liam. And his attachment to
her was deep and enduring. The solitude of their lives peculiarly tended
to promote fervor of character.

Matters were in this state, when the father of William received an
intimation from England that, by returning to his own country, he might,
perhaps, regain his lost estates. He immediately prepared to leave the
island with his family. The separation was a severe blow to these
youthful lovers. They wept, and vowed eternal fidelity.

It is not surprising that Josephine should have been in some degree
superstitious. The peculiarity of her life upon the plantation--her
constant converse with the negroes, whose minds were imbued with all the
superstitious notions which they had brought from Africa, united with
those which they had found upon the island, tended to foster those
feelings. Rousseau, the most popular and universally-read French writer
of that day, in his celebrated "Confessions," records with perfect
composure that he was one day sitting in a grove, meditating whether his
soul would probably be saved or lost. He felt that the question was of
the utmost importance. How could he escape from the uncertainty! A
supernatural voice seemed to suggest an appeal to a singular kind of
augury. "I will," said he, "throw this stone at that tree. If I hit the
tree, it shall be a sign that my soul is to be saved. If I miss it, it
shall indicate that I am to be lost." He selected a large tree, took the
precaution of getting very near to it, and threw his stone plump against
the trunk. "After that," says the philosopher, "I never again had a
doubt respecting my salvation."

Josephine resorted to the same kind of augury to ascertain if William,
who had become a student in the University at Oxford, still remained
faithful to her. She not unfrequently attempted to beguile a weary hour
in throwing pebbles at the trees, that she might divine whether William
were then thinking of her. Months, however, passed away, and she
received no tidings from him. Though she had often written, her letters
remained unanswered. Her feelings were the more deeply wounded, since
there were other friends upon the island with whom he kept up a
correspondence; but Josephine never received even a message through
them.

One day, as she was pensively rambling in a grove, where she had often
walked with her absent lover, she found carved upon a tree the names of
William and Josephine. She knew well by whose hand they had bee