till I drew close to him that his affliction had a witness. On observing me he started, and demanded the cause of the intrusion. I replied,' The artificer be- || holds with satisfaction the work of his ingenuity when it is finished; and I would fain gaze once more on the effort my genius has achieved, ere the dark tomb hides it from my view for ever.' He looked at me inquiringly for a moment, as if to ascer- "It was believed so: this brain is tain whether I spoke under the influence fruitful in plotting; look at me attentively, of mental aberration, then ordered my Velasco;'-and I modulated his name, as instant departure. When the errand for softly as I had been wont to do. He seized which I entered is despatched,' I exclaim- my hand, and, dragging me to the window, ed, I will depart. Let me remain awhile, wildly searched my features. The scrutiny I pray, in the room which contains the convinced him. Conscience, as if it at remains of my beloved mistress.' The once annihilated every barrier which time tone of sarcasm in which I repeated the || and disease had interposed to the knowlast words roused his indignation, and he ledge of my identity, gave the dull eye and again peremptorily insisted on my quitting his presence. I still refused, and on telling him that I had an important communication to make to him relative to the death of the Marchioness, obtained permission to state it immediately. He listened to the details in silent and almost incredulous horror. Having asked me whence I gained my information, and the name of the individual whom I charged with the deadly crime, I answered with a loud and bitter laugh of triumph, She, Velasco, who was once as fair and as adored as the woman whom you mourn-she whom you found in innocence, and left in guilt-she whose heart was once incorporated with thine, and who, while one link of the chain of affection existed in thy breast, would have || clung to thee in doom, despair and death— she whose love you sought with months of devotion, then spurned and despised her for bestowing it—she who, when you have fared in luxury and profusion, has been almost wild with want, and known not where to satisfy the cravings of hunger of her infant, and thy infant, thy first-born son !-she whom you have divorced from peace here, and hope hereafter; whose feelings you have indurated, whose nature you have changed-she who now stands before you, not as she has stood, in sup the declared, the fatal enemy of thee and thine: who has robbed you, as you deprived her, of her all of earthly bliss! You have forgotten me! My memory is more tenacious. I have blended thy image with every passing moment. Away and distant, I swore daily that I would yet meet thee again—aye! here, in this situation, by the bier of thy wife and child. My oath is fulfilled, and Velasco and Zidonia have met once more in this lower world!' "Zidonia! You say false-she perished in the flames of her cottage!' |
