once forged that handwriting. What could it be? Why should he hold communication with me, she thought? Perhaps he wants to get at some information which can only be got at through my means? It is well," she said, breathing quickly; "to have him in my power will be indeed, a triumph."

"Shall I take the cask, madam, and open it belowstairs?" asked the servant.

No; open it in my presence."

She wondered what it could be; above all, she wondered at Lord de Montmorenci sending her any thing. The vessel was found to contain a small parcel tied up in oilskin. She cut the string hastily, and beheld a letter.

You may go, Harris," she said to her servant.

And she was alone;-alone, but with an awful, though invisible visitant-conscience. She tore the letter open, and saw that it was written by her brother. Her first impulse was to destroy it unexamined; but something stronger still, which compelled her to know its contents, made her read the following words:

"Be what you may, you will be ever dear to me, for you are my sister; we have lain in the same breast, we have been cradled in the same fond arms of parental love; God has tied us together with the cord of near relationship. Sinful and unworthy as you are, we cannot untie that link. I love you with a brother's love. Anna Clermont, attend to my words; you must, you will attend to them, we may never meet again in this work!, but you cannot shake off all memory of me: my warning voice will sound in your ears when there is none to hear; my image will start up to your view, when there is none to see, and scare you from your criminal life. I hear you are called the great woman of your day;-let me not shrink from my mournful duty of speaking the truth; a coarser epithet would suit you better: the great bad woman of the town; and to such the brother's letter of rebuke, setting forth your shame, will be an unwelcome visiter. Yet, some morning, before the bustle of noonday, when you are alone, curiosity may prompt you to read that, which conscious guilt might incline you to cast aside. I take this chance then to say a few words, which it will relieve me to express, which it

may possibly be of advantage that you should attend to. Anna Clermont, you are a lost woman here, but that is only as regards time; eternity is still before you.

"I hear loud rumours of your shameful life. I have been told you are the mistress of Sir Charles Lennard; I hear that you have used, or rather abused the talents committed to your charge, and by petty intrigue, and a busy meddling spirit, that you have established yourself as the tool of licentious and wicked men, to work their crafty wiles, and that you support by your wealth the whole crew of Sir Charles Lennard's associates. Now, Anna Clermont, my once innocent, my still dear, though criminal sister, pause, and look back; then again glance at the future. Are you not a miserable woman? Are there not hours and times when you would lay down all your wealth to reinstate yourself in the purity that once was yours? I know you would, but it is in vain; and so you think it is well to live on, and plunge deeper in sin. Perhaps so, if this world be all; but, Anna Clermont, you know it is not. Do what you may to drown the recollection, it will come back with your first infant prayer to your memory. You have too much sense to think otherwise; and then, what scorpions arise to sting and goad you with their scourge; embrace the mercy that is still held out to you. Repent!-One hour-one moment, and you may be too late.

"I have long wished to make this last appeal to you, but to-night the impulse is so strong I may not defer it.

"I am on board the Zephir, James Danesford's frigate. Do these names say nothing to you? Rather, do they not contain volumes?

"Anua Clermont, your name brings back to me the contrast of virtue with vice; it is a sound which conveys every thing that is dear, every thing that is abhorrent to me. My own sorrow, my own sin; may some fortunate, some blessed chance awaken in you similar feelings, and though you are lost to me here, may we meet hereafter. This is the constant prayer of your very miserable, but very affectionate brother."

Miss Clermont's eyes seemed to flash fire, as she finished this letter, and there was a burning of the heart and brain, that appeared to choke and suffocate her; but another paper had dropped from her hand, she seized and unfolded it; it was a fragment of a newspaper, containing an account

of the fate of the Zephir; for a moment she was appalledeven she, remained speechless, the first person who came into the room, found her on the ground apparently lifeless.

CHAPTER XVI.

1 do love you more than words can wield the matter,
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;

Beyond what can be valued, rich, or rare,

No less than life, with grace, health, beauty honour.

KING LEAR.

It was a proud day for Lady Herbert, when she beheld her beautiful daughter in all the flush of youthful bloom, decorated with every outward adornment which could heighten her charms, and yet herself remaining as humble, as free from affectation, or any undue love of homage, as though she had not been gifted above her companions; and as she passed along the corridor and up the great staircase which led to the drawing-room, Lady Herbert's eager ears drank in the praises of her child, which resounded in loud whispers from every beholder. But the envy and detraction, which, like a shadow, follow still the footsteps of the renowned, failed not in this, as on all similar occasions, to vent its spleen, and the question of

"Who is she?" was answered in an under tone,

"Oh! the daughter of the Lord Herbert, about whom there was all that shocking history a few years ago. He was shot, you know, by the governess's brother, with whom he ran off."

