And, when the moon unveiled once more,
And showed her paly light,

Then nought was seen save the branches hoar
Of the oak-tree's blasted might.

That shrieking form had vanished
From out that lonely place;
And, like a dreamy vision, fled,
Nor left one single trace.

Earl Desmond gazed-his bosom swelled
With grief and sad foreboding;

Then on his fiery way he held

His courser madly goading

For well that wailing voice he knew,
And, onward hurrying fast,
O'er hills and dales impetuous flew,
And reached his home at last.

Beneath his wearied courser's hoof
The trembling drawbridge clangs;
And Desmond sees his own good roof,
But darkness o'er it hangs.

He passed beneath the gloomy gate,
No guiding tapers burn,
No vassals in the court-yard wait
To welcome his return.

The earth is cold in the lonely hall,
No banquet decks the board,
No page stands ready at the call
To tend his wearied lord;

But all within is dark and drear,
No sights or sounds of gladness-
Nought broke the stillness on the ear,
Save a sudden burst of sadness.

Then slowly swelled the keeper's strain
With loud lament and weeping,
For round a corse a mournful train
The sad death-watch were keeping.

Aghast he stood, bereft of power,
Hope's fairy visions fled;

His fears confirmed,—his beauteous flower

His fair-hair'd bride-was dead!

THE SISTERS.

"

H. K.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HARP OF INNISFAIL," ETC.

In the south of Ireland is situated a small town, within nine miles of a commercial city of some importance, where the breeze from the ocean loves to pay its first visit, and which is much frequented as a bathing-place by the higher orders of Irish society. When seen from the water, we should not suppose it to possess any unusual attractions; rows of houses rising above each other, with little attention to order, and less to external decoration, offering an unfavourable specimen of Irish neatness to an eye that has been accustomed to feast on English elegance. But it is not from the hurried glance that may be obtained from the deck of a steam-packet, as it rolls in foam aud noise by the beetling cliff, that we are to estimate beauties. for the due appreciation of which a much longer acquaintance would be required. As if to supply the absence of artificial decoration, the natural advantages of the place are of a most romantic character. A noble basin of water flows beneath the town, presenting on every side an ample and majestic swell of billows; a number of vessels of the line are generally studding its azure bosom, with their canvass sleeping on the mast, and their streamers dancing in the wind, while the view from the opposite shore is grand and picturesque. During the year 18-, fortune ordained that I should visit the place thus described; and although prejudiced by casual observation, a more lengthened acquaintance sufficed to change my antipathy into a very opposite feeling.

There are few operations of the mind which convey a stronger pleasure to the soul than the recollection of days of

past happiness; when the present is chequered by misfortune or shadowed by disappointment, there is a delightful solace in calling up to the imagination those years when a better destiny shed its brightness over our existence; and, however idle the employment may be, there is always an exquisite charm in reverting to the scenes of former gratification and enjoyment. For some, the retrospects of the past may have but a general shading of pleasure; there may be no presiding spirit whose form yet sheds its light round the heart, although the glitter of many a bright moment may still continue to exert a freshening warmth upon the blood; but when this individual attachment, united to reminiscences of a less defined nature, holds possession of the soul, a more deep, wild sensation of rapture, then mingles in the feeling with which we dwell on "" years agone.' "In reverting to my acquaintance with C- such sensations flash thickly upon me; and as I conjure up to my mind's eye the genius of departed happiness, the characters whose presence constituted that happiness throng before me, in a dress so vivid and distinct, that it seems as if it was but yesterday's sun that looked upon our separation.

The letters of introduction, with which I had been furnished, soon led me into a circle equally distinguished by its hospitality and elegance. My acquaintances were numerous, and every day made me more practically sensible of the extent to which the national virtue of hospitality prevailed. However, among the range of my friends there was one family for whom I imbibed a more rapid and fixed predilection. It was limited, and accomplished; consisting of the father, the mother, and two daughters, whose amiability of dispo sition, elegance of manners, and yet opposition of character, afforded me many an hour of pleasure and of contrast.

