thought too pure-minded to even listen to impu- so often breathed his love and drank in those rity, too true to doubt another truth, and too kind silent but eloquent assurances of its return from to be capable of unkindness. But I cannot, nay will not resign my claims upon your love when it is withheld on account of allegations as base as false, which I can entirely refute." "For your own sake I rejoice that you can," replied she in a somewhat subdued tone, though her eye again flashed as she held towards him a letter, saying, "but you cannot refute this, nor can you wonder that I refuse, nay, utterly erase from my heart the faintest trace of the love you claim." Robert Preston's proudly curved lip became bloodless and firmly pressed by the force of his emotions, as he read its contents, then clenching it in his hand he lifted his bowed head to the face of his beloved. "Alas! no, I cannot, dear Gertrude," replied he mournfully, "I grieve to say my mother has conceived unworthy and unfortunate prejudices against you, which I have used every endeavor to eradicate. I had hoped that time and a more thorough knowledge of your character would not fail to effect all I desired. I need not assure you this letter is as mortifying as unexpected, but I am ready to resign all and every thing to make you proudly mine." "That I can never be; my own sense of filial duty is too strong to sanction in another any departure from a law so sacred, that Heaven has ranked it prominent amongst its divine code. The feelings of abhorrence and disappointment, aroused by the imputations cast upon your reputation, were held in abeyance by my trustful confidence, but those of self-respect and just indignation cannot extenuate and passively endure the cold and haughty rejection of your mother. For your sake I forgive her, but we must part forever." There was a gentle dignity blended with the proud majesty of her mein as she arose and extended her hand, but ere she had retreated a step Robert Preston stood before her as firm and lofty as herself, whilst he answered, "We have indeed been sadly deceived, for the strength of a true love could never thus yield to every obstacle. I may bear the loss of an earthly Gertrude, but I more deeply mourn over the fallen image which my too fond fancy had so blindly deemed angelic. Oh! Gertrude"--but the sorrowful exclamation was unanswered, for she dared not trust even one glance as she left her lover, whose every word, look and tone she feared would vanquish her dignity and her resolution. her who had so proudly and coldly rejected him. The brief "dream was done" and its tumultuous awakening, demanded every adjunct of filial affection, respect and esteem, ere he sought her whose parental authority had thus shipwrecked his dearest hopes. Mrs. Preston's cold, stern face relaxed into a fond, beaming smile, as she lifted her eye from the book before her, when the word "mother" broke upon the pervading stillness of the apartment. "Mother," repeated Robert Preston, "for the sake of the tie that binds us, and for the memory of him whose name I bear, atone for the cruel steps you have taken, by healing the wound your prejudice has inflicted. Much as I venerate and cherish your love, it cannot fill the vacuum created by the loss of one as tenderly beloved." "You have seen Gertrude Lewis I presume?" returned she with a stately air. "I have, and it is your hand that has severed the bright chain of our present and future happiness. Tell me why have you suffered your natural kindness and generosity to be obscured by such feelings, as could alone have dictated these lines." "Mrs. Preston took the extended letter from her son, calmly sinoothed its crumpled folds, and then pointing to a chair she said somewhat soothingly, "Sit down Robert and listen to my reasons, which, however unsatisfactory to wounded affection, the most impartial judgment must admit to be proper. Neither Gertrude Lewis' poverty, character or station has aught to do with my opposition, but I can never receive as my daughter one on whose birth rests the indelible stain of illegitimacy. Although I have generally regarded great disparity of position and education as inimical to that entire congeniality, so necessary to the happiness of the conjugal state, yet such may be successfully challenged by a pure, disinterested love. To such, in your case, I would yield, but let the moral character be unblemished, or at least let it be undeserving of public scorn and condemnation. It is said the legal ceremony was too late for the purity of Gertrude's mother and the honor of her father, who was a man of loose principles and habits. He died the victim of such by his own suicidal act, a few years after his marriage. Hence Mrs. Lewis' deep melancholy and shrinking sensitiveness." Mrs. Preston paused, then tenderly taking the hand of her silent but agitated son, she asked gently, "Can the severed chain be re-united in defiance of this insuperable objection, and ought a mother to be regarded unkind and ungenerous in not wishing her son to be thus enchained?” Dark clouds rolled hurriedly along the vast firmament, obscuring the various clusters of stars which occasionally gleamed above the billowy ridges