for thee my borders nurse the fragrant wreath,

my fountain murmurs and my zephyrs breathe;

slow glides the painted snail, the gilded fly

smooths his fine down to charm thy curious eye;

on twinkling fins my scaly nations play,

or wind, with sinuous train, their trackless way.

my plumy pairs, in gay embroidery dressed,

form with ingenious skill the pensile nest;

to love's sweet notes attune the listening dell,

and echo sounds her soft symphonious shell.

???????? ???????? ???????? the botanic garden.

betimes the next morning the botanical party were in the saddle. mrs. shortridge rode a mule, the especial favorite of the commissary, for her sure foot and easy gaits, and lady mabel was mounted on her andalusian, on whose education lieut. goring had bestowed such pains: but on this occasion she ungratefully omitted to summon her equerry to attend her.

descending the granite hill of elvas, they rode westward across the fertile valley, their road shut in on either hand by luxuriant evergreen hedges; for here the dark clay soil was all under cultivation, and carefully laid out into garden, orchard, or field. they passed under the arches of the great aqueduct that stretched its tortuous length across the undulating vale; they paused to admire its peculiarity of style and structure, and the greatness of the work; to wonder at the crooked course it ran, and yet more at the little use the people of elvas made of its waters for cleaning purposes. then, hastening on, they found themselves, at the end of some five miles, in an open and elevated country. dismounting here, they left the horses to the care of their servants. the riding skirts fell to the ground, the ladies stepped forth in walking costume, and the party commenced their ramble after flowers, plants, and scenery, directing their steps toward the high grounds to the northwest of elvas.

for two or three hours they got on famously. there was much that was new, curious, and beautiful, to be gazed on and admired, wondered at, and collected. lady mabel, with the enthusiasm of a young botanist and a younger traveler, found treasures at every step. the gentle morning breeze came refreshingly down from the hills before them, laden with the perfumes of opening spring; the rich aroma of the gum-cistus, the fragrance of the wild rosemary, and many another sweet-scented plant, pervading the air, yet not oppressing the breath. mrs. shortridge expressed, rather strongly, perhaps, her delight at the contrast between the sweet-smelling country and the unsavory towns of the portuguese. she quoted, with no little unction, the proverb: "god made the country, man made the town," as if she had never fully felt its force till now.

"we may say more broadly," observed l'isle, "that god makes nature and man defiles it."

"i am truly glad," said mrs. shortridge, "that these filthy people have not been able to defile their whole land."

gradually the sunbeams grew hotter, the mountain breeze became a sultry breath, the ground steeper and more rugged, and their accumulating floral treasures more and more cumbrous. lady mabel seemed to take delight in adding every moment to the load l'isle carried. "you must know," she said, "that the pupil is always the packhorse on these occasions," and she insisted on mrs. shortridge bearing her share of the burden. this lady at first had talked incessantly, but had gradually less and less to say, and at length was reduced to silence from sheer want of breath. she had frequently to rest for a few minutes, and was coming fast to the conviction that rural excursions on a hot day, and flower-hunting over rough ground, were less pleasant than she thought at first. the hills, bare of trees, exposed them to the full power of the sun, yet were covered with a growth of tall heaths, mingled with patches of the cistus ladaniferus, which covers so much of the surface of the slaty hills of this region. the close growth and gummy exudations of this plant often made the thickets impenetrable, and forced the party to many a long circuit, in their efforts to reach the ridge of the high grounds. mrs. shortridge at length sat, or rather sunk, down upon a fragment of rock, and l'isle came promptly to her aid.

"colonel l'isle," said she, panting, "i could not take another step up hill for all the flowers in portugal."

"i am only astonished at your getting so far up. you are not used to climbing mountains."

