fhine upon fo fair, fo quick-witted, and amiable a maid; and better fate did Maria deferve, than to have her banns forbid, by the intrigues of the curate of the parith who publifhed them-——————— He was going on, when Maria, who had made a short pause, put the pipe to her mouth and began the air again— they were the fame notes ;-yet were ten times fweeter: It is the evening service to the Virgin, faid the young man but who has taught her to play it—or how fhe came by her pipe, no one knows; we think that Heaven has affifted her in both; for ever fince she has been unfettled in her mind, it seems her only confolation-fhe has never once had the pipe out of her hand, but plays that service upon it almost night and day. THE postillion delivered this with fo much difcretion and natural eloquence, that I could not help decyphering fomething in his face above his condition, and should have fifted out his history, had not poor Maria's taken fuch full poffeffion of me. We had got up by this time almoft to the bank where Maria was fitting: she was in a thin white jacket, with her hair, all but two treffes, drawn up in a filk net, with à few olive leaves twisted a little fantastically on one side———— fhe was beautiful; and if ever I felt the full force of an honeft heart-ach, it was the moment I saw her -GOD help her! poor damfel! above a hundred masses, faid the poftillion, have been faid in the feveral parish churches and convents around for her,- -but without effect; we have still hopes, as the is fenfible for fhort intervals, that the Virgin at last will restore her to herself; but her parents, who know her beft, are hopeless upon that score, and think her fenfes arc loft for ever. As As the poftillion fpoke this, Maria made a cadence fo melancholy, fo tender and querulous, that I sprung out of the chaife to help her, and found myself fitting betwixt her and her goat before I relapfed from my enthusiasm. MARIA looked wishfully for some time at me, and then at her goat-and then at me-and then at her goat again, and so on, alternately WELL, Maria, faid I foftly-What refemblance do you find? I DO intreat the candid reader to believe me, that it was from the humbleft conviction of what a beast man is,—that I asked the question; and that I would not have let fallen an unfeasonable pleasantry in the venerable presence of Mifery, to be entitled to all the wit that ever Rabelais scattered. ADIEU, Maria!-adieu, poor hapless damfel!-fome time, but not now, I may hear thy forrows from thy own lips but I was deceived; for that moment she took her pipe, and told me fuch a tale of woe with it, that I rofe up, and with broken and irregular steps walked foftly to my chaife. SECOND PART. HEN we had got within half a league of Moulines, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I difcovered poor Maria fitting under a poplar-fhe was fitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one fide within her hand-a fmall brook ran at the foot of the tree. I BADE the poftillion go on with the chaife to Moulines— and La Fleur to bespeak my supper-and that I would walk after him. SEE SHE was dreffed in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loofe, which before was twifted within a filk net. She had, fuperadded likewife to her jacket, a pale green ribband which fell acrofs her shoulder to the waift; at the end of which hung her pipe. Her goat had been as faithlefs as her lover; and fhe had got a little dog in lieu of him, which fhe had kept tied by a string to her girdle; as I looked at her dog, fhe drew him towards her with the ftring-Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio," faid fhe. I looked in Maria's eyes, and faw fhe was think. ing more of her father than of her lover or her little goat ; for as fhe uttered them, the tears trickled down her cheeks. I SAT down close by her; and Maria let me wipe them away as they fell, with my handerchief. I then steeped it in my own and then in her's-and then in mine-and then I wiped her's again-and as I did it, I felt fuch undefcribable emotions within me, as I am fure could not be accounted for from any combinations of matter and motion. I AM pofitive I have a foul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pestered the world ever convince me of the contrary. WHEN Maria had come a little to herself, I asked her if The remembered a pale thin person of a man who had fat down betwixt her and her goat about two years before? She faid, fhe was unfettled much at that time, but remembered it upon two accounts that ill as fhe was, fhe faw the perfon pitied her; and next, that her goat had stolen his handkerchief, and she had beat him for the theft- fhe had washed it, she said, in the brook, and kept it ever fince in her pocket to restore it to him in cafe fhe fhould ever fee him again, which, fhe added, he had half promised her. As she told me this, fhe took the handkerchief out of her pocket to let me fee it: fhe had folded it up neatly in a couple of vine leaves, tied round with a tendril-on opening it, I faw an S marked in one of the corners. SHE had fince that, fhe told me, ftrayed as far as Rome, and walked round St. Peter's once-and returned back-that fhe found her way alone across the Apennines-had travelled over all Lombardy without money-and through the flinty roads of Savoy without fhoes: how she had borne it, and how fhe had got fupported, fhe could not tell-but God tempers the wind, faid Maria, to the fhorn lamb. SHORN indeed! and to the quick, faid I; and waft thou in my own land, where I have a cottage, I would take thee to it and fhelter thee; thou fhouldft eat of my own bread, and drink of my own cup-I would be kind to thy Sylvioin all thy weaknesses and wanderings I would seek after thee, and bring thee back-when the fun went down I would fay my prayers, and when I had done, thou fhouldft play thy evening fong upon thy pipe; nor would the incenfe of my facrifice be worfe accepted, for entering heaven along with that of a broken heart. NATURE melted within me, as I uttered this; and Maria obferving, as I took out my handkerchief, that it was fteeped too much already to be of ufe, would needs go wash it in the stream.-And where will you dry it, Maria? said I— I will dry it in my bosom, said she-it will do me good. AND is your heart ftill fo warm, Maria? faid I. I TOUCHED upon the ftring on which hung all her forrows-she looked with wistful disorder for fome time in my face; and then, without faying any thing, took her pipe, and played her fervice to the Virgin-The string I had touched ceafed to vibrate-in a moment or two Maria re. turned to herfelf-let her pipe fall-and rofe up. AND where are you going, Maria? faid I.-She faid, to Moulines. Let us go, faid I, together.-Maria put her arm within mine, and lengthening the ftring, to let the dog follow-in that order we entered Moulines. THOUGH I hate falutations and greetings in the marketplace, yet when we got into the middle of this, I stopped to take my laft look and last farewel of Maria. MARIA, though not tall, was nevertheless of the first order of fine forms-affliction had touched her looks with fomething that was fcarce earthly-ftill she was feminine ;and fo much was there about her of all that the heart wishes, or the eye looks for in woman, that could the traces be ever worn out of her brain, and those of Eliza's out of mine, she fhould not only eat of my bread and drink of my own cup, but Maria fhould lie in my bofom, and be unto me as a daughter. ADIEU, poor lucklefs maiden !imbibe the oil and wine which the compaffion of a stranger, as he journieth on his way, now pours into thy wounds-the Being who has twice bruised thee can only bind them up for ever. STERNE. t CHA P. XII. THE CA M E LIO N FT has it been my lot to mark A proud, conceited, talking spark, With eyes, that hardly serv'd at most To fee whatever could be feen. |