The "Yet strange things are said about you in the world, Gasperoni." "Yes, yes, I am aware there are a thousand lies afloat about me." "I know "The daughter of the English nobleman, who offered a premium for your head-he-" "It is not true," he cried, interrupting me. what you would say. You, like the rest of the world, have been deceived. I never killed a female in my existence." "Yet you have carried off many into the mountains, have you not?" At this question he smiled, and tossed his head with an air of self-importance, winking his eye, and compressing his lips, as if to say, " that is my own affair, signor." "Doubtless, Gasperoni, you regret the life you have quitted. If the holy father should grant you pardon, how would you employ your liberty?" "I would be an honest man-return to Naples, and seek for employment." That, I fear, you would find difficult. Have you any acquaintances there?" am in need of repose." "Are all these your comrades ?" "All of them!" stand to your arms!' In an instant they did so; escape | was useless; we were completely surrounded. enemy advanced 'till within twenty paces of the cabin, when I ordered my band to fire. The engagement was furious. With my own hand I killed four, and would have doubled the number, but for a wound which I received in the arm, behold!" and he pulled up the sleeve of his jerkin and displayed the scar of a frightful gash. "We endeavored to effect our escape, but on every side we were hemmed in. They were determined and had it been the to capture or kill every man of us, pontifical dragoons, they would have accomplished their purpose, but by our determined valor and desperation, we contrived to force their ranks, with the loss of only two of my comrades; but this was nothing. Three days after, in the silence of the night, I descended from the mountains. I conducted my band to the cabin of the charcoal burners. The miserable wretches were asleep. We knocked. A voice within cried, "Who's there?' Open! I replied-open to your friends the soldiers! They knew my voice, One of them cried out, 'Open not, it is Gasperoni!' With one blow of my musket I burst in the door. We entered, burn'None, signor! but I am tired of the life of the mouning with vengance. We massacred all that could be tains. I have lived there fifteen years, but then I was found, all! it was just, was it not? The true reward young, and the singularity of the life pleased me; but of treason. I counted fifteen dead bodies. Others, II am now growing old. I suffer from my wounds, and knew, were still lurking in the cabin. I fired it in every direction. Ah! ha ha! ha! then rose the screams of agony, the shrieks of terror, and the cries for mercy, but my heart was steeled. Slowly but surely did they perish a sacrifice to my vengeance. Yet three-three contrived to elude me. At their escape I shed tears of anger. I will find them yet,' I exclaimed, 'I will find them if Italy contains the caitiffs,' and I did find them. But how, how, you would say? Listen! Two years after this punishment of treachery, in company with some of my band, we entered a little auberge, on the sea coast, in quest of refreshment. We were completely unknown. Around a table were several peasants seated, and among them I discovered the fugitives from my vengeance. I said nothing; they thought I had not perceived them, and they quietly secreted themselves in a dark corner of the cabin. As I raised the wine I had ordered, to my lips, I drank Confusion to all traitors.' My companions looked upon me with surprize; they could not comprehend my meaning. 'Behold, then!' I cried, pointing to the trembling creatures. In an instant were they dragged to my presence. 'Welcome, signors, welcome! I have been searching for you every where, and now that we have met, we must not part without some strong remembrance of each other.' They fell at my feet pale and trembling; they prayed for mercy. 'Mercy!' shouted I; yes,' such mercy as the tiger shows to the yeanling, expect from Gasperoni!' I beckoned to my headsman; proached, and with the weapon of his calling, the next moment they were lifeless at my feet. Have I not spoken the truth?" said he, appealing to his band. he ap A sign of the head and hand was simultaneously given by each of them, as a moral certificate of their chieftain's veracity. "Is he that you call your headsman here?" Had a serpent glided into my hand, I could not have been more alarmed. The fellow was standing at my left side, and most familiarly placed his arm within mine. There was something hideous in his aspect; his figure was long and meagre, his eyes grey, his flesh cadaverous, and his look quick as the lynx's, while he was busily employed in regarding attentively my apparel, as if he should like to have been its owner. "What is thy name ?" said I, thinking to divert his attention. He turned his grey eyes upon me, his lips parted slowly, and in a harsh low voice he replied "Geronimo!" "Thou wast the executioner for Gasperoni, wast thou not?" ner. "Hast thou killed many in thy day?" "Oh! yes! thousands! I like to kill-kill you, if Captain say so;" and he clenched my arm firmly. I started back from his grasp; a burst of laughter broke from the group. Geronimo took no heed, but coolly pursued his occupation of examining my cos