be vain; and I now bid you an eternal farewell. May you be happier than ever I can be!

"Florence.

"R. S

Thaddeus went on with his mother's narrative.

"When my senses returned, I was on the ground, holding the half-perused paper in my hand. Grief and horror had locked up the avenues of complaint and i sat as one petrified to stone. My father entered. At the sight of me, he started as if he had seen a spectre. His well known features, opened at once my agonized cart. With fearful cries, I cast myself at his feet, and pttting the letter into his hand, clung almost expiring to his knees.

"When he had read it, he flung it from him, and dropping into a chair, covered his face with his hands. I looked up imploringly, for I could not speak. My father stooped forward and raising me in his arms, pressed me to his bosom. "My Therese," said he, "it is I who have done this. Had I not harboured this villain, he ncver could have had an opportunity of ruining the peace of my child." In return for the unexampled indulgence of this speech, I promised to forget a man, who could lave so little respect for gratitude, or his own honor. The Count replied, that he expected such a resolution in consequence of the principles he had taught me; and to show me how far dearer to him was my real tranquility, than any false idea of impossible restitution, he would not remove even from one principality to another, were he sure by that means to discover Mr. Sackville, and avenge himself. My understanding assented to the justice of all his reasoning, but long and severe were the struggles, before I could erase from my soul, the image of that being, who had been the lord of all its joys and sorrows.

"It was not till you, my dear Thaddeus were born, that I could repay the goodness of my father with the smiles of cheerfulness. I christened you Thaddeus Constantine,after himself,and his best loved friend Kosciuszko. He would not permit me to give you any name, which could remind him or myself of the cruel parent who gave you being; and on our return to Poland, the story which

he related, when questioned about my apparently forlorn state, was simply this, "My daughter was married and widowed in the course of two months. Since then, to root from her memory, as much as possible, all recollection of a husband who was only given to be taken away, she still retains my name; and her son as my sole heir, shall wear no other." This reply satisfied every one: the king who was my father's only confidant, gave his sanetion to it, and no further inquiries were ever started. "You are now, my beloved child, entering on the eventful career of life. God knows, when the venerable head of your grandfather is laid in dust, and I, too, shut my eyes upon you for ever, where destiny may send you perhaps to the country of your father. Should you ever meet him-but that is unlikely; so, I will be silent on a subject which eighteen years of reflection, have not yet deprived of its sting.

"Not to embitter the fresh spring of your youth, my Thaddeus, with the draught that has poisoned mine; not to implant in your breast, hatred of a parent you may nev er behold, have I written this; but to inform you in fact from whom you sprung. My history is made plain to you, that no unexpected events may hereafter perplex your opinion of your mother; or cause a blush to rise on that check for her, which from your grandfather can derive no stain. For his sake as well as for mine, whether in peace or in war, may the angels of heaven guard my boy! This is the everlasting prayer of thy fond mother, "THERESE SOBIESKI.

"Villanow, March 1792."

When he had finished, Thaddeus held the papers in his hand; and unable to recover from the shock whi h he had received by their contents, he read them a second time to the end; then laying them on the table, against which he rested his now aching head, he gave vent to the fulness of his heart.

The Countess, anxious for the effect her history might have on her son, at this instant entered the room. Seeing bim in so dejected an attitude, she approached him, and pressing him to her bosom mingled her tears with his

Thaddeus, ashamed of his emotions, yet incapable of dissembling them, struggled a few moments to release himself from her arms. The Countess mistaking his motive, said in a melancholy voice," And do you, my son, des pise your mother for the weakness which she has revealed? Is this the reception that I expected from a child on whose affection I reposed my confidence and my comfort?" "No, my mother," replied Thaddeus," it is your afflictions which have discomposed me. This is the first unhappy hour that I ever endured, and can you wonder that I should be affected? Oh! mother continued he, laying his hand on his father's letter, "whatever were his rank, had my father, been but noble in mind, I would have gloried in bearing his name; but now I put up my prayers never to hear it more."

"Forget him," cried the Countess, hiding her eyes. with her handkerchief.

"I will," answered Thaddeus, " and allow my memory to dwell only on the virtues of my mother."

