EMILIE CARLEN'S ROSE OF TISTELoN.

THIS novel is another translation from the Swedish ; and notwith- standing it labours under the comparative disadvantage of follow- ing so many fictions descriptive of national life, we prefer the tale before us to any of the stories of FREDERIKA BREMER. The subject of The Rose of Tistela does not, indeed, exhibit so much social variety ; and the writer may be deficient in the sly good-tempered satire by which FREDERIKA BREMER so nicely develops the weaknesses of her persons and imparts interest to the common details of domestic doings : but in the higher qualities of the novelist, we incline to award the palm to EMILIE CAREEN. She has more clearly seen and more firmly grasped the elements of struggling life in Sweden ; so that her story has more coherence and sustained interest. The incidents and persons of her tale relate to an humbler grade than the generality of her competitor's; but the stirring and deeper character of the events impart a species of action to The Rose of Tistellin to which the novels of FREDERIKA BREMER have no pretension. There is more strength, and in one sense more variety, in the persons of Estrus CARLEN ; each representing a class of life or of character, with a nice discrimi- nation in the approaching shades. There is also a purer moral tone in The Rose of Tistela. Crime, and the crime of murder, is indeed the governing incident of the tale ; but there is no vice, and none of the false sentiment or the borrowed attempts at romance that taint FREDERIKA BREMER'S pages. It may be said that the deed of blood is calmly mentioned throughout ; and that the subsequent con- duct of Erika, one of the heroines of the tale, is not consonant to a lofty sense of right : but, without much allowance for Swedish man- ners and the circumstances in which all parties are placed, we think the general conduct of the tale a remarkable specimen of art con- cealing art. The story extends over many years; the crime is some- times dropped altogether, as if it were lost sight of; but its effect, though unseen, is all-pervading ; it operates both upon the guilty and those who are innocent yet cognizant of the crime ; and when the final retribution comes to overwhelm all connected with the murderers, the suffering is so nicely yet so naturally proportioned, that the mind acquiesces in the justice of the sentence as a thing inevitable and tit. The tragic conclusion (if tragedy may be predicated where the highest persons are a revenue-officer and masters of merchant-vessels) is satisfying, because the elements are tragic.

Of what is generally understood by romance there is none ; yet we suspect that EMILIE CARLEN is more capable than FREDERIKA BREMER of the romantic, from a better acquaintance with the wilder scenes of Swedish life, or a truer perception of them ; and in the sense of strangeness, and novelty without extravagance, the less level scenes of The Rose of Tistelon are one entire romance. Not- ithstanding the disadvantage of appearing so late before the English public, Swedish scenery and manners have nearly as much novelty as in The Neighbours, except as regards their primitive air, and the halo of refinement cast over huinble circumstances Or absolute poverty. The domestic economy and hard life of the poor fishermen in the remoter and sea-beaten villages along the Swedish coast, the little magnates in the form of little shopkeepers or merchants, the wreckers, smugglers, and customhouse-officers, with the miscellaneous persons that fill up the interstices ofthese classes, are all painted to the life, as well as the " interiors," and the few forms of landscape around them. In the delineation of these things, there is unquestionably a minuteness which only an extraordinary truthfulness redeems from a heavy effect ; and the narrative, like that of FREDERIKA BREMER, is long drawn out, and moves slowly in the quieter parts ; but in the more stirring scenes there is no lack of rapidity. In point of improbability and incongruity, parts of the tale are perhaps not unassailable by a native. The story, though simple enough in what a musician might call its theme, is too varied and complicated in its scenes and events to be presented at large. "The Rose of Tistelon " is the daughter of Haraldson, a smuggler and wrecker on the Scargord, (reef-en- closure,) "a chain, or belt, of low islands, which encircles nearly the whole of the Scandinavian peninsula." When quite a child, her father and half-brother Birger murder the officer and crew of a revenue-pinnace to avoid capture,—Haraldson, stimulated by dan- ger acting on a harsh and hardened nature ; Birger, from desperation at his rejection by Erika, a sort of humble governess or superintend- ent, who is educating Gabriella the "Rose." The weak point, though managed with great skill, is the subsequent marriage, when Erika sacrifices herself in hopes to save the man she has driven upon crime. The sacrifice, however, is successful : Birger settles into the respectable trader; and old Haraldson, very unwillingly, is kept from his lawless pursuits. Years pass, many characters are introduced and events take place ; till the love of young Amman, the son of the murdered officer, for the Rose of Tistelon, becomes, through Haraldson's younger son whose presence at the crime had shaken his reason, the means of producing the catastrophe.

