with many threats, by one of the servants, and the connected with that name. I wish you good-morncarriage drove on, I following closely. 46 As we set forward, Lord D. put his head out of the window: "I say, Pulteney!" called the good-natured nobleman, quite too indolent to be at all excited by the adventure, when we get to town, I'll have you made a Bow-street officer. Your manner of taking thieves is really beautiful. Have a pinch of snuff?" "Your lordship," said I, as I took his box," evinces such a charming coolness on the occasion, that I will allow you the pleasure of catching your own thie ves for the future." My affair with the foot-pad gave me quite a renown in London. My courage and ingenuity were talked of every where, and there happening to be at that time no three-head savages in town, I was a decided lion for a day and a half. I called some time after to pay a visit to Rafe. He received me with a painful embarrassment, which I attributed to our relation in the matter of my cousin. While I was sitting with him, a servant came in with a letter in his hand : Here is a letter, sir, addressed to Mr. Harford, which was directed to be left at this house." Rafe colored deeply, but took the letter, and said Affecting quietly-" Yes, I will give it to him." not to observe his disordered looks, I rose and took my leave. In due time, I was summoned to the Old Bailey at the trial of the foot pad for felony. I had finished my evidence, and was leaving the bar, when I saw a man standing near one of the pillars, enveloped in a large cloak, with heavy hair, manifestly false, over his forehead, and the lower part of his face concealed by his hat. His eyes were fixed upon me with a ferocious glare, and I knew in a moment that I had encountered that glance before. I paused involuntarily: "Can that be Rafe?" thought I," that look belongs to no one else; but what can he be doing here?" I walked toward him to ascertain if my suspicions were correct, when he turned quickly round and presented his back to me. I left the court-room immediately, but that circumstance suggested a clue explanatory of the difficulties which had puzzled me before. As I was going through the outer hall of the sessions-room, I was joined by Lord Wilford, who, having been in the carriage of Lord D. on the night that it was stopped, had been requested to attend as a wit Would you," said I, "be likely to remember the name which he formerly bore, if it were mentioned?" "I am certain that I should." "Was it any thing like Harford." ing." That the name of Rafe was Harford, and that he was nearly connected with the prisoner, were very probable suspicions, and such as explained those peculiarities of manner which I had observed. How close that relationship might be, I scarcely ventured to suggest to myself. Probably near enough to assure me, who well knew the character I dealt with, that I should share the hearty vengeance of the younger MEANWHILE my sweet cousin and myself continued to meet daily, and my affection for her grew stronger and purer as our intimacy increased; for the unsullied virtues of her character tempered passion with a kind of veneration. In her behavior to me, there was none of that capriciousness or affectation with which most ladies think it discreet to treat their lovers, but a perfect trustingness of love-a confidence which reposed all upon my sincerity, without a doubt that any could be abused. In company I was always by her side, and when she chose to decline society, my evenings were constantly passed at her house. I shared the envy of all my acquaintance, and was glad to find that the prospect of our alliance was agreeable to all her friends; every visit that I made, her mother observed with increased perspicuity the singular resemblance between the cousins, and the Viscount, her father, begged it to be clearly understood how entirely he approved of my whole conduct on the day that I first met my cousin; and seven times a week, when the cloth was removed after dinner, demonstrated in the most satisfactory manner, precisely how it was that he became separated from his daughter, pulling out his repeater every time at the same point in the story, and tracing the localities on the table with his finger moistened with wine. For my part I was as happy as the craving fancy could have pictured. My life was a dream of joy; there was nothing in the present to detract from my delight, and nothing in the future to cast a shade over my enjoyment, and I gave myself up with a delight "The same, beyound a doubt. I am sure of it, on account of its resemblance to Hertford, for I recollectful intoxication to the having noticed formerly the similarity of the two But, have you known him before?" names. "I have not," said I; "but I had some suspicions "Sensations sweet Tingling the blood, and felt along the heart," which awaited me wherever I turned. It is in love only that man rests in the present; under all other conditions of his being, he looks forward or looks back. That heaven is love, explains therefore the meaning of an "eternal now;" for endless time would be to the heart a changeless eternity. Two or three weeks had thus past on when I called one morning upon my cousin, and was struck by the unusual agitation and restraint of her manner. I ask ed immediately the cause of her discomposure, and begged that if there was any thing which it was in my power to remove, she would suffer me to know it. "Nothing," said she, with a sadness of voice, and fixedness of look, which convinced me that there was a great deal. "Are you going to Lady Belford's to-night ?" "I am not ;" and there was a dead pause. I thought, too, that I saw a slight tear in her eye. "What is the matter, my dear cousin? Have I of fended you? Have I done any thing wrong? Tell me, for heaven's sake, the cause of your extraordinary "Sir: Of the circumstances as to which inquiry is made in the note with which I am this moment honored, your memory must be capable of supplying you with a more detailed account than I am able to afford. It is sufficient for me to