XV. The crime transpired: his deadly sin Self-judged he sank, soul-tortured, died. On all we think, on all we do! THE facts on which the following little story is founded, I became acquainted with during a summer ramble in Dauphiny, which my young readers, no doubt, know to have been one of the provinces of France, before that country was divided into departments; and which now comprehends the departments of the Isere, the Upper Alps, and the Drome. The little village of La Bergère, in the latter of these, is the scene of my story; and, perhaps, when some of my young friends grow up to be men and women, they may go abroad, and see the village where my heroine Rosalie resided, and sit down under one of the almond trees, and think of her and her brother Albert, and of all I am going to relate. The father of Rosalie rented a small vineyard, the produce of which was no more than sufficient to procure daily bread; but with this, no one was discontented: never did the family assemble around the table, spread with bread, and fruit, and milk, without expressing the gratitude of the heart, to Him who had so kindly provided for their daily necessities. -- Albert and Rosalie were the only children of their parents; and Albert was five years older than his sister. No children were ever more united than Albert and Rosalie. While an infant, Albert had been her little guardian; he had walked with her, and carried her across little brooks, and sat down with her, and weaved baskets of sainfoin for her, and, when she passed from infancy into childhood, he became her instructor and her companion; for the curé of the village, having noticed the quickness and good dispositions of Albert, had a sort of parental affection for him, and had taught him those elements of knowledge, which he, in his turn, was eager to communicate to his sister. Time thus passed away; Rosalie was almost thirteen, and Albert's eighteenth birth-day had arrived. Shortly before this period, a new conscription-which, let me inform my young readers, means an allotment of young men to serve in the armyhad been ordered by the emperor; and it was, unfortunately, the very day after Albert had attained his eighteenth year, that a return was to be made, of all the youths within the department who had reached that age. Albert's name was given in with the rest; and, unluckily, the next day he was drawn a conscript! Rosalie knew that this event was possible for Albert had explained it to her; but yet, when he was seen vaulting over the low wall into the vineyard, in the evening, his hat decorated with a cockade, the smile forsook her lips-she hid her face in her hands,-and a torrent of tears gushed from her eyes, It was a gloomy evening within the cottage cf old Dufrêsne: he, the bereaved father, hardly raised his head; his wife, the affectionate mother of Albert, did nothing but weep and lament by turns. As for Rosalie,— she could not remain in the cottage, but strayed beyond the vineyard to a grassy slope, and sat her down beneath one of the almond-trees, that she might the more freely give vent to her sorrow; and she was at last recalled to herself by the voice of her brother-who came in search of her, to bring her home, as the damps were beginning to rise. A neighbour, but one of the richest in that district, was sitting in the cottage, when Rosalie returned,— he, too, had that day had a son drawn a conscript ; and as Rosalie entered the house she heard him say, that he had already agreed for a substitute for his son; and that the bargain would cost him five hundred francs; which my young friends know is equal to twenty sovereigns; and Rosalie also heard, that it yet wanted fourteen days of the time fixed for the march of the conscripts. Many a time, after neighbour Dubois had taken leave, and drawn the latch after him, did Rosalie repeat to herself what he had said,—and long did she ponder upon it after she had laid her head upon the pillow. Five hundred francs could save Albert! for, with the idea of his going to the wars, Rosalie could not separate the certainty of his being killed. But how were the five hundred francs to be obtained? Rosalie knew well her father had them not,—and as for herself-she, poor thing, had only two sous. short, with a sad heart and swollen eyes, she dropped asleep; but sorrows seldom pursue the youthful mind into the watches of the night, and Rosalie slept soundly, and awoke refreshed not long after the lark had sung his first hymn at the gates of heaven. In Now, I have not yet told my young readers, what |