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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40147 ***
+
+HARPER'S
+
+NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
+
+NO. VI.--NOVEMBER, 1850.--VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+A PILGRIMAGE TO THE CRADLE OF AMERICAN LIBERTY.
+
+WITH PEN AND PENCIL.
+
+BY BENSON J. LOSSING.[1]
+
+
+    "How suddenly that straight and glittering shaft
+    Shot thwart the earth! in crown of living fire
+    Up comes the day! As if they conscious quaff'd
+    The sunny flood, hill, forest, city spire
+    Laugh in the waking light."
+
+                                      RICHARD H. DANA.
+
+[Illustration: I]t was a glorious October morning, mild and brilliant,
+when I left Boston to visit Concord and Lexington. A gentle land-breeze
+during the night had borne the clouds back to their ocean birth-place,
+and not a trace of the storm was left except in the saturated earth.
+Health returned with the clear sky, and I felt a rejuvenescence in every
+vein and muscle when, at dawn, I strolled over the natural glory of
+Boston, its broad and beautifully-arbored Common. I breakfasted at six,
+and at half-past seven left the station of the Fitchburg rail-way for
+Concord, seventeen miles northwest of Boston. The country through which
+the road passed is rough and broken, but thickly settled. I arrived at
+the Concord station, about half a mile from the centre of the village,
+before nine o'clock, and procuring a conveyance, and an intelligent
+young man for a guide, proceeded at once to visit the localities of
+interest in the vicinity. We rode to the residence of Major James
+Barrett, a surviving grandson of Colonel Barrett, about two miles north
+of the village, and near the residence of his venerated ancestor. Major
+Barrett was eighty-seven years of age when I visited him; and his wife,
+with whom he had lived nearly sixty years, was eighty. Like most of the
+few survivors of the Revolution, they were remarkable for their mental
+and bodily vigor. Both, I believe, still live. The old lady--a small,
+well-formed woman--was as sprightly as a girl of twenty, and moved about
+the house with the nimbleness of foot of a matron in the prime of life.
+I was charmed with her vivacity, and the sunny radiance which it seemed
+to shed throughout her household; and the half hour that I passed with
+that venerable couple is a green spot in the memory.
+
+Major Barrett was a lad of fourteen when the British incursion into
+Concord took place. He was too young to bear a musket, but, with every
+lad and woman in the vicinity, he labored in concealing the stores and
+in making cartridges for those who went out to fight. With oxen and a
+cart, himself, and others about his age, removed the stores deposited at
+the house of his grandfather, into the woods, and concealed them, a
+cart-load in a place, under pine boughs. In such haste were they obliged
+to act on the approach of the British from Lexington, that, when the
+cart was loaded, lads would march on each side of the oxen and goad them
+into a trot. Thus all the stores were effectually concealed, except some
+carriage-wheels. Perceiving the enemy near, these were cut up and
+burned; so that Parsons found nothing of value to destroy or carry away.
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT AT CONCORD.]
+
+From Major Barrett's we rode to the monument erected at the site of the
+old North Bridge, where the skirmish took place. The road crosses the
+Concord River a little above the site of the North Bridge. The monument
+stands a few rods westward of the road leading to the village, and not
+far from the house of the Reverend Dr. Ripley, who gave the ground for
+the purpose. The monument is constructed of granite from Carlisle, and
+has an inscription upon a marble tablet inserted in the eastern face of
+the pedestal.[2] The view is from the green shaded lane which leads from
+the highway to the monument, looking westward. The two trees standing,
+one upon each side, without the iron railing, were saplings at the time
+of the battle; between them was the entrance to the bridge. The monument
+is reared upon a mound of earth a few yards from the left bank of the
+river. A little to the left, two rough, uninscribed stones from the
+field mark the graves of the two British soldiers who were killed and
+buried upon the spot.
+
+We returned to the village at about noon, and started immediately for
+Lexington, six miles eastward.
+
+Concord is a pleasant little village, including within its borders about
+one hundred dwellings. It lies upon the Concord River, one of the chief
+tributaries of the Merrimac, near the junction of the Assabeth and
+Sudbury Rivers. Its Indian name was Musketaquid. On account of the
+peaceable manner in which it was obtained, by purchase, of the
+aborigines, in 1635, it was named Concord. At the north end of the broad
+street, or common, is the house of Col. Daniel Shattuck, a part of
+which, built in 1774, was used as one of the depositories of stores when
+the British invasion took place. It has been so much altered, that a
+view of it would have but little interest as representing a relic of the
+past.
+
+The road between Concord and Lexington passes through a hilly but
+fertile country. It is easy for the traveler to conceive how terribly a
+retreating army might be galled by the fire of a concealed enemy. Hills
+and hillocks, some wooded, some bare, rise up every where, and formed
+natural breast-works of protection to the skirmishers that hung upon the
+flank and rear of Colonel Smith's troops. The road enters Lexington at
+the green whereon the old meeting-house stood when the battle occurred.
+The town is upon a fine rolling plain, and is becoming almost a suburban
+residence for citizens of Boston. Workmen were inclosing the Green, and
+laying out the grounds in handsome plats around the monument, which
+stands a few yards from the street. It is upon a spacious mound; its
+material is granite, and it has a marble tablet on the south front of
+the pedestal, with a long inscription.[3] The design of the monument is
+not at all graceful, and, being surrounded by tall trees, it has a very
+"dumpy" appearance. The people are dissatisfied with it, and doubtless,
+ere long, a more noble structure will mark the spot where the curtain of
+the revolutionary drama was first lifted.
+
+[Illustration: MONUMENT AT LEXINGTON.[4]]
+
+[Illustration: NEAR VIEW OF THE MONUMENT.]
+
+After making the drawings here given, I visited and made the sketch of
+"Clark's House." There I found a remarkably intelligent old lady, Mrs.
+Margaret Chandler, aged eighty-three years. She has been an occupant of
+the house, I believe, ever since the Revolution, and has a perfect
+recollection of the events of the period. Her version of the escape of
+Hancock and Adams is a little different from the published accounts. She
+says that on the evening of the 18th of April, 1775, some British
+officers, who had been informed where these patriots were, came to
+Lexington, and inquired of a woman whom they met, for "Mr. Clark's
+house." She pointed to the parsonage; but in a moment, suspecting their
+design, she called to them and inquired if it was Clark's _tavern_ that
+they were in search of. Uninformed whether it was a _tavern_ or a
+_parsonage_ where their intended victims were staying, and supposing the
+former to be the most likely place, the officers replied, "Yes, Clark's
+tavern." "Oh," she said, "Clark's tavern is in that direction," pointing
+toward East Lexington. As soon as they departed, the woman hastened to
+inform the patriots of their danger, and they immediately arose and fled
+to Woburn. Dorothy Quincy, the intended wife of Hancock, who was at Mr.
+Clark's, accompanied them in their flight.
+
+I next called upon the venerable Abijah Harrington, who was living in
+the village. He was a lad of fourteen at the time of the engagement. Two
+of his brothers were among the minute men, but escaped unhurt. Jonathan
+and Caleb Harrington, near relatives, were killed. The former was shot
+in front of his own house, while his wife stood at the window in an
+agony of alarm. She saw her husband fall, and then start up, the blood
+gushing from his breast. He stretched out his arms toward her, and then
+fell again. Upon his hands and knees he crawled toward his dwelling, and
+expired just as his wife reached him. Caleb Harrington was shot while
+running from the meeting-house. My informant saw almost the whole of the
+battle, having been sent by his mother to go near enough, and be safe,
+to obtain and convey to her information respecting her other sons, who
+were with the minute men. His relation of the incidents of the morning
+was substantially such as history has recorded. He dwelt upon the
+subject with apparent delight, for his memory of the scenes of his early
+years, around which cluster so much of patriotism and glory, was clear
+and full. I would gladly have listened until twilight to the voice of
+such experience, but time was precious, and I hastened to East
+Lexington, to visit his cousin, Jonathan Harrington, an old man of
+ninety, who played the fife when the minute men were marshaled on the
+Green upon that memorable April morning. He was splitting fire-wood in
+his yard with a vigorous hand when I rode up; and as he sat in his
+rocking-chair, while I sketched his placid features, he appeared no
+older than a man of seventy. His brother, aged eighty-eight, came in
+before my sketch was finished, and I could not but gaze with wonder upon
+these strong old men, children of one mother, who were almost grown to
+manhood when the first battle of our Revolution occurred! Frugality and
+temperance, co-operating with industry, a cheerful temper, and a good
+constitution, have lengthened their days, and made their protracted
+years hopeful and happy.[5] The aged fifer apologized for the rough
+appearance of his signature, which he kindly wrote for me, and charged
+the tremulous motion of his hand to his labor with the ax. How
+tenaciously we cling even to the appearance of vigor, when the whole
+frame is tottering to its fall! Mr. Harrington opened the ball of the
+Revolution with the shrill war-notes of the fife, and then retired from
+the arena. He was not a soldier in the war, nor has his life, passed in
+the quietude of rural pursuits, been distinguished except by the
+glorious acts which constitute the sum of the achievements of a GOOD
+CITIZEN.
+
+[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JONATHAN HARRINGTON.]
+
+I left Lexington at about three o'clock, and arrived at Cambridge at
+half past four. It was a lovely autumnal afternoon. The trees and fields
+were still green, for the frost had not yet been busy with their foliage
+and blades. The road is Macadamized the whole distance; and so thickly
+is it lined with houses, that the village of East Lexington and Old
+Cambridge seem to embrace each other in close union.
+
+Cambridge is an old town, the first settlement there having been planted
+in 1631, contemporaneous with that of Boston. It was the original
+intention of the settlers to make it the metropolis of Massachusetts,
+and Governor Winthrop commenced the erection of his dwelling there. It
+was called New Town, and in 1632 was palisaded. The Reverend Mr. Hooker,
+one of the earliest settlers of Connecticut, was the first minister in
+Cambridge. In 1636, the General Court provided for the erection of a
+public school in New Town, and appropriated two thousand dollars for
+that purpose. In 1638, the Reverend John Harvard, of Charlestown,
+endowed the school with about four thousand dollars. This endowment
+enabled them to exalt the academy into a college, and it was called
+Harvard University in honor of its principal benefactor.
+
+Cambridge has the distinction of being the place where the first
+printing-press in America was established. Its proprietor was named Day,
+and the capital that purchased the materials was furnished by the Rev.
+Mr. Glover. The first thing printed was the "Freeman's Oath," in 1636;
+the next was an almanac; and the next the Psalms, in metre.[6] Old
+Cambridge (West Cambridge, or Metonomy, of the Revolution), the seat of
+the University, is three miles from West Boston Bridge, which connects
+Cambridge with Boston. Cambridgeport is about half way between Old
+Cambridge and the bridge, and East Cambridge occupies Lechmere's Point,
+a promontory fortified during the siege of Boston in 1775.
+
+Arrived at Old Cambridge, I parted company with the vehicle and driver
+that conveyed me from Concord to Lexington, and hither; and, as the day
+was fast declining, I hastened to sketch the head-quarters of
+Washington, an elegant and spacious edifice, standing in the midst of
+shrubbery and stately elms, a little distance from the street, once the
+highway from Harvard University to Waltham. At this mansion, and at
+Winter Hill, Washington passed most of his time, after taking command of
+the Continental army, until the evacuation of Boston in the following
+spring. Its present owner is HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Professor of
+Oriental languages in Harvard University, and widely known in the world
+of literature as one of the most gifted men of the age. It is a spot
+worthy of the residence of an American bard so endowed, for the
+associations which hallow it are linked with the noblest themes that
+ever awakened the inspiration of a child of song.
+
+    "When the hours of Day are number'd
+      And the voices of the Night
+    Wake the better soul that slumber'd
+      To a holy, calm delight,
+    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
+      And, like phantoms grim and tall,
+    Shadows from the fitful fire-light
+      Dance upon the parlor wall,"
+
+then to the thoughtful dweller must come the spirit of the place and
+hour to weave a gorgeous tapestry, rich with pictures, illustrative of
+the heroic age of our young republic. My tarry was brief and busy, for
+the sun was rapidly descending--it even touched the forest tops before I
+finished the drawing--but the cordial reception and polite attentions
+which I received from the proprietor, and his warm approval of, and
+expressed interest for the success of my labors, occupy a space in
+memory like that of a long, bright summer day.
+
+[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S HEAD-QUARTERS AT CAMBRIDGE.]
+
+This mansion stands upon the upper of two terraces, which are ascended
+each by five stone steps. At each front corner of the house is a lofty
+elm--mere saplings when Washington beheld them, but now stately and
+patriarchal in appearance. Other elms, with flowers and shrubbery,
+beautify the grounds around it; while within, iconoclastic innovation
+has not been allowed to enter with its mallet and trowel, to mar the
+work of the ancient builder, and to cover with the vulgar stucco of
+modern art the carved cornices and paneled wainscots that first enriched
+it. I might give a long list of eminent persons whose former presence in
+those spacious rooms adds interest to retrospection, but they are
+elsewhere identified with scenes more personal and important. I can not
+refrain, however, from noticing the visit of one, who, though a dark
+child of Africa and a bond-woman, received the most polite attention
+from the commander-in-chief. This was PHILLIS, a slave of Mr. Wheatley,
+of Boston. She was brought from Africa when between seven and eight
+years old. She seemed to acquire knowledge intuitively; became a poet of
+considerable merit, and corresponded with such eminent persons as the
+Countess of Huntingdon, Earl of Dartmouth, Reverend George Whitefield,
+and others. Washington invited her to visit him at Cambridge, which she
+did a few days before the British evacuated Boston; her master among
+others, having left the city by permission, and retired, with his
+family, to Chelsea. She passed half an hour with the commander-in-chief,
+from whom and his officers she received marked attention.[7]
+
+A few rods above the residence of Professor Longfellow is the house in
+which the Brunswick general, the Baron Riedesel, and his family were
+quartered, during the stay of the captive army of Burgoyne in the
+vicinity of Boston. I was not aware when I visited Cambridge, that the
+old mansion was still in existence; but, through the kindness of Mr.
+Longfellow, I am able to present the features of its southern front,
+with a description. In style it is very much like that of Washington's
+head-quarters, and the general appearance of the grounds around is
+similar. It is shaded by noble linden-trees, and adorned with shrubbery,
+presenting to the eye all the attractions noticed by the Baroness of
+Riedesel in her charming letters.[8] Upon a window-pane on the north
+side of the house may be seen the undoubted autograph of that
+accomplished woman, inscribed with a diamond point. It is an interesting
+memento, and is preserved with great care. The annexed is a facsimile of
+it.
+
+[Illustration: THE RIEDESEL HOUSE, CAMBRIDGE.[9]]
+
+[Illustration: AUTOGRAPH OF THE BARONESS RIEDESEL.]
+
+During the first moments of the soft evening twilight I sketched the
+"Washington elm," one of the ancient _anakim_ of the primeval forest,
+older, probably, by a half century or more, than the welcome of Samoset
+to the white settlers. It stands upon Washington-street, near the
+westerly corner of the Common, and is distinguished by the circumstance
+that, beneath its broad shadow, General Washington first drew his sword
+as commander-in-chief of the Continental army, on the 3d of July, 1775.
+Thin lines of clouds, glowing in the light of the setting sun like bars
+of gold, streaked the western sky, and so prolonged the twilight by
+reflection, that I had ample time to finish my drawing before the night
+shadows dimmed the paper.
+
+Early on the following morning I procured a chaise to visit Charlestown
+and Dorchester Heights. I rode first to the former place, and climbed to
+the summit of the great obelisk that stands upon the site of the redoubt
+upon Breed's Hill. As I ascended the steps which lead from the street to
+the smooth gravel-walks upon the eminence whereon the "Bunker Hill
+Monument" stands, I experienced a feeling of disappointment and regret,
+not easily to be expressed. Before me was the great memento, huge and
+grand--all that patriotic reverence could wish--but the ditch scooped
+out by Prescott's toilers on that starry night in June, and the mounds
+that were upheaved to protect them from the shots of the astonished
+Britons, were effaced, and no more vestiges remain of the handiwork of
+those in whose honor and to whose memory this obelisk was raised, than
+of Roman conquests in the shadow of Trajan's column--of the naval
+battles of Nelson around his monument in Trafalgar-square, or of French
+victories in the Place Vendôme. The fosse and the breast-works were all
+quite prominent when the foundation-stone of the monument was laid, and
+a little care, directed by good taste, might have preserved them in
+their interesting state of half ruin until the passage of the present
+century, or, at least, until the sublime centenary of the battle should
+be celebrated. Could the visitor look upon the works of the patriots
+themselves, associations a hundred-fold more interesting would crowd the
+mind, for wonderfully suggestive of thought are the slightest relics of
+the past when linked with noble deeds. A soft green sward, as even as
+the rind of a fair apple, and cut by eight straight gravel-walks,
+diverging from the monument, is substituted by art for the venerated
+irregularities made by the old mattock and spade. The spot is beautiful
+to the eye untrained by appreciating affection for hallowed things;
+nevertheless, there is palpable desecration that may hardly be
+forgiven.
+
+[Illustration: BUNKER HILL MONUMENT.[10]]
+
+The view from the top of the monument, for extent, variety, and beauty,
+is certainly one of the finest in the world. A "York shilling" is
+charged for the privilege of ascending the monument. The view from its
+summit is "a shilling show" worth a thousand miles of travel to see.
+Boston, its harbor, and the beautiful country around, mottled with
+villages, are spread out like a vast painting, and on every side the eye
+may rest upon localities of great historical interest, Cambridge,
+Roxbury, Chelsea, Quincy, Medford, Marblehead, Dorchester, and other
+places, where
+
+    "The old Continentals,
+    In their ragged regimentals,
+         Falter'd not,"
+
+and the numerous sites of small fortifications which the student of
+history can readily call to mind. In the far distance, on the northwest,
+rise the higher peaks of the White Mountains of New Hampshire; and on
+the northeast, the peninsula of Nahant, and the more remote Cape Anne
+may be seen. Wonders which present science and enterprise are developing
+and forming are there exhibited in profusion. At one glance from this
+lofty observatory may be seen seven railroads,[11] and many other
+avenues connecting the city with the country; and ships from almost
+every region of the globe dot the waters of the harbor. Could a tenant
+of the old grave-yard on Copp's Hill, who lived a hundred years ago,
+when the village upon Tri-mountain was fitting out its little armed
+flotillas against the French in Acadia, or sending forth its few vessels
+of trade along the neighboring coasts, or occasionally to cross the
+Atlantic, come forth and stand beside us a moment, what a new and
+wonderful world would be presented to his vision! A hundred years ago!
+
+    "Who peopled all the city streets
+      A hundred years ago?
+    Who fill'd the church with faces meek
+      A hundred years ago?"
+
+They were men wise in their generation, but ignorant in practical
+knowledge when compared with the present. In their wildest dreams,
+incited by tales of wonder that spiced the literature of their times,
+they never fancied any thing half so wonderful as our mighty dray-horse,
+
+    "The black steam-engine! steed of iron power--
+    The wond'rous steed of the Arabian tale,
+    Lanch'd on its course by pressure of a touch--
+    The war-horse of the Bible, with its neck
+    Grim, clothed with thunder, swallowing the way
+    In fierceness of its speed, and shouting out,
+    'Ha! ha!'[12] A little water, and a grasp
+    Of wood, sufficient for its nerves of steel,
+    Shooting away, 'Ha! ha!' it shouts, as on
+    It gallops, dragging in its tireless path
+    Its load of fire."
+
+I lingered in the chamber of the Bunker Hill monument as long as time
+would allow, and descending, rode back to the city, crossed to South
+Boston, and rambled for an hour among the remains of the fortifications
+upon the heights of the peninsula of Dorchester. The present prominent
+remains of fortifications are those of intrenchments cast up during the
+war of 1812, and have no other connection with our subject than the
+circumstance that they occupy the site of the works constructed there by
+order of Washington. These were greatly reduced in altitude when the
+engineers began the erection of the forts now in ruins, which are
+properly preserved with a great deal of care. They occupy the summits of
+two hills, which command Boston Neck on the left, the city of Boston in
+front, and the harbor on the right. Southeast from the heights,
+pleasantly situated among gentle hills, is the village of Dorchester, so
+called in memory of a place in England of the same name, whence many of
+its earliest settlers came. The stirring events which rendered
+Dorchester Heights famous are universally known.
+
+I returned to Boston at about one o'clock, and passed the remainder of
+the day in visiting places of interest within the city--the old South
+meeting-house, Faneuil Hall, the Province House, and the Hancock House.
+I am indebted to John Hancock, Esq., nephew of the patriot, and present
+proprietor and occupant of the "Hancock House," on Beacon-street, for
+polite attentions while visiting his interesting mansion, and for
+information concerning matters that have passed under the eye of his
+experience of threescore years. He has many mementoes of his eminent
+kinsman, and among them a beautifully-executed miniature of him, painted
+in London, in 1761, while he was there at the coronation of George III.
+
+Near Mr. Hancock's residence is the State House, a noble structure upon
+Beacon Hill, the corner-stone of which was laid in 1795, by Governor
+Samuel Adams, assisted by Paul Revere, master of the Masonic grand
+lodge. There I sketched the annexed picture of the colossal statue of
+Washington, by Chantrey, which stands in the open centre of the first
+story; also the group of trophies from Bennington, that hang over the
+door of the Senate chamber. Under these trophies, in a gilt frame, is a
+copy of the reply of the Massachusetts Assembly to General Stark's
+letter, that accompanied the presentation of the trophies. It was
+written fifty years ago.
+
+[Illustration: WASHINGTON.[13]]
+
+After enjoying the view from the top of the State House a while, I
+walked to Copp's Hill, a little east of Charlestown Bridge, at the north
+end of the town, where I tarried until sunset in the ancient
+burying-ground. The earliest name of this eminence was Snow Hill. It was
+subsequently named after its owner, William Copp.[14] It came into the
+possession of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company by mortgage;
+and when, in 1775, they were forbidden by Gage to parade on the Common,
+they went to this, their own ground, and drilled in defiance of his
+threats. The fort, or battery, that was built there by the British, just
+before the battle of Bunker Hill, stood near its southeast brow,
+adjoining the burying-ground. The remains of many eminent men repose in
+that little cemetery. Close by the entrance is the vault of the Mather
+family. It is covered by a plain, oblong structure of brick, three feet
+high and about six feet long, upon which is laid a heavy brown stone
+slab, with a tablet of slate, bearing the names of the principal tenants
+below.[15]
+
+[Illustration: MATHER'S VAULT.]
+
+I passed the forenoon of the next day in the rooms of the Massachusetts
+Historical Society, where every facility was afforded me by Mr. Felt,
+the librarian, for examining the assemblage of things curious collected
+there.[16] The printed books and manuscripts, relating principally to
+American history, are numerous, rare, and valuable.
+
+There is also a rich depository of the autographs of the Pilgrim fathers
+and their immediate descendants. There are no less than twenty-five
+large folio volumes of valuable manuscript letters and other documents;
+besides which are six thick quarto manuscript volumes--a commentary on
+the Holy Scriptures--in the handwriting of Cotton Mather. From an
+autograph letter of that singular man the annexed fac-simile of his
+writing and signature is given. Among the portraits in the cabinet of
+the society are those of Governor Winslow, supposed to have been painted
+by Vandyke, Increase Mather, and Peter Faneuil, the founder of Faneuil
+Hall.
+
+[Illustration: MATHER'S WRITING.]
+
+I had the pleasure of meeting, at the rooms of the society, that
+indefatigable antiquary, Dr. Webb, widely known as the American
+correspondent of the "Danish Society of Northern Antiquarians" at
+Copenhagen. He was sitting in the chair that once belonged to Governor
+Winthrop, writing upon the desk of the speaker of the Colonial Assembly
+of Massachusetts, around which the warm debates were carried on
+concerning American liberty, from the time when James Otis denounced the
+Writs of Assistance, until Governor Gage adjourned the Assembly to
+Salem, in 1774. Hallowed by such associations, the desk is an
+interesting relic. Dr. Webb's familiarity with the collections of the
+society, and his kind attentions, greatly facilitated my search among
+the six thousand articles for things curious connected with my subject
+and made my brief visit far more profitable to myself than it would
+otherwise have been. Among the relics preserved are the chair that
+belonged to Governor Carver; the sword of Miles Standish; the huge key
+of Port Royal gate; a _samp-pan_, that belonged to Metacomet, or King
+Philip; and the sword reputed to have been used by Captain Church when
+he cut off that unfortunate sachem's head. The dish is about twelve
+inches in diameter, wrought out of an elm knot with great skill. The
+sword is very rude, and was doubtless made by a blacksmith of the
+colony. The handle is a roughly-wrought piece of ash, and the guard is
+made of a wrought-iron plate.
+
+[Illustration: SPEAKER'S DESK AND WINTHROP'S CHAIR.]
+
+[Illustration: PHILIP'S SAMP-PAN.]
+
+[Illustration: CHURCH'S SWORD.]
+
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [1] This sketch of Revolutionary scenes and incidents in and about
+    Boston, is part of an unpublished chapter from LOSSING'S
+    "Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," now in course of
+    publication by Harper and Brothers.
+
+    [2] The following is a copy of the inscription:
+
+                               HERE,
+                    On the 19th of April, 1775,
+             was made the first forcible resistance to
+                        BRITISH AGGRESSION.
+              On the opposite bank stood the American
+        militia, and on this spot the first of the enemy fell
+                   in the WAR OF THE REVOLUTION,
+           which gave Independence to these United States.
+          In gratitude to God, and in the love of Freedom,
+                     This Monument was erected,
+                             A.D. 1836.
+
+    [3] The following is a copy of the inscription:
+
+    "Sacred to the Liberty and the Rights of Mankind!!! The Freedom
+    and Independence of America--sealed and defended with the blood of
+    her sons--This Monument is erected by the Inhabitants of
+    Lexington, under the patronage and at the expense of the
+    Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to the memory of their
+    Fellow-citizens, Ensign Robert Monroe, Messrs. Jonas Parker,
+    Samuel Hadley, Jonathan Harrington, jun., Isaac Muzzy, Caleb
+    Harrington, and John Brown, of Lexington, and Asahel Porter, of
+    Woburn, who fell on this Field, the first victims of the Sword of
+    British Tyranny and Oppression, on the morning of the
+    ever-memorable Nineteenth of April, An. Dom. 1775. The Die was
+    Cast!!! The blood of these Martyrs in the Cause of God and their
+    Country was the Cement of the Union of these States, then
+    Colonies, and gave the Spring to the Spirit, Firmness, and
+    Resolution of their Fellow-citizens. They rose as one man to
+    revenge their Brethren's blood, and at the point of the Sword to
+    assert and defend their native Rights. They nobly dared to be
+    Free!!! The contest was long, bloody, and affecting. Righteous
+    Heaven approved the Solemn Appeal; Victory crowned their Arms, and
+    the Peace, Liberty, and Independence of the United States of
+    America was their glorious Reward. Built in the year 1799."
+
+    [4] This view is from the Concord Road, looking eastward, and
+    shows a portion of the inclosure of the Green. The distant
+    building seen on the right is the old "Buckman Tavern." It now
+    belongs to Mrs. Merriam, and exhibits many scars made by the
+    bullets on the morning of the skirmish.
+
+    [5] The seventy-fifth anniversary of the battles of Lexington and
+    Concord was celebrated at the latter place on the 19th of April,
+    1850. In the procession was a carriage containing these venerable
+    brothers, aged, respectively, nearly ninety-one and ninety-three;
+    Amos Baker, of Lincoln, aged ninety-four; Thomas Hill, of Danvers,
+    aged ninety-two; and Dr. Preston, of Billerica, aged eighty-eight.
+    The Honorable Edward Everett, among others, made a speech on the
+    occasion, in which he very happily remarked, that "it pleased his
+    heart to see those venerable men beside him; and he was very much
+    pleased to assist Mr. Jonathan Harrington to put on his top coat a
+    few minutes ago. In doing so, he was ready to say, with the
+    eminent man of old, 'Very pleasant art thou to me, my brother
+    Jonathan!'"
+
+    [6] Records of Harvard College.
+
+    [7] Phillis wrote a letter to General Washington in October, 1775,
+    in which she inclosed a poem eulogistic of his character. In
+    February following the general answered it. I give a copy of his
+    letter, in illustration of the excellence of the mind and heart of
+    that great man, always so kind and courteous to the most humble,
+    even when pressed with arduous public duties.
+
+                                        "Cambridge, February 28, 1776.
+
+    "MISS PHILLIS--Your favor of the 26th of October did not reach my
+    hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to
+    have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important
+    occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and
+    withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and
+    plead my excuse for the seeming but not real neglect. I thank you
+    most sincerely for your polite notice of me in the elegant lines
+    you inclosed; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium
+    and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of
+    your poetical talents; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly
+    due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been
+    apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new
+    instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of
+    vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it a
+    place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge,
+    or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored
+    by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and
+    beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your
+    obedient, humble servant,                        GEO. WASHINGTON."
+
+    [8] She thus writes respecting her removal from a peasant's house
+    on Winter Hill to Cambridge, and her residence there:
+
+    "We passed three weeks in this place, and were then transferred to
+    Cambridge, where we were lodged in one of the best houses of the
+    place, which belonged to Royalists. Seven families, who were
+    connected by relationship, or lived in great intimacy, had here
+    farms, gardens, and splendid mansions, and not far off, orchards,
+    and the buildings were at a quarter of a mile distant from each
+    other. The owners had been in the habit of assembling every
+    afternoon in one or another of these houses, and of diverting
+    themselves with music or dancing, and lived in affluence, in good
+    humor, and without care, until this unfortunate war at once
+    dispersed them, and transformed all their houses into solitary
+    abodes, except two, the proprietors of which were also soon
+    obliged to make their escape....
+
+    "On the 3d of June, 1778, I gave a ball and supper, in celebration
+    of my husband's birthday. I had invited all our generals and
+    officers and Mr. and Mrs. Carter. General Burgoyne sent us an
+    apology, after he had made us wait for him till eight o'clock. He
+    had always some excuse for not visiting us, until he was about
+    departing for England, when he came and made me many apologies, to
+    which I made no other reply than that I should be extremely sorry
+    if he had put himself to any inconvenience for our sake. The dance
+    lasted long, and we had an excellent supper, to which more than
+    eighty persons sat down. Our yard and garden were illuminated. The
+    king's birth-day falling on the next day, it was resolved that the
+    company should not separate before his Majesty's health was drank;
+    which was done, with feelings of the liveliest attachment to his
+    person and interests. Never, I believe, was 'God Save the King'
+    sung with more enthusiasm, or with feelings more sincere. Our two
+    eldest girls were brought into the room to see the illumination.
+    We were all deeply moved, and proud to have the courage to display
+    such sentiments in the midst of our enemies. Even Mr. Carter could
+    not forbear participating in our enthusiasm." Mr. Carter was the
+    son-in-law of General Schuyler. Remembering the kindness which she
+    had received from that gentleman while in Albany, the baroness
+    sought out Mr. and Mrs. Carter (who were living in Boston), on her
+    arrival at Cambridge. "Mrs. Carter," she says, "resembled her
+    parents in mildness and goodness of heart, but her husband was
+    revengeful and false." The patriotic zeal of Mr. Carter had given
+    rise to foolish stories respecting him. "They seemed to feel much
+    friendship for us," says Madame De Riedesel; "though, at the same
+    time, this wicked Mr. Carter, in consequence of General Howe's
+    having burned several villages and small towns, suggested to his
+    countrymen to cut off our generals' heads, to pickle them, and to
+    put them in small barrels, and, as often as the English should
+    again burn a village, to send them one of these barrels; but that
+    cruelty was not adopted."--_Letters and Memoire relating to the
+    War of American Independence, by Madame De Riedesel._
+
+    [9] This is from a pencil sketch by Mr. Longfellow. I am also
+    indebted to him for the fac-simile of the autograph of the
+    Baroness of Riedesel. It will be perceived that the _i_ is placed
+    before the _e_ in spelling the name. It is generally given with
+    the _e_ first, which is according to the orthography in Burgoyne's
+    _State of the Expedition_, &c., wherein I supposed it was spelled
+    correctly. This autograph shows it to be erroneous.
+
+    [10] This monument stands in the centre of the grounds included
+    within the breast-works of the old redoubt on Breed's Hill. Its
+    sides are precisely parallel with those of the redoubt. It is
+    built of Quincy granite, and is two hundred and twenty-one feet in
+    height. The foundation is composed of six courses of stone, and
+    extends twelve feet below the surface of the ground and base of
+    the shaft. The four sides of the foundation extend about fifty
+    feet horizontally. There are in the whole pile ninety courses of
+    stone, six of them below the surface of the ground, and
+    eighty-four above. The foundation is laid in lime mortar; the
+    other parts of the structure in lime mortar mixed with cinders,
+    iron filings, and Springfield hydraulic cement. The base of the
+    obelisk is thirty feet square; at the spring of the apex, fifteen
+    feet. Inside of the shaft is a round, hollow cone, the outside
+    diameter of which, at the bottom, is ten feet, and at the top, six
+    feet. Around this inner shaft winds a spiral flight of stone
+    steps, two hundred and ninety-five in number. In both the cone and
+    shaft are numerous little apertures for the purposes of
+    ventilation and light. The observatory or chamber at the top of
+    the monument is seventeen feet in height and eleven feet in
+    diameter. It has four windows, one on each side, which are
+    provided with iron shutters. The cap-piece of the apex is a single
+    stone, three feet six inches in thickness and four feet square at
+    its base. It weighs two and a half tons.
+
+    Almost fifty years had elapsed from the time of the battle before
+    a movement was made to erect a commemorative monument on Breed's
+    Hill. An association for the purpose was founded in 1824; and to
+    give eclat to the transaction, and to excite enthusiasm in favor
+    of the work, General La Fayette, then "the nation's guest," was
+    invited to lay the corner-stone. Accordingly, on the 17th of June,
+    1825, the fiftieth anniversary of the battle, that revered patriot
+    performed the interesting ceremony, and the Honorable Daniel
+    Webster pronounced an oration on the occasion, in the midst of an
+    immense concourse of people. Forty survivors of the battle were
+    present; and on no occasion did La Fayette meet so many of his
+    fellow-soldiers in our Revolution as at that time. The _plan_ of
+    the monument was not then decided upon; but one by Solomon
+    Willard, of Boston, having been approved, the present structure
+    was commenced, in 1827, by James Savage, of the same city. In the
+    course of a little more than a year, the work was suspended on
+    account of a want of funds, about fifty-six thousand dollars
+    having then been collected and expended. The work was resumed in
+    1834, and again suspended, within a year, for the same cause,
+    about twenty thousand dollars more having been expended. In 1840,
+    the ladies moved in the matter. A fair was announced to be held in
+    Boston, and every female in the United States was invited to
+    contribute some production of her own hands to the exhibition. The
+    fair was held at Faneuil Hall in September, 1840. The proceeds
+    amounted to sufficient, in connection with some private donations,
+    to complete the structure, and within a few weeks subsequently, a
+    contract was made with Mr. Savage to finish it for forty-three
+    thousand dollars. The last stone of the apex was raised at about
+    six o'clock on the morning of the 23d of July, 1842. Edward
+    Carnes, Jr., of Charlestown, accompanied its ascent, waving the
+    American flag as he went up, while the interesting event was
+    announced to the surrounding country by the roar of cannon. On the
+    17th of June, 1843, the monument was dedicated, on which occasion
+    the Honorable Daniel Webster was again the orator, and vast was
+    the audience of citizens and military assembled there. The
+    President of the United States (Mr. Tyler), and his whole cabinet,
+    were present.
