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trust, avoid both the main entrance, through a pannel of that very chamber. If he continued to live, the fate of Isabel was certain. The Dwarf listened for a moment whether he could hear a stir in his father's bedroom; he then took from his pocket a small essence box, opened it, and kneeled 'beside the sleeping ruffian, holding in one hand the lamp, so as to afford himself light, and not to shine on the eyes of the slumberer. With the other hand he held under the nostrils of Isabel's gaoler the little scentbox. It contained a sponge, saturated with some chemical preparation. But whatever may have been the composition of the liquid, its vapor had a speedy and powerful effect. The brow of the sleeper had been bent and menacing; his lips worked rapidly, his hands were clenched, and the blood coursed in the arteries of his temples, and his face was flushed and dark. The intent and noiseless Dwarf held the box with motionless fingers; and his slow quiet breathing, contracted eye-brows, and closed lips, marked his resolution, and his power of restraining his own eagerness. After he had remained in this posture for the space perhaps of three minutes, the forehead of the victim relaxed, his cheeks grew pale, the veins of his temples sank, and his mouth no longer moved. His whole form became languid and loose, instead of being gathered up and distorted; and the poinard dropped from his fingers, and would have fallen upon the floor, but that the wary boy set down the essence-box on the pallet, and caught the dagger as it fell. Perhaps to retain his own stiletto, perhaps for the mere convenience of using the weapon which he held in his hand, Pietro being now so completely in a swoon, as to make it certain that he would neither shriek nor groan under the death-blow, the Dwarf lifted the dagger with an untrembling arm and watchful eye,-but paused for a moment to listen and discover if Adrian Monteco were awake, when, being satisfied that he had distinguished the breathings of his sleeping pa

and a large arch at one corner of the building, opening on the water from the vaults, among which Isabel was confined. Within both of these entrances, as the Dwarf well knew, armed retainers of his father stood sentinels. He rowed them to the other corner which joined the canal; and Lorenzo gave a low whistle, after which, in a few seconds, a window near the top of the palace opened, and a rope ladder was let down. The nurse of Isabel had agreed to secure in this way the undiscovered return of her young master. They gave the gondolier his directions, and mounted singly and safely. They then traversed the vast silent palace till they reached the corridor, which led to the chamber of Monteco. The portraits of a long and illustrious line looked cold and motionless from the walls on their descendant. The pair stopped at some distance from the door of the ante-room, before a recess of some depth. In this Sidney was to conceal himself. "Wait my return," said Lorenzo," for a quarter of an hour, unless in the mean time you should hear a noise in yonder apartments; in the latter case, or otherwise, at the end of the time appointed, make your escape as secretly as you can to the ladder by which we entered, and so depart. I fear in that case you will have to swim at least as far as to the spot where we are to find the gondola. I shall be able to give you no assistance, for if you do not see me before the time, and undiscovered, my doom is fixed." The young soldier stood in the recess so hidden, that a strong and general light would have been necessary to render him observable. He laid his hand upon his sword, and held his breath. Meantime Lorenzo went on his way to the door of the ante-room. He opened it with a pass key; and between him and his father's chamber Pietro lay, stretched upon his pallet, with a sword on his pillow, and a dagger in his hand. To pass him was impossible; and moreover the descent to the vaults was

rent, he lifted the weapon again, but not this time to arrest it in its descent. It came down straight, and steady, and flash-like, and was buried to the hilt in the heart of the retainer. The blood started from the wound, and covered the right hand of Lorenzo. But the sleeping bulk remained motionless and silent. And so the deed was done. The Dwarf well knew that Sidney would have been likely to scruple at, if not to resist such an action, and had concealed from him every thing, but the one fact, that he was about to attempt gaining possession of the keys of Isabel's dungeon. Before he proceeded to undertake the yet more hazardous part of the enterprise, he looked down for a moment with a smile of grim and resolved triumph on the corpse, which, a moment previously, had been a living soul; and then, as through all that had gone before, since he first began to act instead of meditating, he seemed changed from a weeping and despairing boy, into a firm, subtle, and venturous man. He gently and fearfully drew aside the pallet with its burthen, sufficiently to enable him slightly to open the door of the chamber. He opened it at first but a hair's-breadth, and found that there was light within, which would prevent any danger of disturbing Monteco, by a sudden glare, and would make the use of a lamp unnecessary. He therefore laid down that which he carried; and stood for a considerable time listening to the breathing of his father. It was heavy and irregular, starting into ejaculations, and broken with mutterings. The Dwarf was satisfied that there was sufficient chance of success to justify him in attempting the enterprise. He entered the chamber through the narrow opening, which was all he had room to make, and looked around him. He never before had been in the apartment in which his father slept. He faltered for a moment. But there was sufficient before him to give him new courage; for on a small carved table, close to the bedside of his parent, were laid

