when she desired the nurse to gently remove the infant, and hold it up to the Marchioness, that she might imprint a kiss on its little forehead, where the likeness of its father was so peculiarly striking, as to make it seem but a lesser image of himself, a small touch of nature made the Marchioness bend over its lovely form, and give the kiss that nature so strongly and powerfully demanded of its grandmother; and it was pressed for a moment in her arms, while she exclaimed to its nurse "Out upon the little urchin, I protest he has become boisterous already; look how he has discomposed the lace handkerchief on my bosom." "But what does your ladyship think of my sweet boy?" faintly, yet in a tone of rapture, demanded the Lady Agatha, as she gazed on the face of the lovely innocent when the nurse again laid it beside her. "Has he not the very look, although so young, of my dear Montague?" "Yes, I protest I think so my dear," uttered the Marchioness; "he is prodigiously like his father, though he has got such dark sparkling eyes; but the rest of his pretty face is certainly Montague's. But I shall fatigue you my love, for you now require necessary repose, so farewell for the present. I shall bring Lavinia to see the bantling to-morrow, and shall report to the Marquis an account of his little grandson, of whom I have no doubt but he will be particularly proud." With these words, the kindest she had ever yet uttered to her daughter-in-law, the Marchioness departed, paying a few compliments to Lord Montaguc 1 on the beauty of his son and heir, as she stepped into her carriage alone, for the Duke staid to pass the remainder of the day in the society of Lord. Montague; for his Grace protested that he should not be able to leave the house, without being permitted to take a peep at the treasure which had that day been produced to the house of Braganza. "Permit you, uncle?" exclaimed Lord Montague, as soon as the carriage of the Marchioness was fairly out of sight; "and do you require permission of me to approach your own child? I have not yet seen my Agatha since she has made me the most transported of all human beings, and you know not how I long to behold my child." "Your first-born! ah, I do not doubt it!" uttered the Duke, deeply sighing. "I have a pretty good guess, Montague, of what your present sensations now are, for they were once mine. Alas! how bitterly have I mourned over the deprivation of those sensations which ought to have been mine in their fullest perfection. My cruel, my vindictive, my ambitious mother, robbed me of all, save her whom destiny has preserved. My Agatha, my lost angel Agatha, became her victim. Fool that I was to leave her in her power; and she would also have robbed me of this only treasure which heaven had spared, but for the intervention of Almighty Providence, which would not suffer wicked deeds to go unpunished or to succeed; yet this woman was my mother. Gads, this woman was a mother-my mother!-she to whom I owe my being. Merciful and eternal Father of all created universé, pardon her crimes, for they were of a magnitude that I dare not think of, and she died without repentance; yes, Montague, she died without repentance. Heaven pardon her guilty soul; and may the lovely angel she sent to an untimely grave, plead for her at the throne of mercy." "Yet heaven has been just to its faithful votaries, my dearest uncle," uttered Lord Montague, considerably affected by the recollection of all the wrongs that his grandmother had inflicted on the revered being before him; and that had her machinations but prevailed, his adored Agatha would not have called him at this moment husband. Still there was a delicacy in speaking of the deceased Duchess, who, with all her faults, had been most pas sionately fond of him, which was most admirable in Lord Montague, and which the Duke thought so nobly of, that he felt it his duty to desist from so painful and heart-wounding a subject, as that of dwelling on the crimes of a relative who had long since been called to account for her numerous transgressions. At length the wished-for moment arrived, when the Duke was summoned to the bed-side of the Lady Agatha by her own particular desire, as also Lord Montague; but this was only on a promise given to the principal nurse, who had the care of Lady Montault, that they would not hold much converse with her lady, who was not able to bear it; and this promise was rigidly performed by both of the parties, who were admitted on tip-toe into the apartment; and after one Icok at the mother and the beautiful babe that lay beside her, they crept out as softly as they crept in. "She is in a sweet sleep, and so, please you gen |