+
+    In the top of the monument are two cannons, named, respectively,
+    "Hancock" and "Adams," which formerly belonged to the Ancient and
+    Honorable Artillery Company. The "Adams" was burst by them in
+    firing a salute. The following is the inscription upon the two
+    guns:
+
+                         "SACRED TO LIBERTY.
+
+    "This is one of four cannons which constituted the whole train of
+    field artillery possessed by the British colonies of North America
+    at the commencement of the war, on the 19th of April, 1775. This
+    cannon and its fellow, belonging to a number of citizens of
+    Boston, were used in many engagements during the war. The other
+    two, the property of the government of Massachusetts, were taken
+    by the enemy.
+
+    "By order of the United States in Congress assembled, May 19th,
+    1788."
+
+    [11] When I visited Boston, in 1848, it was estimated that two
+    hundred and thirty trains of cars went daily over the roads to and
+    from Boston, and that more than six millions of passengers were
+    conveyed in them during the preceding year.
+
+    [12] Job, xxxix. 24, 25.
+
+    [13] This is a picture of Chantrey's statue, which is made of
+    Italian marble, and cost fifteen thousand dollars.
+
+    [14] On some old maps of Boston it is called _Corpse Hill_, the
+    name supposed to have been derived from the circumstance of a
+    burying-ground being there.
+
+    [15] The following is the inscription upon the slate tablet: "The
+    Reverend Doctors Increase, Cotton, and Samuel Mather were interred
+    in this vault.
+
+      INCREASE died August 27, 1723, Æ. 84.
+      COTTON     "  Feb.   13, 1727, "  65.
+      SAMUEL     "  Jan.   27, 1785, "  79."
+
+    [16] This society was incorporated in February, 1794. The avowed
+    object of its organization is to collect, preserve, and
+    communicate materials for a complete history of this country, and
+    an account of all valuable efforts of human industry and ingenuity
+    from the beginning of its settlement. Between twenty and thirty
+    octavo volumes of its "Collections" have been published.
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+FATE DAYS AND OTHER POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.
+
+
+It is a difficult puzzle to reconcile the existence of certain
+superstitions that continue to have wide influence with the
+enlightenment of the nineteenth century. When we have read glowing
+paragraphs about the wonderful progress accomplished by the present
+generation; when we have regarded the giant machinery in operation for
+the culture of the people--moved, in great part, by the collective power
+of individual charity; when we have examined the stupendous results of
+human genius and ingenuity which are now laid bare to the lowliest in
+the realm; we turn back, it must be confessed, with a mournful
+despondency, to mark the debasing influence of the old superstitions
+which have survived to the present time.
+
+The superstitions of the ancients formed part of their religion. They
+consulted oracles as now men pray. The stars were the arbiters of their
+fortunes. Natural phenomena, as lightning and hurricanes, were, to them,
+awful expressions of the anger of their particular deities. They had
+their _dies atri_ and _dies albi_; the former were marked down in their
+calendars with a black character to denote ill-luck, and the latter were
+painted in white characters to signify bright and propitious days. They
+followed the finger posts of their teachers. Faith gave dignity to the
+tenets of the star-gazer and fire-worshiper.
+
+The priests of old taught their disciples to regard six particular days
+in the year as days fraught with unusual danger to mankind. Men were
+enjoined not to let blood on these black days, nor to imbibe any liquid.
+It was devoutly believed that he who ate goose on one of those black
+days would surely die within forty more; and that any little stranger
+who made his appearance on one of the _dies atri_ would surely die a
+sinful and violent death. Men were further enjoined to let blood from
+the right arm on the seventh or fourteenth of March; from the left arm
+on the eleventh of April; and from either arm on the third or sixth of
+May, that they might avoid pestilential diseases. These barbaric
+observances, when brought before people in illustration of the mental
+darkness of the ancients, are considered at once to be proof positive of
+their abject condition. We thereupon congratulated ourselves upon living
+in the nineteenth century; when such foolish superstitions are laughed
+at; and perhaps our vanity is not a little flattered by the contrast
+which presents itself, between our own highly cultivated condition, and
+the wretched state of our ancestors.
+
+Yet Mrs. Flimmins will not undertake a sea-voyage on a Friday; nor would
+she on any account allow her daughter Mary to be married on that day of
+the week. She has great pity for the poor Red Indians who will not do
+certain things while the moon presents a certain appearance, and who
+attach all kinds of powers to poor dumb brutes; yet if her cat purrs
+more than usual, she accepts the warning, and abandons the trip she had
+promised herself on the morrow.
+
+Miss Nippers subscribes largely to the fund for eradicating
+superstitions from the minds of the wretched inhabitants of Kamschatka;
+and while she is calculating the advantages to be derived from a mission
+to the South Sea Islands, to do away with the fearful superstitious
+reverence in which these poor dear islanders hold their native flea: a
+coal pops from her fire, and she at once augurs from its shape an
+abundance of money, that will enable her to set her pious undertaking in
+operation; but on no account will she commence collecting subscriptions
+for the anti-drinking-slave-grown-sugar-in-tea society, because she has
+always remarked that Monday is her unlucky day. On a Monday her poodle
+died, and on a Monday she caught that severe cold at Brighton, from the
+effects of which she is afraid she will never recover.
+
+Mrs. Carmine is a very strong-minded woman. Her unlucky day is
+Wednesday. On a Wednesday she first caught that flush which she has
+never been able to chase from her cheeks, and on one of these fatal days
+her Maria took the scarlet fever. Therefore, she will not go to a
+pic-nic on a Wednesday, because she feels convinced that the day will
+turn out wet, or that the wheel will come off the carriage. Yet the
+other morning, when a gipsy was caught telling her eldest daughter her
+fortune, Mrs. Carmine very properly reproached the first-born for her
+weakness, in giving any heed to the silly mumblings of the old woman.
+Mrs. Carmine is considered to be a woman of uncommon acuteness. She
+attaches no importance whatever to the star under which a child is
+born--does not think there is a pin to choose between Jupiter and
+Neptune; and she has a positive contempt for ghosts; but she believes in
+nothing that is begun, continued, or ended on a Wednesday.
+
+Miss Crumple, on the contrary, has seen many ghosts, in fact, is by this
+time quite intimate with one or two of the mysterious brotherhood; but
+at the same time she is at a loss to understand how any woman in her
+senses, can believe Thursday to be a more fortunate day than Wednesday,
+or why Monday is to be black-balled from the Mrs. Jones's calendar. She
+can state on her oath, that the ghost of her old schoolfellow, Eliza
+Artichoke, appeared at her bedside on a certain night, and she
+distinctly saw the mole on its left cheek, which poor Eliza, during her
+brief career, had vainly endeavored to eradicate, with all sorts of
+poisonous things. The ghost, moreover, lisped--so did Eliza! This was
+all clear enough to Miss Crumple, and she considered it a personal
+insult for any body to suggest that her vivid apparitions existed only
+in her over-wrought imagination. She had an affection for her ghostly
+visitors, and would not hear a word to their disparagement.
+
+The unearthly warnings which Mrs. Piptoss had received had well-nigh
+spoiled all her furniture. When a relative dies, the fact is not
+announced to her in the commonplace form of a letter; no, an invisible
+sledge-hammer falls upon her Broadwood, an invisible power upsets her
+loo-table, all the doors of her house unanimously blow open, or a coffin
+flies out of the fire into her lap.
+
+Mrs. Grumple, who is a very economical housewife, looks forward to the
+day when the moon re-appears, on which occasion she turns her money,
+taking care not to look at the pale lady through glass. This observance,
+she devoutly believes, will bring her good fortune. When Miss Caroline
+has a knot in her lace, she looks for a present; and when Miss Amelia
+snuffs the candle out, it is her faith that the act defers her marriage
+a twelvemonth. Any young lady who dreams the same dream two consecutive
+Fridays, will tell you that her visions will "come true."
+
+Yet these are exactly the ladies, who most deplore the "gross state of
+superstition" in which many "benighted savages" live, and willingly
+subscribe their money for its eradication. The superstition so generally
+connected with Friday, may easily be traced to its source. It
+undoubtedly and confessedly has its origin in scriptural history: it is
+the day on which the Saviour suffered. The superstition is the more
+revolting from this circumstance; and it is painful to find that it
+exists among persons of education. There is no branch of the public
+service, for instance, in which so much sound mathematical knowledge is
+to be found, as in the Navy. Yet who are more superstitious than
+sailors, from the admiral down to the cabin boy? Friday fatality is
+still strong among them. Some years ago, in order to lessen this folly,
+it was determined that a ship should be laid down on a Friday, and
+launched on a Friday; that she should be called "Friday," and that she
+should commence her first voyage on a Friday. After much difficulty a
+captain was found who owned to the name of Friday; and after a great
+deal more difficulty men were obtained, so little superstitious, as to
+form a crew. Unhappily, this experiment had the effect of confirming the
+superstition it was meant to abolish. The "Friday" was lost--was never,
+in fact, heard of from the day she set sail.
+
+Day-fatality, as Miss Nippers interprets it, is simply the expression of
+an undisciplined and extremely weak mind; for, if any person will stoop
+to reason with her on her aversion to Mondays, he may ask her whether
+the death of the poodle, or the catching of her cold, are the two
+greatest calamities of her life; and, if so, whether it is her opinion
+that Monday is set apart, in the scheme of Nature, so far as it concerns
+her, in a black character. Whether for her insignificant self there is a
+special day accursed! Mrs. Carmine is such a strong-minded woman, that
+we approach her with no small degree of trepidation. Wednesday is her
+_dies ater_, because, in the first place, on a Wednesday she imprudently
+exposed herself, and is suffering from the consequences; and, in the
+second place, on a Wednesday her Maria took the scarlet fever. So she
+has marked Wednesday down in her calendar with a black character; yet
+her contempt for stars and ghosts is prodigious. Now there is a
+consideration to be extended to the friends of ghosts, which
+Day-fatalists can not claim. Whether or not deceased friends take a more
+airy and flimsy form, and adopt the invariable costume of a sheet to
+visit the objects of their earthly affections, is a question which the
+shrewdest thinkers and the profoundest logicians have debated very
+keenly, but without ever arriving at any satisfactory conclusion.
+
+The strongest argument against the positive existence of ghosts, is,
+that they appear only to people of a certain temperament, and under
+certain exciting circumstances. The obtuse, matter-of-fact man, never
+sees a ghost; and we may take it as a natural law, that none of these
+airy visitants ever appeared to an attorney. But the attorney, Mr. Fee
+Simple, we are assured, holds Saturday to be an unlucky day. It was on a
+Saturday that his extortionate bill in poor Mr. G.'s case, was cut down
+by the taxing master; and it was on a Saturday that a certain heavy bill
+was duly honored, upon which he had hoped to reap a large sum in the
+shape of costs. Therefore Mr. Fee Simple believes that the destinies
+have put a black mark against Saturday, so far as he is concerned.
+
+The Jew who thought that the thunder-storm was the consequence of his
+having eaten a slice of bacon, did not present a more ludicrous picture,
+than Mr. Fee Simple presents with his condemned Saturday.
+
+We have an esteem for ghost-inspectors, which it is utterly impossible
+to extend to Day-fatalists. Mrs. Piptoss, too, may be pitied; but Mog,
+turning her money when the moon makes her re-appearance, is an object of
+ridicule. We shall neither be astonished, nor express condolence, if the
+present, which Miss Caroline anticipates from the knot in her lace, be
+not forthcoming; and as for Miss Amelia, who has extinguished the
+candle, and to the best of her belief lost her husband for a
+twelvemonth, we can only wish for her, that when she is married, her
+lord and master will shake her faith in the prophetic power of snuffers.
+But of all the superstitions that have survived to the present time, and
+are to be found in force among people of education and a thoughtful
+habit, Day-fatalism is the most general, as it is the most unfounded and
+preposterous. It is a superstition, however, in which many great and
+powerful thinkers have shared, and by which they have been guided; it
+owes much of its present influence to this fact; but reason,
+Christianity, and all we have comprehended of the great scheme of which
+we form part, alike tend to demonstrate its absurdity, and utter want of
+all foundation.
+
+
+
+
+"BATTLE WITH LIFE!"
+
+    Bear thee up bravely,
+      Strong heart and true!
+    Meet thy woes gravely,
+      Strive with them too!
+    Let them not win from thee
+      Tear of regret.
+    Such were a sin from thee,
+      Hope for good yet!
+
+    Rouse thee from drooping,
+      Care-laden soul;
+    Mournfully stooping
+      'Neath griefs control!
+    Far o'er the gloom that lies,
+      Shrouding the earth,
+    Light from eternal skies
+      Shows us thy worth.
+
+    Nerve thee yet stronger,
+      Resolute mind!
+    Let care no longer
+      Heavily bind.
+    Rise on thy eagle wings
+      Gloriously free!
+    Till from material things
+      Pure thou shalt be!
+
+    Bear ye up bravely,
+      Soul and mind too!
+    Droop not so gravely,
+      Bold heart and true!
+    Clear rays of streaming light
+      Shine through the gloom,
+    God's love is beaming bright
+      E'en round the tomb!
+
+
+
+
+TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF MADAME ROLAND.
+
+BY REV. JOHN S.C. ABBOTT.[17]
+
+
+[Illustration: MADAME ROLAND.]
+
+The Girondists were led from their dungeons in the Conciergerie to their
+execution on the 31st of October, 1793. Upon that very day Madame Roland
+was conveyed from the prison of St. Pélagié to the same gloomy cells
+vacated by the death of her friends. She was cast into a bare and
+miserable dungeon, in that subterranean receptacle of woe, where there
+was not even a bed. Another prisoner, moved with compassion, drew his
+own pallet into her cell, that she might not be compelled to throw
+herself for repose upon the cold, wet stones. The chill air of winter
+had now come, and yet no covering was allowed her. Through the long
+night she shivered with the cold.
+
+The prison of the Conciergerie consists of a series of dark and damp
+subterranean vaults, situated beneath the floor of the Palace of
+Justice. Imagination can conceive of nothing more dismal than these
+sombre caverns, with long and winding galleries opening into cells as
+dark as the tomb. You descend by a flight of massive stone steps into
+this sepulchral abode, and, passing through double doors, whose iron
+strength time has deformed but not weakened, you enter upon the vast
+labyrinthine prison, where the imagination wanders affrighted through
+intricate mazes of halls, and arches, and vaults, and dungeons, rendered
+only more appalling by the dim light which struggles through those
+grated orifices which pierced the massive walls. The Seine flows by upon
+one side, separated only by the high way of the quays. The bed of the
+Seine is above the floor of the prison. The surrounding earth was
+consequently saturated with water, and the oozing moisture diffused
+over the walls and the floors the humidity of the sepulchre. The plash
+of the river; the rumbling of carts upon the pavements overhead; the
+heavy tramp of countless footfalls, as the multitude poured into and out
+of the halls of justice, mingled with the moaning of the prisoners in
+those solitary cells. There were one or two narrow courts scattered in
+this vast structure, where the prisoners could look up the precipitous
+walls, as of a well, towering high above them, and see a few square
+yards of sky. The gigantic quadrangular tower, reared above these firm
+foundations, was formerly the imperial palace from which issued all
+power and law. Here the French kings reveled in voluptuousness, with
+their prisoners groaning beneath their feet. This strong-hold of
+feudalism had now become the tomb of the monarchy. In one of the most
+loathsome of these cells, Maria Antoinette, the daughter of the Cæsars,
+had languished in misery as profound as mortals can suffer, till, in the
+endurance of every conceivable insult, she was dragged to the
+guillotine.
+
+It was into a cell adjoining that which the hapless queen had occupied
+that Madame Roland was cast. Here the proud daughter of the emperors of
+Austria and the humble child of the artisan, each, after a career of
+unexampled vicissitudes, found their paths to meet but a few steps from
+the scaffold. The victim of the monarchy and the victim of the
+Revolution were conducted to the same dungeons and perished on the same
+block. They met as antagonists in the stormy arena of the French
+Revolution. They were nearly of equal age. The one possessed the
+prestige of wealth, and rank, and ancestral power; the other, the energy
+of vigorous and cultivated mind. Both were endowed with unusual
+attractions of person, spirits invigorated by enthusiasm, and the
+loftiest heroism. From the antagonism of life they met in death.
+
+The day after Madame Roland was placed in the Conciergerie, she was
+visited by one of the notorious officers of the revolutionary party, and
+very closely questioned concerning the friendship she had entertained
+for the Girondists. She frankly avowed the elevated affection and esteem
+with which she cherished their memory, but she declared that she and
+they were the cordial friends of republican liberty; that they wished to
+preserve, not to destroy, the Constitution. The examination was
+vexatious and intolerant in the extreme. It lasted for three hours, and
+consisted in an incessant torrent of criminations, to which she was
+hardly permitted to offer one word in reply. This examination taught her
+the nature of the accusations which would be brought against her. She
+sat down in her cell that very night, and, with a rapid pen, sketched
+that defense which has been pronounced one of the most eloquent and
+touching monuments of the Revolution.
+
+Having concluded it, she retired to rest, and slept with the serenity
+of a child. She was called upon several times by committees sent from
+the revolutionary tribunal for examination. They were resolved to take
+her life, but were anxious to do it, if possible, under the forms of
+law. She passed through all their examinations with the most perfect
+composure, and the most dignified self-possession. Her enemies could not
+withhold their expressions of admiration as they saw her in her
+sepulchral cell of stone and of iron, cheerful, fascinating, and
+perfectly at ease. She knew that she was to be led from that cell to a
+violent death, and yet no faltering of soul could be detected. Her
+spirit had apparently achieved a perfect victory over all earthly ills.
+
+The upper part of the door of her cell was an iron grating. The
+surrounding cells were filled with the most illustrious ladies and
+gentlemen of France. As the hour of death drew near, her courage and
+animation seemed to increase. Her features glowed with enthusiasm; her
+thoughts and expressions were refulgent with sublimity, and her whole
+aspect assumed the impress of one appointed to fill some great and lofty
+destiny. She remained but a few days in the Conciergerie before she was
+led to the scaffold. During those few days, by her example and her
+encouraging words, she spread among the numerous prisoners there an
+enthusiasm and a spirit of heroism which elevated, above the fear of the
+scaffold, even the most timid and depressed. This glow of feeling and
+exhilaration gave a new impress of sweetness and fascination to her
+beauty. The length of her captivity, the calmness with which she
+contemplated the certain approach of death, gave to her voice that depth
+of tone and slight tremulousness of utterance which sent her eloquent
+words home with thrilling power to every heart. Those who were walking
+in the corridor, or who were the occupants of adjoining cells, often
+called for her to speak to them words of encouragement and consolation.
+
+Standing upon a stool at the door of her own cell, she grasped with her
+hands the iron grating which separated her from her audience. This was
+her tribune. The melodious accents of her voice floated along the
+labyrinthine avenues of those dismal dungeons, penetrating cell after
+cell, and arousing energy in hearts which had been abandoned to despair.
+It was, indeed, a strange scene which was thus witnessed in these
+sepulchral caverns. The silence, as of the grave, reigned there, while
+the clear and musical tones of Madame Roland, as of an angel of
+consolation, vibrated through the rusty bars, and along the dark, damp
+cloisters. One who was at that time an inmate of the prison, and
+survived those dreadful scenes, has described, in glowing terms, the
+almost miraculous effects of her soul-moving eloquence. She was already
+past the prime of life, but she was still fascinating. Combined with the
+most wonderful power of expression, she possessed a voice so exquisitely
+musical, that, long after her lips were silenced in death, its tones
+vibrated in lingering strains in the souls of those by whom they had
+ever been heard. The prisoners listened with the most profound attention
+to her glowing words, and regarded her almost as a celestial spirit, who
+had come to animate them to heroic deeds. She often spoke of the
+Girondists who had already perished upon the guillotine. With perfect
+fearlessness she avowed her friendship for them, and ever spoke of them
+as _our friends_. She, however, was careful never to utter a word which
+would bring tears into the eye. She wished to avoid herself all the
+weakness of tender emotions, and to lure the thoughts of her companions
+away from every contemplation which could enervate their energies.
+
+Occasionally, in the solitude of her cell, as the image of her husband
+and of her child rose before her, and her imagination dwelt upon her
+desolated home and her blighted hopes--her husband denounced and pursued
+by lawless violence, and her child soon to be an orphan--woman's
+tenderness would triumph over the heroine's stoicism. Burying, for a
+moment, her face in her hands, she would burst into a flood of tears.
+Immediately struggling to regain composure, she would brush her tears
+away, and dress her countenance in its accustomed smiles. She remained
+in the Conciergerie but one week, and during that time so endeared
+herself to all as to become the prominent object of attention and love.
+Her case is one of the most extraordinary the history of the world has
+presented, in which the very highest degree of heroism is combined with
+the most resistless charms of feminine loveliness. An unfeminine woman
+can never be _loved_ by men. She may be respected for her talents, she
+may be honored for her philanthropy, but she can not win the warmer
+emotions of the heart. But Madame Roland, with an energy of will, an
+inflexibility of purpose, a firmness of stoical endurance which no
+mortal man has ever exceeded, combined that gentleness, and tenderness,
+and affection--that instinctive sense of the proprieties of her
+sex--which gathered around her a love as pure and as enthusiastic as
+woman ever excited. And while her friends, many of whom were the most
+illustrious men in France, had enthroned her as an idol in their hearts,
+the breath of slander never ventured to intimate that she was guilty
+even of an impropriety.
+
+The day before her trial, her advocate, Chauveau de la Garde, visited
+her to consult respecting her defense. She, well aware that no one could
+speak a word in her favor but at the peril of his own life, and also
+fully conscious that her doom was already sealed, drew a ring from her
+finger, and said to him,
+
+"To-morrow, I shall be no more. I know the fate which awaits me. Your
+kind assistance can not avail aught for me, and would but endanger you.
+I pray you, therefore, not to come to the tribunal, but to accept of
+this last testimony of my regard."
+
+The next day she was led to her trial. She attired herself in a white
+robe, as a symbol of her innocence, and her long dark hair fell in thick
+curls on her neck and shoulders. She emerged from her dungeon the vision
+of unusual loveliness. The prisoners who were walking in the corridors
+gathered around her, and with smiles and words of encouragement she
+infused energy into their hearts. Calm and invincible she met her
+judges. She was accused of the crimes of being the wife of M. Roland and
+the friend of his friends. Proudly she acknowledged herself guilty of
+both those charges. Whenever she attempted to utter a word in her
+defense, she was brow-beaten by the judges, and silenced by the clamors
+of the mob which filled the tribunal. The mob now ruled with undisputed
+sway in both legislative and executive halls. The serenity of her eye
+was untroubled, and the composure of her disciplined spirit unmoved,
+save by the exaltation of enthusiasm, as she noted the progress of the
+trial, which was bearing her rapidly and resistlessly to the scaffold.
+It was, however, difficult to bring any accusation against her by which,
+under the form of law, she could be condemned. France, even in its
+darkest hour, was rather ashamed to behead a woman, upon whom the eyes
+of all Europe were fixed, simply for being the _wife of her husband and
+the friend of his friends_. At last the president demanded of her that
+she should reveal her husband's asylum. She proudly replied,
+
+"I do not know of any law by which I can be obliged to violate the
+strongest feelings of nature."
+
+This was sufficient, and she was immediately condemned. Her sentence was
+thus expressed:
+
+"The public accuser has drawn up the present indictment against Jane
+Mary Phlippon, the wife of Roland, late Minister of the Interior, for
+having wickedly and designedly aided and assisted in the conspiracy
+which existed against the unity and indivisibility of the Republic,
+against the liberty and safety of the French people, by assembling at
+her house, in secret council, the principal chiefs of that conspiracy,
+and by keeping up a correspondence tending to facilitate their
+treasonable designs. The tribunal having heard the public accuser
+deliver his reasons concerning the application of the law, condemns Jane
+Mary Phlippon, wife of Roland, to the punishment of death."
+
+She listened calmly to her sentence, and then rising, bowed with dignity
+to her judges, and, smiling, said,
+
+"I thank you, gentlemen, for thinking me worthy of sharing the fate of
+the great men whom you have assassinated. I shall endeavor to imitate
+their firmness on the scaffold."
+
+With the buoyant step of a child, and with a rapidity which almost
+betokened joy, she passed beneath the narrow portal, and descended to
+her cell, from which she was to be led, with the morning light, to a
+bloody death. The prisoners had assembled to greet her on her return,
+and anxiously gathered around her. She looked upon them with a smile of
+perfect tranquillity, and, drawing her hand across her neck, made a sign
+expressive of her doom. But a few hours elapsed between her sentence and
+her execution. She retired to her cell, wrote a few words of parting to
+her friends, played upon a harp, which had found its way into the
+prison, her requiem, in tones so wild and mournful, that, floating in
+the dark hours of the night, through these sepulchral caverns, they fell
+like unearthly music upon the despairing souls there incarcerated.
+
+The morning of the 10th of November, 1793, dawned gloomily upon Paris.
+It was one of the darkest days of that reign of terror which, for so
+long a period enveloped France in its sombre shades. The ponderous gates
+of the court-yard of the Conciergerie opened that morning to a long
+procession of carts loaded with victims for the guillotine. Madame
+Roland had contemplated her fate too long, and had disciplined her
+spirit too severely, to fail of fortitude in this last hour of trial.
+She came from her cell scrupulously attired for the bridal of death. A
+serene smile was upon her cheek, and the glow of joyous animation
+lighted up her features as she waved an adieu to the weeping prisoners
+who gathered around her. The last cart was assigned to Madame Roland.
+She entered it with a step as light and elastic as if it were a carriage
+for a pleasant morning's drive. By her side stood an infirm old man, M.
+La Marche. He was pale and trembling, and his fainting heart, in view of
+the approaching terror, almost ceased to beat. She sustained him by her
+arm, and addressed to him words of consolation and encouragement in
+cheerful accents and with a benignant smile. The poor old man felt that
+God had sent an angel to strengthen him in the dark hour of death. As
+the cart heavily rumbled along the pavement, drawing nearer and nearer
+to the guillotine, two or three times, by her cheerful words, she even
+caused a smile faintly to play upon his pallid lips.
+
+The guillotine was now the principal instrument of amusement for the
+populace of Paris. It was so elevated that all could have a good view of
+the spectacle it presented. To witness the conduct of nobles and of
+ladies, of boys and of girls, while passing through the horrors of a
+sanguinary death, was far more exciting than the unreal and bombastic
+tragedies of the theatre, or the conflicts of the cock-pit and the bear
+garden. A countless throng flooded the streets; men, women, and
+children, shouting, laughing, execrating. The celebrity of Madame
+Roland, her extraordinary grace and beauty, and her aspect, not only of
+heroic fearlessness, but of joyous exhilaration, made her the prominent
+object of the public gaze. A white robe gracefully enveloped her perfect
+form, and her black and glossy hair, which for some reason the
+executioners had neglected to cut, fell in rich profusion to her waist.
+A keen November blast swept the streets, under the influence of which,
+and the excitement of the scene, her animated countenance glowed with
+all the ruddy bloom of youth. She stood firmly in the cart, looking with
+a serene eye upon the crowds which lined the streets, and listening with
+unruffled serenity to the clamor which filled the air. A large crowd
+surrounded the cart in which Madame Roland stood, shouting, "To the
+guillotine! to the guillotine!" She looked kindly upon them, and,
+bending over the railing of the cart, said to them, in tones as placid
+as if she were addressing her own child, "My friends, I _am_ going to
+the guillotine. In a few moments I shall be there. They who send me
+thither will ere long follow me. I go innocent. They will come stained
+with blood. You who now applaud our execution will then applaud theirs
+with equal zeal."
+
+Madame Roland had continued writing her memoirs until the hour in which
+she left her cell for the scaffold. When the cart had almost arrived at
+the foot of the guillotine, her spirit was so deeply moved by the tragic
+scene--such emotions came rushing in upon her soul from departing time
+and opening eternity, that she could not repress the desire to pen down
+her glowing thoughts. She entreated an officer to furnish her for a
+moment with pen and paper. The request was refused. It is much to be
+regretted that we are thus deprived of that unwritten chapter of her
+life. It can not be doubted that the words she would then have written
+would have long vibrated upon the ear of a listening world.
+Soul-utterances will force their way over mountains, and valleys, and
+oceans. Despotism can not arrest them. Time can not enfeeble them.
+
+The long procession arrived at the guillotine, and the bloody work
+commenced. The victims were dragged from the carts, and the ax rose and
+fell with unceasing rapidity. Head after head fell into the basket, and
+the pile of bleeding trunks rapidly increased in size. The executioners
+approached the cart where Madame Roland stood by the side of her
+fainting companion. With an animated countenance and a cheerful smile,
+she was all engrossed in endeavoring to infuse fortitude into his soul.
+The executioner grasped her by the arm. "Stay," said she, slightly
+resisting his grasp; "I have one favor to ask, and that is not for
+myself. I beseech you grant it me." Then turning to the old man, she
+said, "Do you precede me to the scaffold. To see my blood flow would
+make you suffer the bitterness of death twice over. I must spare you the
+pain of witnessing my execution." The stern officer gave a surly
+refusal, replying, "My orders are to take you first." With that winning
+smile and that fascinating grace which were almost resistless, she
+rejoined, "You can not, surely, refuse a woman her last request." The
+hard-hearted executor of the law was brought within the influence of her
+enchantment. He paused, looked at her for a moment in slight
+bewilderment, and yielded. The poor old man, more dead than alive, was
+conducted upon the scaffold and placed beneath the fatal ax. Madame
+Roland, without the slightest change of color, or the apparent tremor of
+a nerve, saw the ponderous instrument, with its glittering edge, glide
+upon its deadly mission, and the decapitated trunk of her friend was
+thrown aside to give place for her. With a placid countenance and a
+buoyant step, she ascended the platform. The guillotine was erected upon
+the vacant spot between the gardens of the Tuileries and the Elysian
+Fields, then known as the Place de la Revolution. This spot is now
+called the Place de la Concorde. It is unsurpassed by any other place in
+Europe. Two marble fountains now embellish the spot. The blood-stained
+guillotine, from which crimson rivulets were ever flowing, then occupied
+the space upon which one of these fountains has been erected; and a clay
+statue to Liberty reared its hypocritical front where the Egyptian
+obelisk now rises. Madame Roland stood for a moment upon the elevated
+platform, looked calmly around upon the vast concourse, and then bowing
+before the colossal statue, exclaimed, "O Liberty! Liberty! how many
+crimes are committed in thy name." She surrendered herself to the
+executioner, and was bound to the plank. The plank fell to its
+horizontal position, bringing her head under the fatal ax. The
+glittering steel glided through the groove, and the head of Madame
+Roland was severed from her body.
+
+Thus died Madame Roland, in the thirty-ninth year of her age. Her death
+oppressed all who had known her with the deepest grief. Her intimate
+friend Buzot, who was then a fugitive, on hearing the tidings, was
+thrown into a state of perfect delirium, from which he did not recover
+for many days. Her faithful female servant was so overwhelmed with
+grief, that she presented herself before the tribunal, and implored them
+to let her die upon the same scaffold where her beloved mistress had
+perished. The tribunal, amazed at such transports of attachment,
+declared that she was mad, and ordered her to be removed from their
+presence. A man-servant made the same application, and was sent to the
+guillotine.
+
+The grief of M. Roland, when apprized of the event, was unbounded. For a
+time he entirely lost his senses. Life to him was no longer endurable.
+He knew not of any consolations of religion. Philosophy could only nerve
+him to stoicism. Privately he left, by night, the kind friends who had
+hospitably concealed him for six months, and wandered to such a distance
+from his asylum as to secure his protectors from any danger on his
+account. Through the long hours of the winter's night he continued his
+dreary walk, till the first gray of the morning appeared in the east.
+Drawing a long stilletto from the inside of his walking-stick, he placed
+the head of it against the trunk of a tree, and threw himself upon the
+sharp weapon. The point pierced his heart, and he fell lifeless upon
+the frozen ground. Some peasants passing by discovered his body. A piece
+of paper was pinned to the breast of his coat, upon which there were
+written these words: "Whoever thou art that findest these remains,
+respect them as those of a virtuous man. After hearing of my wife's
+death, I would not stay another day in a world so stained with crime."
+
+
+    FOOTNOTE:
+
+    [17] From ABBOTT'S "History of Madame Roland," soon to be issued
+    from the press of Harper & Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+CHEMICAL CONTRADICTIONS.
+
+
+Science, whose aim and end is to prove the harmony and "eternal fitness
+of things," also proves that we live in a world of paradoxes; and that
+existence itself is a whirl of contradictions. Light and darkness, truth
+and falsehood, virtue and vice, the negative and positive poles of
+galvanic or magnetic mysteries, are evidences of all-pervading
+antitheses, which, acting like the good and evil genii of Persian
+Mythology, neutralize each other's powers when they come into collision.
+It is the office of science to solve these mysteries. The appropriate
+symbol of the lecture-room is a Sphinx; for a scientific lecturer is but
+a better sort of unraveler of riddles.
+
+Who would suppose, for instance, that water--which every body knows,
+extinguishes fire--may, under certain circumstances, add fuel to flame,
+so that the "coming man," who is to "set the Thames on fire," may not be
+far off. If we take some mystical gray-looking globules of potassium
+(which is the metallic basis of common pearl-ash) and lay them upon
+water, the water will instantly appear to ignite. The globules will swim
+about in flames, reminding us of the "death-fires" described by the
+Ancient Mariner, burning "like witches' oil" on the surface of the
+stagnant sea. Sometimes even, without any chemical ingredient being
+added, fire will appear to spring spontaneously from water; which is not
+a simple element, as Thales imagined, when he speculated upon the origin
+of the Creation, but two invisible gases--oxygen and hydrogen,
+chemically combined. During the electrical changes of the atmosphere in
+a thunder-storm, these gases frequently combine with explosive violence,
+and it is this combination which takes place when "the big rain comes
+dancing to the earth." These fire-and-water phenomena are thus accounted
+for; certain substances have peculiar affinities or attractions for one
+another; the potassium has so inordinate a desire for oxygen, that the
+moment it touches, it decomposes the water, abstracts all the oxygen,
+and sets free the hydrogen or inflammable gas. The potassium, when
+combined with the oxygen, forms that corrosive substance known as
+caustic potash, and the heat, disengaged during this process, ignites
+the hydrogen. Here the mystery ends; and the contradictions are solved;
+Oxygen and hydrogen when combined, become water; when separated the
+hydrogen gas burns with a pale, lambent flame. Many of Nature's most
+delicate deceptions are accounted for by a knowledge of these laws.