as if not unmindful of their glorious des- "Your opposition is both natural and pardonable, tiny in the absence of a superior light. But but still, dear mother, does not your sense of jusall were unheeded by Robert Preston as he wan- tice plead in behalf of her who surely ought not to dered through retired pathways, where he had 'be visited with the parents' sins, when she is so pure and worthy of the purest heart? Besides is this an established fact? Mrs. Lewis was a resident here some years before you, and she may be one of the many innocent persons who are assailed by the aspersions of 'crooked malice,' or calumny, which the whitest virtue strikes.' All may be disproved by an explanation which justice demands, and which your generous delicacy might effect." "It is a sufficient barrier to me that such calumnies should have ever had an existence, for I would have the posterity of my son free from the very breath of suspicion. No, the blood of a Preston could not minglingly flow in ignoble and impure veins. It would, therefore, do violence to my feelings of self-respect and family pride to exercise such a generosity." cess of their exploring movements, for though the latter was an adept in sales and retails, the services of Mrs. Adder in affording the necessary capital, slander, were of greater importance to "the noted firm," without which the business would inevitably suspend, while the responsibility of closing and rendering accounts would fall too heavily upon Gossip and the rest of the company. The excitement, appertaining to the famous match, which had so briskly propelled the wondrous machine in P- was succeeded by a period of stagnation. Miss Dorothy's spirits became somewhat depressed that all her intended efforts of securing, at the gay wedding, some conjugal customer, were thus frustrated. The Hydes still pursued their shirt-making in a tenor too even for her lively interest, Jemima Snapall's wedding passThe same sun which shone so brilliantly upon ed off too quietly for her active notice, the Bragg Mrs. Adder's circulation amongst the fashionables, race continued too uninteresting for her endurance, witnessed the departure of Robert Preston for and the Leakes had no new boarders to arouse her the city, without one farewell word to the unfortu- curiosity, in fine this dull state of the market nate object of his noble, disinterested love. The proved well-nigh ruinous to her mental energies, "serpent tongue" was as much in need of that as well as detrimental to the interests of Juan, power or "giftie" of sight as the "walking bul- whose claims upon her tender affections and interletin" for in her eagerness to collect some in-est were almost forgotten in the dread torpor. Not formation or truth from the fountain head, or the so with Mrs. Adder, her powers and efforts were many babbling streams of rumor, she was quite zealously employed in behalf of Caroline, whose blind to the cool, scornful "cut" of some, the success in the Berry speculation required her concautious reserve of others, and the decided indif- stant and immediate supervision. But happily for ference of all, whose aristocratic thresholds she those whose interests were so seriously involved dared to pass. That species of slander, vented in either the rise or decline of the business, a terin insinuation and detraction, is, perhaps, more dan-rible sensation was created amongst the creditors gerous than direct malicious falsehood, for the and "the noted firm," by the sudden return of Kate simple reason that the law of the land takes Nelson accompanied by Robert Preston. What a cognizance of the, latter, while the former is nodding of wise heads, opening of eyes, and gabamenable to no earthly tribunal. He, who ope- bling of tongues! Miss Dory scarcely took time rates by such, invariably possesses the base cun to adjust her toilet or bow Juan's ear, for she must ning of the serpent with a no small portion of his see "dear Sophy" every day as she had unfortuvenom, which preys upon the character as a ma-nately sprained her ankle and was of course delignant fever upon the body, and poisons the very prived of all exploring researches. Caroline and vitals of society. Alas! that the number of such the Leakes were brought into dear, familiar intermoral pleonasms should be so large, though we do course every evening, though Maria had so many not presume to question the wisdom of Providence little commissions to execute she could hardly in allowing them to exist, for He has, doubtless, spare a sociable evening with Mrs. Adder, who some wise purpose to subserve, by the indulgence frequently charged Caroline with pressing invitawhich he extends to lives that are but little better tions, but after repeated failures, she at last sucthan death. In view of all social and civil preser-ceeded in securing her for a few precious hours, vation it should therefore be the duty and employ- and never was a long-looked-for steamer hailed ment of the good and useful, who seem destined to fulfil the office of moral scavengers, to clear off the conglomeration of impurity, which the insidious harpies of slander ever strew in the pathways of life. But it would be a picture too revolting to expose the workings