ed her health and happiness so far as her limited sphere | June, 1776, the squadron anchored off the bar. What extended, and was rewarded with the deep and tender a moment of thrilling anxiety was this to every true attachment of a grateful heart. American heart in the place! The land forces were "In her school, Morna was a general favorite. Arbi- commanded by Cornwallis and Clinton; the naval by tress in every disagreement, her candor and disinter-Sir Peter Parker. The provincial forces were comested kindness could admit no appeal from its fair and manded by General Lee. Our young hero Percy, was equal decision. With Mary Percy, one of her class-honored with a lieutenancy in his army. It was some mates, a girl of congenial tastes and feelings, she was days before the British troops could disembark, owing very intimate. The rocks and dells in these environs to the impediment in crossing the bar. At length, how still bear memorials of their merry gambols and ram-ever, they effected a landing on Long Island, and prebles amongst the wild luxuriance of nature. Alfred pared for an attack. Percy's post was in the select Percy, also, the brother of the young lady, and two division, placed on the main land, opposite Sullivan's years older, was frequently one of the party, and per- island, the only successful point of attack. formed wonders of agility and bold adventure in various feats of climbing, leaping, and swimming, any of which he would carry to the utmost extent of possibility to oblige or amuse Morna. In a short time he had so won her admiration as to be her beau ideal of all that was noble and elegant: however, she was not the girl to be fascinated on a slight acquaintance. The current of her affections ran in too deep a channel to be ruffled by the wing of every bird that flitted over it. My mother's experienced eye discerned the growing attachment of Percy towards her lovely niece, and while she would not have influenced her decision in a matter where the affections are so deeply interested, she hoped the time might come when she would not be insensible to the love of one so worthy of her heart and her choice.

"The evening before the expected battle he called at my mother's, still the spot of peculiar attraction whenever a moment of leisure allowed him the indulgence of his warmest and tenderest feelings. She candidly expressed her fears for his safety, knowing the dangerous post he would occupy, and his fearless intrepidity. She charged him to remember how many hearts would throb with deep interest for him on that eventful day, and concluded by hoping that discretion would temper his courage. He replied with restrained emotion, ‘I hope, dear madam, I am not insensible to your regard, and that of many kind friends; but there is one whose interest and sympathy I would rather win than the world besides.' He looked towards Morna, but she was gone. He followed her retreating footsteps to her favorite, alcove. 'Morna,' he said, assuming the manner of their childhood's freedom, ‘I have heard you say, courage should be your second requisite in a hero. I come to ask a token from you as an incentive to valor to-morrow.' 'Would you desire a higher,' she answer ed, 'than the cause of your country? Oh, Alfred, it is not your honor or courage that is in danger, but your life.' Then give me this bright tress, which has es caped from its bondage, to remind me that you are among those who care for my safety. It will be the first and brightest charm my heart ever wore.' Morna

"We must turn from the visions of youth and the dream of love to our political horizon, which now grew darker and darker. Our colonies had reached the lowest point of oppression and injustice; they felt the burden intolerable; and rising, threatened to heave off the weight that was crushing them. You recollect the affair at Lexington struck the first note of revolt, which was re-echoed by most of the States in the Union. South Carolina was, perhaps, at that time, the most loyal of all to the British government; but even here there were not a few whose hearts swelled with indig. nation at her tyrannical exactions. My mother's feel-spoke not: how could she? But her lover read the ings on this subject were identified with those of the suffering colonists, and she felt that if she had a son able to do his country service, she would buckle on his armor, and speed him with her prayers, in the cause of freedom and suffering humanity.

confession of her heart in the 'many-colored Iris' which filled her eye. You may imagine the scene that followed, when the fervor and faith of young hearts are pledged on the eve of doubtful battle. The hour of separation came, and Percy was taking his leave of her he loved best, with a countenance of hope unclouded by doubt or fear. He whispered to Morna, in going,

"After the first shock of resistance, you recollect the States were unanimous in the cause of liberty; though the scene of war was, during the first part of the con-Remember the token, the talisman of protection and test, confined to the Northern and middle States, and our arms were generally successful wherever valor and dexterity could supply the want of superior numbers and discipline. How did the courageous youth of South Carolina burn to join their brethren of the North in the struggle for liberty! The hot valor of young Perry, like that of his namesake of poetic fame, spurred him on to rush into the marshalled ranks, from which he could scarcely be withheld by the sober forecast of his father, who foresaw that the tide of battle was already tending towards the south.

