rceptible sign, murmured,--"Go on."

"Nothing is ever so firmly impressed on the mind as the memory of our
early childhood, and with the exception of the two scenes I have just
described to you, all my earliest reminiscences are fraught with deepest
sadness."

"Speak, speak, signora," said Albert, "I am listening with the most
intense delight and interest to all you say."

Haidee answered his remark with a melancholy smile. "You wish me, then,
to relate the history of my past sorrows?" said she.

"I beg you to do so," replied Albert.

"Well, I was but four years old when one night I was suddenly awakened
by my mother. We were in the palace of Yanina; she snatched me from
the cushions on which I was sleeping, and on opening my eyes I saw hers
filled with tears. She took me away without speaking. When I saw her
weeping I began to cry too. 'Hush, child!' said she. At other times in
spite of maternal endearments or threats, I had with a child's caprice
been accustomed to indulge my feelings of sorrow or anger by crying as
much as I felt inclined; but on this occasion there was an intonation
of such extreme terror in my mother's voice when she enjoined me to
silence, that I ceased crying as soon as her command was given. She bore
me rapidly away.

"I saw then that we were descending a large staircase; around us were
all my mother's servants carrying trunks, bags, ornaments, jewels,
purses of gold, with which they were hurrying away in the greatest
distraction.

"Behind the women came a guard of twenty men armed with long guns and
pistols, and dressed in the costume which the Greeks have assumed since
they have again become a nation. You may imagine there was something
startling and ominous," said Haidee, shaking her head and turning pale
at the mere remembrance of the scene, "in this long file of slaves and
women only half-aroused from sleep, or at least so they appeared to
me, who was myself scarcely awake. Here and there on the walls of
the staircase, were reflected gigantic shadows, which trembled in the
flickering light of the pine-torches till they seemed to reach to the
vaulted roof above.

"'Quick!' said a voice at the end of the gallery. This voice made every
one bow before it, resembling in its effect the wind passing over a
field of wheat, by its superior strength forcing every ear to yield
obeisance. As for me, it made me tremble. This voice was that of my
father. He came last, clothed in his splendid ro