"For me, lady?-nothing." Do you not wish to live?"" THE LINWOODS. He #Yes-with him. 'Out him?-no.* "Who?" Isabella spoke too eagerly. hoked at her, shook his head, then broke into exulting laugh, like a boy who has seen a tap and escaped it. "Miss Belle," said Rose, "you are wasting your tears and your feelings-we must all die once, and the stroke can't come in better time to him than now, when he's so willing to go." "Willing? glad, hey! nobody cares for me, and I cares for nobody but him; I think he be dead; but," he added, laying his hand on Isabella's arm, be he dead, or be he living, you'll see himyour soul is kin to his, lady-and mind you tell him how the Skinners kept me till the reg'lars ame-did not tell 'em I was not a Skinnercheated 'em, hey!" Isabella waited till he was through, and then mid quietly, "Who did you tell me to give your message to ?" "Misser Eliot." At the utterance of this name poor Kisel sank back on the straw, laughed and tried, and attempted to whistle, but he was too Teak to control the muscles of his lips. By degrees his voice subsided into low moanings, and his eye wandered without light or direction from his mind. The name had produced its effect upon Isabella also. She had been incited to this visit to the prison by Herbert, who had communicated to her, the previous evening, some particulars he had received from a sub-keeper in the prison, in relation to this condemned man, which had excited A fear in Herbert's mind that there was some mistake in relation to the culprit. Herbert had not, however, the slightest suspicion that the poor victim was Kisel. One or two particulars of the convict's apparent innocence and simplicity had touched Isabella's heart, and all night she had been disturbed by the impression that he was unjustly condemned. Some young ladies would have rested satisfied with dropping a few pitiful tears over such a mischance; but Isabella Linwood was of another temper, and having no male friend on whom she could rely, she went herself to the prison, and easily obtained access to the prisoner's cell. The moment Kisel pronounced Eliot's name, she was convinced the condemned must be the half-witted attendant of Captain Lee, whom she had often heard Herbert describe; and she doubted not that, by going to Sir Henry Clinton and communicating her conviction, she might obtain an order for having him identified by confronting him with Herbert, or at any rate, that she should procure a respite of his sentence. Her carriage was awaiting her; and having communicated her intentions to Rose, she directed her to walk home, saying she should go immeRose remonstrated. diately to Sir Henry's. "What if he be the poor man you think for, Miss Belle? life is nothing to him-he can do nothing with it-be would not thank you for it.' "But, Rose, the life of an innocent man is sacred.' "La, Miss Belle, they don't stand on such trifles as innocence in war times-please don't go to Sir Henry's. He won't think the man belonging to Captain Lee alters the case much, and you don't love to be denied, and-I don't love to have you." "love to be denied," but the discipline of events In the midst of these meditations she was "The drawing-room was occupied ;" and thus, though the awkwardness of entering was increased tenfold by the effort to avoid it, enter she must. Seldom have two persons been placed in a more singular position in relation to each other. Their destiny, while it was governed by inflexible priaciples, seemed to have been at the mercy of the merest accidents. "If," as Meredith had thought a thousand times, while pursuing his retrospections, "if Isabella had not hesitated, and while she hesitated, Helen Ruthven had not broken in upon us, our fate would then have been fixed; or if, on the second occasion, when I urged her decision, she had not again hesitated till her impatient father called her, I should not now be wavering between my inclination and my better judgment!" But Isabella did hesitate, and that hesitation, proceeding from the demands of her pure and and spur to his vanity. lofty nature, was her salvation, and a fatal rebuke They exchanged the ordinary salutations. Isabella sat down. They were in the same chairs they had occupied at that memorable moment of their lives; the same table was before them-the Feelings have their same books on the table. habits, and so easily revert to their customary channels! A spell seemed to have been cast over them. Neither spoke nor moved, till Isabella, and walked to the window. "Ah," thought she, starting as one starts from a thrilling dream, rose "what memories, hopes, dreams, poor fancy's followers,' has this place conjured up!" Jasper, moved by an irresistible impulse, followed her, and was arrested, in his half formed purpose, by the vision of Helen Ruthven, who, as she was passing on the