POETRY. WOMAN'S SMILE! Oh! what a dreary waste would be This joyous world of ours, If happy hearts, the gay, the free, Had lost their witching powers; Or what the charm, however bright, That could our souls beguile, With half so sweet, so soft, a light, As that of Woman's smile! Oh! Life would be one joyless dream Of hopelessness and wo, If 'twere not for the sunny beam Of beauteous eyes below; And all earth's flowers so fair, so sweet, Would flourish but awhile, If in return they con Id not meet The light of Woman' smile ! Then if our hopes of bliss depend On such bright forms of love, Which softly with our spirits blend Dear thoughts of bliss above; Who on this earth could love to test, (E'en in this flowery isle) If that existence be unhlest With audit of Woman's smile ! STRATHNAVER, a Scottish Legend. CHAPTER VIII. I am not Minded, to such dev'lish sport- Oldriay. One out of sorts with fortune. SJiakspeare. We parted from our heroine under no enviable circumstance, if we take regard to the feelings, by which we roust naturally suppose her to be agitated. But the mel ancholy and gloom, which succeed to the incidents by which they are excited, faij iu the relation, to afford the interest attach ed to more active distress; and it is partly for this reason, and partly that we have other business on hand, that wc resign her for a time to her own meditation?, or the lady Isabella's conversation, whichever she may best like, or otherwise decide for, vrhile we turn to Sinclair, who with his followers, accompanied by the Lairds Mo. ray & Dunrobin with their retainers, were Mow, though the hour was rather late for a friendly departure, preparing to set out for their own homes. The horsemen once mounted and equipped, crossed the draw bridge, and galloped off at full speed. Nei ther did they for a considerable distance, alack their pace; excepting now and then to a hard trot, which was soon changed again to the brisker motion. The silence which had been maintained during this time with unbroken pertinacity, was first, and at length disturbed by the laird of Dunrobin, wbo jogging up to the Moray, said, while the steed of the latter assumed something of the same pace "In good truth ! it's to my thinking of the strangest not to say aught harsher , that gentlemen should show sic slight courtesy as to be take them from a friend's roof and a friend's board, at this unseemly hour what say ye laird is it not strange?" A pause of some length, evinced that the one addressed was true to the theory he inculcated, for he merely said; "It's not good neither at all times safe to judge rashly" "But of a surety laird," again insinuated the other; "you need not be reminded, that we did but delay our journey in compli ment to the laird Sinclair, and now for sooth ! and without one word, to shew, for the why or the wherefore, he sounds to horse 1 and away ! and we to rids the live long night shelterless and a puir chance but wc go breakfastlesd, as we came off supperless !" "I've oft heard," returneJ the Moray, something mischievously; "that love is a dainty and all-sufficient provender for myself, it is true, I'm something "o'er old, as the auld song says, for such like, but for you, who play the lover sae braw ly, I'd just commend ye think on pretty Mistress Agnes, and see how that will stand in stead of supper ! and as for the breakfast, ye can even try a cast for that after !" "Love and wad ye talk of love to a man whose empty stomach sings cupboard at every jog?" asked the first, almost pa thetically, and apparently quite uncon cious of any approach in ridicule in what his generally taciturn companion had just spoken; "It's true," he added, after a little; I do betimes, when nothing better offers amuse myself with sich fas h and foole Ty and the puir weak things expect it of us, they do 1 but then it's mere pastime, only to fill up the idle hours ye see laird, hu I hu ! Not" he resumed again after another pause ,only broken by a slight echo of his own self-grstulary laugh from his companiou, with what of sympa, thy, we leave others to guess, "not, but what the lassie is well favored forbye he s the sole heir to many broad lands ye may mind laird, and as ye say, under this aspect of things, there's nae idling what may happen no; no; there's no tell ing, as ye well say!' "I'm not minded, that I have at any lime said the like,' returned Moray quiet ly; "Tho' I'm free to opine should the lassie wye say, bespeak your mercy, ye'd i not doom her to the willow!" . "Moray," said the flattered lover with a good deal of assumed importance; "3'e're a man of sense and sound judgment; and, I may as well just confess to ye, that I have e'n in some measure committed myself for a formal proffer of my hand and fortune but I'd not for a little, speak openly for you ken laird, I might peradventure rue and then. I'm not quite well pleas ed, with the clash about the noble bequest some tell of, promised by the earl to the church abroad! So after all," he conclu ded with a pompous flourish, and a patron ising air: "It's at best, just doubtful, whe ther the lady Agnes may e'er be the lady o' Dunrobin!" "Aye ! I'd suppose bo," said Moray dri- iy. "Not that I'd have you left to think me, altogether unmindful of her feelings either puir lassie," again said the considerate Jover, speaking most deliberately and slow ly, as if in this manner, the more