finger of death. It is enough for you that I pronounce Julia to be innocent.-Innocent! my heart upbraids me for insulting her with a praise so cold and negative. She is every thing that is pure, noble, and exemplary! She is one whom a woman may indeed be proud to call her friend; one whom that man will eternally regret, who has forfeited the opportunity of calling her his wife. Once more, Sir, farewell! I ask you not to forget me; the name of Constantia will be spontaneously, and I hope rapidly, obliterated from your memory: but I do implore you not to forget Him, by whose manifest interposition you have been saved; and though your deference to the world may induce you to throw away your happiness upon earth, never, oh, never, let it lead you to surrender your hopes of Heaven !"

Jocelyn was beginning to pour forth the most fervent vows of gratitude, when she waved her hand; and, pointing upwards to the sky, as if to indicate that his thanksgivings should be addressed to Heaven, she walked slowly and silently out of the apartment.

CHAPTER IV.

"When we in our viciousness grow hard,

(Q misery on't!) the wise gods seal our eyes In our own filth; drop our clear judgments; make us Adore our errors; laugh at us, while we strut

To our confusion."

SHAKSPEARE.

FROM the deep interest she had taken in the fate of her friend at Haelbeck, and the reproaches she had cast upon Jocelyn, more, indeed, in sorrow than in anger, for not braving the world, and making Julia his wife, he began to think that he had been misled in imputing to Constantia any thing more tender than friendship in her feelings towards himself; although, by this supposition, he was quite at a loss to account for her conduct. Even upon her friendship he had little or no claim; upon a heroism so devoted as that which she had evinced, he had none whatever. He had noticed no selfbetrayal, no indications of jealousy in her de

portment; yet there was a certain indecorum in her disregard of female observances, which could only be explained by the supposition of her acting under the influence of love. Why should she expose herself to censure, nay to death, for one, in whose fate her heart remained uninterested? He was utterly perplexed; he had no clue to her actions, because he compared her with other women, and could not comprehend the full sublimity of her character. Notwithstanding her declarations to the contrary, he even believed that she would repeat her visit on the following day: but he was mistaken: she came no more. In her stead appeared a physician, who had no sooner seen Jocelyn than he pronounced him to be perfectly cured, and congratulated him on his recovery from a disease so inexorable, as hardly to have spared one in a thousand of those whom it had attacked. Upon the report of this visitant, who was one of the examiners, the fearful red cross was effaced from the door, the padlock was removed, the watchman was withdrawn, and Jocelyn, with no other remains of his complaint

than a trifling languor and debility, stepped, as it were, out of the grave, into the free, refreshing air of heaven, and bent his way towards the residence of the Lord Mayor, from whom it was necessary to have a certificate of health, to enable him to pass through any of the towns that surrounded London. This was easily obtained; nor did he now experience any difficulty in procuring an exclusive conveyance to Oxford; for the purse which Constantia had left with him was heavy with gold, and he moreover retained the money which he had borrowed from the deceased landlady. The latter he would have returned, could he have found her son, or any other claimant for the property; and the former he resolved to replace as soon as fortune enabled him, though he would not run the risk of offending his generous preserver, by refusing to avail himself of it in his present need.

Turning his back upon the ill-fated city of London, along whose silent streets Death, the destroyer, was still walking in all the terror of his undiminished wrath, he plunged into the

wholesome country, like a bird escaped from his cage, and inhaled the pure atmosphere, as if he had migrated into a happier world, and were enjoying a new existence. Delight was in every object, every sound, every odour; his senses seemed to be gifted with a second youth, that steeped them in pleasure; a fresh vitality was wafted from every field; mere existence became a species of ecstasy: his spirits were exhilarated; his body was refreshed; and instead of arriving at Oxford, as he had expected, in a state of increased debility, the change of air and succession of pleasant objects had so effectually counteracted the fatigues of travel, that he felt himself infinitely better at the conclusion than at the commencement of his journey.

His friend Tracy, to whom he immediately betook himself, greeted him with the liveliest cordiality, declaring that nothing could be more opportune than his arrival, as every thing was now prepared for his complete restoration to favour. All his former opponents were, at last, propitiated. The King, with his usual pliability, was willing to grant whatever was asked