opposite side of the street, had seen Isabella come forward, and had vainly tried to catch her eye. She was smiling and bow-. Rose was right. Her young mistress did noting. When she saw Meredith, she beckoned. You had best go to Miss Ruthven," said Isabella; "I have some business with Sir Henry." "I will go, Miss Linwood," he replied; and, adding bitterly, "the will of man is by his reason swayed," he disappeared. Isabella burst into tears. Was ever a woman disenthralled from such a sentiment as Isabella had felt, without efforts repeated and repeated, and many such pangs as she now suffered, secretly endured. The struggle is a hard one-the conquest worth it. Sir Henry entered. "Your pardon, my dear Miss Isabella. I believed Meredith was here, and thought you might chance to profit by the blessing promised to those who wait-but you look troubled-your father is not worse, no?your brother has not abused his liberty?-papa does not frown upon the faithful knight ?" "Oh, no, no-nothing of all this, Sir HenryI have again come a petitioner to you, but not now in my own cause.' Isabella then proceeded to state concisely and eloquently the case of the condemned; Sir Henry became graver as she proceeded; and as she ended, losing a good deal of his habitual courtesy, he said, "Really, Miss Linwood, these are not matters for a young lady to interfere with. The day for voluntary and romantic righters of wrongs is past. This fellow has been adjudged to death after due investigation, before the proper tribunal, and I do not see that it makes any essential difference in his favour, even if he should have had the honour of once being in the service of a man who is so fortunate as to be the friend of your brother, and to have rendered an accidental service to your aunt. The poor wretch, as you allow, was one of a band of Skinners, when captured by a detachment of our soldiers. His comrades were hung last week, and I have already granted a respite to this man for some reason (what, I do not precisely recollect,) alleged by the proper officer." "He was ill-unable to stand, when the others suffered." "Ah, yes-I remember." Isabella urged her conviction that the prisoner had been accidentally involved with the Skinners. She described his simplicity and imbecility of mind, and, as it seemed to her, his utter incapacity to commit the energetic and atrocious crimes perpetrated by a band of desperadoes. But to all her pleadings Sir Henry still returned the answer so satisfactory to an official conscience :-"His death had been decreed by the laws in such cases made and provided." Isabella said, that so slight seemed to be the prisoner's tenure of life, that if he were reprieved for a week, Sir Henry might be relieved from the responsibility of taking a life perhaps not forfeited. But Sir Henry did not shrink from responsibility, and though she still reasoned and urged, it was all in vain. He alleged that the press of important affair rendered it impossible for him to make a personal investigation of the business; and that indeed it was out of the question, occupying the station he did, to attend minutely to such a concern. The truth was, that Sir Henry was somewhat fortified in his present decision by a secret consciousness, that, on a former occasion, he had surrendered a point purely to the influence of a lovely young woman; and he was now resolved to maintain the invincible. Isabella was obliged to take her leave, having failed in her errand of mercy, and feeling a just indignation at the carelessness with which a man could make his station an apology for neglecting the rights of his fellow; and struck with the truth, that the only reason for one man's occupying a station more elevated than another, is, that it gives him the opportunity of better protecting and serving his fellow-beings." CHAPTER XXXI. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement, He nigh. The premonitory bell was already soundThe hour appointed for Kisel's execution drew. ing, when a countryman, who had come from the other side of the Hudson, sheltering his little.. boat in a nook under some cedars growing where towards the city with a market-basket, containWarren-street now terminates, was proceeding ing butter, eggs, &c. As he was destined to day, it may not be superfluous to describe the enact an important part in the drama of that homely habiliments in which he appeared. dreadnought, of domestic manufacture, doublehad on a coarse dark grey overcoat, a sort of breasted, and fastened with black mohair buttons, as large as dollars, up to his throat; his cravat during article, then manufactured by all thrifty was a blue and white lined handkerchief-an enhousewives; his stockings were blue and white yarn, ribbed; his shoes cowhide, and tied with leather thongs. A young man is rarely without a dash of coxcombry, and