+
+Your analytical chemist sadly annihilates, with his scientific
+machinations, all poetry. He bottles up at pleasure the Nine Muses, and
+proves them--as the fisherman in the Arabian Nights did the Afrite--to
+be all smoke. Even the Will-o'-the-Wisp can not flit across its own
+morass without being pursued, overtaken, and burnt out by this
+scientific detective policeman. He claps an extinguisher upon
+Jack-o'-Lantern thus: He says that a certain combination of phosphorus
+and hydrogen, which rises from watery marshes, produces a gas called
+phosphureted hydrogen, which ignites spontaneously the moment it bubbles
+up to the surface of the water and meets with atmospheric air. Here
+again the Ithuriel wand of science dispels all delusion, pointing out to
+us, that in such places animal and vegetable substances are undergoing
+constant decomposition; and as phosphorus exists under a variety of
+forms in these bodies, as phosphate of lime, phosphate of soda,
+phosphate of magnesia, &c., and as furthermore the decomposition of
+water itself is the initiatory process in these changes, so we find that
+phosphorus and hydrogen are supplied from these sources; and we may
+therefore easily conceive the consequent formation of phosphureted
+hydrogen. This gas rises in a thin stream from its watery bed, and the
+moment it comes in contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere, it bursts
+into a flame so buoyant, that it flickers with every breath of air, and
+realizes the description of Goethe's Mephistopheles, that the course of
+Jack-o'-Lantern is generally "zig-zag."
+
+Who would suppose that absolute darkness may be derived from two rays of
+light! Yet such is the fact. If two rays proceed from two luminous
+points very close to each other, and are so directed as to cross at a
+given point on a sheet of white paper in a dark room, their united light
+will be twice as bright as either ray singly would produce. But if the
+difference in the distance of the two points be diminished only
+one-half, the one light will extinguish the other, and produce absolute
+darkness. The same curious result may be produced by viewing the flame
+of a candle through two very fine slits near to each other in a card.
+So, likewise, strange as it may appear, if two musical strings be so
+made to vibrate, in a certain succession of degrees, as for the one to
+gain half a vibration on the other, the two resulting sounds will
+antagonize each other and produce an interval of perfect silence. How
+are these mysteries to be explained? The Delphic Oracle of science must
+again be consulted, and among the high priests who officiate at the
+shrine, no one possesses more recondite knowledge, or can recall it more
+instructively than Sir David Brewster. "The explanation which
+philosophers have given," he observes, "of these remarkable phenomena,
+is very satisfactory, and may easily be understood. When a wave is made
+on the surface of a still pool of water by plunging a stone into it, the
+wave advances along the surface, while the water itself is never carried
+forward, but merely rises into a height and falls into a hollow, each
+portion of the surface experiencing an elevation and a depression in its
+turn. If we suppose two waves equal and similar, to be produced by two
+separate stones, and if they reach the same spot at the same time, that
+is, if the two elevations should exactly coincide, they would unite
+their effects, and produce a wave twice the size of either; but if the
+one wave should be put so far before the other, that the hollow of the
+one coincided with the elevation of the other, and the elevation of the
+one with the hollow of the other, the two waves would obliterate or
+destroy one another; the elevation, as it were, of the one filling up
+half the hollow of the other, and the hollow of the one taking away half
+the elevation of the other, so us to reduce the surface to a level.
+These effects may be exhibited by throwing two equal stones into a pool
+of water; and also may be observed in the Port of Batsha, where the two
+waves arriving by channels of different lengths actually obliterate each
+other. Now, as light is supposed to be produced by waves or undulations
+of an ethereal medium filling all nature, and occupying the pores of the
+transparent bodies; and as sound is produced by undulations or waves in
+the air: so the successive production of light and darkness by two
+bright lights, and the production of sound and silence by two loud
+sounds, may be explained in the very same manner as we have explained
+the increase and obliteration of waves formed on the surface of water."
+
+The apparent contradictions in chemistry are, indeed, best exhibited in
+the lecture-room, where they may be rendered visible and tangible, and
+brought home to the general comprehension. The Professor of Analytical
+Chemistry, J.H. Pepper, who demonstrates these things in the Royal
+Polytechnic Institution, is an expert manipulator in such mysteries;
+and, taking a leaf out of his own magic-book, we shall conjure him up
+before us, standing behind his own laboratory, surrounded with all the
+implements of his art. At our recent visit to this exhibition we
+witnessed him perform, with much address, the following experiments: He
+placed before us a pair of tall glass vessels, each filled, apparently,
+with water; he then took two hen's eggs, one of these he dropped into
+one of the glass vessels, and, as might have been expected, it
+immediately sank to the bottom. He then took the other egg, and dropped
+it into the other vessel of water, but, instead of sinking as the other
+had done, it descended only half way, and there remained suspended in
+the midst of the transparent fluid. This, indeed, looked like magic--one
+of Houdin's sleight-of-hand performances--for what could interrupt its
+progress? The water surrounding it appeared as pure below as around and
+above the egg, yet there it still hung like Mahomet's coffin, between
+heaven and earth, contrary to all the well-established laws of gravity.
+The problem, however, was easily solved. Our modern Cagliostro had
+dissolved in one half of the water in this vessel as much common salt as
+it would take up, whereby the density of the fluid was so much augmented
+that it opposed a resistance to the descent of the egg after it had
+passed through the unadulterated water, which he had carefully poured
+upon the briny solution, the transparency of which, remaining
+unimpaired, did not for a moment suggest the suspicion of any such
+impregnation. The good housewife, upon the same principle, uses an egg
+to test the strength of her brine for pickling.
+
+Every one has heard of the power which bleaching gas (chlorine)
+possesses in taking away color, so that a red rose held over its fumes
+will become white. The lecturer, referring to this fact, exhibited two
+pieces of paper; upon one was inscribed, in large letters, the word
+"PROTEUS;" upon the other no writing was visible; although he assured us
+the same word was there inscribed. He now dipped both pieces of paper in
+a solution of bleaching-powder, when the word "Proteus" disappeared from
+the paper upon which it was before visible; while the same word
+instantly came out, sharp and distinct, upon the paper which was
+previously a blank. Here there appeared another contradiction: the
+chlorine in the one case obliterating, and in the other reviving the
+written word; and how was this mystery explained? Easily enough! Our
+ingenious philosopher, it seems, had used indigo in penning the one word
+which had disappeared; and had inscribed the other with a solution of a
+chemical substance, iodide of potassium and starch; and the action which
+took place was simply this: the chlorine of the bleaching solution set
+free the iodine from the potassium, which immediately combined with the
+starch, and gave color to the letters which were before invisible.
+Again--a sheet of white paper was exhibited, which displayed a broad and
+brilliant stripe of scarlet--(produced by a compound called the
+bin-iodide of mercury)--when exposed to a slight heat the color changed
+immediately to a bright yellow, and, when this yellow stripe was crushed
+by smartly rubbing the paper, the scarlet color was restored, with all
+its former brilliancy. This change of color was effected entirely by the
+alteration which the heat, in the one case, and the friction, in the
+other, produced in the particles which reflected these different colors;
+and, upon the same principle, we may understand the change of the color
+in the lobster-shell, which turns from black to red in boiling; because
+the action of the heat produces a new arrangement in the particles which
+compose the shell.
+
+With the assistance of water and fire, which have befriended the
+magicians of every age, contradictions of a more marvelous character may
+be exhibited, and even the secret art revealed of handling red-hot
+metals, and passing through the fiery ordeal. If we take a platinum
+ladle, and hold it over a furnace until it becomes of a bright red heat,
+and then project cold water into its bowl, we shall find that the water
+will remain quiescent and give no sign of ebullition--not so much as a
+single "fizz;" but, the moment the ladle begins to cool, it will boil up
+and quickly evaporate. So also, if a mass of metal, heated to whiteness,
+be plunged in a vessel of cold water, the surrounding fluid will remain
+tranquil so long as the glowing white heat continues; but, the moment
+the temperature falls, the water will boil briskly. Again--if water be
+poured upon an iron sieve, the wires of which are made red hot, it will
+not run through; but, on the sieve cooling, it will run through rapidly.
+These contradictory effects are easily accounted for. The repelling
+power of intense heat keeps the water from immediate contact with the
+heated metal, and the particles of the water, collectively, retain their
+globular form; but, when the vessel cools, the repulsive power
+diminishes, and the water coming into closer contact with the heated
+surface its particles can no longer retain their globular form, and
+eventually expand into a state of vapor. This globular condition of the
+particles of water will account for many very important phenomena;
+perhaps it is best exhibited in the dew-drop, and so long as these
+globules retain their form, water will retain its fluid properties. An
+agglomeration of these globules will carry with them, under certain
+circumstances, so much force that it is hardly a contradiction to call
+water itself a solid. The water-hammer, as it is termed, illustrates
+this apparent contradiction. If we introduce a certain quantity of water
+into a long glass tube, when it is shaken, we shall hear the ordinary
+splashing noise as in a bottle; but, if we exhaust the air, and again
+shake the tube, we shall hear a loud ringing sound, as if the bottom of
+the tube were struck by some hard substance--like metal or wood--which
+may fearfully remind us of the blows which a ship's side will receive
+from the waves during a storm at sea, which will often carry away her
+bulwarks.
+
+It is now time to turn to something stronger than water for more
+instances of chemical contradictions. The chemical action of certain
+poisons (the most powerful of all agents), upon the human frame, has
+plunged the faculty into a maze of paradoxes; indeed, there is actually
+a system of medicine, advancing in reputation, which is founded on the
+principle of contraries. The famous Dr. Hahnemann, who was born at
+Massieu in Saxony, was the founder of it, and, strange to say, medical
+men, who are notorious for entertaining contrary opinions, have not yet
+agreed among themselves whether he was a very great quack or a very
+great philosopher. Be this as it may, the founder of this system, which
+is called HOMOEOPATHY, when translating an article upon bark in Dr.
+Cullen's Materia Medica, took some of this medicine, which had for many
+years been justly celebrated for the cure of ague. He had not long taken
+it, when he found himself attacked with aguish symptoms, and a light now
+dawned upon his mind, and led him to the inference that medicines which
+give rise to the symptoms of a disease, are those which will
+specifically cure it, and however curious it may appear, several
+illustrations in confirmation of this principle were speedily found. If
+a limb be frost-bitten, we are directed to rub it with snow; if the
+constitution of a man be impaired by the abuse of spirituous liquors,
+and he be reduced to that miserable state of enervation when the limbs
+tremble and totter, and the mind itself sinks into a state of low
+muttering delirium, the physician to cure him must go again to the
+bottle and administer stimulants and opiates.
+
+It was an old Hippocratic aphorism that two diseases can not co-exist in
+the same body, wherefore, gout has actually been cured by the afflicted
+person going into a fenny country and catching the ague. The fatality of
+consumption is also said to be retarded by a common catarrh; and upon
+this very principle depends the truth of the old saying, that rickety
+doors hang long on rusty hinges. In other words, the strength of the
+constitution being impaired by one disease has less power to support the
+morbid action of another.
+
+We thus live in a world of apparent contradictions; they abound in every
+department of science, and beset us even in the sanctuary of domestic
+life. The progress of discovery has reconciled and explained the nature
+of some of them; but many baffle our ingenuity, and still remain
+involved in mystery. This much, however, is certain, that the most
+opposed and conflicting elements so combine together as to produce
+results, which are strictly in unison with the order and harmony of the
+universe.
+
+
+
+
+DESCENT INTO THE CRATER OF A VOLCANO.[18]
+
+BY REV. H.T. CHEEVER.
+
+
+A descent into the Crater of the Volcano of Kilauea in the Sandwich
+Islands, may be accomplished with tolerable ease by the north-eastern
+cliff of the crater, where the side has fallen in and slidden downward,
+leaving a number of huge, outjutting rocks, like giants'
+stepping-stones, or the courses of the pyramid of Ghizeh.
+
+By hanging to these, and the mere aid of a pole, you may descend the
+first precipice to where the avalanche brought up and was stayed--a wild
+region, broken into abrupt hills and deep glens, thickly set with shrubs
+and old ohias, and producing in great abundance the Hawaiian
+whortleberry (formerly sacred to the goddess of the volcano), and a
+beautiful lustrous blackberry that grows on a branching vine close to
+the ground. Thousands of birds find there a safe and warm retreat; and
+they will continue, I suppose, the innocent warblers, to pair and sing
+there, till the fires from beneath, having once more eaten through its
+foundations, the entire tract, with all its miniature mountains and
+woody glens, shall slide off suddenly into the abyss below to feed the
+hunger of all-devouring fire.
+
+No one who passes over it, and looks back upon the tall, jagged cliffs
+at the rear and side, can doubt that it was severed and shattered by one
+such ruin into its present forms. And the bottomless pits and yawning
+caverns, in some places ejecting hot steam, with which it is traversed,
+prove that the raging element which once sapped its foundations is still
+busy beneath.
+
+The path that winds over and down through this tract, crossing some of
+these unsightly seams by a natural bridge of only a foot's breadth, is
+safe enough by daylight, if one will keep in it. But be careful that you
+do not diverge far on either side, or let the shades of night overtake
+you there, lest a single mis-step in the grass and ferns, concealing
+some horrible hole, or an accidental stumble, shall plunge you beyond
+the reach of sunlight into a covered pen-stock of mineral fire, or into
+the heart of some deep, sunken cavern.
+
+One can hardly wander through that place alone, even in the daytime (as
+I was in coming up from the crater at evening), without having his fancy
+swarm with forms of evil. In spite of himself, there will
+
+    "Throng thick into his mind the busy shapes
+    Of cover'd pits, unfathomably deep,
+    A dire descent! of precipices huge--
+    Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death."
+
+The way through this tract descends not abruptly for about half a mile,
+to a steep bank of partially decomposed lava, somewhat furrowed by
+water-courses, by which you go down some hundreds of feet more to what
+every body calls the Black Ledge.
+
+This is an immense rampart or gallery of grisly black scoria and lava,
+about half a mile wide, running all round the pit, slightly sloping
+inward, and not unfrequently overflowed in eruptions. By it you learn
+the dimensions of the great lake to which this is now the shore. It may
+be compared to the wide beach of an ocean, seldom flooded all over
+except in very high tides; or to a great field of thick shore ice, from
+under which the tide has retired, leaving it cracked and rent, but not
+so as to break up the general evenness of its surface.
+
+The upper crust is generally glossy, cellular, and cinder-like, brittle
+and crackling under the feet; but directly underneath the superficies,
+hard and compact, as proved by inspecting the great seams and fissures,
+from some of which flickering currents of hot air, and from others
+scalding steam and smoke are continually issuing. Pound on it, and you
+will hear deep, hollow reverberations, and sometimes your pole will
+break through a place like the rotten trap-door of some old ruin, and
+open upon you a hideous black hole without bottom.
+
+Over this great volcanic mole or offset, we proceeded to make our way
+toward the caldron in the southeast, pounding before us with our pole,
+like men crossing a river to find whether the ice ahead will bear them.
+We stopped every now and then to examine and get up on to some great
+cone or oven, which had been formed after the congelation of the crust,
+by pent up gas blowing out from beneath the cooling lava, raising it as
+in great bubbles, and letting its black, viscous vomit dribble from the
+top, and flow down sluggishly and congeal before it had found a level,
+like ice in very cold weather over a waterfall. Thus it would flow over
+the Black Ledge, hardening sometimes in round streams like a cable, or
+in serpentine forms like a great anaconda; and again it would spread out
+from the foot of the cone a little way, in forms like a bronze lion's
+foot.
+
+The surface was frequently broken, or ready to break, with the weight of
+one's body, from the fiery liquid having subsided after the petrifaction
+of the crust. Generally, too, the hardened lava seemed to have been
+flowed over, like ice near the shore when the tide rises and goes down,
+with a thin scum of lava that became shelly and crepitated under the
+foot like shelly ice.
+
+Then, as we went further into the bed of the crater, gradually going
+down, we would come to places where, like as in frozen mill-ponds,
+whence the water has been drawn off, the congealed lava had broken in to
+the depth sometimes of fifty and one hundred feet. Every where, too,
+there were great fissures and cracks, as in fields of river ice, now and
+then a large air-hole, and here and there great bulges and breaks, and
+places from which a thin flame would be curling, or over which you would
+see a glimmer like that which trembles over a body of fresh coals or a
+recently-burned lime-kiln. Touch your stick there, and it would
+immediately kindle.
+
+There were also deep, wide ditches, through which a stream of liquid
+lava had flowed since the petrifaction of the main body through which it
+passed. Cascades of fire are said to be often seen in the course of
+these canals or rivers as they leap some precipice, presenting in the
+night a scene of unequaled splendor and sublimity. In some places the
+banks or dikes of these rivers are excavated and fallen in with hideous
+crash and ruin; and often you may go up, if you dare, to the edge on one
+side and look over into the gulf, and away under the opposite
+overhanging bank, where the igneous fluid has worn away and scooped it
+out till the cliff hangs on air, and seems to topple and lean, like the
+tower of Pisa, just ready to fall.
+
+It would be no very comfortable reflection, if a man were not too
+curiously eager and bold and intent upon the novelties he is drinking in
+by the senses, to have much reflection or fear at such a time, to think
+how easily an earthquake might tumble down the bank on which he is
+standing, undermined in like manner with that which you are looking at
+right opposite.
+
+On our left, as we passed on to the Great Caldron, we explored, as far
+as was possible between the heat and vapor, the great bank, or, more
+properly, mountain-side of sulphur and sulphate of lime (plaster of
+Paris), and obtained some specimens of no little beauty. There are
+cliffs of sulphur through which scalding hot vapor is escaping as high
+up above you as eight hundred feet; and lower down there are seams from
+which lambent and flickering flames are darting, and jets of hot air
+will sometimes whirl by you, involving no little danger by their
+inhalation. Around these fissures are yellow and green incrustations of
+sulphur, which afford a new variety of specimens.
+
+When we had got to the leeward of the caldron, we found large quantities
+of the finest threads of metallic vitrified lava, like the spears and
+filaments of sealing-wax, called Pele's hair. The wind has caught them
+from the jets and bubbling springs of gory lava, and carried them away
+on its wings till they have lodged in nests and crevices, where they may
+be collected like shed wool about the time of sheep-shearing. Sometimes
+this is found twenty miles to the leeward of the volcano.
+
+The heat and sulphur gas, irritating the throat and lungs, are so great
+on that side, that we had to sheer away off from the brim of the
+caldron, and could not observe close at hand the part where there was
+the most gushing and bubbling of the ignifluous mineral fluid. But we
+passed round to the windward, and were thus enabled to get up to the
+brim so as to look over for a minute in the molten lake, burning
+incessantly with brimstone and fire--
+
+    "A furnace formidable, deep, and wide,
+    O'erboiling with a mad, sulphureous tide."
+
+But the lava which forms your precarious foothold, melted, perhaps, a
+hundred times, can not be handled or trusted, and the heat even there is
+so great as to burn the skin of one's face, although the heated air, as
+it rises, is instantly swept off to the leeward by the wind. It is
+always hazardous, not to say fool-hardy, to stand there for a moment,
+lest your uncertain foothold, crumbling and crispy by the action of
+fire, shall suddenly give way and throw you instantly into the fiery
+embrace of death.
+
+At times, too, the caldron is so furiously boiling, and splashing, and
+spitting its fires, and casting up its salient, angry jets of melted
+lava and spume, that all approach to it is forbidden. We slumped several
+times near it, as a man will in the spring who is walking over a river
+of which the ice is beginning to thaw, and the upper stratum, made of
+frozen snow, is dissolved and rotten. A wary native who accompanied us
+wondered at our daring, and would not be kept once from pulling me back,
+as with the eager and bold curiosity of a discoverer, all absorbed in
+the view of such exciting wonders, I was getting too near.
+
+At the time we viewed it, the brim all round was covered with splashes
+and spray to the width of ten or twelve feet. The surface of the lake
+was about a mile in its longest diameter, at a depth of thirty or forty
+feet from its brim, and agitated more or less all over, in some places
+throwing up great jets and spouts of fiery red lava, in other places
+spitting it out like steam from an escape-pipe when the valves are half
+lifted, and again squirting the molten rock as from a pop-gun.
+
+The surface was like a river or lake when the ice is _going out_ and
+broken up into cakes, over which you will sometimes see the water
+running, and sometimes it will be quite hidden. In the same manner in
+this lake of fire, while its surface was generally covered with a crust
+of half-congealed, dusky lava, and raised into elevations, or sunk into
+depressions, you would now and then see the live coal-red stream running
+along. Two cakes of lava, also, would meet like cakes of ice, and their
+edges crushing, would pile up and fall over, precisely like the
+phenomena of moving fields of ice; there was, too, the same rustling,
+grinding noise.
+
+Sometimes, I am told, the roar of the fiery surges is like the heavy
+beating of surf. Once, when Mr. Coan visited it, this caldron was heaped
+up in the middle, higher above its brim than his head, so that he ran up
+and thrust in a pyrometer, while streams were running off on different
+sides. At another time when he saw it, it had sunk four or five hundred
+feet below its brim, and he had to look down a dreadful gulf to see its
+fires.
+
+Again, when Mr. Bingham was there, it was full, and concentric waves
+were flowing out and around from its centre. Having carefully observed
+its movements a while, he threw a stick of wood upon the thin crust of a
+moving wave where he thought it would bear him, even if it should bend a
+little, and then stood upon it a few moments. In that position,
+thrusting his cane down through the cooling tough crust, about half an
+inch thick, and immediately withdrawing it, forthwith there gushed up,
+like ooze in a marsh or melted tar under a plank, enough of the viscid
+lava to form a globular mass, which afterward, as it cooled, he broke
+off and bore away.
+
+It is not easy for one that has not himself been in a similar position,
+to sympathize with and pardon the traveler at such a point, for he is
+unwilling to forbear and leave it till fairly surfeited and seared with
+heat and admiration, or driven off by some sudden spout and roar, or
+splash of the caldron. You gaze, and gaze, and gaze in amazement,
+without conscious thought, like a man in a trance, reluctant to go away,
+and you want to spend at least a day and night, viewing close at hand
+its ever-varying phenomena.
+
+Had we only brought with us wrappers, I believe we should have been the
+first to have slept on the Black Ledge. Now that the edge of curiosity
+is a little blunted and the judgment cool, we can see that there would
+be a degree of hazard and temerity in it which is not felt under the
+excitement of novelty, and in the full tide of discovery. Forced by
+startling admonitions, of instant danger, I had to quit suddenly the
+precarious footing I had gained on the caldron's edge, like a hungry
+man hurried from his repast ere he has snatched a mouthful. But the look
+I caught there, and the impression of horror, awfulness, and sublimity
+thence obtained, live and will live in my conscious being forever and
+ever; and it is this shall help me utter what many have experienced, and
+have wished to say before the poet said it for them:
+
+    "One compact hour of crowded life
+    Is worth an age without a name."
+
+A moment of being under such circumstances is an epoch in the history of
+one's mind; and he, perhaps, may be deemed the most highly favored of
+mortals who has the most of such epochs in remembrance, provided only
+that the incommunicable thoughts and emotions which, in the moment of
+that experience, seemed to permeate the very substance of the mind, have
+given it a moral tone and impulse running through all its subsequent
+life. It is thus that thoughts are waked "to perish never," being
+instamped ineffaceably upon the spiritual frame-work and foundation
+stones of the soul, dignifying and consecrating them to noble uses.
+
+It was not, I trust, without some valuable additions to our stock of
+impressions in this line, that we reluctantly left that spot. Departing
+thence, we passed over a tract between the level of the brim of the
+caldron and the Black Ledge, in order to gain again the latter, most
+strangely rugged and wild, as if convulsion after convulsion had
+upheaved, and sunk, and rent, and piled the vast mineral and rocky
+masses; forming here great hills like the ruins of a hundred towers, and
+there deep indentations, while every block lay upon its fellow, ready to
+be dislodged, edge-wise, crosswise, endwise, sidewise, angle-wise, and
+every-wise, in the wildest confusion and variety possible, as if
+Typhoean giants had been hurling them at each other in war; or as when
+the warring angels
+
+    "From their foundations loosening to and fro,
+    Uptore the seated hills, with all their load,
+    And sent them thundering upon their adversaries.
+    Then hills amid the air encounter'd hills,
+    Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire:
+    Horrid confusion heap'd upon confusion rose."
+
+Rocks, too, in earthquake commotions, have been started from the
+perpendicular sides of the crater in this part, and have rolled down
+eight hundred or a thousand feet with a force, one might think, that
+would almost shake the world.
+
+When we had thus encompassed the crater, and had returned to the point
+where we first came down upon the Black Ledge, it was getting toward
+night, and I found myself so excessively heated and feverish, and
+throbbing with the headache, which most persons there suffer from, as to
+be unable to go for the castellated and Gothic specimens into some ovens
+that are found in the sides near by.
+
+Leaving, therefore, my companion and the natives to hunt for them, I
+proceeded slowly back, and toiled up, with difficulty, the steep side of
+this stupendous crater, which may be set down at a moderate calculation
+as not less than twelve miles in circumference, and one thousand feet
+deep. In the centre of this vast sunken amphitheatre of volcanic fire,
+
+    "A dungeon horrible on all sides round,
+    As one great furnace flaming,"
+
+a man looks up to heaven, and to the seared walls of this great prison,
+and feels like a pigmy, or the veriest insect, in contrast with so
+mighty and terrible a work of the Lord God Almighty.
+
+The person who can go down into it, and come up safe from it, with a
+light mind, unthankful and unawed, is as wanting in some of the best
+attributes of mental manhood as of piety; and, let me say with Cowper,
+
+    "I would not enter on my list of friends,
+    Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,"
+
+the man who should prove himself so brutishly insensible to the sublime
+vestiges of Divine power, and to the providential care of Divine
+goodness.
+
+We spent the night by the volcano. I slept a little at intervals, just
+raising myself at every awakening to look at Pele's fires, which spouted
+and played like fountains, and leaped suddenly with a flash from place
+to place, like electricity on wire in the experiments of the
+lecture-room.
+
+Once when I arose at midnight and went out a little beyond the range of
+our screen, to enjoy in silence the august and grand spectacle, the
+violence of the wind was such as to take off my unguarded hat, and carry
+it clear over the brink of the crater, where it lodged for the night,
+but was recovered with little injury in the morning by one of our
+courageous natives.
+
+One of the early visitors there said that, on coming near the rim, he
+fell upon his hands and knees awe-struck, and crept cautiously to the
+rocky brink, unwilling at once to walk up to the giddy verge and look
+down as from a mast-head upon the fiery gulf at his feet. In a little
+time, however, like a landsman after a while at sea, he was able to
+stand very near and gaze unalarmed upon this wonder of the world.
+
+I have myself known seamen that had faced unfearingly all the perils of
+the deep, and had rushed boldly into battle with its mammoth monsters,
+to stand appalled on the brink of Kilauea, and depart without daring to
+try its abyss. Gazing upon it, then, at midnight, so near its brink as
+we were, was rather venturing upon the edge of safety, as I found to my
+cost. But woe to the man that should have a fit of somnambulism on the
+spot where our tent was pitched that last night. Baron Munchausen's
+seven-leagued boots could hardly save him from a warm bath in flowing
+lava cherry-red.
+
+Morning broke again upon our open encampment, clear and bracing as upon
+the Green Mountains of Vermont. With fingers burned and bleeding from
+the climbing and crystal-digging of yesterday, we made all the dispatch
+possible in collecting and packing specimens, but it was one o'clock
+before we were ready to leave. Having at length got off the natives
+with their burdens, two for Hilo and two for Kau, we kneeled for the
+last time by that wonderful old furnace, where the hand of God works the
+bellows and keeps up his vast laboratory of elemental fire. Then we
+mounted our horses and bade a final good-by, the one for Hilo, and the
+other for his happy Hawaiian home.
+
+
+    FOOTNOTE:
+
+    [18] From "_The Island World_," a new work soon to be issued from
+    the press of Messrs. Harper and Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
+
+THE EVERY-DAY YOUNG LADY.
+
+
+The every-day young lady is neither tall nor short, neither fat nor
+lean. Her complexion is not fair, but clear, and her color not bright,
+but healthy. She is not vulgarly well, but has not the least illness in
+the world. Her face is oval, and her hair, moderate in quantity, is
+usually of a soft brown. Her features are small and unobtrusive: her
+nose being what the French passports call _moyen_--that is, neither one
+thing nor t'other--and her eyes as gray as glass, but clear and gentle.
+It is not the eyes that give her any little character she has; although,
+if you have nothing else to do, and happen to look at them for a minute
+or so, they win upon you. They are not varnished eyes, in which you can
+see nothing but the brightness; and not deep eyes, into which your soul
+plunges as into a gulf: they are mere common skylights, winning into
+them a little bit of heaven, and giving you an inkling of good temper
+and feminine gentleness. Neither is it her air, nor manner, nor dress,
+that stamps her individuality, if she has any, for these belong to the
+class of society in which she moves; but altogether she gives you an
+idea of young-womanish refinement and amiableness, and you would think
+of her again when alone, if there were not so many of her friends about
+her as to divide and dilute, as it were, your impressions.
+
+The every-day young lady is usually dependent upon somebody or other,
+but sometimes she has a small independence, which is much worse. In the
+former case she clings like ivy, adorning, by her truth and gentleness,
+the support she is proud of; while in the other she gives her £30 a year
+to a relation as an inadequate compensation for her board and clothing,
+and lives in a state of unheard-of bondage and awful gratitude. Her life
+is diversified by friendships, in which her own feelings last the
+longest; by enmities, in which she suffers and forgives; and by
+loves--though almost always at second-hand. She is a confidant, a
+go-between, a bridemaid; but if she finds herself on the brink of a
+serious flirtation, she shrinks into her own foolish little heart in
+surprise and timidity, and the affair never becomes any thing but a
+mystery, which she carries with her through life, and which makes her
+shake her head on occasions, and look conscious and experienced, so as
+to give people the idea that this young lady has a history. If the
+affair does go on, it is a public wonder how she came to get actually
+married. Many persons consider that she must have been playing a part
+all along for this very purpose; that her timidity and bashfulness were
+assumed, and her self-denial a _ruse_; and that, in point of fact, she
+was not by any means what she gave herself out to be--an every-day young
+lady.
+
+For our part we have known many such young ladies in our day--and so
+have you, and you, and you: the world of society is full of them. We
+have a notion of our own, indeed, that they are _the sex_; or, in other
+words, that they are the class from which are drawn our conventional
+notions of womankind, and that the rest--that is those women who have
+what is called character--are counterfeit women. The feminine virtues
+are all of a retiring kind, which does not mean that they are invisible
+even to strangers, but that they are seen through a half-transparent
+vail of feminine timidity and self-postponement. In like manner, the
+_physique_ of women, truly so called, is not remarkable or obtrusive:
+their eyes do not flash at you like a pistol, nor their voices arrest
+suddenly your attention, as if they said "Stand and deliver!" That men
+in general admire the exceptions rather than the rule, may be true, but
+that is owing to bad taste, coarseness of mind, or the mere hurry of
+society, which prevents them from observing more than its salient
+points. For our part we have always liked every-day young ladies, and
+sometimes we felt inclined to love a few of them; but somehow it never
+went beyond inclination. This may have been owing in part to the
+headlong life one leads in the world, but in part likewise--if we may
+venture the surmise--to our own sensitiveness preventing us from poking
+ourselves upon the sensitiveness of other people.
+
+A great many every-day young ladies have been represented in the
+character of heroines of romance; but there they are called by other
+names, and made to run about, and get into predicaments, so that one
+does not know what to make of them. The Countess Isabelle of Croye is an
+extremely every-day young lady; but look how she runs away, and how she
+sees a bishop murdered at supper, and how she is going to be married to
+a Wild Boar, and how at last, after running away again, she gives her
+hand and immense possessions to a young Scotsman as poor as a church
+mouse! Who can tell, in such a hurry-skurry, what she is in her
+individuality, or what she would turn out to be if let alone, or if the
+author had a turn for bringing out every-day characters? Then we have
+every-day young ladies set up for heroines without doing any thing for
+it at all, and who look in the emergencies of life just as if they were
+eating bread and butter, or crying over a novel at home. Of such is
+Evelina, who has a sweet look for every person, and every thing, in
+every possible situation, and who is expected, on the strength of that
+sole endowment, to pass for a heroine of every-day life. This is
+obviously improper; for an every-day young lady has a principle of
+development within her like every body else. If you expose her to
+circumstances, these circumstances must act upon her in one way or
+another; they must bring her out; and she must win a husband for
+herself, not get him by accident, blind contact, or the strong necessity
+of marrying--a necessity which has no alternative in the case of a
+heroine but the grave.
+
+Such blunders, however, are now at an end; for a real every-day young
+lady has come out into public life, and an illumination has been thrown
+upon the class, which must proceed either from one of themselves or from
+inspiration.[19] But we are not going to criticise the book; for that
+would bring us to loggerheads with the critics, not one of whom has the
+least notion of the nature of the charm they all confess. This charm
+consists in its painting an every-day young lady to the life, and for
+the first time; and it by no means consists, as it is said to do, in the
+plot, which is but indifferently concocted, or in the incidents, that
+are sometimes destitute both of social and artistical truth. Anne Dysart
+herself, however, is a masterly portrait. Its living eyes are upon us
+from first to last, following us like the eyes of those awful pictures
+in the dining-room of long ago, which we could not escape from in any
+corner of the room. But Anne's eyes are not awful: they are sweet, calm,
+gentle. The whole figure is associated with the quieter and better parts
+of our nature. It comes to us, with its shy looks and half-withdrawn
+hands, like somebody we knew all our lives, and still know; somebody who
+walks with us, mellowing, but not interrupting our thoughts; somebody
+who sits by us when we are writing or reading, and throws a creamy hue
+upon the paper; somebody whose breath warms us when it is cold, and
+whose shadow stands between us and the scorching sun; somebody, in
+short, who gives us assurance, we know not how, of an every-day young
+lady.
+
+To paint a character which has no salient points demands a first-rate
+artist; but to see the inner life of a quiet, timid, retiring mind, is
+the exclusive privilege of a poet. To suppose that there is no inner
+life in such minds, or none worth observing, is a grand mistake. The
+crested wave may be a picturesque or striking object in itself; but
+under the calm, smooth surface of the passionless sea there are
+beautiful things to behold--painted shells, and corals, and yellow
+sands, and sea-plants stretching their long waving arms up to the light.
