OR, WEEKLY THE VISITOR. "VILLAIN!" exclaimed a voice from behind, while a rapier passed under the arm of Alfonso. Bleak and stormy was the night, and, the alternate brightness, and total absence of the moon, served but to perplex the way-lost traveller on the heath. Alfonso had discovered the intricacy in which he was involved; but he had no alternative. Revolving in his mind the singular occurrences of the past, inadvertent ly, he quitted the road he was pursuing; and, when too late to retrace his steps, had plunged into a common equally dreary and unfrequented. His past life had been chequered by incidents of no ordinary cast; and he was become used to difficulties insurmountable by the common run of individals. Eager to reach the appointed spot where should be unfolded, perhaps, the mystery of his birth and the origin of the persecution which had pursued him for years [NO. 12. is an apology, sufficient for his inquietude on the first discovery of his embarrassment; but he soon regained the customary temper of his mind, and without abandoning himself to despondency he at once resolved to proceed, with slow and cautious steps, in the hope of meeting with some hamlet in which to shelter from the impending storm. We may baffet against the ills of life, cast but a vacant eye upon the extravagant follies of the world, seem undaunted amid the peril of open danger, and assume the stoick in morbid contemplation of futurity-but to know the condition of Alfonso's mind would be sufficient to rouse the generous feelings of our nature, and to disclose the horror which assailed him at the sudden and unlooked for attack of the midnight assassin. His life was preserved by an impulse of the moment. Having wrenched the sapier from his an. tagonist he buried it in his body, and fearful of encountering the weapon of an associate, prudently fled, not without sufficient apprehension of falling a sacrifice alike to the ruggedness of the ground, and the pursuit of a Overcome with fatigue, a renched, by the rain which now fell in torrents, he paused to listen for the sound of footsteps. Fortunately he had preserved the rapier of his antagonist, and having no means of escape, he resolved to abide the issue of the adventure or perish in the attempt. Scarcely had he formed this resolution, when his ears were assailed by a deep and hollow groan, which issued but a few paces from where he stood, and which seemed to indicate the last struggle of exhausted nature. 'Nothing again was heard but the bowlings of the wind, and he began to be suspicious that it was the convulsive agonies of the wounded assassin, when the faint glimmering of a light shone through an adjoining coppice. Thither he groped his way, not without considerable alarm, and though it were less likely to prove the hamlet of some honest peasant than the haunt of robbers, he was unwilling to wander about when a shelter presented itself to his view. It was indeed a house; but miserable and mean in appearance it had proven an uncomfortable todging in any other predicament. The door stood wide open. At such an hour, and in such a place, this was enough to excite alarm; but curiosity is not unfrequently inseparable from suspicion, nor ahall we attempt to de fend the imprudence of Alfonso thus blindly to hazard his safety in such a refuge. Great God! what a spectacle presented itself; two females, one a lifeless corpse, lay stretched along the floor and bathed in blood: the other on a miserable pallet, with the head severed from the body-painted in desponding colors the danger which surrounded him. and reverberating on every fibre of the heart, he stood paralized with horror! Awful as was the spectacle, and terrible as were the forebod ings of his imagination, he besitat ed between the dreadful alternative of again committing himself to the invisible dangers of the common, or to remain a prey to the poignards of overpowering numbers. What had he to expect from the relentless fury of ferocious desperadoes? but whither was he to retreat from danger? true, he had little of value to enrich the spoil of the freebooter; but the heart, already stained with blood, stands aloof from pity and void of every generous sentiment, depreciates the value of gold untainted with the blood of the unhappy traveller. No spot presented itself for concealment; and the bright blaze of the newly added faggot to the fire, bespoke the bloodhound at no distance from his kennel. Each succeeding moment present ed the last; and, thus writhing under the agonies of suspense, the sound of distant footsteps shoot distinctly upon his ear! what was he ib resolve? tame submission to deliberate butchery? or bravely to sell his life in fruitless combat against a band of ruffians? The thought was sudden, and in a moment carried into effect-behold him concealed under the bedclothes, an animated carcase al'most insensible of existence as the headless trunk prostrate By his 'side. Thus was Alfonso disposed of, when a man entered the apartment, whose dress, and venerable appearance, announced something above the fevel of a peasant and very distant from the character his frenzied imagination induced him to expect. God!' ex ciained the unknown, as his eyes met the mangled corpse upon the floor-O God! O God! that I 'should be reserved to witness the butchery of my wife-my only child too!--both torn from me by a ruffian protagee. yet was the monster kind!-happily I missed my aim-——————~háb !————————I come yes, my Elvira and my child, I come.-The villain's aim was sure-deep has his dagger plunged into the vitals of the once happy house of Aranza. Stript a savage of satisfaction glowed upon his cheek. Instantly drawing a poignard from his bosom, and brandishing it in the air, Now, cried he, his eyes sparkling with demonian joy, now for the last finish to my work, and the dukedom is my own." Alfonso had heard enough to rouse him from the torpor he endured. Retaining some faint ho of life in the wounded stranger he sprang upon the assassin, whose uplifted poignard was already aimcd, and wrenching it from his grasp, buried it in his heart! In the scuffie the stranger re-, vived; but. alas! 