1827.] Loves Last Meeting. 2$ 



same face when lighted with the fire of love's heaven when the cestus 

 of affection added to it the lustre of its charm-conferring spell ! In 

 my bosom hast thou been nestled for years ; the pulses of my heart have 

 beat under thee ; thou hast been to me what the figure of his patron- 

 saint is to an anchorite a treasure far more than earthly ! Yet couldst 

 thou but for a moment possess that look of love which those eyes were 

 wont to shed upon me that smile, which spake of fondness, as the 

 glance did of intensity, I would be content to part from thee for ever, 

 aye, even though my heart should burst in the effort it would need ! 



Truly have I compared the feelings with which I regard this image 

 to those excited by devotion. " Buried love " has all the force and 

 warmth of earthly passion, freed from all the grosser particles of earth ; 

 it has all the ethereal purity of spiritual adoration, with a fervour and 

 reality superadded, which, alas ! our corporeal nature can scarcely ever 

 feel towards that which is only spiritual. Our thoughts are turned to- 

 wards a being whom we have adored when in the flesh, who now is raised 

 to a state more exalted and purer than our own. The passion we feel 

 for the woman, is tempered by the reverence with which we regard the 

 spirit ; and the two feelings united, form, probably, the highest and best 

 which enter into the bosom of humanity. 



The moon was struggling through a swift rack which drifted over her ; 

 her light fell fitfully upon the stream, and on the distant dome of the 

 cathedral ; the water rushed past our feet, as though swelled by the tor- 

 rents from the mountains ; but we heeded not the gloom ; we did not 

 note the marks of recent tempest ; our hearts communed with each other 

 ive "were together ! 



We parted that night in youth, in health, in high hope. For once, 

 " the course of true love seemed to run smooth." It is true, we could 

 not yet be united ; I was as yet only a student at Bologna, and I had a 

 mother and sister who mainly depended on my exertions for support. 

 But, in a few years, my studies would be finished ; I should be settled in 

 a sphere of humble usefulness ; my hopes, my wishes, were fixed on 

 domestic enjoyments on that happiness which is to be tasted nowhere 

 but in a happy home ! It is one of the frequent effects of a strong and 

 virtuous passion in early life to accelerate, by many years, that taste 

 for simple and domestic pleasures, which all men feel as they approach 

 the decline of years. I have since been a wanderer I have travelled 

 over a large portion of the earth ; but, if the hopes of my youth had 

 been realized, I should have been happy oh ! more than happy in the 

 narrow circle around my humble home for she would have been its 

 centre. 



We parted that night in youth, in health, in hope 1 never saw her 



again alive ! 



It was midnight ; I was returning home from the lecture which I had 

 been attending for I had lately devoted much of my time to the prose- 

 tion of my studies, as a celebrated professor of medicine was, at that 

 time, resident in Florence. As I approached the Piazza di St. Maria 

 Novella, I perceived an unusual crowd and bustle in the street, and I 

 advanced hurriedly to ascertain the cause for that square held all that 

 was most dear to me on earth ! My eager inquiries, as to the cause of 

 alarm, were speedily answered. When I entered the Piazza, I perceived N 

 several houses in flames her's was one of them ! I rushed through the 

 crowd who flocked round the place ; a man inspired with such feelings 



