you your freedom, and the means of living where you please in her. She resumed, in husky tones, "My old love for the Park future." "Ah, well, I suppose I must submit." "A philosophical conclusion, mother, which does you credit," replied Arnold, with a sneer. As he spoke, he arose and glanced out of the window; Mr. Carleton was dismounting on the lawn, and he added, "Here comes your admirer. Keep him in your power, I beg, until I no longer need his good offices." "Dear me! I must run off to my room and put on a more becoming cap, for this one is a fright." Arnold, too, disappeared, leaving Mr. Carleton to be ushered in by the servant, and to wait alone for the re-entrance of his mother. He sought a small room near that of Miss Clayton, which was usually occupied by Anita, and found her waiting for him, as he had expected. brought me back, I suppose. I have never brought forward the proofs of my freedom, and missy is not aware that I possess them. When you become the husband of Miss Clayton you will possess no authority over me." Arnold felt that he was baffled, and he said: "Pardon me, Anita. Let us resume our alliance. I am far from wishing this portentous mystery revealed, if its consequences are to be so terrible. Keep it." "I shall keep it, be sure of that. Now Arthur Clayton is dead, no human power can drag it from me. There is missy's bell-I must go to her." She arose as calmly as usual, and followed him from the room. Deeply pondering on this interview, and the character of this woman, who was to be so prominent a person in his future es Arnold took the seat which Anita rose to offer; but she in- tablishment, Arnold retired to his own apartment, where he stantly sunk back in her own, and quickly said: "The lad is dead?'' "How did you know? Have you heard my news from any other source?'' "No; but the few words uttered by missy convinced me that you had told her." "Judged with your usual shrewdness, Anita. It is true that Arthur Clayton is dead." Anita half arose, and clasped her hands with an expression of exultation of which words would convey a feeble picture. "Joy! joy! joy!" she murmured. "The clould is dissipated-the only bar to my child's prosperity is removed. William Clayton, look down and see that the sun will henceforth shine upon the fortunes of your true heiress. And he, he has gone down to destruction-gone! gone! gone! How did he die? Did you learn the particulars?'' "Burned-lost on the steamer on which we knew he had taken his passage." remained until he descended to join the party assembled around the supper table. CHAPTER XXV. HE chair which Clayton had thrown from the burning wreck was so constructed as to act as a life preserver, and he struck out for it as soon as he arose to the surface with the precious burden he clasped in his arms. Conscious that his own strength would not long sustain them both in such a current as the Mississippi, he resolved to provide for Dora's safety, even if his own life was given as the sacrifice for hers. When he rushed into her room to gve her the alarm, and rescue her from the danger that men "Are you sure-sure? Is it beyond a doubt? Oh, Lord! if aced her, he snatched up a long scarf of light material which this should not be true, after all!" lay upon the berth, and rapidly passed it around the chair. "But it must be true, I tell you. Why do you deem it so When they arose, he had no sooner gained a grasp upon it than important that he should be out of my way?" he caught the long ends, and managed to pass them around the Anita regarded him fixedly a few moments, and then slowly slender waist of the young girl, and with a great effort tied replied: "I may as well tell you, because now it makes very little difference about it. Mr. Clayton was the heir under the settlement made by the founder of the family, and the deeds by which he made over the property to missy are of no more value than so much waste paper." them in a secure knot. "Now," thought he, "if I cannot save least secure her from sinking to the bottom. and decent burial given to her." "Never fear, Dora; lean on me," he said. her life, I can at She will be found, "Oh! Dora, it is a glad thought that if you are saved, to me you will owe your life-if you perish, we will die together." "Pooh! if that was all, the boy might as well have lived on, for in this country no court would sustain such a settlement in violation of the rights of the heiress in the direct line." The quadroon darkly regarded him, as she said: "Perhaps so, Mr. Arnold; but it's safest, at all events, to have him out of the way. Oh, this news is grand! is glorious !ated flood, and a hoarse voice shouted, in half-stifled tones: I feel like a new being since I heard it." "We will be saved to live for each other, to love each other for many happy years," she whispered. "Oh, God! what is this?" was uttered the moment after, with a wild cry, as a head emerged from the brightly-illumin "Give me my daughter! I can save her without your aid! "Anita, I again demand of you the reason of your exulta--yield her up to me?" tion?" The quadroon almost disdainfully said: "If you ever become master in this house, Mr. Arnold, it will be my will, as much as your own influence with my young lady, that places you in that position. I wish you to understand one thing, sir: I come not under your rule, nor do I relinquish the power long habit has given me over your future wife. If it is disputed, I can and will assert it in such a manner as to compel respect. If there is a secret, it dies with me, unless circumstances goad me into its revelation. I warn you that you are the last one to desire the dark record hidden here to be laid bare to the light of day." 66 He To his horror, Clayton recognized Richard Wentworth. exclaimed, Keep back, madman!