say that intelligence of certain recent events, of which the actor cannot easily be conceived to be ignorant, having reached the ears of my family and myself, renders it impossible that your visits to any member of my family should be longer continued. Any doubt which might have remained in my mind as to the certainty of my supposition, is dispelled by your note. I have the honor to be, &c. SIDNEY. P. S. It may be proper to say that Miss Sidney suggested, and approves, the determination which is now communicated." I read this enigmatical letter again and again without being able to devise what “events" it could possibly allude to. The last sentence, especially, baffled my imagination to explain. I addressed another note to my uncle, assuring him of the total error under which I was convinced that he labored, and earnestly desiring a more explicit understanding before a course of conduct was adopted which might be fatal in its results. The letter came back unopened. There, too, I met from both parties with the same silence and coldness. I endured it for a few moments, and then left the house, overwhelmed with perplexity and distress. I could not form the faintest conjecture as to the reason of this strange reception. I called the next day, and was told that the ladies were not at home; as I had seen them in the drawing-room, from the opposite side of the street, my surprise and anxiety were doubly increased. On both the following mornings the reply was the same. I could sustain it no longer. I sat down and addressed a note to Lord Sid-room, I strolled out to Lady B.'s, where there was a ney. "My Lord:-Three times on as many successive days have I called at your house, and three times have I been repulsed from the door. I pretend not to conceive that these denials have been accidental. If any change has taken place in the inclinations of Miss Sidney since that time in which I presumed that my visits were not wholly disagreeable, or if for any reason your Lordship has ceased to approve of the footing on which I have hitherto been allowed to stand in your family, I beg that I may be informed of what resolution has been taken, and I shall submit to itwith what feelings, it becomes me not to say. Whether it be fact or suspicion, I think that I am entitled to request that your Lordship will let me know to what cause I am to attribute the very marked alteration in the feelings with which my visits are regarded, that I may at least be relieved from the painful ignorance in which I now find myself. I have the honor to be, Your Lordship's obedient servant, HENRY PULTENEY." My pride was now irritated. Conscious of the innocence and propriety of my entire conduct, and feeling the deep injustice which was done me by accrediting suspicions of baseness before an opportunity of confuting them had been permitted, I armed myself with resentment to sustain the distress which the disrupture of affection occasioned. About a week after this, during which time I had scarcely once left my small party. I had a faint hope that I might at least see my cousin there, or perhaps hear from some one an family. No one who seemed likely to give me any explanation of the mysterious conduct of my uncle's satisfaction was present. I walked through the rooms which had so lately been made bright by her presence, and the gay sounds of merriment which smote my ears, jarred upon my feelings with a distressing conI stood upon the very spot which we had oecupied together on that night when all had been joyand the ignorance which I had of the circumstances ous and glad. How changed was our relation now! which caused the change, left me the prey of harrowing conjecture. trast. "Hush! There is some dreadful mistake I am afraid; but what it is, I cannot imagine. You have done nothing?" "Oh! nothing. I love my cousin with a devotion which no language can express. Every thought of my heart is her's. I could not do any thing to offend In a few minutes, I received the following answer: her. Do try, my dear lady, to find out this distressing "Ah! I see how it will end; what a madman is complaining grief, and her silent anguish; I beheld, my uncle!" and I walked out of the house. pale and sad, that face which had so often been I sent one of my servants the next day to West-turned to me in perfect happiness and love; I rememmoreland, to gather all the information which he could bered that a word might have prevented this. It was as to the changes in my cousin's health, and to send now too late. me daily accounts; I chose to remain in town myself, to pursue some investigations which I had on foot for discovering what occurrences those were which my uncle alluded to in his note to me. It was manifest that the mistake into which he had been led, was the result of a deep plot on the part of some one; but by whom it had been laid, and how it had been conducted, was more than I was yet able to understand. As I looked towards the castle, I presently saw the shutters of a room drawn to, and the flag which had floated on the tower, taken down. I knew that all was over, and that the glory of the house of Sidney was no more. I sank upon a chair, in agony unutterable. I thought that my frame would be rent asunder by the violence of my emotion. It is a wise provision of our nature, that some of Meanwhile the accounts from Westmoreland be- those mighty sorrows which fall upon us in life, excame daily more and more gloomy. My cousin was ceed the strength of the sensibilities to grapple with worse-much worse—at length, not expected to live. them. Great griefs lie like sluggish loads upon the I could not endure this horrid distance from the only mind, oppressing but not torturing it; it is only when object of interest in the world to me, which falsified they have become familiarized to the feelings, that we every message long before it reached me. I set off at are able to measure their extent, and taste their full once for the country, leaving every thing in care of a bitterness; it is only when remembrance at her leisure confidential servant, with orders to