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I have no opinion about any such water; but I will say my prayers once a day the oftener for her, that God may give this dear good lady as many children as her heart could wish, that so she may be happy.

Their conversation was interrupted by the hostess, who brought thei an excellent supper. Michael and his wife had before time drank bad cyder, but never any sort of wine, and, for the first time in their lives, they tasted it to the health of their benefactress. After which Jacquelina went to bed, thanking God, and pouring forth a thousand blessings her young and virtuous protectress.

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On the morrow Jacquelina was awakened by a woman, who came to tell her, the Princess had ordered her to take measure of her and her children, and make shifts and clothes for all the family. Accordingly some days after, Jacquelina received all kinds of necessaries; shoes, stockings, caps, nothing was forgotten.

Jacquelina's joy was so much the greater, for that her husband's health was presently re-established. The assiduous cares of the Physician, a healthy lodging, and good food, soon produced a surprising alteration, and in three weeks time he was able to rise and walk about his chamber.

At this epocha, Jacquelina had an interview with her benefactress, who presented her with a bunch of keys. There, said she, are the keys of your house, your closets, and your cupboards; return home my good Jacquelina, and to-morrow morning I will come and breakfast with you. Jacquelina, astonished at what she heard, stuttered a few words, and received the keys with a stupid air, thinking it impossible she could have a house with cupboards and closets, or that a relation of the King's could come to breakfast with her.

The same day Michael, his wife, and children were reconducted to the wilderness, where they had been originally found; but what was their amazement, when they saw, instead of their former rude hut, a well-built little house, situated in the midst of a large garden. The children ran and danced with joy, and Michael and Jacquelina kissed and wept over them.-Oh! my God, said Jacquelina, clasping her hands, what have we done to deserve this happiness?

They entered their habitation, and found it composed of two good rooms, with a pile of wood at the end, and a little kitchen, well fur- . nished with houshold utensils; there was a chimney in the bed-chamber, and for furniture they had two good beds with strong curtains, two wooden tables, four rush-bottomed chairs, two armed chairs, and a large press.

Jacquelina took her bunch of keys, opened her press, and there found two complete suits of clothes for her husband, and the same for herself and children; there were shifts, stockings, bonnets, and, moreover, sheets and towels, and a large quantity of flax to spin.

As soon as she had taken an inventory of her press. Jacquelina was brought into her garden, already well supplied with vegetables, and afterwards shewn a hen-roost, where were a score of fowls. At last her conductor opened the door of an out-house, in which were two milch cows, and informed her she was the owner of a small meadow, about a quarter of a mile from the house. Jacquelina thought herself in a dream. What, said she to her husband, are we richer than our dear good master Anschno was? Why his cottage was but a stable, when compared to this---Our garden too is twice as large------Oh Michael!

we must never forget our hut, especially in the winter, when with our children we shall sit round our fire; for we ought always to thank God as sincerely as we do at present.

While she spoke thus, tears of joy dropt from the eyes of Jacquelina; Michael also wept, and both kissed their children, who received their caresses with a pleasure they had never felt before, though they had been always tenderly beloved.

Jacquelina could not close her eyes all night; she had a lamp upon the chimney-piece, and she passed the hours in contemplating, with admiration, her chamber and her goods, and praying God to bless her illustrious benefactress. At break of day she arose, and so did Michael, and the happy couple again went to visit their kitchen, their garden, their hen-roost, and their cow-house. They afterwards dressed their children, put on their best clothes, and prepared breakfast; the table was spread with a napkin quite new, and furnished with two large pans of cream, brown bread, fresh butter, and a basket of nuts just gathered, after which they waited for their dear good lady, with equal anxiety' and impatience.

At eleven o'clock the eldest son, who stood sentinel at the wood-side, quitted his post, and came running to announce the first sight of the landau. Michael and Jacquelina, with beating hearts, each took the child by the hand; and Michael, who was yet far from being strong, was sorry that he could not run faster. The children soon outstript them, and ran tumultuously towards the carriage, while their father and mother in vain called to them to keep back.

Scarcely had Jacquelina and Michael got out of their yard-gate, before the young Princess had alighted. They threw themselves at her feet, bathed in tears; and Jacquelina, pointing to her husband, with a faultering voice, said, look, my dearest lady, look, he is quite well......He can run. Here too are our children, they will not complain of cold; and here is our house, where we shall be as happy in winter as in the summer.......This is all your doing, and a righteous God only can reward you. As for us, alas! we do not know how to thank you.

