Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1859-05-21

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ly jumped out of his chair, stretched out a
brawny palm, clear across the table, which
was grasped with half fearful and half.com
ical expression by the jeweled hand of the lit.
tie princess. The scene created an uproar, and
there was no end of hilarity and good humor
in which none more heartily participated than
the Piccolomni.
Romance of Fanny Braddock.
The following is the romantic history oil
Fanny Braddock, sister of the General Brad.
dock who was defeated near Fort Du-
quesne
" The father of General Braddock was q
man of competent fortune. On his death he
left no less than six thousand pounds as a
provision for his two daughters, and proba.
bly, much larger sum to his only son, Ed
ward Braddoek.
One of the daughters died early, and her
sister, Fanny Braddock, became possessed Of
her share of the fathers legacy Goldsmith,
in his life of Beau Nash, has told the romantic
story of Fanny, under the name of "Miss
Sylvia S." with his usual sweetness of
narrative and gentle kindness of sympathy.
She was descended, he says, from one of the
best families in the kingdom, and was left a
large fortune upon her sisters decease. What
ever the finest poet could conceive of wit, or
the most celebrated painter imagine of beauty,
were excelled in the perfectons of this Young
lady. She was naturally gay, generous to a
fault, good-natured to the highest degree affa-
bic in the conversation; and some Of her let
ters and other writing, as well in verse as in
pIose, would have shone among those of the
most celebrated wits of this or any other age
had they been publised.
But these qualifications were marked by
another, which lessons the value of them ali.
She was imprudent. "By which," says the
kind philosopher, 81 only mean she had no
knowledge of the use of money" She was
arrived at the age of nineteen, when the crowd
of her lovers and the continued repetition of
new flattery had taught her to think that she
could never be forsaken, and never poor
"Young ladies are apt to except, wisely
moralize Goldsmith, in {. strain that reminds
| us of a passage in the "Vicar of Wakefield"
a certainty of success from number of loy-
ers; and yet have seldom seen a girl court
ed by hundred lovers that found husband
in any. Before her choice is fixed, she has
either lost her reputation of her good sense
and the loss Of either is sufficient to consign
her to perpetual virgnity."
Among the number Of this young lady's
lovers was handsome, good-natured, easy
kind of fellow, of name we can learn nothing
beyond its initial "S." He was Constitution
ally virtuous," but practically It appears quite
the contrary, for he followed the dictates of
every newest passion" He loved Fanny
Braddock, and Fanny Braddock loved him.
The vices of the man Goldsmith gently terms
them "imprudences," " soon ruined him, and
he was thrown into prison for debt Fanny
Braddock, ,Iwith the disnterestedness off pure
and loving woman, was resolutely bent on
freeing him, and sacrificed her whole fortune
in relieving her lover from his obligations to
his creditors, and thus restored him to liher-
ty. s., instead ofimproving in friendship
or affection, only studied ~ avoid creditor
he coulG, never repay; for, Though small fa-
vOrs produce good will, great ones destroy
friendship" says Goldsmith, who could utter
maxims worthy of Solomon, while he lived as
riotously as the Prodigal Son.
Poor Fanny, however, was ruined in re-
putation as well as in fortune, by this profuse
generosity to her ungrateful lover. Beau
Nash, then meeting with her among some of
his friends in London, prevailed upon her to
60 with him to Bath, where the Beau, being
paramount in power, might introduce her to
do the rest. People Of distinction courted
her acquaintance, and strove to divert her
with the social enjoyments and fashionable
frivoiities of the place but it was apparent
that settled melancholy had taken possession
of her mind, and she moved among, but was
not of the gay throng. With loss of love-
loss of fortune, loss of friends and loss of
health, she was finally induced, as a mere re
f,,cr from, har
the invitation of dame Lindsey, who desir-
ed to secure so much beauty, as an addition
al temptation to those who resorted to her
gambling rooms. Although she yielded to
dame Lirldscy's invitation, Fanny Braddock
is believed never to have been tainted with
any other vice than that of presiding at the
hazard table for the advantage of others.
She could not long, however, endure this
disgrace, and preferred the humble condition
of housekeeper in gentlenan's family, to
which her poverty now reduced her. Here
she remained, always sad, but faithful to- her
duty. The gentlemen with whom she lived
now went up to London with his wife, leaving
the children and the house to her care On
the day when he was expected to return,
Fanny, after the discharge of her daily house
hold duty, went into the dining room and
wrote these lines upon one of the window
panes:
GO Death! thou pleasing end of human woe.
Thou cure for life, thou greatest good below!
Still may st thou fly the coward and the slave,
And thy soft slumbers only bless the brave"
Some visiters coming in she entertained them
cheerfully, and, ON their coming ont, she went
to the library, where she had ordered supper
Here "she spent the remaining hours preced-
ing bedtime in dandling two, of Mr.. Woods
(the gentleman in whose family she lived J
children on her knees. In retiring thence to
her chamber, she went into the nursery, to-
take her leave Of another child, as it lay
sleeping in the cradle. Struck with the inno-
cence Of the little babes looks, and the con-
sc,ousness of her meditated guilt, she could
not avoid bursting into tears, and hugging it
to her arms. She then bade her old servants
a good night for the first time she had ever
| done so, and went to bed as usual
1t is probable she soon quilted her bed.
She then dressed herself in linen and white
garments Of every kind, like bridesmaid.
Her gown she pinned over her breast just as
nurse pins the swaddling clothes Of an in
fant." She then took pink silk girdle, and
lengthening it with another made of gold
thread, she made moose at one end, and tied
three knots at small distance from each
! other.