of Mrs. Adder's heart when Robert Preston's departure was certified and the match entirely broken off, while poor Gertrude became the target of her loudly expressed pity, for it was really unjust and unfeeling in any one to treat her with contemptuous neglect. Her triumph over Miss Dory was complete, as it regarded the suc VOL. XIV-16 with such intense interest as the irresistible Maria. The usual preliminaries of business had hardly been entered upon, when who should be announced but the veritable Kate Nelson and Robert Preston. What an awful panic and suspension of breath prevailed! Kate's lustrous eye glanced witheringly upon the astonished group, while her graceful height seemed almost terrific as she approached Mrs. Adder, whose offered hand was untouched, when she said in a clear, calm voice; "I have called, Mrs. Adder, for the simple purpose of enlightening you, with regard to an impor tant matter, upon which it appears you have specula- | persons whom she so affectionately loved, she acted largely. Here is the certificate of one of the companied Robert to adjust all matters with her several friendly witnesses present at the marriage stately aunt. Mrs. Lewis received the advances of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, which took place some of Mrs. Preston with dignity and courtesy; and twenty years ago. Gertrude, I believe, is scarce though she admitted with her usual meek candor, nineteen, a little younger than your niece,-of that there was just cause for the latter's prejudice, whose genealogy I claim no further knowledge, she gently rebuked her pride, in suffering such to than that your sister's offspring claim an unin- influence her conduct, ere the calumnies were thoherited name, which might have remained in its roughly investigated and the trnth well established. tarnished obscurity, but for the serpent tongue" It was a joyous and brilliant assembly, that of her worthy aunt. It would be wiser in you gathered in the old ivied church of P, and as hereafter to look more at self and in your own the bridal train swept down the aisle, the majesheart, ere you dare to calumniate the character tic beauty of Kate Nelson, attended by a manly and crush the feelings of others. I doubt not," looking stranger, attracted the gaze of every one. added she, with a meaning smile, as she glanced She, too, wore the mystic wreath, for although the around and addressed her consin, but the ladies bridesmaid of the gentle Gertrude, her attire was present will exercise the same charity in circula- also that of a bride, and as soon as the venerable ting the facts I have proved, as they have in re- minister pronounced his prayerful blessing upon tailing your slanders." Robert and Gertrude Preston, the impressive ceremony was again read, which united the destinies of the noble-minded Kate Nelson and the honored and honorable Edwin Mercer. 66 We dare not break the gasping silence that followed the retreating step of Kate Nelson and Robert Preston; nor can we depict the extent of the shock sustained by "the noted firm." But not- "The noted firm" and busy customers were withstanding this ominous fluctuation, there was again thrown upon the troubled estuary of wonder no suspension, and soon countless notes and bills and curiosity. As there was no blessed telegraph to were issued, filled with important items respecting communicate the news of Kate's bridal purchases the revived match. The few particulars involved in the city, or to announce the expected coming of in the astounding denouement demand our courteous attention, and for the gratification of those who have a greater taste for the course of true love than the dark, sinuous one of slander, we will present as brief a summary as possible. Mr. Mercer, which she so wisely kept secret, they actually hesitated to accept the drafts or endorse the notes of those, whose names were too respectable and secure, to doubt the authenticity of the two marriages. When Robert Preston communicated to Kate Although no heavy damages were awarded against the unfortunate issue of his love suit, from the ru- Mr. Adder in a slander suit, it soon became appamors afloat, she immediately devised its speedy and rent that some other equally heavy demands jeoparcomplete renewal. Having accidentally mention- dized his business, until he finally became a ruined ed the name of Mrs. Lewis in connection with some bankrupt. The public exposure of his wife's disevent in P――, to a lady, Kate learned that she was graceful agency in calumniating the Lewises, filled an old and intimate friend of the family. She there- him with the deepest mortification, which, with the fore called on her immediately and received all domestic bickerings and unhappiness of his home, the necessary information respecting Gertrude's soon drove him to that enticing Lethean cup, whose parents, as also the certificate mentioned. This dangerous foam and sparkling hue serve but to deprecaution she regarded essential, as she well coy its victim into the power of congregated fiends knew the malice of many persons in P—— might and lead him down to a horrible and maddening cast a doubt upon her veracity, because exercised in favor of her friend and cousin. It was