Page:Selection of amusing and entertaining Irish stories.pdf/18

18 The spectators were all struck with Lorenzo’s generous warmth, and sympathized in the disgrace of Guidotto ; but it was impossible to adjudge the prize to his picture in the state in which they beheld it. They examined all the others attentively; and that of Lorenzo, till then an unknown artist to them, gained a great majority of suffrages. The prize was therefore awarded to him ; but Lorenzo, on receiving it, went up to Guidotto, and, presenting it to him, said, “ Take what merit would undoubtedly have acquired for you, had not the basest malice and envy defrauded you of it. To me it is honour enough to be accounted your second. If hereafter I may aspire to equal you, it shall be by means of fair competition, not by the aid of treachery.”

Lorenzo’s nobleness of conduct excited the warmest encomiums among the judges, who at length determined, that for this time there should be two equal prizes distributed; for that if Guidotto had deserved the prize of painting, Lorenzo was entitled to that of virtue. ________________

THE WANDERER’S RETURN.

It was a delightful evening about the end of August. The sun, setting in a pure sky, illuminated the tops of the western hills, and tipped the opposite trees with a yellow lustre. A traveller, with sun-burnt cheeks and dusty feet, strong and active, having a knapsack on his back, had gained the summit of a steep ascent, and stood gazing on the plain below. This was a wide tract of the champaign country, chequered with villages, whose towers and spires peeped above the trees in which they were embosomed. The space between them was chiefly arable land, from which the last products of the harvest were busily carrying away. A rivulet winded through the plain, its course marked with grey willows. On its banks were verdant meadows, covered with lowing herds, moving slowly to the milkmaids, who came tripping along with pails on their heads. A thick wood clothed the side of a gentle eminence rising from the water, crowned with the ruins of an ancient castle.

Edward (that was the traveller’s name,) dropped on one knee, and, clasping his hands, exclaimed, “ Welcome, welcome, my dear native land ! Many a sweet spot have I seen since I left thee, but none so sweet as thou! Never has thy dear image been out of my memory ; and now with what transport do I retrace all thy charms ! O, receive me again, nevermore to quit thee!” So saying, he threw himself on the turf, and, having kissed it, rose and proceeded on his journey.