to run over each class of objects of curiosity, or interest, this country affords, I would soon convince you that you were already in a land of wonders and rare sights." “But even here I am trammeled. Papa did not come out here to examine the curiosities of the country, or to hunt out picturesque scenery, Moorish antiquities, or Ronan ruins, and I cannot go scampering over the neighbourhood with an escort of volunteers from the brigade or the Light Dragoons. It is true that Mrs. Capt. Howe, who is a great connoisseuse in nature and art, has promised to be my guide in exploring the country as soon as she gets rid of her rheumatism. But from the number of her flannel wrappers, I infer that there is no hope of her soon extending her explorations beyond the walls of her room." "You must indeed feel the want of a companion to free you from the awkwardness of your situation; here with no company but those - rude comrades his majesty has sent out hither." "I am heartily tired of them, and were it not for my loyalty, would just now exchange a crack regiment for a companionable woman." "I am glad, then, to be able to tell you that a lady has arrived in Elvas, who may be very useful in filling up this awkward gap in the circle of your acquaintance!" "A lady? An English lady? Who is she?" "An English lady. One old enough to be your chaperone, and young enough to be your companion. She has some other merits, too, not the least of which, in my estimation is that she professes to be a great friend of mine." "A crowning virtue, that," said Lady Mabel. "It does not blind me, however, "She is afflicted, moreover, with an inveterate love of sight-seeing." "That is a positive virtue. have fellow-feeling with her. She would be no true woman if she ever lost chance at a spectacle. But what is her misfortune?" "She is the wife of a commissary," said L'Isle with a very grave face. 66 Why L'Isle," said Lord Strathern, "has Shortridge brought his wife to Elvas ?" "Yes, my Lord, they came last night. Yes, Lady Mabel; the woman who marries a commissary can hardly escape being the wife of a knave!" "But I really believe," said his Lordship, "that our rascal is the most honest fellow in the commissariat department." "That is not saying much for his honesty." "I hope for the honor of human nature," interposed Major Conway, "that there are honest men among commissaries?" "It is no imputation on human. nature to think otherwise," said L'Isle. "You might as soon hope there are honest men among pickpockets. For some good reason or other, honest men can not follow either trade. "That is one of your prejudices, L'Isle," said Lord Strathern, "and in them you are a true bigot. You are too hard upon poor Shortridge and his brethren. Shortridge is a very good fellow, though a little vulgar, it is true. And he always cheats with a conscience, and so do many of his brethren." 66 "I shall have no scruples of conscience in making use of Mrs. Commissary, if I can," said Lady Mabel. "I hope she is of a sociable temper?" "Quite so. And moreover, I forgot one trait that will make her particularly accessible to you. She is very fond of people of fashion, and a title secures her esteem." "Then she belongs to me, for I shall not be wanting in attention to your newly-arrived friend. How comes she to be your friend?" L'Isle told Mrs. Shortridge's adventure in the Patriarchal church; mentioned the street she was now in for lodgings, and his intention to yield his present quarters to her. "Why Colonel L'Isle," exclaimed Lady Mabel, "you must be the very pink of chivalry. I do not know which most to admire, your gallant rescue of the dame, or your self-sacrificing spirit in finding her a home." "You will make Shortridge jealous, L'Isle, by taking such good care of his wife," said Lord Strathern." "Our sharp friend has too much sense," answered L'Isle, "to be guilty of such folly as that." Major Conway setting the example, L'Isle now thought it time to take his leave, and he returned to his quarters with the air of a man who thought he had done a good day's work." I think said Lord Strathern to his daughter, "that L'Isle is improving in manners." "His manners are good. Papa were they ever otherwise?" "I mean that he is becoming more conciliatory, and more considerate of other people. He has scarcely differed from me to-day, and certainly did not undertake to set me right, or contradict me even once, a habit he is much addicted to, and very unbecoming in so young a man! It is certainly, too, very kind of him to give up his comfortable quarters to the Shortridges, in their distress, particularly as I know he despises the man." Now do not blunder on to the hasty conclusion, good reader, that L'Isle, having, at first sight, plunged over head and ears in love with Lady Mabel, had resolved to win and wear her with the least possible loss of time: that he was now investing the fortress, about to besiege it in form, and would hold himself in readiness