under the firm persuasion of signal benefit derived from the skill of her physician. It was a falling asleep, rather than that terrific struggle between soul and body, when they are to separate. She leaned back in her chair-the shadow of death passed for a moment over her countenance-there was one long-drawn sigh-and all was over! Thus mild and peaceful was the departure of Eugenia Saville from a world through which she had passed as mildly, as peacefully,-and most holily! Tears were shed for her, not such as fall upon the grave of all who leave behind kindred or friends to mourn a common loss with common grief; but such as hallow the memory of the good,-tears, whose source was in the heart, and which dropped from eyes where many a time and oft they had been dried by the benign being they now bewailed.

Mr. Howard did not survive his sister more than two years; the exact number by which he was her junior in age, so that their earthly pilgrimage was of the same duration, almost to a day. Having no family, and all his relations being in opulent circumstances, he bequeathed the bulk of his immense property to charitable institutions; and to his partner, Mr. Coventry, the valuable possession of the business of the late firm. To his niece, Julia Coventry, he gave a legacy of five thousand pounds; "being," as he expressed it in his will, the fifth part of the sum he had intended to leave her, had she not already succeeded to two fortunes-the one that was her aunt's, his dear departed sister, Eugenia Saville; the other, the far better fortune of a good husband.”

From this period, the career of Charles Coventry was marked by unexampled prosperity. Wealth flowed in upon him through a thousand channels, with all its concomitants, vast influence, the highest distinction that can surround a commoner, and the ambition to become

the founder of a family. As a first step towards effecting the last, he obtained a seat in Parliament; as a second, a preponderating voice in the nomination to other seats; as a third, he concentrated all the energies of his mind and character to acquire public reputation as an orator and politician. He had the requisites for both; and his political principles were upon record, in a work which had excited an unusual degree of popular notice.

He was soon satisfied he had not placed before his hopes a visionary prize. Scarcely had he taken his seat, and certainly had not addressed the House more than three or four times, when he was singled out for one of those ferocious attacks by the Opposition, which they never make except upon an imbecile Minister, or a formidable adversary who is rising to his proper level. It embodied every mode of parliamentary warfare, from polished sarcasm and eloquent invective, to deep-mouthed reproof, and the light artillery of ridicule. The Whig benches rang with acclamations; the Treasury ones were silent. To have echoed these acclamations, would have been to recognize, as a champion, one who was on his trial to establish whether he had the mettle in him which would proclaim him such, or only the ardor of a well-disposed, but feeble auxiliary. There was not a man in the house who better understood the true nature of his position, or all that hung suspended on the issue, than Mr. Coventry himself. Pride, ambition, glory, conscious strength, contempt of despicable motives, inflamed into resentment at the anticipated possibility of their success, every feeling that could inspire an ardent, generous nature, concurred to animate him. He rose. His exordium was placid, easy, playful even; but there was a collected energy of purpose on his brow; a kindling but smothered fire in his eye; and a dignified repose of manner, which bespoke the secret

knowledge of a reserved strength for the decisive onset.

There had been the stillness that foretells the hurricane; the rising gusts and furious eddies that are its immediate harbingers; and there was the hurricane itself! The devastation was complete. Not a vestige remained of the mighty fabric which sarcasm and invective, reproof and ridicule, had raised to arrest his progress; and when he sat down, with the emphatic declaration, "that as he hoped he should never invite hostility by presumptuous arrogance, so would he never bend to it, when it wore, in his judgment, the livery of that most degenerate of our vices, or, if they liked it better, meanest of our infirmities," peals of tumultuous cheers bore testimony to the eloquence, manliness, and justice of his defence. The Minister was loud in his encomiums, and personally congratulated him upon the display he had made; while the adherents of government, now that he had shown he was able to assert his own cause, came forward with oppressive alacrity to assert it for him. With modest selfdenial, he belied the swelling exultation which throbbed in every pulse of his excited frame; but he who has fought hard for victory and gained it, with whatever well-beseeming diffidence he may teach his tongue to disclaim the laurel, has that within, even at the moment when he wraps the cloak of humility in its thickest folds about him, which whispers to his proud heart that he is a conqueror. Charles Coventry had feverish dreams that night, Titles, and ribbons, and glittering stars, and bright honors, dazzled his sleeping fancy; and such a glass as Banquo held in his hand, when the weird sisters "grieved the heart of Macbeth, seemed to show him "gold-bound brows" which he could "smile upon, and point at for his." At length he found himself with his feet planted on the first step of "ambition's ladder." An executive