"Information was at length received, that a British squadron had been fitted out for the reduction of Charleston; and, detained by unfavorable weather, was lying at Cape Fear. This gave the Americans time to strengthen their fortifications, so as to make an attack from the seaboard extremely difficult. In the month of

favor to the knight without fear and without reproach.' Noble Percy!' exclaimed Mrs. Ashton, 'you were never formed to wear the chain of slavery.' Morna, too, felt proud of her lover; but in the moment of her exultation, she thought of the perils to which his life must be exposed, and the dark omen of dread dimmed the bright star of her destiny. My mother, while she evinced the warm sympathy which all the circumstances of the newly awakened feelings in her niece's bosom were calculated to inspire, endeavored to calm them by pointing to the bright side of the picture, and urging her to look forward with patient hope to the probably successful issue. But Mammy Marget, who felt, perhaps, quite as much in whatever distressed her young mistress, with the characteristic propensity of narrowminded ignorance, sought to lay the blame of her tears on somebody, and who so probably the cause as Perey.

his superior force towards the capital, while Lincoln marched rapidly towards its relief. He despached in advance of his army a chosen body of mounted infantry, commanded by our young hero Percy, to guard the passes to the city, but the little band used all their efforts in vain.

| 'Mammy Marget's advice was certainly wise in this case, and after much earnest debate, Percy consented to yield to prudent counsel, and with a heavy heart took his leave. In a few hours he was on his route to join General Lincoln, who kept in advance of General Pre"You may well conceive with what mingled emotions vost, whose obvious design was to reach Charleston as of hope and disappointment the bosoms of a daughter soon as possible. General Moultrie, stationed to oppose and sister were filled on reading this letter. Morna's his passage, found his efforts ineffectual; he passed with first words were, 'Dear aunt, shall I live to see my beloved father in the ranks of my country's enemies? No, the grave would be far preferable-can nothing avert it? O! how shall I meet Alfred? His high soul will revolt at an alliance with the daughter of his country's enemy. Write to him, dear aunt, immediately for me, and release him from every obligation.' 'My "Prevost arrived within cannon shot, and summoned beloved child,' replied she, I must first chide your the town to surrender, on the 12th of May, 1779. But generous haste, which would destroy both your own being summoned, did they do it? No, Lincoln was ad

vancing with a superior force, and the enemy dared not | Morna. Her betrothed lover was one of General Linrisk an attack, but prudently resolved to take possession coln's aids, and commanded his first battery. He maintained this post of danger with consummate skill and bravery, until every man was swept away from around him, and he stood alone, a distinguished mark for their shot. It was but for a moment, and he fell, covered with wounds and with glory. General Lincoln, who was near him in his last moments, sent a message to his family, informing them that he met death as became an American, and a hero, fighting in the cause of liberty.

of the islands of St. James and St. John, where they waited to be reinforced by the arrival of two frigates. In one of these vessels was Colonel Ridgely. His regiment was landed on Port Royal island, where they were commanded to wait further preparations to begin the attack. Colonel Ridgely's thoughts turned from the scene of military show towards his daughter, whose image, amidst all the vicissitudes of his wanderings, was still stamped in living colors on his heart. He was impelled to encounter every danger, to see her, if she still lived. A disguise was the only possible means of doing this, as all communication with the enemy was interdicted by the Americans, under the severest penalty. His ingenuity suggested the habit of an English chaplain, whose inoffensive and pious character, had gained him permission to visit some sick prisoners in the Charleston hospital. Under cover of night Ridgely passed the sentinels, with the pretence of administering to a dying prisoner the consolation of religion. When in the city, he varied the deception a little, inquiring for the residence of Mrs. Ashton, as a clergyman on holy duty bound.

