anguish must they have watched the receding ship as she diminished in the distance, and then disappeared! The bones were gathered together, and, on the following day, a grave was dug on the very spot where they were found. Captain Gwatkin, with several of his officers, and surrounded by the brave crew of his barge, read the funeral service, as they committed all that was left of the ill-fated lovers to the earth. From that time these insular mounds have been called MORRIS's ISLANDS. SONNET. BY CALDER CAMPBELL, ESQ. A pearl, that 'bideth in a lowly shell- Into rich ripeness 'neath a forest tree ;— Such didst thou seem, and wert, and so wert priz'd Above thy sex-the dearer that few knew thee As I soon came to do.-Time hath devised A plot to sever us, and now men woo thee,And Pearl, Flower, secret Well, I may not liken to thee! ERNESTA; A PERSONAL ADVENTURE OF PAUL PLEDGETT. READER, the following pages did not find their way into my possession by any of the ordinary ways in which papers come into the hands of editors. They were not the legacy of a dying friend, nor were they discovered in the wormeaten recesses of some ancient cabinet, a dusty and yellow bundle, whereon the fading characters were scarcely to be deciphered. Nor were they rescued from the unhallowed clutches of tailors or confectioners, just as they were about to be sacrificed to the genius of the needle or the oven. They were given to me by a descendant of the hero, with full liberty to use them as I saw fit; and I have them now before me, written in a clear oldfashioned hand, with some few defects in the spelling, and now and then a little quaintness in the style. I have altered the orthography, and in some instances modernized the expressions, otherwise I have not deviated from the original; and, with this introduction, I leave Paul Pledgett to speak for himself. 1841. M. A. BROWNE. I was just twenty-five years old when my worthy father, Sampson Pledgett, pawnbroker of Cheapside, in the city of London, died, leaving me heir to his business, a fair character in trade, and a tolerable sum in ready money. My mother had departed this life about ten years before; therefore my father's death was the heavier affliction, leaving me as it did alone in the world. But I will not dwell on the grief that overwhelmed me on this sorrowful occasion; I will only say that I spared no expence in testifying my respect to the memory of the deceased-that I caused a handsome urn to be erected to his memory-that I put the servants into mourning, from the housekeeper down to the errand-boy-and that the funeral, and my deportment thereat, were so solemn, that Miss Betty Lappets, the milliner over the way, observed, in strict confidence, to several of her friends, that she "never had given young Mr. Pledgett credit for so much feeling, and that I was a pattern and example to all the young men in town." I did not attempt to alter any thing in the shop, or in the manner of doing business there, for some months; for I thought it would be a sort of silent disrespect to my father to change immediately what had satisfied him. But by degrees, almost insensible degrees, I found myself amending first one thing and then another, till at length I started on coming up to my own door, for it looked quite a different place. First I had the three balls re- -gilt, and then the outside paint and varnish, being shabby, must be renewed to keep the balls in countenance: finally, the letters on the sign being dim with age and partly defaced, I employed a painter to restore them, and on going to the other side of the street to observe the effect, I found that, without any order of mine, he had rubbed out the name Sampson," and substituted that of Paul;" which, though it gave me a shock at first, feeling as if some wrong had been done my father thereby, convinced me of the reality of that which had hitherto seemed like a dream, viz. that all the premises were my own, that I stood no longer in a subordinate situation, and that I was henceforth the head of my family. 66 After this I had less scruple in making changes than I had felt before. The unclaimed pledges, which were exposed for sale, had hitherto lain in the window, heaped up without any regard to appearance; but now I removed the piles of blankets, the large books, and the heavy furniture, to the back of the shop, not only improving its looks from the outside, but giving far more light to those within ; and instead of these I arranged, as tastefully as I could, watches, chains, silver plate, and some curious china, which I found thrust out of sight. My business increased, my shop was the smartest and cleanest in the street, and I sold off many S things which might have been disposed of before had they only been seen. On the whole, I had cause to be pleased with my alterations, and I have reason to think that the improved appearance of my premises led to the adventure which I am about to commit to paper, wishing my children and grandchildren to keep it in mind as the passage of my life most worthy to be remembered. It was on a gloomy evening in August, 1747, that I was standing behind my counter, busily engaged with my books, when the window was suddenly darkened, and I perceived that a woman was peering anxiously into the shop. This was not a matter of such uncommon occurrence as to occasion much surprise, but she retreated so hastily when she saw that she was observed that my at tention was attracted towards her. In a few minutes, I perceived again that she was cautiously looking in at the door, as if hesitating whether or not to enter. I could not discern her features, for she wore a mask, and was shrouded in a cloak and hood, but from the lightness of her movements it seemed likely that she was youthful. What can I do for you, madam?” I inquired, as, gathering courage, she entered and advanced towards me. She came close up to me before she replied, and then her answer was included in one word, Much." It was uttered in a low earnest voice, and I felt at once that she had come on no 64 |