and mother as it would infallibly break their hearts, that my dissipation at college was beyond belief! and she insidiously insinuated, taking care that her niece should see through the affected disguise of her nods and significant reserves, that my deceiving ways with respect to those of the tender sex were utterly inconceivable in one so young! and that, although not twenty-one years of age, I was already one of the greatest rakes in the whole university! Lavinia did not disguise from me, that, this latter accusation had made a very painful impression on her, and had been the cause of her committing herself with the nephew more than she would otherwise have thought of doing. With respect to Lavinia herself, I may say, that the sagacious aunt wisely forbore from any direct opposition, knowing well from her experience of the ways of her sex, that nothing more irritates a girl to run away with the man she has set her mind on than the exhibition on the part of her parents or guardians of a fierce and despotic determination to prevent her from marrying him. The plot, therefore, was carried on between herself and Peter, the father being unconsciously made a third in the conspiracy against his daughter. Lavinia further informed me, although with a good deal of hesitation, and with many blushes-and not without some proud and bitter tearsthat her father had taken occasion to have a serious conversation with her on the subject of her establishment in life; that he had praised Mr. Peter McDragon with enthusiasm as the best bookkeeper and the greatest dab at vulgar fractions in the city of London; and that he had signified his own most earnest desire that she would have the good sense to marry "a man of business;" winding up with some rather severe reflections on those who accepted bills without having the means of paying them, and who got drunk without ceremony at respectable people's tables; to say nothing of general propensities to fight their best friends with or without reason, and for the mere pleasure of kicking up a row. These latter remarks were plainly the effeet of his sister-in-law's promptingsthe wicked Miss Mc Dragon. It is necessary that I should state here, that these communications were not all made at our first explanation, but were the result of several conferences which took place, I must own clandestinely, but which were necessarily so from the nature and urgency of the case; it may be easily surmised also by those initiated in these mysteries, that, our relative positions at the extreme ends of the garden-seat gradually became modified as our confidences became stronger; on the first day, I remained at the extreme end, although not stuck quite so close in the corner; on the second, I gradually made my way as far as the middle; and by the end of the third day, somehow we found ourselves occupying the same corner without any complaint on either side of inconvenient crowding, the lady having the complaisance to permit my nearer approach in order that our conversation might not be overheard by the gardeners, or by any accidental intruder. Fortunately, as I thought, the aunt and nephew, fancying that I was safe at college, were absent on a visit to London, for the purpose I felt very sure of hastening by their personal presence the arrangements for the marriage which they had resolved on; so that the field was left clear for me; and certainly, I may say without assuming too much, that I made a good use of my time; and before the end of the fourth day I considered that I had made my position quite secure against my rival. As to the papa-the man of bank-notes-it so happened that he was absent the whole of the day till dinner-time on some parish business, which, as it was relating to accounts, absorbed the whole of his attention; so that we were quite safe on that side. I must not omit to mention here, that in the course of these interesting conversations, I learnt that the Major Touchwood whom I had met at dinner on the occasion of my memorable folly, had been very assiduous in paying his respects to Miss McDragon and the papa, (being aware of the prudence of securing his flank and rear in his approaches) and not less so in offering his attentions to the young lady. The communication of this circumstance was drawn from Lavinia, as I thought, rather reluctantly, and there was an evident embarrassment in her manner in alluding to the Major when my inquiries forced her to do so, which led me to suspect that there had been some flirtation in that quarter; a circumstance which though the surmise of it gave me a little twinge, I, however, thought was excusable, as it was natural for her to look for aid from any quarter against the backbiting Peter whom she detested for his own sake as well as for the reason of his being insidiously forced upon her. The thought of this, however, did not strike me so much then as it did afterwards. On her side also, Lavinia was not without some misgivings as to my conduct at the university; and so prone are women's minds to jealousy, that although she was aware of her aunt's motive in depreciating and calumniating me, she could not divest her mind of some obscure suspicions that some part of so many and such terrible imputations must be true. She questioned me with all a woman's intuitive tact on the subject, hoping-and fearing-to catch me in some unwary