+How many of us sail on without giving a glance to such things, our eyes
+fixed on the frowning or inviting headland, or peopling the desert air
+with phantoms! Just so do we turn away from what seems to us the void of
+every-day life to grapple with the excitements of the world.
+
+Anne Dysart is not Miss Douglas's Anne Dysart: she is yours, ours,
+everybody's. She is the very every-day young lady. The author did not
+invent her: she found her where the Highlandman found the tongs--by the
+fireside. And that is her true position, where alone she is at home.
+When she goes into society, unless it be among associates, she is always
+under some sort of alarm. She is told that there is company in the
+drawing-room, strangers come to visit--young ladies celebrated for their
+beauty and accomplishments--and she treads the stairs with a beating
+heart, feeling awkward and ignorant, and enters with a desperate
+calmness. The visitors, however, like her, she is so modest and
+unobtrusive; and the every-day young lady is charmed and even affected
+by their patronizing kindness. She is reputed by these persons as a
+"nice girl, rather amiable-looking, but not in the least like the
+heroine of a novel." When she visits them in return, she is at first
+oppressed with a feeling of shyness, but at length still more
+overpowered by the kindness with which she is received, and she walks to
+the window to conceal her emotion. In this position our Anne--for we
+deny that Miss Douglas has any special property in her--comes out
+strong: "As Anne now stood, dressed in deep mourning, the blackness of
+her garments only relieved by a small white collar and a pair of cuffs,
+the expression of her countenance very pensive, her eyes shining mildly
+in the sunlight which was reflected from the crimson curtain upon her at
+present somewhat pale cheek, Mrs. Grey, as she whispered to Charlotte,
+'Really, poor thing, she does look very interesting!' felt the influence
+of her peculiar charm, without, however, comprehending its source."
+
+Anne attracts the attention of one of the company, a harsh-featured,
+ungraceful person, under forty, with a large mouth, determined lips,
+deep-set, thoughtful eyes, and a confused mass of dark hair hanging over
+a large and full forehead. Whereupon she instantly feels uncomfortable
+and frightened. But for all that, it is settled that the _bête noir_
+walks home with her; and resting the tips of her fingers on his arm,
+onward they go, these two fated individuals, in solemn silence. The
+conversation which at length begins consists of unpolite questions on
+the gentleman's part, and constrained answers on that of the lady; but
+at length she is saved from replying to a specially disagreeable and
+impertinent interrogatory by stumbling over a stone.
+
+"_Did you fall on purpose?_" said he. The every-day young lady is both
+frightened and displeased, and being further urged, feels something
+actually resembling indignation. When they part, it is with a feeling on
+her part of inexpressible relief, and she thinks to herself that she had
+never before met so singular or so disagreeable a man.
+
+This is unpromising: but it is correct. The every-day young lady
+_thinks_ of the rough, odd man; and he is struck now and then by a word
+or a look in her which piques his curiosity or interests his feelings.
+He at length learns to look into her calm, soft eyes, and sees through
+the passionless surface of her character some precious things gleaming
+in its depths. The following quotation will show at what length he
+arrives: "Anne pondered for a few minutes. She had a rather slow though
+a sound understanding. There was some truth in what Mr. Bolton said, but
+so great a want of charity, that she felt from the first as if, some way
+or other, he could not be quite right. It was some time, however, ere
+she discovered how he was wrong, and even then perhaps could not have
+defined it." She answered gravely and modestly, but with less timidity
+than usual.
+
+"But still, Mr. Bolton, it is possible to be both agreeable and sincere.
+I know it is possible, because I have seen it; and I think that though
+there is some truth in what you say, yet, as far as my very limited
+experience justifies me in forming an opinion, I should say that truth,
+united with kindness, _is_ appreciated; indeed I am sure some people
+have been liked who never flattered: I knew one person at least whom
+every body loved, who would not have told a falsehood for the world, and
+who _was_ all he _seemed_."
+
+"I suppose you mean your father? Well, without exactly sharing in your
+filial enthusiasm, I am inclined to believe that he was a superior man."
+
+"Are you indeed? Why, may I ask?" said Anne very timidly, and venturing
+for the first time to put a question in her turn.
+
+"Why?" he repeated, with a momentary return of the wonderful smile.
+"Because his daughter has rather more simplicity of mind, rather more
+purity of heart, rather more intelligence, rather less frivolity, rather
+less artifice, rather fewer coquettish tricks to flatter the vanity, and
+entrap the admiration, of silly men--in short, rather more _sincerity_
+than one meets every day; I guess she must have had a father somewhat
+above the average." Mr. Bolton spoke in a low tone, and there was in his
+voice a depth and a softness that struck his listener's ear as being
+altogether different from its wont. Whatever this difference might be,
+however, it was not lasting, for when, after a moment's pause, he spoke
+again, it was with an exaggeration even of his ordinary harshness both
+of voice and manner: "But you need not fancy I am paying you a
+compliment. You are no angel; and even during our short acquaintance, I
+have discovered in you some faults and follies, and doubtless there are
+others behind. In some respects you are very childish, or perhaps it
+would be as correct to say _womanish_." With this rude speech, Mr.
+Bolton concluded, drawing back with an air of having nothing more to
+say, and assuming a look which seemed to forbid any one to speak to him.
+
+But this wild man chooses her for a wife, proposes for her hand--and is
+refused. Why so? Because she was an every-day young lady. He was rich;
+he had good points--nay, great ones, in his character: but he was an
+uncomfortable man. She could not love him, and she could not think of
+marrying a man she could not love. Had it been the young clergyman, the
+case would have been different. A nice young man was he; and, like all
+other young ladies of her class, Anne had her dreams of gentle
+happiness, and congeniality of temper, and poetry, and flowers, and
+sunsets, and a genteel cottage. But the young clergyman could not afford
+to think of an almost penniless girl for a wife; and so poor Anne's
+episode was ended before it was well begun; and the affair would have
+assumed in her solitary heart the enduring form of a Mystery, if
+exigencies had not arisen to call forth feelings and resolves that brook
+no such unsubstantial companions.
+
+This every-day young lady had a brother in Edinburgh, and the brother
+fell into folly, and misery, and sickness, and desperate poverty. He
+wanted a friend, a nurse, a servant, and she knew that his bedside was
+her natural post. The difficulty was to get so far with her poor little
+funds; but this is accomplished, and instead of the outside of the mail
+on a wintry night, she has even had the good-fortune to enjoy an inside
+seat, some gentleman being seized with the caprice of encountering the
+frost and snow. This gentleman, she discovers afterward, is her
+discarded lover; and he--how many discoveries does he make! The
+every-day young lady, thrown into the battle of circumstances, rises
+with the strife. She who had been accustomed to sit silent, seeming to
+agree with others in what was untrue, merely from want of courage, now
+endures without flinching the extremities even of actual want. Now come
+out, one by one, obvious to the sight, the thousand beautiful things in
+the depths of her quiet mind; and the eyes of the odd gentleman are
+dimmed with emotion as he looks at them. Already had she begun to wonder
+at this man, to call his austerity melancholy, to grieve that he was
+unhappy, to think what he could be thinking about; and now, when she and
+her darling brother are saved, protected, held up by his strong hand,
+the hold he takes of her imagination communicates itself insensibly to
+her heart. His features lose their harshness; his deep-set eyes become
+soft; his lips relax; and finally, he cuts his hair. What more needs be
+said?
+
+But we take leave to disagree with this individual in his idea that Anne
+Dysart has more simplicity, purity, and quiet intelligence than other
+every-day young ladies. She is, on the contrary, nothing more than a
+type of the class; and the fact is proved by the resemblance in her
+portrait being at once recognized. We do not stand upon the color of her
+hair, or eyes, or other physical characteristics, for these are mere
+averages, and may be very different in our Anne and yours; but her
+shyness, hesitation, and cowardice--her modesty, gentleness, and
+truth--these are stereotyped traits, and are the same in all. But when
+such qualities rise, or become metamorphosed, to meet the exigencies of
+life, how do we recognize them? By intuition. We acknowledge in others
+the principle of development we feel in ourselves. Our fault is, that
+we pass over as worthy of no remark, no careful tending, no holy
+reverence, the slumbering germs of all that is good and beautiful in the
+female character, and suffer our attention to be engrossed by its
+affectations and monstrosities. Let us correct this fever of the taste.
+Let us learn to enjoy the still waters and quiet pastures. When we see
+an every-day young lady flitting about our rooms, or crossing our paths,
+or wandering by our side, let us regard her no more as if she were a
+shadow, or a part of the common atmosphere, necessary, though unheeded;
+let us look upon her with fondness and respect, and if we would be
+blessed ourselves, let us say--God bless her!
+
+
+    FOOTNOTE:
+
+    [19] Anne Dysart, a Tale of Every-day Life. 3 vols. London:
+    Colburn. 1850.
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+HISTORY AND ANECDOTES OF BANK NOTE FORGERIES.
+
+
+Viotti's division of violin-playing into two great classes--good playing
+and bad playing--is applicable to Bank note making. The processes
+employed in manufacturing good Bank notes have been often described; we
+shall now cover a few pages with a faint outline of the various arts,
+stratagems, and contrivances employed in concocting bad Bank notes. The
+picture can not be drawn with very distinct or strong markings. The
+tableaux from which it is copied are so intertwisted and complicated
+with clever, slippery, ingenious scoundrelism, that a finished chart of
+it would be worse than morally displeasing: it would be tedious.
+
+All arts require time and experience for their development. When any
+thing great is to be done, first attempts are nearly always failures.
+The first Bank note forgery was no exception to this rule, and its story
+has a spice of romance in it. The affair has never been circumstantially
+told; but some research enables us to detail it:
+
+In the month of August, 1757, a gentleman living in the neighborhood of
+Lincoln's Inn Fields, named Bliss, advertised for a clerk. There were,
+as was usual even at that time, many applicants; but the successful one
+was a young man of twenty-six, named Richard William Vaughan. His
+manners were so winning, and his demeanor so much that of a gentleman
+(he belonged indeed to a good county family in Staffordshire, and had
+been a student at Pembroke Hall, Oxford), that Mr. Bliss at once engaged
+him. Nor had he occasion, during the time the new clerk served him, to
+repent the step. Vaughan was so diligent, intelligent, and steady, that
+not even when it transpired that he was, commercially speaking, "under a
+cloud," did his master lessen confidence in him. Some inquiry into his
+antecedents showed that he had, while at College, been extravagant; that
+his friends had removed him thence; set him up in Stafford
+as a wholesale linen-draper, with a branch establishment in
+Aldersgate-street, London; that he had failed, and that there was some
+difficulty about his certificate. But so well did he excuse his early
+failings, and account for his misfortunes, that his employer did not
+check the regard he felt growing toward him. Their intercourse was not
+merely that of master and servant. Vaughan was a frequent guest at
+Bliss's table; by-and-by a daily visitor to his wife, and--to his ward.
+
+Miss Bliss was a young lady of some attractions, not the smallest of
+which was a handsome fortune. Young Vaughan made the most of his
+opportunities. He was well-looking, well-informed, dressed well, and
+evidently made love well, for he won the young lady's heart. The
+guardian was not flinty-hearted, and acted like a sensible man of the
+world. "It was not," he said on a subsequent and painful occasion, "till
+I learned from the servants, and observed by the girl's behavior, that
+she greatly approved Richard Vaughan, that I consented; but on condition
+that he should make it appear that he could maintain her. I had no doubt
+of his character as a servant, and I knew his family were respectable.
+His brother is an eminent attorney." Vaughan boasted that his mother
+(his father was dead) was willing to re-instate him in business with a
+thousand pounds; five hundred of which was to be settled upon Miss Bliss
+for her separate use.
+
+So far all went on prosperously. Providing Richard Vaughan could attain
+a position satisfactory to the Blisses, the marriage was to take place
+on the Easter Monday following, which, the Calendar tells us, happened
+early in April, 1758. With this understanding, he left Mr. Bliss's
+service, to push his fortune.
+
+Months passed on, and Vaughan appears to have made no way in the world.
+He had not even obtained his bankrupt's certificate. His visits to his
+affianced were frequent, and his protestations passionate; but he had
+effected nothing substantial toward a happy union. Miss Bliss's guardian
+grew impatient; and, although there is no evidence to prove that the
+young lady's affection for Vaughan was otherwise than deep and sincere,
+yet even she began to lose confidence in him. His excuses were evidently
+evasive, and not always true. The time fixed for the wedding was fast
+approaching; and Vaughan saw that something must be done to restore the
+young lady's confidence.
+
+About three weeks before the appointed Easter Tuesday, Vaughan went to
+his mistress in high spirits. All was right: his certificate was to be
+granted in a day or two; his family had come forward with the money, and
+he was to continue the Aldersgate business he had previously carried on
+as a branch of the Stafford trade. The capital he had waited so long
+for, was at length forthcoming. In fact, here were two hundred and forty
+pounds of the five hundred he was to settle on his beloved. Vaughan then
+produced twelve twenty-pound notes; Miss Bliss could scarcely believe
+her eyes. She examined them. The paper she remarked seemed rather
+thicker than usual. "Oh," said Bliss, "all Bank bills are not alike."
+The girl was naturally much pleased. She would hasten to apprize
+Mistress Bliss of the good news.
+
+Not for the world! So far from letting any living soul know he had
+placed so much money in her hands, Vaughan exacted an oath of secresy
+from her, and sealed the notes up in a parcel with his own seal; making
+her swear that she would on no account open it till after their
+marriage.
+
+Some days after, that is, "on the twenty-second of March," (1758)--we
+are describing the scene in Mr. Bliss's own words--"I was sitting with
+my wife by the fireside. The prisoner and the girl were sitting in the
+same room--which was a small one--and, although they whispered, I could
+distinguish that Vaughan was very urgent to have something returned
+which he had previously given to her. She refused, and Vaughan went away
+in an angry mood. I then studied the girl's face, and saw that it
+expressed much dissatisfaction. Presently a tear broke out. I then
+spoke, and insisted on knowing the dispute. She refused to tell, and I
+told her that, until she did, I would not see her. The next day I asked
+the same question of Vaughan; he hesitated. 'Oh!' I said, 'I dare say it
+is some ten or twelve pound matter--something to buy a wedding bauble
+with.' He answered that it was much more than that--it was near three
+hundred pounds! 'But why all this secresy?' I said; and he answered it
+was not proper for people to know he had so much money till his
+certificate was signed. I then asked him to what intent he had left the
+notes with the young lady? He said, as I had of late suspected him, he
+designed to give her a proof of his affection and truth. I said, 'You
+have demanded them in such a way that it must be construed as an
+abatement of your affection toward her.'" Vaughan was again exceedingly
+urgent in asking back the packet; but Bliss, remembering his many
+evasions, and supposing that this was a trick, declined advising his
+niece to restore the parcel without proper consideration. The very next
+day it was discovered that the notes were counterfeit.
+
+This occasioned stricter inquiries into Vaughan's previous career. It
+turned out that he bore the character in his native place of a
+dissipated, and not very scrupulous person. The intention of his mother
+to assist him was an entire fabrication, and he had given Miss Bliss the
+forged notes solely for the purpose of deceiving her on that matter.
+Meanwhile the forgeries became known to the authorities, and he was
+arrested. By what means, does not clearly appear. The "Annual Register"
+says that one of the engravers gave information; but we find nothing in
+the newspapers of the time to support that statement; neither was it
+corroborated at Vaughan's trial.
+
+When Vaughan was arrested he thrust a piece of paper into his mouth, and
+began to chew it violently. It was, however, rescued, and proved to be
+one of the forged notes; fourteen of them were found on his person, and
+when his lodgings were searched twenty more were discovered.
+
+Vaughan was tried at the Old Bailey, on the seventh of April, before
+Lord Mansfield. The manner of the forgery was detailed minutely at the
+trial: On the first of March (about a week before he gave the twelve
+notes to the young lady), Vaughan called on Mr. John Corbould, an
+engraver, and gave an order for a promissory note to be engraved with
+these words:
+
+    "No. ----.
+
+         "I promise to pay to ----, or Bearer, ----, London ----."
+
+There was to be a Britannia in the corner. When it was done, Mr. Sneed
+(for that was the _alias_ Vaughan adopted), came again, but objected to
+the execution of the work. The Britannia was not good, and the words "I
+promise" were too near the edge of the plate. Another was in consequence
+engraved, and on the fourth of March, Vaughan took it away. He
+immediately repaired to a printer, and had forty-eight impressions taken
+on thin paper, provided by himself. Meanwhile, he had ordered, on the
+same morning, of Mr. Charles Fourdrinier, another engraver, a second
+plate, with what he called "a direction," in the words, "For the
+Governor and Company of the Bank of England." This was done, and about a
+week later he brought some paper, each sheet "folded up," said the
+witness, "very curiously, so that I could not see what was in them. I
+was going to take the papers from him, but he said he must go up-stairs
+with me, and see them worked off himself. I took him up-stairs; he would
+not let me have them out of his hands. I took a sponge and wetted them,
+and put them one by one on the plate in order for printing them. After
+my boy had done two or three of them, I went down-stairs, and my boy
+worked the rest off, and the prisoner came down and paid me."
+
+Here the court pertinently asked, "What imagination had you when a man
+thus came to you to print on secret paper, 'the Governor and Company of
+the Bank of England?'"
+
+The engraver's reply was: "I then did not suspect any thing. But I shall
+take care for the future." As this was the first Bank of England note
+forgery that was ever perpetrated, the engraver was held excused.
+
+It may be mentioned as an evidence of the delicacy of the reporters,
+that, in their account of the trial, Miss Bliss's name is not mentioned.
+Her designation is "a young lady." We subjoin the notes of her evidence:
+
+"A young lady (sworn). The prisoner delivered me some bills; these are
+the same (producing twelve counterfeit bank notes sealed up in a cover,
+for twenty pounds each), said that they were Bank bills. I said they
+were thicker paper--he said all bills are not alike. I was to keep them
+till after we were married. He put them into my hands to show he put
+confidence in me, and desired me not to show them to any body; sealed
+them up with his own seal, and obliged me by an oath not to discover
+them to any body. And I did not till he had discovered them himself. He
+was to settle so much in stock on me."
+
+Vaughan urged in his defense, that his sole object was to deceive his
+affianced, and that he intended to destroy all the notes after his
+marriage. But it had been proved that the prisoner had asked one John
+Ballingar to change first one, and then twenty of the notes; but which
+that person was unable to do. Besides, had his sole object been to
+dazzle Miss Bliss with his fictitious wealth, he would, most probably,
+have intrusted more, if not all the notes, to her keeping.
+
+He was found guilty, and passed the day that had been fixed for his
+wedding, as a condemned criminal.
+
+On the 11th of May, 1758, Richard William Vaughan was executed at
+Tyburn. By his side, on the same gallows, there was another forger:
+William Boodgere, a military officer, who had forged a draught on an
+army agent named Calcroft, and expiated the offense with the first
+forger of Bank of England notes.
+
+The gallows may seem hard measure to have meted out to Vaughan, when it
+is considered that none of his notes were negotiated, and no person
+suffered by his fraud. Not one of the forty-eight notes, except the
+twelve delivered to Miss Bliss, had been out of his possession; indeed,
+the imitation must have been very clumsily executed, and detection would
+have instantly followed any attempt to pass the counterfeits. There was
+no endeavor to copy the style of engraving on a real bank note. That was
+left to the engraver; and as each sheet passed through the press twice,
+the words added at the second printing, "For the Governor and Company of
+the Bank of England," could have fallen into their proper place on any
+one of the sheets, only by a miracle. But what would have made the
+forgery clear to even a superficial observer, was the singular omission,
+of the second "n" in the word England.[20]
+
+The criticism on Vaughan's note of a bank clerk examined on the trial
+was: "There is some resemblance, to be sure; but this note" (that upon
+which the prisoner was tried) "is numbered thirteen thousand eight
+hundred and forty, and we never reach so high a number." Besides there
+was no water-mark in the paper. The note of which a fac-simile appeared
+in our eighteenth number, and dated so early as 1699, has a regular
+design in the texture of the paper; showing that the water-mark is as
+old as the bank notes themselves.
+
+Vaughan was greatly commiserated. But despite the unskillfulness of the
+forgery, and the insignificant consequences which followed it, the crime
+was considered of too dangerous a character not to be marked, from its
+very novelty, with exemplary punishment. Hanging created at that time no
+remorse in the public mind, and it was thought necessary to set up
+Vaughan as a warning to all future bank-note forgers. The crime was too
+dangerous not to be marked with the severest penalties. Forgery differs
+from other crimes not less in the magnitude of the spoil it may obtain,
+and of the injury it inflicts, than in the facilities attending its
+accomplishment. The common thief finds a limit to his depredations in
+the bulkiness of his booty, which is generally confined to such property
+as he can carry about his person; the swindler raises insuperable and
+defeating obstacles to his frauds if the amount he seeks to obtain is so
+considerable as to awaken close vigilance or inquiry. To carry their
+projects to any very profitable extent, these criminals are reduced to
+the hazardous necessity of acting in concert, and thus infinitely
+increasing the risks of detection. But the forger need have no
+accomplice; he is burdened with no bulky and suspicious property; he
+needs no receiver to assist his contrivances. The skill of his own
+individual right hand can command thousands; often with the certainty of
+not being detected, and oftener with such rapidity as to enable him to
+baffle the pursuit of justice.
+
+It was a long time before Vaughan's rude attempt was improved upon: but
+in the same year (1758), another department of the crime was commenced
+with perfect success; namely, an ingenious alteration, for fraudulent
+purposes, of real bank notes. A few months after Vaughan's execution,
+one of the northern mails was stopped and robbed by a highwayman;
+several bank notes were comprised in the spoil, and the robber, setting
+up with these as a gentleman, went boldly to the Hatfield Post-office,
+ordered a chaise and four, rattled away down the road, and changed a
+note at every change of horses. The robbery was, of course, soon made
+known, and the numbers and dates of the stolen notes were advertised as
+having been stopped at the bank. To the genius of a highwayman this
+offered but a small obstacle, and the gentleman-thief changed all the
+figures "1" he could find into "4's." These notes passed currently
+enough; but, on reaching the bank, the alteration was detected, and the
+last holder was refused payment. As that person had given a valuable
+consideration for the note, he brought an action for the recovery of the
+amount; and at the trial it was ruled by the Lord Chief Justice, that
+"any person paying a valuable consideration for a bank note, payable to
+bearer, in a fair course of business, has an understood right to receive
+the money of the bank."
+
+It took a quarter of a century to bring the art of forging bank notes to
+perfection. In 1779, this was nearly attained by an ingenious gentleman,
+named Mathison, a watchmaker from the matrimonial village of Gretna
+Green. Having learned the arts of engraving and of simulating
+signatures, he tried his hand at the notes of the Darlington Bank; but,
+with the confidence of skill, was not cautious in passing them, was
+suspected, and absconded to Edinburgh. Scorning to let his talent be
+wasted, he favored the Scottish public with many spurious Royal Bank of
+Scotland notes, and regularly forged his way by their aid to London. At
+the end of February he took handsome lodgings in the Strand, opposite
+Arundel-street. His industry was remarkable: for, by the 12th of March,
+he had planed and polished rough pieces of copper, engraved them, forged
+the water-mark, printed and negotiated several impressions. His plan was
+to travel and to purchase articles in shops. He bought a pair of
+shoe-buckles at Coventry with a forged note, which was eventually
+detected at the Bank of England. He had got so bold that he paid such
+frequent visits in Threadneedle-street, that the bank clerks became
+familiar with his person. He was continually changing notes of one, for
+another denomination. These were his originals, which he procured to
+make spurious copies of. One day seven thousand pounds came in from the
+Stamp Office. There was a dispute about one of the notes. Mathison, who
+was present, though at some distance, declared, oracularly, that the
+note was a good one. How could he know so well? A dawn of suspicion
+arose in the minds of the clerks; one trail led into another, and
+Mathison was finally apprehended. So well were his notes forged that, on
+the trial, an experienced bank clerk declared, he could not tell whether
+the note handed him to examine was forged or not. Mathison offered to
+reveal his secret of forging the water-mark, if mercy were shown to him;
+this was refused, and he suffered the penalty of his crime.
+
+Mathison was a genius in his criminal way, but a greater than he
+appeared in 1786. In that year perfection seemed to have been reached.
+So considerable was the circulation of spurious paper-money, that it
+appeared as if some unknown power had set up a bank of its own. Notes
+were issued from it, and readily passed current, in hundreds and
+thousands. They were not to be distinguished from the genuine paper of
+Threadneedle-street. Indeed, when one was presented there, in due
+course, so complete were all its parts; so masterly the engraving; so
+correct the signatures; so skillful the water-mark, that it was promptly
+paid; and only discovered to be a forgery when it reached a particular
+department. From that period forged paper continued to be presented,
+especially at the time of lottery drawing. Consultations were held with
+the police. Plans were laid to help detection. Every effort was made to
+trace the forger. Clarke, the best detective of his day, went, like a
+sluth-hound, on the track; for in those days the expressive word
+"blood-money" was known. Up to a certain point there was little
+difficulty; but, beyond that, consummate art defied the ingenuity of
+the officer. In whatever way the notes came, the train of discovery
+always paused at the lottery-offices. Advertisements offering large
+rewards were circulated; but the unknown forger baffled detection.
+
+While this base paper was in full currency, there appeared an
+advertisement in the Daily Advertiser for a servant. The successful
+applicant was a young man, in the employment of a musical-instrument
+maker; who, some time after, was called upon by a coachman, and informed
+that the advertiser was waiting in a coach to see him. The young man was
+desired to enter the conveyance, where he beheld a person with something
+of the appearance of a foreigner, sixty or seventy years old, apparently
+troubled with the gout. A camlet surtout was buttoned round his mouth; a
+large patch was placed over his left eye; and nearly every part of his
+face was concealed. He affected much infirmity. He had a faint hectic
+cough; and invariably presented the patched side to the view of the
+servant. After some conversation--in the course of which he represented
+himself as guardian to a young nobleman of great fortune--the interview
+concluded with the engagement of the applicant; and the new servant was
+directed to call on Mr. Brank, at 29, Titchfield-street, Oxford-street.
+At this interview, Brank inveighed against his whimsical ward for his
+love of speculating in lottery tickets; and told the servant that his
+principal duty would be to purchase them. After one or two meetings, at
+each of which Brank kept his face muffled, he handed a forty and twenty
+pound bank note; told the servant to be very careful not to lose them;
+and directed him to buy lottery-tickets at separate offices. The young
+man fulfilled his instructions, and at the moment he was returning, was
+suddenly called by his employer from the other side of the street,
+congratulated on his rapidity, and then told to go to various other
+offices in the neighborhood of the Royal Exchange, and to purchase more
+shares. Four hundred pounds in Bank of England notes were handed him,
+and the wishes of the mysterious Mr. Brank were satisfactorily effected.
+These scenes were continually enacted. Notes to a large amount were thus
+circulated; lottery-tickets purchased; and Mr. Brank--always in a coach,
+with his face studiously concealed--was ever ready on the spot to
+receive them. The surprise of the servant was somewhat excited; but had
+he known that from the period he left his master to purchase the
+tickets, one female figure accompanied all his movements; that when he
+entered the offices, it waited at the door, peered cautiously in at the
+window, hovered around him like a second shadow, watched him carefully,
+and never left him until once more he was in the company of his
+employer--that surprise would have been greatly increased.[21] Again and
+again were these extraordinary scenes rehearsed. At last the Bank
+obtained a clew, and the servant was taken into custody. The directors
+imagined that they had secured the actor of so many parts; that the
+flood of forged notes which had inundated that establishment would at
+length be dammed up at its source. Their hopes proved fallacious, and it
+was found that "Old Patch" (as the mysterious forger was, from the
+servant's description, nick-named) had been sufficiently clever to
+baffle the Bank directors. The house in Titchfield-street was searched;
+but Mr. Brank had deserted it, and not a trace of a single implement of
+forgery was to be seen.
+
+All that could be obtained was some little knowledge of "Old Patch's"
+proceedings. It appeared that he carried on his paper coining entirely
+by himself. His only confidant was his mistress. He was his own
+engraver. He even made his own ink. He manufactured his own paper. With
+a private press he worked his own notes; and counterfeited the
+signatures of the cashiers, completely. But these discoveries had no
+effect; for it became evident that Mr. Patch had set up a press
+elsewhere. Although his secret continued as impenetrable, his notes
+became as plentiful as ever. Five years of unbounded prosperity ought to
+have satisfied him; but it did not. Success seemed to pall him. His
+genius was of that insatiable order which demands new excitements, and a
+constant succession of new flights. The following paragraph from a
+newspaper of 1786 relates to the same individual:
+
+"On the 17th of December, ten pounds were paid into the Bank, for which
+the clerk, as usual, gave a ticket to receive a Bank note of equal
+value. This ticket ought to have been carried immediately to the
+cashier, instead of which the bearer took it home, and curiously added
+an 0 to the original sum, and returning, presented it so altered to the
+cashier, for which he received a note of one hundred pounds. In the
+evening, the clerks found a deficiency in the accounts; and on examining
+the tickets of the day, not only that but two others were discovered to
+have been obtained in the same manner. In the one, the figure 1 was
+altered to 4, and in another to 5, by which the artist received, upon
+the whole, nearly one thousand pounds."
+
+To that princely felony, Old Patch, as will be seen in the sequel, added
+smaller misdemeanors which one would think were far beneath his notice;
+except to convince himself and his mistress of the unbounded facility of
+his genius for fraud.
+
+At that period, the affluent public were saddled with a tax on plate;
+and many experiments were made to evade it. Among others, one was
+invented by a Mr. Charles Price, a stock-jobber and lottery-office
+keeper, which, for a time, puzzled the tax-gatherer. Mr. Charles Price
+lived in great style, gave splendid dinners, and did every thing on the
+grandest scale. Yet Mr. Charles Price had no plate! The authorities
+could not find so much as a silver tooth-pick on his magnificent
+premises. In truth, what he was too cunning to possess, he borrowed. For
+one of his sumptuous entertainments, he hired the plate of a silversmith
+in Cornhill, and left the value in bank notes as security for its safe
+return. One of these notes having proved a forgery, was traced to Mr.
+Charles Price; and Mr. Charles Price was not to be found at that
+particular juncture. Although this excited no surprise--for he was often
+an absentee from his office for short periods--yet in due course, and as
+a formal matter of business, an officer was set to find him, and to ask
+his explanation regarding the false note. After tracing a man, who he
+had a strong notion was Mr. Charles Price, through countless lodgings
+and innumerable disguises, the officer (to use his own expression)
+"nabbed" Mr. Charles Price. But, as Mr. Clarke observed, his prisoner
+and his prisoner's lady were even then "too many" for him; for, although
+he lost not a moment in trying to secure the forging implements, after
+he had discovered that Mr. Charles Price, and Mr. Brank, and Old Patch,
+were all concentrated in the person of his prisoner, he found the lady
+had destroyed every trace of evidence. Not a vestige of the forging
+factory was left. Not the point of a graver, nor a single spot of ink,
+nor a shred of silver paper, nor a scrap of any body's handwriting, was
+to be met with. Despite, however, this paucity of evidence to convict
+him, Mr. Charles Price had not the courage to face a jury, and
+eventually he saved the judicature and the Tyburn executive much trouble
+and expense, by hanging himself in Bridewell.
+
+The success of Mr. Charles Price has never been surpassed; and even
+after the darkest era in the history of Bank forgeries--which dates from
+the suspension of cash payments, in February, 1797--"Old Patch" was
+still remembered as the Cæsar of Forgers.
+
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [20] Bad orthography was by no means uncommon in the most
+    important documents at that period; the days of the week, in the
+    day-books of the Bank of England itself, are spelled in a variety
+    of ways.
+
+    [21] Francis's History of the Bank of England.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLDEST INHABITANT OF THE PLACE DE GREVE.
+
+
+The Police Courts of London have often displayed many a curious
+character, many a strange scene, many an exquisite bit of dialogue; so
+have the Police Courts in Ireland, especially at the Petty Sessions in
+Kilrush; but we are not so well aware of how often a scene of rich and
+peculiar humor occurs in the Police _tribuneaux_ of Paris. We will
+proceed to give the reader a "taste of their quality."
+
+An extremely old woman, all in rags, was continually found begging in
+the streets, and the Police having good-naturedly let her off several
+times, were at last obliged to take her in charge, and bring her into
+the court. Several magistrates were sitting. The following dialogue took
+place between the President and the old woman.
+
+_President._--Now, my good woman, what have you to say for yourself? You
+have been frequently warned by the Police, but you have persisted in
+troubling people with begging.
+
+_Old Woman (in a humble, quavering tone)._--Ah, Monsieur le President,
+it is not so much trouble to other people as it is to me. I am a very
+old woman.
+
+_Pres._--Come, come, you must leave off begging, or I shall be obliged
+to punish you.
+
+_Old W._--But, Monsieur le President, I can not live without--I must
+beg--pardon me, Monsieur--I am obliged to beg.
+
+_Pres._--But I say you must not. Can you do no work?
+
+_Old W._--Ah, no, Monsieur; I am too old.
+
+_Pres._--Can't you sell something--little cakes--bonbons?
+
+_Old W._--No, Monsieur, I can't get any little stock to begin with; and,
+if I could, I should be robbed by the _gamins_, or the little girls, for
+I'm not very quick, and can't see well.
+
+_Pres._--Your relations must support you, then. You can not be allowed
+to beg. Have you no son--no daughter--no grandchildren?
+
+_Old W._--No, Monsieur; none--none--all my relations are dead.
+
+_Pres._--Well then, your friends must give you assistance.
+
+_Old W._--Ah, Monsieur, I have no friends; and, indeed, I never had but
+one, in my life; but he too is gone.
+
+_Pres._--And who was he?
+
+_Old W._--Monsieur de Robespierre--_le pauvre, cher homme_! (The poor,
+dear man!)
+
+_Pres._--Robespierre!--why what did you know of him?
+
+_Old W._--Oh, Monsieur, my mother was one of the _tricoteurs_
+(knitting-women) who used to sit round the foot of the guillotine, and I
+always stood beside her. When Monsieur de Robespierre was passing by, in
+attending his duties, he used to touch my cheek, and call me (here the
+old woman shed tears) _la belle Marguerite: le pauvre, cher homme_!
+
+We must here pause to remind the reader that these women, the
+_tricoteurs_, who used to sit round the foot of the guillotine on the
+mornings when it was at its hideous work, were sometimes called the
+"Furies;" but only as a grim jest. It is well known, that, although
+there were occasionally some sanguinary hags among them, yet, for the
+most part, they were merely idle, gossiping women, who came there
+dressed in neat white caps, and with their knitting materials, out of
+sheer love of excitement, and to enjoy the _spectacle_.