appointment, with a baronetcy, were offered him in requital of his long, disinterested, and valuable support of government. He accepted them. Then came another night of feverish dreams, as he laid his head upon his pillow, Sir Charles Coventry, a member of the administration.

was

He

now approaching his fiftieth year, and was the father of a numerous family, three of whom were sons. If, therefore, he had touched the boundary of his hopes, he had the satisfaction of knowing that with his wealth, he should transmit a title to his posterity. But the same prudence, talent, and unwearied ardor in the pursuit of whatever he undertook, which had conducted him thus far, opened the path to his further advancement. He distinguished himself greatly by the vigorous and efficient discharge of his official duties; and while he impressed his colleagues and the country with a high opinion of his fitness for more important functions, he silenced the hostility of political adversaries, who, when he accepted office, were not slow to fling upon him their taunts, as an adventurer for place without the requisite qualifications. A few short years saw him raised to the dignity of privy-councillor, and graced with the ribbon of the Bath.

Behold him now! The Right Honorable Sir Charles Coventry, K.B. giving weight to the measures of Government by his advice, and supporting them afterwards by his eloquence in Parliament, where he was no longer the candidate for distinction, but the possessor of it. He had wholly withdrawn himself from mercantile affairs, partly because their adequate superintendence was incompatible with the other demands upon his time; but more because they might stand in his way, if the occasion presented itself, for grasp ing at the great object of his ambition. He had realized a princely fortune, which he used with the unostentatious virtue of one who

remembered what he was thirty-five years before; for it was just that period since his forlorn condition had awakened the sympathy of Mrs. Saville, whose memory was idolized in his recollection. He never for got that condition. The "neat silken purse," which contained the first twenty guineas that had ever called him master, was religiously preserved; and he would often fancifully compare it to a little rivulet welling forth from the side of some lofty mountain, which, augmented in its course by many tributary streams, becomes at last a mighty river, pouring its ample waters in a majestic tide to the green ocean.

One of those political emergencies, arising from the jealousies of rival statesmen, which have frequently lifted into power men who had been all their lives vainly striving to bring about such a consummation of their hopes, operated propitiously for Sir Charles Coventry. It is true he had sown the seeds; but it is no less true, that without such a concurrence of circumstances, in all probability he would never have reaped the harvest. Matured, however, as his experience now was, and unabated as was that ardor of character which had distinguished him from his cradle, a transient misgiving of himself crept over his mind when the prize lay fairly within his reach, and he was invited to stretch forth his hand. But the misgiving was only transient. A noble enthusiasm succeeded; the more certain to conduct him prosperously through his trial, because it had been ushered in by a wise diffidence. He accepted the SEALS of office; took his seat at the council-table as a Cabinet Minister; and saw himself honored, in a preeminent degree, by the personal and constitutional confidence of his sovereign. As on the other occasions of his life, he at once filled the space in which he moved. The energies of his nature developed themselves with increased amplitude; the dimensions of his intellect

were enlarged to the full extent of its new sphere. This extraordinary quality, whose existence could never have been known, except by the circumstances which actually disclosed it, (although its secret influence was the hidden spring of all his actions, as it ever must be of all men who build themselves a name,) created so much astonishment in one of his colleagues, that he observed, "If Sir Charles Coventry were to become King of England, everybody would say he was born to wear a crown; for he always seems to have been intended by nature for the precise station he occupies." A profound mystery of the world was solved in this halfjocular, half-petulant remark. It is those, and those only, "intended by nature for the precise station they occupy," who rule the world, from the Macedonian conqueror down to the village oracle; and many a heart which has the noble quality, lives and dies in ignorance of its presence, because occasion has not called it forth.