admission; but I defended myself stoutly. But, with a weakness and a want of candour that was unpardonable, I concealed from her my little adventure with the daughter of the sea-captain's widow; this I did, sincerely, for the sole reason of sparing her unnecessary pain, as I feared that she might suppose that my interference on that occasion had led to a closer acquaintance than would have been agreeable to her to hear of; and for the same reason I carefully abstained from mentioning the fact of my having visited rather diligently at the widow's house, and of the almost affectionate intimacy which I had formed with her daughter Emily.The unfortunate consequences of this concealment on my part, which I own was most injudicious and reprehensible, will be seen in the sequel. The hours and the days flew quickly by in these happy interchanges of mutual sentiments. Lavinia, as her confidence in me increased, confessed that she had been reduced to the most unhappy state of despair, and that she was meditating mournfully by the side of the water on her wretched fate at the moment when I so suddenly re-appeared to her. She declared that she hated the wretch Peter, and that nothing could induce her to unite herself with a person of such a low and grovelling mind; expressions which pleased me extremely. But she communicated to me her fears, at the same time, that it was a match on which her father had set his heart, and on which her aunt was fiercely bent. All these fears and revelations afforded me abundant opportunity to express the sincerity and strength of my own attachment, and to declare that I would rather die a thousand deaths than see her misery consummated by so fatal an union; and that in short I was ready to go all lengths and to brave the resentment of parents on both sides rather than lose her; making some bold allusions at the same time to Gretna Green, and to the necessity sometimes of a runaway match, which, I assured her, parents always forgave, to secure the happiness of their daughter. Under such circumstances as these, it may be easily understood that our intimacy grew apace, and young as we both were, being neither more nor less than a boy and a girl, it seemed to us that we had been acquainted and intimate for years; so deceptive and engrossing is the passion that absorbed us. This delightful state of freedom and companionship was too good to last; and, as we both expected, on the morning of the seventh day, a letter from Miss McDragon to her brother, as Lavinia informed me, communicated the tidings of their immediate return. She, the aunt, congratulated herself that all matters were now prepared for her dear Lavinia's marriage, with "the worthy Mr. Peter McDragon," and she communicated information which she had no doubt she said "would be particularly pleasing to Lavinia, for she had unexpectedly met with the daughter of an old friend and admirer of hers now deceased-who had been a captain in His Majesty's Royal Navy. She had had the good fortune she said to meet the young lady with her mother in London, and she had prevailed on them to allow her to bring them with her to Willow Lodge to be present at the wedding; and that if the daughter should be agreeable to her niece as she felt sure that she would, she intended to propose to her to act as bride's-maid on the occasion." This letter, as we both agreed, was most artfully written, and it filled us with the liveliest apprehensions. It assumed that Lavinia's consent was given; and the wily aunt knew her brother-in-law too well, not to feel confident that under such circumstances he would not allow Lavinia to draw back, as he would consider an assent given in such a matter in the same light and as being of nearly the same grave nature as the endorsement of a bill of exchange which it became the bounden duty of the endorser imperatively to pay. It was a skilful act also on the part of the aunt not to write to her niece direct, but to make her communication to the father; which, while it had an appearance of delicacy and of a desire to save Lavinia's feelings, prevented her at the same time from addressing to her aunt any reply in remonstrance or denial; and she trusted to her niece's habits of obedience to her father not to dare to exhibit to him any disposition to depart from her accustomed filial respect and duty. In this the manoeuvring Miss McDragon, was quite correct in her judgment; and it must be admitted that she conducted her strategic plans with admirable ability; but she did not take into consideration, that during her absence, an enemy had established myself in the heart of the town, in the very citadel; and that to dislodge the obstinate possessor would require heavier guns than it was likely she could bring to bear on him. As it was, however, the position of the enemy was alarming; and all that we could engage to do, under the circumstances, was to swear mutually, an inviolable attachment (which was regularly signed and sealed as is usual on such occasions ;) and to watch the proceedings of her enemy with diligence and attention in order that we might meet stratagem by stratagem, and oppose any attempt at coercion with firmness; I mentally resolving to meet force by force, and to settle the matter with the inconvenient Peter, if he had the courage to show fight, with signal punish ment. And so, for that day, we parted; not