fully to impress upon his hearer the sense of his own importance, and the advantage at which he held the lady. Farther we are left to conjecture, what might have been the rejoinder to this precious morcel of self-complacency in one, so ill calculated to bespeak, not to say favor, but even tolerance from the fair sex; for the laird was with all his pretensions, as ungainly in person as he was self-conceited and disgusting in manner by the way and may we be pardoned so awk ward a parenthesis, no uncommon anomaly with our male brotherhood, who often claim most, where and when they deserve least: for the party had now arrived at that point in their journey, where the road they travelled, branched out into several differ ent ditections, and as the two were "now joined by Sinclair, who had for the time past, as if purposely kept himself apart, probably to enjoy his own thoughts, the conversation was of course brought to a speedy conclusion. Nor was it again re sumed. For Sinclair, in order to pursue his way into Caithness, here tured off to the east, while his kinsman, the Moray, still continued strait onward, leaving the laird of Dunrobin, to make good his way, as they imagined, for his own castle, which now lay but some score of miles to the west. This latter, had however made but a few paces in that direction, when he ab ruptly stopped; and calling to his esquire, who rode at a short distance behind, he desired to know, as nearly as might be, how far they had, according to that gen tleman's calculation, gained on the fore most of the clan. We've come, passing guid speed," re turned the man; "an' they canna' be near han yet, I'm think in." U'eel weel, and so I was thinkin' m'ysel Robert," said the master; "and since tbis is the case forbye, tnat tr.y hnngry stomach is unco fashous this raw morning it's the day dawn, I see yonder is'nt it Robert? and I've no need o go boaming the' lane a-most over this bit it's o'er near lhede'il Sirathnaver men, to be quite canny, to the like o' us any way ' just creep along a leetle to the left han' o the broad road, and tell me, ennna' ye glint to some show o a lodgment, for an I'm not far wrong, there's a wee bit hostel, hereabout, an' mayhap we might get a bit bite to stay our hunger withal so, so, ride on, and" I'll just wait ye here see beside this bittock." The man rode off, but in the next mo ment, as if but then recollecting himself turned full round, and told the laird, that he remembered some mile or so he sup posed then onward, and only a 6hort dis tance from their direct road, of a small house, kept by the widow of a horse troop er, where he thought they might perhaps get something in the way of breakfast. 'But is it far away yet?" asked the other; for I swear to ye more, that my stomach wreezes like any old bagpipe vi' very emptiness !" "I canna just be free to say I know the exact distance to the lackies," replied the man; "but this I can well tell we'll not gang the gait the sooner, by standing here shilly shall' neither like the sooner, to get that to fill our empty bellies wiihal !" "Weel weel ye're right man nae doubt ye're right, bo lead the way an' I'll keep the gait after ye," concluded the laird, again putting his steed in motion. "Tho' it al! but makes my mouth water, to think o' all the dainty bits left behind us at the castle and then the lassie puir thing! she'll be waesome the mom " Tse wannan' ye, an she will !" ex claimed Robert, "for the lady Agne6, whatreck betroibed to that dark favored chief now dead the saints rest him ! had aye. they tay mair favor for the bonny blue e'e, and bright face of the Sinclair." "Ye're dolt roon ! that say it !" in his urn exclaimed the laird; "do ye think, af ter all the brave speeches I made till her forbye, comparing her to Venus and talking to her of Cupid an Appollo an a thrap mair gentles ye'll no ken of that that" lie repealed, several times but whether that he was at loss how to con clude his sentence, or whether," that the signs of something like a habitation before the riders, called his attention lo the more important matter of breakfast, we are una ble to determine. The inn to which we are about to intro duce our travellers, was designated as such, by a stake, surmounted by a board upon which was traced in uncouth characters a promise of cheer both to man and beast: Which in fact, excepting the less doubtful purport of the dangling board upon which it appeared, was nearly as likely to afford the information to the one as to the other. The building itself was not of sufficient height, save at the centre, whence it de scended in no .gradual slope on each side, to admit even a man of ordinary stature to enter without stooping; while from the an gle, farmed by the conjoining sides of the roof which they served likewise to support, descended several posts, that were main tained in their hold at bottom, by stones, piled around them, to some considerable height. These posts formed too, the groundwork of a partition, that divided the edifice into two apartments. The outer one of which was unoccupied when ihe laird and his man Robert, dismounted from their horses, and prepared to take pos session of it. But notwithstanding, that ihe laird entered the hovel nearly as a for lorn hope and though he could not but re mark how very small was the prospect of good cheer, he seemed disposed to make the best of