the direct road to Block Drift, leading across the battle-field of the Gwanga, from which I carried in token of memento a Kaffir skull. "A ride of fifty miles, under the influence of a powerful sun and sharp drying wind, both of which combined, peeled the skin off our weather-beaten countenances, brought us, after one or two 'off-saddlings,' to the camp at Phoonahs Kloof, where we luckily got a comfortable tent for the night, which was bitterly cold, and also met with the greatest hospitality (strongly contrasting with our late treatment), at the hands of Lieut. Fitzgerald, of the 91st, who then commanded at this post, and who had greatly distinguished himself by his gallantry during the war. "Ere starting early on the 26th (yesterday) our kind host supplied us with a cup of hot coffee, which thawed us sufficiently to enable us to get into the saddle, and we reached Block Drift just in time for the mess breakfast of the 90th, after nearly a week's absence, during which time we have been enabled to form from experience, a tolerably correct idea of the hardships undergone by our troops, during this unsatisfactory campaign-the more unsatisfactory as little is to be hoped from its results, either in the shape of credit or advantage." My angel! when the morning stars 'Twixt Magdalene, and she who mourned On Judah's Hills her doom, Thou sittest lily-crowned, and wav'st My angel! for mine own thou art- So when He breathed my spirit forth, An anxious fearful mother's love My angel! as a curtain fell Thy bright wings o'er my head, By some seraphic sympathy A night-mare borne on solemn winds- My angel! we shall one day meet— My angel! when the human swarm My angel! I can image thee, Gazing, as pilot on the bark Brought troublously to land- My angel! when Heav'n's tide of light TICK; OR, MEMOIRS OF AN OLD ETON BOY. BY CHARLES ROWCROFT, AUTHOR OF "TALES OF THE COLONIES; or, THE ADVENTURES OF AN EMIGRANT." CHAPTER XXXIV. As I have before taken occasion to note, no explanation had ever taken place between Lavinia and me on the most interesting of all subjects; nor, indeed, had there been an opportunity for it; and it must be taken into account also, that, our acquaintance had been really very slight; although it is curious how very short an acquaintance and how very slight communication sometimes proves sufficient perfectly to possess those of the same elective affinities of each other's sentiments; but this latter remark must be considered as made in a parenthesis. It is true, that, I might consider myself justified in regarding myself as an accepted suitor from the circumstance of the vow which Lavinia, in her enthusiasm, had so generously and rashly uttered over my sup posed lifeless form, when, she thought, I had lost my life in attempting to rescue her from death in one of its most fearful shapes; but as I could not avail myself of my knowledge of her secret for the purpose of asserting my claim on her promise without exposing myself to the suspicion of having voluntarily and deliberately acted an untruth by feigning an unconsciousness which was not the fact, I was obliged to let that matter rest in the oblivion and mystery in which it was shrouded. Besides, I felt, that, any allusion to that occurrence, carrying with it, as it must have done, my knowledge of her mortuary visit, must have shocked her delicacy in the most painful manner, and was on every account, therefore, to be avoided. It is necessary to bear in mind also, that, the occasion of my last interview with Lavinia was by no means favourable to my character for modesty, discretion, or sobriety; and that my ignominious prostration before the family, and my furtive evasion the next morning were not calculated to raise me in her estimation; and more than that, it could not but have wounded her pride and offended her sense of propriety, that, I had left the county without an attempt either to make my peace with her, or to fulfil the ordinary requirements of good breeding and polite ness. Such being the state of things between us, it is not surprising, that, although, for the moment, a little flurried at the sudden appearance of one whom she so little expected, she quickly resumed her self-possession. She made no return to my embarrassed obeisance, but regarded me with a cold and disdainful eye and with an air so chilling that it seemed to freeze me up and to congeal my very senses; I can compare it to nothing but to the greeting which one might expect to receive from a young lady of the most Dianaic complexion who had lived all her life on the top of an ice-berg and had been fed on snowballs; but I was not at all inclined to be facetious at that moment; on the contrary, my sensations were such as I can imagine a saturated solution of sulphate of soda to experience, if endowed with vitality, during a process of rapid crystallisation. The shooting pains which accompanied this advance to a state of comparative petrification were exquisitely painful, and the remembrance of the scene is one which I do not like to dwell on; I would willingly have omitted it if I could with justice to my readers-or part of it at least-for the sake of sparing myself the humiliating confessions which it contains, as well as for other obvious reasons which all those who are curious in their studies of love scenes and at the same time of delicate feelings and perceptions will readily appreciate. I remained for a considerable time in a state of extraordinary embarrassment from which the lady did not evince the slightest inclination to relieve me.. She