'twas only frem his gestures that Alfonso could ascertain the part he wished to take. An ineffectual struggle to raise himself from his seat, and the convulsions which distorted his manly countenance, were equally indicative of an avenging desire and the criterion of approaching dissolution. Alfons hastened to his assistance, and to assure him of his protection: but the tide of life was in rapid ebb; and an halk stifled imprecation burst from his lips, after a feeble effort of his arm to oppose the of its foliage, and blasted by the proffered friendship of his deliverreptile nourished by its shade, behold the trunk totters-- !' er. All personal fear now quitted Scarcely had he sunk into a chair the bosom of Alfonso no passion When another entered, whose fe- glowed but that of comforting the rocious aspect identified the mone-dying stranger; but the active betér just alluded to. Starting back,nevolence of his heart seemed frus. as if the wreeting was unlooked-for, Htrated, alike, from the absence of household convenience and chir-criptions of ghastly wounds, and each coup de sabre is a stab to the sensibility of the hearer. This was not time for sleep:--present distress and anticipated attack were enough to keep even Alfonso awake. urgical assistance. Speedily he removed the dead body from the bed, and, calling forth all his strength, succeeded in placing the unhappy father upon the bloody couch of his butchered daughter. A deep stab presented itself in the stomach--the bleeding had subsided; but the livid tinge of death was already stampt upon his counhance. With fearful forebodings Alfonso applied his hand to the pulse it yet beat; and a faint gleam of hope still supported him in the belief that repose might restore the scattered senses of the stranger, from whose directions he might hasten in search of medical assistance. To the best of his conjecture, the morning was not far distant; and having barricaded the outer door, which would at least answer as a signal to the approach of other accomplices, he added a few fresh faggots to the fire and seated himself by its side. Of sleep he stood in much need; but the horrid imagery which surrounded him was ill calculated to invite repose. The sight of blood is ever painful to a feeling mind; -a sudden injury on our neighbor will sometimes create in us an insipient debility; and our curiosity has often been repaid by a temporary suspension of animal motion, when observing a nice chir-ingredient of his mind, was the "urgical operation. An animated description of a battle begets enthusiasm; but descend to the minutiae of carnage, to examples of brutal vengeange, and to des-extensive as had been his research The adventure of the night had not yet come to a close. To judge from the past he had not only to suffer inquietude for the fate of the wounded stranger, but to continue in alarm for his own personal safety. It was now evident this stranger was the same who had so rude. ly attacked him on the common; and of whose wound, self-preser vation had compelled him to be the cause. He lamented the mistake, but more poignantly did he feel the irreparable calamity to the stranger in the double loss of a wife and daughter. Himself an orphan, Alfonso had never expe rienced the sweets of parental solicitude; without offspring, he was untutored in the affections which agonize a parent at the loss of a child: but he had a heart susceptible of every tender sentiment-a heart ever ready to sympathise with the woes of all! His philanthrophy was not confined to the prudence of the cautious, nor narrowed by the stiff precision of scholastic rule. This benificent joint product of misfortune and unbiased reflection. His idea of virtue was simple and unsophisticated. He had read much; but es among books, his chief delight was to study the endless variety of human action. Early in life had he been fascinated with the scriptural maxim-DO UNTO, OTHFES THAT WHICH YOU WOULD OTHERS tion against the vicious; still the DO. UNTO YOU.' He sought to con- Alfonso arrogated to himself no merit in the doing of a good action; it appeared to him the bare fulfilment of a social tie. If instrumental to the injury of another, he was either innocently the cause or it proceeded from sudden impulse of the moment for both he was rea We are willing to bestow some pains in our endeavor to illustrate the character of each individual,dy connected with the subject of these volumes, to trace their separate springs of action, and to draw aside the veil of mystery which not unfrequently conceals to poison the best, and to influence unworthy acclamations, for the basest attributes of our nature.--This seems to be the most accurate model for the biographer. We confess ourselves equally unqualified to sit in judgment between man and his creator, as we are ignorant from whence such lawless authority could originate. It is said to be essential, that the historian perpetually show himself on the side of virtue, in order to excite indigna to atone as the nature of the case seemed to demand. He ac-' cepted every man as he found him, and where he could not approve he must persuade himself of the motive before he would condemn. -In the shape of man he had never encountered such an instance of enormity as that which now pre-. sented itself to his eyes. The deep shade of brutal depravation which covered the assassin prostrate at his feet, associated in his mind an instantaneous horror against the individual and the crime. From an impulse of curiosity natural to him, he could have wished to ascertain from the lips of the deceased the motives which influenc |