THE SKETCH-BOOK.

* * * * *


THE HON. MRS. NAPIER.


"Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle,
That hast so long walked hand in hand with time."


You ask me for a single reminiscence of the olden time, which may
challenge your sympathy for female suffering, and is as yet unhacknied.
You shall have one.

The recent perusal of a file of old Newspapers has brought it freshly to
memory, and if your sympathy can be excited by the recital of an event
of a private nature, which gave occasion in its time to deep and
heartfelt regret, and occurred towards the close of the revolutionary
war; I will detain you for a few moments by reverting to the year 1780,
and by taking you with me within the British lines at New York.

It is only an incident, I confess, but it is of a character to furnish
a scene for the "mind's eye," an incident which, though it could never
occupy a very prominent place upon the canvass, might prove itself
a fine auxiliary, spreading a sweet and tender effect over the more
distant parts of the picture. There are many similar events which
seem fated to be lost in the rapid changes of feeling and the constant
revolutions of business; many too that would give interest to the tale,