then leaning back, and closing his eyes, appeared to fall into a profound reveric; and Imogen again plunging into the train of reflection she had before indulged in, they continued their route in silence, interrupted only at intervals by a few casual observations on the scenery through which they passed, until towards the decline of evening they reached the beautiful village of Nivemont.

Sequestered from the scene of warfare and tumult, reposing at the base of a stupendous mountain, whose summit was now illumined with the sun's last fading beam; its calm and peaceful appearance formed a striking contrast to the natural and moral disorder they had lately witnessed. To the unyielding and desolated fields, succeeded a rich and smiling pasturage; to the furious and contending multitude, who over-ran and despoiled them, groupes of industrious and cheerful peasantry while the loud laugh of happy

VOL. III.

C

ignorance, or infantine hilarity, replaced the martial tone of the war-horn's shrill blast.

At the extremity of the village, and almost concealed by the deep umbrage of a mulberry-plantation, then rich in its snowy blossoms, lay the temporary residence of the wounded St. Dorval.

From the moment the chevalier pointed out its white chimneys, and blue curling smoke, to Imogen, her heart's palpitation increased until they reached its simple portal. She gave her trembling hand to de Sorville, who led her into a small but neat apartment, and then went to inform the count of her arrival. The intervening minutes were passed by Imogen in irrepressible emotion, and when the chevalier returned she was faint and spiritless.

"Your father," said he," has borne the news of your recovery better than, "from his weak state, could have been

"by his impatience to see you, than he "could even be by your presence." He then led her to the apartment of her wounded parent; the curtain of his bed was drawn aside, and the crimson flush of the horison, as it glowed on the casement, shed a faint tint over his emaciated form, which was supported by pillows, while his feeble arms were eagerly extended to receive the child who had risked her own life to preserve his. She sprung forward to fill them, and he fainted in her embrace, but soon recovered under the influence of his daughter's tender and solicitous cares. The affectionate pressure of her hand revived the flagging pulse of his; and her warm tears, as they bathed his cheek, recalled to its ashy surface the vital glow of fading existence. He opened his languid eyes, and fixed for a minute their ardent gaze on Imogen; then raised them meekly to hea ven, offered up a silent prayer, and again embraced her for whose sake it was pre

ferred. The chevalier gazed on the af fecting scene through tears of sympathiz ing feeling while the count, the first flush of his emotion subsided, looked with a delighted smile on his charming daughter, then directed a triumphant glance to his friend; and taking and taking a hand of each, as they sat on either side his bed, he exclaimed, This is to be blessed indeed." At that moment the surgeon, who was present, observing the scarlet tint that flushed his patient's cheek, and the feverish throb that fluttered his pulse, reminded him, that he had not slept for near thirty hours; and that the cause of his wakeful anxiety being thus happily removed, he should endeavour to take that salutary repose, on which his recovery so much depended. Imogen instantly caught the hint, and pleaded her own extreme fatigue as a secondary cause for her retiring.

The count, unwilling to lose sight of her, expressed not a desire to sleep, but an

anxious wish to hear an account of those incidents which had befallen her during their separation.

Imogen coloured, and looked at the chevalier, who said; "My dear friend, it is late, "mademoiselle de St. Dorval is faint and "exhausted, and stands almost in as much "need of rest as yourself. I, however, am "perfectly informed of every circumstance "attendant on her late extraordinary ad

venture, and you must accept of my nar"ration, until recovered health and spirits "will enable her to give it a new interest, by becoming the relator herself."

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Apprehension for the health of his child subdued every other sensation in the bosom of the count: an elderly female, to whom the house belonged, was summoned to attend her; and St. Dorval, with a thousand tender intreaties that she would take care of herself, if she wished him to live, kissed her cheek and suffered her to retire.

When Imogen had reached the little parlour