AN EXILE'S HOME—RIVER SCENERY—AMBITIOUS MUSINGS.

In a secluded and richly-wooded amphitheatre,
formed by a crescent of green-clad hills, among
which the romantic Kennebeck wanders to the
ocean, there stood, until within a recent period, the
ruins of a stately mansion. Its blackened walls
were enamelled with dark-green velvet moss, and
mantled with creeping vines, as if Nature, with a
gentle hand, had striven to conceal the devastations
of ruthless Time.

Huge chimneys, terminating in fantastic turrets,
heavy cornices, deep mouldings and panel-work,
combined with the costly and elaborate architecture
of the whole venerable structure, indicated a relic
of that substantial age immediately subsequent to
the revolutionary war:—an age, although then in

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its decline, as eminently characterised by moral
and physical stability as the present by their opposites.
That, was an age of iron—this, of tinsel.

At the period with which our tale is more intimately
connected, the handsome edifice of which
these melancholy ruins were both the monument
and mausoleum, reared its lofty walls amid a grove
of oaks, whose hoary bodies, and the majestic
spread of their gnarled and giant limbs, while they
told of their great age—numbered by centuries, not
years—bore testimony to the dignity and grandeur
of the primeval forest, of which they were alone
the representatives. Here and there, among these
sylvan patriarchs, glistened the silvery trunk of the
classic beech, intermingled with the dark cone of
the gloomy pine, and the tall, spiral poplar, swaying
its graceful head in the breeze.

Beneath the thickly interlaced branches of these
trees, and sloping gently to the pebbly shore of the
river, lay, out-rolled, a lawn of the thickest verdure.
Its green and quiet beauty was relieved and enlivened
by half a score of ruminating, well-conditioned
cows, standing or reclining in those luxurious
attitudes indicative of comfort and repose, and a
small flock of long-fleeced sheep, of a rare and
valued breed, was dispersed in picturesque groups under
the more venerable trees. A gracefully formed
jennet, conjuring up visions of lovely woman, in
velvet hat, nodding plumes and generous robes
sweeping the earth, which the spirited animal beneath
her disdains with his delicate hoofs—a beautiful,
slender-limbed saddle-horse—and a brace of
coal black ponies, with long tails and flowing
manes, which are at once associated with boys and
holidays—stood together in a social group beside a
small but romantic lake in the midst of the wood.
They were mutually reclining their heads upon
one another's necks, each manifesting his sportive

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feelings, by occasionally fixing his large white teeth
into the glossy hide of his neighbour.

This pellucid sheet of water was spanned by a
fantastic bridge of tressel-work, suspended with the
lightness of a spider's web, from one green bank to
the other. It connected a broad gravelled avenue,
which, commencing at the river, wound among the
trees, yielding to the natural undulations of the
grounds, and terminated at a spacious flight of steps
leading to the piazza of the mansion, the two fronts
of which were ornamented by a light colonnade of
eight slender Ionic columns. Tall windows—hung
with rich curtains of orange-coloured damask and
snowy muslin, costly with deep broideries of oak
leaves, large as the life, and curiously wrought with
silken floss, in their autumn hues of green and
yellow—extended quite to the floor of the piazza,
and, defended by venetian blinds, served as the only
entrances to the interior, from the front.

The house faced to the west, and commanded an
extensive prospect of the river, sweeping boldly
around the peninsula upon which it was situated,
and forming at the distance of half a mile, and directly
in front, a noble bend, remarkable for the
extreme beauty of its curvature. Beyond, ascending
to the horizon, as they retreated from the eye,
spread cultivated farms, studded with low, black,
farm-houses and huge barns; more remotely, dense
black forests blended with the bases of a chain of
low, blue mountains, known as the Monmouth hills,
which, while they confined the prospect, constituted
a magnificent back-ground to the picture.

At the north and south, the view was shut in by
alternately cultivated or thickly-wooded hills and
rocky eminences, retreating on either hand from the
river in a semicircular from, to a little less than a
mile in the rear, and enclosing the dwelling and
grounds in a spacious vale or glen, which, also

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embraced on the western side by the curve of the
river, presented an area nearly circular in its shape.

Political events in sunny France,—that great
political index of this revolutionizing age—in which
the proprietor of this lovely domain bore no ordinary
share, compelled him to seek a land where he could
cherish his liberal principles with safety, and educate
his twin-sons to act their part honourably and
with distinction on the theatre of life. And where
should the expatriated old soldier bend his footsteps
but to the shores of America? Daughter of Europe!
Yet she opens her arms to receive her
exiled children, with the affection of a young mother.
Noble and glorious land! the errors of the
old world shall be redeemed in thee—and, although
the continents of the east have been enrolled, century
after century, upon the scroll of history, yet
their history is ended—thine only begun; and dark
and guilty as are ITS pages, shall THINE be bright
and pure!