true that Mr. Lewis had early led a life of reckless dissipation, being the heir of an uncle, whose wealth afforded him every indulgence, but whose lasting displeasure he incurred, by an union with a poor clergyman's daughter. The marriage was clan- misfortunes. She was thus forced to toil for even destine, and when all hope of appeasing his uncle's the coarsest bread, alone, neglected and despised. wrath expired, in the final transfer of his wealth To escape the tyrannical railings of her aunt, Carto another nephew, the chagrined and incensed oline married some miserable impostor, who abanMr. Lewis left the city, and no intelligence reached doned her to the fate of destitution and humiliating his former friends, either of his residence or wel-woe. Miss Dorothy continued her efforts of subfare, until the papers of P―― announced his sudden jugating time, until his inroads became not only death from an affection of the heart. This informa- too terrible for all the expedients and prowess of tion was sufficient to stimulate Kate to farther exer- art, but also for the preservation of her health. tions, and full of hope that all would be well with two She was doomed to mourn the irreparable loss of death. The ruinous failure of Mr. Adder, followed by his wretched death, deprived Mrs. Adder of even the common necessaries of life, and so vivid was the remembrance of her " serpent tongue," that not one friendly hand extended her aid, nor one voice breathed a word of sympathy for her dear Juan, who was interred with all due respect beautiful and poetic spots of Virginia, no song, under her chamber window, where it was her mel-but that of nature's own minstrels, who sing not ancholy pastime to sit and gaze upon the sacred to numbers and the harp,' has ever come, notspot and sigh over the blue bows still treasured in withstanding the many of her sons and daughters, her work-box. The chronic rheumatism gradually (meaning, among the former, to include Mr. Farrendered her a peevish cripple, as voracious after mer himself) whose pens could do her classic trithe last veritable quack, or authenticated cure, as bute," he concluded "despite the herd of soi disant she ever was after strange news and suspicious ru- critics (and among them, doubtless, Mr. Farmer mors. The measure Maria Leake had so often would include us) to lay his humble (?) verse before meted to others, by the disclosure of secrets, was the world in the shape of a book." Having thus fully measured to her in the manifest contempt and clearly explained himself, Mr. Farmer commends public avoidance she continually met with, not only his verses to the consideration of all "who love from those she had basely betrayed, but from all Virginia with her hills and streams and romantic whose friendship she imagined secured by her de-scenery," "without a care or regard for those who ceitful designs. may be inclined to cavil or condemn." Mr. Farmer is fortunate in this indifference to censure; for we fear that if he were disposed to be annoyed by the cavillings of the aforesaid " herd," his existence, for some time to come, would be anything but a pleasurable one. Seneca says "malice drinks half its poison," but the whole draught will assuredly be the portion of all who do not make a speedy, full, and unconditional surrender of their interest in "the noted firm" of Slander, Gossip & Co. Fredericksburg, Jan., 1848. Notices of New Works. THE FAIRY OF THE STREAM, and other Poems; By C. This is a home book, published by home booksellers, descriptive of Virginia scenery and written by a Virginia lawyer. As such, it bespeaks our favorable opinion, by assailing us in the tenderest point-that of State pride-and the reader will not wonder that we have read it with some attention. The impression it has made upon us we are reluctant to acknowledge, and yet, in discharging the office of independent and impartial criticism, we cannot see how to avoid doing so, and we therefore give it as our opinion. based upon the present effort, that if Mr. C. M. Farmer was born a poet, bis natal star has, somehow, "shot madly from its sphere." 66 For ourselves, we took up the volume in the kindest spirit and with the hope that we might find in it something worthy of Virginia and her sources of inspiration. Much of her most majestic scenery has had no harp strung to its praises, and we have long wished that some natural-born subject of her soil, breathing the divine afflatus and animated by that glow of patriotic feeling, which distinguishes the poet of Mossgiel, for the sake of his native State, Some usefu' plan or book might make The highest meed of fame will be justly due to him, who, leaving the cloud-land of our rose-colored novelists and sentimental rhymers, shall delineate the boldness and grandeur of our landscapes, or ehearse the deeds of revolutionary and colonial story. From Mr. Farmer's preface, we had been induced to hope that he had, in some measure, performed this grateful task. But, to our regret, we find, that he has written, in easy, octosyllabic verse, a halfScottish, half-Persian tale, full of bad taste and worse grammar and marked by feeble imitations of Scott and Moore. Mais commencer avec le commencement. The Fairy of