which he had never before enjoyed. Miss Marsh was reclining on a lounger as he entered. She was still in her walking dress, and appeared to be deeply affected by the interview she had with her friend.

66

Consumption, Alfred," she said, taking his hand-" she is in rapid consumption-poor girl, she looks awfully old and worn."

"My God! has it come to this!" said he. "Is there no hope? can medical skill do nothing to save her?"

"No; nothing will save her, Alfred. She was always consumptive. I knew by her delicacy, and foresaw long ago what is now coming to pass." "What of the interview I have asked for? will she see me?" enquired the wretched Alfred,

"She will see you, but not immediately. The excitement would be too much for her at present, and her physicians insist on her being kept quiet. I shall soon call on her again, and the moment she expresses a wish to see you, I shall drive to Ivy Lodge with the intelligence."

While Miss Marsh was speaking, Alfred, in his state of mental anxiety, was mechanically displacing the ornaments and books which were placed negligently on the centre table of the boudoir. He took up a small volume, and was about opening it, when Miss Marsh, who showed a nervous anxiety to direct his attention to some other object, asked him if the engraving of Beatrice Cenci over the mantelpiece, was not remarkably like Jessie.

Alfred rose to examine the print, and in doing so laid down the book, which Ellen hastily snatched up, and placed in her pocket, as she thought, unperceived. Alfred, however, remarked the act, and wondered at it; but made no observation.

Several days having elapsed without bringing the promised visit from Miss Marsh, Alfred's patience became exhausted, and he resolved to call on her again, to ascertain when the interview he sought with Jessie was to be granted. His cousin happened to be out when he paid the visit; but the servant, who was aware how agreeable his presence was to her mistress, begged of him to await her return. He complied, and for the second time was ushered into the little boudoir. Left alone, he could not help admiring the air of elegance which surrounded it; and while examining the books and objects of vertu which it contained, his eye fell upon the identical volume which he had seen his cousin, some days before, conceal so hastily in her pocket. A lively curiosity prompted him to open it; it was simply a volume of comic and satirical poetry, and he was about to lay it down, when he perceived that two or three leaves had been freshly extracted from it. The circumstance, though trivial in itself, when taken in connection with his cousin's furtive, or at least suspicious, manner about the book, kindled a fresh and intense feeling of curiosity; and after looking again and again at the volume, the title of which he carefully noted down, he rung for the maid, told her to say to her mistress that he would call again, and left the house. The next moment he was on his way to the nearest bookseller's, and a copy of the work which seemed to have made so deep an impression on his mind was soon obtained.

Alfred did not examine his purchase until he got home. He then

directed his attention to the leaves corresponding with those which had been abstracted from his cousin's copy of the book, and read with anger and intense digust, the very valentine which had been the cause of so much misery to him!

We need not say that Alfred never seriously believed that the valentine was the production of the gentle and amiable Jessie; but if he could have had any doubts on the subject, they would have been now cleared up. In fact, all uncertainty as to the source whence the malicious letter had proceeded, was now at an end. He hastily sought his sister, who was in her store-room.

66 Emma, dear Emma," he shouted, "at last I know who sent it."

Miss Harrison looked up in dismay from her batter and mince pies. She feared for a moment that her brother's reason had become affected. He, however, induced her to accompany him to his study, and placing the volume of poetry in her hand, he desired her to read a particular passage; and finally explained to her all the circumstances which had led to the discovery.

Miss Harrison stood aghast at the disclosure. She could scarcely believe that she heard aright; but the truth was too palpable to admit of any doubt. That evening a long conference took place between the brother and sister, and the result was, that early next day Jessie Wilson was induced to place herself under the maternal care of Emma Harrison, in Ivy Lodge. It was wonderful how soon the invalid recovered her good looks. She astonished both her friends and her physicians. As for Alfred, he was in ecstasies. He was soon made aware that her malady had been a broken heart, and that he alone possessed the healing balsam. This he applied in the form of a wedding ring; and on the 14th of February, 18—, just one year from the date of their separation, Alfred and Jessie were united in the holy bands of matrimony.

On the evening of the same day a splendid equipage, drawn by white borses, drew up at Miss Marsh's door. The daintily gloved footman handed to the servant who answered his summons a bridal packet. It contained cards, wedding-cake, and a handsomely-bound copy of the "Satirical Poems" which had led to the discovery of Miss Marsh's traitorous behaviour.