-you will destroy your daughter!" As he spoke he struck out and swam away, but Wentworth was also a practiced swimmer, and he came up with him in a few seconds, and throwing his hand on the head of the young man, he recklessly endeavored to thrust it under the water until he had stifled him sufficiently to tear Dora from his hold. As she comprehended his intention, a thrilling shriek arose upon the night air, and a strong man, who was swimming past them like an otter, turned to sputter out: "Thunder! isn't it bad enough to see so many people She struck her hand upon her heart, and still kept her eyes drowning without helping one to it, and he trying to save a wofixed unwaveringly upon his. Arnold coolly said: "You are a good actress at times, Anita. But are you not Miss Clayton's slave?" A living light blazed from the woman's eyes, as she said: "No-I am no slave! My mistress, General Clayton's sister, freed me long before her death, for she loved me. She died in my arms. I could have gone elsewhere; but-but-" Her voice sunk to a low whisper, and she fell upon her seat panting for breath, as if the memories evoked were suffocating man, too!" With a single blow of his brawny fist he dealt Wentworth a blow on the side of his head that caused him to loosen his grasp. At the same instant the end of a floating sawyer came in contact with the opposite temple, and the wretched man sunk beneath the waves, though Dora was happily unconscious of his fate, for she had become insensible. Released from his deadly antagonist, Arthur gained his breath and vision in time to see the ripples closing over his sinking form, and to comprehend his position. The same rough voice said to him: "Yonder's a little spot of level ground where I've already carried two women and a child; you'd better make for it at once; it's the best you can do." The speaker swam off again in pursuit of another object to rescue from the waves, and Clayton at once turned to the point to which he had pointed, and after a desperate struggle for life succeeded in placing the insensible girl upon a narrow strip of soft crumbling earth, already occupied by four trembling women, and as many crying children. Arthur had only time to give a hasty glance to the scene, for Dora needed his attention. She unclosed her eyes, and sat up in a few moments. At that moment a wilder burst of flame lighted up the whole horizon, and a sound more terrible than the roar of cannon caused the earth to tremble beneath them, and the waters to surge madly upward, while the whole air was filled with burning fragments from the exploded boat. As the echoes died away, the silence that settled over the darkening waters was inexpressibly awful. It was broken, however, by the startling echoes of a steam whistle from the approaching boat, let off with all its force to assure the survi- | vors that help was at hand. In a few more moments failing eyes were turned to the gleaming fires, which showed her bearing down at full speed to the rescue of the unfortunate sufferers. As the steamer approached the scene of the catastrophe, boats were put out from her to pick up those who still had life enough to keep themselves upon the surface. In the meantime the little group upon the shore, in the midst of which we left Clayton and his fair charge, beheld the approach of the steamer with hope and dread; for the motion thus given to the waters caused them to break in large waves against the bank, and the frail foothold afforded by the narrow space on which they stood began to tremble, and show unequivocal signs of yielding before the shock, and soon, indeed, the earth slid from beneath their feet, and they were again launched into the Mississippi. "And "Dora!-my brother!-are they safe?'' "Dora is on the steamer; she is safe!" "O Lord! I thank thee!" he fervently ejaculated. poor Dick has probably gone down-poor fellow! poor fellow!'' As they were turning away, Colonel Wentworth suddenly seemed to remember something. He said, as he pointed to the box from which he had been removed: "Boys, take that on board with me, and before heaven I believe I shall, through its means, be enabled to develop the most horrible piece of villainy that has ever been practiced on these waters, terrible as are the tales they could reveal if they were gifted with the power of speech." On attempting to seize the box, it turned over so lightly as to cause an exclamation from the men that it must be empty. Not quite empty, but filled with nothing more valuable than straw, I suspect. By its means I will bring home the charge of sailing with a bogus cargo, and a heavy insurance, to those miscreants who have themselves fired the boat." Exclamations of horror escaped the men who were now resolute to take the means of developing such atrocious wickedness, and the box was soon safe in the bow of the boat. Dora rushed forward and threw herself upon her uncle's breast. Great tears rolled down his face, as he bent over her and whispered: "My child!-doubly mine by the fatal event of this night."' The wretched group of sufferers entered the cabin, and looked around. Among the hundreds who had retired to rest upon the Mary Winter, only ninety-five were present; wives, children, husbands had perished, and the survivors wrung their hands and wept in unavailing anguish over their terrible fate. In a few moments Colonel Wentworth, raising his voice, said: "Friends, listen to me." A dead silence fell upon the crowd, and pale, eager faces were turned toward him, as he went on, "When the alarm of fire reached me, sprang up and opened the door leading into the cabin, but the blaze met me there, and I turned to the opening on the guards. The door was barricaded from without. There was no recourse but to force my way out, which I did by throwing myself with all my strength against As they arosc from the eddying whirl of their