the Stream, the principal poem of the volume, is a tale of Staunton River, which, it Mr. Farmer tells us, in his Preface, that "the may be well to state for the information of our poems composing this volume" (like those of nine- readers, is one of the head waters of the Roanoke, ty-nine out of every hundred passengers up Par- having its rise, we believe, in the county of Montnassus) 66 were written more with the view gomery. By the banks of this stream Mr. Farof beguiling the author's leisure hours, than of mer places a susceptible young gentleman, (Allan,) ever presenting them to the public." "Indeed who falls in love, unfortunately, with two ladies; the latter was not at the first his intention." We the one a resident of the county, (perhaps of Charregret very much that the author should have lotte,) bearing the very pretty and not uncommon changed a determination, wisely formed, of con- name of Agnes, the other a creature of fairy-land, fining his musings within a circumscribed and all grace and gossamer, with a heart full of passion friendly circuit. But he resolved to print. "Re- and a very scanty and insufficient wardrobe. The flecting," says he," that from some of the most jealousies springing up from this unhappy state of affairs, between PIROUZ, (for that is the unchristian | to flow by all these objects of surrounding nature, appellation of the fairy,) and Agnes, furnish the which are themselves beguiled by some influence materiel of the story. This explanation will ena- not satisfactorily explained. Allan goes on with ble our readers to follow us more intelligibly along "The Story" and recounts, how one summer eventhe course of Mr. Farmer's narrative. ing in his childhood, he had come to this favorite After the Preface comes the "Invocation," where spot and fallen asleep, Mr. Farmer informs us that "The lance and spear of chivalry are lost," (an idea that occurred, many years ago, to the late Mr. Edmund Burke, who wrote some Reflections on the French Revolution,) and that "The valiant Hector and his Trojan host Have from the plains and blood of battle fled," which, we must say, is a most ungenerous ascription of cowardice to one, who, according to the most reliable authors, was as brave as Agamemnon. The Invocation is followed by the "Proem," where Mr. Farmer describes the scene.-the locus "While through the limpid atmosphere, Each far off cot and gilded spire, Where are the "gilded spires" on Staunton River? and what does Mr. Farmer mean by embosssing "far off cots and gilded spires?" Unless they are made of pasteboard we cannot imagine. The lines we have quoted are spoken by Allan to Agnes, standing on a cliff that overlooks the river. After some allusions to the birds, "nature's own minstrels," Allan calls the attention of his beloved to a rock, which is prominently in view, and which could tell strange stories of a former flirtation, if rocks could only speak. As the rock cannot, however, Allan consents to gratify the wom "While, through her star-lit halls on high Through courtly chambers to her throne." The idea is a good one, but it is evidently borrowed from that splendid passage of Scripture, where the sun is said to "come forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, rejoicing as a giant to run his course." Mr. Farmer should recollect too, that queens of earth are always attended to the Hail Muse et cetera, we left Allan sleeping, that is, just at that portion of his narrative where he relates his nap. Well, he had a dream, and this affords Mr. Farmer an unbounded poetic license to introduce all sorts of absurdities. Before the rapt gaze of Allan, in this beatific vision, naiads met to tell their loves, on the margin of a broad and sparkling river, where the olive and myrtle bloomed and broad fields of golden herbage lay stretched out, until the eye failed to scan their boundaries. Then he sees a skiff dancing a mibeing pleased thereat, he looses the silken cord nuet on the wave, (a rather novel exhibition,) and which bound it to the shore, and jumping into it, commits a larceny by sailing off as rapidly as the wind, (which was a fair wind,) would carry him. Bright and beautiful objects met the eye on either hand, "While many a tributary stream, anly curiosity of his companion with a recital of and orange-boughs laved their leaves in the water; this affaire du cœur. "And thus the thrilling story ran ;" "THE STORY." "When years ago, a happy child. By birds and flowers and water flowing, I often sought this silent spot," &c., &c., &c. But enough. We must pause to discover the meaning of our hero. He doubtless designs to convey the impression that as a little boy he had been "beguiled by birds and flowers," &c., but the construction is very different, and the child is made salt-water we suppose from the formation of the coral. Then he heard a syren singing, and the wind lulled, in a very accommodating manner, to enable him to catch the words. These made so strong an impression upon his memory, that, in his waking moments, he retained every syllable, and to this distinctness of recollection we are indebted for THE NAIAD'S SONG. "From beneath the green waters, so clear and sweet, Each rosy morn with smiles as bright |