"when lady mabel is at home in scotland," said mrs. shortridge, "i suppose she walks up a mountain every morning, to get an appetite for breakfast. so it is in vain to attempt to follow her. but here she comes."

lady mabel now joined them; and l'isle, pointing out a belt of low woods that wound along the hollow ground at no great distance below them, offered mrs. shortridge his arm, and induced her to make an effort to reach its shelter.

on drawing nearer to it, they found themselves in a rough path, made by the flocks of the neighborhood, which led them at first through thickets of evergreen shrubs, and then abruptly down the rocky and almost precipitous bank of that stream, which a mile or two below reached and supplied the aqueduct of elvas.

here the clear, cool waters glided over a rocky bed, and when they had quenched their thirst, the ladies found time to look around. on either hand they were shut in by masses of rock, which, with their stratified and fractured lines, resembled walls, the rude masonry of giants. a projecting crag shut out from sight the stream above them; but, attracted by the sound of falling waters, they pushed their way by a few careful steps round it, and full in view, and close at hand, the stream fell over a ledge of rock in a beautiful cascade, descending at once twenty feet into a rock-girdled pool, which in the course of ages it had hollowed out for itself. here the water ran eddying round, as lingering on a spot it loved, and loath to resume its onward course.

the perpetually falling waters fanned and freshened the noonday air; while overhead, on every ledge that gave footing to their roots, the myrtle and lauristinus, mingled with the oleander, the rhododendron ponticum, and other evergreen shrubs, fed by the fostering moisture of the atmosphere, almost to the size of trees, spread out their luxurious branches to shut out each straggling sunbeam, and deepen the shade of the narrow dell almost to twilight. it was a cavern, with its vaulted roof removed, laying it gently open to the light of day, without its glare. the wood-pigeon amidst the boughs mingled his plaintive notes with the murmur of the falling water, and the speckled trout sported in the pool—now displaying his glistening scales at the surface, then suddenly and coyly hiding in some deep and dark recess.

lady mabel stood in silent, motionless delight, drinking in with eye, and ear, and breath, the thrilling sensations crowding on her in this enchanted spot. the exclamation in which mrs. shortridge's admiring surprise found vent, jarred on her young companions' nerves, and seemed to break a mystic spell.

the ladies were still wondering at the chance which had led them to this spot, so cool, shady and refreshing after their fatigues, and so charming in its happy grouping of wild, picturesque, and romantic features on a miniature scale, when one of l'isle's servants stepped from behind the projecting crag, and spread a cloth over a large fragment of rock, the stratified surface of its upper side making no inconvenient table. then, bringing forward a large basket, he lost no time in setting forth the materials of a light but elegant repast. it was now evident to the ladies that their arrival at this place of refuge and delight, neighboring so closely the bare mountain-side, was not so accidental as they had imagined, and they united in thanking l'isle for his foresight, and lauding his taste.

smaller fragments of rock were placed as seats for the ladies, and though they had not all the conveniences of a well-ordered dining-room, they only enjoyed themselves the more for the want of them, while l'isle busied himself in doing the hospitalities of what lady mabel christened "fairy dell." the inducements were strong to remain here until the heat of the day was past. mrs. shortridge had had her fill of heat and fatigue, in scrambling over the rugged mountain. lady mabel had to place her botanical treasures with their stems in the water, to revive their already withering bloom and rear their drooping heads, before she could cull from their unwieldy bulk the specimens she wished to preserve. so, after their meal, the servant was sent to order the horses up to the nearest point that admitted of riding, while the party reposed themselves in the shade and rested from their labors, luxuriously enjoying the scene, sounds, and atmosphere around them.

"how did you happen to find this lovely spot?" asked mrs. shortridge.

"the truth is, i yesterday morning went over the same ground we have gone over to-day, and a good deal more," answered l'isle. "following this stream upward, i came to this spot. if you would hunt out the peculiar beauties of portugal, you must follow the course of its rivers and rivulets. true as this is of many countries, it is most true of this. you may observe, lady mabel, that almost all the plants you have collected, and some flowers you have not met with to-day, were contained in the collection i brought you yesterday."