+
+_Pres._--Well, Goody; finish your history.
+
+_Old W._--I was married soon after this, and then I used to take my seat
+as a _tricoteur_ among the others; and on the days when Monsieur de
+Robespierre passed, he used always to notice me--_le pauvre, cher
+homme_. I used then to be called _la belle tricoteuse_, but now--now, I
+am called _la vielle radoteuse_ (the old dotardess). Ah, Monsieur le
+President, it is what we must all come to!
+
+The old woman accompanied this reflection with an inimitable look at
+the President, which completely involved him in the _we_, thus
+presenting him with the prospect of becoming an old dotardess; not in
+the least meant offensively, but said in the innocence of her aged
+heart.
+
+_Pres._--Ahem!--silence! You seem to have a very tender recollection of
+Monsieur Robespierre. I suppose you had reason to be grateful to him?
+
+_Old W._--No, Monsieur, no reason in particular; for he guillotined my
+husband.
+
+_Pres._--Certainly this ought to be no reason for loving his memory.
+
+_Old W._--Ah, Monsieur, but it happened quite by accident. Monsieur de
+Robespierre did not intend to guillotine my husband--he had him executed
+by mistake for somebody else--_le pauvre, cher homme_!
+
+Thus leaving it an exquisite matter of doubt, as to whether the "poor
+dear man" referred to her husband, or to Monsieur de Robespierre; or
+whether the tender epithet was equally divided between them.
+
+
+
+
+[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
+
+STORY OF A KITE.
+
+
+The setting sun beamed in golden light over the country; long shadows
+lay on the cool grass; the birds, which had been silent through the
+sultry heat of the day, sang their joyous evening hymn: the merry voices
+of the village children sounded through the clear air, while their
+fathers loitered about enjoying the luxury of rest after labor. A
+sun-burned traveler, with dusty shoes, walked sturdily along the high
+road: he was young and strong, and his ruddy cheeks glowed in the warm
+light: he carried his baggage on a stick over his shoulder, and looked
+straight on toward the cottages of the village; and you might see, by
+the expression of his face, that his eye was earnestly watching for the
+first glimpse of the home that lay among them, to which he was
+returning.
+
+The same setting sun threw his golden beams over the great metropolis:
+they lighted up streets, and squares, and parks, whence crowds were
+retiring from business or pleasure to their various places of abode or
+gay parties: they pierced even through the smoke of the city, and gilded
+its great central dome; but when they reached the labyrinth of lanes and
+courts which it incloses, their radiance was gone, for noxious vapors
+rose there after the heat of the day, and quenched them. The summer sun
+is dreaded in those places.
+
+The dusky light found its way with difficulty through a small and dim
+window into an upper room of a house in one of these lanes, and any one
+entering it would at first have thought it was void of any living
+inhabitant, had not the restless tossing and oppressed breathing that
+proceeded from a bed in one corner borne witness to the contrary. A weak
+sickly boy lay there, his eye fixed on the door. It opened, and he
+started up in bed; but at the sight of another boy, a few years older
+than himself, who came in alone, he sunk back again, crying in a
+plaintive voice, "Don't you see her coming yet?"
+
+"No, she is not in sight: I ran to the corner of the lane, and could see
+nothing of her," replied the elder boy, who, as he spoke, knelt down
+before the grate, and began to arrange some sticks in it.
+
+Every thing in the room bespoke poverty; yet there was an appearance of
+order, and as much cleanliness as can be attained in such an abode.
+Among the scanty articles of furniture there was one object that was
+remarkable as being singularly out of place, and apparently very useless
+there: it was a large paper kite, that hung from a nail on the wall, and
+nearly reached from the low ceiling to the floor.
+
+"There's eight o'clock just struck, John," said the little boy in bed.
+"Go and look once more if mother's not coming yet."
+
+"It's no use looking, Jem. It won't make her come any faster; but I'll
+go to please you."
+
+"I hear some one on the stairs."
+
+"It's only Mrs. Willis going into the back-room."
+
+"Oh dear, dear, what _shall_ I do?"
+
+"Don't cry, Jem. Look, now I've put the wood all ready to boil the
+kettle the minute mother comes, and she'll bring you some tea: she said
+she would. Now I'm going to sweep up the dust, and make it all tidy."
+
+Jem was quieted for a few minutes by looking at his brother's busy
+operations, carried on in a bustling, rattling way, to afford all the
+amusement possible; but the feverish restlessness soon returned.
+
+"Take me up, do take me up," he cried; "and hold me near the broken
+pane, please, John;" and he stretched out his white, wasted hands.
+
+John kindly lifted out the poor little fellow, and dragging a chair to
+the window, sat down with him on his knee, and held his face close to
+the broken pane, through which, however, no air seemed to come, and he
+soon began to cry again.
+
+"What is it, Jem?--what's the matter?" said a kind voice at the door,
+where a woman stood, holding by the hand a pale child.
+
+"I want mother," sobbed Jem.
+
+"Mother's out at work, Mrs. Willis," said John; "and she thought she
+should be home at half-past seven; but she's kept later sometimes."
+
+"Don't cry," said Mrs. Willis's little girl, coming forward. "Here's my
+orange for you."
+
+Jem took it, and put it to his mouth; but he stopped, and asked John to
+cut it in two; gave back half to the little girl, made John taste the
+portion he kept, and then began to suck the cooling fruit with great
+pleasure, only pausing to say, with a smile, "Thank you, Mary."
+
+"Now lie down again, and try to go to sleep; there's a good boy," said
+Mrs. Willis; "and mother will soon be here. I must go now."
+
+Jem was laid in bed once more; but he tossed about restlessly, and the
+sad wail began again.
+
+"I'll tell you what," said John, "if you will stop crying, I'll take
+down poor Harry's kite, and show you how he used to fly it."
+
+"But mother don't like us to touch it."
+
+"No; but she will not mind when I tell her why I did it this once. Look
+at the pretty blue and red figures on it. Harry made it, and painted it
+all himself; and look at the long tail!"
+
+"But how did he fly it? Can't you show me how poor Harry used to fly
+it?"
+
+John mounted on a chest, and holding the kite at arm's length, began to
+wave it about, and to make the tail shake, while Jem sat up admiring.
+
+"This was the way he used to hold it up. Then he took the string that
+was fastened here--mother has got it in the chest--and he held the
+string in his hand, and when the wind came, and sent the kite up, he let
+the string run through his hand, and up it went over the trees,
+up--up--and he ran along in the fields, and it flew along under the blue
+sky."
+
+John waved the kite more energetically as he described, and both the
+boys were so engrossed by it, that they did not observe that the mother,
+so longed for, had come in, and had sunk down on a chair near the door,
+her face bent and nearly hidden by the rusty crape on her widow's
+bonnet, while the tears fell fast on her faded black gown.
+
+"Oh mother, mother!" cried Jem, who saw her first, "come and take
+me--come and comfort me!"
+
+The poor woman rose quickly, wiped her eyes, and hastened to her sick
+child, who was soon nestled in her arms, and seemed to have there
+forgotten all his woes.
+
+The kind, good-natured John had meanwhile hung up the kite in its place,
+and was looking rather anxiously at his mother, for he well understood
+the cause of the grief that had overcome her at the sight of his
+occupation, when she first came in; but she stroked his hair, looked
+kindly at him, and bade him make the kettle boil, and get the things out
+of her basket. All that was wanted for their simple supper was in it,
+and it was not long before little Jem was again laid down after the
+refreshment of tea; then a mattress was put in a corner for John, who
+was soon asleep; and the mother, tired with her day's hard work, took
+her place in the bed by the side of her child.
+
+But the tears that had rolled fast down her cheeks as her lips moved in
+prayer before sleep came upon her, still made their way beneath the
+closed eyelids, and Jem awoke her by saying, as he stroked her face with
+his hot hand, "Don't cry, mother; we won't touch it again!"
+
+"It's not that, my child; no, no: it's the thought of my own Harry. I
+think I see his pleasant face, and his curly hair, and his merry eyes
+looking up after his kite." It was not often she spoke out her griefs;
+but now, in the silent night, it seemed to comfort her.
+
+"Tell me about him, mother, and about his going away? I like to hear you
+tell about him."
+
+"He worked with father, you know, and a clever workman he learned to
+be."
+
+"But he was much older than me. Shall I ever be a good workman, mother?"
+
+The question made her heart ache with a fresh anguish, and she could not
+answer it; but replied to his first words, "Yes, he was much older. We
+laid three of our children in the grave between him and John. Harry was
+seventeen when his uncle took him to serve out his time in a
+merchant-ship. Uncle Ben, that was ship's carpenter, it was that took
+him.--The voyage was to last a year and a half, for they were to go to
+all manner of countries far, far away. One letter I had. It came on a
+sad day the day after poor father died, Jem. And then I had to leave our
+cottage in our own village, and bring you two to London, to find work to
+keep you; but I have always taken care to leave word where I was to be
+found, and have often gone to ask after letters. Not one has ever come
+again; and it's six months past the time when they looked for the ship,
+and they don't know what to think. But I know what I think: the sea has
+rolled over my dear boy, and I shall never see him again--never, never
+in this weary world."
+
+"Don't cry so, mother dear; I'll try to go to sleep, and not make you
+talk."
+
+"Yes--try; and if you can only get better, that will comfort me most."
+
+Both closed their eyes, and sleep came upon them once more.
+
+It was eight o'clock in the morning when the little boy awoke, and then
+he was alone; but to that he was accustomed. His mother was again gone
+to work, and John was out cleaning knives and shoes in the neighborhood.
+The table, with a small piece of bread and a cup of blue milk and water
+on it, stood beside him. He drank a little, but could not eat, and then
+lay down again with his eyes fixed on Harry's kite.
+
+"Could he fly it," or rather, "could he see John fly it--really out of
+doors and in the air?" That was of all things what he most longed to do.
+He wondered where the fields were, and if he could ever go there and see
+the kite fly under the blue sky. Then he wondered if John could fly it
+in the lane. He crept out of bed, and tottered to the window.
+
+The lane was very wet and slushy, and a nasty black gutter ran down it,
+and oozed out among the broken stones. There had been a heavy
+thunder-shower in the night, and as there was no foot pavement, and what
+stones there were, were very uneven and scattered, the black pools
+lodged among them, and altogether it seemed impossible for a boy to fly
+a kite there; for "how could he run along holding the string? he would
+tumble among the dirty pools. There were only four children to be seen
+in it now, out of all the numbers that lived in the houses, though it
+was a warm summer morning, and they were dabbling with naked feet in the
+mud, and their ragged clothes were all draggled. Mother would never let
+him and John do like that."
+
+Still he stood, first examining the window, then looking at the kite;
+then putting his hand out through the broken pane, and pondered over a
+scheme that had entered his mind.
+
+"John," he cried, as the door opened, "don't you think we could fly
+Harry's kite out of the broken pane?"
+
+At first this idea seemed to John perfectly chimerical; but after some
+consultation and explanation a plan was devised between the two boys, to
+complete which they only waited for their mother's return. They expected
+her at one, for this was only half a day's work.
+
+Jem was dressed when she returned, and his excitement made him appear
+better; but she saw with grief that he could not touch his dinner; and
+her anxiety about him made her, less unwillingly than she otherwise
+would have done, consent to the petition he made, that "only for this
+once she would let him and John fly the kite outside the window." She
+stifled her sigh as she sat down to needlework, lest she should cast a
+gloom over the busy preparations that immediately commenced.
+
+The difficulty had been how to get the kite out, because the window
+would not open. To surmount this, John was to go down to the lane,
+taking the kite with him, while Jem lowered the string out of the broken
+pane.
+
+"When you get hold of the string, you know, John, you can fasten it, and
+then stand on that large stone opposite, just by where that gentleman
+is, and hold up the kite, and then I will pull."
+
+All was done accordingly. John did his part well. Jem pulled; the kite
+rose to the window, and fluttered about, for the thunder had been
+followed by a high wind, which was felt a little even in this close
+place, and the boys gazed at it with great pleasure. As it dangled
+loosely by the window in this manner, the tail became entangled, and
+John was obliged to run up to help to put it right.
+
+"Let it down to me again when I have run out," said he, as he tried to
+disentangle it; "and I will stand on the stone, and hold it up, and you
+can pull again. There's the gentleman still, and now there's a young man
+besides. The gentleman has made him look up at the kite."
+
+"Come and look, mother," said Jem: but she did not hear. "The young man
+has such a brown face, and such curly hair."
+
+"And he's like--mother, he is crossing over!" cried John. "He has come
+into the house!"
+
+The mother heard now. A wild hope rushed through her heart; she started
+up; a quick step was heard on the stairs; the door flew open, and the
+next moment she was clasped in her son's arms!
+
+The joy nearly took away her senses. Broken words mingled with tears,
+thanksgivings, and blessings, were all that were uttered for some time
+between them. Harry had Jem on his knee, and John pressed close to his
+side, and was holding his mother tight by the hand, and looking up in
+her face, when at last they began to believe and understand that they
+once more saw each other. And then he had to explain how the ship had
+been disabled by a storm in the South Seas; and how they got her into
+one of the beautiful islands there, and refitted her, and after six
+months' delay, brought her back safe and sound, cargo and all; and how
+he and Uncle Ben were both strong and hearty.
+
+"How well you look, my dear boy!" said the happy mother. "How tall, and
+stout, and handsome you are!"
+
+"And he's got his curly hair and bright eyes still," said poor wan
+little Jem, speaking for the first time.
+
+"But you, mother, and all of you, how pale you are, and how thin! I
+know--yes, don't say it--I know who's gone. I went home last night,
+mother. I walked all the way to the village, and found the poor cottage
+empty, and heard how he died."
+
+"Home! You went there?"
+
+"Yes, and the neighbors told me you were gone to London. But I slept all
+night in the kitchen, on some straw. There I lay, and thought of you,
+and of him we have lost, and prayed that I might be a comfort to you
+yet."
+
+Joy and sorrow seemed struggling for the mastery in the widow's heart;
+but the present happiness proved the stronger, and she was soon smiling,
+and listening to Harry.
+
+"I had a hard matter to find you," he said. "You had left the lodging
+they directed me to at first."
+
+"But I left word where I had come to."
+
+"Ay, so you had; and an old woman there told me you were at No. 10
+Paradise Row."
+
+"What could she be thinking of?"
+
+"No one had heard of you in that place. However, as I was going along
+back again to get better information, keeping a sharp look-out in hopes
+I might meet you, I passed the end of this lane, and saw it was called
+Eden-lane, so I thought perhaps the old lady had fancied Paradise and
+Eden were all the same; and sure enough, they are both as like one as
+the other, for they are wretched, miserable places as ever I saw. I
+turned in here, and then No. 10 proved wrong too; and as I was standing
+looking about, and wondering what I had better do next, a gentleman
+touched my arm, and pointing first at the black pools in the broken
+pavement, and then up at this window, he said--I remember his very
+words, they struck me so--'Do not the very stones rise up in judgment
+against us! Look at these poor little fellows trying to fly their kite
+out of a broken pane!' Hearing him say so, I looked up, and saw my old
+kite--by it I found you at last."
+
+They all turned gratefully toward it, and saw that it still swung
+outside, held there safely by its entangled tail. The talk, therefore,
+went on uninterruptedly. Many questions were asked and answered, and
+many subjects discussed; the sad state of poor little Jem being the most
+pressing. At the end of an hour a great bustle was going on in the room:
+they were packing up all their small stock of goods, for Harry had
+succeeded, after some argument, in persuading his mother to leave her
+unhealthy lodging that very evening, and not to risk even one more night
+for poor Jem in that poisonous air. He smoothed every difficulty. Mrs.
+Willis gladly undertook to do the work she had engaged to do; and with
+her he deposited money for the rent, and the key of the room. He
+declared he had another place ready to take his mother to; and to her
+anxious look he replied, "I did good service in the ship, and the owners
+have been generous to us all. I've got forty pounds."
+
+"Forty pounds!" If he had said, "I have got possession of a gold
+district in California," he would not have created a greater sensation.
+It seemed an inexhaustible amount of wealth.
+
+A light cart was soon hired and packed, and easily held not only the
+goods (not forgetting the kite), but the living possessors of them; and
+they set forth on their way.
+
+The evening sun again beamed over the country; and the tall trees, as
+they threw their shadow across the grass, waved a blessing on the family
+that passed beneath, from whose hearts a silent thanksgiving went up
+that harmonized with the joyous hymn of the birds. The sun-burnt
+traveler, as he walked at the horse's head, holding his elder brother's
+hand, no longer looked anxiously onward, for he knew where he was going,
+and saw by him his younger brother already beginning to revive in the
+fresh air, and rejoiced in his mother's expression of content and
+happiness. She had divined for some time to what home she was going.
+
+"But how did you contrive to get it fixed so quickly, my kind, good
+boy?" she said.
+
+"I went to the landlord, and he agreed at once: and do not be afraid, I
+can earn plenty for us all."
+
+"But must you go to sea again?"
+
+"If I must, do not fear. Did you not always teach me that His hand would
+keep me, and hold me, even in the uttermost parts of the sea?"
+
+And she felt that there was no room for fear.
+
+A week after this time, the evening sun again lighted up a happy party.
+Harry and John were busied in preparing the kite for flying in a green
+field behind their cottage. Under the hedge, on an old tree trunk, sat
+their mother, no longer in faded black and rusty crape, but neatly
+dressed in a fresh, clean gown and cap, and with a face bright with hope
+and pleasure. By her was Jem, with cheeks already filling out, a tinge
+of color in them, and eyes full of delight. On her other side was little
+Mary Willis. She had just arrived, and was telling them how, the very
+day after they left, some workmen came and put down a nice pavement on
+each side of the lane, and laid a pipe underground instead of the
+gutter; and that now it was as dry and clean as could be; and all the
+children could play there, and there were such numbers of games going
+on; and they all said it was the best thing they had done for them for
+many a day; and so did their mothers too, for now the children were not
+all crowded into their rooms all day long, but could play out of doors.
+
+"Depend upon it," said Harry, "it is that gentleman's doing that spoke
+to me of it the day I came first. This good old kite has done good
+service, and now it shall be rewarded by sailing up to a splendid
+height."
+
+As he spoke, he held it up, the light breeze caught it, and it soared
+away over their heads under the blue sky; while the happy faces that
+watched it bore witness to the truth of his words--that "the good old
+kite had done good service."
+
+
+
+
+[From Sharp's Magazine.]
+
+THE STATE OF THE WORLD BEFORE ADAM'S TIME.
+
+
+Among the millions of human beings that dwell on the earth, how few are
+those who think of inquiring into its past history. The annals of Greece
+and Rome are imparted to our children as a necessary and important
+branch of education, while the history of the world itself is neglected,
+or at the most is confined to those who are destined for a scientific
+profession; even adults are content to receive on hearsay a vague idea
+that the globe was in being for some undefined period preceding the era
+of human history, but few seek to know in what state it existed, or what
+appearance it presented.
+
+This is owing, partly, to the hard names and scientific language in
+which geologists have clothed their science, and partly to ignorance of
+the beauty and attractive nature of the study; we dread the long,
+abstruse-sounding titles of Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus, and are
+repelled by the dry disquisitions on mineralogy into which professors of
+the science are apt to stray. The truth is, however, that geology
+properly is divided into two distinct branches; one of these consists of
+the less attractive, though equally useful, investigation of the
+chemical constituents of the strata, and the classification of the
+fossil flora and fauna which belong to the various formations; this,
+which may be styled geology proper, is the department which belongs
+almost exclusively to men of science, and, inasmuch as it involves the
+necessity of acquaintance with the sister sciences of chemistry,
+mineralogy, zoology, and botany, is least adapted to the understanding
+of the uninitiated. The other branch, which may be called the history of
+geology, presents none of these difficulties; it is as easy of
+comprehension, and as suitable to the popular mind, as any other
+historical account; while it presents a variety of interest, and a
+revolution of events, before which the puny annals of modern history
+sink into insignificance.
+
+Such of our readers as are unacquainted with the science, will probably
+be inclined to doubt the possibility of our being aware of events which
+took place ages before Adam was created; here, however, nature herself
+steps in, and becoming her own historian, writes "in the living rock"
+the chronicles of past ages, and so accurately and circumstantially,
+that we can say positively, "Here existed the sea at such a period, and
+here the tide ebbed and flowed for centuries;" nay, she shows us the
+footmarks of extinct animals, and tells us the size, nature, habits, and
+food of creatures which have for unnumbered ages been buried in the
+grave of time. She informs us that here the ocean was calm, and that
+there a river flowed into it; here forests grew and flourished, and
+there volcanoes vomited forth lava, while mighty earthquakes heaved up
+mountains with convulsive throes. Such are the events that mark the
+world's history, and we now purpose giving a short sketch of the various
+eras in its existence.
+
+Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the earth, now so busy and full of
+life, rolled on its ceaseless course, a vast, desolate, and sterile
+globe. Day and night succeeded one another, and season followed season,
+while yet no living form existed, and still the sun rose upon arid,
+verdureless continents, and hot, caldron-like seas, on which the
+steaming vapor and heavy fogs sat like an incubus. This is the earliest
+period of which we glean any positive record, and it is probable that
+previous to this era the universe was in a state of incandescence, or
+intense heat, and that by the gradual cooling of the globe, the external
+surface became hard, and formed a firm crust, in the same manner that
+molten lead, when exposed to the cold air, hardens on the surface. The
+vapors which previously floated around this heated mass, in like manner
+became partially condensed, and gradually accumulating in the hollows,
+formed the boiling seas which in after ages were destined to be vast
+receptacles teeming with life.
+
+How long such a period continued it is impossible to say, and were we
+even able to number its years, we should in all probability obtain a
+total of such magnitude as would render us unable to form any accurate
+idea of its extent. Our ideas of time, like those of space, are
+comparative, and so immense was this single period in geological
+history, that any interval taken from human records would fail to
+present an adequate idea of it.
+
+As might be expected, this era was marked by vast and violent
+convulsions; volcanoes raged and threw up molten granite, earthquakes
+heaved and uplifted continents, seas were displaced and inundated the
+land, and still the earth was enveloped in vapor and mist, arising from
+the high temperature, and the light most probably penetrated only
+sufficiently to produce a sickly twilight, while the sun shot lurid rays
+through the dense and foggy atmosphere. Such a world must have been
+incompatible with either animal or vegetable life, and we accordingly
+find no remains of either in the rocks which belong to this early
+period; their principal characteristic is a highly crystalline
+appearance, giving strong presumptive evidence of the presence of great
+heat.
+
+After this era of desolation and gloom, we enter upon what is
+technically termed the "Transition period," and here we begin to mark
+the gradual preparation of the globe for the reception of its destined
+inhabitants. The change is, however, at first very slight, and there is
+evidence of frequent convulsions and of a high degree of temperature;
+but the action of fire appears to have declined in force, and aqueous
+agencies are exerting themselves. The earlier portion of this formation
+is rendered peculiarly interesting by the fact, that during it the most
+ancient forms of life sprang into existence. It is true that merely a
+few species of shell-fish, with some corals, inhabited the depths of the
+ocean, while the dry land still remained untenanted; nevertheless,
+humble and scanty as they were, we can not fail to look with interest on
+the earliest types of that existence, which has subsequently reached
+such perfection in ourselves.
+
+The presence of corals shows, that although the transition seas had lost
+their high temperature, yet they retained a sufficient degree of heat to
+encourage the development of animals requiring warmth. These minute
+animals possess the remarkable property of extracting from the
+elementary bodies held in solution in the waters, the materials for
+forming new rocks. To the coral animalcule or polype we owe much of the
+vast limestone beds which are found in every part of the world, and many
+a vessel laden with the riches and productions of the earth finds a
+grave on the sunken reefs that are the fruit of its labors.
+
+As ages elapsed, and the universe became better adapted for the
+reception of life, the waters swarmed with zoophytes and corals, and in
+the silurian strata we find organic remains abundant; shell-fish are
+numerous and distinct in form, and in some instances display a very
+interesting anatomical construction. As an instance we may mention the
+Trilobite, an animal of the crustacean order; the front part of its body
+formed a large crescent-shaped shield, while the hinder portion
+consisted of a broad triangular tail, composed of segments folding over
+each other like the tail of a lobster; its most peculiar organ, however,
+was the eye, which was composed of four hundred minute spherical lenses
+placed in separate compartments, and so situated, that in the animal's
+usual place at the bottom of the ocean it could see every thing around.
+This kind of eye is also common to the existing butterfly and
+dragon-fly, the former of which has 35,000, and the latter 14,000
+lenses.
+
+Continuing to trace the history of this ancient period, we reach what is
+called among geologists the Old Red Sandstone age. The corals, and the
+shell-fish, and the crustacea of the former period have passed away, and
+in their place we find _fishes_; thus presenting to us the earliest
+trace of the highest order of the animal kingdom--vertebrata. The plants
+in this system are few, and it would seem as if the condition of the
+world was ill-adapted for their growth. Another peculiar characteristic
+of this era is the state of calm repose in which the ocean appears to
+have remained; in many rocks the _ripple mark_ left by the tide on the
+shores of the ancient seas is clearly visible; nevertheless considerable
+volcanic action must have taken place, if we are to believe geologists,
+who find themselves unable to account otherwise for the preponderance of
+mineral matter which seems to have been held in solution by the waters.
+
+We now pass on to the Carboniferous period, and a marked change at once
+strikes us as having taken place. In the previous era few plants appear
+to have existed; now they flourished with unrivaled luxuriance. Ferns,
+cacti, gigantic equisetums, and many plants of which there are no
+existing types, grew, and lived, and died in vast impenetrable forests;
+while the bulrush and the cane, or genera nearly allied to them,
+occupied the swamps and lowlands. This is the period when the great coal
+beds and strata of ironstone were deposited, which supply us with fuel
+for our fires, and materials for our machinery. The interminable forests
+that grew and died in the lapse of centuries were gradually borne down
+by the rivers and torrents to the ocean, at whose bottom they ultimately
+found a resting place. A considerable portion of the land also seems to
+have been slowly submerged, as in some cases fossil trees and plants are
+found in an upright position, as they originally grew.
+
+There is no period in geological history so justly deserving of
+examination as this. To the coal beds then deposited Great Britain in a
+great measure owes national and mercantile greatness. Dr. Buckland, in
+speaking of this remote age, remarks in his Bridgewater Treatise, that
+"the important uses of coal and iron in administering to the supply of
+our daily wants, give to every individual among us, in almost every
+moment of our lives, a personal concern, of which but few are conscious,
+in the geological events of these very distant eras. We are all brought
+into immediate connection with the vegetation that clothed the ancient
+earth before one half of its actual surface had yet been formed. The
+trees of the primeval forests have not, like modern trees, undergone
+decay, yielding back their elements to the soil and atmosphere by which
+they have been nourished; but treasured up in subterranean store-houses,
+have been transformed into enduring beds of coal, which in these latter
+ages have been to man the sources of heat, and light, and wealth. My
+fire now burns with fuel, and my lamp is shining with the light of gas
+derived from coal, that has been buried for countless ages in the deep
+and dark recesses of the earth. We prepare our food, and maintain our
+forges and furnaces, and the power of our steam-engines, with the
+remains of plants of ancient forms and extinct species, which were swept
+from the earth ere the formation of the transition strata was completed.
+Our instruments of cutlery, the tools of our mechanics, and the
+countless machines which we construct by the infinitely varied
+applications of iron, are derived from ore, for the most part coeval
+with, or more ancient than the fuel, by the aid of which we reduce it to
+its metallic state, and apply it to innumerable uses in the economy of
+human life. Thus, from the wreck of forests that waved upon the surface
+of the primeval lands, and from ferruginous mud that was lodged at the
+bottom of the primeval waters, we derive our chief supplies of coal and
+iron, those two fundamental elements of art and industry, which
+contribute more than any other mineral production of the earth to
+increase the riches, and multiply the comforts, and ameliorate the
+condition of mankind."
+
+This may justly be styled the golden age of the pre-adamite world; the
+globe having now cooled to a sufficient temperature to promote the
+growth of plants without being injurious to them, is for the first time
+clothed in all the rich verdure of a tropical climate. Doubtless the
+earth would have presented a lovely aspect, had it been possible to have
+beheld it; the mighty forests unawakened by a sound save that of the
+sighing of the wind; the silent seas, in which the new-born denizens of
+the deep roamed at will; the vast inland lakes for ages unruffled but by
+the fitful breeze; all present to the mind's eye a picture of
+surpassing, solitary grandeur.
+
+The creatures that existed, though differing from those of the previous
+age, were still confined to the waters; as yet the dry land remained
+untenanted. The fishes give evidence of a higher organization, and many
+of them appear to have been of gigantic dimensions. Some teeth which
+have been found of one kind, the Megalichthys, equal in size those of
+the largest living crocodiles.
+
+There is one peculiarity respecting fossil fishes which is worthy of
+remark. It is that, in the lapse of time from one era to another, their
+character does not change _insensibly_, as in the case of many zoophytes
+and testacea; on the contrary, species seem to succeed species
+_abruptly_, and at certain definite intervals. A celebrated
+geologist[22] has observed, that not a single species of fossil fish has
+yet been found that is common to any two great geological formations, or
+that is living in our own seas.
+
+Continuing our investigation, we next find the fruitful coal era passing
+away; scarcely a trace of vegetation remains; a few species of
+zoophytes, shells, and fishes are to be found, and we observe the
+impression of footsteps, technically called _ichnites_, from the Greek
+_ichnon_, a footmark. These marks present a highly interesting memento
+of past ages. Persons living near the sea-shore must have frequently
+observed the distinctness with which the track of birds and other
+animals is imprinted in the sand. If this sand were to be hardened by
+remaining exposed to the action of the sun and air, it would form a
+perfect mould of the foot; this is exactly what occurred in these early
+ages, and the hollow becoming subsequently filled by the deposition of
+new sediment, the lower stone retained the impression, while the upper
+one presented a cast in relief. Many fossil footmarks have been found in
+the rocks belonging to this period.
+
+It is evident from the fact of footmarks being found, that creatures
+capable of existing on dry land were formed about this time, and we
+accordingly find the remains of a new order--Reptiles. These animals,
+which now constitute but a small family among existing quadrupeds, then
+flourished in great size and numbers. Crocodiles and lizards of various
+forms and gigantic stature roamed through the earth. Some of the most
+remarkable are those which belong to the genus Ichthyosaurus, or
+fish-lizard, so called from the resemblance of their vertebræ to those
+of fishes. This saurian Dr. Buckland describes as something similar in
+form to the modern porpoise; it had four broad feet, and a long and
+powerful tail; its jaws were so prodigious that it could probably expand
+them to a width of five or six feet, and its powers of destruction must
+have been enormous. The length of some of these reptiles exceeded thirty
+feet.
+
+Another animal which lived at this period was the Plesiosaurus. It lived
+in shallow seas and estuaries, and would seem, from its organs of
+respiration, to have required frequent supplies of fresh air. Mr.
+Conybeare describes it as "swimming upon, or near the surface, arching
+its long neck like the swan, and occasionally darting it down at the
+fish which happened to float within its reach."
+
+This reptile, which was smaller than the Ichthyosaurus, has been found
+as long as from twelve to fifteen feet. Its appearance and habits
+differed from the latter materially. The Ichthyosaurus, with its short
+neck, powerful jaws, and lizard-like body, seems admirably suited to
+range through the deep waters, unrivaled in size or strength, and
+monarch of the then existing world; the Plesiosaurus, smaller in size
+and inferior in strength, shunned its powerful antagonist, and, lurking
+in shallows and sheltered bays, remained secure from the assaults of its
+dangerous foe, its long neck and small head being well adapted to enable
+it to dart on its prey, as it lay concealed amid the tangled sea-weed.
+
+This has been called by geologists the "age of reptiles;" their remains
+are found in great numbers in the lias, oolite, and wealden strata.
+These creatures seem to form a connecting link between the fishes of
+the previous era, and the mammalia of the Tertiary age; the
+Ichthyosaurus differed little from a fish in shape, and its paddles or
+feet are not unlike fins, the Plesiosaurus, on the contrary, as its name
+denotes, partook more of the quadruped form. Dr. Buckland in describing
+it, says: "To the head of a lizard it united the teeth of a crocodile; a
+neck of enormous length, resembling the body of a serpent; a trunk and
+tail having the proportions of an ordinary quadruped; the ribs of a
+cameleon, and the paddles of a whale." Besides these animals we find the
+Pterodactyle, half bird and half reptile; the Megalosaurus, or gigantic
+lizard; the Hylæosaurus, or forest lizard; the Geosaurus, or land
+lizard, and many others, all partaking more or less of affinity to both
+the piscatory and saurian tribes.
+
+Passing on now to the period when the great chalk rocks which prevail so
+much in the southeastern counties of Great Britain were deposited, we
+find the land in many places submerged; the fossil remains are eminently
+marine in character, and the earth must literally have presented a
+"world of waters" to the view. Sponges, corals, star-fish, and marine
+reptiles inhabited the globe, and plants, chiefly of marine types, grew
+on its surface. Although, however, a great portion of the earth was
+under water, it must not therefore be supposed that it was returning to
+its ancient desolation and solitude. The author whom we last quoted, in
+speaking of this subject, says: "The sterility and solitude which have
+sometimes been attributed to the depths of the ocean, exist only in the
+fictions of poetic fancy. The great mass of water that covers nearly
+three-fourths of the globe is crowded with life, perhaps more abundantly
+than the air and the surface of the earth; and the bottom of the sea,
+within a certain depth accessible to light, swarms with countless hosts
+of worms and creeping things, which represent the kindred families of
+low degree which crawl upon the land."
+
+This era seems to have been one of peculiar tranquillity, for the most
+part undisturbed by earthquakes or other igneous forces. The prevailing
+characteristic of the scenery was flatness, and low continents were
+surrounded by shallow seas. The earth is now approaching the state when
+it will be fit for the reception of man, and in the next age we find
+some of the existing species of animals.
+
+It is worthy of observation, that at the different periods when the
+world had attained a state suitable for their existence, the various
+orders of animal and vegetable life were created. In the "dark ages" of
+geological history, when the globe had comparatively lately subsided
+from a state of fusion,[23] it was barren, sterile, and uninhabited;
+next, the waters having become cool enough, some of the lowest orders of
+shell-fish and zoophytes peopled them; subsequently, fishes were formed,
+and for ages constituted the highest order of animal life; after this
+we enter on the age of reptiles, when gigantic crocodiles and
+lizard-like forms dwelt in fenny marshes, or reposed on the black mud of
+slow moving rivers, as they crept along toward the ocean betwixt their
+oozy banks; and we now reach the period when the noblest order of animal
+life, the class to which man himself belongs, Mammalia, began to people
+the earth.
