A WEDDING IN GARRISON.

"It will be long indeed," said Uncle Philip, when his glow of gratified British pride subsided; "longer than even I have lived and that is saying a good deal-before any one who shared in them, can forget the horrors of the memorable siege of G-. There is something in defensive warfare at all times irksome and dispiriting to the feelings of Britons; and even where successful, as ours eminently was, it wants the excitement, the romance, the chivalrous feeling, of attack and onset. Then there are always, in a besieged city, horrors enough to appal a stout heart, and privations to melt a feeling one. Bombs falling, perhaps, in the midst of a church full of women, or hospital filled with dying; provisions, always ten prices, even if to be had for money; and, in some sad extremities, hunger perishing with her lap full of gold. The faces of those even most exempt from hardships are sure to grow thin at last. One general of imprisonment and degradation robs young cheeks of bloom and older ones of confidence; and well it is, if private grief and misery mingle.not with public calamity. Much, much there was of both at G, both during and after the siege; yet my memory dwells with sad tenacity, on a little domestic tragedy connected with its commence. ment; perhaps, because we had not then 'supped full with horrors' perhaps, because we are born to sympathize more deeply in the woes and errors of humanity, than in scenes of physical suffering.

"Among the picked but scanty garrison of G-, you could not find a braver man than Captain Osborne. He was one of those soldiers, sans peur et sans reproche,' who might have lived in the age of Bayard, and defied him to the strife of honour. I knew and loved him as he deserved; and, next to one fair daughter, who was all his earthly treasure, I believe I ranked highest in bis affection and esteem. It was soon proved-for, exhausted by fatigue in the construction of defences preparatory to the siege, this gallant officer was not destined to participate either in its hardships or its laurels. He died some days ere the place was finally invested, and while escape from its devoted precincts was

yet safe and practicable. His dying cares were for his country and his daughter; the former he had served while life remained; the latter he sought, even in death, to place beyond the reach of danger: nay, I could fancy him reconciled to an event that would release her from a post of perilous duty. Go home to England, my dear child,' he faltered anxiously, with eyes alternately fixed on Ellen and myself. You, Vernon, will take care that she soon leaves this fatal town-it will soon be no place for females; and he who might have wanted power or inclination to bid her from him while in life, in death may claim to be obeyed.'

"I could not see the face of Ellen, as her sobs re-echoed the dying mandate for it was buried in ber father's pillow; but her voice uttered no responsive promise, to soothe the ear of death; and when the soldier's muffled drum had ceased to roll, and their brief requiem had been sung over his grave, I learned the reason why.

"One tie that anchored Ellen to the beleaguered walls was severed; but another, and a secret one, remained. She loved, and was beloved again, by one for whom she would have braved peril in a form more dire than all the woes of Troy; yet was he but another Paris-vain, fickle, and effeminate-a soldier, not of fame, but fashion; one whom, if her father did not warn her to avoid, it was because he never dreamed she could be thus ignobly won.

"But the young maiden and old soldier saw with different eyes. Deloraine had a face that might have served a nobler mind as index, and a form martial enough to shame a host of unpretended heroes. He had the gift, too, call it as you will, that fortune lavishes so oft on worthless minions -the gift to cozen women-the charm, which, like Titania's potent juice, can make a waking dreamer worship folly and dote upon a counterfeit.

Availing himself first of Osborne's professional avocations, and latterly of his declining health, Deloraine, but recently arrived from England, made rapid way in Ellen Osborne's favor. Bred up as she had been, and with, alas! no mother's precious counsel, within the rude precincts of a confined garrison circle, amid grey headed veterans and unpolished soldiers of fortune, the gay, young, aristocratic

Englishman seemed doubly fascinating in her eyes; and long confinement in a transport having at least as great on his, the passion soon became reciprocal.

Her father's serious illness threw it into the shade; but with his fond injunction to depart, and the cold grasp that stiffened ere she could relinquish it, rushed the sudden conviction that to go was misery-to stay, perhaps, no longer consistent with propriety. In her despair, she opened her mind to me. In pity for a young and bleeding heart, I hinted, perhaps more gently than I ought, my doubts of him on whom her hopes were anchored, I promised to protect and shield, if possible, from injury, the daughter of my departed friend. Yet feeling how soon the pledge might be outweighed by higher duties, I strongly urged her return to England.

But

During the first few days of privileged mourning, visitors were necessarily excluded; nor did the state of things in G leave time or room for idle ceremonials. Ellen's eye sparkled through tears, when I returned to ask her resolution; for Deloraine had written, as men write when using words to veil the lack of deeds from those who think them still the same. Strange that a few more years, a grey hair more or less, should make that sound so hollow, which in youth's credulous ear can seem the music of the spheres!

"I read in Deloraine's letter that he loved Ellen to madness, not to ma.rimony-that, coldly selfish, he sought to trifle with rather than to seduce her-to keep her in his power, like the mouse, for long and harrowing suspense, rather than by precipitate measures abridge to himself the pleasures of pursuit or triumph. I might have contented myself with watching sedulously his manœuvres, and counteracting them with all a parent's vigilance; but I was soon, I knew, to mount a far different and less pleasing guard, while the humbler military rank and inefficient character of Deloraine, might leave him leisure to achieve his civil conquest undisturbed.

I was saved the painful task of a first remonstrance, by a general order, commanding the departure of all useless persons, unconnected by the nearest ties to officers composing the garrison. This order clearly embraced Ellen; and