pressed hers. Oh! that long, deep, burning pressure!--youth, love, life,
soul, all concentrated in that one kiss! Yet the same cause which
occasioned the avowal hallowed also the madness of his heart. What had
the passion, declared only at the approach of death, with the more
earthly desires of life? They looked to heaven--it was calm and
unclouded: the evening lay there in its balm and perfume, and the air was
less agitated than their sighs. They turned towards the beautiful sea
which was to be their grave: the wild birds flew over it exultingly: the
far vessels seemed "rejoicing to run their course." All was full of the
breath, the glory, the life of nature; and in how many minutes was all to
be as nothing! Their existence would resemble the ships that have gone
down at sea in the very smile of the element that destroyed them. They
looked into each other's eyes, and they drew still nearer together.
Their hearts, in safety apart, mingled in peril and became one. Minutes
rolled on, and the great waves came dashing round them. They stood on
the loftiest eminence they could reach. The spray broke over their feet:
the billows rose--rose--they were speechless. He thought he heard her
heart beat, but her lip trembled not. A speck--a boat! "Look up, Emily!
look up! See how it cuts the waters. Nearer--nearer! but a little
longer, and we are safe. It is but a few yards off;--it approaches--it
touches the rock!" Ah! what to them henceforth was the value of life,
when the moment of discovering its charm became also the date of its
misfortunes, and when the death they had escaped was the only method of
cementing their--union without consummating their guilt?



FROM ERASMUS FALKLAND, ESQ., TO THE HON. FREDERICK MONKTON.

I will write to you at length to-morrow. Events have occurred to alter,