tume. "But, gentlemen," said I, addressing the party, "you all appear contented and happy, and, from your appearance, I should judge you are well taken care of." A bandit with an enormous paunch came from among the gang, "Oh, yes, signor," said he, "the Pope does not neglect us. We eat well, drink well, and sleep well-are comfortably clothed, and have besides, two pauls each, per day." "Two pauls; how does that happen?" "Why, you see, signor, it is the policy of the government to treat us well. It is to their advantage to keep us from the highway, to prevent passengers from being robbed and murdered." Before I departed from the citadel, I examined them particnlarly, but saving Gasperoni and his headsman, there was not one worthy of the pencil of the artist. They had the countenances of good easy burghers, who might have been confined" on suspicion of debt." I know not if they had ever worn the picturesque costume of the brigand, such as the artists have given to the Neapolitan bandits, but their garments then were of the style of the lower order of Italians; grey pantaloons, brown vests, and blue stockings, destroying all poetry of their profession. They showed none of the beautiful attitudes which we so much admire in the lithographs, when standing or reclining among their native mountains, under a bright Italian sky. They were indifferent to all around them, their arms crossed, their eyes inexpressive, and their brows unruffled. Such was the band who, for fourteen years, had desolated the neighboring country-had made the soldiers of the Pope tremble, fought battles with the dragoons, and rifled the rich Englishmen; those self-elected taxers of the Appian way. Probably they will die in the citadel, waiting for their pardon, and thus the race become extinct. It will be good for, the traveller, but bad for the artist. The country of Italy, without brigands, is like the desert of Syria without caravans. Thus every where is poetry stifled by morality and civilization. The East still retains, in some parts, its primitive habits, but even the Turk is beginning to assume those of the Christian; his sherbet is exchanged for the grape, while the Sultan has his coat and his boots imported from London, and his beaver from Paris. Original. TO MRS. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. THOU wearest not upon thy brow, A jewelled coronet; But mind has twined her circlet there With gems of genius set. In all thy song entwined; For thou hast poured in golden verse, And nature's glowing loveliness, The flitting shadows as they play, At twilight's gentle hush The "woven shades" of forest dellsAnd fountain's sparkling gushAnd all the golden shades and hues That deck the sunset sky The misty clouds which lightly float But higher strains than these, thy lyre To childhood's sparkling eye, Round laughing infancy. And e'en affliction from thy touch, A softened grief has stole; For thou dost paint in gentlest strains, The sorrows of the soul. But, oh! the brightest gems that deck Thy tiara of song "Is that the doctor's gig, Mary? Quick, arrange these pillows, and throw that rose-colored shawl on the arm of the sofa-not there, you stupid creature; fling it carelessly, so that it may reflect its faint glow upon my cheek." The speaker was a delicate and pretty woman, who in the dim light of a judiciously shaded apartment, seemed to have scarcely numbered her five and twentieth summer, though the broad glare of daylight might have discovered the fact that some ten additional years could be counted among her past possessions. Reclining on a couch, supported by lace-bordered pillows, with the folds of her white dress so disposed as to display the symmetry of her figure, while one small and delicately slippered foot was allowed to peep out as if by accident, she really looked exceedingly interesting. Hastily concealing the novel she had been reading, and assuming the languid air of habitual suffering, she awaited the entrance of the doctor, whose footsteps were already heard upon the stairs. As he approached, she raised her eyes timidly to his face, then practised that quivering of the veined and fringed lids, which a Juno-eyed woman can so well perform, and finally dropped the long lashes over her dark-blue eyes, as modestly as a maiden of fifteen. It was, in reality, a very pretty piece of acting, and such the doctor seemed to consider it, for he stood calmly beside her, and not until all these little manoeuvres had been effected, did he attempt to feel her pulse, or to inquire into her state of health. "Ah, doctor, you are very good to come so promptly," said the patient, "I have had such a wretched night,|| that I could no longer dispense with your advice. You must come and see me every day, my dear sir. Your presence does me almost as much good as your prescriptions." The doctor bowed gravely. "You flatter me, madam. Perhaps your fears induce you to magnify your own danger as much as you do my skill." "Yet, these symptoms might be attributed to many other causes besides the serious one you have mentioned. Change of air, exercise, constant occupation both of mind and body, would probably remove all the ailments which alarm you." "I wish I could think so, but alas! Who can minister to a mind diseased, Or pluck from memory a