"Afflictions, it is said, never come alone. The same day that brought the overwhelming tidings of Percy's fall, intelligence reached my mother that Colonel Ridgely was mortally wounded. Hostilities having ceased, he sent under a flag of truce to request the immediate attendance of his sister and daughter. No time was to be lost; in a state of mind bordering on distraction, they were hurried towards the British camp. My mother was a worshipper of God; to Him she looked up for strength equal to the mighty conflict. But of poor Morna, how shall I speak? The waves of affliction had well nigh overwhelmed the slender bark of her exist. ence, and despair alone seemed to nerve her step, as she was conducted to the door of her father's tent. The "I feel that I can give you no idea of the scene that attendant officer seeing them approach, opened the door, ensued, when the disguise was thrown off, and the per- and with a sad countenance informed them that Colonel son of Colonel Ridgely was revealed before his aston- Ridgely had just expired. A shriek was the only ished sister. 'My brother!' was the exclamation, as sound that escaped Morna's lips. She fell insensible she sunk back in her seat, paralyzed with emotion. on the floor, and happy would it have been for her if Morna caught the electrifying words, and sprung for- life had been extinguished with her reason, which from wards; but ere he had clasped her in his arms, the rush that moment never resumed its empire. The functions of feelings had overpowered her senses, and she lost in of life gradually revived, and maintained a feeble and momentary insensibility the consciousness of his pre-wavering existence for a few weeks; but the gem of sence. Her recollection was soon restored. Her father's the mind was gone-wild and incoherent fancies filled countenance was the first object that met her returning sensibility. Oh! how many long past and almost forgotten reminiscences seemed to spring up around her, as she gazed with intense delight on that still remembered smile. Her spirits rose from their depression; she lost the fear of coming evil in the endearments of a father's love, and hope dispelled the dark cloud that had seemed to lower over her.

her imagination-broken images of past and future joys were confusedly mingled with phantoms of fear and dread. In her last moments, there was something mysterious and almost supernatural in the creations of her imagination. She seemed to have caught the glimpse of a procession, which she was hastening to join. 'Mammy Marget,' she cried, bring my bridal dress the procession is waiting for me; to the church "Colonel Ridgely's disposition was one to look on you know we must go to be united: there is Alfred and the bright side of things. He expressed his hope that father too. Haste! haste !-it is almost in the clouds there would be no further bloodshed, and that a capitu- already, but I must overtake it!' Breathless she sunk lation, honorable to both sides, would restore peace to back, and expired. Her remains were laid in my mothe besieged city. The dawn was almost visible, before ther's garden, and the turf that wraps her slumberhe resumed his habit, to return. Morna's last requesting clay' was daily moistened with her tears. On the was, that he would not risk a life so dear, if there was slab that marks the spot are inscribed Hamlet's words: the least possibility of danger or detection. 'Lay her in the earth, and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring.""

"Sir H. Clinton arrived with reinforcements on the 1st of April, soon after which he summoned the town to surrender; but General Lincoln declared his intention of defending the place (to which resolution he was induced by the daily expectation of recruits from Virginia, which never arrived) whenever hostilities should

commence.

The batteries of the enemy were immediately opened on the town. The Americans returned a brisk, but ineffectual fire. Their numbers were too few to cope with the united strength of the British army, and the troops so scattered as to be exposed to be cut off by every fire from the batteries. The results of this unavailing struggle on the side of the Americans, caused the final capitulation of Charleston. But this happened too late to awaken joy or sorrow in the breast of

Such was the history attached to the PORTRAIT.

STANZAS.

BY JAMES F. OTIS.

See, where, fast sinking o'er the hills,
As with a golden halo round,
The setting sun with splendor fills

Those massy piles which lie around
His couch, in crimson glory drest,
Like drapery o'er a monarch's rest.

Bright, fair, but oh, how fading too
Is all this beautiful array!
A moment given to the view,

Then past, amid the gloom, away:
So, like the gilded things of earth,
Which charm the eye, though little worth!
And now, eve's glowing star illumes

The chambers of the distant west,
And, scarce discerned, like waving plumes
That flash o'er many a warrior's crest,
There float along the upper air
Thin, fleecy clouds, so clear and fair.

How sweet to gaze upon their slight,
Transparent forms, changing so oft,
As e'en the Zephyr's gentlest flight

Scatters them with its pinions soft-
Seeming, as down the sky they go,
Like wreaths of gently driven snow!

And then to trace the full-orbed moon,
As, struggling on her cloudy way,
She travels forth, now wrapped in gloom,
Now bursting forth with undimm'd ray-
Like some high, noble heart, whose pride
Still bears him on, though woes betide.

LOVE AND CONSTANCY.

BY E. BURKE FISHER.

CHAP. I.-LOVE.