Both were young, with only the difference of a year in point of age, but with a much greater dissimilarity in features and person. The elder was wreathed with all the budding promise of youthful loveliness; her eye, soft and blue-her forehead small and intelligent-her pensive brows finely arched with a profusion of auburn ringlets, which encurtailed the lustre of her voluptuous eyes. Her stature was lofty and graceful, and in the symmetry of her exquisitely moulded person, nature and fashion seemed to have exhausted

the treasury of their perfections. The younger was distinctly different, so much so, that, were it not for a slight shade of resemblance which was flung over the contour, we should have been inclined to deny their right to sisterhood. Her stature was below that of the Venus de Medicis, and although her countenance beamed with a soul equally expressive, it wanted the pale interest which threw captivation round that of her sister. When I became better read in their characters, I was strongly reminded of the skilfully marked opposition in those of Minna and Brenda, in the " Pirate." She was romantic, fond of nature and its glories; impassioned, and gifted with feelings the most sensitive and refined. The other was less poetic, less visionary, but more retiring and more devoted to the domestic decorations of her sex. Both fond of music, and both blessed with superior powers of aspect, we were compelled to row towards the land, and having execution; melody borrowed additional influence when breathed from their lips; and as the sister voices gave symphony to some of our most popular duets, I envied the bard whose song was warbled by creatures so capable of feeling the inspiration by which the poet was animated.

The morning was fair and glowing; the waters glittered with the resplendence of the summer sun, and the mountains were purpled with its wandering beams, when we launched on the bosom of the bay, in anticipation of an aquatic excursion, that should realize the pleasure which the preparations promised.

"How beautiful! how like fairy-land!" exclaimed the elder, as we flew by the islands and thickly-wooded shores; "and those fishermen's huts look so picturesque."

"Alas!" said her sister, as she pointed to the whitewashed miserable cabins which verged the boundary of the tide; "I rather sigh at the consideration of the wretchedness which inhabits them!"

We scarcely had reached the middle of the harbour, and falcon like, our little pinnace was chasing away the intervening billows, than the clouds began to gather, the sky to lower, and the breeze to freshen.

The day is lowering, stilly black

Sleeps the grim wave, while heaven's rack,

Disperst and wild, 'twixt earth and sky,
Hangs like a shattered canopy!
There's not a cloud in that blue plain
But tells of storm to come or past:
Here, flying loosely as the mane

Of a young war-horse in the blast;
There, rolled in masses dark and swelling,
As proud to be the thunder's dweiling.

While these symptoms of an approaching storm frightfully increased, the pallor of fear rushed to the cheeks of the ladies of our party, and according to the various state of their nerves, their terror was more or less apparent. The boat rocked a little, it dipped lower and the wave lashed higher.

"Oh God, we shall be lost!" exclaimed the elder, and she clung to the arm of a young and delicate-looking man, who always made one of our parties, and to whose attentions she seemed not unwilling to yield her gentle heart.

"How darkly the rain approaches!" quietly observed the younger.

However, the tempest having now assumed a more serious aspect, and succeeding in obtaining shelter before it burst in all its threatened fury, the fears of our fair companions were readily allayed.

"But then," observed the elder, "our new leghorns will be damaged, and our shoes will not be fit to be worn a second time."

"I am so afraid, my dear sister," interrupted the younger, "that you will take cold from the inclemency of to-day;' more solicitous about her sister's health even than about her bonnet or her shoes.

In conversation the same opposition was visible between the characters of the sisters. The elder could talk on any subject; she was conversant in the school of modern poetry; and had a peculiar facon de parler, which gave interest to any thing; while she shed over the most unenlivening topic the gaiety of her abounding soul. The younger, on the contrary, was reserved; she required to be drawn forth; and it was not without some exertion that she could be induced to unfold the acquisitions of her well-stored mind. I was acquainted with The Sisters" sufficiently long to be