CHAPTER III.

When she looks out by night,
The stars stand gazing;
Like comets to our sight,
Fearfully blazing;
As wond'ring at her eyes,
With their much brightness,
Which so amaze the skies,
Dimming their lightness:
The raging tempests are calm,
When she speaketh,

Such most delightsome balm,
From her lips breaketh.

DRAYTON.

IT had been settled in the morning, before the Cavaliers left the house of Mr. Bradshaw, that they should both return there to dine. Indeed the Borderer had little need of invitation, for he made a practice of bestowing his company, at least one day in the week, upon the hospitable Englishman. Mr. Bradshaw had, from long acquaintance, contracted a partiality for Armstrong, who, being equally a favourite with his wife and daughter, was considered as a kind of retainer to their house. He had been among the first to welcome that gentleman's arrival in Scotland, when the bigotry of the republican party (at the head of which was his brother) had driven him from his native country; and although the Borderer was of a party as dissimilar to the Presbyterians, as that faction which Mr. Bradshaw had left in England, yet misfortune had lessened his enthusiasm, and taught him the inutility and wickedness of those distinctions which had caused the ruin of the three kingdoms. Hence he was disposed to co-operate with all parties, who would join in restoring the King to his throne, upon the principle of civil and

religious liberty; and although his colleagues of the Scottish council and ministry were displeased at his toleration, yet he was a man of too much interest in his own country to slight or to offend, and they rarely refused his interference, even when exerted on behalf of the most malignant Cavaliers. We need not here further expatiate upon this head, the effects of which our readers have perceived in the release of Sydenham and the Borderer, from the keeping of Mr. Fetterlegs.

Mr. Bradshaw had scarcely returned home from the Council, when Armstrong made his re-appearance. He had changed his dress, and was now habited in a doublet of green velvet laced with gold, small clothes of the same colour and material, and a cloak, which had once been crimson, but was now somewhat faded from its original splendour: he had also managed to put his legs into silk hose, a fashion which, as he had not the most courtly foot in the world, did not carry much attraction from his example: his hair, as was usual with the Cavaliers, was fully curled, and his side was adorned with a long spado or Spanish rapier. We cannot pretend to say what opinion Armstrong had of his own personal charms, when aided by the advantages of his fine dress; but we must declare, that, to our taste, the rough-clad warlike Borderer appeared a personage. much more gallant and respectable than the Cavalier in his tawdry and tarnished finery. He advanced without ceremony into the sitting-room, where he found Mr. Bradshaw, his wife and daughter. The years which had passed since we left this worthy family at their mansion near Chapel-en-le-Frith, had deprived the mother of those graces, which they had bestowed upon the daughter. Esther was now eighteen years of age, and might certainly vie (vanity apart) with any damsel of her age that Great Britain could boast of. Her shape, combining symmetry with animation, could alone be surpassed by the unrivalled beauty of her face, which teemed with an enchanting

sweetness; her neck and forehead, when uncovered by the natural curls of her jet black hair, appeared a mould of the finest ivory; and her cheeks (when their colour was heightened by active exercise) resembled its polish, enriched with the tint of the rosebud; her eyes, so far as their dazzling radiance would admit of inspection, seemed of the same jet as her hair; a beautifully straight nose of the true English form; beneath which her pouting lips (inclosing a perfect set of teeth) shone eminently conspicuous, and a chin, which the finest metons of France or Italy could not surpass, formed a tout-ensemble highly prepossessing. Nor were her qualities and accomplishments, inferior to her personal attractions; for although she had never been from under the care of her parents, yet she had been fully instructed in all profitable and elegant acquirements by private tutors, acting under the superintendance and direction of her father. Mr. Bradshaw was himself a man of infinite learning, and as (we have before remarked) he had been in his youth a man of pleasure, and of the world, he was perfectly well versed in all the ornamental as well as useful accomplishments, which could render his daughter as elegant as she was amiable. The fashion of the times (alas! how disagreeable to the fashion of our day*), required young ladies of fortune not only to be skilled in the French and Italian languages, which they were taught to speak purely and grammatically; but, that they should not be ignorant of classical knowledge; and Mr. Bradshaw found his daughter so apt a scholar, and so fond of the tongues of Sappho and Horace, that, by his unwearied instructions, she was soon able to read either in the original. She had moreover tuned her lyre with the trembling hand of a youthful poetess, and had (if our judgment may be credited) flown with no common wing; but our readers may judge for themselves. The following translation of the cele

