added with a mournful smile, "hasten along my road to ruin. My moral nature underwent a temporary change. The poison spread through every vein, until all the healthy energies of the mind were infected. Thus it is that one sin always calls in another, and each conqueror rivets fresh irons upon the Soul. How can I proceed? I was eloquent -Mary was weak: we fled to London! Thus did I triumph in my guilt; but the avenger was at our heels: the sword was already over our heads. In three short months Mary was taken from me by a malignant fever, in which I also lay for several weeks upon the borders of the grave.

"When reason returned, the first object that met my eyes was the pale, grief-stricken countenance of my deserted parent. parent. Oh, Edward! the ocean hath a limit to its billows; but who shall set bounds to a mother's love? who shall say to it, Thus far shalt thou come, and no further. Let the night rest upon my penitence,-upon her forgiveness! Certainly my repentance was sincere: I can bear to reflect upon that. My mother's income had died with my father, and my desertion had plunged her into deeper difficulties. We now took a humble lodging in the neighbourhood of Finsbury-Square, and I devoted all my heart to her comfort and support. I wrote in Newspapers and Magazines, and described the entire circle of literary wretchedness.

I laboured hard, but I gained little. How vividly are the sufferings of that period graven on my memory. But my misery had not reached its height. The Cup was not yet quite mixed. The illness of my mother filled it to the brim.

"It was on a Saturday—I had been writing incessantly the whole day, and was leaning over the nearly extinguished fire-when the mistress of the house sent me a note, enclosing a notice to quit on the following Saturday. Edward, can any crime, hardly the most heinous of all, equal the crime of being poor? Wealth is the standard of excellence : a man is honest, and clever, and amiable, in proportion to the plenitude of its endowment; riches. confer on him power, and beauty, and virtue, and intellect: Poverty gives him scorn, and ignorance, and impotence, and disgrace. That night I did not sleep. The morning was delightful, and I wandered along until I reached Oxford-Street. It was Easter-Sunday, and the streets swarmed with crowds of cheerful idlers.

"I rambled on until I came to Hyde Park; and, overcome by the violence of my mental conflicts, I sat down upon a bench, and gazed around me. Having rested a little while, I rose to depart, when I perceived at a short distance, a fellow-student of mine at Cambridge, who was of my own year, and on terms of peculiar intimacy. There is no con

I

vulsion of the mind more terrible than that caused by the struggle of pride with filial affection: but my mother, pale, sick, and soon to be homeless,and through me!-arose to my heart, and I accosted him: I stifled every emotion, I stooped to supplication, I asked him for money. He was rejoiced to meet me, he was most sorry that his account was overdrawn; he refused me! The day went by, and I could not procure the money. will not attempt to delineate my sensations as I returned to our humble dwelling. The evening was cold and foggy; the black mist and the red light of a few straggling lamps composed a melancholy picture. I arrived at our lodging weary and exhausted. The nurse met me on the landingplace; I knew directly from her manner that something dreadful had come to pass. My mother had been unwell, though not dangerously so, for some days previous; but the excitement of the day had brought on paralysis, and I returned only in time to hear that she was now lying upon the bed of death. The mistress of the house had neglected to procure a surgeon, and the nurse was afraid to leave the bed-side. I hardly understood the purport of her words. O my God!' I cried, as I rushed down stairs.

"In our days of prosperity, we had been known to a physician of eminence in Saville-Row, and

though I was then a child, I remembered his name. Thither I hastened. When I came to that part of Regent-Street fronting Conduit-Street, I was detained by a crowd of people and carriages: the blood rushed to my brain as I dashed here and there to find a crossing. The faces around me were apparently joyful and happy. I heard voices behind full of laughter and merry thoughts, and hopes of coming delights; and at the same moment I turned and beheld a face which wore a most remarkable likeness to my mother. The thought was fire to me; I almost flung myself beneath the wheels of a cabriolet, as I sprang across the street. Dr. Mornington was out of town. I had one resource yet remaining,—a gentleman residing in Russel-Square, who had attended me in a very severe illness; he was at home, and came with me instantly. We entered the chamber together; it was miserably furnished; and a rushlight, which the nurse held in her hand, cast a sickly and yellow light over the soiled dimity curtains. My mother lay quite motionless, with one arm covering her eyes. I took her hand in mine, but for once it did not return the pressure; it was very cold. I called upon her-she answered not: I had no mother! I did not shed a tear; but I folded my hands together, and knelt down by the bed-side."

I felt that this painful story would overpower his

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exhausted frame; and my anticipations were, alas, too soon realized. Starting up with frantic energy, he cried out, in a voice that thrilled the very heart, "Oh! my God! if, in my days of innocence, when thy secret was upon my tabernacle,' I ever offered a sincere prayer at thy shrine, or breathed the thankfulness of a lowly heart, for mercies vouchsafed to me, look down upon me, O blessed Father, and take thy erring child to thy bosom."

Never did I behold so heart-rending a spectacle. He had thrown himself upon his knees, his wasted hands were rigidly clasped in supplication, and his eyes turned upwards in fearful earnestness. As he thus knelt upright in bed, the ravages of sorrow and sickness upon his once noble frame became apparent. I looked in silent grief, until every gleeful hour we had passed together, and all our sweet interchanges of affection came back upon my heart, and the tears rushed into my eyes. Gradually the paroxysm passed away, and as he sank upon the pillow, a placid expression, like that of his earlier days, crept softly over his features. By the light of the moon, which shone mildly into the chamber, I stooped over him. He was quite still -the pulse had ceased to beat-the Lost Student was with his mother!