FRENCH AUTHORESSES. 293 



arranged with pomp at }he Convent. The victim was brought 

 crowned to the sacrifice. All the devont were assembled, and 

 Cazales and his sister among the rest. ff What is your baptismal 

 name ? " said the officiating priest to Blanche. " I know not/' said 

 the latter "Denise Lazare," said the Sister of Charity Olympia. 

 The name acted like magic on several of the auditors. Blanche 

 swooned her confessor who had read the manuscript,, started forward 

 in .wild amazement, and Cazales sprung to her side, terrified and 

 confounded. An enquiry is instituted, and by the testimony of the 

 surgeon, who performed the operation which unsealed her intellectual 

 faculties Blanche is proved to be Denise Lazare. In reparation of 

 his former fault, Horace offers to marry her, and the repugnance of 

 Blanche yields to the representation of those around her. In her dis- 

 tress she writes to Rose to come and deliver her, but the nuptials are 

 pressed on and Rose arrived the morning after the ceremony. She 

 rushed into the house of Cazales. The relics of the benqoet were 

 strewed around profusely, but the apartments were silent and de- 

 serted. She pressed onward ; when on opening a remote door, she 

 saw " the nuptial bed adorned with the richest lace, met her view." 

 Blanch was reposing on it, but enveloped in a shroud. .Marriette 

 was kneeling at one end of the death bed. Every body had retired 

 terrified. Sister Olympia alone remained with the nurse to pay the 

 last sad dutie- to the deceased. Rose remained petrified in the mid- 

 dle of the room, without even apprehending what she gazed on, 

 speechless and motionless; like a statue of grief upon a tomb. At 

 length recovering from the blow, she threw herself upon the lifeless 

 form of Blanche. li was Laurence who tore her from it. " She is 

 dead !" cried he, "and we are left alone with her. We who loved 

 her. Where is the bridegroom, now ? where is his sister ?" 

 " They have killed her !" said Rose. Evil light on them." 

 Rose continued for a few months to drag on a brilliant and mise-, 

 rable existence under the name of Ceronari. Weary of the world, 

 she visits the cell of Sister Blanche, and there forms the resolution of 

 withdrawing from it for ever. 



Lawrence seeks consolation in the exercise of his profession, and 

 Cazales, instead of blowing out his brains, lives to be useful to his 

 fellow-creatures, while he sorrowed over his misfortunes. 



MARY'S EYES. 



Oh ! have you seen the broad blue sky, 

 In shining cloudless lustre lie ? 

 Or have you seen the stars at night, 

 Shoot on the sea their gleaming light ? 



Or the rich diamonds splendid blaze, 

 Stream thro' the dark in beaming rays? 

 Or the soft slumb'ring moon-lit lake, 

 When not a rippling wave doth wake ? 



Or the rich rising golden sun, 

 In all his shining brightness run 

 Across the blue-streak'd silvery skies ? 

 If so, you've seen my Mary's eyes. 