* Editorial interpolation.

brated dialogue of Horace and Lydia, is one of many "jeux d'esprit," which descended with her cabinet to her children.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN HORACE AND LYDIA.
HOR. As dear as the brothers* to sailors storm-driven,
In darkness expecting the first star of heaven,
I once was to Lydia. Thy neck so enchanting,
Thy bosom so melting, with tenderness panting,
No lovelier youth then had press'd, while his lip
Ambrosial nectar from thine dared to sip:
More happy, ah then, was thy lover than he
Who rules Persia's empire, but rules without thee.

LYD. Oh yes, while to others thy heart was as frozen,
As Thule, tho' plac'd 'mid the warm streams of love;
Nor unfaithful to me, thy wild frenzy had chosen
Another thy ravings of passion to soothe.

Thou wast lov'd by thy Lydia, oh words cannot tell

The extent of the fire which then burn'd in this breast; Not Rome's glorious mother, great Ilia, so well

Lov'd the god who embrac'd her, the child she caress'd. HOR. A daughter of Crete, beauteous Chloe, now loves me; With her harp's sweetest notes she awaken'd my flame; To save her would I die, and the hour that removes me, Shall give to my hearing those bless'd sounds again.

LYD. With love that is mutual, Calaïs, and I,

But form one great heart, and for him would I die;
Ay, twenty times o'er, if my death could him save,
From the sleep of the tomb, from the jaws of the grave.

HOR. What if again old Love should return,
And former fires should reviving burn?
And lovely Chloe should yield to thee,
My heart, and arms, and liberty?
If my hitherto closed gates should sever,
And Lydia receive for ever and ever?

LYD. Though fairer Calaïs than the morning star,
And thou than the cork are lighter far;
Tho' he is as mild as the zephyr of morn,
And thou as rough as the ocean storm;
Yet turn once again, to this bosom fly,
With thee I'll live, with thee I'll die.f

*Castor and Pollux.

†There are, perhaps, some critics who will object to this translation, as unbecoming the delicacy of a young and modest female; but if there are such, we must say that, to us, their criticisms

:

Esther Bradshaw was of a temper as amiable as she was superior in capacity: her heart was warm, sensible and sincere, without any alloy of pride or petulance in matters of charity, she was the genius of benevolence; and the poor Scots, to whom, whilst in Edinburgh, she doled out a daily alms, were wont to call her the "angel o' mercy." Her only fault, (if fault it might be called, which was the offspring of humanity), was an excessive credulity, which led her to believe improbable narratives of distress, having no foundation but in the pretended sufferer's fancy. Hence she was easily imposed upon; yet although she had received warning from many discoveries of imposture, experience did not make her one whit more cautious; but at the very next attempt, she was as easily deceived as before. With these charms and accomplishments, and the known extent of her father's fortune, it may be easily imagined the youthful Esther wanted not admirers. Many a poor Scottish Earl sighed or pretended to sigh in her chains; and had she not been a maiden of amazing discretion, it is to be feared her head would have turned with the high seasoning of their admiration. Inter alios, Simon Murray Lord Caryfort, condescended to stoop from his peerage, and sought to match with the daughter of an English commoner. Murray was about thirty years of age, and had a person by no means disagreeable; he was shrewd and sensi

will appear fastidious in the extreme. It is certainly no consequence of a woman's acquaintance with Horace, Ovid, nor even Martial and Tibullus, that her mind must be thereby vitiated; and our learned readers will mark, that in this translation the pure and chaste spirit of the translator has softened down the animal passion of Horatius Flaccus. After all, our readers must pass what censure they please; but they will be pleased to recollect that, in condemning our heroine, they also condemn every illustrious female of that age, from Queen Elizabeth and her unfortunate rival Mary of Scotland, to Mrs. Macauley and Mrs. Centlivre, all of whom (and they are only examples indifferently selected) were habituated to read and to translate the poetry (as well amatory as heroic and bacchanalian) of the ancients.-Author of the MS.