and would not be disturbed till all is ready for starting."

Reader, have you ever seen some brilliant exotic reared and fostered in the genial but artificial temperature of a well-attended conservatory, and flourishing in luxuriance, health, and beauty: tempted by the balmy air of morning, and the warm sun of noon, the gardener hath opened the sashes to admit the invigorating breeze, but alas! he hath forgotten to close them at eventide, and the nipping air, with frosty chill, hath struck it to the life-knot. The morning sun shines bright as ever; but the plant has found the fatal truth -it lives not in a congenial climate its flowers fade and fall: its leaves shrivel or hang, moist and matted, against its stems: its odour is gone or changed to rankness its proudly towering head droops lower and lower that chilling blast of cold neglect, permitted by its former kind protector, hath robbed it of beauty, perhaps of life. So is it with woman's fond affections; they may be pruned, clipped, lopped, and thwarted in a thousand ways, only to make them flourish more vigorously; but let the cold breath of neglect, or inconsiderate regard to feeling, once blow unkindly where love hath hitherto ever been, and blighted like the flower, they die, or if they perish not entirely, still their freshness and their bloom are gone— perhaps, for ever.

So was it with the lovely Countess: a few minutes and a few words had metamorphosed her from a joyous

and happy wife, into a submissive, but wretched woman. She felt that her place in her husband's heart was lost, or had only existed in her own imagination: she prepared to fulfil, as duty, what she would have hastened joyously to do for love; but she wept as she gave her directions to her maids, and assuredly failed in giving obedience to those injunctions of her husband which counselled the taking of rest: she had learned that

"A wounded spirit vainly seeks repose."

All nature was slumbering next morning in the dark pine forest around Falkenbrun, where, save for the echoes of a cascade which incessantly roared and brawled in a neighbouring hill, nothing was to be heard.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the rattle of wheels and tramp of horses, and a handsome caleche with imperials and all the parapharnalia of travelling, not omitting the cumbrous and useless one of a huge chasseur in the rumble, and several outriders, came into view.

There was evident haste intended, and there was a great deal of German haste effected; that is to say, the postillions cracked their whips incessantly over their heads, and shouted and made violent gestures, it is presumed, to indicate to their steeds their wishes that they should exert themselves also, and the quadrupeds seemed perfectly to understand the bipeds, for they snorted and shook their heads, and jingled their bells, and tossed about their great scarlet worsted tassels, so as to prove their zeal, if not their ability, for going.

Morn had risen, and the frosty leaves of the forest crackled under the wheels, as fresh and vigorous they pushed along. The noon-day sun gleamed on the emblazoned pannels, as with steadier pace they wound along the beautiful banks of the Salsa, and astonished the little village urchins with the clatter and style of the turn-out: night found them still wending their weary way with fagged horses and jaded riders. Leaving the high road, the carriage now proceeded along a narrow track, where caution became necessary to avoid accidents, and some of the outriders were sent forward at the gallop to an inconsiderable inn, or Gasthaus, which was situated about a mile farther on.

On their arrival at the house, they found all in darkness, but by dint of shouting, knocking, and blowing on a horn, they managed to awake the landlord, who, roused by this unusual clamour and the sound of so many horses' feet, (for his fears had multiplied them) thought his house was surrounded by banditti, and accordingly prepared for defence, after his own peculiar fashion, not with sword or pistol, but by disarming risk, and having safely lodged his moderate stock of silver spoons in the bottom of an old stuffed chair, and deposited some twenty gold Friedrichs in the not-unleather-like receptacles between his cheeks and teeth, then proceeded to open the window and challenge the intruders, whose hammering at the door became louder and louder in the direct ratio of the delay he gave in answering them. During the parley which ensued, the carriage came up, and by its bright lamps discovered

the character of his visitors; so, hurrying down, enveloped in that vestment inseparable from German comfort by night or day, his schlafrock, he sallied forth, and with many apologies for the poorness of his accommodation and the meagre state of his larder, ushered a lady and gentleman into his best room. Both were closely muffled up; yet, notwithstanding the style of their equipage and the flaunting liveries of their servants, there was something strikingly Jewish about themselves. The gentleman's black beard was long and handsome, and his garb, although rich, was cut in a fashion, and with a peculiar flow, indicative of the Israelite: the lady, who was very handsome, had yellow sandals on her feet, which did not appear till the travelling boots of sable which she wore over them were removed, and the graceful mantilla floated from the top of her head nearly to the ground; the want of a bonnet was supplied by a richly furred velvet hood.

"Jews," said Boniface to himself, after his first glances had fallen on his visitors, "and nothing but pork in the house, and no ordinary Jews either."

Here Rothschild-like visions began to float before his mental eye, of increasing the golden store which already distended his buccal pouches, to realize which the whole household were soon kicked, cuffed, cursed, and shouted into action, and a tolerable supper was shortly served up, in which, as in the minor theatres, the sole performer, to wit, the pork, had to sustain very many parts, and not one of them in his own name.

During this meal, the gentleman always employed

one of his domestics to interpret any directions he gave, and seemed quite unconscious of the meaning of any thing said in German; nay, the landlord heard some of the servants making allusions to their master in that language, which he felt confident they would not dare to do, if they thought he could, in the slightest degree, comprehend them.

Supper over, the parties retired to rest; but Herr Wirth was not satisfied without the exercise of a little landlordish curiosity, and not having been able to pump much out of the wearied and sleepy servants, he crept in his soft pantoufles to the chamber door of his strange guest, where, to his no small astonishment, on peeping through the key-hole, he beheld the quondam Jew now divested of his tabard, and with as well shaven a face as any monk of St. Francis. The long black beard lay on the toilet table, and, wonderful to relate, the gentleman was addressing his fair companion volubly in choice and unmistakeable Saxon.

Here was a mystery: all landlords love mysteries, provided they have not to pay for them; consequently, Hans Pichler, the landlord of the Weissen Hirsch, may be pardoned if he only yielded to the foible of his cast.

"I ought to have known it-a Jew ignorant of any language?-impossible! But may be there is nothing Jewish about him but his beard."

Thus muttering he descended to the coach-house to examine the carriage, the armorial bearings particularly attracting his attention.

"Jew, indeed!

Mullets gules-Bend ragulee―