the alternative , and sagely re marked in a wise old saw, "that half pro vender were better than no meat, and that even a dry farl would fill, an eaipty stom ach !" An' will ye be there ay'in jinking?" asked a voice, as the laiid finished his ob servations. Tbe interrogation issued from the room, which we have alluded to as be ing divided from that upon uhich the laird had entered, and of course this latter and the speaker were concealed for the time, from each other's view. Will ye be there ay in, I speir at ye, ye lazy loun?" repeat ed the person in the shrill and elevated lone of impatience and irritated feeling. "Nae good mother nae," said the laird in his most deprecatory tone and manner, and as no doubt befitted the sex he impu ted to the querist, "ye'll be mistaken, and will ye but come here ava, ye'll no repent the fash' (Here the squire, apparently thinking the debate of somewhat issue, in terposed his counsel, that the "guile wife, shou'.d forthwith be let to know, the con ditions upon which they had invaded her territory, and as she probably caught the words implying one part of the contract without fully appreciating the other, she as promptly gave them warning "that they'd get nothing there the day." 'How say ye Jackie! sure ye've tie sign a' the dure !" remonstrated ihe man. An' ye'll get the siller in the hand gudewife urged ihe master following up the advan tage. There was a short moment of sus pense, which the laird occupied by placing himself so that ue could avail himself of the advantage which the imperfect and slight partition offered for a gener2l re connoitre, and in the next instant the wo" man, either moved by th'ese inducements, or aware that she had been at fault in the characters and intentions of her visiters commenced removing the barricade, fr it could not be called a door, which impe ded a free communication between the two divisions of her dwelling. The appear ance of the hostess, as she now stood re vealed to full view, was not such as to tempt to any long description. It was in fact, and in few words, as unprepossess ing, as suspicion, ill temper, and filth could render it. In one hand, she held the battered remains of a pewter mug; and the other supported a trencher, upon which was heaped, what looked not like one, but ihe disjointed remnants of several meals As she commenced placing these on a shat. tered table, which was only supported in anything of usable order, by the aid of two boards, the one placed in an erect position, the other attached to it at top, and running transversely to the legs which the opposite side of the table still maintained, she said in a sort of grumbling tone, which gave the half apology, her words appeared to im ply, but a poor grace, "that it was na i' their limes safe, to let ilky a landlouper a' the house o'a lane body." These it must be allowed were no strong inducements for protracted stay, and a very short time, considering the keen appetite which under the circumstances Mre are pre pared to infer for the guests, was sufficient for them to profess themselves satisfied, and they again took t'leir departure. ' Lit tle however, as the hostess had up to this period seemed disposed lo accord the rites of hospitality or entertainment, she now, when those were no longer called for, vol untarily proferred and even pressed her ad vice as to the route which it behooved them to pursue homeward. She insisted, that by endeavoring to cut into the broad road by the way Robert pointed out, that they would encounter almost insurmountable difficulties from several deep sloughs, even could they at all cross the ford, swollen as it then was, which iu that direction lay be tween them; while on the other hand, she assured, them, by turning off towards the Lake, though it was true, something out of the direct progress, they would avoid all these impediments to a free travel. And in the end, make the journey both in less time and more pleasantly, not to say safe ly, than by following the more travelled rout. The laird condescendingly thanked ihe good woman for her counsel, and ac cordingly, though altogether against the declared views and wishes of the esquire, determined for the road by the Lake. For someway, the path promised well; it had the appearance of being tolerably well trav eled, and the laird, (notwithstanding, that Robert still maintained his ground, 'that he did not like the road,' for which too he had sundry arguments, such as that the horse shoes, were turned in the wrong direction for leading to any place of consequence seemed as usual, much disposed to con gratulate himself upon his superior discrim ination, when all these thoughts were $(id denly put to flight, by the wild fury of ihe demon-looking figure, that here darted from a near thicket and now stood between him and all further progress. The countenance of the hag, who had thus forced herself upon the laird, was the very picture of depravity; nor was there one single trace or lineament, that bespoke aught human. Her thick and matted black locks, hurgover her face and shoul ders like surpents; and it was only when she tossed these backwards, that her eyes, red as burning coals, became visible, as they glared and protruded from their dark and swollen sockets. Her frantic gestures, as she threw herself in her frenzy into eve ry possible contortion, displayed at once the unbridled