Many passages descriptive of manners, character, or nature, might be quoted, possessing all the power, truth, and finish of a Flemish painting: but we prefer a more moving subject—the seene of the murder. The smugglers have just discovered the revenue- cruiser.

THE CHASE AND THE MURDER.

H araldson and Birger had already perceived the danger ; and, without wasting many words in discussion, they altered their course, and made straight for Paternoster rocks, in the hope of deceiving the officer and making good their escape. Amman, however, followed up the pursuit ; and as the customhouse- pinnace was the fastest sailer, he gradually gained considerably on the seal- shooters.

D uring this desperate chase, the characteristic wildness of Haraldson's fea- tures darkened into a yet more savage expression; the large gray eyes rolled fearfully under the shaggy eyebrows, and the muscles of the face plainly showed the working of fierce pas-ions. "The game grows serious !" said he, in a low voice, to Birger, who was busy with the rigging; " they will be upon us in a moment; and then But how now, buy!—have you lost your tongue ? Now is the time for a bold stroke!"

Birger turned, and by the faint light of a moonbeam, which broke through the clouds for a moment, the father saw the pale, haggard face of his son.

Ilaraldson, who had not particularly observed Birger since his return from Erika's room, attributed the extraordinary change in his appearance to fear of the approaching danger, and exclaimed furiously, " Dog ! do you bang your ears when you see your father ready to venture all for life and goods ? " " I will not be behindhand," said Birger, in a voice so fearfully calm that Haraldson perceived the injustice of his suspicion ; and added, more quietly, " It will soon come to a trial of courage. I have hit upon a desperate plan." Be now ordered Birger to hoist the foresail better up, and then to be on the look-out that he might catch the first glimpse of the Paternoster rocks against , the dawning sky. Nothing was yet in sight, however, but the tremendous breakers sounded like distant thunder; and as the boat drew nearer the rocks, an expression of satisfaction spread itself over the hard features of Haraldson. "Bark how they roar ; the sea- witches sing and d ince1—line sport for them tonight," said he to Birger, who lay beside him, with his eyes fixed gloomily on the mysteri .us gulf. Once, long ago," resumed Haraldson, with a strange smile, "I sailed between the breakers. The passage is barely ten yards wide: if you miss the course by a hair's-breadth, your life's not worth a rope's-end. I succeeded that time, and saw my pursuer dashed on the rocks before my eyes. Do you understand, Birger ? it is our only chance ; and with the Devil's help we shall do as well this time."

"We shall see," said Birger, coldly ; "we are not there yet." He suddenly sprung up, "Do you hear, father ? he hails us—he is just upon us." "Not yet, not yet," said Haraldson, with wonderful coolness ; "we have still got a little the start of him : but if we don't give ourselves up he will fire before we reach---"

" There ! be bails us again ! " said Birger, with the like calm resolution, -worthy of a better cause.

" Now !" exclaimed Haraldson, in the greatest excitement, when the boat had almost reached the gulf; but at the same instant a line of fire shot from the pinnace, which had come quite near ; a ball whizzed past the seal-shooter's boat, and a second cut the fore-sheet. "Death and destruction! we are lost

if Du what you can. Birger; our lives hang by a hair." But, without -waiting his father's order, Birger had already seized' the foresail as it flapped in the wind, caught hold of the end of the rope, and now held it with giant strength in one hand and by the side of the boat with the other. Well done, boy !" exclaimed H-irahlson, as the boat once more shot through the raging breakers. They were not wares that they dashed through ; neither earth nor sky, rocks nor water, were to be seen ; nothing but white foam sur-

rounded the vessel below, above, and on either side, while the waves, as they were shattered against the rocks, howled forth their dying groans. At length the boat darted into the open sea, on the western side of the rocks. The danger

was past, and Haraldson raised his head with the bold confidence which the success of a desperate experiment was calculated to produce in a character like

his. " That was a good piece of work," said he, triumphantly, to Birger. 'Fasten the rape now as well as you can, and then we shall see what the Go- vernment boys behind us are after."