our humble swain's was betrayed in a fox-skin cap, with straps of the fur that decorated his cheek, much in the mode of the brush-whisker of our own day. The cap was his dark pomatumed hair; and finally, his hands drawn so close over his brow as nearly to hide fringed, and with his name, Harmann Van Zandt, were covered by scarlet and white mittens, full knit in on their backs. The storm of the morning had passed over. The sun was shining out clear and warm for the season; and as every one is eager to enjoy the last smiles of our stinted autumn, the countryman must have wondered, as he passed the few habitations on his way to the populous part of the town, not to see the usual group-the good man with his pipe, the matron knitting, and the buxom Dutch damsel leaning over the lower portal of the door. As he approached Broadway, however, the sounds of life and busy movement reached his ear, and he saw half a dozen young lads and lasses issue from a house on his left, eager expectation, and each hurrying the other. dressed in their Sunday gear, their faces full of giving them a last charge to hear every thing and "Butter, one dollar the pound-eggs, three for a shilling." "That's the prettiest price asked yet; but-" "Ay, mother; but live and let live, you know." "Let live, truly. You Bergen people are turning your grass into gold." "We must make hay while the sun shines." "While the sun shines! Ah, it does shine through a knot-hole on a few, but the rest of are in solid darkness. Go your ways, friend; you'll find lords and generals, admirals, commandants, and gaol-keepers, to buy your butter and eggs; honest people must eat their bread without butter now-a-days. The hawks have come over the water to protect the doves, forsooth, and the doves' food, doves and all are ike to be devoured." This was a sort of figurative railing much indulged in by those who were secretly well-affected to the country's cause, but who were constrained, by motives of prudence, to remain within the British lines. It seemed to have struck a sympathetic chord in the countryman; for drawing near the good woman, whose exterior expressed very little resemblance to the gentle emblem by which she ind chosen to personify herself, he said, kindly smiling, "Bring me a knife, mother, and I'll give you a slice of butter to garnish your tea-table when your comely lasses come home." "This is kind and neighbourlike," said the woman, hastily bringing the knife and plate; "I thought the first minute you opened your lips, you were free-hearted. This an't the common way of the Bergen people-they sell the cat and her skin teo-you have not their tongue neither-mine is more broken than your's; I'm only Dutch on the mother's side." . "Ah, mother, trading with gentlefolks, and such fair-spoken people as you, gets the mitten off one's tongue. But I must be going. Can you direct me to Lizzy Bengin's? our Lida wants a pink riband against Christmas." "Now don't say you come to market, and don't know where Lizzy Bengin lives! Did you never take notice of the little one-story building at the very lower end of Queen-street, with the stoop even with the ground, and plenty of cochinia, and cookey horses, and men and women, in the window, and a parrot hanging outside that beats the world for talking?" The man gave the expected assent, and his informant proceeded. "That is Lizzy's; and without going a step out of your way, you may turn your butter and eggs into silver before you get there. Call at the Provost-Cunningham starves the prisoners, and eats the fat of the land himself; or at Admiral Digby's, who has the young Prince William under his roof, and therefore a warrant for the best in the land; or at Tryon's, or Robertson's, or any of the quality: their bread is buttered both sides, but the time is coming-" "When the bread shall be fairly spread for all. I thing so, mother, but I must be going-so, good day." "Good-day, and good luck to you-a nice youth and a well-spoken is that," said she, looking after him; and if butter must be a dollar a pound, I'm glad the money find its way into the pockets of the like of him.' Meanwhile the subject of her approbation pursued his way, and soon found himself in the midst of a threeg, who were hurrying forward to the place of execution. The usual place for military executions was in an apple orchard, where East Broadway now runs; but the condemned having to suffer as one of the infamous band of Skinners, was not thought worthy to swing on a gallows devoted to military men. Accordingly a gallows was erected in a field just above St. Paul's church. Our friend of the butter and eggs found himself on reaching Broadway, retarded and encompassed by the crowd. "Hold your basket up, fellow, and let me pass," said a gentleman, who seemed eager to get beyond the crowd. The countryman obeyed, but