itself, and sometimes strangely unites, whilst strongly contrasting, the grand and the sublime, with the grotesque and ridiculous. When seen afar, from a commanding elevation, its undulating sea of verdure extending for miles and miles, with a bright sun shining on the green compact, unbroken surface, it conveys to the mind of the spectator naught save images of repose, peace, and tranquillity; he forgets that like the hectic bloom of a fatal malady, these smiling seas of verdure oft in their entangled depths conceal treacherous death-dealing reptiles, ferocious beasts of prey, and the still more dangerous, though no less crafty and cruel Kaffir.

On a nearer approach, dark glens and gloomy "kloofs" are found to furrow the mountain sides; these often merge downwards into deep ravines, forming at their base, sometimes the bed of a clear gurgling brook, or that of a turbid, raging torrent, generally shadowed and overhung by abundant vegetation, in all the luxuriance of tropical growth and profusion.

Noble forest trees entwined with creepers, encircled by parasitical plants and with long gray masses of lichen, loosely and beard-like, floating from their spreading branches, throw the "brown horrors" of a shadowy gloom o'er these secluded dells; but jabbering monkeys or large satyr-like baboons, with their grotesque antics, and unearthly yells, grate strangely against the solemnity of the scene, and sadly mar the sublimity of its character; whilst tall, leafless, and fantastic branches of the Euphorbia, like huge candelabra, shoot up in naked profusion from the rocky cliffs, pointing, as it were in mockery their ghastly skeleton limbs at the dark and luxuriant foliage with which they are surrounded. Other plants of the cactus and milky tribes-of thorny, rugged, or smooth, fleshy natures-stretch forth their bizarre shapes, and as in frantic gestures, wave aloft their mis-shapen arms from the fissures of yon gray crags, crowned by the graceful nojeboom, or drooping palm-like leaves of the tree aloe,† whose waving crest gently responds to the oscillating movements of a tall, flexible, slender, and leafless stem, imbedded, maybe, in masses of the thorny mimosa nilotica.‡

Emerging from these darksome ravines to the more sunny side of the mountain's brow, we find it still clothed with a dense thicket, but of an entirely different character; a sort of high, thorny underwood, composed chiefly of the mimosa and portulacaria tribes, taller, denser, more impenetrable, and of a more rigid nature than even the tiger's lair in an Indian jungle; but withal, so mixed and mingled with luxuriant, turgid, succulent plants, and parasites, as to be totally impervious, during even the driest weather, to the destroying influence of fire.

The bush is therefore, in peace and war, the Kaffir's never-failing refuge; in his naked hardihood, he either, snake-like, twines through and creeps beneath the dense tangled mazes, or securely shielded in his kaross, defies its most thorny and abrading opposition. Under cover of the bush, in war, he, panther-like, steals upon his foe; in peace, upon the farmer's

A colonial term, implying the re-entering elbow or fissure in a range of hills, and whatever be the character of the adjoining country the "kloof" is generally clothed in dense bush.

+ The aloe arborescens strongly contrasting in form and appearance with the more common and stunted kinds, called by botanists the aloe ferox, and aloe lineata. So named by Barrow, and which the author of these pages has often seen growing on the banks of the Nile.

flock. Secure in both instances from pursuit, he can, in the bush, set European power, European skill, and European discipline at defiance; and hitherto, vain has been every effort, even by "tarring" and firing, to destroy this his impregnable-for it is to all save himself-an impenetrable stronghold.

Of the latter description was the general nature of the country through which lay our present course, but the beauties of its details would baffle the attempts at delineation of a far abler writer; and merely to enumerate the gems and treasures of plant, shrub, and flower, which everywhere met our eye, would alone require the pen of a practised botanist, and even he might perchance become bewildered amidst the vast profusion so bountifully scattered around.

Geraniums of every colour, jessamines redolent of perfume, and numberless other sweet-scented flowering shrubs and plants, thickly shadowed the thorny, twisted, or gnarled stems peculiar to those sterner and more rigid denizens of the verdant wilderness, which, carpeted at this genial season of the year with innumerable bulbs and flowers, looked the very temple of that gay and prolific goddess, the South African Flora.

For underfoot the violet,

Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay

'Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone
Of costliest emblem.

On crowning the pass of the Zwartkops' heights, and emerging from the thick bush which clothed its sides, a novel and splendid sight suddenly burst on our delighted view. We found ourselves on-what is a common characteristic of South African scenery-a high level table-land, commanding the whole of Algoa Bay and its widely-extended shores, which, gilded by the evening sun, lay spread out at our feet in all the richly-burnished, and detailed distinctness of a highly coloured pictorial plan.

