as well as Alexina and Iwan; with the most intense sympathy they hearkened to his story, and were worked up to such a degree by the account of his sufferings, that they swore friendship to him, and offered him vengeance if he chose it, by making a sudden irruption on the territory of the government, as soon as the principal parties of their hordes, which were out in straggling marches, should be all collected together again.

With the highest gratitude he accepted their proffered friendship, but declined the vengeance, for he had surely taken it more richly than by mere plundering inroads, however successfully that could have been done.

The Nomadian life of these sons of the desert, to whom he had joined himself for ever, as he then thought, agreed with his present disposition; but he soon found that he had deceived himself. Often in the stillness of night, when he slipped out from the huts in which his new companions were reposing, and stood gazing at the bright immense starry firmament above, which spread in sparkling magni

ficence over the Southern-Asiatic Russia, he felt his heart swell with devotion, love, and longing, while soft tears bedewed his cheeks. That should not be ! - nothing should rob him of his venomous hate, or even soften it; he would only brood on gloom and destruction, and proceed onwards like a dark thunderstorm, proclaiming its efficiency by destructive lightning flashes.

His state gradually sank into silent melancholy, his gloomy rancour towards Alexina yielded to compassion, and when this had once taken place in his heart, his innate affection for the little girl, which had with difficulty been suppressed, returned.

He was startled and affrighted by the change which he perceived in himself; but his better sense bid him bless it. Soon it awakened a clear view of all, and with it the bitterest remorse for the action which he had committed. Atonement, he felt, was not in his power, no more than to make it undone; as long as revenge and hatred had had possession of his soul, he had considered himself in the right, but now

when love and repentance took the lead, and reminded him that he was a Christian, that the Almighty reserved vengeance for Himselfnow he trembled, and shuddered at the horrors he had been driven to by his unlimited anger; he abominated himself, acknowledged himself to be a moral monster, which ought to be exterminated from the earth; yet he never once entertained the wish of opposing the Divine ordinances by putting an end to his existence, but waited till it should be appointed to him; till then he wished as much as lay in his power to be useful to mankind :—and a most extraordinary design, the peculiar adventurous purpose of which he had hardly made clear to himself, was unfolded in his mind, and without delay put into execution.

He proceeded with his companions to the first great Russian city in the circle, and put himself under a surgeon there, with the intention, as soon as he had studied for some years and learnt the profession, of engaging himself as army-surgeon in some regiment. A diamond ring, which his adopted parent, the mother of

Alexina, had bequeathed to him, and which the good old Andrew had kept for him whilst he remained in the Governor's house, (by which means it escaped observation) was more than sufficient to secure him an existence for many years, and to forward all his views. A conscientious Jew disposed of it for him to a merchant for its real value; with grateful heart he then separated from his kind Tartar friends, and entered upon his new life with the most indefatigable zeal.

Experience has, times innumerable, taught us that Heaven blesses every action which is undertaken on its account; that is to say, when man's view is to elevate himself morally, while he acknowledges, in its whole extent, an injustice he has committed, and humbly considering his own abasement, as in a terrifying mirror before him, seeks to purify himself again.

Iwan was treated with the greatest kindness, by all the inmates of the family belonging to the person with whom he had engaged himself,

and by his clear sense, his humble mind and devotional spirit, quite gained the affection of his instructor, who was an extraordinarily clever man in his profession.

That Bertha, the surgeon's daughter, a charming girl, was likewise attaching herself to him with fervency, could not remain a secret to Iwan; and it pained him to be under the necessity of shewing a coldness and harshness foreign to his nature, with respect to this young person, that her peace of mind might not be poisoned by hapless love for him. Often when her father extolled his application and abilities in the highest terms, and her mother, looking significantly at the girl, expressed a wish that he would make use of his acquirements and knowledge in a peaceful way,—would establish himself in the place, and be assisting partner to her husband, who was growing old, instead of taking himself, on account of a pretended vow, as he intended to do, to the field of battle, as Military Surgeon, there to await his end-often then was he disposed to cast himself from the hearts of these good people, by confessing his monstrous deed,