Here tho young officer could restrain his impatience no longer, and casting aside his cloak and sword, and leaving the aged father to follow him as he best might, darted through an open door, and soon gained the sick chamber, where Iny the tender object of his solicitude, scemingly insensible to any external approach, He drew near the bed—she slept; he leant over snd imprinted one soft kies on thoze lips, temptingly protruding; ruby- like they presented themselves to his enraptured eyes, and before he had time to follow up the warm impulses of bis heart, she awoke. Her looks wandered to where he stood; she looked not long—s warm glow: spread over her features—then quickly subsiding, her face grew pale—paler than before;'he looked again ; she regarded the young man steadfastly—a gleam of intensely affec- tionate recollection lit up her face for an instant; she raised her delicate white henil from the coverlid as if to clasp hie; the young officer grasped it; he watched each change in her features as they varied altemately {com rose to lily, with an earnestness that told how his soul ‘was wrought up by the intensity of his emotions; he held ber hand till at last he fancied it grew cold in hie; she bad closed her eyes; it would have been difficult at this moment to havo told whose cheek was the paler of the two—that of her whose passive hand ho held, or his own, He gazed on, while his heart scarcely owned @ pulsation ; mute—breathless—~every faculty seemed aue- pended, each nerve paralysed ; all was etill—aye, still an the grave; her breast heaved not—no sigh escaped ber —no visible sign of life, Her venerable parent had seated himself beside the couch in sn old carved chair, hia face buried in his hands; his grey locks straying wildly down to his knees, and uttering from time to time » half-suppressed sob, that broke upon the ears of those present with startling effect. ‘There is that in sn ‘old man’s grief thet gives to the hoart more pain, coir veys to the mind » more acute sense of heart-rending misery then any thing I know of. At the foot of the bed stood Dorlay, for he, too, had thrust himself into the scene, twirling his moustache with great rapidity—fura- bling at the hilt of his sword, which every now and thon he half withdrew from the scabbard, then as euddenly thrust it back, and giving many other ssmptome of vio- lent agitation, At last Ludovie was observed to hang ‘over the form of the apparently dying girl; he whispered in her ear, such a whisper none could ever forget—low —distinet—he caught bis breath, every one beard it— “Annette!” She opened her eyes; the effect was as though some inngic hai mingled itself in that one strained convulsive effort. She gazed on him; the sudden effect produced by his unexpected appearance liad been too much for her, but the torpor in which she had Iain, and which had been mistaken for the sleep of death, gtadually wore off, and, to the astonishment and nameless joy of all interested, Annette awoke to fife
to love! Where all was tears and sorrow, now all is
smiles and heppiness,
Colonel Ludovic and his friend got rid of the des- patches with which they wore entrusted, and having obeyed the commands of the Emperor, retumed to the village. A few mornings after the circumstances just narrated, all the inhabitants were like people beside themselves, in their deinonstration of the pleasure felt on the occasion of a bridal of so generally interesting a nature, that not a heart among them but could aay their Joy was hie. That day had witnessed the consuramation of @ noble young soldier's fondest hopes,
THE INDIAN WIFE. RY ANNA E, FULTON.
She stood, majestic in her grief, "Midst the deep forest shade, While the gushings of the night wind chill, A dismal wailing made. ‘The giant trees were sternly group'd Like watchers of the dead, And across the dark aad troubled sky The gloomy. storm-cloude sped.
‘The savage wolf, athirat for blood, Glar‘d eager on the ecene, ~ Yet even shrank away abash’d From that ead, noble mein, No loving human heart wan near ‘That speechless woe to share, No gentle human voice was heard ‘Vo breathe the soothing prayer.
Ask yo, what steel’d soft wom Such mouraful waich to keep? Behold the warrior at her feet, ‘Wrapp'd in death's slumber deep! Dishonor'd lies the haughty head, Pow'rless the sinewy arm Which ever dropp'd, unnerv'd by death, Had wrought most fearful harm.
heart,
And ye wil] seek no mare to solve This mystery of woe,
‘Ye know from woman's heart alone Could such devotion flow.
Born broke; and loud the war-whoop rang, ‘The savage band drew near,
And yet that soul of lofty faith Own'd not a throb of fear.
‘They came, and for an instant gua'd ‘Those warriora of the wild,
Aa the proud daughter of their foes In bitter mockery emiled ;
«Then swift the glittering weapons flew,
And love's high martyr fell,
And her true heart’s blood bath’d the form Of him she lov'd 100 well.
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