At one extremity of the bay, near the rocky dangers of Cape Receif, faintly rose to the sight, a small "forestry of masts;" whilst on the adjacent shore might indistinctly be seen a few white specks, denoting the locality of Port Elizabeth, that lasting memento of British industry in this distant part of the world. In an opposite easterly direction, along the dim outline of the far watery horizon, we discerned the small cluster of the Chaon Isles, on one of which the immortal Bartholemew Diaz, the first discoverer of this remote part of Africa, erected, in 1486, the sign of the cross, hence bestowing on it the appellation of Santa Cruz.

Since that period, how many various passing events have intervened! how often has Southern Africa changed its different possessors! Churches, edifices, towns, and harbours have in many parts sprung up; civilisation is advancing through its wilds, with slow yet unerring steps; but the spot first consecrated by the symbol of our Holy Creed, that ground first trodden by the great Lusitanian navigator and discoverer, still continues the same; to this day a barren, deserted, and nearly unknown rock-frequented alone by the seal, the cormorant, or the penguin!

Thus long did we gaze and moralise on the wide-spread landscape before us, but turning in an opposite direction, as we beheld the sun fast sinking behind the high mountains in the far west, now clad in a mantle of darkest and deepest blue; that sight reminding us of the lateness of the hour, whilst it hastened our unwilling departure from this fairy spot, recalled to the memory of the old Dutch colonist who accompanied us, the cruel

massacre, most treacherously perpetrated amidst those hills during the war of 1812. He related how the father of the present Sir Andreas Stockenstrom, then heading a colonial force, having been invited by the Kaffirs to hold there a friendly conference, was by these savages mercilessly butchered, with nearly all his followers.

Strange, that in the son of the murdered man, this robber race should ever have found so warm and staunch a supporter!*

As our informant entered into all the details of this sanguinary transaction, describing the wild demon yell, the quivering assegaï, the bleeding victim, and stripped mutilated corpse, we involuntarily looked around, and pressing with armed heels our jaded horses' flanks, quickened their pace, and instinctively felt our weapons; for those strange fantastic forms of the stunted aloes, which now thickly covered the plain, and loomed largely and indistinctly in the approaching darkness, were readily, by our excited imaginations, converted into sable groups of Kaffir foes; nor did we, it must be confessed, repine when a sight of the waggons, and of the white bell-shaped tents, standing out in strong relief against the deep obscurity of the surrounding underwood, together with the bright flickering radiance of the camp fires, announced a near approach to its precincts, together with the speedy termination of our toils for the day.

"Louis told me upon this same occasion,' Paquerette continued, 'that he was poor, had no father, no friends, no family; that he had been reared by his uncle, an artist of some repute, who had taught him, together with his own son, the profession he now exercised. Upon the death of this kind relation, the two cousins had for some time struggled to bear their lot together, but poverty had at last, some months before, compelled their separation; when his cousin, possessing lighter spirits, and less perseverance than himself, had enlisted for a soldier, since which time he had heard nought concerning him. Louis had hitherto been enabled,' she added, 'by the efforts of his own industry, to cope with his wants from day to day, and, although in poverty, had never as yet been in actual distress. But now we join in hope of brighter days,' she said, while a tint, like the inner leaf of the white rose, spread itself over her pale cheek; for Louis has, at length, succeeded in painting a picture, which cannot fail to bring him wealth and reputation. It is a "Study of the Queen of Sheba ;" he consulted me in the choice of the flowers which she holds, because I had read so much concerning the flowers of different climes. I combined them for

* Captain, now Sir Andreas Stockenstrom, was, in opposition to Sir B. d'Urban, one of the greatest advocates of Lord Glenelg's border policy, by whom he was appointed lieutenant-governor of the Eastern Province.

him, and he was so well pleased, that he tells me kindly that they form the greatest beauty of his picture. And see, he has brought me the very counterpart. Say, is it not a sweet reward?' She held up again the wellknown bunch of flowers, but not for worlds could I have spoken. She paused, and mused for a moment, during which her fancy evidently wandered fondly back to her first interview with Louis, for she resumed:

"He did not ask me, when we parted, if he might come again, but I knew that on the morrow, at the self-same hour, I should see him at my window. I was not deceived, Georgette, he came to the very moment, and I was up and watching for him; and ever since that day, he fails not, morn and eve, to be at my casement, and together, as thou hast heard, our orisons ascend to Heaven. It is he who wills it so. He tells me that the sight of my face at morn, enables him the better to bear with the solitude and labour of the day-that the sight of my face at eve, makes him forget the pain and disappointment he has undergone, and he retires to rest more calm and happy. Twice each day does he risk his very life but to behold me!' She paused again, and, looking in my face, added, in an impassioned tone; Now, is not that a noble, true, and generous love?'