rooted sorrow?" " The doctor was busily engaged in counting the lady's pulse and did not choose to hear her pathetic remark. "You have a very good pulse," said he, "depend upon it you are only a little nervous.' "Allow me to ask you one question, Doctor Selwyn, do you not think that a physician, in whose hands we place our very life, and who is responsible for the priceless gift of existence, should be made fully acquainted with the state of his patient?" "Certainly, madam," replied the doctor, arching his heavy brows as he spoke. "Then you must permit me to encroach upon your valuable time for a few minutes, for the history of my disease is the history of myself. I will not dwell on the details of my early life, with those you are already acquainted, since you cannot have forgotten the beautiful scenes of Woodlands where we were so long companions in youth. Alas! it were better for us sometimes if we could cease to remember early scenes and early friendships." The widow sighed and cast down her eyes, a tear was glittering on the fringed lids as she raised them to the doctor's face, but no answering emotion met her timid glance. He had taken out his snuffbox, and was, at that moment, helping himself to an enormous pinch, so that he lost the fine effect of a tearful blue eye. Mrs. Merton continued "You are probably aware of the persuasion which my parents used to induce me to wed Mr. Merton. He was a man whose character I will not attempt to depict-the grave has closed over his faults and it is not for me to sit in judgment upon his memory. Suffice it to say, that he possessed no feeling or sentiment congenial with my own. Sordid, avaricious, narrow-minded and jealous, he could neither understand nor appreciate the character of the warm-hearted, enthusiastic creature, who, in the fulness of her heart, suffered herself to be persuaded into a union with age and ugliness and "No, doctor, I feel that my hold upon life is exceed-wealth." ingly frail; a disease like mine may prove fatal at any moment." The doctor gave a loud hem! and took a second pinch of snuff. Mrs. Merton sipped some eau sucré from a "What do you suppose your disease to be, madam?" || Venice glass which stood on an ormolu table beside her, 'Ah, you want to inspire me with hope by your question, but your kind artifice cannot deceive me, doctor. You are doubtless aware that I have an affection of the heart?" "An affection of the spleen, rather," thought the|| doctor, as he gravely replied "I am not aware of the existence of any symptoms which can warrant you in forming such an opinion." "Alas, my dear sir, the symptoms cannot be mistaken-palpitations of the heart, frequent fits of tremulousness, constantly recurring attacks of nervous agitation, lowness of spirits, and loss of appetite, are certainly tokens of ill-health." and continued "During the ten years of my married life I suffered the most cruel of all martyrdoms, for it was the martyrdom of the spirit. Mr. Merton never ill-treated me in the usual sense of the term, he allowed me to indulge to a certain extent in the pleasures of society, and surrounded me with what are called the comforts of life, but alas! for the poison that mingled its deadly draught with every cup of enjoyment he could provide no antidote. Unity of feeling and reciprocal affection were wanting, and without these, what are all the richest treasures of earth?" The pretty widow paused for a moment, and pressed her perfumed handkerchief to her eyes, while the doctor fidgetted on his chair, and let his cane fall || life, had been uttered; and this only remained unspoken rather heavily upon the floor. She was not slow to per- because Harry was too poor to wed. Ah, me! my soul ceive these evidences of agitation in the eccentric used to vibrate to his voice, as it has never done since to bachelor, and fancying she had made an impression, she any joy or sorrow in existence. hastened to conclude. "Will you be at any loss, my dear doctor, to conceive how such a state of feeling should produce disease of the heart. The mind acts fearfully upon the physical frame, and the continual bickerings, the constant disquiet, the total absence of sympathy, which I suffered, threw me into a state of nervous agitation, which has now led to habitual illness. I have now given you as exact a statement of my case as I dare trust myself to describe. If I have concealed from you one sorrow, the heaviest and most heart-rending of all-a sorrow which has weighed upon me from the days of my earliest womanhood, and added its unutterable bitterness to my wretched lot-if I have hidden from you one secret recess in my heart-you will, I trust, forgive me-that deep cell of memory must never be revealed to mortal eye and least of all to yours." Completely overcome by her emotion, the widow buried her face in the pillows while she extended one fair hand to the imperturbable doctor, but whether to have the pulse counted or the fingers pressed, we cannot undertake to determine. Doctor Selwyn, however, never forgot his business—he grasped the wrist instead || of the soft rosy palm, and thrusting his box into his pocket, he rose to leave the trembling patient. "Your present agitation convinces me, madam," said he, "that you are a little nervous; allow me to recommend a few drops of sal volatile in a glass of water. I will call again to-morrow, since you desire it, and this afternoon I will send you an asafœtida pill, which you will be so good as to take upon going to bed." With these words the doctor bowed and withdrew, but as he descended the richly-carpeted stairs, there was a lurking smile on his usually grave countenance, while an arch expression of merry malice glittered in his dark eyes. 