me some hope: I imagined that Amelie had perhaps conceived a passion for a man, which she dared not avow. This suspicion seemed to explain to me her melancholy, her mysterious correspondence, and the impassioned tone which breathed throughout her letter. I wrote to her immediately, intreating her to open her heart to me.

'She answered me quickly, but without disclosing her secret: she wrote me word only that she had obtained the dispensations of her probation-time, and that she would soon pronounce her vows

'I was shocked at the obstinacy of Amelie, at the mystery of her language, and at her want of confidence in my friendship.

After having hesitated a moment on the course I was to pursue, I resolved to go to B *** and make a last effort in the presence of my sister. Along the route was the spot where I had been brought up. When I saw the woods where I had passed the only happy moments of my life, I could not stop my tears, nor could I resist the temptation of bidding it a final adieu.

'My elder brother had sold our father's homestead, and it was not occupied by the new landlord. I arrived at the castle by the long avenue of fir-trees; I crossed on foot over the deserted paths; I stopped to look at the windows closed or half-broken, the thistle which grew at the foot of the walls, the leaves strewn along the threshold of the doors, and the steps before the entrance all solitary where I had seen so often my father and his faithful servants. The steps were already covered with moss; the yellow wall-flower was growing in the crevices of their disjointed and tottering rocks. An unknown guardian opened the doors rudely. I hesitated about passing the threshold; that man cried out: "So ho! are you going to act like that stranger who came here some days ago? When she was passing in, she fainted away; and I was obliged to carry her back to her carriage." It was easy for me to recognize the stranger who, as I, had sought in that place for tears and memmories!

"Covering for a moment my eyes with my handkerchief, I entered under the roof of my ancestors. I passed through the sonorous apartments, where nothing could be heard but the noise of my steps. The chambers were scarcely enlightened by the feeble gleams, which penetrated between the closed shutters: I visited that where my mother had lost her life bringing me in the world, that where my father retired, that where I had slept in my cradle, that

with my sister. They told me that she received 1 o her; she answered me that, on the point of co f to God, she was not allowed to give a thought if I loved her, I would save her from being ove grief. She added: "However, if it is your inte at the altar on the day of my profession, deign as a father; this part is the only one worthy he only one which suits our friendship and my

opposed the glow of At one time I was re

irmness with which she y me into violent rage, eps; at another I wished to remain, only to hin demon aroused within me the thought of stabb urch, and of blending my last sighs with the v my sister from me. The superior of the con she had prepared a seat in the sanctuary, and nd the ceremony, which would take place the

k I heard the first sound of the bells ch an agonized heart, I drew myself to the mo could be more tragic than when one has witnes e more mournful than when one has survived

(Continuation forthcoming.)

responded to, by the assembly, and quite r Lords proprietors, as Col. Henderson and be termed. But the most interesting tra convention, is the compact between the and its proprietors, for the establishment of government. This has often been th writers, but in this instance, a formal so and literally presented by a report of a to draw up a compact between the propr this colony." The report represents that necessary for the peace of the propriet the people of this colony, that the power erties of the other, be ascertained, we Richa Hart and J. Luttrell, in behalf of ourselve proprietors of Transylvania, on the one atives of the people, on the other part, do mo following contract and agreement, to wit: Inc parts of this type of the Magna Charta of o are, "1st, that the election of Delegates in th that there be a perfect religious freedom and vided that the propagators of any doctrine to the subversion of our laws, shall for su to, and punishable by the civil courts; 5th, perior and inferior courts be appointed by supported by the people, and to them be a conduct, 6th, that quit rents never exceed t to 48 cents,) per hundred acres; that the the strength and maturity of the colony will

This assembly which tradition represents to large elm tree, near the fort wall, was composed of Samuel Henderson, William Moore and Richard C Boonesborough; for Harrodsburg, Thomas Slaug Harmond and James Douglass; for Boiling Sprin Blue, near Harrodsburg,] James Harrod, Nathan H iah Davis, for the town of St. Asaph, John Todd,

branches, to wit: the delegates or representatives chosen by the people, a council not exceeding twelve men, possessed of landed estate, residing in the colony, and the proprietors; 17th, that the convention have the whole power of raising and appropriating all public monies, and electing their treasurer."

This epitome of substantial freedom and manly national government is most honorable to the liberality of the proprietors, and the spirit of the back woodsmen of Kentucky, posted in the heart of a wilderness, surrounded by hostile barbarians. The compact, of which the above are the most interesting features, was in full solemnity executed under the hands and seals of the three proprietors, acting for the company, and of Thomas Slaughter, ehairman, acting for the colonists.

