colours and the American flag floating in the harbour. Their reception by Mr Willshire was of the warmest kind. He took them, one by one, by the hand, and while the tears trickled down his manly cheek at the sight of their wretched state, he welcomed them to life and liberty. How easily the hardships they had endured might be read in their aspect, may be conceived from the fact, that Riley weighed only ninety pounds, and one of his comrades forty! Well may Riley say, that it is difficult to believe the spark of life could remain in bodies so reduced.

Mr Willshire, the same gentleman who relieved and ransomed Alexander Scott, took the desert-worn sailors into his own house, and administered to them every comfort which their situation required. Soon after, they set out for their native land, which they reached in safety, to tell the tale which we have now briefly repeated. By Mr Willshire's exertions, others of the crew of the Commerce were afterwards ransomed from their captivity, though several of them were never more heard of, and must have perished miserably amid the sands of Sahara.

CHARLOTTE GRUB B.

To many persons unacquainted with the prejudices of military society, the situation of Charlotte Grubb, the only unmarried lady connected with a certain marchingregiment, might have been supposed to possess some advantages. Had she been the daughter of the colonel, or even of a field-officer of lower rank, doubtless she would have received the deference and respect due to the position held by her father; but claiming the parentage of the assistant-surgeon only, she had no dependence except upon the kindness of the people with whom she associated. She lived in a heartless age; and the officers of her father's regiment, holding themselves very high, ·

in consequence of there being one or two men of fortune in the corps, from whom they took their tone, looked down with supreme contempt upon the assistant-surgeon and his daughter. Charlotte felt herself, and was considered by others, to be an encumbrance; and as no one could doubt that she would gladly exchange her single unblessedness for the married state, an establishment was supposed to be the object of all her speculations. There is nothing more injurious to the prospects of a young lady, than the impression that she is looking out for a husband. Whether right or wrong, if the idea be once entertained, it generally proves fatal to the matrimonial interests of the party. Mr Grubb had been for many years a widower, and it was with considerable difficulty that he contrived to give his daughter some sort of education, and to maintain her under his own roof; pride, perhaps, or the difficulty of getting her out in the world, preventing him from an attempt to provide for her in any other way. Poor, and not possessed of splendid abilities, the 'doctor,' if unable to impress his associates with a proper feeling of reverence for virtuous poverty, knew what was due to the respectability of his child; and throughout all the numerous changes and chances of a military life, fenced her round with decorums which a less scrupulous parent might have deemed unnecessary. He did not permit morning-visits from the young men of the corps, and was careful to see that his daughter never appeared in public without proper protection. These precautions were sneered at by the idle, the thoughtless, and the ill-natured, of which a large majority of the regiment was composed; but, nevertheless, they shielded the poor girl from the more injurious comments which would otherwise have been made upon her.

Charlotte more than seconded her father's views. From the earliest age she had been feelingly alive to the disadvantages and even dangers of her position. Her pride took alarm at impertinence, and she saw with acute pain the light in which she was regarded by the circle around her. It is difficult for persons in very

mean circumstances to secure the good opinion of the world. Many, by contriving to conceal their poverty, succeed in escaping some of its pains and penalties; but when the consciousness is apparent, it never fails to elicit contempt. The humility of the Grubbs, their submission to hardships and privations, which they made no attempt to disguise, exposed them to the scornful pity of persons who were either in better circumstances, or better able to brave the world, and more skilled in the art of keeping up an appearance. Charlotte possessed female companions in the regiment, but no friends. The colonel had married a lady of fashion and of title; and Lady Harriet Spilsbury associated only with the wives of those officers in her husband's corps, to whom it was absolutely necessary to be civil. Whenever she came down to the regiment, she visited all the principal people in the neighbourhood, and was therefore wholly independent of military society, while the residents of the place never thought of paying any attention to persons who were not seen at the colonel's parties. The Grubbs were too insignificant to attract notice, and were fain to be content with the public amusements of the place, or tea-drinkings at the houses of the married officers, who might feel inclined to waste a little civility upon them. As Charlotte's reserve was proof against the temptations to flirt, which were not wanting from the vain and the idle, her acceptance of the commonest courtesies from those who might be considered marryingmen, was universally attributed to matrimonial scheming. Officers joining the corps were put upon their guard against her manœuvres; and aware that every eye was upon her, and every tongue ready to utter some malicious remark, she scarcely dared to reply with courtesy to the few who had yet to learn, that to shew incivility to Miss Grubb, was one of the standing-orders of the regiment. Cautious, timid, and easily impressed with distrust, Charlotte, nevertheless, had not escaped the miseries produced by the cruel trifling of male coquets, ever bent upon the destruction or disturbance of feminine peace of mind.

