would have compelled me to have taken decisive steps for his immediate arrest, if I had suspected his being within the reach of the Prussian authorities. Thus, the whole mystery of my wife's visit to the walnut-tree, and her consequent and graceful invasion of your slumbers has been accounted for. Through the intervention of a kind and influential relation at Berlin, her brother's full pardon has been obtained; and as events, good or bad, seldom surprise us singly, we had the happiness of receiving this welcome intelligence yesterday, when I was immediately admitted to a participation in the secret, and to the knowledge of what had occurred. It only remains for me now, to offer you my hand in the spirit of friendship and harmony, and to declare, that whenever you please, I shall be ready to conduct you over the interior of Ehrenbreitstein, promising that you shall not again run the risk of being unceremoniously turned out of its gates, or of losing your credit; and that as long as one good bottle of Rüdesheimer remains in my cellar, you shall have full leisure to recount all the garden adventures you have ever met with in the whole course of your life."

"And will you not accept of my hand also in amity and good-will ?" said Madame Von Lensdorff, in a pretended whisper; "although, perhaps, you will not find it now so fair or so delicate as that of the goddess of your dreams. And you must accept of this little peace offering, a token of my sincere , repentance for all my offences towards you, either of commission or omission," added the lovely woman, as she slipped the well-remembered emerald ring from the finger. "Do not forget this emerald ring:-all I ask in return, is, that you will now finish that very gallant and agreeable speech, from which I so uncourteously withdrew in the garden.—Pray! do begin it again. Was suchen sie, mein herzchen? Ich liebe sie, von ganzen herzen!"

"What do you allude to, my dear Agatha ?" cried Louisa; "let me have an explanation. Pray, sir, why did you so rudely

keep us waiting, day after day, at Baden, when I wrote to you, to Rotterdam, mentioning, that we were anxious to visit our friends, the Lensdorffs, at Ehrenbreitstein."

"Good heaven! I quite forgot to ask for letters at the postoffice at Rotterdam;—but, Louisa, you must forgive me, and you must not be angry, when I declare, I shall always remember Ehrenbreitstein, the rose-coloured hat and shawl, and the walnut-tree."

A TALE OF VENICE.

BY CHARLES MAC FARLANE.

THE sun was sinking behind the dark blue hills of Priuli, and lengthening the shadows of Venice across the rippling waves of the Adriatic, when two Senators, who were taking their evening promenade on one of the murazzi or outer terraces which the industry of man had gained and secured from a formidable element, perceived a trim galley on the purple line of the horizon, pressing forwards towards the city.

"That should be a vessel of the state," said one of the Signors; from whence may she be ?"

Why not from Constantinople ?" replied his companion; "it is time that some of that conquering expedition should be returned to the Winged Lion.'"

"Saint Mark grant that it prove as you say!-But she keeps a gallant course, and will soon be here to speak for herself."

The two Senators, who though both advanced in years still glowed with that patriotic spirit which was destined to raise the low-sunk islets of Venice to such unprecedented glory, leaned against a parapet wall that ran along the edge of the murazzo, fixing their earnest gaze upon the vessel, which, rapidly advancing, grew in magnitude to their eyes at every minute. She had been labouring on with all her long oars; but now the sun had set, and an evening breeze, a vento di terra, from the lofty mountains of Dalmatia,

roughened the gulf. The sails, already set, were properly bent to catch the favouring wind, and another and another sail was hoisted, until the hulk seemed to bear the proportion to them that the body of the sea-fowl does to its widely spreading and pure white wings. Nor could the flight of the gull or the albatross be well more rapid or direct than the sailing of the Venetian galley. She rushed like "a thing of life" over the darkening waves, and presently the white foam was seen curling, and the phosphoric light flashing before her impetuous bow. As she neared, the last gleams of day showed the proud banner of the republic floating on her lofty stern.

My Tebaldo-my son, my only one-fell a victim to the liquid and unextinguishable fire of the Greeks at the first siege of their heretical capital-but there are other fathers than me in Venice, and mothers who love their offspring, and wives who adore their husbands, and of a certainty for some of these there is great joy. The galley is the 'Corriere' of the great Dandolo, the swiftest vessel of our fleets, and she comes, the harbinger of happiness to thousands. The rest will not be far behind."

The Senator who pronounced these words began in a subdued and melancholy tone; but his voice strengthened and his eye flashed as he continued, losing in the bliss of others, and in the contemplation of the glory of his country, the sense of his private and irremediable misfortune.

"Viva San Marco! Viva la Santa Chiesa !—and the republic of Venice, that has placed the keys of Saint Peter within the boasted gates of Constantinople !" exclaimed the other Senator.

“Viva San Marco and the republic !" rejoined the childless man.

Their aged voices had scarcely ceased to vibrate, when a loud continuous shout-a shout of transporting joy and triumph, rose from the deck and the rigging of the galley, and made itself heard, despite of distance, and the lash and roar

of the waves that broke in foam at the feet of the two Senators. The next instant that soul-stirring exclamation was answered by another shout that absolutely smothered, while it lasted, the sounds of wind and wave; and turning round, the Senators saw, on the edges of other terraces, and on the scattered islets that afforded the best points of observation, the mass of the population of Venice, gazing like themselves on the returning galley. In an instant numerous barks were seen to glide from the canali, and, dancing in fantastic groups over the heaving sea, to pull with strenuous oars towards the 'ship; the patriotism or the more private affections of many not brooking the delay of a few minutes, which would see her at anchor within Venice.

As she came on, with the breeze that still freshened singing through her shrouds, a simultaneous display of countless blue lights was launched from her deck high into the heavens, where the crescent moon, with "a single star at her side," seemed to smile at these testimonials of joy, and to welcome the wanderers back again. The mimics of heaven's thunders, the pealing cannons, were not yet known ; but the roar of voices that again rose from the murazzi, and the ship, and the boats mid-way between them, might almost equal the rimbombo of artillery, than which it was infinitely more replete with meaning, for the united voices of thousands distinctly syllabled the patriotic cry, which was still— "Viva San Marco e la citta di Venezia!”

There was silence for a while. The galley, now surrounded by the barks from the shore, glided round one of the islets which had intercepted the prospect, and presently the crew saw all the low houses of the town, with the clear domestic lights gleaming from their lattices, full before them. The transport that then bounded in the hearts of the wanderers, the shout that then rose from the galley deck, must have been intense

"For what can consecrate the joys of home,

Like one glad glance from ocean's troubled foam."