without renewing again and again our mutual protestations. I rode home in rather a melancholy humour, and retired early, partly to avoid my mother's affectionate and rather inquisitive observations, and partly to gather up my own thoughts, and to decide in an extremity, which seemed likely to arrive, on some resolute plan of action. While my mind was engrossed however, with the contemplation of our unfortunate condition, and with the fear of losing Lavinia, I could not prevent some uneasy thoughts from obtruding themselves relative to the proposed bride's-maid. The description tallied oddly enough with the widow and daughter whose acquaintance I had formed at the university. Could it be the same? or was it only an accidental similarity of circumstances and position? The dwelling on this thought worried me not a little. I had nothing to reproach myself with so far as I could see, in respect to my acquaintance with the daughter; but, still, if it should prove to be the same, my meeting with them, I felt, I hardly knew why, would be awkward. And then, I regretted, that, I had not mentioned my adventnre to Lavinia, who might possibly misinterpret the reasons of my silence on the subject and regard it as a suspicious concealment. Altogether the circumstance, if it should turn out as it seemed possible, was vexatious. As the solution of this enigma gave rise in a curious way, to fresh embarrassments greater than the first, it is necessary to develope it in a new chapter. IT CANNOT BE SO LONG AGO. BY J. E. CARPENTER, ESQ. Ir cannot be so long ago, But yesterday it seems, When hand in hand, and to and fro', We wander'd by the streams; A girl and boy, and now I gaze Upon your locks as white as snow, Yet mem❜ry brings back those sweet days— It cannot be so long ago, Or was it but a dream? Methinks, e'en now, I long to go Where on the banks those bright flow'rs grow, Where flows the rippling stream; Yet past and is many a year, For thus the stream of life must flow, We scarcely mark its bright career It cannot be so long ago! PANSLAVISM AND THE SLAVONIANS. THERE is no question, but that whether viewed in the light of progressive civilisation, of the extinction of the Mahometan rule in Europe, of national regeneration, or of Panslavic or international, and more especially Muscovite and Germanic relations, that the so-called Slavonic populations are at the present moment more replete with interest than any others in Europe. The very fact of a long political degradation, their occupation of remote and little-known countries, their servility alike to Russian, German, Turk, and Magyar, become, with the prospects of regeneration, only circumstances of more paramount curiosity. The Slavonians are of the Indo-European family of nations. They are one of the primeval races of Europe, and were settled in the countries they now occupy before the commencement of the historic era. About the middle of the fourth century, the Slavonian countries were visited by three successive irruptions of the Celtic or Gallic nations. These drove before them the Slavonians of Pannonia and Illyria, and even the Thracian nations settled in Dacia were also compelled to yield part of their country. The migrations of the Slavonians from Russia began as early as the time of the Huns, and we find them accordingly settled in Roman Dacia, or in Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania: as also in the highland districts at the foot of the Homus-the Bal-Khan of the Turks. These lost, in the early part of the sixth century, not only their independence, but their very name, which was absorbed into that of their conquerors, the Bulgarians. The latter, who, according to the Greek writers, derived their name or descent from the Huns, attracted by Roman wealth, marked the same year in which Ravenna fell, by an invasion of so dreadful and devastating a character that it almost effaced the memory of past inroads. Repulsed ultimately by Belisarius, they retired to the fertile country which lay between the Bal-Khan and the Danube, and which corresponds to the Mosia Inferior of the ancients. Here they assumed a vague dominion over the Slavonian name; and the people, whose intermediate boundaries, Gibbon justly remarks, were never accurately known or respected by the barbarians themselves, became fused into one, for the same authority also insists with equal justice upon the fact that the same race of Slavonians appears to have maintained, in every age, the possession of the same countries. Ranke has repeated the same thing in his "History of Servia." 66 Leaving it," he says, "to antiquaries to trace out the origin and migrations of these people, by combining languages and myths with fragmentary traditions, it will suffice to say, that, from the earliest times, we find them in the country which they occupy to this day." The Bulgarian Slavonians were converted to Christianity in 860. Constantine Cyrillus and Methodius, two celebrated Slavonian apostles, introduced letters among them, and gave them a Slavonic version of the Scriptures, and a national liturgy. Their capital, Pereslau, the ancient Marcianopolis, was overthrown in 971 by the united forces of the Greeks and Russians; after which they remained vassals of the former, till the period of the Osmanli conquests, when they not only fell under the Oct.-VOL, LXXXIV. NO. CCCXXXIV. R |