It was impossible for the countess or her son, to conceal their agitation from the palatine, who now opened the door. On his expressing alarm at a sight so unusual, his daughter, finding herself incapable of speaking, put into his hand the letter which Thaddeus had just read. Sobieski cast his eye over the first lines; he immediately comprehended their tendency, and seeing that the Countess had withdrawn, looked towards his grandson. Thaddeus was walking up and down the room striving to command himself for the conversation which he anticipated with his grandfather.

"I am sorry, Thaddeus," said Sobieski, "that your mother has so abruptly imparted to you the real name and character of your father. I see that his villany has distressed a heart, which I have sought to make alive to the slightest dishonor. But be consoled, my dear boy? I have prevented the publicity of his conduct, by an ambig. uous story of your mother's widowhood. I declared to the world, that you were not only the son of my daughter, but should be the sole heir to my estates and name Notwithstanding this arrangement, she judged it proper that you ought not to enter general society, without having

first been made acquainted with the true events of your birth. I believe my daughter is right. But cheer yourself, my child, now that all is past. You will embitter the remainder of my days, if you suffer the vices of a worthless man to prey upon your mind."

"No, my lord," answered his grandson," you have been more than a parent to me; and henceforward, for your sake, as well as my own, I shall hold it my duty, to forget that I drew my heing from any other source, than the house of Sobieski.”

"You are right," cried the palatine with an exulting emotion, "you have the spirit of your ancestors: and yet shall live to see you add glory to the name!"

The beaming eyes and smiling lips of the young count, declared that he had shaken sorrow from his heart. His grandfather squeezed his hand with delight; and saw in his recovered serenity the sure promise of his fond prophecy.

CHAPTER II.

THE fearful day arrived, when Sobieski and his grandson were to bid adieu to Villanow and its peaceful scenes.

"The well-poised mind of the veteran, bade his daughter farewell, with a fortitude which imparted some of its strength even to her. But when Thaddeus, ready habited for his journey, entered the room, at the sight of his military accoutrements she shuddered: and when, with a glowing countenance, he advanced, smiling through his tears, towards her, she clasped him in her arms, and rivetted her lips to that face whose very loveliness added to her affection. She gazed at him, she wept on his neck, she pressed him to her bosom. "Oh! how soon may all that beauty be mingled with the dust? how soon may that warm heart, which then beat against hers, be pierced by the sword! be laid on the ground, mangled and bleeding, exposed, and trampled on. These thoughts thronged upon her soul, and deprived her of sense. She

was carried away lifeless by her maids; whilst the palatine, almost by force, compelled Thaddeus to quit the spot.

It was not until the lofty battlements of Villanow blended with the clouds, that Thaddeus could throw off his melancholy. The parting agony of his mother hung on nis spirits; and heavy and frequent were his sighs, as he gazed on the russet cottages and fertile fields, which reminded him that he was yet passing through the territo ries of his grandfather. The picturesque mill of Mariemont was the last spot on which his sight lingered. The ivy that mantled over its sides, sparkled with the brightness of a shower that had just fallen; and the rays of a setting sun gleaming on its shattered wall, made it an object of such romantic beauty, as well as interest, that he could not help pointing it out to his fellow travellers.

Whilst the eyes of general Butzou, who was in the carriage, followed the direction of Thaddeus, the palatine observed the heightening animation of his features, with that philanthropy which expands the heart of a good man; and recollecting at the same time the feelings he himself enjoyed, when he visited that place one and twenty years ago, he put his hand on the shoulder of Butzou, and said, " general, did you ever relate to my boy the particulars of that mill ?""

"No, my lord."

"I suppose," continued the palatine, "the same reason deterred you from speaking of it uncalled for, as lessened my wish to tell the story; we are both too much the heroes of the tale, to have volunteered the recital." "Do you mean, my lord," asked Thaddeus, "the rescue of our king from this place?"

"I do."

"I have very indistinct knowledge of the affair. I remember? it was told me many years since, but I have nearly forgotten it; and can only account for my apparent insensibility in never having inquired any further, to the happy thoughtlessness in which you have hitherto permitted me to live."

"But," said the palatine, whose only object was to draw his grandson from saddening reflections; "What will you say to mo, turning egotist ?"