"Oh! how this spring of love resembleth The uncertain glory of an April day, Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, And, by and bye, a cloud takes all away. "Harry, dear Harry, farewell!" "God bless you, Mary, we shall meet again!”—a stifled sob from the first speaker, and an ejaculation of manly sorrow from the latter, attested their emotion-the oarsmen dipped their light blades into the wave, and the little craft obedient to the impulse rapidly receded from the shore. The youth watched its progress through the glancing waters, and every ripple it created seemed to wash upon his heart; a moment, and it ranged under the bows of a stately vessel, which soon after spread her canvass to the breeze, and bore down the bay, on her outward course. Evening found the youth pacing the shore, gazing upon the faint outlines of the departing ship, and when the niggard robe of night hid her from his view, then it was that the full sense of his situation fell heavily upon him-he felt that he was an outcast—an alien, without a single tie to bind him to life, and with a sensation of wretchedness, known only to him who has tasted of the bitter chalice of misery-he cast him down upon the sands, and wept long and bitterly!

the autumnal equinox of 1787. Its fury was felt by
the storm-tossed seaman, as his frail bark drove onward
to destruction, and its disastrous results might in part
be gathered, from the many evidences of its triumph as
strewn along the shores of Cape Cod. The tempest
proved as transient as it was violent, and the sun, that
shone out on the morrow of the storm, steeped its rays
in the now tranquil ocean, which, apparently conscious
of the ruin it had wrought, seemed to atone for its mis-
chief by studied repose. The regular swell of the sea
succeeded the raging billows of the night-the shrill
demon of the tempest had retired to his northern caves,
and in his stead, the playful zephyrs of the south wan-
toned upon the waters. The hardy wreckers were out
upon the beach as usual, after a night of storm, culling
a harvest from the spoils which the ocean had cast upon
their shores. Men, women and children were engaged
in this employment, and so inured had they become to
their somewhat equivocal profession, that whether the
object they inspected was the corpse of the shipwreck-
ed, or a cask of West India, the same sang froid was
evinced, and they proceeded as leisurely to rifle the
garments of the disfigured and ghastly dead, as in
breaking open a sea chest. An unusually well stowed
bale had drawn the attention of the crowd, and they
were busily employed in turning over its contents, when
an exclamation of surprise from an idler upon the strand
caused the party to turn in the direction he pointed,
and they beheld the object that had elicited his outcry.
Drifting in towards the land, they saw a floating spar,
upon which rode a small lad of some sixteen or seven-
teen years, supporting in his arms what seemed the
lifeless form of a female. There was something so
noble in this generous devotion to another's safety in
the hour of deadly peril-a touching display of all that
ennobles, in the conduct of one so young, thus jeopard-
izing his own doubtful chance of preservation, in the
rescuing from the fierce waters their prey, that even
the cold and sluggish feelings of the men of Barnstable
were moved to admiration, and forgetting personal ad-
vantage in the excitement of the moment, they awaited
but the approach of the float within range of their in-
terference, when they rushed into the surge, and with
deafening plaudits bore the young mariner and his
burthen to the land. The boy relaxed not his hold of
his companion, until he had safely deposited her in the
arms of the bystanders, when, throwing one look upon
her wan and lifeless features, he cast his eyes to heaven,
and murmuring, "Thanks, merciful Father! she is
saved!" he sank insensible upon the sand.

Sympathy-that noblest attribute of the soul, finds as ready response in the heart of the child of nature, as in the tutored feelings of the man of civilization; and the lawless wrecker in his course of plunder, may act as nobly, and feel as proudly the sacred glow of humanity, as does the sage expounder of moral legislation! The witnesses of the sad scene we have described, furnished ample illustration of the fact, for the men of Cape Cod, "albeit, unused to the melting mood," drew their hands over their eyes, and their tones were husky

Who is there who has not heard the melancholy de- as they communed with each other, while the women, tail, as

"From his sire's lips glean'd,

Or history's page,"

of the fierce and destructive tornado, that ushered in

ever alive (in all conditions) to the dictates of humanity, busied themselves in the attempt to excite to action the frozen channels of life in the unfortunate maiden.

The intense pitch to which the sensibilities of her

preserver were strung, precluded him from enjoying the months, and months became absorbed in years, yet the repose he so much required, and supported by one of circumstances of the wreck, as detailed in the journals the spectators, he stood watching with silent expecta- of the day, brought no claimant for the girl. As to the tion the efforts at resuscitation practised upon his com-stripling, his only relative was that parent whom be panion in suffering. The exertions of the females were had seen meet a watery grave, and he knew that he at length crowned with success, the ashy paleness of stood alone in the world, with no one to sympathize her brow was crossed by the flush of returning anima- with the misery that racked his bosom, save the orphan tion, and before the lapse of another hour the children partner of his perils; and when he looked upon her of the wreck, who but a short time since were tossed to budding loveliness, thus left to waste neglected, and and fro upon the capricious waters, found themselves without the fostering care of maternal watchfulness, he under the friendly roof, and seated at the hospitable vowed to be to her all that a brother could, or a parent board of Gregory Cox, to whose dwelling the generous might be. The isolation of his destiny had rendered wreckers had borne them. him an enthusiast upon the one subject of his charge, so that, when in the gay flush of innocent girlhood, she