+
+The world now probably presented an appearance nearly similar to what it
+does at present. The land, which in the chalk formation was under water,
+has again emerged, and swarms with life; vast savannahs rich in verdure,
+and decked in a luxuriant garb with trees, plants, grasses, and shrubs,
+and inland lakes, to which the elephant, the rhinoceros, and the
+hippopotamus, with many extinct races of animals, came to slake their
+thirst, form the principal characteristics of this period.
+
+There is something peculiarly interesting in looking back to this early
+age, while Adam was yet dust. We picture to the mind's eye the gigantic
+Deinotherium, the largest creature of terrestrial life, raking and
+grabbing with its huge tusks the aquatic plants that grew in the pools
+and shallow lakes, or, as Dr. Buckland describes it, sleeping with its
+head hooked on to the bank, and its nostrils sustained above water so as
+merely to breathe, while the body remained floating at ease beneath the
+surface. We see its twin-brother in greatness, the Megatherium, as it
+comes slowly stalking through the thick underwood, its foot, of a yard
+in length, crushing where it treads, and its impenetrable hide defying
+the attacks of rhinoceros or crocodile. In the waters we behold the
+mighty whale, monarch of the deep, sporting in the pre-adamite seas as
+he now does amid the icebergs of the Arctic ocean; the walrus and the
+seal, now denizens of the colder climes, mingling with the tropical
+manati; while in the forests the owl, the buzzard, and the woodcock,
+dwelt undisturbed, and the squirrel and monkey leaped from bough to
+bough.
+
+Arrived at the close of the pre-adamite history, after having traced it
+from the earliest ages of which we possess any evidence, down to the eve
+of human existence, the reflection that naturally presents itself to the
+mind is the strangeness of the fact, that myriads of creatures should
+have existed, and that generation after generation should have lived and
+died and passed away, ere yet man saw the light. We are so accustomed to
+view all creatures as created solely for human use, rather than for the
+pleasure of the Divine Creator, that we can at first scarcely credit the
+history, though written by the hand of nature herself; and the human
+race sinks into insignificance when it is shown to be but the last link
+in a long chain of creations. Nevertheless, that such, however humbling
+it may be, is the fact, we possess indubitable evidence: and when we
+consider, as Mr. Bakewell observes, "that more than three-fifths of the
+earth's present surface are covered by the ocean, and that if from the
+remainder we deduct the space occupied by polar ice and eternal snows,
+by sandy deserts, sterile mountains, marshes, rivers, and lakes, that
+the habitable portion will scarcely exceed one-fifth of the whole globe;
+that the remaining four-fifths, though untenanted by mankind, are, for
+the most part, abundantly stocked with animated beings, that exult in
+the pleasure of existence, independent of human control, and in no way
+subservient to the necessities or caprices of men; that such is and has
+been, for several thousand years, the actual condition of our planet; we
+may feel less reluctance in admitting the prolonged ages of creation,
+and the numerous tribes that lived and flourished, and left their
+remains imbedded in the strata which compose the outer crust of the
+earth."
+
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [22] Dr. Buckland.
+
+    [23] The theory of the original incandescence of the earth has
+    been much debated, but we believe it is gaining ground among
+    geologists.
+
+
+
+
+THE MANIA FOR TULIPS IN HOLLAND.
+
+
+The inordinate passion, which at one time prevailed for Tulips, amounted
+to actual madness, and well deserved the name of Tulipomania, by which
+it is distinguished. The Tulip was introduced into Europe from
+Constantinople in the year 1559, according to Gesner. After it became
+known to the Dutch merchants and nobility at Vienna, it became a most
+important branch of trade in Holland, and they sent frequently to
+Constantinople for roots and seeds of the flower. In the year 1634, and
+for three years after, little else was thought of in Holland but this
+traffic; all embarked in it, from the nobleman to the common laborer,
+and so successful were many that they rose rapidly from abject poverty
+to affluence; and those who had been barely able to procure the most
+scanty means of subsistence were enabled to set up their carriages, and
+enjoy every convenience and luxury of life; indeed, when we read of the
+enormous sums paid for a single root, we can feel no surprise at the
+immense and rapid fortunes which were made. It is on record, that one
+wealthy merchant gave his daughter no other portion to secure an
+eligible match than a single root. The plant to this day bears the name
+of the "marriage portion." We find that 2 hogsheads of wine, 4 tuns of
+beer, 2 lasts of wheat, 4 lasts of rye, 2 tons of butter, 1000 pounds of
+cheese, 4 fat oxen, 8 fat swine, and 12 fat sheep, a complete bed, a
+suit of clothes, a silver beckess, valued at 2500 florins, were given in
+exchange for a single root of the tulip called the Viceroy. This mode of
+barter, being attended with inconvenience, could not be general, and
+gave place to sale by weight, by which immense sums were made. Single
+roots have sold for 4400 florins; 2000 florins was a common price for a
+root of the Semper Augustus; and it happened that once, when only two
+roots of this species could be procured, the one at Amsterdam, and the
+other at Haarlem, 4600 florins, a new carriage, and a pair of horses,
+with complete harness, were given for one; and for the other an exchange
+made of 12 acres of land: indeed, land was frequently parted with when
+cash could not be advanced for the purchase of a desired root; and
+houses, cattle, furniture, and even clothes, were all sacrificed to the
+Tulipomania. In the course of four months, a person has been known to
+realize 60,000 florins. These curious bargains took place in taverns,
+where notaries and clerks were regularly paid for attending; and after
+the contracts were completed, the traders of all ranks sat down together
+to a splendid entertainment. At these sales, the usual price of a root
+of the Viceroy was £250; a root of the Admiral Liefkuns, £440; a root of
+the Admiral Von Eyk, £160; a root of the Grebbu, £148; a root of the
+Schilder, £160; a root of the Semper Augustus, £550. A collection of
+Tulips of Wouter Brockholsminster was disposed of by his executors for
+£9000; but they sold a root of the Semper Augustus separately, for which
+they got £300, and a very fine Spanish cabinet, valued at £1000. The
+Semper Augustus was, indeed, in great request. A gentleman received
+£3000 for three roots which he sold; he had also the offer of £1500 a
+year for his plant for seven years, with an engagement that it should be
+given up as found, the increase alone having been retained during the
+period. One gentleman made £6000 in the space of six months. It was
+ascertained that the trade in Tulips in one city alone, in Holland,
+amounted to £1,000,000 sterling. To such an extent was this
+extraordinary traffic carried on, that a system of stock-jobbing was
+introduced; and Tulips, which were bought and sold for much more than
+their weight in gold, were nominally purchased without changing hands at
+all. Beekmann, in describing this curious traffic, for which all other
+merchandise and pursuit was neglected, mentions that engagements were
+entered into, which were to be fulfilled in six months, and not to be
+affected by any change in the value of the root during that time. Thus,
+a bargain might be made with a merchant for a root at the price of 1000
+florins. At the time specified for its delivery, its value may have
+risen to 1500 florins, the purchaser being a gainer of 500 florins.
+Should it, on the contrary, have fallen to 800 florins, the purchaser
+was then a loser to the amount of 200 florins. If there had been no
+fluctuation in the market, the bargain terminated without an exchange of
+the money for the root, so that it became a species of gambling, at
+which immense sums were lost and won. The decline of the trade was as
+unexpected as its rise had been surprising. When settling day came,
+there were many defaulters; some from inability to meet their
+engagements, and many from dishonesty. Persons began to speculate more
+cautiously, and the more respectable to feel that the system of
+gambling, in which they were engaged, was by no means creditable. The
+Tulip-holders then wished to dispose of their merchandise really, and
+not _nominally_, but found, to their disappointment, that the demand had
+decreased. Prices fell--contracts were violated--appeals were made to
+the magistrates in vain; and, after violent contentions, in which the
+venders claimed, and the purchasers resisted payment, the state
+interposed, and issued an order invalidating the contracts, which put an
+end at once to the stock-jobbing; and the roots, which had been valued
+at £500 each, were now to be had for £5: and thus ended the most strange
+commerce in which Europe had been ever engaged.
+
+Some curious anecdotes connected with the mania may be found. Among them
+is one of a burgomaster, who had made interest for a friend, and
+succeeded in obtaining a very lucrative situation for him. The friend,
+anxious to testify his gratitude, entreated of the burgomaster to allow
+him to show it by some substantial proof. His generous benefactor would
+accept no favor in return; all he asked was the gratification of seeing
+his flower-garden, which was readily granted. The friends did not meet
+again for two years. At the end of that time, the gentleman went to
+visit the burgomaster. On going into his garden, the first thing that
+attracted his observation was a rare Tulip of great value, which he
+instantly knew must have been purloined from his garden, when his
+treacherous friend had been admitted into it, two years before. He gave
+vent to the most frantic passion--immediately resigned his place of
+£1000 per annum--returned to his house merely to tear up his
+flower-garden--and, having completed the work of destruction, left it,
+never to return.
+
+We have read of a sailor, who had brought a heavy load to the warehouse
+of a merchant, who only gave him a herring as payment and refreshment.
+This was very inadequate to satisfy the man's hunger, but perceiving, as
+he thought, some onions lying before him, he snatched up one, and bit
+it. It happened to be a Tulip-root, worth a king's ransom; so we may
+conceive the consternation of the merchant, which is said to have nearly
+deprived him of reason.
+
+It has been said that John Barclay, the author of the romance of
+"Angenis," was a victim to the Tulipomania. Nothing could induce him to
+quit the house to which his flower-garden was attached, though the
+situation was so unwholesome that he ran the risk of having his health
+destroyed. He kept two fierce mastiffs to guard the flowers, which he
+determined never to abandon.
+
+The passion for Tulips was at its height in England toward the close of
+the seventeenth and the commencement of the eighteenth century. The
+tulip is a native of the Levant, and of many of the eastern countries.
+Though common in Persia, it is highly esteemed, and considered an emblem
+of love. Chardin tells us, that when a young Persian wishes to make his
+sentiments known to his mistress, he presents her with one of these
+flowers, which, of course, must be the flame-colored one, with black
+anthers, so often seen in our gardens; as, Chardin adds, "He thus gives
+her to understand, that he is all on fire with her beauty, and his
+heart burned to a coal." The flower is still highly esteemed by
+florists, and has its place among the few named florists' flowers. Many
+suppose it to be "the Lily of the Field," mentioned in the Sermon on the
+Mount, from its growing in wild profusion in Syria, and from the extreme
+delicacy of the texture of its petals, and from the wonderful variety
+and dazzling beauty of its colors. It may be so; and the flower acquires
+from this an interest which nothing else could give.
+
+
+
+
+THE SALT MINES OF EUROPE.
+
+
+The salt-mines of Cheshire, and the brine-pits of Worcestershire,
+according to the best authority, not only supply salt sufficient for the
+consumption of nearly the whole of England, but also upward of half a
+million of tons for exportation. Rock-salt is by no means confined to
+England, it is found in many countries, especially where strata of more
+recent date than those of the coal measures abound. Though in some
+instances the mineral is pure and sparkling in its native state, it is
+generally dull and dirty, owing to the matter with which it is
+associated. The ordinary shade is a dull red, from being in contact with
+marls of that color. But notwithstanding, it possesses many interesting
+features. When the extensive subterranean halls have been lighted up
+with innumerable candles, the appearance is most interesting, and the
+visitor, enchanted with the scene, feels himself richly repaid for the
+trouble he may have incurred in visiting the excavations.
+
+The Cheshire mines are from 50 to 150 yards below the surface. The
+number of salt-beds is five; the thinnest of them being only about six
+inches, while the thickest is nearly forty feet. Besides these vast
+masses, there is a large quantity of salt mixed up with the marl beds
+that intervene. The method of working the rock-salt is like that adopted
+for the excavation of coal; but it is much more safe and pleasant to
+visit these than the other, owing to the roof of the excavations being
+much more secure, and the absence of all noxious gases, with the
+exception of carbonic acid gas. In the thinner coal-seams, the roof, or
+rock lying above the coal, is supported by wooden pillars as the mineral
+is withdrawn; while, in the thicker seams, pillars of coal are left at
+intervals to support the superincumbent mass. The latter is the plan
+adopted in the salt-mines. Large pillars of various dimensions are left
+to support the roof at irregular intervals; but these bear a small
+proportion to the mass of mineral excavated. The effect is most
+picturesque; in the deep gloom of the excavation, the pillars present
+tangible objects on which the eye can rest, while the intervening spaces
+stretch away into night. The mineral is loosened from the rock by
+blasting, and the effect of the explosions, heard from time to time
+re-echoing through the wide spaces, and from the distant walls of rock,
+gives a peculiar grandeur and impressiveness to the scene. The great
+charm, indeed, on the occasion of a visit to these mines, even when they
+are illuminated by thousands of lights, is chiefly owing to the gloomy
+and cavernous appearance, the dim endless perspective, broken by the
+numerous pillars, and the lights half disclosing and half concealing the
+deep recesses which are formed and terminated by these monstrous and
+solid projections. The pillars, owing to the great height of the roof,
+are very massive. For twenty feet of rock they are about fifteen feet
+thick. The descent to the mines is by a shaft--a perpendicular opening
+of six, eight, or ten feet square; this opening is used for the general
+purposes of ventilation, drainage, lifting the mineral, as well as the
+miners. It varies in dimensions according to the extent of the
+excavations. In some of the English mines the part of the bed of
+rock-salt excavated amounts to several acres; but in some parts of
+Europe the workings are even more extensive. The Wilton mine, one of the
+largest in England, is worked 330 feet below the surface, and from it,
+and one or two adjacent mines, upward of 60,000 tons of salt are
+annually obtained, two-thirds of which are immediately exported, and the
+rest is dissolved in water, and afterward reduced to a crystaline state
+by evaporating the solution. It is not yet two hundred years since the
+Cheshire mines were discovered. In the year 1670, before men were guided
+by science in their investigations, an attempt was made to find coal in
+the district. The sinking was unsuccessful relative to the one mineral,
+but the disappointment and loss were amply met by the discovery of the
+other. From that time till the present, the rock-salt has been dug, and,
+as we have seen, most extensively used in England, while the surplus
+supply has become an article of exportation. Previous to this discovery
+the consumption was chiefly supplied from the brine-pits of
+Worcestershire.
+
+There is a remarkable deposit of salt in the valley of Cardona, in the
+Pyrenees. Two thick masses of rock-salt, says Ansted, apparently united
+at their bases, make their appearance on one of the slopes of the hill
+of Cardona. One of the beds, or rather masses, has been worked, and
+measures about 130 yards by 250; but its depth has not been determined.
+It consists of salt in a laminated condition, and with confused
+crystalization. That part which is exposed is composed of eight beds,
+nearly horizontal, having a total thickness of fifteen feet; but the
+beds are separated from one another by red and variegated marls and
+gypsum. The second mass, not worked, appears to be unstratified, but in
+other respects resembles the former; and this portion, where it has been
+exposed to the action of the weather, is steeply scarped, and bristles
+with needle-like points, so that its appearance has been compared to
+that of a glacier. There is also an extensive salt-mine at Wieliczka, in
+Poland, and the manner of working it was accurately described some years
+since. The manner of descending into the mine was by means of a large
+cord wound round a wheel and worked by a horse. The visitor, seated on a
+small piece of wood placed in the loop of the cord, and grasping the
+cord with both hands, was let down two hundred feet, the depth of the
+first galleries, through a shaft about eight feet square, sunk through
+beds of sand, alternating with limestone, gypsum, variegated marls, and
+calcareous schists. Below the stage, the descent was by wooden
+staircases, nine or ten feet wide. In the first gallery was a chapel,
+measuring thirty feet in length by twenty-four in breadth, and eighteen
+in height; every part of it, the floor, the roof, the columns which
+sustained the roof, the altar, the crucifix, and several statues, were
+all cut out of the solid salt; the chapel was for the use of the miners.
+It had always been said that the salt in this mine had the qualities
+which produced magic appearances to an uncommon degree; but it is now
+ascertained that its scenery is not more enchanting than that of the
+mines in Cheshire. Gunpowder is now used in the Polish as in the English
+mines; but the manner of obtaining the salt at the time of the visit we
+are recording was peculiar, and too ingenious to be passed over, even
+though it be now superseded by the more modern and more successful mode
+of blasting. "In the first place, the overman, or head miner, marked the
+length, breadth, and thickness of a block he wished to be detached, the
+size of which was generally the same, namely, about eight feet long,
+four feet wide, and two feet thick. A certain number of blocks being
+marked, the workman began by boring a succession of holes on one side
+from top to bottom of the block, the holes being three inches deep, and
+six inches apart. A horizontal groove was then cut, half an inch deep,
+both above and below, and, having put into each of the holes an iron
+wedge, all the wedges were struck with moderate blows, to drive them
+into the mass; the blows were continued until two cracks appeared, one
+in the direction of the line of the holes, and the other along the upper
+horizontal line. The block was now loosened and ready to fall, and the
+workman introduced into the crack produced by the driving of the wedges
+a wooden ruler, two or three inches broad, and, moving it backward and
+forward on the crack, a tearing sound was soon heard, which announced
+the completion of the work. If proper care had been taken, the block
+fell unbroken, and was then divided into three or four parts, which were
+shaped into cylinders for the greater convenience of transport. Each
+workman was able to work out four such blocks every day, and the whole
+number of persons employed in the mine, varied from twelve hundred to
+about two thousand." The mine was worked in galleries; and, at the time
+of this visit, these galleries extended to at least eight English miles.
+Since then the excavations have become much more extensive.
+
+The method of preparing rock-salt is very simple, and differs little
+from that employed in manufacturing salt from springs. The first step
+in the process is, to obtain a proper strength of brine, by saturating
+fresh water with the salt brought from the mine. The brine obtained in a
+clear state is put into evaporating pans, and brought as quickly as
+possible to a boiling heat, when a skin is formed on the surface,
+consisting chiefly of impurities. This skin is taken off, so also are
+the first crystals that are formed, and either thrown aside as useless,
+or used for agricultural purposes. The heat is kept at the boiling point
+for eight hours, during which period evaporation is going on--the liquid
+becoming gradually reduced, and the salt meanwhile is being deposited.
+When this part of the process is finished, the salt is raked out, put
+into moulds, and placed in a drying stove, where it is dried perfectly,
+and made ready for the market.
+
+
+
+
+MY NOVEL; OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE.
+
+(_Continued from page 672._)
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+In my next chapter I shall present Squire Hazeldean in patriarchal
+state--not exactly under the fig tree he has planted, but before the
+stocks he has reconstructed. Squire Hazeldean and his family on the
+village green! The canvas is all ready for the colors.
+
+But in this chapter I must so far afford a glimpse into antecedents as
+to let the reader know that there is one member of the family whom he is
+not likely to meet at present, if ever, on the village green at
+Hazeldean.
+
+Our squire lost his father two years after his birth; his mother was
+very handsome--and so was her jointure; she married again at the
+expiration of her year of mourning--the object of her second choice was
+Colonel Egerton.
+
+In every generation of Englishmen (at least since the lively reign of
+Charles II.) there are a few whom some elegant Genius skims off from the
+milk of human nature, and reserves for the cream of society. Colonel
+Egerton was one of these _terque, quaterque beati_, and dwelt apart on a
+top shelf in that delicate porcelain dish--not bestowed upon vulgar
+buttermilk--which persons of fashion call The Great World. Mighty was
+the marvel of Pall Mall, and profound was the pity of Park-lane, when
+this supereminent personage condescended to lower himself into a
+husband. But Colonel Egerton was not a mere gaudy butterfly; he had the
+provident instincts ascribed to the bee. Youth had passed from him--and
+carried off much solid property in its flight; he saw that a time was
+fast coming when a home, with a partner who could help to maintain it,
+would be conducive to his comforts, and an occasional humdrum evening by
+the fire-side beneficial to his health. In the midst of one season at
+Brighton, to which gay place he had accompanied the Prince of Wales, he
+saw a widow who, though in the weeds of mourning, did not appear
+inconsolable. Her person pleased his taste--the accounts of her
+jointure satisfied his understanding; he contrived an introduction, and
+brought a brief wooing to a happy close. The late Mr. Hazeldean had so
+far anticipated the chance of the young widow's second espousals, that,
+in case of that event, he transferred, by his testamentary dispositions,
+the guardianship of his infant heir from the mother to two squires whom
+he had named his executors. This circumstance combined with her new ties
+somewhat to alienate Mrs. Hazeldean from the pledge of her former loves;
+and when she had borne a son to Colonel Egerton, it was upon that child
+that her maternal affections gradually concentrated.
+
+William Hazeldean was sent by his guardians to a large provincial
+academy, at which his forefathers had received their education time out
+of mind. At first he spent his holidays with Mrs. Egerton; but as she
+now resided either in London, or followed her lord to Brighton to
+partake of the gayeties at the Pavilion--so, as he grew older, William,
+who had a hearty affection for country life, and of whose bluff manners
+and rural breeding Mrs. Egerton (having grown exceedingly refined) was
+openly ashamed, asked and obtained permission to spend his vacations
+either with his guardians or at the old Hall. He went late to a small
+college at Cambridge, endowed in the fifteenth century by some ancestral
+Hazeldean; and left it, on coming of age, without taking a degree. A few
+years afterward he married a young lady, country born and bred like
+himself.
+
+Meanwhile his half-brother, Audley Egerton, may be said to have begun
+his initiation into the _beau monde_ before he had well cast aside his
+coral and bells; he had been fondled in the lap of duchesses, and
+galloped across the room astride on the canes of embassadors and
+princes. For Colonel Egerton was not only very highly connected--not
+only one of the _Dii majores_ of fashion--but he had the still rarer
+good fortune to be an exceedingly popular man with all who knew him; so
+popular, that even the fine ladies whom he had adored and abandoned
+forgave him for marrying out of "the set," and continued to be as
+friendly as if he had not married at all. People who were commonly
+called heartless, were never weary of doing kind things to the Egertons.
+When the time came for Audley to leave the preparatory school, at which
+his infancy budded forth among the stateliest of the little lilies of
+the field, and go to Eton, half the fifth and sixth forms had been
+canvassed to be exceedingly civil to young Egerton. The boy soon showed
+that he inherited his father's talent for acquiring popularity, and that
+to this talent he added those which put popularity to use. Without
+achieving any scholastic distinction, he yet contrived to establish at
+Eton the most desirable reputation which a boy can obtain--namely, that
+among his own contemporaries--the reputation of a boy who was sure to do
+something when he grew to be a man. As a gentleman commoner at Christ
+Church, Oxford, he continued to sustain this high expectation, though he
+won no prizes and took but an ordinary degree; and at Oxford the future
+"something" became more defined--it was "something in public life" that
+this young man was to do.
+
+While he was yet at the university, both his parents died--within a few
+months of each other. And when Audley Egerton came of age, he succeeded
+to a paternal property which was supposed to be large, and, indeed, had
+once been so; but Colonel Egerton had been too lavish a man to enrich
+his heir, and about £1500 a year was all that sales and mortgages left
+of an estate that had formerly approached a rental of ten thousand
+pounds.
+
+Still, Audley was considered to be opulent, and he did not dispel that
+favorable notion by any imprudent exhibition of parsimony. On entering
+the world of London, the Clubs flew open to receive him; and he woke one
+morning to find himself, not indeed famous--but the fashion. To this
+fashion he at once gave a certain gravity and value--he associated as
+much as possible with public men and political ladies--he succeeded in
+confirming the notion that he was "born to ruin or to rule the State."
+
+Now, his dearest and most intimate friend was Lord L'Estrange, from whom
+he had been inseparable at Eton: and who now, if Audley Egerton was the
+fashion, was absolutely the rage in London.
+
+Harley Lord L'Estrange was the only son of the Earl of Lansmere, a
+nobleman of considerable wealth, and allied by intermarriages to the
+loftiest and most powerful families in England. Lord Lansmere,
+nevertheless, was but little known in the circles of London. He lived
+chiefly on his estates, occupying himself with the various duties of a
+great proprietor, and rarely came to the metropolis; so that he could
+afford to give his son a very ample allowance, when Harley, at the age
+of sixteen (having already attained to the sixth form at Eton), left
+school for one of the regiments of the Guards.
+
+Few knew what to make of Harley L'Estrange--and that was, perhaps, the
+reason why he was so much thought of. He had been by far the most
+brilliant boy of his time at Eton--not only the boast of the
+cricket-ground, but the marvel of the school-room--yet so full of whims
+and oddities, and seeming to achieve his triumphs with so little aid
+from steadfast application, that he had not left behind him the same
+expectations of solid eminence which his friend and senior, Audley
+Egerton, had excited. His eccentricities--his quaint sayings and
+out-of-the-way actions, became as notable in the great world as they had
+been in the small one of public school. That he was very clever there
+was no doubt, and that the cleverness was of a high order might be
+surmised not only from the originality but the independence of his
+character. He dazzled the world, without seeming to care for its praise
+or its censure--dazzled it, as it were, because he could not help
+shining. He had some strange notions, whether political or social, which
+rather frightened his father. According to Southey, "A man should be no
+more ashamed of having been a republican than of having been young."
+Youth and extravagant opinions naturally go together. I don't know
+whether Harley L'Estrange was a republican at the age of eighteen; but
+there was no young man in London who seemed to care less for being heir
+to an illustrious name and some forty or fifty thousand pounds a year.
+It was a vulgar fashion in that day to play the exclusive, and cut
+persons who wore bad neckcloths and called themselves Smith or Johnson.
+Lord L'Estrange never cut any one, and it was quite enough to slight
+some worthy man because of his neckcloth or his birth, to insure to the
+offender the pointed civilities of this eccentric successor to the
+Dorimonts and the Wildairs.
+
+It was the wish of his father that Harley, as soon as he came of age,
+should represent the borough of Lansmere (which said borough was the
+single plague of the Earl's life). But this wish was never realized.
+Suddenly, when the young idol of London still wanted some two or three
+years of his majority, a new whim appeared to seize him. He withdrew
+entirely from society--he left unanswered the most pressing
+three-cornered notes of inquiry and invitation that ever strewed the
+table of a young Guardsman; he was rarely seen anywhere in his former
+haunts--when seen, was either alone or with Egerton; and his gay spirits
+seemed wholly to have left him. A profound melancholy was written in his
+countenance, and breathed in the listless tones of his voice. At this
+time the Guards were achieving in the Peninsula their imperishable
+renown; but the battalion to which Harley belonged was detained at home;
+and whether chafed by inaction or emulous of glory, the young Lord
+suddenly exchanged into a cavalry regiment, from which a recent
+memorable conflict had swept one half the officers. Just before he
+joined, a vacancy happening to occur for the representation of Lansmere,
+he made it his special request to his father that the family interest
+might be given to his friend Egerton--went down to the Park, which
+adjoined the borough, to take leave of his parents--and Egerton
+followed, to be introduced to the electors. This visit made a notable
+epoch in the history of many personages who figure in my narrative, but
+at present I content myself with saying, that circumstances arose which,
+just as the canvass for the new election commenced, caused both
+L'Estrange and Audley to absent themselves from the scene of action, and
+that the last even wrote to Lord Lansmere expressing his intention of
+declining to contest the borough.
+
+Fortunately for the parliamentary career of Audley Egerton, the election
+had become to Lord Lansmere not only a matter of public importance, but
+of personal feeling. He resolved that the battle should be fought out,
+even in the absence of the candidate, and at his own expense. Hitherto
+the contest for this distinguished borough had been, to use the language
+of Lord Lansmere, "conducted in the spirit of gentlemen"--that is to
+say, the only opponents to the Lansmere interest had been found in one
+or the other of two rival families in the same county; and as the Earl
+was a hospitable, courteous man, much respected and liked by the
+neighboring gentry, so the hostile candidate had always interlarded his
+speeches with profuse compliments to his Lordship's high character, and
+civil expressions as to his Lordship's candidate. But, thanks to
+successive elections, one of these two families had come to an end, and
+its actual representative was now residing within the Rules of the
+Bench; the head of the other family was the sitting member, and, by an
+amicable agreement with the Lansmere interest, he remained as neutral as
+it is in the power of any sitting member to be amidst the passions of an
+intractable committee. Accordingly, it had been hoped that Egerton would
+come in without opposition, when, the very day on which he had abruptly
+left the place, a handbill, signed "Haverill Dashmore, Captain R.N.,
+Baker-street, Portman-square," announced, in very spirited language, the
+intention of that gentleman to emancipate the borough from the
+unconstitutional domination of an oligarchical faction, not with a view
+to his own political aggrandizement--indeed, at great personal
+inconvenience--but actuated solely by abhorrence to tyranny, and
+patriotic passion for the purity of election.
+
+This announcement was followed, within two hours, by the arrival of
+Captain Dashmore himself, in a carriage-and-four covered with yellow
+favors, and filled, inside and out, with harum-scarum looking friends
+who had come down with him to aid the canvass and share the fun.
+
+Captain Dashmore was a thorough sailor, who had, however, taken a
+disgust to the profession from the date in which a Minister's nephew had
+been appointed to the command of a ship to which the Captain considered
+himself unquestionably entitled. It is just to the Minister to add, that
+Captain Dashmore had shown as little regard for orders from a distance,
+as had immortalized Nelson himself; but then the disobedience had not
+achieved the same redeeming success as that of Nelson, and Captain
+Dashmore ought to have thought himself fortunate in escaping a severer
+treatment than the loss of promotion. But no man knows when he is well
+off; and retiring on half-pay, just as he came into unexpected
+possession of some forty or fifty thousand pounds bequeathed by a
+distant relation, Captain Dashmore was seized with a vindictive desire
+to enter parliament, and inflict oratorical chastisement on the
+Administration.
+
+A very few hours sufficed to show the sea-captain to be a most capital
+electioneerer for a small and not very enlightened borough. It is true
+that he talked the saddest nonsense ever heard from an open window; but
+then his jokes were so broad, his manner so hearty, his voice so big,
+that in those dark days, before the schoolmaster was abroad, he would
+have beaten your philosophical Radical and moralizing Democrat hollow.
+Moreover he kissed all the women, old and young, with the zest of a
+sailor who has known what it is to be three years at sea without sight
+of a beardless lip; he threw open all the public-houses, asked a
+numerous committee every day to dinner, and, chucking his purse up in
+the air, declared "he would stick to his guns while there was a shot in
+the locker." Till then, there had been but little political difference
+between the candidate supported by Lord Lansmere's interest and the
+opposing parties--for country gentlemen, in those days, were pretty much
+of the same way of thinking, and the question had been really
+local--viz., whether the Lansmere interest should or should not prevail
+over that of the two squirearchical families who had alone, hitherto,
+ventured to oppose it. But though Captain Dashmore was really a very
+loyal man, and much too old a sailor to think that the State (which,
+according to established metaphor, is a vessel, _par excellence_),
+should admit Jack upon quarter-deck, yet, what with talking against
+lords and aristocracy, jobs and abuses, and searching through no very
+refined vocabulary for the strongest epithets to apply to those
+irritating nouns-substantive, his bile had got the better of his
+understanding, and he became fuddled, as it were, by his own eloquence.
+Thus, though as innocent of Jacobinical designs as he was incapable of
+setting the Thames on fire, you would have guessed him, by his speeches,
+to be one of the most determined incendiaries that ever applied a match
+to the combustible materials of a contested election; while, being by no
+means accustomed to respect his adversaries, he could not have treated
+the Earl of Lansmere with less ceremony if his Lordship had been a
+Frenchman. He usually designated that respectable nobleman by the title
+of "Old Pompous;" and the Mayor, who was never seen abroad but in
+top-boots, and the Solicitor, who was of a large build, received from
+his irreverent wit the joint sobriquet of "Tops and Bottoms!" Hence the
+election had now become, as I said before, a personal matter with my
+Lord, and, indeed, with the great heads of the Lansmere interest. The
+Earl seemed to consider his very coronet at stake in the question. "The
+man from Baker-street," with his preternatural audacity, appeared to him
+a being ominous and awful--not so much to be regarded with resentment,
+as with superstitious terror: he felt as felt the dignified Montezuma,
+when that ruffianly Cortez, with his handful of Spanish rapscallions,
+bearded him in his own capital, and in the midst of his Mexican
+splendor--"The gods were menaced if man could be so insolent!" wherefore
+said my Lord, tremulously, "The Constitution is gone if the Man from
+Baker-street comes in for Lansmere!"
+
+But, in the absence of Audley Egerton, the election looked extremely
+ugly, and Captain Dashmore gained ground hourly, when the Lansmere
+Solicitor happily bethought him of a notable proxy for the missing
+candidate. The Squire of Hazeldean, with his young wife, had been
+invited by the Earl in honor of Audley; and in the Squire the Solicitor
+beheld the only mortal who could cope with the sea-captain--a man with a
+voice as burly, and a face as bold--a man who, if permitted for the
+nonce by Mrs. Hazeldean, would kiss all the women no less heartily than
+the Captain kissed them; and who was, moreover, a taller, and a
+handsomer, and a younger man--all three, great recommendations in the
+kissing department of a contested election. Yes, to canvass the borough,
+and to speak from the window, Squire Hazeldean would be even more
+popularly presentable than the London-bred and accomplished Audley
+Egerton himself.
+
+The Squire, applied to and urged on all sides, at first said bluntly,
+"that he would do any thing in reason to serve his brother, but that he
+did not like, for his own part, appearing, even in proxy, as a Lord's
+nominee; and, moreover, if he was to be sponsor for his brother, why, he
+must promise and vow, in his name, to be stanch and true to the land
+they lived by; and how could he tell that Audley, when once he got into
+the House, would not forget the land, and then he, William Hazeldean,
+would be made a liar, and look like a turncoat!"
+
+But these scruples being overruled by the arguments of the gentlemen and
+the entreaties of the ladies, who took in the election that intense
+interest which those gentle creatures usually do take in all matters of
+strife and contest, the Squire at length consented to confront the Man
+from Baker-street, and went, accordingly, into the thing with that good
+heart and old English spirit with which he went into every thing whereon
+he had once made up his mind.
+
+The expectations formed of the Squire's capacities for popular
+electioneering were fully realized. He talked quite as much nonsense as
+Captain Dashmore on every subject except the landed interest; there he
+was great, for he knew the subject well--knew it by the instinct that
+comes with practice, and compared to which all your showy theories are
+mere cobwebs and moonshine.
+
+The agricultural outvoters--many of whom, not living under Lord
+Lansmere, but being small yeomen, had hitherto prided themselves on
+their independence, and gone against my Lord--could not in their hearts
+go against one who was every inch the farmer's friend. They began to
+share in the Earl's personal interest against the Man from Baker-street;
+and big fellows, with legs bigger round than Captain Dashmore's tight
+little body, and huge whips in their hands, were soon seen entering the
+shops, "intimidating the electors," as Captain Dashmore indignantly
+declared.
