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No. XVII.]

THE

SALE-ROOM.

SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1817.

A Periodical Paper, published weekly at No. 4, Hanover-Street, Edinburgh.

To the EDITOR of the SALE-ROOM. SIR,

effect of the surrounding objects,-the castle, then softly gilded in moonlight, and the old city illumed irregularly throughout its dark piles,-objects, which all who know this city must have a thousand times obser

We are all apt to think, that what has excited our own sympathy will excite that of others: In this we are no doubt often mistaken. If, on the perusal of the follow-ved, and as often admired, that I gradually ing pages, you find yourself neither moved nor interested, I shall consider it as sufficient proof either of the insufficiency of my tale, or the imperfections of my skill in relation, and forego any farther prosecution of it; if, on the contrary, the perusal should please you sufficiently to leave behind it a desire of hearing more, I shall hold the insertion of my present letter for a signal of encouragement, and forward a second whenever this paper may be disposed for its reception.

A few weeks ago, in returning late in the evening from the western suburbs along Prince's-Street, to my apartments in's hotel, I was so struck with the picturesque

and insensibly slackened my pace, and having left the pavement, and crossed to the other side to be the better secured from the jostling of passengers, I proceeded at leisure in a kind of moody reverie, now pausing to notice the scene, and then going forward with broken and unequal steps, following a train of thought which the scene had awakened. Whether it were the hour or the moon that operated upon me, or both, I know not; or whether it were merely the recurrence of younger recollections that somehow or other pressed themselves upon me at that moment, (a circumstance, that I believe, even to the most sunshine mind, is never without a dash of sadness) to

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perceived by the owner, lay at his feet.. The meridian moon shone full upon his face: It was pale as the beam that lighted it, and still as that of an infant just laid in the sleep of death. The features were delicate, and would have been beautiful, but for the hue of sickness that overspread them. The lips were thin, and gently parted, as if the breath was staid in a rapture of holy contemplation. His hair of a light brown, was lifted and flung backward by the chill breeze of night. His forehead,. which projected somewhat, and was slightly knit between the brows, gave the character of thought to a countenance which otherwise would have had more of mildness and sweetness than of talent. He stood for some time without the smallest motion, till at length drawing a deep sigh, his head dropt upon his bosom, and his eyes fell on the earth as fixedly as they had before rested on the moon. He drew a second sigh yet deeper than the first, and I was about to advance, though without any prepared apology wherewith to preface my address, when a young female, rolled in a dark and somewhat tattered cloak, advanced on the other side and laid her hand upon his shoulder. He started, and turning towards her they exchanged a look in silence; then in a low and very sweet voice, though it had the accent of the Northern Highlands, the young man said;-" And have you sought me alone at this hour?" The girl made no reply, but I saw her face, for it was turned full towards me, and the beams of the moon fell bright upon it. She did not speak, but her eyes were bent on him with a look that must have gone to his soul: Her lips quivered, and then two tears rose from either eye, and rolled glist

whichever of these causes it might be owing I fell into a sort of pensive melancholy, and though the time has passed with me by many years when I might have turned such a moment to account, by rhyming a sonnet to the moon or to my "mistress's eyebrow," I felt as much inclined to loiter in mental soliloquy as a lover of eighteen or an author of twenty. I found myself by this time at the end of the Mound, and not feeling as yet any disposition for my night-cap, I turned to the right, and having proceeded nearly midway of this picturesque causeway, made a stand, leaning my back against the wall that runs along the centre for the purpose of a screen to passengers during the storms of wind so frequent in this city. I had stood thus, probably not less than a quarter of an hour, when turning round, I perceived at a little distance a man leaning in much the same attitude as myself; nay, from the laxness of the limbs, the uplifted head raised as it were in contemplation of the Heavens, and the still fixedness of the whole figure, I could almost have imagined he was following the self-same train of thought. The impulse was irresistible;-I drew near, but so gently, that the object of my attention remained entirely unconscious of it, continuing his perusal of the skies without the smallest alteration of countenance or limb. In years he seemed like one just entered on manhood, though thought had somewhat deeply marked the countenance, and sickness withered it. His figure was tall and slender, so slender as to appear emaciated; a plaid, which, during his reverie, his hand seemed to have forgotten, had fallen from one shoulder, and disclosed a dress that bore the stamp of poverty. His hat, which had also fallen apparently un