ly,

a purse of gold, a small flask of wine, several written papers, and lastly, a bunch of keys. To these it was that the longings of Lorenzo were directed. The slumberer pronounced faint"Your dagger, your dagger! Beltramo, make no half-blows." The Dwarf started at hearing these recollections of secret and bloody deeds; but he immediately stepped forward with a stealthy pace, and had gained the middle of the chamber, when again he heard, in the hasty and imperfect accents of a dream, “ Ah! all, all my lands,-Monte Rico, Pallici, Orana,-ah, they must all go. Had she not died in prison, by heaven, she should have wedded Soradino." But these fearful workings of the slumberer's menacing and ambitious spirit, only gave additional earnestness to the resolution of the boy, and before the sentence was accomplished, his hands were on the keys. He left a crimson mark upon the spot from which he lifted them, and the same red witness was visible in a line along the floor, where the drops had trickled down his fingers, to the oriental carpet. The slumberer was silent, and when he murmured again in his disturbed sleep, Lorenzo was too far to hear the sound. He slided through the narrow opening of the door, drew it gently after him, and then disposed the pallet and the corpse as much as possible after the manner in which they looked before he had done the slaughter. To avoid attracting Sidney's attention, he washed his hands of the blood in a vase of water, which was intended for the use of his father, and then, for the first time, found leisure to contemplate his prize, to clasp it to his breast, and hastily repeat a thanksgiving. But every moment made the awaking of Monteco more probable, and he hurried off to the young Englishman. He found him tranquil, watchful, and hitherto undisturbed by any noise. They entered the ante-chamber together, and the boy who held the lamp, so carried it as not to throw its rays upon the spot where lay the cold and gory car

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case. They readily discovered the key of the door which led to the staircase, and they soon accomplished the winding descent to the vaults. By day these were readily accessible through the archway which opened on the canal, and Lorenzo had frequently traversed them. Through a narrow break in the walls, which his small form had enabled him to penetrate, he had even been able to get beyond the places where the various iron gratings would have been interposed between him and the dungeon, and more than once had thus reached its door. But he had now the keys, which would open these obstructions. Before, however, they had reached the first of them, they found themselves in a spot from which several gloomy aisles, and vast chambers of shadow branched, while in one direction, after creeping silently round a pillar, behind which they had deposited their lamp, Lorenzo pointed out to Sidney a faint broad glimmer, through which a few points of light were seen to twinkle. "There," said the Dwarf in a whisper, "a sentinel is stationed. Through that passage we must reach our boat; and the first of our proceedings must be to master and gag him. I have told you how this can be done; we must now attempt it." A double range of low columns divided the vault, and they stole along the wall, and left the centre for the pacing of the soldier, for such he was by profession, though now in the service of Monteco. His measured, but careless tread, the clanging of his weapons against the stones, and the snatches of military songs, with which he amused his leisure, sounded from afar through the vault, and served to conceal the stealthy noise of their approach. They reached almost the end of the aisle, and felt the wind blow colder on their cheeks, while they placed themselves between two of the pillars. The soldier was wrapped in his cloak, and walked so rapidly up and down the outermost twenty yards of the vista, that he had passed and repassed them several

times before they had arrived in their slower progress at the point they had pitched upon. When they stood ready for the onset, their unconscious antagonist was at the farthest part of this walk from them; he turned, and came towards them, and when he was opposite their stations, and in the act of turning to measure back his footsteps, Sidney seized his arms behind, while Lorenzo flung a cloak over his head, and prevented him from shouting for help. They then forced the soldier to stretch his tall form upon the ground, and tied his hands, and more completely gagged his mouth ; after which, they proceeded half to carry, half to drag him, into the interior of the vaults, where he would not be likely to be found, by those who would come to relieve him. Here, having selected a pillar, in which an iron chain was fixed, they bound the captive to it with many convolutions, and left him in solitude and darkness.

They again seized their lamp, and hastened on their way. The keys which Lorenzo had bought, at SO bloody and fearful a price, opened the iron barriers; and they speedily reached the door of the cell. It, too, was readily unfastened by Sidney, for the trembling Lorenzo was too agitated to find the lock. The Dwarf rushed into the prison, shouting, "Isabel! my sister! I am here." There was no answer, and the boy began to look in horror towards his companion, and whispered, "O! heaven! has she perished?" Sidney, however, who had not entered the narrow apartment, heard a feeble moaning, and, on looking more closely, they found, stretched before the doorway, the miserable and half-lifeless girl. In his first eagerness, Lorenzo had sprung into the dungeon, over that which was almost the corpse of his sister. They lifted up her weak and trembling weight, and, for one instant, she opened her eyes, but shuddered, and again closed them, apparently, without having observed who they were who supported

