THE HOST AND HIS DAUGHTER.

Otago Witness, Issue 666, 3 September 1864, Page 4

THE HOST AND HIS DAUGHTER.

(From " The Red Shirt in < alabria," in Comhil? Magazine.) Our soldiers seated themselves under the festooned vines, and merrily plucked clusters -of zibibio. As the staff advanced to the inn, the host met us at the threshold, hat in hand, with a double-barrelled gun upon his shoulder." •' Excellencies !" he sai<i, his face beaming a welcome. "Viva Pltalia ! Viva Garibaldi ! I offer myself as your guide, and meanwhile makeyourselves at home." Over his Bhoulder two bright blue eyes gazed on us with girlish curiosity. " This is my daughter," said the host, moving aside, " she will have the honor of waiting upon you, She is dressed in her holiday costume, because she is a Garibaldian." " Gna V I I exclaimed, as a fair beautiful maiden of seventeen came forward and saluted us with an easy gia.ee, "here we have Andrea del Sarto's Madonna del Sacco." Whoever has visited the cloisters of the Annunziata, in Florence will remember the wondrous frescoes of Andrea, j and the gentle head of the Virgin, somewhat more human than Raphael's Madonnas, yet more diyine than Murillo's; the Calabrian virgin might have sat for that picture. A fourfold square or coffee-colored cloth, bordered with golden fringe, covered her head and descended to her shoulders; over a white muslin dress she were an elegant tunic of eriovaon stuff, somewhat shorter than her dress; a body of the same material, richly embroidered, especially above the elbow and at the border of the bell Bhaped sleeves, was laced across her bosom, and rose gracefully on the >houlrfers, leaving bare her lovely neck adorned with four rows of pale coral. The sight of such refined and delicate beauty took us all by surprise, and I could not help asking- our host where lie had found such a rare pearl. " Her mother, 1 * he answered, " was of gentle blood. I was born and bred a servant in her parent's house. They said I was a handsome lad ; however that may be, we fell in love, we fled and married clandestinely. Her parents disowned my vife, but !we lived happily in our poverty. She died but two years since, and now my gains and my life are consecrated to Lulsft. She has never served any one, and I mean her to marry well." " When the war is fini-hed," I replied, " some young Garibaldian will claim her for his bride, I expect, and I hope I shall be accepted as compare." " Excellenza," said the host, " I kiss your hand." The maiden meanwhile had deftly spread our table beneath the shady porch, and new the host busied himself with the fryingpan, I could not take my eyes off Lnisa's tiny white hands, which a duchess might have envied, as she poured out the wine. When the basket of bread and sausage and the flasks of wine which her father had sent for to the near village of Solano arrived, she pas'ed along our whole line, dispensing food and enthusiasm As I came up to them a man rushed to us with outstretched armß ; he had neither coat nor hat j hU hair was standing on end, his face livid, despairing eyes half starting from his head! It was our host. "My child! my child J they have murderedjny child!' was alt h« conld articulate, ere he fell fainting at our feot. A cry of horror ross from the bystanders ; the soldiers cursed the fate that had left them without ammunition. I bit mv lips, and strove to be calm, but the tears filled my eyes. A bucket of water brought the wretched father to his senses all 100 soon ; then, in broken sentences, he told his tale. It seemed that 1500 men, proceeding , by forced marches to Solano, in order to surround us, had hulled at the inn, and threatened the young girl with death for having given food and shelter to Garibaldians ,• but offered her life in exchange for her honor. The father, who tried to defend her, was se'zgd and bound, and the awful tragedy was enacted before his eyes. The girl seized a kitchen-knife, and vowed to stab whoever approached. A sergeant dexterously wrested it from her grasp. She struggled to free herself from his embrace, and one of his men wounded her in the face with his bayonet. The sight of her blood seemed to sharpen their savage appetite ; they fell on her en masse, and despatched her with countless blows. Managing; to escape from his captors, the unhappy father had fk>d on till he came np with us, and when, amid shrieks and sobs, he had completed his tale, there was not a dry eye among us.

The Sects in thb Arms'.— Prom a War return, it appears that on the lat of April last there were in the army 109,760 Episcopalians, 20,79b Presbyterians, 5290 other Protestants, and 58,508 Roman Catholics. In the Royal Marines, at the same date, there 12,398 Episcopalians, 416 Presbyterians, 2879 other Protestants, and 1448 Roman Catholics.

Phy=ic is a curious subject for a work of fiction ; yet Messrs Simpkin, Marshall and Co. have just published, in one volume, a new novel inder the title of '-Who Wins? Being the . lutobiography of Samuel Basil Carlingford, if .D.," a Homoeopathic tale.