To my early love from my future bride One moment I looked. Then I stole to the door, My thinking of her, or the music's strain, She is not dead, and she is not wed! But she loves me now, and she loved me then; And the very first word that her sweet lips said, My heart grew youthful again. The marchioness there, of Carabas, She is wealthy, and young, and handsome still; And but for her . . . . well, we'll let that pass; She may marry whomever she will. But I will marry my own first love, With her primrose face, for old things are best; The world is filled with folly and sin, And love must cling where it can, I say: For beauty is easy enough to win; But one isn't loved every day. And I think, in the lives of most women and men, There's a moment when all would go smooth and even If only the dead could find out when To come back and be forgiven. But oh the smell of that jasmine flower! That voice rang out from the donjon tower, Non ti scordar di me! SLY THOUGHTS.-COVENTRY PATMORE. "I saw him kiss your cheek!"— ""Tis true." "O modesty!"-" "Twas strictly kept: He thought me asleep; at least, I knew He thought I thought he thought I slept." THE STRUGGLE ON THE PASS. A deadly feud existed, almost from time immemorial, between the families of Macpherson of Bendearg, and Grant of Cairn, and was handed down unimpaired even to the close of the last century. In earlier times the warlike chiefs of these names found frequent opportunities of testifying their mutual animosity; and few inheritors of the fatal quarrel left the world without having moistened it with the blood of some of their hereditary enemies. But, in our own day, the progress of civilization, which had reached even these wild countries, the heart of the North Highlands, although it could not extinguish entirely the transmitted spirit of revenge, at least kept it within safe bounds; and the feud of Macpherson and Grant threatened, in the course of another generation, to die entirely away, or, at least, to exist only in some vexatious lawsuit, fostered by the petty jealousies of two men of hostile tempers and contiguous property. It was not, however, without some ebullitions of ancient fierceness, that the flame, which had burned for so many centuries, seemed about to expire. Once, at a meeting of the country gentlemen, on a question of privilege arising, Bendearg took occasion to throw out some taunts, aimed at his hereditary foe, which the fiery Grant immediately received as the signal of defiance, and a challenge was the con. sequence. The sheriff of the county, however, having got intimation of the affair, put both parties under arrest; till at length, by the persuasions of their friends-not friends by blood—and the representations of the magistrate, they shook hands, and each pledged his honor to forget-at least never again to remember in speech or action-the ancient feud of his family. This occurrence, at the time, was the object of much interest in the country-side in that it seemed to give the lie to the prophecies, of which every Highland family has an ample stock in its traditionary chronicles, and which expressly predicted that the enmity of Cairn and Bendearg should not be quenched but in blood; and on this seemingly cross-grained circumstance, some of the young men, who had begun already to be tainted with the heresies of the Lowlands, were seen to shake their heads, as they reflected on the tales and the faith of their ancestors; but the grayheaded seers shook theirs still more wisely, and answered with the motto of a noble house,-"I bide my time." There is a narrow pass between the mountains, in the neighborhood of Bendearg, well known to the traveler who ventures into these wilds in quest of the savage sublimities of nature. At a little distance it has the appearance of an immense artificial bridge thrown over a tremendous chasm, but, on nearer approach, is seen to be a wall of nature's own masonry, formed of vast and rugged bodies of solid rock, piled on each other as if in the giant sport of the architect. Its sides are in some places covered with trees of a considerable size; and the passenger, who has a head steady enough to look down the precipice, may see the eyries of birds of prey beneath his feet. The path across is so narrow, that it cannot admit of two persons passing alongside; and, indeed, none but natives, accustomed to the scene from infancy, would attempt the dangerous route at all, though it saves a circuit of three miles. Yet it sometimes happens that two travelers meet in the middle, owing to the curve formed by the pass preventing a view across from either side; and when this is the case, one is obliged to lie down, while the other crawls over his body. One day, shortly after the incident we have mentioned, a Highlander was walking fearlessly along the pass, sometimes bending over to watch the flight of the wild birds that built below, and sometimes detaching a fragment from the top to see it dashed against the uneven sides, and bounding from rock to rock, its rebound echoing the while like a human voice and dying in faint and hollow murmurs at the pottom. When he had gained the highest part of the arch, he observed another coming leisurely up on the opposite side, and, being himself of the patrician order, called out to him to halt and lie down; the person, however, disregarded the command, and the Highlanders met face to face on the summit. They were Cairn and Bendearg! the two hereditary enemies, who would have gloried and rejoiced in mortal strife with each other on a hill-side. They turned deadly pale at this fatal rencontre. "I was first at the top," said bendearg, “and called out first, 'Lie down that I may pass over in peace."" "When the Grant prostrates himself before Macpherson," answered the other, "it must be with a sword driven through his body." "Turn back then," said Bendearg, "and repass as you came." "Go back yourself, if you like," replied Grant; “I will not be the first of my name to turn before the Macpherson." This was their short conference, and the result exactly as each had anticipated;-they then threw their bonnets over the precipice, and advanced, with slow and cautious pace, closer to each other; they were both unarmed; and stretching their limbs like men preparing for a desperate struggle, they planted their feet firmly on the ground, compressed their lips, knit their dark brows, and fixing fierce and watchful eyes on each other, stood there prepared for the onset. They both grappled at the same moment; but being of equal strength, were unable for some time to shift each other's position,-standing fixed on a rock with suppressed breath, and muscles strained to the "top of their heart," like statues carved out of solid stone. At length Macpherson, suddenly removing his right foot, so as to give him greater purchase, stooped his body and bent his enemy down with him by main strength till they both leaned over the precipice, looking downward into the terrible abyss. The contest was as yet doubtful, for Grant had placed his foot firmly on an elevation at the brink, and had equal command of his enemy,-but at this moment Macpherson sank slowly and firmly on his knee, and while Grant suddenly started back, stooping to take the supposed advantage, whirled him over his head into the gulf. Macpherson himself fell backward, his body hanging partly over the rock; a fragment gave way beneath him, and he sank farther, till catching with a desperate effort at the solid stone above, he regained his footing. There was a pause of death-like stillness, and the bold heart of Macpherson felt sick and faint. At length, as if compelled unwillingly by some mysterious feeling, he looked down over the precipice. Grant had caught with a deathgrip by the rugged point of a rock,-his enemy was almost within his reach!-his face was turned upward, and there was in it horror and despair, but he uttered no word or cry. The next moment he loosed his hold, and the next his brains were dashed out before the eyes of his hereditary foe! The mangled body disappeared among the trees, and its last heavy and hollow sound arose from the bottom. Macpher son returned home an altered man. He purchased a conmission in the army, and fell in the wars of the Peninsula. RORY O'MORE.-SAMUEL LOVER. Young Rory O'More courted Kathleen bawn; Reproof on her lip, but a smile in her eye; "With your tricks, I don't know, in troth, what I'm about; And 'tis plazed that I am, and why not, to be sure? "Indeed, then," says Kathleen, “don't think of the like, The ground that I walk on he loves, I'll be bound ❞— "Faith!" says Rory, "I'd rather love you than the ground." Now, Rory, I'll cry if you don't let me go: Sure I dream ev'ry night that I'm hating you so!" "Och!" says Rory, "that same I'm delighted to hear, "Arrah, Kathleen, my darlint, you've teased me enough; Sure, I've thrashed, for your sake, Dinny Grimes and Jim Duff; |