to carry it by storm on the first opportunity. He acknowledged to himself no such intention; and he doubtless knew his own mind best. Without exactly holding the opinion of Sir John, as set forth by his follower, Bardolph, that a soldier is better accommodated than with a wife-he had often strenuously maintained, in opposition to some love-stricken comrade, that, in the midst of a bloody war, a soldier can give no worse proof of devotion to the lady of his choice, than urging her to become a promising candidate for early widowhood. He preached exceedingly well on this text, and it is but fair to believe that he would practice what he preached. No! in the interest he took in Lady Mabel's situation, he was actuated by no selfish or personal motives. He acquitted himself of that. Had he come across Lady Mabel's old Lisbon coach, beset by robbers, in her journey through the Alemtejo, he would have dashed in among them, sword in hand, like a true gentleman, and a good knight. Now, when he saw her surrounded by evils and embarrassments of a less tangible kind, the same spirit of chivalry brought him promptly to her aid. Lady Mabel lost no time in adding Mrs. Shortridge to the list of her female acquaintances in Elvas, which, unlike that of her male friends, was so short, that this new comer was the only available one as a companion. This jewel of a companion, which elsewhere might have escaped her notice, was now seized upon as a diamond of the first water; and Mrs. Shortridge was happy and flattered to find herself the associate of a lady of rank, not to speak of her other merits. It is not always similarity of character that makes people friends. It quite as often makes them rivals. To have what your companion wants, and to need what he can afford you, is a better foundation for those social partnerships, often dignified with the name of friendship. The great talker wants a good listener; the sluggish or melancholic are glad of a companion who will undertake the active duty of providing conversation and amusement; he whose nature it is to lead, wants some one who will follow; and the doubting man welcomes as a strong ally, him who will decide for him. As Dogberry says, "when two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind," and the social, compliant and admiring temper of Mrs. Shortridge fitted in so well with the animated, impulsive and vigorous spirit of Lady Mabel, that something very like friendship grew up between them. Lady Mabel's habits now underwent a change, which, proved that her late mode of life, and her morning and evening levees of epaulettes had been quite as much the result of necessity as of choice. Her father's house was still much frequented by her gay and dashing comrades. But whenever there was a large company to dinner, or any other causes brought many of the gentlemen to head-quarters, she made a point of having Mrs. Shortridge at hand to countenance and sustain her; and in return she would often mount her horse early and canter into Elvas, followed only by a groom, to shut herself up with Mrs. Shortridge for a whole morning, doubtless in the enjoyment of those confidential feminine chats, for which she had longed so much. On these occasions, the representatives of the ruder sex seldom gained admittance; except that L'Isle would now and then drop in for an hour, he being too great a favorite with Mrs. Shortridge to be excluded; and for a time, he showed no disposition to abuse his special privilege. It was on one of these occasions that L'Isle discovered, that with all his assiduity in acquiring a thorough knowledge of the peculiar and interesting land in which he had now spent more than four years, an assiduity, on the result of which he much prided himself, and which had done good service in his profession, there was still one important point that he had quite overlooked. He knew absolutely nothing of the botany of this region, nor indeed of any other. He made this discovery suddenly on hearing Lady Mabel express the interest she felt in this science, and her hope of finding many opportunities of pursuing it in a country whose Flora was so new to her. He at once began to supply this omission by borrowing from her half a dozen books on the subject. In two or three days he re-appeared, armed with a huge bunch of wild flowers and plants, and professed to have mastered the technicalities sufficiently to enter at once on the practical study of the science in the field. Unless he deceived himself he was an astonishing fast learner. Lady Mabel told him that she had heard that poeta nascitur, and now she believed from analogy; for he much; but towards which she had yet done nothing; while at the same time, she might, without trouble, indoctrinate him in the mysteries of this beautiful branch of natural history. Most of these flowers were new to her as living specimens. Her botanical enthusiasm was roused at the sight of them, and the offer of a pupil added to