"i see that," said lady mabel. "but to-day's work is not therefore the less satisfactory. the title botanist—and i suppose you have found out that i make some pretensions to that character—is not content with merely having flowers, leaves, and parts of plants in his hortus siccus, or even abortive specimens in his garden and his hot-house: he wants to see the whole plant where nature placed it, and study its character and habits there. who is satisfied with seeing a turk in london? to know him as he is, we look for him in constantinople, or, better still, in some province across the bosphorus, seated on his own carpet, in his own shop, or in his coffee-house; or, better still, in his harem, with his customers, or neighbors, or his family of wives around him. how much does the esquimaux in london resemble the esquimaux seated on his sledge, shouting at his team of dogs, and posting over his frozen and trackless route, with a horizon of ice around him? that is traveling, and this is botany; and of all sciences botany best suits the traveler. every variation of latitude, climate, or season, even the smallest changes of soil, elevation, or exposure, brings him to a new region, where he may make new acquaintances, or meet old friends. through a love for botany the wilderness blooms to us like a garden, and the solitary places are made populous and glad."

"such an enthusiastic botanist must become an adept," said l'isle. "i suppose you see in portugal nothing but a land of rare and varied vegetation?"

"by no means. i am not wedded to one pursuit; or gifted with but one taste. i have eyes for other things beside flowers, and shall seize every opportunity of seeing and knowing something of the people of the country."

"the people, the real people," said l'isle, "both of this country and of spain, are the peasantry. they are chiefly agricultural countries, and the rural, or rather village population forms the bulk of both nations, and the best part of them."

"it is the peasantry, the dear, natural, picturesque peasantry that i most want to know."

"i am astonished to hear you say so, lady mabel. the ignorant, filthy, superstitious creatures!" exclaimed mrs. shortridge, with an air of infinite disgust. "their fidalgos, as they call their gentry, are bad enough; but as for the common people, any familiarity with them, sufficient to enable you to know them, would be too disgusting. they may be picturesque; so let us confine them to their place in the picture. there alone it is that they do not bring their savor of garlic with them," and she here buried her pretty little turned-up nose in a bunch of lady mabel's most fragrant flowers.

"give me those flowers, mrs. shortridge; you handle them so rudely, any one might see that you are no botanist. i had just laid them aside to be pressed. and as for the poor portuguese, i mean to know them as well and despise them as little as i can, and even hope to learn something through them, if not from them. colonel l'isle, i have mastered already all the ordinary phrases of portuguese salutation and compliment, which you know are much more various and cumbrous than in our direct, blunt english. i can already be as polite as the most courteous native, and that is, at least, the beginning of conversation. i can ask, too, for the necessaries of life, and inquire my road, should i chance to lose it. let a woman alone for getting the tongues. i hold frequent conferences with antonio lobo, the peasant who keeps our orchard at head-quarters, and have daily talks with our portuguese chamber-maid, and can find fault with her, not to say scold, in good set terms. the awkward creature gives me abundant provocation for scolding, and for not forgetting your advice about vociferation and gesticulation."

"you do well to remember it," said l'isle; "it will help you on famously."

"i had some thoughts," she continued, "in order to lose no opportunity of familiarizing myself with these tongues, of saying my prayers in spanish of a morning, and portuguese at night. but a scruple of conscience deterred me from attempting, in prayer, to kill two birds with one stone."

"i think," said l'isle, laughing, "that your scruple was not out of place."

"yet you know that charles v. held that god should never be addressed but in spanish."

"a strange doctrine for a papist, who was always praying to him in bad latin," said l'isle. "that opinion savors of heresy, and deserved the notice of the inquisition."

"at all events," said lady mabel, "it is best not to pray to him in bad spanish. but had i an opportunity of traveling through spain and portugal, and mixing freely with the people, i would show you how quickly both tongues could be mastered."

"i see little chance of your having that opportunity soon," said mrs. shortridge.

"i am afraid i must give up all hope of it. the santa hermandad no longer keep the roads safe; and all the knights of alcantara and calatrava to boot, of these degenerate days, would afford but little protection to a demoiselle errante."

"i will offer you a more trusty escort than that of those false knights," said l'isle. "i will place myself and regiment at your command."