turned his back upon the speaker, as if from involuntary resentment at his authoritative tone. "Whither are you hastening, Meredith?” asked another voice. "Ah, St. Clair, now are you? I am trying to get through this abominable crowd to join my mother and Lady Anne, who have gone to take a drive. My servant is waiting with my horse beyond the barracks." "Your mother, Lady Anne, and Miss Linwood!" An opening now before the countryman would have allowed him to pass on, but he did not move. "Upon my honour, St. Clair, I did not know that Miss Linwood was with them. They talked of asking Helen Ruthven." "And so they did. Lady Anne sent me to her, but Miss Ruthven said, not very civilly I think, she had no inclination for a drive, and begged me to stop while she wrote you this note." Meredith opened the note, sealed with an anchor, and containing only these lines, exquisitely written in pencil:-"Could I endure any thing called pleasure on the same day with my tête-à-tête walk with you this morning? Oh, no -there is no next best.-H. R." "You seem pleased, Meredith," resumed St. Clair, as he saw Meredith's eye kindle, and his cheek brighten. Meredith made no reply, but thrust the note into his pocket. He was pleased. He felt much like a musician whose ears have been tormented by discords, when the keys are rightly struck. ་་ "Lady Anne had hard work," continued St. Clair, to persuade Miss Linwood to go with her. It seems she has got up her nerves for this poor devil of a Skinner. Lady Anne persuaded her at last; indeed, I believe she was glad to get beyond the tolling of the bell till the rumpus was over." "Women are riddles," thought Meredith; "they feel without reason, and will not feel when reason bids them." He had lost his desire to go alone to join the ladies; and he offered St. Clair his horse, saying he would himself ride his servant's. St. Clair eagerly accepted his courtesy, and the two gentlemen elbowed their way through the crowd. The countryman turned to gaze after them; and while his eye followed Meredith with its keenest glance, the wave of the multitude had set towards him, and so completely hedged his way in front, that not being able to proceed, he thought best to retreat a few yards to where the crowd was less dense, and wait till the pressure was past, which must be soon, as the procession with the prisoner had already moved from the Provost. Meanwhile he secured the occupation of a slightly elevated platform, an entrance to a house, where sitting down his basket, he folded his arms, and while detained had the benefit of the various remarks of the passers-by. What a disgrace it is," said a British subaltern to his companion," that those rebels," pointing to some American officers, prisoners on parole, "are permitted to walk the streets in uniform! It is too annoying; I hate the sight of them." "Yes," retorted his companion, laughing, "and so you have ever since they distanced you skating on the Kolch last winter.' “A crying shame is it,” said an honest burgher to a fellow-vestryman, "that a human creature is going to his doom and but one bell tolling. But the Lord's temples are turned aside from all holy uses-our sanctuary is a prison for soldiers, and the Middle Dutch a riding-school!" "A soul's a soul," returned his companion, "but the lordly English bells may not toll for the parting of this poor wretch's; only the tinkling bell of the Methodist chapel that's kept open, for. sooth, because John Wesley and his followers are loyal." "We shall have our pains for our trouble," said a fellow, who seemed to have come to the spectacle en amateur! "the boys say he never will stand it to get to the gallows." "Move on-move on," cried a voice that heralded the procession; and the crowd was driven forward in order to leave an open space around the prisoner and his assistants. It is impossible for a benevolent man to look on a fellow-creature about to suffer a violent death (be his doom ever so well merited) without a feeling of intense interest. The days of the culprit's youth, of his innocence, of his parents' love and hope; the tremendous present, and the possible future, all rush upon the mind! It would appear that our country friend was a man of reflection and sentiment, for, as he gazed at the prisoner, his cheek was blanched, his brow contracted, and the exclamation, "Oh, God! oh, God!" burst from lips that never lightly uttered that holy name. Poor Kisel appeared as if nature would fain save him from the executioner's touch. His head had fallen on his bosom, his knees were bent and trembling, and his step as wavering and uncertain as that of a blind man. He was supported and helped forward by a stout man on his right. When he was within a few feet of the countryman a ray of consciousness seemed to shoot athwart his mind. Heraised his head, shook back