HEY were the fweeteft notes I ever heard ; and I inftantly let down the fore-glafs to hear them more diftinctly-'Tis Maria, faid the poftillion, obferving I was liftening-Poor Maria, continued he, (leaning his body on one fide to let me fee her, for he was in a line betwixt us) is fitting upon a bank playing her vefpers upon her pipe, with her little goat befide her.

The young fellow uttered this with an accent and a look fo perfectly in tune to a feeling heart, that I inftantly made a vow, I would give him a four-and-twenty fous piece, when I got to Moulins

-And who is poor Maria? faid I.

The love and pity of the villages around us; faid the poftillion-it is but three years ago, that the fun did not fhine upon fo fair, fo quick-witted, and amiable a maid; and better fate did Maria deferve, than to have her banns forbid by the intrigues of the curate of the parish who published them

He was going on, when Maria, who had made a fhort paufe, put the pipe to her mouth, and began the air a

gain

gain-they were the fame notes,-yet were ten times fweeter: it is the evening service to the virgin, said the young man but who has taught her to play itor how the came by her pipe, no one knows; we think that Heaven has affifted her in both; for ever fince the has been unsettled in her mind, it feems her only confolation-she has never once had the pipe out of her hand, but plays that fervice upon it almoft night and day.

The poftillion delivered this with so much discretion and natural eloquence, that I could not help decyphering fomething in his face above his condition, and fhould have fifted out his history, had not poor Maria's taken fo full poffeffion of me.

We had got up by this time almoft to the bank where Maria was fitting: fhe was in a thin white jacket, with her hair, all but two treffes, drawn up into a filk net, with a few olive leaves twisted a little fantaftically on one fide-she was beautiful; and if ever I felt the full force of an honeft heart-ache, it was the moment I saw her

-God help her! poor damfel! above a hundred maffes, faid the poftillion, have been faid in the feveral parish churches and convents around, for her, but without effect; we have ftill hopes, as fhe is fenfible for fhort intervals, that the virgin at laft will restore her to herfelf; but her parents, who know her best, are hopeless upon that score, and think her fenfes are loft for ever.

As the poftillion spoke this, Maria made a cadence fo melancholy, fo tender and querulous, that I fprung out of the chaise to help her, and found myself fitting betwixt her and her goat before I relapsed from my enthusiasm.

Maria looked wifhfully for fome time at me, and then at her goat-and then at me-and then at the goat again; and fo on, alternately

-Well, Maria, faid I foftly-What refemblance do you find?

I do intreat the candid reader to believe me, that it was from the humblest conviction of what a beast man is,–that I afked the queftion; and that I would not have let fallen an unfeasonable pleasantry in the venerable prefence of Mifery, to be entitled to all the wit that ever Rabelais fcattered-and yet I own my heart smote me, and that I so smarted at the very idea of it, that I swore I would fet up for wisdom, and utter grave fentences the reft of my days-and never-never at-tempt again to commit mirth with man, woman, or child, the longeft day I had to live.

As for writing nonfenfe to them-I believe, there was a reserve-but that I leave to the world.

Adieu, Maria! adieu, poor hapless damfel!———— fome time, but not now, I may hear thy forrows from thy own lips-but I was deceived; for that moment she took her pipe, and told me such a tale of woe with it, that I rofe up, and, with broken and irregular steps, walked foftly to my chaise.

In my next journey I was prompted to go half a league out of my road to the village where her parents dwelt to enquire after her.

-The old mother came to the door, her looks told me the story before the opened her mouth-She had loft her husband; he had died, she said, of anguish, for the lofs of Maria's fenfes about a month before- -She had feared at firft, fhe added, that it would have plundered her poor girl of what little understanding was left-but, on the contrary, it had brought her more to herself-still she could not reft-her poor daughter, fhe faid, crying, was wandering fome where about the

road

-Why does my pulfe beat languid as I write this? and what made La Fleur, whofe heart feemed only to be tuned to joy, to pass the back of his hand twice acrofs his eyes, as the woman ftood and told it? I beckoned to the postillion to turn back into the road.

When

When we had got within half a mile of Moulins, at a little opening in the road leading to a thicket, I discovered poor Maria fitting under a poplar-she was fitting with her elbow in her lap, and her head leaning on one fide within her hand-a fmall brook ran at the foot of the tree.

I bid the poftillion go on with the chaife to Moulinsand La Fleur to befpeak my fupper-and that I would walk after him.

She was dreffed in white, and much as my friend described her, except that her hair hung loose, which before was twisted within a filk net.. She had fuperadded likewife to her jacket, a pale green ribband, which fell across her fhoulder to her waift; at the end of which hung her pipe.Her goat had been as faithlefs as her lover; and fhe had got a little dog in lieu of him, which she had kept tied by a ftring to her girdle; as I looked at her dog, the drew him towards her with the ftring" Thou shalt not leave me, Sylvio," said fhe. I looked in Maria's eyes, and faw fhe was thinking more of her father than of her lover or her little goat; for as fhe uttered them, the tears trickled down her cheeks.

I fat down close by her; and Maria let me wipe them away as they fell, with my handkerchief.I then fteeped it in my own-and then in hers-and then in mine-and then I wiped hers again-and as I did it, I felt fuch indefcribable emotion within me, as I am fure could not be accounted for from any combinations of matter and motion.

I am pofitive I have a foul; nor can all the books with which materialifts have peftered the world ever convince me of the contrary.

When Maria had come a little to herself, I asked her if she remembered a tall thin person of a man who had fat down betwixt her and her goat about two years before? She faid, fhe was much unfettled at that time, but remembered it upon two accounts-that ill as the was, the faw the perfon pitied her; and next, that her

goat

goat had stolen his handkerchief, and she had beat him for the theft- -fhe had washed it, fhe faid, in the brook, and kept it ever fince in her pocket to restore it to him in case she should ever fee him again, which, fhe added, he had half promised her. As fhe told me this, she took the handkerchief out of her pocket to let me fee it; fhe had folded it up neatly in a couple of vine leaves, tied round with a tendril-on opening it, I saw an S marked in one of the corners.

She had fince that, fhe told me, ftrayed as far as Rome, and walked round St Peter's once and returned back-that she found her way alone across the Apenines-had travelled over all Lombardy without money-and through the flinty roads of Savoy without fhoes-how fhe had borne it, and how fhe had got fupported, she could not tell-but God tempers the wind, faid Maria, to the shorn lamb.

Shorn, indeed! and to the quick, faid I; and was thou in my own land, where I have a cottage, I would take thee to it and shelter thee: thou shouldst eat of my own bread, and drink of my own cup-I would be kind to thy Sylvio-in all thy weakneffes and wanderings I would feek after thee and bring thee back-when the fun went down, I would fay my prayers; and when I had done thou should ft play the evening fong upon thy pipe, nor would the incenfe of my facrifice be worfe accepted for entering heaven along with that of a broken heart.

Nature melted within me, as I uttered this; and Maria obferving, as I took out my handkerchief, that it was steeped too much already to be of ufe, would needs go wash it in the ftream.And where will you dry it, Maria? faid I—I will dry it in my bosom, said she it will do me good.

And is your heart ftill fo warm, Maria? said I.

I touched upon the string on which hung all her forrows-fhe looked with wiftful disorder for fome time my face; and then, without faying any thing, took her pipe, and played her service to the Virgin.The

in