"that is truly kind. i accept the offer; and when i set out on my travels, will send you on with it a march or two ahead, to clear the way, and make all safe for us, while mrs. shortridge and myself will follow at ease with our civic retinue, confident that you will have removed every danger from the path!"

"that arrangement would make the journey less pleasant to me than i hoped to find it."

"i thought your object was our safety, not your pleasure," said lady mabel.

"and for my part," said mrs. shortridge, "i do not care to travel any road which requires a regiment to make it safe. i am inquisitive enough, but my fears would be stronger than my curiosity."

"well," lady mabel said, "i begin to despair of ever gratifying my longing after a rambling life. it is probably all for the best. i dare say i would have become a mere vagabond. but i had embraced a wide field in my contemplated travels: romantic spain, la belle france, classic italy, and that dreamy, misty faderland. but i suppose that this war will last always, and for all practical purposes i may as well roll up the map of europe."

"do you seriously imagine that this war will last forever?" l'isle asked.

"why not forever, or, at least, for a long life time? it began before i was born, and may continue long after i am dead. i have no recollection of a state of peace, to make me think it the natural condition of nations."

"we are luckily not limited to our own experience in drawing our conclusions. take my word for it, these wars are drawing to a close. i am only afraid that they will end before i am a major-general."

"why! do you expect them to go on making a series of blunders at headquarters, like that in the affair of that unlucky spanish village?"

"a series of blunders," l'isle answered, "would be quite in accordance with the routine at the war-office, at least. so my expectations are not so unreasonable as you may imagine."

"then let them blunder on as fast as possible, and make you a major-general, and a knight of the bath, too, if it please the king. many of your family were knighted of old, and sir edward l'isle will sound well enough until it be merged in the peerage. but mean while hasten to drive these french out of spain, as the czar is driving them out of russia; make spain too hot, as muscovy is too cold for them, that i may begin my travels at an early day."

l'isle, out of countenance, made no answer to this sally. he did not like being laughed at, especially by lady mabel.

the rays of the declining sun now touched the tops only of the luxuriant shrubbery, that overhung this fairy dell. the heat of the day was passed, and clambering up the steep path to the more level ground, the party found their servants at hand with the horses, and rode slowly back toward elvas.

near the foot of the range of hills, l'isle suddenly caught sight of three red coats, and saying, "i wonder what those fellows are doing so far from their quarters," he turned his horse out of the path, and rode toward them. they presently saw him approaching, and much to lady mabel's surprise and amusement, in which last feeling, mrs. shortridge joined, instead of waiting for him to come up, they immediately ran off different ways, seeking concealment from the thickets and hollows. selecting one of them for the chase, l'isle pushed his horse boldly over the rough ground. but the soldier, finding the pursuit too hot, pulled off the coat which made him conspicuous, and folding it into small compass, pushed through an overgrown hedge and vanished. l'isle was soon at fault, and had to give up the chase. he returned somewhat out of humor, with his horse somewhat blown.

"you are a bold rider," said lady mabel, "but those red foxes are too cunning for you. what made you chase them? what harm were they doing?"

"none that i know of—and had they let me speak to them i would have suspected none. but a soldier is always at mischief when he avoids being seen and identified by his officer. the men are allowed too much liberty in rambling over the country. no wonder we have so many complaints lodged against them."

"you had better speak to papa about it," said lady mabel, in simple confidence that so doing would set all to right.

"so i have, more than once. but he does not agree with me, and is opposed to what he calls needless restraint."

"oh, if papa thinks so, you need not worry yourself about the matter. it is his business, and doubtless near forty year's experience has taught him what amount and kinds of restraint are needed, and what is merely burthensome and oppressive. i have heard him discuss these matters more than once."

she seemed so little disposed to think her father might be mistaken, that l'isle did not venture to hint further the possibility of it. in that father, lady mabel had full faith, and also some of the faith of inexperience in the beautiful theory which teaches that the general knows best, that after him the second in command approaches nearest to infallibility, and so on through every gradation of rank, in all services, civil and military. had she made an exception to the application of this rule, it would have been in her father's case; for she inclined to the belief, that notwithstanding the reputation and higher rank of the military men who stood between him and the commander-in-chief, her father was, after wellington, the strongest bulwark against the torrent of invading french.

