Colonel Beauchamp, adding very politely-"In course, sir, as a stranger, we should one and all be happy, I expect, to leave the fix to your own choice, putting out of sight our complaisance to your excellent lady." Out of the four other gentlemen about to sit down, two appeared rather anxious that the whimsical major, to whose account of himself they had been listening, should take his place with the ladies, and one of them said bluntly, "It would hardly be fair, Major Allen Barnaby, sir, to let you, with the careless ways you talk about, sit down at this table; because I, for one, always play a pretty considerable brisk stake." "That's the only way to keep me awake, sir," replied the major, laughing. "Men in our profession, as I dare say you know, have generally a few thousands of loose cash floating on purpose to give them a little excitement now and then, when they get a trifle sleepy in their quarters. I have run up and down, for my part, from about ten thousand to nothing, and back again, above a score of times since I began; and I find it has come so even in the long-run, that I care very little how high I play. But I never," he added, in a low voice, "I never play with ladies, it puts me out altogether." This decided the matter, and Major Allen Barnaby, Colonel Beauchamp, and two other gentlemen settled themselves round a table in a quiet corner, as gentlemen do settle themselves when they are going to amuse themselves in earnest. Had Annie Beauchamp remained in the room, it is likely enough that the hours of that long evening, might have offered opportunities to Egerton too favourable to be neglected, for the making her comprehend a little better than she did at present, what were his wishes, his hopes, his intentions concerning her; but, with the blindness of a perverse little mortal, she saw nothing of what was passing in his head or his heart, and she thought of nothing but the silence that had come over him on the preceding evening, when, as she confessed to herself with shame that amounted to agony, she was waiting for every word which might fall from his lips, as if her fate hung upon it. The recollection of these past feelings, together with the blank disappointment which had succeeded them, was more than she could bear any longer en plein salon, and begging her mother to apologize to the ladies for her absence, by telling them that she had so bad a headach as to oblige her to go to bed, she stole away, taking with her, as it seemed to Frederic Egerton, all that portion of light which could make it worth while for him to keep his eyes open, and for a few moments after he had watched her retreat, and listened to her mother's explanation of it, he meditated the commission of a similar act of self-indulgence. But he luckily recollected that his doing so would neither be particularly polite nor particularly discreet, and he therefore abandoned the project; the more readily, perhaps, because he happened to observe Don Tornorino move quietly away from the place he occupied beside his lady, and station himself at no great distance from his respected father-in-law, about whom he revolved with the same graceful air of nonchalance which had once before attracted his attention. THE SUN'S ECLIPSE. July 8, 1842. BY HORACE SMITH. 'Tis cloudless morning, but a frown misplaced, Her summer smile from Nature's brow hath chased. What menacing catastrophe is thus Is it the life of day, this livid glare, Death's counterpart? What means the withering coldness in the air, And what the gloom portentous that hath made O'er the Sun's disk, a dark orb wins its slow Climbs-spreads-enshrouds-extinguishes-and lo! Hangs in the sky, a corpse! th' usurper's might A pall is on the earth-the screaming birds To covert speed, Bewilder'd and aghast, the bellowing herds While men-pale shadows in the ghastly gloom, Transient, tho' total, was that drear eclipse; The Sun re-gladden'd earth ;-but human lips In mortal ears the horrors of the sight That thrill'd my soul that memorable night. To every distant zone and fulgent star Mine eyes could reach, And the wide waste was one chaotic war; Above-beneath-around me-every where Was anarchy-convulsion-death-despair. 'Twas noon-and yet a deep unnatural night Save where some orb unsphered, or satellite Glared as it darted thro' the darkness dread, A thousand simultaneous thunders crash'd, Some rushing planet 'gainst another dash'd, Volleys of shatter'd wreck, when, both destroyed, Others self-kindled, as they whirl'd and turn'd, Burst into flames, and rushing as they burn'd Like fire-ships that some stately fleet surprise, While stars kept falling from their spheres-as though Earth was a raging hell of war and woe Most deep and dire ; Virtue was vice-vice virtue-all was strife, From that fell scene my space-commanding eye I pierced the empyrean palace of the sky, A vacant throne—a sun's extinguish'd sphere- "What mean," I cried, "these sights unparallel'd, When lo! a voice replied, and nature held THE STUDENT OF LOUVAIN. BY ELIZABETH YOUATT. Like flower-seeds by the wild wind spread, The soul when those high gifts are shed May faint in solitude.