his shaggy locks, cast a wild inquiring glance around him, when his eye encountering the stranger, he seemed electrified, his joints to be reset, his nerves to be restrung. He drew up his person, uttered a piercing shrick, sprang forward like a cat, and sinking at his feet, sobbed out," Misser Eliot, hey!" The multitude were for an instant palsied; not a sound-not a breath escaped them: and then a rush, and a shout, and cries of" Seize him!" and shrieks from those who were trodden under foot. "Stand back-back-back, monsters!" cried Eliot, himself almost wild with amazement and grief-"give him air, space, breath, he is dying!" He raised Kisel's head, and rested it on his breast, and bent his face over him, murmuring," Kisel, my poor fellow!" Kisel's eye, gleaming with preternatural joy, was riveted to Eliot's face. A slight convulsion passed over his frame; drops of sweat, like rain, gushed from every pore; and, while his quivering half smiling lips murmured inaudibly, Misser Eliot Misser Eliot! they stiffened, his eyes rolled up, and his released, exulting spirit fled. Eliot was but for one instant unmanned; but for one instant did he lose the self-possession on which even at this moment of consternation he was conscious that much more than his own individual safety depended. He made no effort to escape from observation; that would have excited suspicion; but said, calmly, still supporting Kisel's head, "The poor man, I think, is gone; is there not some physician here who can tell whether he be, or not?" A doctor was called for; and, while one was bustling through the crowd, there were various conjectures, surmises, and assertions. Some said he looked as good as dead when he came out of prison;" some asked if he could have hoped to have got away?" and others believed that the excitement of the scene had maddened his brain. Eliot said he had fallen at his feet like a spent ball; and, while he was internally blessing God that his poor follower had escaped all farther suffering, the medical man announced, with the authority of his art, that " life was extinct." The body was conveyed to the prison for interment. The crowd dispersed; and Eliot, feeling that Heaven had conferred its best boon on Kisel, and extended a shield over him, pursued his way to Lizzy Bengin's shop. While the circumstances related above were ir action, the ladies, in their drive, had stopped at ar opening to the Hudson, where the shore war shelving and indented with a footpath, on which the full mellow rays of the afternoon sun shone. And who would not pause to gaze at the noble Hudson, which, coming from its source in distant mountains, infolds in its arms the city it has created, wears on its bosom its little emerald island gems, reposes in the bay, and then finishes its course through the portal of the Narrows? та The river is now precisely what it then was, for "man's hand cannot make a mark upon the waters; but on its shores what changes has that marvellous instrument wrought! Where nature sat like a hermit, amid the magnificence of her? solitary domain, are now bustling cities, fortified islands, wharves and warehouses, manufactories, stately mansions, ornamented pleasure-grounds, and citizens' cottages, and the parent city extending up and branching out in every direction, from the narrow space it then occupied, covering with its thronged streets the wooded heights and bosky dells, now, alas! reduced from the aristocracy of nature to one uniform level. Then the city's tributary waters bore on their surface a few fishing.skiffs, and some two or three British menof-war. Now see the signals of population, enterprise, and commercial prosperity: schooners from our own eastern and southern ports, neatly rigged vessels from a hundred river-harbours, L mammoth steamers bringing in and carrying out their hundred at every hour of the day, ferry boats scudding to and fro, sail boats dancing over the waves, row-boats darting out and in, hither and yon, packets taking their semi-weekly departure for England and France, ships with the star-spangled banner floating from the mast-head, and rich freighted argosies from all parts of each quarter of the globe. What a change! Lady Anne heard the trampling of horses, and put her head out of the coach window. A blush suffused her sunny face at the recollection of her parting with Meredith in the morning. Her embarrassment was as transient as the suffusion. "Ah, cousin Jasper," she said, "you have come at last; I have been waiting impatiently, sitting here, like a dutiful niece (as I am), because aunt has heard bugbear stories about American rattlesnakes, and absolutely forbade my strolling along the shore with Isabella. You will not be afraid, aunt, if the gentlemen are with me?" "Not in the least, my love; indeed, I will alight myself, if Major St. Clair will