But a woman's wit is rarely at fault; so the pretty Marguereta jumped up, and giving the intruder an abrazo, said, "Oh, my dear papa, I knew you would be so glad to entertain an English officer, that I have invited one in, who has just arrived from the seat of war, and can tell you all the news!"

“Bueno, bueno," (Certainly, certainly), he replied, and having welcomed us with ten thousand vivas to his castle, followed it up by a suggestion that 1 should immediately report myself to the general at the barracks, and get our passports examined.

This we did, after passing a happy evening with the worthy Governor and his daughter, whose prepossession in favour of my countrymen, I learnt, had been founded upon the attentions of a certain English Major C-, who was for a long time quartered at, or near Mertola, and who, on being ordered away, left, among other presents, one of his tooth brushes to my little hostess, which she naively said, "she used every morning out of regard to his memory.

Well! the Portuguese general received us very civilly, but thought it his duty to inquire why, if I were a captain in the army, it had not been so specified in my passport, instead of terming me a proprietair only?

This was a question for which I was quite unprepared; my complexion, too, soon betrayed me by assuming a rubicund tint, and was placed in still greater relief by the pallid features of poor Lorenzo, who, I believe, fancied himself already immured in a dungeon for life, as a Spanish spy.

The General and his secretary here both increased our confusion, by saying to me, "Why, sir, there is something so mysterious about your manner, that I must reluctantly make you prisoners till I have consulted with the authorities at Lisbon, from whom I received orders so to do in any case of doubt, which this certainly is !"

Now I knew too well from past experience that such communications between the provinces and the seat of government in Portugal often lasted many months, and sometimes years, and therefore felt seriously alarmed for the result of those very natural suspicions which my vanity and folly had thus created, and consequently, I for several moments stood aghast!

Luckily, my energies were roused by the exigencies of our situation, and suddenly recollecting to have left my namesake, Capt. S, on the Tagus a few weeks previously, as commander of a splendid frigate, I ventured to assume his title, and say that the whole mistake was quite evident to me as being occasioned by the STUPID Spaniards in Seville, who, not knowing a naval from a military captain, had therefore described me as neither. Oh, how the worthy Galliego's bronzed face brightened

at the happy thought! It actually "shed a gleam that cheered one on to victory;" for when the General said "Yes, yes: but "I filled up the sentence for him by adding, "but (as you were doubtless going to say, General), no official among our more ancient allies, the Portuguese, would have made such a blunder."

"True! true!" exclaimed the wily secretary, "still"

Now for a home thrust, thought I; so looking at the latter most expressively, and jingling very genteelly some silver in my right-hand breeches pocket, I said,

"Still, Mr. Secretary, the fault is ours, and your time must not be wasted in vain by the correction of it. Nevertheless, I shall take care to represent the matter properly on reaching my frigate, you may depend upon it; when both your zeal and civility will, I hope, be rewarded.”

This speech settled the business, and fresh passports were immediately made out, in which I modestly begged to be still described as a proprietair, lest any other officials not so enlightened as our present friends, should fail to understand what (I shall never again forget) the difference between a naval and a military captain!

Lorenzo began to breathe freely once more! so, handing my cigar box to the General and his secretary, we all smoked the calumet of peace, and followed by my faithful Sancho, we both strutted away to the hotel, where young Francisco had been sleeping in happy ignorance of the ordeal we had passed through.

He was promptly roused, however, by a recital of it, and expressed so earnest a desire to quit such a dangerous place, that, long before sunrise, we were mounted on some sorry mules, which were with difficulty procured at this short notice.

Nothing further occurred to impede our journey to Lisbon; whence I found the frigate I was to command had sailed ten days previously, and my gallant namesake only became aware of the honor I had done him, when we met in England a few years afterwards.

AN AUTUMN VOLUNTARY.

BY WILLIAM DODSWORTH, ESQ.

How lovely is this glorious August time!
Half summer and half autumn, with its wealth
Of cloudless skies, green fields, and golden woods,
Ere yet the corn hath felt the sickle's touch,
Or winter, with cold breath, hath robbed the woods
Of one green leaf: beyond all seasons else,
I love the autumn! no chill blasts it hath
To mar its beauty like reluctant spring;
Nor heat like the luxuriant summer's prime,
To fire the throbbing brain, and leave its load
Of langour on the senses.-Autumn comes
A fruitful matron all with zone unbound,
Crowned like a victor in the Olympian games,
With all the fruity spoil of every clime!