'No more-no more-oh, never more on me The pure fancies of girlhood have long since been for- While the widow remained thus buried in that pleasant sort of revery which blends pensive recollection with bright anticipation, the doctor was driving rapidly through the crowded streets, making amends by increased speed, for the time which he had wasted on the fair victim of sensibility. He possessed too much acuteness not to perceive her designs upon him, and the recollection of past scenes only seemed to add a tinge of bitterness to the contempt which they excited. At that period of life when the passions of early manhood blend themselves with the pure fresh feelings of the boy, he had renewed a childish intimacy with the beautiful girl, and had yielded up his whole soul to the impulses of a first affection. But he was no match for his lady-love in worldly wisdom. His life had been spent in the study of books-hers in the acquisition of the "arts of design," as taught in a fashionable boarding-school. She had entered society with every disposition to become an accomplished coquette, and the enthusiastic collegian was an excellent subject for her first attempt. Whether owing to her inexperience in the delicate science, or to his noble qualities of character, we cannot say, but she certainly committed the great mistake of allowing her "An usafoetida pill," exclaimed Mrs. Merton, start- affections to become somewhat involved. It was the ing up from her graceful attitude of grief, as the hall- triumph of nature over art, but as she never again, in door closed behind the doctor, an asafoetida pill the whole course of her life, was guilty of a similar error, indeed! upon my word, Harry Selwyn has become a the most zealous votaries of worldliness may excuse this perfect brute. Well, well, patience must do what one single instance of deviation into the path of truth. stroke cannot accomplish. He loved me in the days of Beautiful and vain, she had determined to run a brilliant his early youth, and I do not despair of winning him career in the circles of fashion, and she well knew that yet. Oh, if forethought were only as wise a counsellor the vista which ambition opened before her could not be as afterthought, how many errors we should avoid in terminated by "love in a cottage." For more than a this world. Who could have dreamed that Harry year, she made the young student her sport and tool, Selwyn, the playmate of my childhood, the awkward practising upon him the arts which she afterwards college-boy who made love to me so fervently and yet so exercised on a wider field, and learning, from her pedantically, would ever have become the favorite of a influence over his true heart, the extent of woman's fashionable coterie! Fifteen years have passed away power. Then-when her hour of vain triumph camesince we were romantic lovers-alas! for the flight of she turned coldly from all his love, and plunged time-yet it seems to me but yesterday since I wandered into the gayeties of society, without one sensation of with him around the lovely scenes of his native Wood-remorse for the crushed and blighted feelings over lands. I wonder if he ever felt resentment towards me for the sudden disruption of our intimacy-it is true, we were not betrothed, but every thing that love could dictate, save the final vow which binds heart to heart for 66 which she had trampled in her course. After exhausting the enjoyment which she found in the admiration of the butterflies of fashion, she accepted the richest of her suitors and took up her abode in one of the gayest of or interest-set up to be admired for a while and then sold to the highest bidder. our Atlantic cities. There she became distinguished for || receive the homage of society while conscious of their ostentatious display, while it was whispered that her own worthlessness." The worthy Doctor belonged neglect and indifference embittered her husband's life, decidedly to the former class, for, although wealth and and drove him to intemperance as a resource from domes-honor had fallen to his lot, he knew that they had been tic discomfort. His death finally released her from the bestowed by accident rather than by a sense of justice responsibility of those duties which she had so carelessly in society. He remembered his early struggles with performed, and she found herself a widow with greater poverty and neglect, and he knew that he owed his rise joy than she had looked upon herself as a bride. She less to the talents than to the lucky chance which enabled obtained, by recourse to law, the dowry which his will him to rescue from a disgraceful death a member of a had denied her, and removing to another city, she rich and fashionable family. His knowledge of their determined to carve out a new path to notoriety. To her secret secured him their patronage, and such was the