THE GIPSY.

"Peace, lady! what I said was true.
And now, my lovely maid! to you :—
Give me your hand, and let me see

Your future doom, and Heaven's decree!"

In imitation of Leonella, Antonia drew off her glove, and presented her white hand to the gipsy, who, having gazed upon it for some time, with a mingled expression of pity and astonishment, pronounced her oracle in the following words:

THE GIPSY.

Jesus! what a palm is there!

Chaste and gentle, young and fair,

Perfect mind and form possessing,

You would be some good man's blessing;

But, alas! this line discovers

That destruction o'er you hovers:

Lustful man and crafty devil,

Will combine to work your evil;

And from earth by sorrows driven,
Soon your soul must speed to heaven.

Yet your sufferings to delay,

Well remember what I

When

say:

you one more virtuous see

Than belongs to man to be—

One, whose self no crimes assailing,
Pities not his neighbour's failing,
Call the gipsy's words to mind:
Though he seem so good and kind,
Fair exteriors oft will hide,

Hearts that swell with lust and pride.
"Lovely maid, with tears I leave you:

Let not my prediction grieve you;

Rather, with submission bending,

Calmly wait distress impending,
And expect eternal bliss

In a better world than this."

Having said this, the gipsy again whirl ed herself round thrice, and then hastened out of the street with frantic gesture. The crowd followed her; and Elvira's door being now unembarrassed, Leonella entered the house, out of humour with the gipsy, with her niece, and with the people; in short, with every body but

herself and her charming cavalier. The gipsy's predictions had also considerably affected Antonia; but the impression soon wore off, and in a few hours she had forgotten the adventure, as totally as had it never taken place.

CHAPTER II.

Forse sé tu gustassi una sòl volta
La millésima parte délle giòje,

Ché gusta un còr amato riamando,
Diresti ripentita sospirando,

Perduto è tutto il tempo

Ché in amar non si spènde.

TASSO.

Hadst thou but tasted once the thousandth part
Of joys, which bless the lov'd and loving heart,
Your words repentant and your sighs would prove
Lost is the time which is not pass'd in love.

THE monks having attended their abbot to the door of his cell, he dismissed them with an air of conscious superiority, in which humility's semblance combated with the reality of pride.

He was no sooner alone, than he gave

free loose to the indulgence of his vanity. When he remembered the enthusiasm which his discourse had excited, his heart swelled with rapture, and his imagination presented him with splendid visions of aggrandizement. He looked round him with exultation; and pride told him loudly, that he was superior to the rest of his fellow-creatures.

I

"Who," thought he, "who but myself has passed the ordeal of youth, yet sees no single stain upon his conscience? Who else has subdued the violence of strong passions, and an impetuous temperament, and submitted, even from the dawn of life, to voluntary retirement? seek for such a man in vain. I see no one but myself possessed of such resolution. Religion cannot boast Ambrosio's equal! How powerful an effect did my discourse produce upon its auditors! How they crowded round me! How they loaded me with benedictions, and pronounced me the sole uncorrupted pillar of the church!