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Show 302 THE LrJ,Y AND THE TOTE~!. might L:~vc boon ready to waive, for a season at least, their impatient desire to return to France. Night was at length subdued to silcnctl on the banks of the Satil Ia. The soul!ds of re\'clry had ceased. All slept, and the transition from night to day passed, sweetly and insensibly, a}. most without the consciousness of tho parties. Dut, with the sunrise, the great conch sounded in the forest. The Eden of tiJC Fioridian did not imply a life of mere repose. The people were gathered to their harvesting, and the labors of the day, under the auspices of a gracious rule, were made to seem a pleasure. Hand in hand, the Queen lraeana, with her maidens, and her guests, followed to tho maize fields. Already had she found D'Erlaeh, and her slender fingers, without any sense of shame, had taken possession of his hand, which she pres!ted at moments \'Cry tenderly. lie had already informed her of the wants and the sufferings of his garrison, and she smiled with a new feeling of lmppiness, as she eagerly assured him that his people should receive abundance. She bent with her own hands the towering stalks; and, detaching tho cars, flung to the ground a few in all .these places, on which it was mean~ that the heaps should be accumulated. "Give these to our friends, the Frenchmen," she said, indicating with a sweep of the hnnd, a large tract of the field, through wllich they went. D'Erlach felt this liberality. He squeezed her fingers fondly in rcturn,-sayiug words of compliment which, possibly, in her car, meant something more tlw.n compliment. Tl10n followed the morning feast ; then walks in the woods; then sports upon the ri\'cr in their canoes; and snaring the fish in weirs, in which tho Indians were very <>:xpert. Evening brought with it a renewal of the dane~, which agaiq coqtinucd late 303 in the night. Again did Alphonse D'Erlach dance with Iracana; but i~ was now seen that her eyes s::.ddcncd with tho ovcrfulness of her heart. Love is not so much a joy as a c:lre. It is so \'ast a treasure, that the heart, possessed of the fullest consciousness of its value, is for ever dreading its loss. The happiness of tho Floridian Eden had been of a sort which never absorbed tho soul. lt lacked the intensity of a fervent .passion. It was tho lifo of childhood-a thing of sport and play, of dance and dream-not that eager and a\'aricious passion which knows never content, and is never sure, even when most happy, from tho anxieties and doubts which beset all mortal felicity. Already did our Queen begin to calculate the hours between tho present, and that which ahould witness the departure of the pleasant French- "You will go from mo," s:1.id she to D'Erlach, as they went apart from the rest, wandering along the banks of tho river and looking out upon the sea. "You will go from me, and I shall never see )'OU any more." " L will come again, noble Queen, believe mo," was the assur- "Ah! come soon," she said," como soon, for you please mo very much, Aph011.., Such was tho soft Indian corruption of his christened name. No doubt, she too gave pleasure to' A phon.' II0\'1' could it be otherwise ? How could he prove insensible to tho tender and fervid interest which she so iunocently betrayed in him? He did not. He was not insensible; and "ague fancies were quickening in his mind as respects tho futuro. Ilc wa.s opposed to the plan of returning to Fmuce. lie was for carrying out the purposes of Coligny, and fulfilling the destinies of the colony. He had |