"i dare say that many of these poor fellows," observed lady mabel, "though they are but common soldiers, enjoy a stroll into the country as much as we do. in a rude way they admire picturesque beauty, and observe with interest, bird, beast and plant of a country so different from their own."

"i suspect," said mrs. shortridge, "they look chiefly for the picturesque spots frequented by the pigs and poultry of the peasants, and have a keen eye to detect where the fruits of the orchard are stored, and where the wine skins hang."

lady mabel was indignant at this suggestion. "it is a libel on the british army in general, and on our brigade in particular. they are soldiers, not robbers; and the king's troops are too well cared for to be driven to plunder for a living."

"but they may rob from love of mischief, of excitement, of excess, from mere idleness, or old habits," said l'isle. "in recruiting we adopt a physical, and not a moral standard. a sound body, five feet some inches long, is all we look for, and we are glad to get it. a great many rogues fulfil these requisites, and get into the ranks; and though we charge ourselves with the moral as well as the physical training, we are not always successful. the sack of badajoz, and of ciudad rodrigo bear witness to this."

they reached elvas without further incident, and this proved but the first of many excursions made from time to time to points around that place. thus, altogether with a view to her profit and pleasure, l'isle contrived to withdraw lady mabel frequently from the military throng at headquarters, and, with mrs. shortridge's aid, appropriate her to himself.

by this adroit manoeuvre, l'isle did not gain the good will of some of his brother officers, who found their share of her ladyship's society much curtailed. what cared l'isle for that? no more than colonels usually care for the inclinations of subalterns. many were the pleasant morning rambles on horseback and on foot that he took with the two ladies; and this mode of life agreed with him wonderfully well. before long he recovered strength and activity to achieve some tall climbing after rare plants among the rocks and crags, which would have gained him great credit in an escalade. occasionally too, while mrs. shortridge prudently, or indolently, kept the more level ground he would contrive to lead lady mabel to some elevated and perilous spot—and she boldly putting herself into difficulties, and not always seeing the way out of them, had to rely on his aid, and the supporting arm he delighted to afford her. and they gave to love for botany the credit of it all.

the zeal with which colonel l'isle followed up this new study, did not escape colonel bradshawe's watchful eye. so his satirical tongue had many a comment to make on the change in l'isle's habits. to his own cronies bradshawe dubbed him the bushman, not as being neighbor to the hottentots, but from his often riding into elvas, equipped like one of malcolm's soldiers, marching from birnam wood to dunsinane.

"our would be achilles, laden with that huge bunch of materials for lady mabel's hortus siccus, thinks himself like hercules with the distaff. to me he looks like a florist's apprentice, selling his flowers at a penny a bunch. it must be confessed though that the fellow has talents and tact. how completely has he contrived to shut out rivalry, by availing himself of my lady's weakness in imagining herself a great botanist, and providing her with a zealous and admiring pupil in his own person. and then to use so adroitly his accommodating temporary female friend in decoying his lawful love into the trap. she is certainly the finest girl of her day, and acres are good things, even though they be scotch acres; for in the same proportion they are broader as well as more barren than english acres. the whole thing is admirable. it is a combination of means to a combination of ends, evincing genius of high order. were i at the head of the war office, i would promote him on the spot."

"poor shortridge!" sighed colonel bradshawe, dropping at once from a tone of the highest admiration to one of deep commiseration, "can he possibly be blind to what is going on? and what is lord strathern dreaming of! what a pity one cannot interfere in these little matters, and put our friends on their guard! but shortridge is so obtuse, and my lord so self-willed and wrong-headed, that it would only make matters worse. indeed, it is too late to help shortridge, poor fellow! and we must console ourselves with the wise conclusion of the great bard:

"he that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen,

let him not know it, and he's not robbed at all."