plunge, Clay-it. I escaped, but not before the flames had penetrated to my ton saw that those he had been compelled to leave behind had struggled to a higher spot, and for a few brief moments were safe. Crying to them to keep up their courage and he would send them aid as soon as possible, he again breasted the current with his burden. state-room, as the singed condition of my person will prove to you. I found it impossible to reach my niece, for her room was on the opposite side of the steamer, and a sea of fire raged between us. I knew that one was near her who would save her if it was possible to do so, and I sprang into the water with a lonely woman who was shrieking for help. I sustained her until I supposed I had discovered the means of safety, in a boat that was lying to in the shadow made by the forest on the water; I approached it, to be struck at by one of the three men The brawny arm of the sailor was a tower of strength to Ar- it contained. A blow from his oar deprived me of the use of thur, and he cried out like a stentor: "Boat ahoy! This way to the rescue!" Nc sooner did Clayton find himself safe than he watched with inexpressible anxiety for Colonel Wentworth. When it was supposed that all who remained alive had been taken from the water, he begged as a favor that one more search might be made with the boats to discover him, for with his strength and nerve it seemed impossible that he should have perished. The captain was a humane man, and he at once consented. Arthur, followed by his new friend, the sailor, jumped in, and they took a wide circuit, which both began to consider vain, when a dark object was seen floating in the shadow of the shore. As they drew near, Clayton sorrowfully said: my right arm, and my companion, who was nearly insensible, escaped from my clasp, and sunk before I could again grasp her. In falling, the oar grazed my temple, and inflicted this wound. My friends, in two of those men I am certain I saw the captain of the Winter, and another person who seemed to have some authority on the boat. They were watching her destruction calmly, while hundreds of human beings, doomed to an awful fate by their means, were perishing in their sight." He paused, and a voice of execration arose from the crowd around him. "But how did you escape from them?" "I heard one of them say, 'Kill him, or he will tell all and ruin us.' The oar was again lifted, but I thought it better to "It is useless-this is only a box which has been thrown from risk a dive, even in this dangerous current, and I was swept so the wreck." far below them before I arose that they could not identify me. "Hold on, messmate; there's a man on it, I am sure," said I came up nearly breathless, and grasped the first thing I saw the sailor. As he spoke he gave a vigorous twirl to the boat, and laid it alongside of the box; a half insenible form lay across it, but when they touched him, he aroused at once and spoke: to sustain me until I recovered my breath. It proved to be the box I was found on; and, after many efforts, I succeeded in throwing myself across it. Its lightness was such that a suspicion entered my mind which I will here verify in the presence of you all. The box was brought on board, and I ask you to see it opened now." "Thank God!-thank God! you've come at last. I had almost given up hope, for I am maimed and wounded so that I cannot help myself." A murmur of assent arose, and in a few moments it was placed With a cry of joy Arthur recognized the voice, and with care in the centre of the floor. A hatchet was procured, and the they lifted him into their midst. Colonel Wentworth recog-heading knocked off. Amid furious cries and imprecations the nized him, and whispered: contents were pulled out, and found to be wisps of straw tied ゴヤング together, and bundles of waste paper. Then the uproar was suddenly quelled, and faces looked upon each other in pallid horror at the enormity of the crime of which they had been made the victims. Presently a calm voice arose amid the impressive silence: Gentlemen, we must find these men, and give them over to be dealt with by the law." "The law! It is too good for such miscreants! No! let us atch them, and destroy them without judge or jury. Lynch law is the only thing they merit." **That must not be,” replied Colonel Wentworth, calmly. "On my evidence will they chiefly be convicted, and they must have that mercy shown to them which they have denied to others With the certainty that the destruction of the Winter will, as usual, be attributed to some unavoidable casualty, these men will doubtless land at Napoleon, and make known their 18. We can gain that point before them, and be in readiness on their arrival to arrest them." This proposal was applauded, and finally agreed or as the only thing to be done, and in another hour the steamer came in sight of the rolling land on which the village of Napoleon is built. On the opposite side, a few miles above, the plantation of Colonel Wentworth was situated, and at his request the captain landed at that point. He must get home before the rumor of the accident reached there, an 1 he knew that the arrest of the captain and his companions could be safely left to the exisperated crowd he parted from. The box had been restored to its former condition, fastened up, and taken care of, to be pro duced in due time on the trial. The boat stopped several hours at Napoleon, and before she left, Captain Gaskil, accompanied by Waters, arrived. They at once proceeded to state before a magistrate the calamity which bud befallen them; but arrangements had been quietly and judiciously made to entrap them; and when their evidence was over, a door communicating with the office was thrown open, and the four accusers came forward with such proofs of their rime as were overwhelming. The men grew