"It is, indeed, poor children !' I exclaimed, as yet in complete bewilderment with the strange story to which I had been listening, for I could not have believed that here, in the very hot-bed of the corruption of Paris, there could have existed a passion so strong, so fervent, and withal so guileless and so pure, as that which bound these two poor innocents together, and as I thought of the probable consequences, the blighted hopes, the disappointment, the despair, which must ensue, a sudden terror overcame me, and, as I clasped that pure and gentle maiden to my bosom, I sank upon my knees, and raised my voice to Heaven in supplication for blessing and for guidance in the stony way into which she had thus so thoughtlessly strayed.

"But Paquerette had no fear. She had not even the suspicion of wrong. But with that gentle confidence so conspicuous in her character, she proceeded in her praises of Louis and of his faith and truth, deeming it a natural conclusion that she should thus admire where all appeared so admirable.

"It was well nigh midnight when I left that little chamber, with what impression on my mind I can hardly tell. Would it not be right to acquaint Françoise of this little innocent intrigue, and so by causing Paquerette, under some pretext, to remove to some other chamber, thus to put an end to all communication between the lovers! But no; there would be tears and heart-break on the one hand; there might be recklessness and despair on the other. Besides, it might have been regarded as a breach of confidence, for although Paquerette had in nowise enjoined me to secrecy, never deeming it shame to act as she had done; yet, in spite of myself, I felt intrusted with a secret which, notwithstanding all my scruples, I should have felt it most difficult to disclose.

"The next time I saw Paquerette, she never even waited to be asked for news concerning Louis, but was the first to speak herself, and without embarrassment concerning him. She told me with sadness that she feared his health was declining, and that he laboured too long and too assiduously at his profession, for although he strove to appear gay and unconcerned for the few moments he was in her presence, yet

her love for him had rendered her too clear-sighted not to perceive that some hidden evil was undermining the dauntless spirit and extravagance of hope with which he had hitherto endured all the bitterness and privation, forming the woful heritage of poverty. He spoke no more with the ardent enthusiasm heretofore, of his painting; and this made her unhappy, for she knew that there had been no bounds to the golden visions with which he had bedecked the future. And she began to fear that the disposal of his picture would be a work of greater time than he had imagined it might be.

"I had never mentioned to her the circumstance of the bouquet, nor of the disappointment which the student had experienced in the sale of the painting, which circumstance would, perhaps, without seeking further, have accounted for this change in his manner, for I felt a melancholy presentiment that such wild, such mad idolatry, must end in woe, to Paquerette, and cared not to risk the self-reproach I should have to endure by adding fuel to this flame, which seemed already to burn with lustre too intense.

"I was several days after this without seeing Paquerette, and to all my questions concerning her, I could gain no satisfactory answer. Melanie was so much occupied about this time turning over in her mind the rival merits of the young trombone player of the opera band and the hautbois player of the Feydeau, that it was no wonder if she represented Paquerette as being strangely altered in temper and disposition, as having grown peevish and factious, and more solitary than ever, loving now to retire to her own chamber, immediately on their return from the Conservatoire, never even staying to take supper, wherein she was much to blame, as there always came plenty of company at her mother's every evening: such nice young men too, that it was absolutely a crime in a portionless girl, without talent, like Paquerette, to throw away such chances. Her mother, the good Françoise, was too busy also, working and striving morning, noon, and night to add to the pile of silver crowns which she kept hoarded in an old hat upon the kitchen-shelf, and which she regarded as an embryo dot for Melanie, to take much heed of what was going on beyond the walls of her own little lodge, and heeded not the frequent absence of the poor maiden so long as she knew she was within the mansion.

"It came at last, for Paquerette it came at last-the deep, the undreaded misery-and fell, as I had foreseen, like ice upon her young and ardent spirit! She came to seek me one day, panting and fatigued, and told me as abruptly as she had before disclosed the story of her love, never heeding the presence of my poor old grandmother:

"Louis is ill, Georgette-he is dying-he may be dead ere the night has passed away! Thou hast a true and noble heart, and will not refuse thy succour. He is dying for want of all that is fitting in the state in which he lies. Money I have none, neither has he, and Georgette, who has ever said she loves me well, must show that friendship now.'

"I was somewhat staggered at this abrupt tax upon my good offices, nevertheless did not feel alarmed, neither did I draw back. Now, I thank Heaven, that I can say so now! And my resolution was taken at once."

The bouquetière blushed slightly, as she added, "I was very young at the time, and this little episode of romance somewhat pleased me. It was refreshing to the soul to turn for a moment