ASSUERUS.

I.

THE MAGII.

Ir is a summer midnight, thousands of years gone by; and the clear Assyrian firmament domes over the solitude of the Babylonian plain, spangled with innumerable constellations, which, seeming to hang in the transparent azure, shed upon the rounding levels the clear mysterious illumination of a starry day. An intense calm pervades the spaces of this green desert, which is trackless as the tranquil ocean. Slowly the planets and clusters are

rounding in radiant stillness to the west, but the broad earth, as though under the influence of some spell shed upon it from the vast, reposes in a slumber, breathless as death; and it is only at long intervals, when some great constellation has dipped its last star beneath the blue horizon, that a faint air floats for a moment across the waste of dry herbage-like the vibration of the last pulse of the departed splendour.

In the centre of this immense solitude, the faint tinkle of bells chimed with a glassy, incessant music, and two camels were seen moving slowly to the north-east, in which direction lay the great capital,-Babylon. Their riders were men whose aspects contrasted strongly. One was a small figure, whose eyes sparkled beneath his turbaned brow, and whose face, black as ebony, and grave as time, wore an expression indicative of subtilety, intellect, knowledge. His companion was of lofty stature and majestic mien; his eyes, large and magnificent, shone with a sybilline lustre; his countenance, originally fair, which had become dark with sun and travel, wore an air of sovereignty more than regal; and as slowly moving onward in silence, he now removed his jewelled head-dress, the light of the stars fell on a brow wondrously high and ample, a dome of power dominating lineaments of strange beauty. Both figures were attired in eastern robes, which, when thrown aside occasionally in accelerating the pace of the weary animals which bore them, displayed beneath, girdles thickly set with gems, but weaponless; neither, indeed, bore either dagger or spear. But on the breast of each a jewelled amulet sparkled. They had ridden some time in silence, when the tall figure suddenly stopped and gazed at one great star, which, shining in a region of the sky sparsely scattered with orbs, already trembled descending on the verge of the earth, where his keen eyes recognised, remote, the turrets of one of the old Chaldean cities. With an instinctive motion he passed his right hand over his heart, and then touching a ring which he wore on the other, on whose seal was engraved a single hieroglyphic-an incantation to the genius of his natal planet-he appeared absorbed for a few seconds, during which his lips breathed inaudibly the few mysterious words of invocation. Then it was, that moving beside his companion, he for the first time broke the silence, which had lasted uninterrupted during the last several leagues of their solitary journey.

"It is a hundred years this hour since last I crossed this plain," he said. Without evincing any surprise at an announcement so apparent improbable, his companion merely remarked-" Few experience more than one of the seasons of time; but the new cycle, which is just now commencing, will be a new experience like that of travelling into a new zone, in which the sun of time appears under a novel aspect.

"As the earth from age to age approaches a superior centre of light, the souls of the few whom nature has moulded to express her secret powers, receive from her spirit a progressive illumination," the Magian murmured. Then turning to his companion, he added :

"From you, oh Zarphael, who, in the central solitudes of Arabia, have penetrated the mysteries of the stars with a clearer faculty than even the watchers of those plains, many secrets have I learned; but from my own

power, still more. Much as I have travelled, and acquired from the wise, the spirit of my star, when invoked in solitude, and with earnest soul power, has ever vouchsafed me a higher faculty of revelation. The secrets of nature and spirit remain inscrutable to the eye of ignorance, but are simplicity itself to the souls selected by destiny in each advancing age. Such is the sign which the mountain eremite taught you, by which with the wave of a hand, the index of volition, you are enabled to bring any less powerful soul into the sphere of your own, to read its innermost thoughts, and illustrate its future. Such is the power which I have mastered-the evidences of which you have witnessed-whose secret as yet remains to you inexplicable, but which, when the hour arrives that will signal my departure thence to a superior star, shall be bequeathed you as a heritage."