We made of late a joyous idle day
Amid the woods, a wild uproarious band
Of young and old, the oldest youthful grown
With rampant pleasure: o'er the hills we went,
Making the welkin ring with many a shout,
A merry rout, all drunken with the joy
Of the blithe scene around us, and ourselves.
Three decades and no more of earthly time
Were registered upon the oldest brow,

Scarce seasons more the youngest there could boast,
Yet the same feeling stirred each kindred heart;
Gay worshippers we were of nature fair,

And many a prayer and many a hymn we breathed
Of loving wonder and of heartfelt praise.
"Tis not alone in dim cathedral aisles,

'Mid stoled priests and choristers, that prayer
Goes up to God! no, every accent breathed
'Mid the dim woods, and on the lonely heath,
In admiration of this wondrous globe,
Ascends in tribute to its Maker's praise!
So prayed we, and so sank upon each heart
The calmness and the beauty of the whole.

By shady lanes and leafy paths we went,
Childhood's light footsteps leading still the van ;
Then manhood, he the generous and the kind,
Beloved and loving, the one link that bound
All hearts, and held them in the bonds of love,
The sire of all those young ones, and the friend,
The dear, dear friend of all! his glowing cheek
And kindling eye quick witnesses of all
The joy within.-One maiden with the stamp
Of womanhood scarce on her, and myself.
Then loitering far behind, in boyish dreams,
Now watching with abstracted air the clouds
Dappling the deep blue sky above him, or transfixed
A breathing statue, as his eye descried,
Down the dark vistas of the woodland glade,
Some scene that caught his fancy-singing oft
Such scraps of household song as his young ear,
In the recesses of its untried sense

Could hold, came lingering still a lovely boy,
Loath to forsake so fair a realm of joy.

So fared we onward till the woods had ceased,
And lo! a cottage, 'neath the spreading arms
Of a majestic sycamore, we gained,

Where an old dame, keen-eyed and bent with age,
Though active with blithe looks and kindly words,
Pressed us to enter. "'Neath the welcome shade
Of this fair tree we'll rest ourselves a while,"
Our leader said. Meanwhile, with eager eye,
I marked how thrifty labour had improved
The gifts a niggard nature had bestowed:
The strip of garden ground was gay with flowers,
Such as in antique hamlets still you see,
Sweet gilliflowers that perfumed the balmy air,
The flaunting hollyhock, the queenly rose,
And woodbine, clambering round the shady porch ;
A golden shower of fruit the orchard showed,
Whilst, in the midst of the green lawn, a shaft
Sustained a dial. "In so calm a cell

A hermit, surely, here might end his days,"
Our leader said; then, with a cheery voice,
Turning, he spake the kindly dame, "How blest
In bright comparison with weary hearts,
Immured in some dark festering city lane,
You live." "Aye, sir, beyond all other scenes
I love this lowly hut and these few fields:

Here in my merry girlhood's days I dwelt,
And many a time from forth this cottage door
Have looked out on a world of cloud and storm,
When all the valley 'neath a snowy shroud
Lay buried here, at summer's radiant dawn,
I've watched the earliest sunbeam gild the sky,
Heard the blithe carol of the heaven-bound lark,
And the cock's merry crowing: here a bride
My husband brought me, and from this roof-tree
Three stately sons and one fair girl have seen
Borne to the grave: oh! many a joyous hour,
And many a sad one, 'neath our humble roof
We've spent. And now, two gnarled trunks,
The parent stems are standing all alone,

Robbed of their goodly brauches; my old man
For fourscore years hath battled with the world,
Cheered and sustained 'mid many a bitter hour
By the sweet thought that his declining years
Would be cheered by the noble band of sons
The Almighty gave us; 'twas an impious thought,
And fitly punished-but we have enough,
And in the world beyond the grave we'll meet.

Then, in her ever-changing mood, she brought
New milk to quench our thirst, and with blithe looks
Eyed the huge bowl around the circle pass,
Until the last had drained it. "We have more,"
She gently said.-"Our thirst is quite assauged;
And now, blithe pilgrims, blither for your gift,
We'll wander homewards 'neath this glowing sky."
Few paces from her flowery realm she went,
To guide us to a path across the fields,
And left us with hushed lips to wend our way.
Down a steep slope the pathway led, the corn
Hemming us in, a sea of waving gold,
Across a rustic bridge, whose tiny stream
Stole silent as a dream beneath the shade
Of a few straggling alders, forth we went,
When suddenly the winding vale disclosed
A glorious vision to our startled eyes,
Bathed in the setting radiance of the sun.-
Hill piled on hill, with woodlands crowned, each crest
Blazing as if on fire; beneath, a lake
Glittering below that cloudless sky, a sheet
Of molten gold, whilst in dim distance seen
The radiant sunset, cheating the dull gaze,