It was the morning dawn; the storm had lulled, but the air was thick and Ilaraldson strained his keen experienced eyes to discover the fate of the detested customhouse-boat. An expression of satisfaction and cruel mockery shone in his eyes; but soon changed to one of the bitterest rage, as he turned to Birger, who was trying in vain to fasten the sail, and said, in a voice that, fur the first time during the whole affair, betrayed some unsteadiness, "By all the devils ! the old Government thief has gat through with a whole akin! There is no time to be lost ; we must not waste it in words : we are lost unless --" And he gave his son a significant look, while he thought- fully balanced the rifle in his hand.

A wild strange smile on Birger's lip replied to the ball-expressed hint. "Erika!" muttered he between his teeth, "1 could not have done this yester- day; today I fear nothing; 1 care not now for my own life, or the lives of others." He made a sign of intelligence to his father ; then springing fora anis, hauled down the foresail, under which he carefully concealed his musket ; Haraldson, who bad already completely recovered his usual coulness, laid his at the bottom of the steerage, and then brought the boat's head to the wind. The pinnace now came near, and the officer hailed the boat for the third time. Haraldson confessed that he had contraband goods on board, but surrendered himself, as all opposition was now useless. "It is well you acknowledge it at last," said Amman, with pardonable pride ; "but it would have been better if you had spared us both a risk whirls =gist have cost us dear. Lay-to, now, that the pinnace may come alongside."

H araldson obeyed with every appearance of humble submission ; and in a few minutes the Government-boat was laid alongside of the seal-shooter's. "We have got the upper hand at last, Martin, and must make these fellows pay for old scores," said the lieutenant, as he prepared to step over the pin- wale: but before he could do so, Haraldson had, unobserved, seized his rifle and taken his aim. The next instant it went off; and the brave old Amman, who had so nobly fulfilled the dangerous duties of his office, fell forwards, shot through the head, on the deck of the smuggler's boat. Almost at the same moment Birger was on board the pinnace; and after a short but desperate struggle with the two boatmen, which required the exertion of all Birger's giant strength, he threw the one overboard, while he mortally wounded the active, fearless Martin, with the butt-end of his gun, just as he had almost suc- ceeded in dragging Birger over the gunwale. Both fell back on the deck; and Martin's last words were, " Bloodhound! when you hang on the gallows, you will remember this day's work; and when your sinful soul has left your wretched body, you will answer before God for my two boys whom you have made fatherless."

The pinnace was instantly scuttled, after it had been well searched by the greedy Haraldson; who then took a piece of rope and bound the dead bodies to the benches; and with the last circles caused by the fast sinking pinnace, over which the waves soon rolled monotonously as before, disappeared also every fear of the discovery of the murder, for as far as the eye could reach neither vessel nor living thing was to be seen. The father and son were terrible to look upon, as they stood, their bloody work accomplished, silent as the dead, in the uncertain gray dawn, and looked at one another with eyes that betrayed mutual horror and hatred.

"What's done can't be undone," said the elder Haraldson, at length, and recovered himself by assuming a recklessness that seemed like a rejection of the last vestige of human feeling. " It was necessity," he added, in a kind of persuasive tone, "self-defence : we were forced to it, if we did not choose to give ourselves up to justice. But now we must think of getting home. Where's the boy ? " Birger and Haraldson now recollected, for the fast time, that they had not seen Anton for several hours : they looked round in astonishment, and now perceived, with a shudder, how the poor boy, having shrunk into the fore- hatch, stood and looked fixedly at them with a wild, vacant expression of terror.