rage, and brutal force of a maniac. And her garments, which, hung almost in shreds around her, well corrobor ated the idea, which she otherwise display rd of insanity. "Thank ycawa, ye base lawlan doers of the devil's own bidding ! She 6rreeched and screamed as she leaped hither and thither before him, and wildly- sawed the air with her sinew)- and muscu lar arm. "Thank ye awa' ye base law lan tyke 1" "Mist! now guid woman hist!" remon strated the laird; "ye'll no ken as for what we are " "Hech now! ye pfoud workers of them, do the bidding of Satan!" interrupted the hag, as she laughed in derision and scorn; cm' ye think 77 no ken ye ha? she as ked, as for a moment she 6lood back in in perfect quietude. "Ijind mistress kind mistress! again said the laird in his most conciliating accent, and in most apparent pertu batton; "and I mistake not, ye bid us onward, and as we have no wish to oppose ourselve to your most reasonable demand, an ye'll just stand a wee small matter a side, we'll say ye farewell outright And wad ye accept a compliment, for bye our very good wishes it's your3 just for the asking," he subjoined, as he made some intimation of a search for iiis purse. It was neither a laugh nor a yell, that the maniac here uttered; it was a sound be tween both. And the laird unvoluntarily reined his horse several paces backwards, as with redoubled fury she again broke out, "Och ! ye dei! bucky Sutherland; an' ye'd tempt the poor; soul blasted wrefeh wi' Que words and braw siller ! But I tell ye, now, base man," she said after a pause and, as if in something of returning reason, for she had foldedher arms torn &; scratch ed by her laie contact with briers and brambles, upon her naked bosom, and now stood quietly confronting him she ad dressed; "that it's all loo late too late. Ye canna 3tay the blood ye've run moun tain deep upon our own home heather ; ye cannae stay the fire and the brand, that like the death beacon hne flickered from every shealing o the Sirathnaver ye can na restore the life to my own braw sons ye canna recal the fearful sin of their crazed mother ye canna' make tie only breathing tiling that owns her for kith or kin other than a base traitor a scorn a shame both al home and abroad. ye can na recal ihe false treasons, ye've ay' in & ay' in put upon those, wad bae scorned to win bread or life in other than fair con test and wad I, be the pitiful wretch ye'd ihink me, to tak one morsel bought al such a price, ilka drops o'the free, bold, blood o the Sirathnaver, that still warms at my hearts core would turn to deadly poison, and cry for vengeance ?" But surely guid wife;' here again in terposed the laird, acquiring somewhat of assurance from her more reasona ble dealing : and taking advantage of the first stop she made, to bespeak her bet ter purpose, than that she seemed at all events to entertain of holding him a prison er al her own pleasure ; "Ye're greatly at fault in your thinking, for it's the least part of all ye now tell of, that I can even mind o' and gin ve'll stand by a little and let me to the clansmen " "And ve'd threat me, wi' the clansmen, wad ye, brave chief ? interrupted the wo man, again aroused to her wilder humour. and speaking in evident contempt, though it was easy to see, that the moment, in which an approach to reason and reflection held temporary sway had again given way to those unaccountable impulses, which suggest themselves as it were at random within the bewildered mind, and over which no extraneous influence seems to maintain any control. Her deeper feelings too, appeared for the time, to have been replaced by the spirit of ridicule and mock ery; and as she suddenly seized the bridle of the laird's horse, and hnrried him for ward to the very margin of the lake, which then descended by a deep and suf ficiently precipitous cliff to the water's edge, she still told hi m in a jeering manner 'An' ye'll bit ihe auld ballad o' Ilka Sutherlan 'ihe de'il dow tak. He'll gar o' thir hoole a nine tail'd cat! An' no' be routing it here ava! an'ca'ing out for your white livered, stall fed gal lant to come help ye (in explanation we must here premise, that the laird in the 'extremity of his fear had called Robert to the rescue what marvel? I'll let ye o your clan Come lilt it now! and see!" she said, as she forced the horse to the verge of ihe precipice even; "the proud nag springs it gleesomely come lilt it lilt ii!" Some might have thought, as the hag now screeched and laughed and jumped, and clapped her hands, that a thousand furies were celebrating their horrid rites. But by degrees, the excess of her frenzied joy ap peared to subside again into contempt, as she witnessed the extreme dismay and irre solution of him she thus held at bay, and who danced bark wards and forwaid, now approaching her as if determined by one desperate effort to pass, and then retreating again to the extreme edge of ihe precipice, whicjl rose over the waters of tfie loch. "Stick and stow," she said at length, "might I send both ye and your craven clansman frae the heugii, but even as I now am look at me man and look well, for I have been praised even to my o n soul's cost, both for bright eye, and dim pled cheek ! and I have been that to those ' gentle bl ood, that would not well beseem me to even myself with ihe base born and the low, nor wad I go t!i9 last travel with such, 1 have