Orphans from their birth, his sons never knew
their mother. The hour which ushered them into
existence ushered her spirit into heaven. Strangers
to maternal love, and educated, since the exile of
their stern parent, in almost monastic seclusion,
they early attained an uncommon maturity of mind
and firmness of character, combined with manly
sentiments and a habit of thinking independently,
early taught them by their father's example, and
inculcated, cultivated, and wrought out to maturity
by him, with untiring assiduity.

Their fifteenth birth-day arrived, and although
in yearsthey numbered equally, both in mind, and
person, and habits, they were wholly dissimilar.
Achille, the eldest of the twins, had attained dignity
of mind and manly beauty of person, far in
advance of his years. Tall and finely proportioned,
he was the youthful image of his noble father.

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Proud, aspiring and ambitious, with a spirit that
spurned severity, but yielded to gentleness, he acted
from impulse rather than from reflection or a sense
of duty, while a mine of passions, never yet sprung,
existed like a slumbering volcano in his bosom. It
required but a spark to produce a conflagration that
should feed upon and torture him like another
Prometheus, or burn on, extinguishable only with
life.

That spark was at length elicited by his brother,
an amiable boy of a gentler nature, retiring in his
habits, mild and quiet in disposition. The reverse
of Achille, he was apparently as meek as his brother
was spirited. The former resembled his father; but
Henri represented his mother and all her gentler
virtues. Not only did he represent the excellences
of her heart and mind, but her lovely image was
revived in his beautiful countenance; and, as year
after year unfolded in his youthful face the more
striking and perfect resemblance his graceful features
bore to those of his deceased mother, the father
recognized the features of the fair girl who had won
his early affections, and whom, during the few
short months he had owned her as a bride, he
had worshipped with religious devotion.

Notwithstanding the contrarieties of character
exhibited by the brothers, they grew up together,
mutually interchanging all those amiable kindnesses
which are the offspring of fraternal affection.
Achille was the stronger, physically and intellectually,
and unconsciously to the subject, exerted that
wonderful influence over Henri which mind often
asserts over mind. He was his guide in his
studies, his leader in sports, his enticer into dangers,
and his assistant in the thousand petty difficulties
of childhood. He loved him with a sincere and
devoted attachment, fervently reciprocated by his
warm-hearted and unsophisticated brother. But

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their mutual affection was the principle which
unites the vine and the oak. His brother's love
was to Henri sufficient happiness, the stay of his
clinging affections; and on the other hand, his
kind and endearing attachment, by drawing out
the kindlier feelings of his brother's sterner nature,
rendered him better and happier.

The morning which ushered in their fifteenth
birth-day was bright and cloudless—a more beautiful
never dawned upon the earth. Could the
tempter have chosen such a day to enter paradise?
Yet on this day his presence was first felt in their
peaceful home.

Achille was standing in the south window of his
father's library, which opened upon the piazza, his
person half-concealed by the rich drapery, gazing
out upon the limpid river as it glided silently past,
bearing upon its waveless bosom the single-masted
sloop with its huge mainsail, the more graceful and
bird-like schooner, her white canvass extended on
either side like wings, the lofty, square-rigged merchantman,
and swan-like sail-boat; their sails flashing
back the morning sun, or changing to a dark
hue as they moved in the black shadows thrown
from overhanging cliffs.

The green meadows beyond the river, sprinkled
with flocks, faded into the blue haze which floated
around the distant hills. The air was alive with
melody from a myriad of glad birds, climbing the
rosy skies, and emulating the poised lark thrilling
forth his matin-song to the rising sun. There was
a charm of beauty, peace and rural happiness
thrown over nature. Her works breathed inspiration,
and spoke that morning in the sweetest accents
to his heart. But he heeded not her language. A
voice, softer-toned and more eloquent pleaded to his
soul. It was the voice of ambition. Of boyish
ambition it is true, but still ambition in her loftiest

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mood. In years but a boy, the sterner spirit of a
man dwelt in the swelling bosom of the youthful
aspirant. Visions of the unveiled future, wherein
appeared pageants of conquering armies, thrones,
and scenes of vast dominion flcated before his youthful
imagination; and in the leader of the armies,
the occupant of the thrones, the controller of empires,
he recognized HIMSELF!

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