bring me instant flashes darts from what before has been one globe of intelligence of any thing which he could discover-suffering, that the racking of a loss is commensurate If I could approach Lord Sidney with proofs, it might with its magnitude. There are many misfortunes of not yet be too late to reverse misfortune. I reached the house where my servant had taken lodgings for me, within sight of my uncle's residence. "Where is John?" said I. "Gone up to the castle," said the woman, in a sorrowful whisper, as if her voice at that distance could disturb the sick. which it may be safely affirmed, that they can never be adequately felt. It was in a dark bewilderment that I existed at this time-a maze of dull despair, through which no clear reality was seen. As I now look back upon it, I wonder that I lived. On the following day, the servant whom I had left in London, came down. He had detected the mys I walked into the room and threw myself on a chair | tery of the iniquity by which such ruin had been in a sort of stupefaction. The servant returned in a wrought. Some one whose presence he had confew moments, and came into the chamber where I stantly traced, but whose name and person he could was. I looked at him in silence. Without appearing not identify, had determined to destroy my character to notice me, he walked nervously round the room in the estimation of my cousin and my uncle, and had once or twice, affected to arrange some articles of fur-arranged a wide and intricate scheme for the purpose. niture, and walked back to the door; as his hand was I listened to the account of my servant with perfect on the knob, his face being turned from me, he stood still for a moment, and then muttered in a hoarse voice "Miss Sidney is dying," and left me. I arose and approached an open window, which commanded a view of my uncle's residence, and the beautiful landscape around it. The air was mild and silent, the sky clear, and all looked peaceful and pure. And in a scene like this, was my cousin dying! 1 looked upon the grounds through which she must so often have walked, and upon the house where she now lay breathing her faint and fleeting breath. A visible sadness seemed to hang upon the motionless trees, and float above the silent castle. In a thousand various attitudes and expressions, each distinctly fixed as in marble, the face and figure of my cousin rose upon my mind. And she was dying! She upon whom my every hope was placed; amazement; it seemed that nothing but a demon's depravity could have suggested such enormous villany, and nothing but an arch-demon's ingenuity have directed its execution. It is not my intention here to unfold this scheme; but it is such, that from the circumstantial evidence which reached my uncle, I could not but allow that he was reasonably justified in concluding my infamy. Yet a single question to me would have dissipated all his convictions. "But one of the accomplices," said the servant, "the female attendant of Miss Sidney, may certainly be convicted, and made to feel whatever your vengeance can prompt." "No, no!" said I, "let them go; let them live if they can. It would be a mockery of my grief to think that any revenge could satisfy it. It would be a crime against her memory to imagine that the loss could be compensated to my heart. I feel no enmity against them; it is a wrong too deep for resentment." That afternoon Elizabeth Sidney was buried. The lonely and sombre evening was gathering about the earth when I set out for the castle of Lord Sidney. I opened the door, and passing a group of surprised attendants, entered the parlor, where my uncle was sitting alone. "My Lord!" said I, with vehemence," it is idle at such a time to talk of exclusion. I will be heard. The monstrous contrivances by which you were abused, have this day, for the first time, reached my You have done me utter and most fatal wrong. In the hearing of God, and in the awful presence of the spirit of my cousin, I swear that you have done me wrong." ear. The viscount trembled as he listened to me, and his face became distorted with emotion, for he felt that I spake truly. He rose and walked to a secretary in the corner, and taking out some letters, put them in my hands. "Did you not write those letters?" said he in a screeching voice, and he panted so that he could scarcely speak. "Oh! never, never!" After some time, I was startled by a slight noise at my side. I turned and saw a man wrapt in a cloak, standing still and looking upon me. As I moved, he took off his hat, and the moon shining clearly upon his face, revealed the countenance of Rafe. His face was deadly pale, and much attenuated; his eye glared with a fiendish power, and there was a savage exultation on his rigid lip. "That is one drop in the cup of revenge," said he. "And you have done this?" "Listen to me," said he. "Along this path, and in yonder grounds, I walked in former years with Elizabeth Sidney; your emotions may tell you what was my affection. She went to London, and when I again met her, you had crossed my path, and fatally. My suit was rejected; and I determined that your success should be your ruin. You seized upon the highway one whom necessity and a wounded mind had led to that life. That man was my father. The incessant efforts of his son had at length procured for him a foreign post of credit and emolument, in which he might spend his declining life, and the night on which you met him was the last which he would have spent in England. He was a felon to the world; but to me he was a father. I knelt by his lifeless body in a "Was not your green carriage at my door on the convict's cell, and I swore that while you lived, the evening before Lady Belford's ball?" "I sold that carriage a week before." His frame shook as if it had been palsied. Every feature of his countenance quivered with masterless disorder. In a broken whisper he sobbed, "It is awful," and bowed with anguish-he tottered from the room. I went out from the house, and wandered I knew not whither. It was midnight before I had consciousness enough to