Pray, sir, do not tear my lappet from my head." "Indeed, madam, it is impossible I should not crowd upon you, I am so pushed by the persons behind me.”

"Help there, I beseech you?" cried several voices, as the genteel mob rushed to the opening which was just unbarred, to admit the throng to the presence-chamber.

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Help, I implore you, the lady is fainting, she will certainly be trampled to death if she falls."

"We shall be squeezed to death, if the crowd does not give way."

"Who can think of any one but themselves?"

And the lady did fall, and had it not been for Lord de Montmorenci, she stood a very good chance of being crushed to death; but, with the assistance of another gentleman, he supported her till such time as the windows were opened, and that the bear-garden formed an outlet for its fury; then the person, who had so nearly been a victim to the rude impatience of the crowd, was carried away, unable to see the Sovereign, and happy to escape with her life. It would be scarcely possible to believe, were the fact not of too frequent occurrence to be doubtful, that any set of persons calling themselves civilized, much less ladies and gentlemen, should, from mere impatience of delay, endanger their own lives and that of others, by rushing like a torrent the one over the other, without attention to decency or humanity. The circumstance of a railing being put up to prevent the necessity of a crowd, seems to fire the assembled multitude with a demoniac sort of resolution, that each individual should be the first to pass its boundary; and it would be laughable, were it not shocking, to look on at every drawing-room, and behold, how young and old, men and women, brave the pressure of each other's bodies, even to suffocation, rather than await patiently till each in their turn can find room to move on. Lady Herbert and her daughter had been among the earliest arrivals, and found places near the entrance door, where they sat very quietly for a length of time. At last they were induced to move towards the barrier, and still the same strife was chafing and raging like a troubled sea. Miss Herbert was terrified, and said,

"Oh! mamma, if this is pleasure, if this is the dignity of a court, I never wish to see it again."

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Then she was applied to for assistance for the lady who had fainted; her smelling-bottle and her fan were in requisition; and, in short, before she reached the end of the chamber which is railed off, she was sick with fatigue and disgust. The next room wore something more of the pearance of a court. Persons were conversing together, in different groups, and those of the fine dresses which had not been previously torn or soiled in the way, now appeared in splendid show. Miss Herbert's beauty could be looked at, and admired, and envied. One woman said, sneeringly,

"Is that the thing I have heard so much about? Well, you surprise me; I cannot see any thing to admire in her."

And the fashionable friend conversing with that lady, answered in the same strain:

"Every new person, you know, excites a moment's attention. No, indeed, I don't think there is any marvellous beauty in the girl; rather niaise, I should say." Then turning to a male friend,-" Very handsome, however; but truth is not always to be told, especially not when speaking of one woman to another."

When Lady Herbert found herself once more before the sovereign, she was obliged to summon up all her courage; for she knew that a thousand eyes were upon her, and that her melancholy story would be adverted to by a thousand tongues, the greater part of malicious and spiteful kind: but, amongst them were scattered a few kindly faces, who, peeping behind feathers and lappets, made signals of approval and pleasure, which cheered her spirits. On the whole, she gathered up sufficient praises of her daughter even to satisfy her partial heart. But the hasty and rude manner in which the whole court are driven past the royal circle, like a flock of geese, has something in it so uncourteous and so unsatisfactory, that it cannot make a drawingroom a popular thing. Those who remembered old times, lamented their former admission to the presence of the sovereigns-so different, they said, from the present fashion. Then they explained how the whole court (a select court) were assembled in the same chamber, and every person was talked to in their turn, as rank or favour obtained for them the privilege of being more or less noticed. Now, every body goes to court; there is no distinction in doing so.

"For my part," whispered Lady Arabella Norman, a fine lady of the by-gone age, "I shall never come here again. I have seen the rabble rout twice, and that is enough. Nobody will miss me, and I shall miss nobody."

"Ah," said Miss Herbert, "that is just my case, if it depended on myself, I never would come here again; one feels degraded by being crushed to atoms, and having one's clothes torn off."

"My dear young lady, you are very sensible; but each one must belong to their own time, and make the best of what is going. It won't do to stand still in the middle of the course, and look sturdy, and say, I will not walk on with the rest. Old folks naturally belong to the past, but