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éning down her cheeks. He bent forward, and kissing one off, "My own dear sister, I will never do this again?" She pressed his hand, smiling, though sadly, and taking up his hat, and folding his loosened plaid closely round him, she led him away. As she turned, her eye rested on me: I cannot explain how or why it did so, but the glance intimidated me. I felt in the predicament of a discovered listener or a detected thief, and though burning with desire to follow and address the strangers, I remained fixed to the same spot of earth till they were both out of sight; then restless with curiosity, and out of humour with disappointment, I proceeded to my apartments, plaguing myself by the way with coining a dozen tales of misery for the young creatures I had seen, and resolving if they should die of want, to consider myself as their murderer, for having suffered them to depart, without enquiring into their situation. After many disagreeable dreams, I rose at break of day with the determination of searching the whole city for the young man and his sister, and actually threaded the greater part of the wynds and closes of Edinburgh, and mounted several dozen of their highest and darkest habitations, whither I had been directed as the abode of "a sickly young man who had a sister younger than himself."-The only result, however, of my day's fatigues, was a fit of low spirits and aches in every bone of my body, from the violent and uncouth exercise of jostling through closes, and ascending and descending common stairs. Notwithstand ing the stiffness of my limbs, I resumed the search on the day following, and even the day following that, but as I found myself never the nearer to my object,

my efforts gradually relaxed, and in the course of a week, having lost all hopes of success, I gave up the pursuit. One morn ing, in coming out of Parliament-square, I observed a girl before me crossing the High-street, who brought immediately to my mind the interesting sister of the stran ger. I followed instantly, and passing her, tried to gain a view of her face, but it was so shaded by the hood of her cloak, that I could not satisfy myself positively. I resolved, however, to trace her home, so falling again behind, I followed at a few yards distance. Having proceeded a little way, she turned into a narrow close, leading to some of the oldest and highest buildings, between the High-street and the Mound. I had, as I thought, on the first day of my search, been down every turning, and up every stair in this neighbourhood, but now found that this was perhaps the only one I had missed. Having followed the girl up the longest and darkest stair I had yet encountered, keeping always at such a distance as to screen me from her observation, I heard at length a door shut, and then, having waited a few minutes, proceeded in the ascent till I found by the jerk of my foot, for light there was none, that I had mounted the last step of this pile of habitations. Having felt round the various doors, I tapped at the last; no one answering, I was about to proceed to the next, when the door gently opened, and I discovered by means of the imperfect light from within, the young girl I had followed. She asked who was there; and not thinking my name would be any satisfactory explanation, I stept forward into the apartment. The girl, who held the door with one hand, turned pale, and

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shrunk back, then, in a timid and scarcely audible voice, said, "I believe, sir, you are mistaken."-" I hope not, for I have had a very long search, my good girl, (I replied in a voice as gentle as I could frame;) and be not alarmed, if I add that I think I am not." One glance, indeed, had convinced me that I was right. The face of the girl I had immediately recognised on passing the threshold, her cloak being now untied, and the hood thrown backwards: In the opposite corner, at a narrow bedimmed window, pieced in several places with old paper, and the only passage for light which the walls afforded, sat the young man, the original object of my curiosity. When I entered, he was leaning over a small broken table, his right hand supporting his head, while the left held open a book, the pages of which had kindled his sunken cheeks with a glow of feverish emotion. The hand on which his forehead rested was immediately before a broken pane, through which a sunbeam entering seemed to pierce the thin palm that opposed its passage, showing all its pallid veins and feeble pulses, and almost staining the book beneath with a faint reflection of its transparent blood. The plaid he had worn on the former evening hung over his right shoulder as a protection from the wind that blew whistling through the broken window. He was so absorbed in the volume before him that he seemed not to have heard the opening of the door, and remained unconscious of my entrance, till I spoke in reply to his sister. At the sound of my voice he started as from a dream, and gazed on me for a second in bewildered amazement; then suddenly recollecting himself, he rose with an air that had more of bashfulness than awkwardness,

