oh, God! it cannot be--but if thou _shouldst_ grow cold
And weary of my jealous love, or think it over-bold--

Or if, perchance, some fairer form should charm thy truant eye,
Thou'lt find me _woman_--proud and calm, so leave me--let me die.
I'd not reclaim a wavering heart whose pulse has once grown cold,
To write my name in princely halls, with diamonds and gold.

So love me, only love me, for I have no world but thee,
And darksome clouds are in my sky--'tis woman's destiny;
But let them frown--I heed them not--no fear can they impart,
If thou art near, with smiles to bend hope's rainbow round my heart.

THE RIVAL SISTERS.

AN ENGLISH TRAGEDY OF REAL LIFE.

BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF "THE ROMAN TRAITOR,"
"MARMADUKE WYVIL," ETC.

It has been gravely stated by an Italian writer of celebrity, that
"the very atrocity of the crimes which are therein committed, proves
that in Italy the growth of man is stronger and more vigorous, and
nearer to the perfect standard of manhood, than in any other country."

A strange paradox, truly, but not an uningenious--at least for a
native of that "purple land, where law secures not life," who would
work out of the very reproach, an argument of honor to his country. If
it be true, however, that proneness to the commission of unwonted and
atrocious crime is to be held a token of extraordinary vigor--vigor of
nerve, of temperament, of passion, of physical development--in a race
of men, then surely must the Anglo-Norman breed, under all
circumstances of time, place, and climate, be singularly destitute of
all these qualities--nay, singularly frail, effeminate, and
incomplete.

For it is an undoubted fact, both of the past and present history of
that great and still increasing race, whether limited to the narrow
bounds of the Island Realm which gave it being, or extended to the
boundless breadth of isles, and continents, and oceans, which it has
filled with its arms, its arts, its industry, its language--it is, I
say, an undoubted fact, that those dreadful and sanguinary crimes,
forming a class apart and distinct of themselves, engendered for the
most part by morbid passions, love, lust, jealousy, and revenge, which
are of daily occurrence in the southern countries of, Europe, Asia,
and America, are almost unknown in those happier lands, where English
laws prevail, with English liberty and language.

It is to this that must be asc