give an old lady his arm.' "She understands tactics," thought St. Clair. She will defile with me, and leave Jasper to a te-a-tele on vantage ground!" He, however, towed, en militaire, and gave Mrs. Meredith his arm; and she, as he had foreseen, led him off in an opposite direction from that which Lady Anne had taken. Isabella had before alighted, and left her companion, on the pretext of looking for an autumnal flower, that she knew grew on the river's bank; but really, that she might, in the freedom of soli. tude, and in the calm of a sweet country walk, indulge her sad reflections. Isabella had learned to master herself in great trials; but she had not yet learned that far more difficult lesson, to be patient and serene under small annoyances, She was vexed and wearied with Mrs. Meredith's pompous talk and common-place and hollow sentiment, and somewhat disturbed by Lady Anne's kind-hearted, but too manifest efforts, to divert her thoughts from the tragedy enacting in the city, to which she had imputed all the sadness that might have been in part ascribed to another cause. Lady Anne had no enthusiasm for scenery: she had never lived in the country, never been trained in Nature's school, nor a guest at her perpetual and sweetest banquet; but she had youthful spirits stirred to joyousness by a ride, or a walk, or any other exciting cause; and she laughed, rattled, and bounded on, wondered where Isabella could be, and at last, quite out of breath, sat down on a grassy bank by a very high rock, around which the pass was narrow and difficult. "I will not venture that," said she, pointing to the path. You may go for Isabella, Jasper, and I will wait here for you." "Thank you, sweet coz; but I prefer staying here too, if you will permit me.' "You may as well, fancy. Isabella is rather penseroso this afternoon; and as she very faintly seconded my entreaties to aunt that I might go with her, I think she prefers la solitaire. To tell you the truth, Jasper, she is horribly blue to-day, though I would not own it to aunt." And why not ?" "Oh, you know she is no favourite with aunt: and when we really love a person, as I do really With what different import do the same words fall on different ears. This "she was" hardly reached Lady Anne's sensorium. Her thoughts were weighing something more important than any of Meredith's words could be to her. Meredith's heart throbbed as he pronounced them. Uttered to Lady Anne, they seemed to him to cut the gordian not that bound him to Isabella. There was another unseen, unwilling, and involuntary auditor, who, as on the other side of the rock she leaned breathless against it, proudly responded from the depths of her soul she was-it is past -a finished dream to us both!* "How very nice these little scarlet berries are," said Lady Anne, picking some berries from their evergreen leaves. "Very nice." "This is a lovely river, Jasper. How I should like a nice cottage on this very spot.' "And when your imagination builds the cottake, coz, is there no one permitted to share it with you?" Lady Anne picked the leaves from the stem in her hand, strewed them around, and laughing and blushing, said, "that absolute solitude in a cottage would be just as stupid as in a palace." On this hint shall I can I speak?" thought Meredith. "Formerly, when I built castles in the air," continued Lady Anne, engrossed in her own sweet fancies, and not dreaming of the interpretation Meredith's deluded vanity was giving to her words, "I always put wings to them, and would lodge them in London, Paris, or Italy, as suited the humour of the moment-now I make them fixtures in America." Meredith felt somewhat like the sportsman, who, accustomed to the keen pursuit of game that incites and eludes him, cares not for the silly prey that runs into his toils." Heigh-ho!" resumed Lady Anne, awaking from a reverie, after a short pause," it is time we returned-the sun is setting-you are very stupid, Jasper-you have not spoken three words." is far more agreeable to look, and to listen, than to speak." "My dear cousin, there are moments when it "But then, sir, you should look unutterable things.' "We may feel them without looking or speak. ing them-do not go now-there are few delicious moments in life-why not prolong them "" "You talk limpingly, Jasper, like one who has conned a task, and recites it but half learned; there should be a vraisemblance in compliments.' "On my honour!" "Oh, never swear to them; these are like beggars' oaths, nobody believes them." Lady Anne was already on the wing. "Bless us, thought Meredith, "a little dash of coquetry might make her quite charming ;" and springing after her, he gave her his arm. When they met his mother at the road-side, his face and air were so changed and so animated, that, in the flush of her hopes, she ventured to whisper to him |