Twice she had considered herself to be upon the eve of marriage, and each time had undergone the bitter punishment of ridiculed pretensions.

The first attack sustained by that guarded citadel, her heart, was conducted by a very scientific assailant. Frequent success in similar achievements had made Captain Appleby an adept, and he could calculate with the greatest precision, the exact moment in which the affections would surrender themselves; public demonstrations of that surrender formed his final object, and then his attentions slackened; and at last avowed contempt succeeded to the tender blandishments which marked his early advances. Charlotte had gone through all the alternations of this ingenious system. She did not suspect the existence of such consummate duplicity, and was completely unprepared for the doom that awaited her. Her expectations, revealed to the whole regiment, afforded a vast fund of amusement at the time, and became an excellent jest for ever: and in consequence of this unmanly feat, she found herself an object of dislike, distrust, and contempt, to the faded bride, whom Captain Appleby, reduced at last to sell himself for a couple of paltry thousands, introduced to the corps.

The next affair, sincere perhaps at the time on the part of the lover, had proceeded as far as an engagement; but, unfortunately, the young man, who was waiting for promotion, went upon detachment. He had made vows

of eternal constancy, but such vows were difficult to keep; and not standing in the slightest awe of the vengeance of 'old Grubb,' he broke off the correspondence, without thinking it necessary to assign a reason, and took a young lady to wife, who chanced to please his roving fancy. Charlotte's second disappointment afforded a fertile theme for regimental wit, and it now required a very considerable degree of moral courage in any man to face the sneers and laughter which would have assailed a professed lover of the assistant-surgeon's daughter. Miss Grubb's susceptibility, thus proved beyond a doubt, formed the subject of endless comment; all the unmarried

men in the corps who were possessed of an income adequate to the maintenance of a wife, were compelled in turn to endure the suspicion of being the object of her matrimonial speculations; and the public voice pitched at length upon Major Hawtry, as the fortunate person for whom the lady pined in secret. Major Hawtry, a man of some fashion and fortune, well received in the coteries of London, and considered perfectly irresistible in provincial circles, entertained the most profound contempt for Charlotte Grubb; and the young scapegraces of the regiment, discovering that it was in their power to tease and mortify the great don of the corps, by accusing him of stealing the tender affections of a girl whom he despised, were never weary of the subject— the mischief likely to result to the young lady being a secondary consideration, while amusing themselves with the suppressed indignation of a coxcomb whom they envied and hated. The poor girl, to whom these mockeries were not unknown, bore them with a show of fortitude. She made no confidante; and whatever inight be her sufferings, none knew how deep were the wounds which they inflicted, or the gloomy struggles of an outraged spirit for composure.

Although the ladies of the regiment profited very little by the civilities of the colonel's wife, they contrived to render her occasional residences at head-quarters useful to them, by copying the fashions which she brought from London, and making up their own dresses after the models which she wore. The materials, it is true, were rather inferior; but the effect was the same-a disastrous circumstance for the poor lady, and the subject of continual mortification. Leaning from her carriage to listen to the band, Lady Harriet had the horror of seeing the female promenaders of the corps clad in a sort of uniform, all borrowed from the hat and gown in which she had appeared at church-the ensign's wife substituting glazed calico for the satin lining, while fac-similes, as well as they could be contrived, of her lace pelisse, were exhibited in bobbinet, worked muslin, and lastly in figured leno.