At this moment, and while an air of gratitude and enthusiasm animated the black face of Zarphael, whose bright eyes were fixed on his companion, a splendid meteor, shooting a crescent flight from the zenith, for a few seconds flooded the desert plain with its superb effulgence-bright as day. As it descended, it appeared to hover before them like a pillar of light, then finally vanished in the direction of Babylon; and at the same time the last breath of an unearthly strain of music, with which it seemed accompanied died away. Presently low down along the blue horizon of the east, the first golden streaks of the dawn began to burn; while as it deepened and broadened-lo! far to the north appeared a level shimmer of light, which they recognised as the southern branch of the Euphrates, and as they hastened toward it, the while a peal of thunder was heard to roll across the distance in portentous majesty the mighty city, with its battlemented walls, temples, and towers, stretching from sky to sky, became dimly visible.

"Rehold!" murmured Zarphael-" by yonder meteor the heavens seem to herald our approach."

"And by the thunder, our arrival in the doomed city," returned the Magian.

Some hours passed, and the rose and saffron tints of dawn had already given place to the golden day, when the travellers approached one of the great turreted gateways of the southern district of the city, which with its structures innumerable, wrapped in sultry splendour, extended northward away, many a league beyond the burning fringe of the horizon.

BABYLON.

By a broad, gently sloping stairway, ascending to one of the turreted gates, the travellers enter the mighty city, whose innumerable structures cover a series of terraces, which, sloping from the plain, one above the other, extend for miles around the great temple of Belus, which also rises terrace above terrace-a stupendous graduated pyramid.* Here and

In shape the Temple of Belus, at Babylon, seems to have resembled a Chinese temple-a series of vast square earthworks and esplanades, lessening towards the summit.

there, conspicuous appear the lesser, but still vast shrines of the Assyrian deities; in one region the huge shrine of Shesshach, (the earth,) a dark colossal structure-in another the superb shrine of Astrarte, and hundreds of others, also bright and small, rear their pinnacles to the stars, to whose clusters they are respectively dedicated-all which, however, sink into insignificance, both as regards magnitude and splendour, when compared with the wondrous central structure, with its enormous gates portaled by winged lions, and its superb interiors, where the images of the god stand in solid gold, some forty, some a hundred feet high. On the eastern side of the river, which divides the city, appear the gilded roofs of the ruling elasses, the satraps, the captains, the magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, surrounded by their sumptuous paradises and hanging gardens, raised on arches high above the roofs, with their shady avenues, their terraces of flowers, orchards, and streams. On the west, the districts of the industrial classes, an immense congeries of buildings, stretch for leagues away. The river is crossed by a great bridge, terminated at either end by two lofty temples-a bridge which forms not only the link between the two regions of the city, but between the two great highways of commerce, along which the opulence of the remotest east and west is conveyed to the capital of Mesopotamia. Within the huge circuit of the walls, which rise like mountains, a hundred feet high, and on whose broad summits three chariots can career abreast-are meadows, orchards, woods, lakes, great cisterns, with aqueducts, granaries, fortresses, and strongholds, palaces, treasure houses, and pleasure houses innumerable. The streets, which are all built at right angles, and which present endless vistas, are thronged with countless multitudes of all nations-the fur-clad Scythian,—the golden girt trafficer from Ophir Persians, Bactrians, Syrians, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians-representatives of the barbarians from all regions from the snows of the north and west to the burning tracts of the furthest south and east. Numbers of camels, laden with corn and wine, with spice, fruit, and silk, cross and recross the great highways; thousands of elephants, laden with ivory, jewels, feathers, skins, plod heavily along; among troops of horses, and long lines of sedans, carriages, and other conveyances.

The palace of Assuerus occupied an eminence, which, sloping to the river eastward its sumptuous pleasure grounds and pavillioned courts, was encircled toward the west by numerous avenues of dark, gigantic cypress and cedar. On each side of the building a hundred pillars of the finest marble supported the lower chambers, above which three other piles of symmetrical structures, similarly adorned, terminated, and were surmounted with a mighty tower, on whose summit the monarch, his wives, and favourite ministers were wont to assemble to enjoy the fresh airs of the evening, the prospects of the vast and busy city, and that of the richly cultivated plain, with its immense tracts of yellow corn, orchards, villages, and long roadways, thronged with trafficers and merchants of all nations. Thence might be seen the broad river, winding through the wilderness of brick buildings and gardens, and covered with merchant craft, war vessels, and pleasure-boats, innumerable and of various shapes, the prow of each represent