stood erect and motionless; and, at first, with her head slightly averted, she bore herself as Dido treated Æneas in the infernal regions (it must be allowed he treated her more infernally in the regions above); and then slowly turning away from her disregardful contemplation of an unworthy object, she remained rigid as marble, with her eyes gazing on vacancy and as passionless as those of the Sphynx in the desert ;-and presenting to me, who did not at the time take into consideration all the reasons which actuated her behaviour, as great a riddle. me, In the state of perturbation which this inhuman conduct caused in I could neither collect my thoughts, nor summon up words to express or to disguise them if I had any, but following a sort of impulse, I ejaculated : "Oh! Lavinia !" But the "oh," albeit that it is the acknowledged exponent of the pathetic, had no effect on the obdurate Lavinia; although I fancied that the invocation of her name made her lip curl a little in disdain of its assumption of a right to familiarity. I was terribly abashed; my predominant idea was that she must have actually accepted the great red hand of the arithmetic Peter, and, as she might think, had irretrievably committed herself by a formal consent. This thought brought to my mind the letter from the affectionate coachman in which the disastrous news was first communicated; and, as there is a natural association of ideas, as philosophers tell us, which leads in the chambers of the brain to consecutive recollections, my thoughts immediately recurred to the interesting announcement which was the proximate cause of the worthy coachman's “prouniscuous” information. Thus it was, that, feeling the absolute necessity of breaking the horrible silence which oppressed the place, in the perturbation of spirit and the confusion of thought which her cold and withering disdain produced in me, I said the very last thing which at a calmer moment I should have thought of saying. It is not surprising that the effect of my words was as prompt and astounding as their sense must have been incomprehensible, for with a look of the most intense anguish, and in an accent of the most profound despair -all the while thinking of the coachman's complex information-I suddenly blurted out : 66 Oh, Lavinia ! Have had one of Jenny's pups?" you It is impossible to describe the effect which this extraordinary inquiry had on the amazed Lavinia! The rigidity of her bearing was dissolved in a moment. She started; gazed at me for one instant—and only for an instant-with a frighted air in which compassion, and, as I thought, tenderness, were strongly blended;—and then, with an exclamation resembling a scream, for as I afterwards learnt she thought I had actually gone mad, she sprung away, and fled towards the house. I became at the same moment, unpetrified, and recovering the use of my legs quicker than I had recovered my tongue, I darted after her. It was now a fair race between us, the lady having the start. It was very rude perhaps to follow a lady in that persevering way, but I acted on impulse; and I could not help it. How the race might have ended if it had come to a regular conclusion I cannot pretend to say; "the race is not always to the swift" but it is so generally; and unquestionably, of the two I was the fastest and the strongest. On the other hand, Lavinia was light of foot, and she fled over the grass like a frightened fawn; and she had the start of me ; besides fear lent her wings, for terrible as was the onset of the mad dog on the self-same spot, which was the source of so many curious adventures, the dog could only bite ;-the present pursuit of the mad man was a thousand times more dreadful. The old adage, however, of "most haste worst speed" in this instance maintained its right to proverbiality; in trying to make a short cut between an arbutus and a rhododendrum, the former justified its Virgilian epithet of "horrida" by entangling the folds of her dress in its hirsute branches-and so the lady was caught. Fortunately she was too much out of breath to scream, or I should have had the she McDragon down upon me. The run, however, which deprived Lavinia temporarily of speech had a contrary effect upon me: it restored to me the use of my recently benumbed faculties. Abandoning my inquiry about the pups, and excited by the exercise, I dashed at once "in medias res" in another direction. "What have I done," said I, "that you should fly from me in this frightened way." She could not make me any answer; she was panting for breath; I went on : "Can you not imagine that I must have been driven to despair by the dreadful news which reached me !" Lavinia remained silent, and seemed surprised, and I fancied did not pant so much, but looked as if she was willing to hear more. "Can you be surprised," I continued, "at my hastening without a moment's delay to learn from your own lips the truth of a story which almost drove me mad!" She made a little start at the word "mad," and looked at me, as I thought, earnestly and inquiringly; but whether from exhaustion or from curiosity she made no motion to evade me. "Yes," I continued, "which drove me almost mad! and now I feel mad." "Oh! Mr. Castleton," she said rather tremblingly, "if you are mad I am sure you would not hurt me." "Mad," I continued, "with despair! for how could I hear such a report about you without feeling a pang of anguish which it is impossible for words to describe!" "Sir," said she, recovering herself, and assuming an air of much dignity," what report do you mean ?" |