" means let him venture into Spain," said Pedrosa; "I am well assured there are orders to arrest him in "every port or frontier town, where he may present himself."-" I can well believe it," replied the captain; his piteous case will require further deliberation; in the mean time let nothing transpire on " your part, and keep yourself out of his sight as carefully as you can." - This said, the captain left the cabin, and both parties repaired to their several occupations. As soon as the frigate and her prize cast anchor in the Tagus, Don Manuel de Casafonda impatiently reminded our captain of his promised parole. The painful moment was now come, when an explanation of some sort became unavoidtable: the generous Englishman, with a countenance expressive of the tenderest pity, took the Spaniard's hand in his, and seating him on a couch beside him, ordered the centinel to keep the cabin private, and delivered himself as follows"Senor Don ها Manuel, I must now impart to you an anxiety which I labour under on your account; I have strong reason to suspect you have enemies in your " own country, who are upon the watch to arrest you " on your landing; when I have told you this, I ex"pect you will repose such trust in my honour and "the sinceriy of my regard for you, as not to de"mand a further explanation of the particulars, on "which my intelligence is founded." -"Heaven and "earth!" cried the astonished Spaniard, "who can "be those enemies I have to fear, and what can I " have done to deserve them?"-" So far I will open "myself to you," answered the captain, "as to " point out the principal to you, the inquisidor gen"eral."" The best friend I have in Spain," exclaimed the governor, "my sworn protector, the patron of my fortune: he my enemy! impossible." Well sir," rephed the captain, " if my advice " does not meet behef, I must so far exert my au "thority for your sake, as to make this ship your Tot dros み Don and fore spect the safe no ti atel obta cried "re "m to "de "ho no fa "He "su "his the "tov "pa "mu Sugge ernor them paid from forwa tion, from the w The i To this Minister he related the horrid tale, which Pedrosa had delivered to him, and with his concurrence it was determined to forward letters into Spain, which Don Manuel should be advised to write to his lady and friends at Madrid, and to wait their answer before any further discoveries were imparted to him respecting the blacker circumstances of the case: In the mean time it was resolved to keep the prisoner safe in his asylum. The generous captain lost. no time in returning to his frigate, where he immedi ately imparted to Don Manuel the intelligence he had obtained at the British Minister's-" This indeed," ✓ cried the afflicted Spaniard, " is a stroke I was in no " respect prepared for; I had fondly persuaded my"self there was not in the whole empire of Spain a " more friendly heart than that of the Inquisidor's; "to my beloved Leonora he had ever shewn the ten" derness of a paternal affection from her very child"hood; by him our hands were joined; his lips pro"nounced the nuptial benediction, and through his "favour I was promoted to my government: Grant, "Heaven, no misfortune hath befallen my Leonora! " surely she cannot have offended him and forfeited "his favour." "As I know him not," replied the Captain, "I can form no judgment of his mo"tives; but this I know, that if a man's heart is ca"pable of cruelty, the fittest school to learn it in, "must be the Inquisition." The proposal was now suggested of sending letters into Spain, and the Governor retired to his desk for the purpose of writing them; in the afternoon of the same day the Minister paid a visit to the Captain, and receiving a packet from the hands of Don Manuel, promised to get it forwarded by a safe conveyance according to direc tion. In due course of time this fatal letter from Leonora opened all the horrible transaction to the wretched husband: The guilty hand of an expiring wife, under the agoniz i ing operation of a mortal poison, traces these few trembling lines to an injured wretched husband. If thou hast any pity for my parting spirit fly the ruin that awaits thee and avoid this scene of villainy and horror. When I tell thee I have borne a child to the monster, whose poison runs in my veins, thou wilt abhor thy faithless Leonora; had I strength to relate to thee the subtle machinations, which betrayed me to disgrace, thou wouldst pity and perhaps forgive me. Oh agony! can I write his name? The Inquisidor is my murderer-My pen falls from my handFarewell for ever! Had a shot passed through the heart of Don Manuel, it could not more effectually have stopt its motions, than the perusal of this fatal writing: Hedropped lifeless on the couch, and but for the care and assistance of the Captain and Pedrosa in that posture he had probably expired. Grief like his will not be described by words, for to words it gave no utterance; 't was suffocating silent woe. Let us drop the curtain over this melancholy pause in our narration, and attend upon the mournful widower now landing upon English ground, and conveyed by his humane and generous preserver to the house of a noble Earl, the father of our amiable Captain and a man by his virtues still more conspicuous than by his rank. Here amidst the gentle solicitudes of a benevolent family, in one of the most enchanting spots on earth, in a climate most salubrious and restorative to a constitution exhausted by heat and a heart near broken with sorrow, the reviving spirits of the unfortunate Don Manuel gave the first symptoms of a possible recovery. At the period of a few tranquillizing weeks here passed in the bosom of humanity, letters came to hand from the British Minister at Lisbon, in answer to a memorial, that I should have stated to have been drawn up by the friendly Captain before his departure from that port, with a detail of facts deposed and sworn to by Nicolas Pedrosa, which memorial with the dogn ments attached to it was forwarded to the Spanish Court by special express from the Portuguese premier. By these letters it appeared that the high dignity of the person impeached by this statement of facts had not been sufficient to screen him from a very serious and complete investigation; in the course of which facts had been so clearly brought home to him by the confession of his several agents, and the testimony of the deceased Leonora's attendants together with her own written declarations, whilst the poison was in operation, that though no public sentence had been executed upon the criminal, it was generally understood he was either no longer in existence, or in a situation never to be heard of any more, till roused by the awakening trump he shall be summoned to his tremendous last account. As for the unhappy widower it was fully signified to him from authority, that his return to Spain, whether upon exchange or parole, would be no longer opposed, nor had he Many thing to apprehend on the part of government, when he should there arrive. The same was signified in fewer words to the exculpated Pedrosa. Whether Don Manual de Casafonda will in time to come avail himself of these overtures time alone can prove: As for little Nicolas, whose prize money has set him up in a comfortable little shop in Duke's place, where he breathes the veins and cleanses the bowels of his Israelitish brethren in a land of freedom and toleration, his merry heart is at rest, save only when with fire in his eyes and vengeance on his tongue he anathematizes the Inquisition, and struts into the synagogue every sabbath with as bold a step and as erect a look, as if he was himself High Priest of the Temple going to perform sacrifice upon the reassembling of the scattered tribes FROM THE "OBSERVER." |