and asked me, the blood rising higher to his cheeks as he spoke, if I had any business with him. "I have nothing that merits the term of business, my young friend; but if you will permit my years the freedom, I will rest a little with you from the fatigue of climbing your long stair, and I think you will not refuse the boon, when I add, that I have mounted some score of equal attitude in search of you." The young man smiled doubtfully, muttered something of happiness for the honour, but feared I was under a mistake, making at the same time an effort to push forward the chair he had arisen from. I felt a pang at my heart, when I saw that his strength was barely adequate to the exertion; and I believe there was a tear in my eye, when I laid my hand on his arm, and told him, with a forced smile, that having come in character of a physician I would not take the chair of my patient; then, observing a stool by his side, I took possession of it, motioning him to resume his former seat. In doing so, he brushed the book from the table; I stooped to raise it, and glancing on the title-page, read "The Life of Chatterton," Some thoughts, which I shall not pause to analyze, rushed on me at that moment; and still holding the book, I fixed my eyes on the face of the young man: I am sure they had tears in them now, for I felt one roll down my cheek, and drop on my hand. I might possibly have followed the train of ideas which this incident had started, had not the emotion of the countenance I gazed on recalled me to my senses. "Pardon," I began, "the intrusion of a stran ger, who would more willingly style himself friend, but though not entitled by acquaintance to the name, let me not be

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refused the pleasure of acting as such. mean, (I added with hesitation) I mean -if you have any employment for a friend." The young man, who seemed equally surprised and confused, again assured me I must be mistaken. "No, I am not mistaken, (I replied, taking his hand which hung loosely on his knee,). I am not mistaken,—I am sure I am not, if you are the same youth I saw on the Mound a week since, at the midnight hour, gazing on the moonlight Heavens, and who has ever since been the object of my anxious search." The hectic flush which had hitherto stood on his cheeks, fled for an instant, and then returned in deeper brilliancy. He gazed on me wildly, and suddenly turned a glance of surprise and enquiry on his sister. My eyes mechanically followed his. The girl, who appeared during the above dialogue to have been leaning against the opposite wall in eager observation, looked at this moment ready to spring at my feet: her body was bent forward; her cheeks were flushed with crimson; and her bosom swollen with her arrested breathings; at length with a sudden effort, which threw her untied cloak from her shoulders, she sprung forward, and dropt at my feet: "You will save him!

corner of the room, hid her face in her tattered apron, and sobbed aloud. I turned to the brother; his head had dropt upon his arm. I laid my hand upon his shoulder, and then said in a gentle voice, "From what I observed the other night, I should judge you were a lover of Nature. He who wanders forth at midnight to read the Heavens, cannot like to peruse stone walls and chimney tops at mid-day." The young man turned his eyes on me and moved his lips thrice ineffectively; at length commanding his voice, and trying to command his manner, he replied, “Excuse me, sir, I cannot find words—I cannot explain myself or ask for explanation."another time," I interrupted; "We shall have leisure in the country, whither I would conduct you."-" But," fixing his eyes on me yet more earnestly; “sir, you must be mistaken-You do not know me; not even my name, I believe,-I know not ——” "Mine, you would say: It is Isaac Harding. Names, my young friend, for such I shall take upon me to call you, names are very small matters, though it will interest me somewhat to learn yours, and your story. In the meantime let it suffice that I have taken a fancy for you; If you want a reayou will save him!" The words choaked in son, and are too modest to look for it in her throat; her clenched hands shook upon yourself, set me down for a character ;my knees; her lips quivered; her brows a word, you know, that ends all marvelwere agitated with convulsive emotion; ling, and accounts for all absurdities. her uplifted eyes rivetted on mine as she Will you now dispense with ceremony would have read in them the inmost pur- from an honest man, and oblige me pose of my soul. "I will, my dear child," by passing a few days with me? You said I, rising and lifting her from the shall see no one but myself, and you ground; "I will, if Heaven refuse not to shall breathe fresh air, a thing I am physh bless my efforts."―The poor girl burst in-sician enough to know you have occato a flood of tears, seized my hand and sion for." He tried to answer, rose, stampressed it to her lips, then rushing to a dark mered, muttered something that I could

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