Not now, in particular, I did not mean," stammered the lady, coloring and taking up her crochet-work, as she suddenly paused in her speech.

She worked industriously, her dark lashes veiling her eyes, while Carleton, unobserved, but not unfelt, and thinking her more enigmatical than ever, wonderingly watched her.

How beautiful she looked! Her mourning dress, which she still retained, and which, fitting her charming figure perfectly, fell away in rich folds, imparted to her dazzling complexion, whose youthful roses time had not yet touched, an added brilliancy. Lower and lower her head sunk; her bosom began to heave, and at last heavy drops fell from her eyes. A sudden emotion swept the heart of Carleton. "Are you crying, Florence?"

She raised her face quickly, and her tears streamed.

"Is it new to you to see me weep?" she asked in a low, stifled voice.

The door at this moment opened, and two beautiful children, followed by a mulatto nurse, entered the room. Florence sprung toward them, and folded the children in her arms, while heavy sobs shook her. Had a dagger struck the heart of Carleton, he could not have felt greater pain. He stood gazing irresolutely upon the scene, utterly at a loss to conjecture how much of it was due to his own unkindness, or how much to memories with which he had nothing to do. Suddenly approaching a window, he walked out on the piazza.

"And she mourns for him still, the base and heartless fellow! Forgetting all the life I have lavished upon her, she elings to the memory of one whom her father compelled her to marry, and who never made her happy!" and pacing the piazza with a stormy step, the young officer ground his teeth together.

A soldier passing through the grounds toward the place where the horses were picketed recalled him to the remembrance of his duties. He turned to enter the house by the back-door, when a servant announced that breakfast was waiting.

The young mistress of the mansion met him at the door of the breakfast-room,

traces of tears still visible in her face, and with a sad smile motioned him in to the table.

The meal passed somewhat silently, and not without restraint on both sides. Putting aside all the peculiar personal reasons he had for anxiety on her account, Carleton felt that the position of Florence was an anomalous and dangerous one. Could he protect her from the attacks of guerrillas, he would much prefer to have her remain in her own house; for he felt certain of being able to provide a sufficient guard to ensure her against any molestation from the Union army and its retinue of hangers-on; and, alas! her secession proclivities were too evident to leave any doubt that she would be safe from any scouts from the rebel army, or should they ever make a sally in force from the intrenchments of Vicksburg. But it was better that she should seek shelter in one of the caves of Vicksburg, dangerous and unwholesome as they might be. But when should he see her again? Not until the city should be captured, and who could tell what might be then?

The meal was soon ended. Carleton went out and ordered the horses immediately brought round, and returned to take leave of his hostess. She looked into his face and read there all the anxiety and pain he felt. Quick tears started to her eyes, and she held out her hand.

"Cousin Guy, I am deeply indebted to you for all the unwearying care and solicitude you have shown for me. I am well aware that your guardianship has been no sinecure; for I am at best but a wayward woman, and many reasons exist, which you do not understand, to make me seem more wilful than I am. you may be assured of this, that I value and appreciate you."

But

Grasping her hand with a fervor of which he was unconscious, "You owe me nothing, Florence," he said. "If I have at any time been of service to you, try and set it down against the annoyances you have so often suffered from me, and think of me as kindly as you can. As God is my witness, I have always cared more for your happiness than for my own, and if I have failed to secure it, it

has been because I was weak and knew not the best means. If at any time, in prosperity or in adversity, in sickness or in health, in safety or in peril, I can do aught for you within the power of man to accomplish, let me know, and I will do my best to achieve it. Farewell, Florence; what may chance between us before we meet again, God only knows. You in the caves of Vicksburg, and I in its assaulting army, could any one assign to a deadly enemy a post better calculated to make him a poltroon and a coward? I shall never send a shot into the city that I shall not imagine it aimed at you." "Do not think of it, Guy. Be a man and a hero; and if I should fall a victim to some chance shot, remember me, not as a woman disloyal to her country, but as one who, whatever her faults might be, was at least true to ".

"What? Florence, finish your sentence and, if you can, in this our parting hour, relieve me from the anguish of believing you, who are so loyal to all that is good and true besides, a traitress to your country and the dear old flag which covered our grandsire on his last battlefield."

The features of Florence worked painfully, and she seemed struggling with some irresistible power which held her dumb. Twice her lips parted as if to speak; but they closed again, and the words, whatever they were, remained unspoken. The color left her face till it became like marble, and bowing her head as if to a stroke, she at last said,

ment you have elected as yours. It is not fitting that a loyal man should hold longer intercourse with one whose beauty, intelligence, and Northern birth make her disloyalty doubly sinful."

"I would give you some memento of other days," said she, humbly, and with streaming tears.

"I have no need of anything to remind me of those days, Florence."

"Yet take this. I wore it when I was a young Northern girl, before we had either of us ever seen this fatal Southern land. It contains my hair."

She detached a minute locket from her chatelaine and held it out. Carleton could not resist accepting it.

"O Florence! if you were but as true to your country as to your friends!" "Perhaps the day will come, Guy, when you will judge me But no! why seek to avert your indignation. Farewell, Guy! Think of me as kindly as you can.'

