"The Nether-land is far o'erseas, And angry storms may roar;

Or war may send (which Heaven forfend!) Tidings to vex thee sore.

"Forbear, until the galliot drop

Anchor at Malden-head,

To fix the day, and yea or nay,
Proclaim thou wilt be wed.

"Let the old Hall ring loud and high
With roistering Twelfth Night cheer;
Bring holly-glow and mistletoe
To garland Lyndismere.

"Let frolic mummers don their masks,
Let morris-dancers come

And reel and sing in jocund ring,
With rebeck, pipe, and drum.

"Of capons, boar's-head, nut-brown ale,
Let liberal store be shown;

And wassail-shout shall make the bout
The merriest ever known.

"The jesters with their bells shall plot
All mirth-provoking pranks:
So... let me sue;-forget Sir Hugh,
And take thy father's thanks!"

She heard, the Lady Hildegarde,
With firm, unflinching eye;

Then forth she stepped, and onward swept,
Disdainful of reply.

-The snows lay deep round Lyndismere,
But generous fires blazed free,

And casements clear flashed far and near
Their gleams across the lea.

Retainers filled the ancient Hall,
Guests thronged as fell the night,
And rare to see, right gorgeously,
The chapel streamed with light.

"Be brave Sir Hugh come back?" they asked

The gray-haired seneschal:

"Not yet?"""Twas said to-night he'd wed Our Lady of the Hall."

Sir Walter chafed and strode apart;
The cassock'd priest was seen;
And maidens fair came pair by pair
"What could the folly mean?"

A sudden vision hushed the mirth,-
Sir Walter's breath came hard;
For last of all adown the Hall
Swept Lady Hildegarde.

"Saint Agnes!-but she's comely!" quoth

The parti-color'd clown;

"And by the rood! in bridal hood And bridal veil and gown!

"Sir Hugh should e'en be here to mark
The orange posies bloom;

Will proxy due for stout Sir Hugh?
Then I would fain be groom!"

Straight onward to the chancel-rails
The snooded maidens passed;
When suddenly the companie
Was startled by a blast,-

A blast that echoed loud and shrill
Without the castle gate,

As though the train that passed amain
Was sorely loth to wait.

Unmoved stood Lady Hildegarde,

Nor seemed to hear nor feel,

Till up the floor, one moment more,
There tramped a clanking heel.

MRS. S. A. WEISS.

USAN ARCHER TALLEY is descended, on the paternal side,

SUSAN

from a Huguenot refugee, who settled in Hanover County, Virginia. In an old homestead on an estate in this county the subject of this article was born, and passed the years of childhood.

We are indebted to "Mary Forrest's" volume, "Women of the South," for the following:

"Among the traits earliest developed in Miss Talley were extreme fearlessness and love of liberty. . . ..

"It is said that she was never known to betray a sign of fear; and at the age of five years, in her visits to the neighbors, she would unhesitatingly face and subdue by her caresses the fiercest dogs, which even grown persons dared not approach. A singular power of will and magnetism, like that ascribed to the author of 'Wuthering Heights,' seems to have possessed her. She rode with a graceful, fearless abandon, and loved nothing better than to float away by herself in a frail boat. She was the frequent companion of her father and grandfather in their walks, rides, and hunting and fishing excursions; yet with all these influences, she was ever a gentle child, and remarkable for extreme sensibility and refinement. She delighted in all sights and sounds of beauty, and would sit for hours watching the sky in storm and sunshine, or listening to the wind among the trees, the plashing of a waterfall, or the cry of a whip-poor-will. This life familiarized her with all the voices of nature. A sound once heard she never forgot, but could, years after, imitate with surprising exactness.

"When she was eight years of age, her father removed to Richmond, and she then entered school. . . . . When in her eleventh year, she was released from the thraldom of the school-room by an unexpected dispensation. It had been remarked that for some days she had appeared singularly absent and inattentive when spoken to; being at length reproved, she burst into tears, exclaiming, 'I can't hear you.' It was then discovered that her hearing was greatly impaired. She was placed under the care of the most eminent physicians of the country; but their varied efforts resulted, as is too often the case, only in an aggravation of the evil. She lost the power to distinguish conversation, though carried on in a loud key; a power which she has not wholly recovered..

...

"Her parents were at first greatly at loss as to the manner of conducting

her education. Fortunately, she was advanced far beyond most children of her age; and now, released from the discipline of school, her natural love of study deepened into a passion. It was soon found sufficient to throw suitable books in her way, and thus, unassisted, she completed a thorough scholastic course. She also acquired an extensive acquaintance with the literature of the day, and her correct taste and critical discrimination elicited the warmest encomiums from that prince of critics, Edgar A. Poe.

"It was not until Miss Talley had entered her thirteenth year that her poetic faculty became apparent to her family; she having, through modesty, carefully concealed all proofs of its development. Some specimens of her verse then falling under the eye of her father, he at once recognized in them the flow of true genius, and very wisely, with a few encouraging words, left her to the guidance of her own inspiration. In her sixteenth year, some of her poems appeared in the 'Southern Literary Messenger.'"

In September, 1859, a collection of her poems was issued by Rudd & Carleton, of New York. This volume secured for her a distinction of which she may well be proud. For rhythmic melody, for sustained imagination, for depth of feeling, and purity and elevation of sentiment, these poems are equalled by few, and surpassed by none of the productions of our poets. They are rich also in those qualities of mind and heart, which, apart from any literary prestige, win for Miss Talley the esteem and affection of all who are admitted within the choice circle of her friendship.

Miss Talley was imprisoned at Fort McHenry during the war, on the charge of being a spy-refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. It was while imprisoned at Fort McHenry that Miss Talley was married to Lieut. Weiss, of the Federal army.

It was upon her return to Richmond, after her imprisonment, that she commenced writing for the "Magnolia Weekly" and the "Southern Illustrated News." Up to the time of her commencing to write for the two named journals, she had never been able to write, satisfactorily, a line of prose. Poetry had been to her as the breath of life; and her poems had occurred to her almost as inspirations, conceived and written out on a moment's impulse, without labor or difficulty whatever, and in several cases (as, for instance, in the case of "Summer Noonday Dreams,") without a word being altered. Then, about three years before the war, this power seemed to desert her entirely; and in this interval she wrote nothing. It returned as suddenly upon the inspiration of the war; but again as suddenly departed. For over

three years she has not written a line of poetry; but, strangely enough, prose now flows readily, and almost without the labor of thinking, from her pen. Providence seems thus to have provided for Mrs. Weisa at the very moment when she needed this capacity as a sole means of support.

Mrs. Weiss is, and has been for several years, a regular contributor to the New York "Sunday Times."