Sir Charles Coventry exercised the high function of a Cabinet Minister for eleven years; and during the last three, that of Prime Minister.

the

But he had now passed his grand climacteric; and though free from any of the more enfeebling symptoms of age, began to feel a desire for repose. He had lived long enough for others, and for worldly objects. He wished to find a quiet interval, this side the grave, for the peaceful enjoyment of himself. Such, however, is the fascination of power, (next to life, hardest thing, perhaps, to part with voluntarily,) that the desire languished two years before he could resolve to intimate it to his Royal Master. When he did, permission was granted, but with many flattering expressions of regret, and the still more flattering declaration of a wish that the memory of his eminent services should be perpetuated by the honors of the peerage. A few weeks after, the Minister resigned

the seals of office as VISCOUNT GLENCRAIG!

Here terminated his public life; but it was the dispensation of Providence that he should live to a ripe old age in the serene luxury of a gradual unfelt decay, surrounded by an affectionate family, beloved by many friends, and honored in the world's esteem. Lady Glencraig, who had been his companion in climbing the dazzling heights of rank and power, shared with him, a short time, the tranquil retirement that followed; but she set out before him on the great journey of eternity. The separation was tender, not agonizing; for no earthly happiness is blighted, no fondlycherished hopes of years to come are destroyed, when, trembling on the verge of eighty, hearts are unlinked by death, which have throbbed in unison through all their foregone days. "Tarry yet a little space, and we will go together," may speak the natural wish of the survivor ; but the soul breathes this consolation, "to-day is appointed for thee-and for me a to-morrow which is at hand." The venerable Glencraig felt this, as he bent over the aged form of her, on whose pale and wrinkled face there beamed the placid smile which told of blameless joy that she was summoned first; yet, not till parting was like the current of a quiet stream, whose waters, separated by some dark and rocky fragment, flow in a divided course round its base, but meet again to be forever joined.

Two sons and four daughters of Lord Glencraig were married, and the parents of a numerous offspring. The elder of the former, who was heir to the title, had distinguished himself in several foreign missions of great delicacy. Two other sons, and one daughter, remained unmarried, the last probably because she was devoted to a science which withdrew all her thoughts from earth. She was an astronomer; but beyond looking at the heavenly

bodies through magnificent telescopes, it never appeared that anything came of her star-gazing.

It was delightful to see him, with unimpaired faculties of mind, and few infirmities of body, wearing out the remnant of a life that had been so full of busy incidents. Some branches of his family were always with him, and ONCE in each year it was his custom to have them all assembled at his table, children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren, even down to the nursling of six months old, or younger, if there chanced, at such a time, to be a fresh arrival. Oh! the flow of sublime and holy feeling that would seem to gush from the old man's heart at those moments, as he looked round and saw the living images of his Maker, in whose veins ran kindred blood! How, like a patriarch of the chosen land, he would discourse wisdom with the elders, mingling the maxims of this world with the piety of the next! And then, he had cheerful thoughts, and a lightsome spirit, to call up mirth and laughter on the unclouded brow of youth; while infancy itself, seated on his knee, would chuckle and clap its dimpled hands, as he danced before its sparkling eyes the glittering watch-chain, or radiant diamond that adorned the shriveled shaking hand. All were happy; but he, of all, the happiest; for his share of happiness was swelled to overflowing by the addition of theirs.

"Julia, how old are you?" said the venerable peer at one of these annual heart-greetings, addressing the daughter of his eldest son.

"Seventeen," was the reply. "Stand by me :-And you, Mr. Freds rick, with your fearless hawk's eye, what is your age?"

"Eleven, grandfather."

"Come you here too."-Then, casting his looks round, he fixed upon another, and another, and another, till he had gathered eight of his children's children about him.

"I want another yet," he conti