The Gypsy Queen's Vow

Petronilla rode gayly along to the little bustling, half-village, half-city, Judestown, thinking over her late surprising proposal, and scarcely knowing whether to laugh at or p...

It was a long, high, wide room, with desks running round the walls, and maps, globes, books and slates scattered profusely around. Before each desk was a chair, and some sixty g...

"Yellow sheaves from rich Ceres the cottage had crowned, Green rushes were strewed on the floor; The casements sweet woodbine crept wantonly round, And decked the sod-seats at t...

"Thinkest thou there dwells no courage but in breasts That set their mail against the ringing spears When helmets are struck down? Thou little knowest Of nature's marvels." --MR...

Your pardon, dear reader, if, without further preface, I skip over a period of six years. One brief bird's-eye glance at the past, and then to go on with our history.

"The dark-blue jacket that enfolds the sailor's manly breast Bears more of real honor than the star and ermine vest; The tithe of folly in his head may wake the landsman's mirth...

"Eight years ago, mother," began the prisoner, "I first entered Eton. Through your kindness, I was provided with money enough to enable me to mix on terms of equality in all thi...

"He knew himself a villain, but he deemed The rest no better than the thing he seemed; And scorned the best as hypocrites, who hid, Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did. He...

"----Then more fierce The conflict grew: the din of arms; the yell Of savage rage; the shriek of agony; The groans of death, commingled with one sound Of undistinguished horrors...

For some moments Pet continued to struggle violently, but finding all her efforts vain--worse than vain--and being half-suffocated for want of air, she fell back in her captor's...

Judge Lawless was in a rage! If you have ever seen an angry lion, an enraged bear, or a young lady with "her mantle pinned awry," you may conceive in some measure the state of m...

"They did not know how hate can burn In hearts once changed from soft to stern, Nor all the false and fatal zeal The convert of revenge can feel." --BYRON.

Miss Petronilla Lawless having, as Ranty would have expressed it, got the steam up to a high pressure, thundered over the heath, entered the forest road, and looked with eyes sp...

Into the great dark gulf of the Past, nearly two years, like two waves from an ever-flowing sea, had vanished, freighted with their usual modicum of sorrow, joy, happiness, and...

It was a jocund morning in early spring. From the pine woods came the soft twittering of innumerable birds, filling the air with melody; while the soft, fragrant odor of the tal...

"The hypocrite had left his mask, and stood In naked ugliness. He was a man Who stole the livery of the court of Heaven To serve the devil in." --POLLOCK.

Judge Lawless was pacing up and down the floor of his study with rapid, excited strides, his brows knit, his face flushed, his hands clenched, his teeth set, his whole look, att...

Pacing up and down the room, as if for a wager, was Master Ranty Lawless, with a look as nearly approaching the intensely gloomy as was possible for his handsome, happy face to...

In an elegantly-furnished room, in a most elegant private mansion, a lady, still young and exceedingly beautiful, sat with her head leaning on her hand, her eyes fixed thoughtfu...

"Yes," said Ranty, giving his hat so well-aimed a kick that it struck the cat, and hurled that unfortunate quadruped over on her back, "and this is a nice way to treat a 'lone w...

The vehicle that the gipsy had heard approaching was a light wagon drawn by two swift horses. It had two seats capable of holding four persons, though the front seat alone was n...

Quivering with the remembrance of last night's frolic, and the terror and consternation that would follow it to-day, Pet stood before the mirror bathing her hands and face, and...

A little, old, decrepit woman, bent double with age, leaning on a staff, and shaking with palsy, stood as suddenly before them as if she had sprung up through the earth. Her dre...

It was Ranty who spoke in a deep, excited voice. Ray, white and stone-like, stood with one arm resting on the mantel, his face shaded by his heavy, falling hair, his deep breath...

The sudden death of the Earl De Courcy fell heavily on the hearts of Lord Villiers and Lady Maude; but they mourned as those on whom the heaviest blow Fate can bestow has alread...

"Oh, thou shalt be all else to me, That heart can feel, or tongue can feign; I'll praise, admire, and worship thee, But must not, dare not, love again." --MOORE.

The speaker, a pale young man, with a profusion of light hair and freckles, and a gaudy hand carpet-bag, was taking a stroll on the classic banks of the Serpentine, when suddenl...

To his mother came the news in her far-off greenwood home; and as she heard he had perished forever in the stormy sea, Reason, already tottering in her half-crazed brain, entire...

Silently they confronted each other--those two, so nearly connected--so long separated--so strangely encountered now. Did no "still, small," inward voice whisper to each that th...

Death above, and death below--the cold, dread, invisible presence pervading the whole house with a chilling awe. Voices were hushed to lowest whispers, footfalls were muffled; t...

"Oh! positively, your ladyship is looking perfectly dazzling! I never, no, _never_ saw anybody half so beautiful in my life! Oh, Lady Kate! isn't she charming?" And little Miss...

In all the ardor of his momentary excitement, Mr. Toosypegs got astride of a serious-looking pony, a family relation of the admiral's favorite nag, Ringbone, and set out at a sh...

"Oh! woman wronged can cherish hate More deep and dark than manhood may; And when the mockery of fate Hath left revenge her chosen way, Then all the wrongs which time hath nurse...

"Ay, think upon the cause-- Forget it not. When you lie down to rest, Let it be black among your dreams; and when The morn returns, so let it stand between The sun and you, as a...

The time I've lost in wooing, In watching and pursuing The light that lies in woman's eyes, Has been my heart's undoing. Though wisdom oft has sought me, I scorned the love she...

That same night; that night of storm and tempest without, and still fiercer storm and tempest within; that same night--three hours later; in a narrow, dark, noisome cell, with g...

Away through the driving storm--through the deepening darkness of coming morn--through the long, bleak, gusty streets--through alleys, and courts, and lanes; whirled on like a l...

"Admiral Havenful, it's kind of you to ask, but I ain't well at all; I'm very much obliged to you," said Mr. Toosypegs, in a deeply dejected voice, as he walked into the parlor...

"Well, madam, I am waiting," said the earl, after a pause, during which the wild, black eyes of the woman were fixed immovably on his face, until he began to grow uneasy under t...

"The night grows wondrous dark; deep-swelling gusts And sultry stillness take the rule by turn, While o'er our heads the black and heavy clouds Roll slowly on. This surely bodes...