dencies had much injured, in uniting him to a woman he never loved, de prived him for ever of inward joy and domestic comfort. To all, therefore, who visited at the castle, he appeared to be a disappointed man; to those who witnessed his hours of privacy, he was a miserable one. Exclusive of the death of his wife, his children alone possessed the charm of beguiling the gloom and monotony of his life; and to the excessive fondness he indulged in towards them, may be ascribed, as has before been said, most of their future misfortunes. Many years, however, did not elapse, before he had reason to give Bertoldo the decided preference, -a preference rewarded with every mark of dutiful attention and filial piety, till that period when the worn-out and suffering Marchese resigned his soul into the hands

of

of his Maker.

In the solemn hour of expected dissolution, the conduct of his youngest son pressed heavy on his spirits, and filled him with sad presentiments; many times he tried to speak, and unburthen his mind of a weight that seemed to oppress him, but it was not to be; from the moment of his danger, articulation fled, and he expired, after lingering three days, without uttering a word.

THE various pursuits which marked the lives of his children, at that time, and the different effects produced on them, by the death of their father, have already been related. Bertoldo lamented him with unfeigned sorrow; while Moraldi, engrossed with ambitious projects on the one side, and guilty apprehensions on the other, scarcely remembered that he had ever

existed.

existed. The cause of those guilty apprehensions was, however, to fix his fate in life; as the first indulgence of one depraved inclination was, as is ever the case, to beget a thousand other baneful and destructive passions, of which, sooner or later, we inevitably sink the victims.

IT was in the church of San Marco, that Moraldi was struck by the beauty of one of the loveliest girls he thought he had ever before beheld. She had been at matins; and the dignified venerable man, who leant feebly on her arm, only served to increase her charms; and the interest with which she seemed to inspire every beholder ; of extreme youth, health, peace, and innocence, bloomed fresher than the rose upon her cheek; love and ingenuousness beamed in her soft dark

eye;

eye; a quantity of fine hair shaded one of the fairest foreheads, and clearést brows, that ever formed perfection; while the graceful movement of her finely proportioned figure, gave elegance to the simple garb that veiled her symmetry. Moraldi had observed her during the ceremony, had watched the looks of tenderness she had cast on her father, (for so he concluded him to be,) had gazed with rapture on the turns of her sweet countenance, as she raised them from her father to her God; in short, he gazed till he admired, admired till he loved, if that sentiment can be called love, which exists in the bosom of a selfish and a licentious man. The service ended, she drew her verl over her face, and carefully supporting her father, descended the steps of the portico, and passing through several bye streets, took the road directly from

the

the city. Determined, however, to discover her name and abode, Moraldi followed, trusting to his good fortune for some incident that might serve to introduce him to their notice; a thousand times he was on the point of speaking, but, if the homeliness of their apparel warranted the liberty he was about to take, the superiority of their appearance awed and deterred him. Frequently they stopped, for the old man seemed to experience pain and inconvenience from the fatigue of walking; and it was in one of these interruptions, that Moraldi first caught the interesting voice of the girl, as she soothingly addressed her companion, in the French language: "We shall soon be at home, my dearest father !'" she exclaimed, pressing a pale emaciated hand between hers; "do try, therefore, and walk a little further."

now

"I WILL,