It would have been well for the lady had she remained true to this second widowhood; but, with a perverseness, not uncommon on such occasions, no sooner had the angry pair separated, than they began to regret their quarrels. Like the parted couple in the farce of "Matrimony," each forgot the previous grounds of complaint, only remembering the good points of the other, and thus like Adolph and Clare, they came together again with as much, if not more love, than they had felt when first united.

Lady Beresford soon proved enceinte and was now near the time of her confinement. Being her birthday, she had invited a party of friends, and, in the overflowing satisfaction of the moment, chanced to remark, "Well, I never expected to see this day; I have now completed my fortythird year." "Not so," replied the old family clergyman, "I officiated at your ladyship's christening, and can certify that you are to-day only forty-two." She had not then passed the fated and fatal limit-she might yet die, as the ghost had predicted, at the birth of a child, and in her forty-second year! The shock thus occasioned was too much for one in her delicate situation; she was immediately seized with the pains of premature labour and died that night. interval was, she is yet said to have

Brief as the

related the

ghost story to her son, Sir Marcus, who afterwards so far verified it, that upon uncovering her wrist, he found the impression of a finger.

Such are the authentic particulars of the tale as handed down in all branches of the family. Whatever else has been advanced upon the subject must have owed its origin purely to the luxuriant imaginations of the narrators, who must needs render the romantic more romantic, and the improbable more improbable. We have already disclaimed all intention of attempting to solve the mysteries of this riddle, yet we cannot help adding that it seems to us capable of a very natural and easy explanation, much easier at all events than understanding how the immutable laws of Providence should be reversed or suspended for the purpose of telling a lady the hour of her death, with the certainty that the information would be useless.

15

MARIA STELLA, LADY NEWBOROUGH.

SIR THOMAS WYNN, Bart., descended from a very ancient family in North Wales, was created a Peer of Ireland in 1776, by the title of Baron Newborough. In 1766, he married Lady Catherine Perceval, daughter of John Earl of Egmont, and by her, who died in 1782, had an only son John, who died without issue in 1800. Some little time previous to that date, Lord Newborough was resident at Florence; and as he was partial to theatrical entertainments, he had a box at the principal Opera. Here he was very much attracted by the grace and beauty of an extremely youthful Ballerina, whose name was Maria Stella Petronella Chiappini.

It was not long before he sought her acquaintance; and her sprightliness and charming manners completed the conquest which her winning face and twinkling feet had commenced. Lord Newbo

rough was a man of honour and worth; and if he did not, in this instance, act with the prudence which befitted his very mature years, he could not, at all events, be reproached with want of principle. He made the acquaintance of the father of the fascinating dancing-girl, and found that he had been the jailor of a country town not far from Florence; and that the same spirit of cupidity which induced him to sell his pretty daughter's talents to the master of the ballet, would induce him to listen to the offer of a still heavier golden bribe. A bargain was soon struck between the peer and the jailor, and Maria Stella was transferred from the Florentine stage to the mansion of her veteran admirer.

But the conduct of Lord Newborough towards his prize was tender and delicate in the extreme. Trusting that his unwearied kindness and affection would, in due time, remove the repugnance occasioned by the uncommon disparity of years, he immediately made Maria Stella his wife and carrying her to England, he introduced her to the world as Lady Newborough. It was not long before his attachment met with its due reward. Maria Stella was deeply sensible of her husband's kindness; and she soon loved and honoured him, as she was bound to do, during the years that he was spared after their marriage. And this union,

strange and incongruous as it at first seemed, made the old peer very happy, and secured the transmission of the title in his very ancient and noble family. For, although, soon after his second marriage, he lost his only son by his first wife, Maria Stella made him the father of two sons, Thomas John, born in 1802, successor to his father, and Spencer Bulkeley, the present Lord Newborough, born in 1803.

The old Lord died in 1807, leaving his large fortune to his sons, with an ample provision to his widow. Lady Newborough soon felt a natural desire to revisit her native land, and again see her father and mother, from whom she had been separated at so early an age. She accordingly returned to Italy shortly after the death of her husband, and took with her her two boys. She seems to have been a very kind-hearted woman, with much genuine good feeling; though to judge from the memoir that she published of her life, she never had repaired by mental culture the defects of her imperfect education.

On arriving at Florence, her first care was to seek out her father, whom she found settled there in a much superior condition to that of his earlier career. He and all the members of her family treated her with profound respect; but with much distance and reserve. This distressed the affec