The kindly nature of their host, for a long time, taught him forbearance upon the subject of their pain-shared his joys and mingled her tears with his, his ful story, and weeks passed on before he gently hinted his wish to hear the sad recital, and so judiciously did the worthy Quaker prosecute his inquiries, that the detail was given, with scarce the knowledge of the lad, that the events over which he brooded had been revealed to their sympathizing friend. His narrative was brief, yet pregnant with misfortune. Thus it ran.

feelings became concentred in devotion, which the world calls love, but for which affection, pure as seraphs might glory in avowing, would be the more fitting term. In the absence of other channels to vent his feelings she became the cynosure of his loftiest imaginings, his more than sister. Happy in her youth, and time-scared to the loss she had sustained, Mary Destraix loved her preserver with a sister's tenderness; and when, after the lapse of years, there came one who called himself her uncle-her father's brother—the joy with which she sprang to his embrace was merged in tears, when the probability of her separation from her brother crossed her mind, as the stranger announced his intention of returning with her immediately to the castellated abode of her ancestors, in the sunny plains of Marne.

"And Harry-my brother Harry, shall he not go with us?" she asked inquiringly, gazing into the stern face of her new-found relative.

The maiden was the daughter of a Frenchman of rank, who had lately relinquished an official post in the Canadas with the intention of returning to his native land. He had, with his wife and daughter, embarked in the vessel commanded by the narrator's sire. Circumstances connected with the instructions of his own ers, had induced the commander to make for the port of Boston, but contrary winds rendered nugatory his efforts, and for several days the ship had been beaten along the coast of Massachusetts, where it was met by the raging equinox, and destroyed by the combined fury of the winds and waves. So unforeseen was the shock, and so totally unprepared were the miserable victims, that the same storm-fed billow which scattered the fragments of the vessel to the fury of the winds, bore with it the mass of beings that cowered upon its decks. Borne along by the violence of the assault, the boy was plunged into the boiling sea, but fortunately striking a drifting spar as he fell, he had steadied himself upon it, the only living thing, as he thought, that survived the onset of the fierce destroyer. As he was thus rocking upon the turbulent waves, a gleam of lightning, triumphing for a moment over the darkness, gave to his view the garments of the girl, and with in-members of his voyage home. The indignant recipient stinctive humanity, he lifted her from the waters and supported her in his arms, although aware that he was thereby rendering more hazardous his own ultimate chances of safety.

The Frenchman turned to the spot, where stood the subject of the query. He had heard the story of the youth, and liked not the question; and as he glanced, not at the noble countenance and manly bearing, but the rustic apparel of the stripling, his dislike to a further intimacy between the pair was increased. The stranger was lord of Marne, and had breathed the courtly air of the Louvre, and he could see nothing worthy of consideration in the mere fact, that a rough and untutored rustic should peril his life for a maiden of noble blood. Tendering the youth a purse well stocked with Louis, he signified his disinclination to rank him among the

took the proffered gold, advanced a step, and dashing the gift at the feet of its aristocratic giver, rushed from the scene.

"Harry, my noble, generous preserver," sobbed a voice at his side, as he stood upon the rude piazza that overlooked the ocean, "think not so meanly of me, as that for broad lands and empty honors I would forsake you! Harry, my brother, I will not go!"

"Not so, Mary Destraix," was the answer of him she addressed-the bitterness of his feelings rising paramount to the usual joyousness of his tones when he

It seemed as if the eye of Omnipotence saw and approved the act, for in a short time the march of the tempest was stayed, the lashing billows sank to gentle ripples, and the wild roar of the howling winds gave way to the soothing breeze, as it swept from the land. During the remainder of that eventful night of disaster and death, did the young mariner sustain the insensible form of his companion, and although no signs of re-spoke to her-" Are you not the daughter of a peer of turning consciousness rewarded his care, yet, buoyant with the hope of a generous and daring spirit, he clung to his position until the coming of Aurora revealed the shores of Barnstable, towards which his sailless and unseamanlike craft was rapidly drifting. The rest has been already shown.

Time rolled on! Weeks resolved themselves into

France, called to fulfil a bright and envied destiny? Would you so forget your illustrious ancestry, as to forego their claims upon you as their descendant, to follow the fortunes of one, who was even cast from the ocean as unworthy to tenant its caves?"—and the boy laughed in his agony.

"Look there!" he continued, addressing the stranger