ame sweetly from the willows, whose weeping branches
overhung the neighbouring banks of a broad stream; the distant dove
joined her mournful melody to their cheerful notes, and the woodpecker,
on the blasted trunk of some stricken oak, tapped his rude bass in
unison with the happy choir of the forest.

All this Virginia saw and heard, and _felt_--yes, felt it all as a
bitter mockery: as if, in these joyous bursts from the big heart of
Nature, she were coldly regardless of the sorrows of those, her
children, who had sought their happiness apart; as though the avenging
Creator had given man naught but the bitter fruit of that fatal tree of
knowledge, while he lavished with profusion on all the rest of his
creation the choicest fruits that flourished in His paradise.

In vain did Bernard, with his soft and winning voice, point out these
beauties to Virginia. In vain, with all the rich stores of his gifted
mind, did he seek to alienate her thoughts from the one subject that
engrossed them. She scarcely heard what he said, and when at length
urged by the impatient nudges of her mother to answer, she showed by her
absence of mind how faint had been the impression which he made. A
thousand fears for the safety of her lover mingled with her thoughts.
Travelling alone in that wild country, with hostile Indians infesting
the colony, what, alas! might be his fate! Or even if he should escape
these dangers, still, in open arms against his government, proclaimed a
rebel by the Governor, a more horrible destiny might await him. And then
the overwhelming thought came upon her, that be his fate in other
respects what it might--whether he should fall by the cruelty of the
savage, the sword of the enemy, or, worst of all, by the vengeance of
his indignant country--to her at least he was lost forever.

Avoiding carefully any reference to the subject of her grief, and
bending his whole mind to the one object of securing her attention,
Alfred Bernard endeavored to beguile her with graphic descriptions of
the scenes he had left in England. He spoke--and on such subjects none
could speak more charmingly--of the brilliant society of wits, and
statesmen, and beauties, which clustered together in the metropolis and
the palace of the restored Stuart. Passing lightly over the vices of the
court, he dwelt upon its pageantry, its wit, its philosophy, its poetry.
The talents of the gay and accomplished, but vicious Rochester, were no
more seen dimm