"O Florence! I shall always do violence to my own heart to remember you as aught but one without a fault. Farewell!"

In another moment he had dashed down the steps of the piazza and mounted his horse. Folie stood waiting by the gardengate to get a last word and look from the young man whom she remembered as the truest and most faithful friend of her mistress.

"Good-by, Massa Captain Guy," said she, seeing that he did not observe her.

her hand.

thing should happen to her, try to let me know. Captain Carleton, in Grant's army, is known, and you will find me with it if I live. Remember, if your mistress is in trouble, or needs a friend, to come to me."

officer overtook his little scouting party,

and they were soon out of sight.

Florence went up to her chamber with

CLOUD-LAND.

PART FIRST.

By A. Z.

(To be continued.)

EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN IN FRANCE.

Where fever had chained me for many a morn,
I watched the light clouds as they floated high,
Wind-driven, across the bright blue sky;
And as they parted and met, I could trace
In their fleecy folds full many a face;

While fairy scenes and beauties rare
High carnival were holding there.

I looked upon many a sunny slope,
Where bounded the deer and the antelope;
On hill-top lone and on rose-decked bower,
On jutting crag and on fallen tower;
And the sun, as he broke through tossing waves,
Seemed gilding the sides of strange mountain-

caves,

THE employment of women in France rapidly extending in all trades which require neatness, taste, or delicacy of touch. The law there forbids workmen to strike unless they can obtain leave from the government on showing good grounds of complaint; and the government does not consider the introduction of women sufficient cause for a strike, nor will it permit of threats, violence, or combinations to exclude them. On the contrary, everything is done to encourage the employment of women. stance, the empress causes the decoration of china to be taught in the girls' schools under her control, and personally bestows prizes on the best pupils in the art. A school, too, with workshops attached, has been established for the purpose of teaching girls various other trades well suited to them. It is evident, then, that unless we follow the example of our neighbors, and encourage the employment of women, every trade which can be affected by foreign competition must speedily be taken from us. Duty and interest are therefore coincident. It is our duty to obtain for women the means of earning an honest livelihood, and in the long run, it will prove our interest also.-Englishwoman's Magazine.

He who has been wandering in the maze of false conceptions, and upon whom, at length, has burst the truth of God's paternity, opens his Bible as a new book. Christianity spreads around him a firmament of sudden glory, and reveals to his eye unexpected riches. Knowing that he is our Father, through the storm and the night we may trustingly proceed; for the star of his compassion never sets, and he spans our voyage with a zodiac of promises.

Then passed Aurelian's captive train, With Palmyra's queen in golden chain. Now the proud Rebecca seemed to stand On towering height, with outstretched hand; Then parted the clouds and brought to view The "Voyage of Life," on its river blue: I saw the child when he loosed his boat, Next the old man in Death's waters afloat;

But while I looked with earnest eyes,
The magic scene from my vision flies.
Yet once again did the clouds unite
In a towering mountain of snowy white;
The mountain dissolved and seemed to flow
Into a crystal lake below;
On its waters rested a tiny bark,
In form resembling a little ark;

I saw in the bark a baby's head
Sweetly pillowed on this strange bed.

As I pondered on this scene awhile,
I thought of the voyager of the Nile,
And gladly would have made my lake
The form of Egypt's river take,
That in the boat, on its waters blue,
The infant Moses I might view;

But once again, and for the last time,
The winds dissolved my fairy clime.

ZENOBIA.

By Rev. E. W. Reynolds.

I. THE SCENE AND THE AGE.

a

THE scene to which our imagination is to be transported is a verdant and cultivated spot in the Desert of Arabia. Here, surrounded by desolation, unharmed by the storms that swept over the great centres of civilization, embowered in the genial shade of the palms, a city rose, dating from the reign of Solomon, city that animated the waste and dreary solitude as a vision animates the night. It was nourished by inexhaustible springs, by a temperate air, and by an affluent soil. The caravans that traversed the desert, between the Gulf of Persia and the Mediterranean, found it convenient to open a trade with the rising city; and, through this periodical current of commerce, PALMYRA mingled its expanding life with the refined artisans of India on one hand, and with the rude nations of Europe on the other.

In the course of time, the city of the desert grew into opulence and power; and, " connecting the Roman and Parthian monarchies by the mutual benefits of commerce," maintained its independence, while the waves of conquest rolled through the gates of less fortunate capitals. When the banner of Trajan floated triumphant in Asia, the little republic of Palmyra subsided into the bosom of Rome; but still, enjoying the "honorable rank of a colony," it flourished for more than a hundred and fifty years.

The last days of Palmyra were the most illustrious. Under the reign of Zenobia, the monarchy attained the summit of its glory, as regards both the power won and guarded by the sword and the nobler supremacy secured by letters and the arts. Overflowing with the wealth its enterprise had garnered, beaming with the splendor its taste had erected, and intrenched in the fame its valor had wrought, the monarchy aspired to the higher distinction of cultivating philosophy, and perpetuating those arts that embellish and refine a nation. The expiring genius of Greece was fostered in the isoated metropolis, and enshrined some of

its latest creations in the temples, palaces, and porticos that rose amid the stately palms to radiate their marble beauty on the desert.