A deluge of tears interrupted her speech, while the charming and virtuous Princess wept in company, raised Jacquelina, took hold of her arm, and entered the house. You may well suppose the breakfast was thought excellent; that they walked afterwards in the garden, and that Michael and Jacquelina pointed out all their acquisitions and all their wealth.

The Princess departed at one o'clock, and soon after arrived at Forges; where she learnt with pleasure and emotion, that there is no condition, no class, in which the same generous and sublime sentiments may not be found, as those by which she was so nobly distinguished. The Masons, who had built the house in the wilderness, affected by an action which thus made a whole family happy, were desirous, as much as in them lay, of participating; they worked day and night at the building, and as soon as it was finished, unanimously refused to accept the money offered in payment. It was impossible to make them receive the least recompence; and there was no other way of rewarding, but by immediately employing them, about other jobs, for which they were paid double the sum they asked.

EMILY ATKINS..

By Mr. Mackenzie..

I

WAS walking along the Strand, amidst a crowd of those wretches who wait the uncertain wages of prostitution, with ideas of pity suitable to the scene around me, and the feelings I possessed, and had got as far as Somerset-house, when one of them laid hold of my arm, and, with a voice tremulous and faint, asked me for a pint of wine, in a manner more supplicatory than is usual with those whom the infamy of their profession has deprived of shame: I turned round at the demand, and looked stedfastly on the person who made it.

She was above the common size, and elegantly formed; her face was thin and hollow, and shewed the remains of tarnished beauty. Her eyes were black, but had little of their lustre left: her cheeks had some paint laid on without art, and productive of no advantage to her complexion, which exhibited a deadly paleness on the other parts of her face.

I stood in the attitude of hesitation; which she interpreting to her advantage, repeated her request, and endeavoured to force a leer of invitation into her countenance. I took her arm, and we walked on to one of those obsequious taverns in the neighbourhood, where the dearness of the wine is a discharge in full for the character of the house. We entered, and a waiter shewed us a room, and placed a bottle of claret on the table.

I filled the lady's glass; which she had no sooner tasted, than dropping it on the floor, and eagerly catching my arm, her eye grew fixed, her lip assumed a clayey whiteness, and she fell back lifeless in

her chair.

I started from my scat, and, catching her in my arms, supported her from falling to the ground. It was not till some minutes after, that it occurred to me to ring the bell, which at last however I thought of, and rung with repeated violence even after the waiter appeared. Luckily the waiter had his senses somewhat more about him; and snatching up a bottle of water, which stood on a buffet at the end of the room, he sprinkled it over the hands and face of the dying figure before him. She began to revive, and, with the assistance of some hartshorn drops, which I now for the first time drew from my pocket, was able to desire the waiter to bring her a crust of bread; of which she swallowed some mouthfuls with the appearance of the keenest hunger. The waiter withdrew: when turning to me, sobbing at the same time, and shedding tears, "I am sorry, Sir," said she," that I should have given you' so much trouble; but you will pity me when I tell you, that till now I

have not tasted a morsel these two days past.".......I fixed my eyes on her's......every circumstance but the last was forgotten; and I took her hand with as much respect as if she had been a dutchess. "Two days!" ......said I, and I have fared sumptuously every day!"......I was reaching to the bell, she understood my meaning, and prevented me. "I beg, Sir," said she, "that you would give yourself no more trouble about a wretch who does not wish to live; but, at present, I could not eat a bit; my stomach even rose at the last mouthful of that crust."...... I offered to call a chair, saying, that I hoped a little rest would relieve her.......I had one half-guinea left: "I am sorry," I said, "that at present I should be able to make you an offer of no more than this paltry sum.". .She burst into tears: "Your generosity, Sir, is abused; to bestow it on me is to take it from the virtuous: I have no title but misery to plead; misery of my own procuring.' "No more of that, there is virtue in these tears; let the fruit of them be virtue."......I rung, and ordered a chair......" Though I am the vilest of beings," said she, "I have not forgotten every virtue; gratitude, I hope, I shall still have left, did I but know who is my benefactor.". My name is Harley" "Could I ever have an opportunity".... "You shall, and a glorious one too! your future conduct......but I do not mean to reproach you.... if, I say......it will be the noblest reward......I will do myself the pleasure of seeing you again "......Here the waiter entered, and told us the chair was at the door; the lady informed me where she lodged, and I promised to wait on her at ten the next morning.