+
+These new recruits made a great difference in the muster-roll of the
+Lansmere books; and, when the day for polling arrived, the result was a
+fair question for even betting. At the last hour, after a neck-and-neck
+contest, Mr. Audley Egerton beat the Captain by two votes. And the names
+of these voters were John Avenal, resident freeman, and his son-in-law,
+Mark Fairfield, an outvoter, who, though a Lansmere freeman, had settled
+in Hazeldean, where he had obtained the situation of head carpenter on
+the Squire's estate.
+
+These votes were unexpected; for, though Mark Fairfield had come to
+Lansmere on purpose to support the Squire's brother, and though the
+Avenals had been always stanch supporters of the Lansmere Blue interest,
+yet a severe affliction (as to the nature of which, not desiring to
+sadden the opening of my story, I am considerately silent) had befallen
+both these persons, and they had left the town on the very day after
+Lord L'Estrange and Mr. Egerton had quitted Lansmere Park.
+
+Whatever might have been the gratification of the Squire, as a canvasser
+and a brother, at Mr. Egerton's triumph, it was much damped when, on
+leaving the dinner given in honor of the victory, at the Lansmere Arms,
+and about, with no steady step, to enter the carriage which was to
+convey him to his Lordship's house, a letter was put into his hands by
+one of the gentleman who had accompanied the Captain to the scene of
+action; and the perusal of that letter, and a few whispered words from
+the bearer thereof, sent the Squire back to Mrs. Hazeldean a much
+soberer man than she had ventured to hope for. The fact was, that on the
+day of nomination, the Captain having honored Mr. Hazeldean with many
+poetical and figurative appellations--such as "Prize Ox," "Tony
+Lumpkin," "Blood-sucking Vampyre," and "Brotherly Warming-Pan," the
+Squire had retorted by a joke upon "Salt Water Jack;" and the Captain,
+who, like all satirists, was extremely susceptible and thin-skinned,
+could not consent to be called "Salt Water Jack" by a "Prize Ox" and a
+"Blood-sucking Vampyre." The letter, therefore, now conveyed to Mr.
+Hazeldean by a gentleman, who, being from the Sister Country, was deemed
+the most fitting accomplice in the honorable destruction of a brother
+mortal, contained nothing more nor less than an invitation to single
+combat; and the bearer thereof, with the suave politeness enjoined by
+etiquette on such well-bred homicidal occasions, suggested the
+expediency of appointing the place of meeting in the neighborhood of
+London, in order to prevent interference from the suspicious authorities
+of Lansmere.
+
+The natives of some countries--the warlike French in particular--think
+little of that formal operation which goes by the name of DUELLING.
+Indeed, they seem rather to like it than otherwise. But there is nothing
+your thorough-paced Englishman--a Hazeldean of Hazeldean--considers
+with more repugnance and aversion, than that same cold-blooded
+ceremonial. It is not within the range of an Englishman's ordinary
+habits of thinking. He prefers going to law--a much more destructive
+proceeding of the two. Nevertheless, if an Englishman must fight, why,
+he will fight. He says "it is very foolish;" he is sure "it is most
+unchristian-like;" he agrees with all that Philosopher, Preacher, and
+Press have laid down on the subject; but he makes his will, says his
+prayers, and goes out, like a heathen!
+
+It never, therefore, occurred to the Squire to show the white feather
+upon this unpleasant occasion. The next day, feigning excuse to attend
+the sale of a hunting stud at Tattersall's, he ruefully went up to
+London, after taking a peculiarly affectionate leave of his wife.
+Indeed, the Squire felt convinced that he should never return home
+except in a coffin. "It stands to reason," said he, to himself, "that a
+man, who has been actually paid by the King's Government for shooting
+people ever since he was a little boy in a midshipman's jacket, must be
+a dead hand at the job. I should not mind if it was with double-barreled
+Mantons and small shot; but ball and pistol! they aren't human nor
+sportsmanlike!" However, the Squire, after settling his worldly affairs,
+and hunting up an old College friend, who undertook to be his second,
+proceeded to a sequestered corner of Wimbledon Common, and planted
+himself, not sideways, as one ought to do in such encounters (the which
+posture the Squire swore was an unmanly way of shirking), but full front
+to the mouth of his adversary's pistol, with such sturdy composure, that
+Captain Dashmore, who, though an excellent shot, was at bottom as
+good-natured a fellow as ever lived, testified his admiration by letting
+off his gallant opponent with a ball in the fleshy part of his shoulder;
+after which he declared himself perfectly satisfied. The parties then
+shook hands, mutual apologies were exchanged, and the Squire, much to
+his astonishment to find himself still alive, was conveyed to Limmer's
+Hotel, where, after a considerable amount of anguish, the ball was
+extracted, and the wound healed. Now it was all over, the Squire felt
+very much raised in his own conceit; and, when he was in a humor more
+than ordinarily fierce, that perilous event became a favorite allusion
+with him.
+
+He considered, moreover, that his brother had incurred at his hand the
+most lasting obligations; and that, having procured Audley's return to
+Parliament, and defended his interests at the risk of his own life, he
+had an absolute right to dictate to that gentleman how to vote--upon all
+matters at least connected with the landed interest. And when, not very
+long after Audley took his seat in Parliament (which he did not do for
+some months), he thought proper both to vote and to speak in a manner
+wholly belying the promises the Squire had made on his behalf, Mr.
+Hazeldean wrote him such a trimmer, that it could not but produce an
+unconciliatory reply. Shortly afterward, the Squire's exasperation
+reached the culminating point, for, having to pass through Lansmere on a
+market-day, he was hooted by the very farmers whom he had induced to
+vote for his brother; and, justly imputing the disgrace to Audley, he
+never heard the name of that traitor to the land mentioned, without a
+heightened color and an indignant expletive. Monsieur de Ruqueville--who
+was the greatest wit of his day--had, like the Squire, a half-brother,
+with whom he was not on the best of terms, and of whom he always spoke
+as his "_frère de loin_." Audley Egerton was thus Squire Hazeldean's
+"_distant brother_!"--Enough of these explanatory antecedents--let us
+return to the Stocks.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+The Squire's carpenters were taken from the park pales, and set to work
+at the parish stocks. Then came the painter and colored them, a
+beautiful dark blue, with a white border--and a white rim round the
+holes--with an ornamental flourish in the middle. It was the gayest
+public edifice in the whole village--though the village possessed no
+less than three other monuments of the Vitruvian genius, of the
+Hazeldeans: to wit, the alms-house, the school, and the parish pump.
+
+A more elegant, enticing, coquettish pair of stocks never gladdened the
+eye of a justice of the peace.
+
+And Squire Hazeldean's eye was gladdened. In the pride of his heart he
+brought all the family down to look at the stocks. The Squire's family
+(omitting the _frère de loin_) consisted of Mrs. Hazeldean, his wife;
+next, of Miss Jemima Hazeldean, his first cousin; thirdly, of Master
+Francis Hazeldean, his only son; and fourthly, of Captain Barnabas
+Higginbotham, a distant relation--who, indeed, strictly speaking, was
+not of the family, but only a visitor ten months in the year. Mrs.
+Hazeldean was every inch the lady--the lady of the parish. In her
+comely, florid, and somewhat sunburnt countenance, there was an equal
+expression of majesty and benevolence; she had a blue eye that invited
+liking, and an aquiline nose that commanded respect. Mrs. Hazeldean had
+no affectation of fine airs--no wish to be greater and handsomer and
+cleverer than she was. She knew herself, and her station, and thanked
+heaven for it. There was about her speech and manner something of that
+shortness and bluntness which often characterizes royalty; and if the
+lady of a parish is not a queen in her own circle, it is never the fault
+of the parish. Mrs. Hazeldean dressed her part to perfection. She wore
+silks that seemed heirlooms--so thick were they, so substantial and
+imposing. And over these, when she was in her own domain, the whitest of
+aprons; while at her waist was seen no fiddle-daddle _chatelaine_, with
+_breloques_ and trumpery, but a good honest gold watch to mark the
+time, and a long pair of scissors to cut off the dead leaves from her
+flowers, for she was a great horticulturist. When occasion needed, Mrs.
+Hazeldean could, however, lay by her more sumptuous and imperial raiment
+for a stout riding-habit of blue Saxony, and canter by her husband's
+side to see the hounds throw off. Nay, on the days on which Mr.
+Hazeldean drove his famous fast-trotting cob to the market town, it was
+rarely that you did not see his wife on the left side of the gig. She
+cared as little as her lord did for wind and weather, and, in the midst
+of some pelting shower, her pleasant face peeped over the collar and
+capes of a stout dreadnought, expanding into smiles and bloom as some
+frank rose, that opens from its petals, and rejoices in the dews. It was
+easy to see that the worthy couple had married for love; they were as
+little apart as they could help it. And still, on the first of
+September, if the house was not full of company which demanded her
+cares, Mrs. Hazeldean "stepped out" over the stubbles by her husband's
+side, with as light a tread and as blithe an eye as when in the first
+bridal year she had enchanted the Squire by her genial sympathy with his
+sports.
+
+So there now stands Harriet Hazeldean, one hand leaning on the Squire's
+broad shoulder, the other thrust into her apron, and trying her best to
+share her husband's enthusiasm for his own public-spirited patriotism,
+in the renovation of the parish stocks. A little behind, with two
+fingers leaning on the thin arm of Captain Barnabas, stood Miss Jemima,
+the orphan daughter of the Squire's uncle, by a runaway imprudent
+marriage with a young lady who belonged to a family which had been at
+war with the Hazeldeans since the reign of Charles I., respecting a
+right of way to a small wood (or rather spring) of about an acre,
+through a piece of furze land, which was let to a brick-maker at twelve
+shillings a year. The wood belonged to the Hazeldeans, the furze land to
+the Sticktorights (an old Saxon family, if ever there was one). Every
+twelfth year, when the fagots and timber were felled, this feud broke
+out afresh; for the Sticktorights refused to the Hazeldeans the right to
+cart off the said fagots and timber, through the only way by which a
+cart could possibly pass. It is just to the Hazeldeans to say that they
+had offered to buy the land at ten times its value. But the
+Sticktorights, with equal magnanimity, had declared that they would not
+"alienate the family property for the convenience of the best squire
+that ever stood upon shoe leather." Therefore, every twelfth year, there
+was always a great breach of the peace on the part of both Hazeldeans
+and Sticktorights, magistrates, and deputy-lieutenants though they were.
+The question was fairly fought out by their respective dependents, and
+followed by various actions for assault and trespass. As the legal
+question of right was extremely obscure, it never had been properly
+decided: and, indeed, neither party wished it to be decided, each at
+heart having some doubt of the propriety of its own claim. A marriage
+between the younger son of the Hazeldeans, and a younger daughter of the
+Sticktorights, was viewed with equal indignation by both families; and
+the consequence had been that the runaway couple, unblessed and
+unforgiven, had scrambled through life as they could, upon the scanty
+pay of the husband, who was in a marching regiment, and the interest of
+£1000, which was the wife's fortune, independent of her parents. They
+died, and left an only daughter, upon whom the maternal £1000 had been
+settled, about the time that the Squire came of age and into possession
+of his estates. And though he inherited all the ancestral hostility
+toward the Sticktorights, it was not in his nature to be unkind to a
+poor orphan who was, after all, the child of a Hazeldean. Therefore, he
+had educated and fostered Jemima with as much tenderness as if she had
+been his sister; put out her £1000 at nurse, and devoted, from the ready
+money which had accrued from the rents during his minority, as much as
+made her fortune (with her own accumulated at compound interest) no less
+than £4000, the ordinary marriage portion of the daughters of Hazeldean.
+On her coming of age, he transferred this sum to her absolute disposal,
+in order that she might feel herself independent, see a little more of
+the world than she could at Hazeldean, have candidates to choose from if
+she deigned to marry; or enough to live upon if she chose to remain
+single. Miss Jemima had somewhat availed herself of this liberty, by
+occasional visits to Cheltenham and other watering-places. But her
+grateful affection to the Squire was such, that she could never bear to
+be long away from the Hall. And this was the more praise to her heart,
+inasmuch as she was far from taking kindly to the prospect of being an
+old maid. And there were so few bachelors in the neighborhood of
+Hazeldean, that she could not but have that prospect before her eyes
+whenever she looked out of the Hall windows. Miss Jemima was indeed one
+of the most kindly and affectionate of beings feminine--and if she
+disliked the thought of single blessedness, it really was from those
+innocent and womanly instincts toward the tender charities of hearth and
+home, without which a lady, however otherwise estimable, is little
+better than a Minerva in bronze. But whether or not, despite her fortune
+and her face, which last, though not strictly handsome, was
+pleasing--and would have been positively pretty if she had laughed more
+often (for when she laughed there appeared three charming dimples,
+invisible when she was grave)--whether or not, I say, it was the fault
+of our insensibility or her own fastidiousness, Miss Jemima approached
+her thirtieth year, and was still Miss Jemima. Now, therefore, that
+beautifying laugh of hers was very rarely heard, and she had of late
+become confirmed in two opinions, not at all conducive to laughter. One
+was a conviction of the general and progressive wickedness of the male
+sex, and the other was a decided and lugubrious belief that the world
+was coming to an end. Miss Jemima was now accompanied by a small canine
+favorite, true Blenheim, with a snub nose. It was advanced in life, and
+somewhat obese. It sate on its haunches with its tongue out of its
+mouth, except when it snapped at the flies. There was a strong Platonic
+friendship between Miss Jemima and Captain Barnabas Higginbotham; for he
+too was unmarried, and he had the same ill opinion of your sex, my dear
+madam, that Miss Jemima had of ours. The captain was a man of a slim and
+elegant figure--the less said about the face the better--a truth of
+which the Captain himself was sensible, for it was a favorite maxim of
+his, "that in a man, every thing is a slight, gentlemanlike figure."
+Captain Barnabas did not absolutely deny that the world was coming to an
+end, only he thought it would last his time.
+
+Quite apart from the rest, with the nonchalant survey of virgin
+dandyism, Francis Hazeldean looked over one of the high starched
+neck-cloths which were then the fashion--a handsome lad, fresh from Eton
+for the summer holidays, but at that ambiguous age, when one disdains
+the sports of the boy, and has not yet arrived at the resources of the
+man.
+
+"I should be glad, Frank," said the Squire, suddenly turning round to
+his son, "to see you take a little more interest in duties which, one
+day or other you may be called upon to discharge. I can't bear to think
+that the property should fall into the hands of a fine gentleman, who
+will let things go to rack and ruin, instead of keeping them up as I
+do."
+
+And the Squire pointed to the stocks.
+
+Master Frank's eye followed the direction of the cane, as well as his
+cravat would permit; and he said, dryly,
+
+"Yes, sir; but how came the stocks to be so long out of repair?"
+
+"Because one can't see to every thing at once," retorted the Squire,
+tartly. "When a man has got eight thousand acres to look after, he must
+do a bit at a time."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Barnabas. "I know that by experience."
+
+"The deuce you do!" cried the Squire, bluntly. "Experience in eight
+thousand acres!"
+
+"No; in my apartments in the Albany. Number 3A. I have had them ten
+years, and it was only last Christmas that I bought my Japan cat."
+
+"Dear me!" said Miss Jemima; "a Japan cat! that must be very curious!
+What sort of a creature is it?"
+
+"Don't you know? Bless me, a thing with three legs, and holds toast! I
+never thought of it, I assure you, till my friend Cosey said to me, one
+morning, when he was breakfasting at my rooms, 'Higginbotham, how is it,
+that you, who like to have things comfortable about you, don't have a
+cat?' 'Upon my life,' said I, 'one can't think of every thing at a
+time;' just like you, Squire."
+
+"Pshaw," said Mr. Hazeldean, gruffly; "not at all like me. And I'll
+thank you another time, Cousin Higginbotham, not to put me out when I am
+speaking on matters of importance; poking your cat into my stocks! They
+look something like now, don't they, Harry? I declare that the whole
+village seems more respectable. It is astonishing how much a little
+improvement adds to the--to the--"
+
+"Charm of a landscape," put in Miss Jemima, sentimentally.
+
+The Squire neither accepted nor rejected the suggested termination; but
+leaving his sentence uncompleted, broke suddenly off with,
+
+"And if I had listened to Parson Dale--"
+
+"You would have done a very wise thing," said a voice behind, as the
+Parson presented himself in the rear.
+
+"Wise thing! Why surely, Mr. Dale," said Mrs. Hazeldean, with spirit,
+for she always resented the least contradiction to her lord and master;
+perhaps as an interference with her own special right and prerogative:
+"why, surely if it is necessary to have stocks, it is necessary to
+repair them."
+
+"That's right, go it, Harry!" cried the Squire, chuckling, and rubbing
+his hands, as if he had been setting his terrier at the Parson.
+"St--St--at him! Well, Master Dale, what do you say to that?"
+
+"My dear ma'am," said the Parson, replying in preference to the lady;
+"there are many institutions in the country which are very old, look
+very decayed, and don't seem of much use; but I would not pull them down
+for all that."
+
+"You would reform them, then," said Mrs. Hazeldean, doubtfully, and with
+a look at her husband, as much as to say, "He is on politics now; that's
+your business."
+
+"No, I would not, ma'am," said the Parson, stoutly.
+
+"What on earth would you do, then?" quoth the Squire.
+
+"Just let 'em alone," said the Parson. "Master Frank, there's a Latin
+maxim which was often in the mouth of Sir Robert Walpole, and which they
+ought to put in the Eton grammar--'_Quieta non movere_.' If things are
+quiet, let them be quiet! I would not destroy the stocks, because that
+might seem to the ill-disposed like a license to offend, and I would not
+repair the stocks, because that puts it into people's heads to get into
+them."
+
+The Squire was a stanch politician of the old school, and he did not
+like to think that in repairing the stocks, he had perhaps been
+conniving at revolutionary principles.
+
+"This constant desire of innovation," said Miss Jemima, suddenly
+mounting the more funereal of her two favorite hobbies, "is one of the
+great symptoms of the approaching crash. We are altering, and mending,
+and reforming, when in twenty years at the utmost the world itself may
+be destroyed!" The fair speaker paused, and--
+
+Captain Barnabas said, thoughtfully, "Twenty years!--the insurance
+offices rarely compute the best life at more than fourteen." He struck
+his hand on the stocks as he spoke, and added, with his usual
+consolatory conclusion--"The odds are, that it will last our time,
+Squire."
+
+But whether Captain Barnabas meant the stocks or the world, he did not
+clearly explain, and no one took the trouble to inquire.
+
+"Sir," said Master Frank to his father, with that furtive spirit of
+quizzing, which he had acquired among other polite accomplishments at
+Eton; "sir, it is no use now considering whether the stocks should or
+should not have been repaired. The only question is, whom you will get
+to put into them."
+
+"True," said the Squire, with much gravity.
+
+"Yes, there it is!" said the Parson, mournfully. "If you would but learn
+'_quieta non movere_!'"
+
+"Don't spout your Latin at me, Parson!" cried the Squire, angrily; "I
+can give you as good as you bring, any day--
+
+    'Propria quæ maribus tribuuntur mascula dicas--
+    As in presenti, perfectum format in avi.'
+
+There," added the Squire, turning triumphantly toward his Harry, who
+looked with great admiration at this unprecedented burst of learning on
+the part of Mr. Hazeldean; "there, two can play at that game! And now
+that we have all seen the stocks, we may as well go home, and drink tea.
+Will you come up and play a rubber, Dale? No! hang it, man, I've not
+offended you--you know my ways."
+
+"That I do, and they are among the things I would not have altered,"
+cried the Parson, holding out his hand cheerfully. The Squire gave it a
+hearty shake, and Mrs. Hazeldean hastened to do the same. "Do come; I am
+afraid we've been very rude; we are sad blunt folks. Do come; that's a
+dear good man; and of course poor Mrs. Dale too." Mrs. Hazeldean's
+favorite epithet for Mrs. Dale was _poor_, and that for reasons to be
+explained hereafter.
+
+"I fear my wife has got one of her bad headaches, but I will give her
+your kind message, and at all events you may depend upon me."
+
+"That's right," cried the Squire, "in half-an-hour, eh? How d'ye do, my
+little man?" as Lenny Fairfield, on his way home from some errand in the
+village, drew aside and pulled off his hat with both hands. "Stop--you
+see those stocks--eh? Tell all the bad little boys in the parish to take
+care how they get into them--a sad disgrace--you'll never be in such a
+quandary!"
+
+"That at least I will answer for," said the Parson.
+
+"And I too," added Mrs. Hazeldean, patting the boy's curly head. "Tell
+your mother I shall come and have a good chat with her to-morrow
+evening."
+
+And so the party passed on, and Lenny stood still on the road, staring
+hard at the stocks, which stared back at him from its four great eyes.
+
+But Lenny did not remain long alone. As soon as the great folks had
+fairly disappeared, a large number of small folks emerged timorously
+from the neighboring cottages, and approached the site of the stocks
+with much marvel, fear, and curiosity.
+
+In fact, the renovated appearance of this monster--_à propos des
+bottes_, as one may say--had already excited considerable sensation
+among the population of Hazeldean. And even as when an unexpected owl
+makes his appearance in broad daylight, all the little birds rise from
+tree and hedge-row, and cluster round their ominous enemy, so now
+gathered all the much excited villagers round the intrusive and
+portentous Phenomenon.
+
+"D'ye know what the diggins the Squire did it for, Gaffer Solomons?"
+asked one many-childed matron, with a baby in arms, an urchin of three
+years old clinging fast to her petticoat, and her hand maternally
+holding back a more adventurous hero of six, who had a great desire to
+thrust his head into one of the grisly apertures. All eyes turned to a
+sage old man, the oracle of the village, who, leaning both hands on his
+crutch, shook his head bodingly.
+
+"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons, "some of the boys ha' been robbing the
+orchards."
+
+"Orchards," cried a big lad, who seemed to think himself personally
+appealed to, "why the bud's scarce off the trees yet!"
+
+"No more it isn't!" said the dame with many children, and she breathed
+more freely.
+
+"Maw be," said Gaffer Solomons, "some o' ye has been setting snares."
+
+"What for?" said a stout sullen-looking young fellow, whom conscience
+possibly pricked to reply. "What for, when it beant the season? And if a
+poor man did find a hear in his pocket i' the hay time, I should like to
+know if ever a squire in the world would let un off wi' the stocks--eh?"
+
+That last question seemed a settler, and the wisdom of Gaffer Solomons
+went down fifty per cent. in the public opinion of Hazeldean.
+
+"Maw be," said the Gaffer, this time with a thrilling effect, which
+restored his reputation, "Maw be some o' ye ha' been getting drunk, and
+making beestises o' yoursels!"
+
+There was a dead pause, for this suggestion applied too generally to be
+met with a solitary response. At last one of the women said, with a
+meaning glance at her husband, "God bless the Squire; he'll make some on
+us happy women, if that's all!"
+
+There then arose an almost unanimous murmur of approbation among the
+female part of the audience; and the men looked at each other, and then
+at the Phenomenon, with a very hang-dog expression of countenance.
+
+"Or, maw be," resumed Gaffer Solomons, encouraged to a fourth
+suggestion by the success of its predecessor, "Maw be some o' the
+Misseses ha' been making a rumpus, and scolding their goodmen. I heard
+say in my granfeythir's time, that arter old Mother Bang nigh died o'
+the ducking-stool, them 'ere stocks were first made for the women, out
+o' compassion like! And every one knows the Squire is a koind-hearted
+man, God bless un!"
+
+"God bless un!" cried the men heartily; and they gathered lovingly round
+the Phenomenon, like heathens of old round a tutelary temple. But then
+rose one shrill clamor among the females, as they retreated with
+involuntary steps toward the verge of the green, whence they glared at
+Solomons and the Phenomenon with eyes so sparkling, and pointed at both
+with gestures so menacing, that Heaven only knows if a morsel of either
+would have remained much longer to offend the eyes of the justly enraged
+matronage of Hazeldean, if fortunately Master Stirn, the Squire's
+right-hand man, had not come up in the nick of time.
+
+Master Stirn was a formidable personage--more formidable than the Squire
+himself--as, indeed, a squire's right-hand is generally more formidable
+than the head can pretend to be. He inspired the greater awe, because,
+like the stocks, of which he was deputed guardian, his powers were
+undefined and obscure, and he had no particular place in the out-of-door
+establishment. He was not the steward, yet he did much of what ought to
+be the steward's work; he was not the farm-bailiff, for the Squire
+called himself his own farm-bailiff; nevertheless, Mr. Hazeldean sowed
+and plowed, cropped and stocked, bought and sold, very much as Mr. Stirn
+condescended to advise. He was not the park-keeper, for he neither shot
+the deer nor superintended the preserves; but it was he who always found
+out who had broken a park-pale or snared a rabbit. In short, what may be
+called all the harsher duties of a large landed proprietor devolved by
+custom and choice upon Mr. Stirn. If a laborer was to be discharged, or
+a rent enforced, and the Squire knew that he should be talked over, and
+that the steward would be as soft as himself, Mr. Stirn was sure to be
+the avenging [Greek: angelos] or messenger, to pronounce the words of
+fate; so that he appeared to the inhabitants of Hazeldean like the
+Poet's _Sæva Necessitas_, a vague incarnation of remorseless power,
+armed with whips, nails, and wedges. The very brute creation stood in
+awe of Mr. Stirn. The calves knew that it was he who singled out which
+should be sold to the butcher, and huddled up into a corner with beating
+hearts at his grim footstep; the sow grunted, the duck quacked, the hen
+bristled her feathers and called to her chicks when Mr. Stirn drew near.
+Nature had set her stamp upon him. Indeed it may be questioned whether
+the great M. de Chambray himself, surnamed the Brave, had an aspect so
+awe-inspiring as that of Mr. Stirn; albeit the face of that hero was so
+terrible, that a man who had been his lackey, seeing his portrait after
+he had been dead twenty years, fell a-trembling all over like a leaf!
+
+"And what the plague are you all doing here?" said Mr. Stirn, as he
+waved and smacked a great cart-whip which he held in his hand, "making
+such a hullabaloo, you women, you! that I suspect the Squire will be
+sending out to know if the village is on fire. Go home, will ye? High
+time indeed to have the stocks ready, when you get squalling and
+conspiring under the very nose of a justice of the peace, just as the
+French Revolutioners did afore they cut off their King's head; my hair
+stands on end to look at ye." But already, before half this address was
+delivered, the crowd had dispersed in all directions--the women still
+keeping together, and the men sneaking off toward the ale-house. Such
+was the beneficent effect of the fatal stocks on the first day of their
+resuscitation!
+
+However, in the break up of every crowd there must be always some one
+who gets off the last; and it so happened that our friend Lenny
+Fairfield, who had mechanically approached close to the stocks, the
+better to hear the oracular opinions of Gaffer Solomons, had no less
+mechanically, on the abrupt appearance of Mr. Stirn, crept, as he hoped,
+out of sight behind the trunk of the elm tree which partially shaded the
+stocks; and there now, as if fascinated, he still cowered, not daring to
+emerge in full view of Mr. Stirn, and in immediate reach of the
+cart-whip, when the quick eye of the right-hand man detected his
+retreat.
+
+"Hallo, you sir--what the deuce, laying a mine to blow up the stocks!
+just like Guy Fox and the Gunpowder Plot, I declares! What ha' you got
+in your willainous little fist, there?"
+
+"Nothing, sir," said Lenny, opening his palm.
+
+"Nothing--um!" said Mr. Stirn, much dissatisfied; and then, as he gazed
+more deliberately, recognizing the pattern boy of the village, a cloud
+yet darker gathered over his brow; for Mr. Stirn, who valued himself
+much on his learning--and who, indeed, by dint of more knowledge as well
+as more wit than his neighbors, had attained his present eminent station
+in life--was extremely anxious that his only son should also be a
+scholar; that wish,
+
+    "The Gods dispersed in empty air."
+
+Master Stirn was a notable dunce at the Parson's school, while Lenny
+Fairfield was the pride and boast of it; therefore Mr. Stirn was
+naturally, and almost justifiably ill-disposed toward Lenny Fairfield,
+who had appropriated to himself the praises which Mr. Stirn had designed
+for his son.
+
+"Um!" said the right-hand man, glowering on Lenny malignantly, "you are
+the pattern boy of the village, are you? Very well, sir--then I put
+these here stocks under your care--and you'll keep off the other boys
+from sitting on 'em, and picking off the paint, and playing three holes
+and chuck farthing, as I declare they've been a-doing, just in front of
+the elewation. Now you knows your sponsibilities, little boy--and a
+great honor they are too, for the like o' you. If any damage be done, it
+is to you I shall look; d'ye understand? and that's what the Squire says
+to me; so you sees what it is to be a pattern boy, Master Lenny!"
+
+With that Mr. Stirn gave a loud crack of the cart-whip, by way of
+military honors, over the head of the vicegerent he had thus created,
+and strode off to pay a visit to two young unsuspecting pups, whose ears
+and tails he had graciously promised their proprietor to crop that
+evening. Nor, albeit few charges could be more obnoxious than that of
+deputy governor or _chargé d'affaires extraordinaire_ to the Parish
+Stocks, nor one more likely to render Lenny Fairfield odious to his
+contemporaries, ought he to have been insensible to the signal advantage
+of his condition over that of the two sufferers, against whose ears and
+tails Mr. Stirn had no especial motives of resentment. To every bad
+there is a worse--and fortunately for little boys, and even for grown
+men, whom the Stirns of the world regard malignly, the majesty of law
+protects their ears, and the merciful forethought of nature deprived
+their remote ancestors of the privilege of entailing tails upon them.
+Had it been otherwise--considering what handles tails would have given
+to the oppressor, how many traps envy would have laid for them, how
+often they must have been scratched and mutilated by the briars of life,
+how many good excuses would have been found for lopping, docking, and
+trimming them--I fear that only the lap-dogs of fortune would have gone
+to the grave tail-whole.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+The card-table was set out in the drawing-room at Hazeldean Hall; though
+the little party were still lingering in the deep recess of the large
+bay window--which (in itself of dimensions that would have swallowed up
+a moderate-sized London parlor) held the great round tea-table with all
+appliances and means to boot--for the beautiful summer moon shed on the
+sward so silvery a lustre, and the trees cast so quiet a shadow, and the
+flowers and new-mown hay sent up so grateful a perfume, that, to close
+the windows, draw the curtains, and call for other lights than those of
+heaven, would have been an abuse of the prose of life which even Captain
+Barnabas, who regarded whist as the business of town and the holiday of
+the country, shrank from suggesting. Without, the scene, beheld by the
+clear moonlight, had the beauty peculiar to the garden ground round
+those old-fashioned country residences which, though a little
+modernized, still preserve their original character: the velvet lawn,
+studded with large plots of flowers, shaded and scented here, to the
+left, by lilacs, laburnums, and rich seringas--there, to the right,
+giving glimpses, over low-clipped yews, of a green bowling alley, with
+the white columns of a summer house built after the Dutch taste, in the
+reign of William III.; and in front--stealing away under covert of
+those still cedars, into the wilder landscape of the well-wooded,
+undulating park. Within, viewed by the placid glimmer of the moon, the
+scene was no less characteristic of the abodes of that race which has no
+parallel in other lands, and which, alas, is somewhat losing its native
+idiosyncracies in this--the stout country gentleman, not the fine
+gentleman of the country--the country gentleman somewhat softened and
+civilized from the mere sportsman or farmer, but still plain and homely,
+relinquishing the old hall for the drawing-room, and with books not
+three months' old on his table, instead of _Fox's Martyrs_ and _Baker's
+Chronicle_--yet still retaining many a sacred old prejudice, that, like
+the knots in his native oak, rather adds to the ornament of the grain
+than takes from the strength of the tree. Opposite to the window, the
+high chimney-piece rose to the heavy cornice of the ceiling, with dark
+pannels glistening against the moonlight. The broad and rather clumsy
+chintz sofas and settees of the reign of George III., contrasted at
+intervals with the tall backed chairs of a far more distant generation,
+when ladies in fardingales, and gentlemen in trunk-hose, seemed never to
+have indulged in horizontal positions. The walls, of shining wainscot,
+were thickly covered, chiefly with family pictures; though now and then
+some Dutch fair, or battle-piece, showed that a former proprietor had
+been less exclusive in his taste for the arts. The piano-forte stood
+open near the fire-place; a long dwarf bookcase at the far end, added
+its sober smile to the room. That bookcase contained what was called
+"The Lady's Library," a collection commenced by the Squire's
+grandmother, of pious memory, and completed by his mother, who had more
+taste for the lighter letters, with but little addition from the
+bibliomaniac tenderness of the present Mrs. Hazeldean--who, being no
+great reader, contented herself with subscribing to the Book Club. In
+this feminine Bodleian, the sermons collected by Mrs. Hazeldean, the
+grandmother, stood cheek-by-jowl beside the novels purchased by Mrs.
+Hazeldean, the mother.
+
+    "Mixtaque ridenti fundet colocasia acantho!"
+
+But, to be sure, the novels, in spite of very inflammatory titles, such
+as "Fatal Sensibility," "Errors of the Heart," &c., were so harmless
+that I doubt if the sermons could have had much to say against their
+next-door neighbors--and that is all that can be expected by the rest of
+us.
+
+A parrot dozing on his perch--some gold fish fast asleep in their glass
+bowl--two or three dogs on the rug, and Flimsey, Miss Jemima's spaniel,
+curled into a ball on the softest sofa--Mrs. Hazeldean's work-table,
+rather in disorder, as if it had been lately used--the _St. James's
+Chronicle_ dangling down from a little tripod near the Squire's
+arm-chair--a high screen of gilt and stamped leather fencing off the
+card table; all these, dispersed about a room large enough to hold them
+all and not seem crowded, offered many a pleasant resting-place for the
+eye, when it turned from the world of nature to the home of man.
+
+But see, Captain Barnabas, fortified by his fourth cup of tea, has at
+length summoned courage to whisper to Mrs. Hazeldean, "don't you think
+the Parson will be impatient for his rubber?" Mrs. Hazeldean glanced at
+the Parson, and smiled; but she gave the signal to the Captain, and the
+bell was rung, lights were brought in, the curtains let down; in a few
+moments more the group had collected round the card-tables. The best of
+us are but human--that is not a new truth, I confess, but yet people
+forget it every day of their lives--and I dare say there are many who
+are charitably thinking at this very moment, that my Parson ought not to
+be playing at whist. All I can say to these rigid disciplinarians is,
+"Every man has his favorite sin: whist was Parson Dale's!--ladies and
+gentlemen, what is yours?" In truth, I must not set up my poor parson,
+nowadays, as a pattern parson--it is enough to have one pattern in a
+village no bigger than Hazeldean, and we all know that Lenny Fairfield
+has bespoken that place--and got the patronage of the stocks for his
+emoluments! Parson Dale was ordained, not indeed so very long ago, but
+still at a time when churchmen took it a great deal more easily than
+they do now. The elderly parson of that day played his rubber as a
+matter of course, the middle-aged parson was sometimes seen riding to
+cover (I knew a schoolmaster, a doctor of divinity, and an excellent
+man, whose pupils were chiefly taken from the highest families in
+England, who hunted regularly three times a week during the season), and
+the young parson would often sing a capital song--not composed by
+David--and join in those rotary dances, which certainly David never
+danced before the ark.