pale and faltered, but their guilt was too appareat to be denied or palliated. A crowd began to collect around the house and cries for vengeance arose to an uproar. The miserable wretches abjectly begged for mercy and protection from the infuriated mob, and, mainly through the efforts of "ayton, they were guarded to the jail, and left there, fully ommitted for trial at the next term of court, which would be held in a few days. THE WIFE OF TITIAN. magic charm of his color, and the cheerful serenity of his style, seemed to mellow with years. And to what an age he attained! In his ninety-seventh year he received Henry the Third of France (as he was passing through Venice on his way to Poland) with a magnificence of hospitality and a courtly grace of manner which charmed all beholders-nearly every great potentate and celebrity of the sixteenth century -and died at the great age of ninety-nine. We may appropriately close this brief notice of the great painter by quoting the panegyric of Fuseli: "Landscape, whether it be considered as the transcript of a spot, or the rich combination of congenial objects, or as the scene of a phenomenon, dates its origin from Titian." A CONCERT IN THE TIME OF LOUIS XIV. A CONCERT in the time of Louis XIV.!"Eh bien," as the French Say, nous avons chanjé tout cela." Contrast the little gallery, the few performers, the old-fashioned and few instruments, with the magniucent orchestra, the Nilssons, Pattis and Faures that glorify the Tuileries and its gorgeous audiences of to-day the stiff old music of bygone times, à la perruque, and the voluble, gushing, brilliant strains of the present, à la chignon, so to speak. What a change is here! Imagine Mozart, for instance, after playing, or, rather, worrying, one of his sonatas out of his tinkling old harpsichord, with its forlorn twanglings, suddeuly allowed the rapture of expressing his musical soul by the happy medium of a Steinway, a Chickering, or a Weber! Think of Lulli or Gluck listening to the performance of these works of Theo. Thomas's orchestra, and confess that, as regards music at least, a musical entertainment of the present year of our Lord is a celestial pleasure compared to the philharmonic pabulum afforded by a "Concert in the time of Louis XIV.," which, however, was probably thought heavenly enough at the time; so let us charitably hope the courtiers of Louis had as much enjoyment for their music as we for our own. Our engraving represents a concert given to the young princesses of France at the royal palace. ETRUSCAN VASES. THE Greek and Roman vases serve a most useful and valuable purpose; they inform us of the manners and customs of the ancients, especially the Greeks. Nothing can exceed the delicacy of the design and the beauty of the coloring, which retains its freshness undimmed to the present time. From the fact that a very large proportion of these vases were found in the cemeteries of Etruria, they were formerly called Etruscan, The portrait we give is supposed to be that of the wife of although they more properly belong to the Greeks, the Egyp Titian; and as no further information has come down to us respecting her, we cannot do better than give a short account of the illustrious painter. tians, and the Phoenicians, from the two last nations of whom the Greeks received the art. The paintings on the vases afford the greatest amount of interest. The earliest decorations were extremely simple, consistTitian was born in ('dore, Friuli, in 1477, and died in Venice,ing mainly of double bands, the more prominent parts being September 9, 1576. In his youth he was enabled to profit by ornamented with lines variously drawn; then animals were atfic genius and personal friendship of the great Giorgione, tempted, and next the human form; in short, the progress of whose style he copied so closely as to be able readily to comvase painting was about concurrent with the advancement in prete the pictures left unfinished at Giorgione's death. In a little while, however, his own grand style began to appear in sculpture. hs paintings, and he gra lually assumed the magnificent position in art his name has ever since maintained. At the age of irty-five, finding himself without a rival worthy of competing with him, he entered upon a career which for the uniform ex- WE call attention to the fine engraving of the above gorgeous ellence of its pro luctions, for its celebrity and duration, has and beautiful ceremonial, feeling it will be of great interest to rhaps no parallel in the history of painting. His picture of our fashionable readers. We do not quite hold with ShakesBacchus and Ariadne," in the British National Gallery, pre-peare that beauty when unadorned's adorned the most; on the ! sents an epitome of all his characteristic beauties of composition, color and form. Among his admirers and patrons he numbered Duke Alfonzo the First of Ferrara, Lucrezia Borgia (whose po trait he painted), Ariosto. Pope Leo the Tenth, Francis the First of France, the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and Pope Clement the Seventh, and the most powerful princes of Europe were eager for specimens of his art, and as he approached old age he began to live with great splendor. At sixty-five years of age he retained the vigor and freshness of youth, while the QUEEN VICTORIA'S LEVEE. contrary, we like to see it glorified with the elegancies and charms of costume, the richness and glamour of gems ad jewels, and Queen Victoria's levée is a striking example of the delightful ensemble, and no republicau mind need be disturbed at this apparent adulation of monarchy. It is as much homage to the woman as the sovereign, for Queen Victoria is as much loved for herself as respected for her dignities, and it is an honor, in every way, to be presented to her at these state ceremonies. |