her. The boy began to tear his hair, and almost sank to the earth, but Sidney pointed out to him, that the best chance of reviving the maiden would be afforded by bearing her to the open air,—a measure which would also facilitate their escape. The Englishman raised her in his arms, where she lay like a withered and trampled flower, and bore her through the dark chill vaults, and sounding passages, to the arch which they had before visited. He whistled slightly, and after his signal had been returned, a gondola shot rapidly to his side. By this time the fresh air had, in some degree, restored Isabel, who had not previously recovered from the mournful state in which she was left by her father. They lifted her from the vault into the gondola, which bore them to the residence of Sidney. They there found a larger boat, in which were several of the cavalier's attendants, splendidly appointed and armed. They conveyed their master, together with Lorenzo and Isabel, for a few miles beyond the harbor, and Sidney then accompanied them on board a swift-sailing vessel, which he had hired to carry them to Ravenna. The dawn began to open before they entered the ship, and, while they raised the lady up its side, the full light of the morning broke, and breathed around her in all its glory. A year before she had been as fresh and lovely as that day-spring. She was now wasted, and bent by suffering. The light of her large dark eyes was gone: her cheeks were pallid and lifeless; and through the loose coarse robe which encircled her, her once bounding and graceful limbs were seen to fall overwearied and motionless. Her little hand was thin, and quivering with a convulsive tremor; and the blue but pulseless veins rose in ridges on its meagre whiteness. Her long black hair fell round her, as if it already encircled her with the shadow of death. She remained a long time in the cabin of the vessel, tended by a poor nun, who was going from Venice to a convent of her order, at Ra

venna. At last she desired to be borne on deck; and she was seated on cushions on the poop, supported by Lorenzo. Sidney, from a little distance, contemplated this wreck of so much beauty and gladness. Amid all that her form and face recorded of past misery, and foretold of quick decay, he perceived the evident traces and relics of splendid loveliness. Every feature, though now writhed by long agony, and subdued almost to death, was framed in delicate and exquisite proportion; and it was easy to discern that those pale and shrunken lips were rather designed for the laugh of a glad heart, and the kisses of affec tion, than for breathing the dank noisomeness of a solitary dungeon. The maiden looked round her feebly at the bright smooth sea, and the blue sky, and bursting into tears, laid her head on the breast of Lorenzo as he knelt beside her. He kissed her eyes, and spoke to her in words of hope and consolation. But she answered, with a broken and hesitating voice, nay, deceive not thyself, my brother, I shall not live to see the setting of yonder sun. But for the kindness and courage which rescued me from but for you, I should now have been a corpse. Yet I thank you with all my broken heart, that before I perish, I breathe the breath of heaven, and look upon the sky, and upon you, Lorenzo.” Amid some recollected snatches of their childhood, amid many words and gestures of affection, and sighs of adoration, some solemn tears, and some dim smiles, she lived the last hours of her life. She died before the evening, and was buried in a small cemetery near the shore.

Monteco did not long survive her. He was assassinated by a young Greek, who had spent several years in seeking an opportunity to revenge upon him some terrible cruelty which long previously he had perpetrated or permitted, against the family of the murderer. The death of Isabel cancelled the contract with Soradino, and Lorenzo inherited the estates of his family; but he transferred them all to

Cold Winter is coming.-Mr. Coleridge's Poetical Works.

a monastery of Benedictines, in which he himself assumed the cowl, on condition that he was permitted to build a cell, and live as a hermit in the bu

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rial-ground which held the dust of his sister. He, too, died in his youth, even before the day which robbed the world of Sir Philip Sidney.

COLD WINTER IS COMING.

COLD Winter is coming-take care of your Cold Winter is coming--he'll breathe on

toes

Gay Zephyr has folded his fan;

the stream

And the bane of his petrific breath

His lances are couch'd in the ice-wind that Will seal up the waters; till, in the moon

blows,

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MR. COLERIDGE'S POETICAL WORKS.*

We are rejoiced to see these volumes, the collected fruits of one of the most original minds in our time. Scattered, unappropriated, neglected, and out of print, as many of these poems have been, yet what an influence have they exercised! How many veins of fine gold has Coleridge, with all the profusion of genius, laid open for others to work! In these pages how many lines start up old familiar friends, met, with in quotations we knew not whence! and how completely do they

bear the impress of the true poet!— thoughts whose truth is written in our own hearts; feelings that make us lay down the book to exclaim, "How of ten have I felt this myself!"-touches of description so exquisite, that henceforth we never see a green leaf or sunny spot, like to what they picture, without their springing to our lips; tenderness which, both in poet and reader, gushes forth in tears; and imagination whose world is built of the honey extracted even from the weeds

The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, including the Dramas of Wallenstein, Remorse, and Zapolya. 3 vols. 12mo. London, 1828. W. Pickering.

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