surprize, she found her old lover established in wealth foundation of his future fortune. He was aware, too, and fame, and the idea of gratifying her early affec- that, even now, he was estimated rather because he was tion, together with her present ambition, soon suggested "the fashion," than on account of his really noble itself. With all her wealth, there was one charmed qualities, and therefore it was that he concealed his Icircle into which the widow could find no entrance- warm feelings beneath the veil of cold politeness, and "the exclusives”—those ephemera, who having but a day garbed his originality of mind in the rude attire of to exist, bask in the sunshine of fashion as gaily as possi- eccentricity. But his early disappointment had given a ble-remembered that Mr. Merton, her late husband, coloring to his whole life, for it had taught him a lesson had commenced life as a Chatham-street pawnbroker, || of distrust which he never forgot. Whatever might be and therefore she must not be admitted to the society of his faith in man, he had none in the truth of woman. the élite, who had been all their lives trying to forget He looked upon the whole sex but as so many puppets their honest mechanic progenitors. Dr. Selwyn, how- || in a rare show, moved by the secret springs of avarice ever, the lineal descendant of one of the original patentees of the land, possessed of a moderate fortune, fine talents, skill in his profession, musical taste, con- The Doctor pondered long over the palpable affectasiderable eccentricity, and being withal a bachelor, tion of the widow, and with an inward chuckle, anticifound ready access into all circles. The B's and pated the final disappointment of her plans; but he the C's, who looked with contempt on Mrs. Merton's determined to humor her whim, and, while he kept himemblazoned carriage and liveried footmen, delighted to self quite free, to observe her skilful manœuvres. He engage Doctor Selwyn at their parties; and the most was still full of such thoughts when he entered one of aristocratic of our republican damsels was proud of those abodes of poverty, to which his charity led him receiving a bow from the courtly physician. These much more frequently than he allowed the world to things first awakened Mrs. Merton's recollection of long know. A young girl who had broken her health by the forgotten "love passages." She consulted her mirror, arduous labors of the needle, and was now on the brink and she did not see any thing to make her despair, but of the grave, with a pulmonary attack, was the object she did seem to be aware of the fact,.that it is easier to of his present attention. She was only a poor sempstress, awaken a new flame than to rekindle an extinguished the mother, for whom she had long toiled, had recently one. The charms which, in their rich maturity, might died, and there was none left to feel interest in the dying have won many a boyish heart, were powerless when girl. She was neither gifted nor beautiful—she gave directed against a case-hardened bachelor on whom him neither golden fee nor sweet looks, and yet the rested the experience of some forty years. Yet, uncon- Doctor felt her gratitude a full reward for his daily visit scious of the difficulty she should encounter, she deter- to the poor patient. He was musing upon the strange mined to attack him with such a variety of weapons that events of fortune and character which his profession some one among them must take effect. As a physician, || enabled him to study, and as he ascended the creaking she prepared for him the artifice of failing health and stairs, he could not but contrast the luxurious apartment undoubted dependence upon his skill—as a “ci-devant || he had just left, with the bare floor and uncurtained bed jeune homme," she offered the fascinations of extreme which now met his view. He no longer found his deference and attention-the most subtle of all flatteries patient alone, however. A female, whose loose wrap. to those who are falling into "the sear and yellow leaf," || per concealed her figure, while a close cap shaded her -as the man of sensibility she exhibited to him features, was her companion, and engaged in administerdelicately shadowed pictures of past enjoyments, and||ing some nourishment as he entered. She immediately dimly traced visions of future happiness-and to the disappeared however behind a screen which stood across lonely bachelor, whose celibacy her vanity attributed to the room, and he gave no further thought to the matter his early disappointment, she meant to lift the veil except to congratulate the patient upon having found a which shrouded her heart of hearts, and disclose to him friend to attend her. A faint flush crossed the cheek of a glimpse of secretly cherished affection which had out- || the pale girl as he took a seat beside her and uttered the lived time and change and even marriage. words of soothing kindness. He felt that the hour had come when the physician's saddest and severest duty was to be performed, and he did not shrink from the task. Gently but firmly he acquainted her with her true con The inimitable Dickens tells us that "there are two sorts of people who despise the world-those who feel that the world does not appreciate them, and those who |