The period to which our attention is now directed is the last half of the third century. The Roman Empire had expanded, long since, till it included the civilized parts of the known world. But that vast fabric, diseased within and assaulted from without, was giving signs of dissolution. Luxury had debased the private life of the people, superstition had destroyed their faith, and conquest had obliterated the sentiment of patriotism, and extinguished the love of liberty. Society, therefore, was tending to inevitable decay. Out of her bosom broke sanguinary conspiracies and atrocious crimes. Most of the later emperors had risen from the ranks, had been trained in the camp, and wore the purple by consent of the legions. Some of them were at once marvels of rudeness and monsters of depravity. The whole civilized world was a scene of agitation and disaster, conflict and dissolution. Outside the civilized world, many races of fierce barbarians were already plundering the more exposed provinces, or waiting, with hungry vigilance, for a chance to seize the decaying States and rend them limb from limb.

A circumstance that rendered the state of society yet more critical, was the advent of a new religion.

Its

Its author had died as a malefactor; but the religion had survived. Its apostles had been obscure and contemptible; but their words had been sharper than lances, more potent than sceptres. disciples had been scourged and burned, crucified, and torn by lions; but their blood had nourished new fields of faith, and the flames had brightened the mar tyr's testimony. And so the religion of Christ had spread from Judea into the remotest lands, overturning idolatry and defying persecution as it advanced; and here it was, in the third century, a mysterious and mighty power among the na tions, arrayed against all their venerable traditions, hostile to all the gods of my thology, and audaciously claiming the world for its empire.

At the period to which the present sketch refers, the Christian religion was undoubtedly the most disturbing element in an agitated society. It had matched itself against polytheism, and fairly thrown its antagonist. The ancient priesthood, with all whose interest pledged them to the old superstitions, howled against the new faith with the fury of baffled hatred. It was the great theme of discussion with the learned, and the fruitful occasion of violence with the mob. Besides, the church had already become split into sects whose angular bigotry sharpened dogmatic dissent and drove the opposing parties to the widest extremes.

And finally, as if the natural features of the scene were not sufficiently appalling, as if a dissolving civilization were not prolific enough in tragical elements, -some of the Christians of that age believed that the material world was about to be destroyed by fire, and the abominations of that corrupt society wrapped in terrific judgment-flames spreading to the

stars.

IL-PERSONAL QUALITIES AND EARLY RE

NOWN.

Such was the scene, and such the age, in which the most splendid woman of antiquity was called to reign, to conquer, and to suffer.

ZENOBIA "claimed her descent from the Macedonian kings of Egypt." To a personal beauty that equalled that of Cleopatra, her ancestor, she united the glory of unblemished virtue, the renown of heroic deeds, and the lustre of liberal learning. In the attractions of her person, in the intrepidity of her spirit, and in the strength of her understanding, her sex was supposed to furnish no living equal. Permit me to offer the reader her photograph; for History, by the rays of concurrent tradition, has painted and perpetuated this remarkable woman. Imagine a form superbly moulded, matched with a deportment dignified and commanding, yet tempered with modesty and gentleness. Then imagine the deeply-tinted countenance of the Asiatic illumined by the large, lustrous eyes the Arabian poets have celebrated, and kindled by all those

diversities of expression that a vital soul reflects in a changeful face. If the photograph could speak, we should find that "her voice was strong and harmonious," and that her mind was stored with the wealth of the Greek and Latin, the Egyptian and Syriac languages.

Zenobia had given her hand to Odenathus, King of Palmyra, and "early became the friend and companion of a hero." Inured to fatigue and familiar with danger, she gladly joined her husband, not only in the excitements and pleasures of the chase, but also in the hardships and perils of foreign war. Gibbon does her no more than justice in the remark that, "if we except the doubtful achievements of Semiramis, Zenobia is perhaps the only female whose superior genius broke through the servile indolence imposed on her sex by the climate and manners of Asia." Disdaining to submit to the effeminate usages sanctioned by her rank and country, "she generally appeared on horseback, in a military habit, and sometimes marched several miles on foot at the head of the troops." 91*

In contemplating a delicate and refined woman in these rude relations, the fastidious proprieties lift their eyebrows in emphatic disapprobation; but when we hear one of the most judicious of historians ascribe a large measure of the success of the king to "her incomparable prudence and fortitude," we must admit that the regal hand of Zenobia graced the sword, as the matronly diligence of Lucretia graced the spindle.

Valerian, the Roman Emperor, having been defeated and made prisoner by Sapor, King of Persia, it devolved upon Odenathus and his noble consort to defend the eastern wing of the empire. Taking the field against the triumphant Persian, they turned back the tide of invasion, avenged their captive emperor, and twice chased the foe in confusion to the gates of his capital.

This timely and brilliant success laid the foundations of the united fame and power of the Palmyrenean sovereigns, while it secured to them the transient gratitude of Rome. The armies they * "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."