-MRS. HEmans. THE day was closing in at Utrecht, and the inhabitants, for the most part poor but industrious citizens, congregated at the doors of their houses to smoke their pipes, or converse together on the state of the times; and a set of more phlegmatic countenances and contented spirits could not well have met together. Before an abode, the neatness of which could not conceal the evident poverty of its inmates, and which you learnt by a rude inscription on the walls belonged to a barge-builder, sat a boy on the fallen trunk of a tree. His dress was coarse in the extreme, leaving his muscular limbs fully exposed, but there was something in the proud motion of his head as he threw back the tangled hair from his brow, and looked around with his wild, restless eyes, which at once distinguished him from the rest of his companions, and showed that thoughts incompatible with his present situation were busily at work in his young mind. Occasionally his father, a rude, unlettered man, but with a veneration for learning which has made his name respected to this day, and who now stood leaning against the doorpost, with his white shirt-sleeves rolled up above the elbow, and his brawny arms crossed upon his breast, would take the pipe from his lips, and address some kindly word to him, which was replied to as though the mind of the listener had wandered far away. It would seem as if the boy was watching the blue smoke-wreathes as they rose up into the still air of evening and disappeared; but it is more probable that his aspiring thoughts followed each other as rapidly, and then became likewise lost in indistinctness. He was aroused at length by a low and gentle voice, and a young girl with bare feet, and a number of small brass coins coquettishly woven in her long braided hair, stood panting for breath by his side. She was an orphan, none knew even from what country she came, though the starry brightness of her large dark eyes, and the sweet accents of her voice, which made music of their harsh language every time she spoke, told of the sunny south. She had been the sole survivor of a vessel which foundered at sea, and adopted by a lone old man, an iron-worker of Guelderland, who had lately come to settle at Utrecht, and who loved her as if she had been his own child. The boy looked up and smiled at her approach; but it was a dreamy smile which brightened as it met hers, as though all other thoughts melted away before its radiance; and he tried to draw her towards him that she might share his seat. "No, no," said the girl, playfully eluding his grasp, "I cannot sit still here all this splendid evening." "Where would you go to, Esmeralda ?" "Let us dance in the sunset, or chase each other along by the river; it always feels so fresh by the water.” Adrian sprang up with a joyous bound, and the old barge-builder dashed the tears from his eyes, as he watched them depart, for he knew it would be but little longer that he should have his son with him. How merrily they danced, and laughed, and romped that night, until even the light-footed Esmeralda grew weary, and following her example Adrian sat down upon the ground, and amused himself by playing with the coins in her long hair. Why do you wear these?" he asked at length, "I never see any of the other children with their heads dressed after this strange fashion." “Possibly not; but I have a dreamy recollection that they were worn thus in my own country: and I never hear them tinkling as I dance without thinking of home." "I had forgotten that you are not one of us," said Adrian, looking into her beautiful face with a mixture of boyish reverence and love; "for ought any one knows to the contrary, you may be a queen!" "Ah, if I was!" exclaimed the girl, smiling joyously. "And what would you do then, my Esmeralda ?" "Buy every book that was ever written, so that you might read all day long if you chose. That would make you happy, would it not, Adrian ?" "But yourself, dearest ?" "Ah! I had forgotten myself. I would have masters and study to be wise, in order that you might love me, and never intrude upon you, except you were weary or sick, or when you sent for me." "Silly Esmeralda! why I should be always sending for you; even as it is I love you better than any thing else in the world. "Except books," interrupted the girl, holding up her finger with a merry laugh, come, confess, Adrian?" 66 "Well, well, except books then, since you will have it so. And yet I am not quite sure," added the young scholar, dazzled by the bewildering brightness of the dark eyes which sought his so mirthfully, whether I shall admit any exception at all. But it grows late for you to be out, had we not better return?" The girl rose up that instant, and went bounding on before him like an antelope, her sweet laugh now close at his ear, while her cheek touched his, and then growing fainter in the distance as he strove in vain to keep up with her fleet steps, and mingling with the fairy-like tinkling of her long braided hair. As they approached the dwelling of her protector she assumed a more demure pace, and suffered herself to be overtaken. "What a race you have led me, Esmeralda!" "Poor Adrian! you do look tired;" and she parted the hair upon his flushed brow with her cool fingers, and laughed mischievously: "but you will come in and rest?" "Not to-night, dear." "Well, I shall see you to-morrow," and she held up her sweet face for the accustomed kiss, which we will not take upon ourselves to swear was not given as well as received; but then they were but children. The old barge-builder was anxiously awaiting the return of his son, and that night they sat up long, talking of the past, and yet more earnestly of the future, which their sanguine hopes made bright. The following day it was known all over Utrecht that Adrian would never settle down to his father's business, but was about, with his permission, to quit his native place and proceed to Louvain, at which university the old man had been long and secretly trying to get him admittted gra |