ounded as he was, here he stood. The rippling
stream rolled on at his feet. Twilight had already begun to draw her
sable mantle over the earth, and now and then the fiery smoke would
ascend from the little town which lay spread out before him. The
citizens seemed to be full of life and good-humor; but poor Elfonzo saw
not a brilliant scene. No; his future life stood before him, stripped of
the hopes that once adorned all his sanguine desires. "Alas!" said he,
"am I now Grief's disappointed son at last." Ambulinia's image rose
before his fancy. A mixture of ambition and greatness of soul moved upon
his young heart, and encouraged him to bear all his crosses with the
patience of a Job, notwithstanding he had to encounter with so many
obstacles. He still endeavored to prosecute his studies, and reasonable
progressed in his education. Still, he was not content; there was
something yet to be done before his happiness was complete. He would
visit his friends and acquaintances. They would invite him to social
parties, insisting that he should partake of the amusements that were
going on. This he enjoyed tolerably well. The ladies and gentlemen were
generally well pleased with the Major; as he delighted all with his
violin, which seemed to have a thousand chords--more symphonious than
the Muses of Apollo and more enchanting than the ghost of the Hills.
He passed some days in the country. During that time Leos had made many
calls upon Ambulinia, who was generally received with a great deal of
courtesy by the family. They thought him to be a young man worthy of
attention, though he had but little in his soul to attract the attention
or even win the affections of her whose graceful manners had almost made
him a slave to every bewitching look that fell from her eyes. Leos made
several attempts to tell her of his fair prospects--how much he loved
her, and how much it would add to his bliss if he could but think she
would be willing to share these blessings with him; but, choked by his
undertaking, he made himself more like an inactive drone than he did
like one who bowed at beauty's shrine.

Elfonzo again wends his way to the stately walls and new-built village.
He now determines to see the end of the prophesy which had been foretold
to him. The clouds burst from his sight; he believes if he can but see
his Ambulinia, he can open to her view the bloody altars that have
been misrepresented to stigmatize his name. He knows that her bre