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When I reached the house, and inquired for Miss Atkins (for that was the lady's name), I was shewn up three pair of stairs into a small room lighted by one narrow lattice, and patched round with shreds of different-coloured paper. In the darkest corner stood something like a bed, before which a tattered coverlet hung by way of curtain. I had not waited long when she appeared. Her face had the glister of newwashed tears on it. "I am ashamed, Sir," said she, "that you should have taken this fresh piece of trouble about one so little worthy of it; but, to the humane, I know there is a pleasure in goodness for its own sake; if you have patience for the recital of my story, it may palliate, though it cannot excuse, my faults." I bowed, and she began as follows:

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I am the daughter of an officer, whom a service of forty years had advanced no higher than the rank of captain. I have had hints from himself, and been informed by others, that it was in some measure owing to those principles of rigid honour, which it was his boast to possess, and which he early inculcated on me, that he had been able to arrive at no better station. My mother died when I was a child; old enough to grieve for her death, but incapable of remembering her precepts. Though my father was doatingly fond of her, yet there were some sentiments in which they materially differed; she had been bred from her infancy in the strictest principles of religion, and took the morality of her conduct from the motives which an adherence to those principles suggested. My father, who had been in the army from his youth, affixed an idea of pusillanimity to that virtue, which was formed by the doctrines, excited by the rewards, or guarded by the terrors, of revelation; his darling idol was the honour of a soldier; a term which he held in such reverence, that he used it for his most sacred asseveration. When my mother died, I was some time suffered to continue in

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those sentiments which her instructions had produced; but soon after, though, from respect to her memory, my father did not absolutely ridicule them, yet he shewed, in his discourse to others, so little regard to them, and at times suggested to me motives of action so different, that I was soon weaned from opinions, which I began to consider as the dreams of superstition, or the artful inventions of designing by pocrisy. My mother's books were left behind at the different quarters we removed to, and my reading was principally confined to plays, novels, and those poetical descriptions of the beauty of virtue and honour, which circulating libraries afford.

"As I was generally reckoned handsome, and the quickness of my parts extolled by all our visitors, my father had a pride in shewing me to the world. I was young, giddy, open to adulation, and vain of those talents which acquired it.

"After the last war, my father was reduced to half-pay; with which we retired to a village in the country, which the acquaintance of some genteel families who resided in it, and the cheapness of living, particularly recommended. My father rented a small house, with a piece of ground sufficient to keep a horse for him, and cow for the benefit of his family. An old man servant managed his ground; while a maid, who had formerly been my mother's and had since been mine, undertook the care of our little dairy: they were assisted in each of their provinces by my father and me; and we passed our time in a state of tranquillity, which he had always talked of with delight, and my train of reading had taught me to admire.

"Though I had never seen the polite circles of the metropolis, the company my father had introduced me into had given me a degree of good-breeding which soon discovered a superiority over the young ladies of our village. I was quoted as an example of politeness, and my com. pany courted by most of the considerable families in the neighbourhood.

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Amongst the houses where I was frequently invited, was Sir George Winbrooke's. He had two daughters nearly of my age, with whom, though they had been bred up in those maxims of vulgar doctrine, which my superior understanding could not but despise, yet as their goodnature led them to air imitation of my manners in every thing else, I cultivated a particular friendship.

"Some months after our first acquaintance, Sir George's eldest son came home from his travels. His figure, his address, and conversation, were not unlike those warm ideas of an accomplished man which my favourite novels had tanght me to form; and his sentiments on the article of religion were as liberal as my own: when any of these happened to be the topic of our discourse, I, who before had been silent, from a` fear of being single in opposition, now kindled at the fire he raised, and defended our mutnal opinions with all the eloquence I was mistress of. He would be respectfully attentive all the while; and when I had ended, would raise his eyes from the ground, look at me with a gaze of admiration, and express his applause in the highest strain of encomium. This was an incense the more pleasing, as I seldom or never had met with it before; for the young gentlemen who visited Sir George were for the most part of that athletic order, the pleasure of whose lives is derived from fox-hunting: these are seldom solicitous to please the wo

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