been, all that a woman might be of sinful, miserable crazed ! But" she continued, ami she pressed her hand upon her forehead, as if to be herself se cure of the assurance she gave; "I'm not mad now far I feel, that I've sinued.tdl I'm past sinning! For years, when no other bope was left for the wretched outcast, but to breathe out curses, these sustained me withal, and kept me a breathing taberna cle of all that's dark and evil in this sin wrought world and now, my doom and my hour have come, will I yet have ven geance now now now " And she struggled with the force of returning mad ness with the animal, that even on the brink of destruction had still maintained his footing. It was a moment of fearful suspense to the man, who at a short distance watched lhe doubtful issue of the contest- The woman had, when he once seemed ready to an swer his master's signal for ' aid, warned him, that his interference would but lias ten what he dreaded; and as she seemed jndeed, but loo well disposed for any ex tremity, moreover that this cautious policy perhaps suited his own ideas of personal security quite as well as any more-active measures, he remained silently, though as we cannot but suppose anxiously looking for what might be ihe catastrophe. "In the name of God ! why stand ye there? "asked one, as he now hastily brushed past, the almost immoveab!e man at arms. "Come now," he continued, as he strode rapidly forward; "and give help to the rescue, ere it be too late come!" Nor indeed did the exortation to spee seem in any thing misplaced or uncalled for. The noble animal, with only his own powerful & ever ready instincts to oppose to the determination of the maniac who had already thrown herself over the precipice, still tenaciously maintaining her bold of tho bridle, as she seemed resolved lo force both horse and rider to her own dread plunge, stood near, on the very verge of the, cliff, with scarce one step, between him and eternity. The unfortunate laird, was no longer able to make even one effort lo es cape the doom, which he thought now too sorely impended overhim. He was wound up to the last feeling of horror and despair. No longer could he utter even one prayer for succour or merry: a thick damp mist swam over his half closed eyes, and the objects which seemed to dance before him were as things in which he had no longer any interest, "The'proud beast soulless tho. he be, struggles bravely for existence, said Lang Syne, for he it was, who had so oppor tunely presented himself;" "while yon, poor, miserable, fearwruught dastard, can not even try one stake for the life, he needs must prize so highly.' Pity! Ptlv! that the bright image of the Almighty, should be thus put to shame by the brute -bpast, that most perish away, e'en like the grass t.o foed on! Pity! Pity!' Ha srmke with a scornful, and almost loathing sneer; yet even while he uttered the sentiment so little manifesting interest, he had laid his powerful grasp upon lite shoulder of the object of his contempt and with one single effort cleared him of the saddle, and threw him a dead weight upon the ground. But what though Robert at the bidding of tho old man, had also hurried forward, and grappled furiously with the wretched wo man; all his strength was insufficient to unloose her clenched fis't, and she adhered with the'resistless force of excited frenzy t, the bridle of ihe animal; which, as she at length fell from lhe dreadful height shared iu her self-sought fate, and whose moans and loud cries, mingled with her wild and almost unnutural raving, as she tumbled from craig to craig, till at last with the gallant steed, she splashed into the waters of the deep loch! Exulting, -with her last breath in the doom of him, who she thought had accompanied her. For as she once rose above the bubbling waters, 6he said, "Oh! it was a fearful fearful gait! but Mag o' the blue mist, and the Sutherlan traitor can lilt it topethei!" PROSPECTUS or Tits alladison imi tyTTIIE undersigned having puichased a control ling interest in the Muisomas, proposes o us-suc a Dailt Pipkr from this office on or about he 15th of December. The paper will he devoted to the support of such constitutional measures as the interests of the People may Jemand and from what has hren seen of the purposes of President Tyler's Administration, there i.-i every reason to Ix-lieve that such measure only are in contemplation by the present head of the Government. . ' We propose to labor for the entire restoration of the pure doctrines and faithful pructircs nf tlio founders of our Republic not lo hut tic for the mere exaltation of partisan dictators. To advocate thoe principles of our patriotic fathers which were al together designed lo ensure the prosperity and hap piness of the Confederacy, in their original pur'uv not to tear down the modern fabrics of dema gogues to erect pedestals for other ambitious and dt.shonest aspirants. 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Those who may particularly exert thcmselvea in eitenJing the circulation of tho paper, will not only be allowed liberal com mission on sums rend Jed, but receive our warmest thanks. Papers (whether Administration, Opposition, or .Neutral,) copying this prospectus (including this paragraph,) and s-nd,og us numbers containing it marked, will he entitled loan exchange. J. B. JONES. W hington City, Nor. 6, 18-11. 1 24