After this fundamental organization of the government, it is worth while to notice the jealousy which was displayed in this first legislative assembly of the western pioneers, against intruders not identified with the interests of the colony, and not sharing its dangers. Such persons were not to partake of the game, nor enjoy its furs. The red man could not be more jealous of the trespasses of the white hunter, than were these whites themselves, of fellow-countrymen interloping within the unlimited forests around them.

Accordingly, on the motion most appropriately of that veteran hunter, Daniel Boone, a bill was introduced for preserving the game; and another bill was presented to the house by Squire Boone, the brother of Daniel, for preserving the range." Both these appear to have be

come laws.

pur

A ceremony took place at this convention which is not now required by ourselves it was a formal livery and seizin and cession of the lands mentioned in a deed of feoffment then produced. For this pose Col. Henderson received this ancient Gothic conveyance by delivery of a turf, part of the land conveyed from John Farrow, attorney in fact for the head warriors or chiefs of the Cherokee Indians, in presence of the convention: and the deed of the Indians was produced and its boundaries entered in the journal of the convention. (See Appendix.)

This negociation had not escaped the notice of Lord Dunmore, thengovernor of Virginia; he issued a proclamation against "one Richard Henderson and other disorderly persons, his associates, who, under pretence of a purchase from the Indians, contrary to the aforesaid orders and regulations of his majesty, do set up a claim to the lands of the crown, within the limits of the colony." This proclamation may well rank with the one, from another royal representative, excepting those arch traitors and rebels, Samuel Adams and John Hancock from the mercy of the same British monarch. But although the royal proclamation had little force in Transylvania, still the interregnum and disturbances of the population which now involved Virginia with the rest of her sister colonies, did not divert the sagacious vigilance of the republican government of Virginia from this formidable interference with her chartered limits.*

About the 16th July, 1776, it was discovered from the sign, as the marks of the enemy's presence were termed, that a large body of

Hall, II, 236. Annals of the West, 169.

Indians had come into the country with hostile intentions, and had, according to their mode of invasion, dispersed in small bands, infesting the stations, at the same time.

Before, however, tracing these sad invasions which were only a prelude to the fearful calamities of Indian warfare which raged so long, in Kentucky and the West, we will advert to a mission of Geo. Rogers Clark and one Jones to Virginia.

They had indeed been chosen as members of the convention of Virginia; but without authority of law for that purpose. Nor was this the course intended by Clark; "he wanted,' ," he says, "the people to choose agents charged with general powers to negotiate with the government of Virginia."

That Commonwealth was profoundly and fully engrosed by the soul stirring concerns of the opening revolution, the results of which have told so gloriously, not only for our own countrymen but for the freedom and happiness of the world. It has indeed opened "an asylum for oppressed humanity," deserving the gratitude of the world, to God in the first instance, and to the people whom he led through privations and sufferings to these blessed results. Still amid those perilous times of social commotion, the Legislature of Virginia having on the 29th of June, 1776, declared the State independent of Great Britain, thus anticipating the declaration of the United States in Congress assembled; yet, on the petition of the pioneers through their envoy, George R. Clark, at the October session, established the county of Kentucky. Clark and Jones now returned to Kentucky, having not only brought with them from Fort Pitt, ammunition given by Virginia, so difficult to obtain, and yet so indispensable in the woods this party likewise brought with them the still more animating :news that the "Ancient Dominion" had taken this forlorn hope in her western frontier under the guardianship of her republican constitution and laws.

At the October session of 1776, but not till the 7th December 1776, of that session, the county of Kentucky was established out of what had previously been termed Fincastle county. It embraced "all the country lying south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio, at the mouth of Great Sandy creek, [now Big Sandy river; and running up the same, and the main or northeasterly branch thereof, to the great Laurel Ridge, or Cumberland mountain; and with that to the line of North Carolina," now the State of Tennessee. The Executive Council of Virginia proceeded to organize this new county in the wilderness, hundreds of miles from her settlements, by appointing a sheriff and justices of the peace, the old officers of our Saxon forefathers, as well as officers for the militia for the county.*

• The only magistrates whose names I have been able to ascertain are David Robinson, "John Todd, John Floyd, Benjamin Logan, John Bauman, and Rich ard Calloway." All names that stood the high proof of the times. Of thes