think of returning home. My way lay past the village grave yard, and I was beside it before I was aware. By a mechanical impulse I looked over the wall, and my eye fell upon a small fresh mound of earth, which I knew to be the grave of Elizabeth Sidney. I leaned over the wall, and gazed upon the narrow ridge. The silence of the scene and the holiness of the spot subdued me to a softer temper than I yet had felt. I rested upon the roof of the bricks and wept. sole purpose of my life should be revenge. One step of the ladder by which you descend to the lowest depth of misery and despair, has been taken. Know now, that go where you will, mingle in action, or repose in idleness, my hate has marked you for its own. Sleeping or waking, at home or abroad, my eye is upon you, and my hand about you. When fortune seems to smile, and peace suggests a hope that your doom has been conquered, say to yourself, 'Destruction only pauses.' When the thunderbolt of ruin bursts over your head, and the tempest of desolation wreaks its rage upon your happiness, say then, This is not the last;' for there shall be another and another. My vengeance may have leaden feet, but it will have hands of iron." He left me; and I remained, stunned, upon the spot. [To be continued.] RHYMES, SENT TO A YOUNG LADY WITH A SMELLING BOTTLE, WHICH SHE HAD BORROWED OF THE WRITER. To my fair friend, Miss Murray, I write in a hurry, Nay, do not refuse it, yon oft-times may use it, If better it find you, oh let it remind you, Of when you first saw these same volatile salts ! I pray you may never have cause to endeavor PHILADELPHIA PUN-GENTS. Α RELA ΑΤΙΟΝ. Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee Quips and Cranks, and wanton wiles, Milton. its cultivation by all men of mind. Read what the learned divine, who was himself celebrated for wit, says against wit-and in his comprehensive definition, observe how closely the nature of the pun is describ THE denizens of the equilateral city of Penn have own destruction, as the fire-encircled scorpion is sup long been distinguished for a proficiency in the prac-posed to sting itself to death. But a perusal of the tice of punning. Is it from the influence of the many doctor's powerful sermon against wit, as Addison somelawyers who crowd about the State House, and fill the where observes, affords the highest evidences of its adjoining streets? Lawyers are a word-loving, quib-utility in argument, and the consequent necessity of bling, phrase-twisting race, and have ever been notorious in the annals of good living and good humor. Sheridan tells of one who wrote his puns on the back of his brief, and found them of great use in a dry cause. Do we of Penn pun by warrant of Attor-ed, although the inanities of this working-day world ney? Or has the intersection of the streets any con deny its wittiness or grace. nexion with the interweaving of our words? Can the frequency of bi-angles of brick and mortar induct a propensity to pun, by suggesting a double point to our jokery? Can the contiguity of the two rivers produce a biparous flow of ideas? Can the unequalled purity of the atmosphere have an hilarious effect upon our minds? Can habits of extensive intercourse give a party-colored tinge to our conversation that eventuates in punning? It is likely, for wine and waxlights assist the wit, and jokes tell best after the celery and over the Sillery. At one time, I imagined that the clearness of the Schuylkill water had some influence on our wit, but I have since been convinced that champagne, properly administered, produces the most brilliant puns; I have not yet ascertained the relative value of the various brands, but I believe that a few large draughts of Biddle put a man into better spirits than any thing else. A word or two in defence of puns: "There are a sort of raen so loose of soul," that they assume a despicable opinion of the practice of punning, generally because they are unable to perpetrate even a pigmy. I have heard men of some repute say, "I never condescend to pun!" and know others who condemn the propensity as a low habit, devoid of any portion of wit's estate. Punning was much in vogue among the Grecians and the Romans; many hundred instances can be adduced in support of the antiquity and classicality of the pursuit. With regard to the claims of the pun to be estimated as wit, I would observe that we must first ascertain what wit really is. Dr. Barrow, the celebrated divine, in his sermon againt vain and idle talking, has exemplified the ills of jesting in a strain of the purest wit; wishing, per. haps, that the subject of his discourse should cause its "It is indeed a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judgments, that it seemeth no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusions to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in feigning an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of their sound; sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression; sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude; sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation; in cunningly, divertingly, or cleverly retorting an objection; sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperpole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense; sometimes a scenical representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture, passeth for it. Sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness giveth it being. Sometimes it riseth only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange : sometimes from a crafty wresting of obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth of one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable and inexplicable, being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy and windings of language." This extract is sufficiently convincing that punning is "a portion of the realm of wit," and the general prevalence of its use exhibits the estimation it is held in by authors of the first celebrity. The puns of Shakspeare are innumerable; and he cared not how a |