Sunday dispatch. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1845-1854, 1852-03-28

A PORTUGUESE LADY'S HISTORY.

Her regular and noble features reminded
me of those beautiful models Of ancient art
with which no modern sculpture can bear
competition. Her costume might in some
degree be considered classical, and was ad-
mirably adapted to set forth tho faultless
outline of her face. She stopped at friends
house near Oporto, and we separated but
we afterwards renewed our acquaintance,
and heard from her own lips the story of
her Hfe-a simple, but romantic tale It is
but short, for she was still very young
She became acquainted, ct the early age of
sixteen, with young man only few years
her senior, but greatly her superior in rank
Acquaintance gave birth to attachment, and
the difficulties which prevented their union
heightened that feeling into the uooe4 ordent
love. Her lovers family contemplated the
possibility OF such an event with dread but
her father encouraged their intercourse, and
the plighted couple met every evening under
the shade Of the garden ig-tree, and exchan-
ged vows OF eternal fidelity. The impetuous
but resolute attachment Of her younr admi-
rer at length appeared TO overcome the on
position of his family; and he arrived one
evening at the trysting- place ia high spirits.
and entertaining sanguine hopes They
spent & few delightful hours in the full en-
joyment Of reciprocal confidence, and sepa-
rated with the belief that they would speed
lily be united to part no more but from that
hour they never met again, either in sorrow
or in joy Her lovers father, anxious to
avert from his family the disgrace Of an un-
equal alliance, had appeared to relent, for
the purpose Of executing his designs with
greater facility. He had already conferred
with the civil authorities, and that very
night his son wss arrested and conveyed 10
place OF strict confinement, where be was
seized with an infectious fever, of which he
died In few days, in spite of every exertion
to save him. She married two years after
wards, and confessed to me that she was
perfectly happy A prior attachment some
times continues to exist in woman's mind
long after marriage but, except in a person
Of very deeply rooted affections, rarely sur
wives the birth Of a child from that hour
the current of her thoughts become changed
new duties, new feelings, new hopes, arise
to Danish the former regrets, and
She who lately loved the best
FOrgets she loved at all -
| observed in my pretty heroine a striking
instance Of those sudden bursts Of Quick and
sensitive feeling which seems Inherent in the
southern temperament. Although she spoke
of her first ill-fated lover with calmness, al
most with Indifference, and confessed that
she had long ceased to regret the difficulties
which prevented their union, yet once, as
she dwelt upon past scenes and recalled a
Thousand instances of his boyish devotion,
her voice changed, her dark eyes filed with
tears, and her whole soul seemed to revert,
with undiminished affection, to the object of
her early love. Her emotion was but tran
slsnt; yet am convinced that, while it last
ed, she would have renounced every earthly
tie to be restored to him who had been the
first to win her affections, and who was then
mouIdering in the grave Carnamo,t's POr-
tugQk