her zeal. When we know a little of anything, it is very pleasant to be applied to for instruction by the ignorant, as it enables us to flatter ourselves that we know a great deal. And it is only the more gratifying when our voluntary pupil is otherwise well informed. was certainly born a botanist. He rebutted the sarcasm by showing that he had the terms stamen, pistil, calix, corollacapsule, and a host of others at the tip of his tongue; though possibly, had he been called upon to apply each in its proper place, he would have been like a certain student of geometry we once knew, who, by aid of a good memory alone, could demonstrate every theorem of Euclid's, without understanding one of them, provided the diagram was small enough to be hidden by his hand, so you could not detect him in pointing to the wrong angle and line. January was gone, and the earlier of the two springs that mark this climate was opening beautifully. L'Isle displayed temptingly before Lady Mabel's eyes the wild flowers he had collected during a laborious morning spent on hill and plain, in wood and field, and urged her to lose no time in taking the field too, and making collections for the hortus siccus, of which she talked so It was at once arranged that the party should take the field to-morrow. Mrs. Shortridge, it is true, had no particular taste for botany. If the flowers in her bouquet were beautiful, or fragrant, or both, she did not trouble herself about their history, names, class, order or alliances; but pleasant company, fresh air, exercise and new scenes were inducements enough for her. (To be continued.) TOGETHER. She is not here, but never far; A clearer sky, a brighter star, Her name, removes the seeming bar Together always! such belief Has nothing vain for me, From doubt-it is most sure and chief Promise of what shall be. SLAVERY IN ENGLAND. NO. III. It is well known that the as- and villeins in gross; the former sumption of the rule of England by answering to the feudal slaves, the Normans was productive of being attached permanently to the great changes in the governmental soil which they tilled, and not and social organization. All the being sold, ordinarily, except in landed property-comprising al- connection with it; the latter bemost the entire wealth of the coun- longing absolutely to their lords, try-was at once taken from its and liable to be alienated separateformer owners and vested in the ly from their lands. Doubtless the king, by whom it was distributed number of slaves, already very among his followers. By this great, was much increased by the means the immediate possessors of action of the conquerors in enslavthe soil became tenants of their ing some of the Saxons, while the several farms, holding under the nature of the servitude became, in grantees of the crown; and the process of time, greatly mitigated former land-holders were summa- by the advancement in civilization, rily ejected from their homes, un- consequent on the infusion of the less they were fortunate enough to Norman element into the English be admitted as sub-tenants to their character. It required centuries, new masters. It is probable very however, for this effect to become many were not allowed this privi- manifest; leniency and moderation lege, and as the only alternative were not predominant traits in the they must have become the slaves character of the Northmen; the of their feudal lords. Immediately first invaders were scarcely more after the conquest, the distinction advanced in civilization than their between the classes of slaves seems island subjects; and we may safely to have been well established. In presume, and history abundantly Domesday Book, compiled A. D. sustains the presumption, that the 1086, only twenty years after the slavery maintained by the new Battle of Hastings, they are enu- possessors of the isle was at first not merated by various names.* less severe than the slavery of the Saxons. The differences, however, were apparently very slight, except the primary and marked difference between personal and predial slaves, already noticed as probably exist ing under the Saxons, and clearly established among the Normans from the beginning. This divided their slaves icto villeins regardant "The condition of a villein" says Mr. Hargrave, in his celebrated argument for the negro, in the case of John Somerset, "had most of the incidents which I have before described, in giving the idea of slavery in general. His service was uncertain and indeterminate, such as his Lord thought fit to require; or, as some of our ancient writers express it, he knew not in the evening what he *Sir Edward Coke denies that the bordarii, coterelli, &c. mentioned in Domesday, were slaves; but neither reason nor authority is given for this assumption; and in the preface to the edition of Domesday, published by authority of Parliament, in 1783, the revising commissioners seem to have considered them as indisputably in bondage. |