If we could but learn to commune with our own hearts, and know what
noble company we can make them, we should little regard the elegance and
the splendors of the worthless. Almost all men have been taught to call
life a passage, and themselves the travellers. The similitude still may
be improved, when we observe that the good are joyful and serene, like
travellers that are going towards home; the wicked but by intervals
happy, like travellers that are going into exile.
* * * * *
* * * *
THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION;
_OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._
Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.
_Translated from the German of Tschink._
(Continued from page 171.)
The Duke wrote only the following few lines:
“My dearest love! I address myself to you on the brink of the grave;
your hand can save or hurl me down; my doom rests with you. O! come,
angelic woman, and lead me from the gate of death to a paradisiacal
life; come and reward my love, which alone supports my breaking heart.”
P.S. “Vasconcel*os has bled under the avenging sword of the redeemers of
my country.”
The answer of the Countess was to the following purport:
“O! that this letter could fly on the pinions of love, in order to carry
instantly to my friend health and joy. Yes, your request is granted.
Receive, my dearest Duke, to whom my HEART has yielded, receive my HAND
too, and the vow of eternal fidelity. My uncle having recovered his
health, nothing shall detain me from embarking in the first vessel which
shall sail for Port***l. The idea that your best wishes, the blessing of
your father and my uncle, and the guardian genius of love, will conduct
me on my voyage, will assist me to conquer my fear of the sea. I should
never have done writing if this letter did not require expedition, and
my friend, who arrived here the day before yesterday, insisted upon
adding a few words to those of
“Your
“AMELIA CLAIRVAL.”
“Give me leave, my Lord, to add only my sincerest congratulations, and
to ask your Grace, whether you do not acknowledge now as a soothsayer
“Your humble and obedient servant,