+
+Does it need so long a prolegomenon to excuse thee, poor Parson Dale,
+for turning up that ace of spades with so triumphant a smile at thy
+partner? I must own that nothing that well could add to the Parson's
+offense was wanting. In the first place he did not play charitably, and
+merely to oblige other people. He delighted in the game--he rejoiced in
+the game--his whole heart was in the game--neither was he indifferent to
+the mammon of the thing, as a Christian pastor ought to have been. He
+looked very sad when he took his shillings out of his purse, and
+exceedingly pleased when he put the shillings that had just before
+belonged to other people into it. Finally, by one of those arrangements
+common with married people, who play at the same table, Mr. and Mrs.
+Hazeldean were invariably partners, and no two people could play worse;
+while Captain Barnabas, who had played at Graham's with honor and
+profit, necessarily became partner to Parson Dale, who himself played a
+good steady parsonic game. So that, in strict truth, it was hardly fair
+play--it was almost swindling--the combination of those two great dons
+against that innocent married couple! Mr. Dale, it is true, was aware of
+this disproportion of force, and had often proposed either to change
+partners or to give odds, propositions always scornfully scouted by the
+Squire and his lady; so that the Parson was obliged to pocket his
+conscience together with the ten points which made his average winnings.
+
+The strangest thing in the world is the different way in which whist
+affects the temper. It is no test of temper, as some pretend--not at
+all! The best tempered people in the world grow snappish at whist; and I
+have seen the most testy and peevish in the ordinary affairs of life
+bear their losses with the stoicism of Epictetus. This was notably
+manifested in the contrast between the present adversaries of the Hall
+and the Rectory. The Squire who was esteemed as choleric a gentleman as
+most in the county, was the best humored fellow you could imagine when
+you set him down to whist opposite the sunny face of his wife. You never
+heard one of these incorrigible blunderers scold each other; on the
+contrary, they only laughed when they threw away the game, with four by
+honors in their hands. The utmost that was ever said was a "Well, Harry,
+that was the oddest trump of yours. Ho--ho--ho!" or a "Bless me,
+Hazeldean--why, they made three tricks, and you had the ace in your hand
+all the time! Ha--ha--ha!"
+
+Upon which occasions Captain Barnabas, with great good humor, always
+echoed both the Squire's ho--ho--ho! and Mrs. Hazeldean's ha--ha--ha!
+
+Not so the Parson. He had so keen and sportsmanlike an interest in the
+game, that even his adversaries' mistakes ruffled him. And you would
+hear him, with elevated voice and agitated gestures, laying down the
+law, quoting Hoyle, appealing to all the powers of memory and common
+sense against the very delinquencies by which he was enriched--a waste
+of eloquence that always heightened the hilarity of Mr. and Mrs.
+Hazeldean. While these four were thus engaged, Mrs. Dale, who had come
+with her husband despite her headache, sate on the sofa beside Miss
+Jemima, or rather beside Miss Jemima's Flimsey, which had already
+secured the centre of the sofa, and snarled at the very idea of being
+disturbed. And Master Frank--at a table by himself--was employed
+sometimes in looking at his pumps, and sometimes at Gilray's
+Caricatures, with which his mother had provided him for his intellectual
+requirements. Mrs. Dale, in her heart, liked Miss Jemima better than
+Mrs. Hazeldean, of whom she was rather in awe, notwithstanding they had
+been little girls together, and occasionally still called each other
+Harry and Carry. But those tender diminutives belonged to the "Dear"
+genus, and were rarely employed by the ladies, except at those times
+when--had they been little girls still, and the governess out of the
+way--they would have slapped and pinched each other. Mrs. Dale was
+still a very pretty woman, as Mrs. Hazeldean was still a very fine
+woman. Mrs. Dale painted in water colors and sang, and made card-racks
+and pen-holders, and was called an "elegant, accomplished woman." Mrs.
+Hazeldean cast up the Squire's accounts, wrote the best part of his
+letters, kept a large establishment in excellent order, and was called
+"a clever, sensible woman." Mrs. Dale had headaches and nerves, Mrs.
+Hazeldean had neither nerves nor headaches. Mrs. Dale said, "Harry had
+no real harm in her, but was certainly very masculine." Mrs. Hazeldean
+said, "Carry would be a good creature, but for her airs and graces."
+Mrs. Dale said, "Mrs. Hazeldean was just made to be a country squire's
+lady." Mrs. Hazeldean said, "Mrs. Dale was the last person in the world
+who ought to have been a parson's wife." Carry, when she spoke of Harry
+to a third person, said, "Dear Mrs. Hazeldean." Harry, when she referred
+incidentally to Carry, said, "Poor Mrs. Dale." And now the reader knows
+why Mrs. Hazeldean called Mrs. Dale "poor," at least as well as I do.
+For, after all, the word belonged to that class in the female vocabulary
+which may be called "obscure significants," resembling the Knox Ompax,
+which hath so puzzled the inquirers into the Eleusinian Mysteries; the
+application is rather to be illustrated than the meaning to be exactly
+explained.
+
+"That's really a sweet little dog of yours, Jemima," said Mrs. Dale, who
+was embroidering the word CAROLINE on the border of a cambric
+pocket-handkerchief, but edging a little farther off, as she added,
+"he'll not bite, will he?" "Dear me, no!" said Miss Jemima; but (she
+added, in a confidential whisper), "don't say _he_--'tis a lady dog."
+"Oh," said Mrs. Dale, edging off still farther, as if that confession of
+the creature's sex did not serve to allay her apprehensions--"oh, then,
+you carry your aversion to the gentlemen even to lap-dogs--that is being
+consistent indeed, Jemima!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"I had a gentleman dog once--a pug!--they are getting very
+scarce now. I thought he was so fond of me--he snapped at every one
+else; the battles I fought for him! Well, will you believe, I had been
+staying with my friend Miss Smilecox at Cheltenham. Knowing that William
+is so hasty, and his boots are so thick, I trembled to think what a kick
+might do. So, on coming here, I left Buff--that was his name--with Miss
+Smilecox." (A pause.)
+
+MRS. DALE, looking up languidly.--"Well, my love."
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Will you believe it, I say, when I returned to
+Cheltenham, only three months afterward, Miss Smilecox had seduced his
+affections from me, and the ungrateful creature did not even know me
+again. A pug, too--yet people _say_ pugs are faithful!!! I am sure they
+ought to be, nasty things. I have never had a gentleman dog since--they
+are all alike, believe me--heartless, selfish creatures."
+
+MRS. DALE.--"Pugs? I dare say they are!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA, with spirit.--"MEN!--I told you it was a gentleman dog!"
+
+MRS. DALE, apologetically.--"True, my love, but the whole thing was so
+mixed up!"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"You saw that cold-blooded case of Breach of Promise of
+Marriage in the papers--an old wretch, too, of sixty-four. No age makes
+them a bit better. And when one thinks that the end of all flesh is
+approaching, and that--"
+
+MRS. DALE, quickly, for she prefers Miss Jemima's other hobby to that
+black one upon which she is preparing to precede the bier of the
+universe.--"Yes, my love, we'll avoid that subject, if you please. Mr.
+Dale has his own opinions, and it becomes me, you know, as a parson's
+wife," (said smilingly; Mrs. Dale has as pretty a dimple as any of Miss
+Jemima's, and makes more of that one than Miss Jemima of three), "to
+agree with him--that is, in theology."
+
+MISS JEMIMA, earnestly.--"But the thing is so clear, if you would but
+look into--"
+
+MRS. DALE, putting her hand on Miss Jemima's lips playfully.--"Not a
+word more. Pray, what do you think of the Squire's tenant at the Casino,
+Signor Riccabocca? An interesting creature, is not he?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Interesting! Not to me. Interesting! Why is he
+interesting?"
+
+Mrs. Dale is silent, and turns her handkerchief in her pretty little
+white hands, appearing to contemplate the R. in Caroline.
+
+MISS JEMIMA, half pettishly, half coaxingly.--"Why is he interesting? I
+scarcely ever looked at him; they say he smokes, and never eats. Ugly,
+too!"
+
+MRS. DALE.--"Ugly--no. A fine head--very like Dante's--but what is
+beauty?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Very true; what is it indeed? Yes, as you say, I think
+there _is_ something interesting about him; he looks melancholy, but
+that may be because he is poor."
+
+MRS. DALE.--"It is astonishing how little one feels poverty when one
+loves. Charles and I were very poor once--before the Squire--." Mrs.
+Dale paused, looked toward the Squire, and murmured a blessing, the
+warmth of which brought tears into her eyes. "Yes," she added, after a
+pause, "we were very poor, but we were happy even then, more thanks to
+Charles than to me," and tears from a new source again dimmed those
+quick, lively eyes, as the little woman gazed fondly on her husband,
+whose brows were knit into a black frown over a bad hand.
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"It is only those horrid men who think of money as a
+source of happiness. I should be the last person to esteem a gentleman
+less because he was poor."
+
+MRS. DALE.--"I wonder the Squire does not ask Signor Riccabocca here
+more often. Such an acquisition _we_ find him!"
+
+The Squire's voice from the card table.--"Whom ought I to ask more
+often, Mrs. Dale?"
+
+Parson's voice impatiently.--"Come--come--come, Squire; play to my queen
+of diamonds--do!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"There, I trump it--pick up the trick, Mrs. H."
+
+PARSON.--"Stop! stop! trump my diamond?"
+
+The Captain, solemnly.--"Trick turned--play on, Squire."
+
+SQUIRE.--"The king of diamonds."
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN.--"Lord! Hazeldean--why, that's the most barefaced
+revoke--ha--ha--ha! trump the queen of diamonds and play out the king!
+well I never--ha--ha--ha!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS, in tenor.--"Ha, ha, ha!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"And so I have, bless my soul--ho, ho, ho!"
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS, in bass.--"Ho--ho--ho."
+
+Parson's voice raised, but drowned by the laughter of his adversaries
+and the firm clear tone of Captain Barnabas: "Three to our
+score!--game!"
+
+SQUIRE, wiping his eyes.--"No help for it, Harry--deal for me! Whom
+ought I to ask, Mrs. Dale? (waxing angry). First time I ever heard the
+hospitality of Hazeldean called in question!"
+
+MRS. DALE.--"My dear sir, I beg a thousand pardons, but listeners--you
+know the proverb."
+
+SQUIRE, growling like a bear.--"I hear nothing but proverbs ever since
+we have had that Mounseer among us. Please to speak plainly, marm."
+
+MRS. DALE, sliding into a little temper at being thus roughly
+accosted.--"It was of Mounseer, as you call him, that I spoke, Mr.
+Hazeldean."
+
+SQUIRE.--"What! Rickeybockey?"
+
+MRS. DALE, attempting the pure Italian accentuation.--"Signor
+Riccabocca."
+
+PARSON, slapping his cards on the table in despair: "Are we playing at
+whist, or are we not?"
+
+The Squire, who is fourth player drops the king to Captain
+Higginbotham's lead of the ace of hearts. Now the Captain has left
+queen, knave, and two other hearts--four trumps to the queen and nothing
+to win a trick with in the two other suits. This hand is therefore
+precisely one of those in which, especially after the fall of that king
+of hearts in the adversary's hand, it becomes a matter of reasonable
+doubt whether to lead trumps or not. The Captain hesitates, and not
+liking to play out his good hearts with the certainty of their being
+trumped by the Squire, nor, on the other hand, liking to open the other
+suits in which he has not a card that can assist his partner, resolves,
+as becomes a military man, in such a dilemma, to make a bold push and
+lead out trumps, in the chance of finding his partner strong, and so
+bringing in his long suit.
+
+SQUIRE, taking advantage of the much meditating pause made
+by the Captain.--"Mrs. Dale, it is not my fault. I have asked
+Rickeybockey--time out of mind. But I suppose I am not fine enough for
+those foreign chaps--he won't come--that's all I know!"
+
+PARSON, aghast at seeing the Captain play out trumps, of which he, Mr.
+Dale, has only two, wherewith he expects to ruff the suit of spades of
+which he has only one (the cards all falling in suits) while he has not
+a single other chance of a trick in his hand: "Really, Squire, we had
+better give up playing if you put out my partner in this extraordinary
+way--jabber--jabber--jabber!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"Well, we must be good children, Harry. What!--trumps, Barney?
+Thank ye for that!" And the Squire might well be grateful, for the
+unfortunate adversary has led up to ace, king, knave--with two other
+trumps. Squire takes the Parson's ten with his knave, and plays out ace,
+king; then, having cleared all the trumps except the Captain's queen and
+his own remaining two, leads off tierce major in that very suit of
+spades of which the Parson has only one--and the Captain, indeed, but
+two--forces out the Captain's queen, and wins the game in a canter.
+
+PARSON, with a look at the Captain which might have become the awful
+brows of Jove, when about to thunder: "That, I suppose, is the new
+fashioned London play! In my time the rule was 'First save the game,
+then try to win it.'"
+
+CAPTAIN.--"Could not save it, sir."
+
+PARSON, exploding.--"Not save it!--two ruffs in my own hand--two tricks
+certain till you took them out! Monstrous! The rashest trump."--Seizes
+the cards--spreads them on the table, lip quivering, hands
+trembling--tries to show how five tricks could have been gained--(N.B.
+it is _short_ whist, which Captain Barnabas had introduced at the Hall)
+can't make out more than four--Captain smiles triumphantly--Parson in a
+passion, and not at all convinced, mixes all the cards together again,
+and falling back in his chair, groans, with tears in his voice: "The
+cruelest trump! the most wanton cruelty!"
+
+The Hazeldeans in chorus. "Ho--ho--ho! Ha--ha--ha!"
+
+The Captain, who does not laugh this time, and whose turn it is to deal,
+shuffles the cards for the conquering game of the rubber with as much
+caution and prolixity as Fabius might have employed in posting his men.
+The Squire gets up to stretch his legs, and the insinuation against his
+hospitality recurring to his thoughts, calls out to his wife--"Write to
+Rickeybockey to-morrow yourself, Harry, and ask him to come and spend
+two or three days here. There, Mrs Dale, you hear me?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Dale, putting her hands to her ears in implied rebuke
+at the loudness of the Squire's tone. "My dear sir, do remember that I'm
+a sad nervous creature."
+
+"Beg pardon," muttered Mr. Hazeldean, turning to his son, who, having
+got tired of the caricatures, had fished out for himself the great folio
+County History, which was the only book in the library that the Squire
+much valued, and which he usually kept under lock and key, in his study,
+together with the field-books and steward's accounts, but which he had
+reluctantly taken into the drawing-room that day, in order to oblige
+Captain Higginbotham. For the Higginbothams--an old Saxon family, as the
+name evidently denotes--had once possessed lands in that very county.
+And the Captain--during his visits to Hazeldean Hall--was regularly in
+the habit of asking to look into the County History, for the purpose of
+refreshing his eyes, and renovating his sense of ancestral dignity with
+the following paragraph therein: "To the left of the village of Dunder,
+and pleasantly situated in a hollow, lies Botham Hall, the residence of
+the ancient family of Higginbotham, as it is now commonly called. Yet it
+appears by the county rolls, and sundry old deeds, that the family
+formerly styled itself Higges, till, the Manor House lying in Botham,
+they gradually assumed the appellation of Higges-in-botham, and in
+process of time, yielding to the corruptions of the vulgar,
+Higginbotham."
+
+"What, Frank! my County History!" cried the Squire. "Mrs. H., he has got
+my County History!"
+
+"Well, Hazeldean, it is time he should know something about the County."
+
+"Ay, and History too," said Mrs. Dale, malevolently--for the little
+temper was by no means blown over.
+
+FRANK.--"I'll not hurt it, I assure you, sir. But I'm very much
+interested just at present."
+
+The CAPTAIN, putting down the cards to cut.--"You've got hold of that
+passage about Botham Hall, page 706, eh?"
+
+FRANK.--"No; I was trying to make out how far it is to Mr. Leslie's
+place, Rood Hall. Do you know, mother?"
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN.--"I can't say I do. The Leslies don't mix with the
+county; and Rood lies very much out of the way."
+
+FRANK.--"Why don't they mix with the county?"
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN.--"I believe they are poor, and therefore I suppose they
+are proud: they are an old family."
+
+PARSON, thrumming on the table with great impatience: "Old
+fiddledee!--talking of old families when the cards have been shuffled
+this half hour."
+
+CAPTAIN BARNABAS.--"Will you cut for your partner, ma'am?"
+
+SQUIRE, who has been listening to Frank's inquiries with a musing air:
+"Why do you want to know the distance to Rood Hall?"
+
+FRANK, rather hesitatingly.--"Because Randal Leslie is there for the
+holidays, sir."
+
+PARSON.--"Your wife has cut for you, Mr. Hazeldean. I don't think it was
+quite fair; and my partner has turned up a deuce--deuce of hearts.
+Please to come and play, if you _mean_ to play."
+
+The Squire returns to the table, and in a few minutes the game is
+decided, by a dexterous finesse of the Captain, against the Hazeldeans.
+The clock strikes ten: the servants enter with a tray; the Squire counts
+up his and his wife's losings; and the Captain and Parson divide sixteen
+shillings between them.
+
+SQUIRE.--"There, Parson, I hope now you'll be in a better humor. You win
+enough out of us to set up a coach and four."
+
+"Tut," muttered the parson; "at the end of the year, I'm not a penny the
+richer for it all."
+
+And, indeed, monstrous as that assertion seemed, it was perfectly true,
+for the Parson portioned out his gains into three divisions. One-third
+he gave to Mrs. Dale, for her own special pocket-money; what became of
+the second third he never owned, even to his better half--but certain it
+was, that every time the Parson won seven-and-sixpence, half-a-crown
+which nobody could account for found its way to the poor-box; while the
+remaining third, the Parson, it is true, openly and avowedly retained:
+but I have no manner of doubt that, at the year's end, it got to the
+poor quite as safely as if it had been put into the box.
+
+The party had now gathered round the tray, and were helping themselves
+to wine and water, or wine without water--except Frank, who still
+remained poring over the map in the County History, with his head
+leaning on his hands, and his fingers plunged in his hair.
+
+"Frank," said Mrs. Hazeldean, "I never saw you so studious before."
+
+Frank started up, and colored, as if ashamed of being accused of too
+much study in any thing.
+
+The SQUIRE, with a little embarrassment in his voice: "Pray, Frank, what
+do you know of Randal Leslie?"
+
+"Why, sir, he is at Eton."
+
+"What sort of a boy is he?" asked Mrs. Hazeldean.
+
+Frank hesitated, as if reflecting, and then answered: "They say he is
+the cleverest boy in the school. But then he saps."
+
+"In other words," said Mr. Dale with proper parsonic gravity, "he
+understands that he was sent to school to learn his lessons, and he
+learns them. You call that sapping--I call it doing his duty. But pray,
+who and what is this Randal Leslie, that you look so discomposed,
+Squire?"
+
+"Who and what is he?" repeated the Squire, in a low growl. "Why, you
+know, Mr. Audley Egerton married Miss Leslie the great heiress, and this
+boy is a relation of hers. I may say," added the Squire, "that he is as
+near a relation of mine, for his grandmother was a Hazeldean. But all I
+know about the Leslies is, that Mr. Egerton, as I am told, having no
+children of his own, took up young Randal, (when his wife died, poor
+woman), pays for his schooling, and has, I suppose, adopted the boy as
+his heir. Quite welcome. Frank and I want nothing from Mr. Audley
+Egerton, thank heaven."
+
+"I can well believe in your brother's generosity to his wife's kindred,"
+said the Parson, sturdily, "for I am sure Mr. Egerton is a man of strong
+feeling."
+
+"What the deuce do you know about Mr. Egerton? I don't suppose you could
+ever have even spoken to him."
+
+"Yes," said the Parson, coloring up and looking confused, "I had some
+conversation with him once;" and observing the Squire's surprise, he
+added--"when I was curate at Lansmere--and about a painful business
+connected with the family of one of my parishioners."
+
+"Oh! one of your parishioners at Lansmere--one of the constituents Mr.
+Audley Egerton threw over, after all the pains I had taken to give him
+his seat. Rather odd you should never have mentioned this before, Mr.
+Dale!"
+
+"My dear sir," said the Parson, sinking his voice, and in a mild tone of
+conciliatory expostulation, "you are so irritable whenever Mr. Egerton's
+name is mentioned at all."
+
+"Irritable!" exclaimed the Squire, whose wrath had been long simmering,
+and now fairly boiled over. "Irritable, sir! I should think so; a man
+for whom I stood godfather at the hustings, Mr. Dale! a man for whose
+sake I was called a 'prize ox,' Mr. Dale! a man for whom I was hissed in
+a market-place, Mr. Dale! a man for whom I was shot at, in cold blood,
+by an officer in his Majesty's service, who lodged a ball in my right
+shoulder, Mr. Dale! a man who had the ingratitude, after all this, to
+turn his back on the landed interest--to deny that there was any
+agricultural distress in a year which broke three of the best farmers I
+ever had, Mr. Dale!--a man, sir, who made a speech on the Currency which
+was complimented by Ricardo, a Jew! Good heavens! a pretty parson you
+are, to stand up for a fellow complimented by a Jew! Nice ideas you must
+have of Christianity. Irritable, sir!" now fairly roared the Squire,
+adding to the thunder of his voice the cloud of a brow, which evinced a
+menacing ferocity that might have done honor to Bussy D'Amboise or
+Fighting Fitzgerald. "Sir, if that man had not been my own half-brother,
+I'd have called him out. I have stood my ground before now. I have had a
+ball in my right shoulder. Sir, I'd have called him out."
+
+"Mr. Hazeldean! Mr. Hazeldean! I'm shocked at you," cried the Parson;
+and, putting his lips close to the Squire's ear, he went on in a
+whisper: "What an example to your son! You'll have him fighting duels
+one of these days, and nobody to blame but yourself."
+
+This warning cooled Mr. Hazeldean; and muttering, "Why the deuce did you
+set me off?" he fell back into his chair, and began to fan himself with
+his pocket-handkerchief.
+
+The Parson skillfully and remorselessly pursued the advantage he had
+gained. "And now, that you may have it in your power, to show civility
+and kindness to a boy whom Mr. Egerton has taken up, out of respect to
+his wife's memory--a kinsman you say of your own--and who has never
+offended you--a boy whose diligence in his studies proves him to be an
+excellent companion to your son. Frank," (here the Parson raised his
+voice), "I suppose you wanted to call on young Leslie, as you were
+studying the county map so attentively?"
+
+"Why, yes," answered Frank, rather timidly. "If my father did not object
+to it. Leslie has been very kind to me, though he is in the sixth form,
+and, indeed, almost the head of the school."
+
+"Ah," said Mrs. Hazeldean, "one studious boy has a fellow-feeling for
+another; and though you enjoy your holidays, Frank, I am sure you read
+hard at school."
+
+Mrs. Dale opened her eyes very wide, and stared in astonishment.
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN retorted that look with great animation. "Yes, Carry,"
+said she, tossing her head, "though _you_ may not think Frank clever,
+his master finds him so. He got a prize last half. That beautiful book,
+Frank--hold up your head, my love--what did you get it for?"
+
+FRANK, reluctantly.--"Verses, ma'am."
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN, with triumph.--"Verses!--there, Carry, verses!"
+
+FRANK, in a hurried tone.--"Yes, but Leslie wrote them for me."
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN, recoiling.--"O Frank! a prize for what another did for
+you--that was mean."
+
+FRANK, ingenuously.--"You can't be more ashamed, mother, than I was when
+they gave me the prize."
+
+MRS. DALE, though previously provoked at being snubbed by Harry, now
+showing the triumph of generosity over temper: "I beg your pardon,
+Frank. Your mother must be as proud of that shame as she was of the
+prize."
+
+Mrs. Hazeldean puts her arm round Frank's neck, smiles beamingly on Mrs.
+Dale, and converses with her son in a low tone about Randal Leslie. Miss
+Jemima now approached Carry, and said in an "aside,"--"But we are
+forgetting poor Mr. Riccabocca. Mrs. Hazeldean, though the dearest
+creature in the world, has such a blunt way of inviting people--don't
+you think if you were to say a word to him, Carry?"
+
+MRS. DALE kindly, as she wraps her shawl round her: "Suppose you write
+the note yourself. Meanwhile I shall see him, no doubt."
+
+PARSON, putting his hand on the Squire's shoulder: "You forgive my
+impertinence, my kind friend. We parsons, you know, are apt to take
+strange liberties, when we honor and love folks, as I do you."
+
+"Pish!" said the Squire, but his hearty smile came to his lips in spite
+of himself: "You always get your own way, and I suppose Frank must ride
+over and see this pet of my--"
+
+"_Brother's_," quoth the Parson, concluding the sentence in a tone which
+gave to the sweet word so sweet a sound that the Squire would not
+correct the Parson, as he had been about to correct himself.
+
+Mr. Dale moved on; but as he passed Captain Barnabas, the benignant
+character of his countenance changed sadly.
+
+"The cruelest trump, Captain Higginbotham!" said he sternly, and stalked
+by--majestic.
+
+The night was so fine that the Parson and his wife, as they walked home,
+made a little _detour_ through the shrubbery.
+
+MRS. DALE.--"I think I have done a good piece of work to-night."
+
+PARSON, rousing himself from a reverie.--"Have you, Carry?--it will be a
+very pretty handkerchief."
+
+MRS. DALE.--"Handkerchief--nonsense, dear. Don't you think it would be a
+very happy thing for both, if Jemima and Signor Riccabocca could be
+brought together?"
+
+PARSON.--"Brought together!"
+
+MRS. DALE.--"You do snap one up so, my dear--I mean if I could make a
+match of it."
+
+PARSON.--"I think Riccabocca is a match already, not only for Jemima,
+but yourself into the bargain."
+
+MRS. DALE, smiling loftily.--"Well, we shall see. Was not Jemima's
+fortune about £4000?"
+
+PARSON dreamily, for he is relapsing fast into his interrupted reverie:
+"Ay--ay--I daresay."
+
+MRS. DALE.--"And she must have saved! I dare say it is nearly £6000 by
+this time; eh! Charles dear, you really are so--good gracious, what's
+that!"
+
+As Mrs. Dale made this exclamation they had just emerged from the
+shrubbery, into the village green.
+
+PARSON.--"What's what?"
+
+MRS. DALE, pinching her husband's arm very nippingly.--"That
+thing--there--there."
+
+PARSON.--"Only the new stocks, Carry; I don't wonder they frighten you,
+for you are a very sensible woman. I only wish they would frighten the
+Squire."
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     _Supposed to be a Letter from Mrs. Hazeldean to ---- Riccabocca,
+     Esq., The Casino; but edited, and indeed composed, by Miss Jemima
+     Hazeldean._
+
+"DEAR SIR--To a feeling heart it must always be painful to give pain to
+another, and (though I am sure unconsciously) you have given the
+_greatest_ pain to poor Mr. Hazeldean and myself, indeed to _all_ our
+little circle, in so cruelly refusing our attempts to become better
+acquainted with a gentleman we so highly ESTEEM. Do, pray, dear sir,
+make us the _amende honorable_, and give us the _pleasure_ of your
+company for a few days at the Hall! May we expect you Saturday
+next?--our dinner-hour is six o'clock.
+
+"With the best compliments of Mr. and Miss Jemima Hazeldean.
+
+"Believe me, my dear sir, yours truly,
+
+                                                                 "H.H.
+"_Hazeldean Hall._"
+
+Miss Jemima having carefully sealed this note, which Mrs. Hazeldean had
+very willingly deputed her to write, took it herself into the
+stable-yard, in order to give the groom proper instructions to wait for
+an answer. But while she was speaking to the man, Frank, equipped for
+riding with more than his usual dandyism, came also into the yard,
+calling for his pony in a loud voice, and singling out the very groom
+whom Miss Jemima was addressing--for, indeed, he was the smartest of all
+in the Squire's stables--told him to saddle the gray pad, and accompany
+the pony.
+
+"No, Frank," said Miss Jemima, "you can't have George; your father wants
+him to go on a message--you can take Mat."
+
+"Mat, indeed!" said Frank, grumbling with some reason; for Mat was a
+surly old fellow, who tied a most indefensible neckcloth, and always
+contrived to have a great patch in his boots; besides, he called Frank
+"Master," and obstinately refused to trot down hill; "Mat, indeed!--let
+Mat take the message, and George go with me."
+
+But Miss Jemima had also her reasons for rejecting Mat. Mat's foible was
+not servility, and he always showed true English independence in all
+houses where he was not invited to take his ale in the servants' hall.
+Mat might offend Signor Riccabocca, and spoil all. An animated
+altercation ensued, in the midst of which the Squire and his wife
+entered the yard, with the intention of driving in the conjugal gig to
+the market town. The matter was referred to the natural umpire by both
+the contending parties.
+
+The Squire looked with great contempt on his son. "And what do you want
+a groom at all for? Are you afraid of tumbling off the pony?"
+
+FRANK.--"No, sir; but I like to go as a gentleman, when I pay a visit to
+a gentleman!"
+
+SQUIRE, in high wrath.--"You precious puppy! I think I'm as good a
+gentleman as you, any day, and I should like to know when you ever saw
+me ride to call on a neighbor, with a fellow jingling at my heels, like
+that upstart Ned Spankie, whose father kept a cotton-mill. First time I
+ever heard of a Hazeldean thinking a livery-coat was necessary to prove
+his gentility!"
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN, observing Frank coloring, and about to reply.--"Hush,
+Frank, never answer your father--and you are going to call on Mr.
+Leslie?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, and I am very much obliged to my father for letting me,"
+said Frank, taking the Squire's hand.
+
+"Well, but, Frank," continued Mrs. Hazeldean, "I think you heard that
+the Leslies were very poor."
+
+FRANK.--"Eh, mother?"
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN.--"And would you run the chance of wounding the pride of
+a gentleman, as well born as yourself, by affecting any show of being
+richer than he is?"
+
+SQUIRE, with great admiration.--"Harry, I'd give £10 to have said that!"
+
+FRANK, leaving the Squire's hand to take his mother's.--"You're quite
+right, mother--nothing could be more _snobbish_!"
+
+SQUIRE.--"Give us your fist too, sir; you'll be a chip of the old block,
+after all."
+
+Frank smiled, and walked off to his pony.
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN to Miss Jemima.--"Is that the note you were to write for
+me?"
+
+MISS JEMIMA.--"Yes, I supposed you did not care about seeing it, so I
+have sealed it and given it to George."
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN.--"But Frank will pass close by the Casino on his way to
+the Leslies'. It may be more civil if he leaves the note himself."
+
+MISS JEMIMA, hesitatingly.--"Do you think so?"
+
+MRS. HAZELDEAN.--"Yes, certainly. Frank--Frank--as you pass by the
+Casino, call on Mr. Riccabocca, give this note, and say we shall be
+heartily glad if he will come."
+
+Frank nods.
+
+"Stop a bit," cried the Squire. "If Rickeybockey's at home, 'tis ten to
+one if he don't ask you to take a glass of wine! If he does, mind, 'tis
+worse than asking you to take a turn on the rack. Faugh! you remember,
+Harry?--I thought it was all up with me."
+
+"Yes," cried Mrs. Hazeldean, "for Heaven's sake, not a drop! Wine
+indeed!"
+
+"Don't talk of it," cried the Squire, making a wry face.
+
+"I'll take care, sir!" said Frank, laughing as he disappeared within the
+stable, followed by Miss Jemima, who now coaxingly makes it up with him,
+and does not leave off her admonitions to be extremely polite to the
+poor foreign gentleman, till Frank gets his foot into the stirrup; and
+the pony, who knows who he has got to deal with, gives a preparatory
+plunge or two and then darts out of the yard.
+
+_To be continued._
+
+
+
+
+[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
+
+THE EVERY-DAY MARRIED LADY.
+
+
+It might be supposed that the every-day married lady was formerly the
+every-day young lady, and has now merely changed her condition. But this
+is not the case, for nothing is more common than to see the most holiday
+spinsters settle down into the most working-day matrons. The married
+lady, in fact, of the species we would describe, has no descent in
+particular. If you can imagine a pupa coming into the world of itself
+without any connection with the larva, or an imago unconscious of the
+pupa, that is the every-day married lady. She is born at the altar,
+conjured into life by the ceremonial, and having utterly lost her
+individual existence, becomes from that moment a noun of multitude.
+People may say, "Oh, this is our old acquaintance, Miss Smith!" but that
+is only calling names, for the identity is gone. If she is any thing at
+all but what appertains to the present, she is the late Miss Smith, who
+has survived herself, and changed into a family.
+
+We would insist upon this peculiarity of the every-day married
+lady--that her existence is collective. Her very language is in the
+plural number--such as we, ours, and us. She respects the rights of
+paternity so much, as never to permit herself to talk of her children as
+peculiarly her own. Her individuality being merged in her husband and
+their actual or possible offspring, she has no private thoughts, no
+wishes, no hopes, no fears but for the concern. And this is all the
+better for her tranquillity: for although a part of her husband, she
+does not quite fancy that he is a part of her. She leaves at least the
+business to his management, and if she does advise and suggest on
+occasions, she thinks that somehow things will come out very well. She
+feels that she is only a passenger; and although, as such, she may
+recommend the skipper to shorten sail when weathering a critical point,
+or, for the sake of safety, to come to anchor in the middle of the sea,
+she has still a certain faith in his skill or luck, and sleeps quietly
+in the storm. For this reason the every day married lady is comfortable
+in the figure, and has usually good round features of her own. The Miss
+Smith she has survived had a slender waist and small delicate hands; but
+this lady is a very tolerable armful, and the wedding-ring makes such a
+hollow on her finger, that one might think it would be difficult to get
+off.
+
+The every-day married lady is commonly reported to be selfish; but this
+is a mistake. At least her selfishness embraces the whole family circle:
+it has no personality. When the wife of a poor man, she will sit up half
+the night sewing and darning, but not a stitch for herself: that can be
+done at any time; but the boys must go comfortably to school, and the
+girls look genteel on the street, and the husband--to think of Mr. Brown
+wanting a button on his shirt! She looks selfish, because her eye is
+always on her own, and because she talks of what she is always thinking
+about; but how can one be selfish who is perpetually postponing herself,
+who dresses the plainest, eats the coarsest, and sleeps the least of the
+family? She never puts herself forward in company unless her young
+ladies want backing; but yet she never feels herself overlooked, for
+every word, every glance bestowed upon them, is communicated
+electrically to her. She is, indeed, in such perfect _rapport_ with the
+concern, that it is no uncommon thing for her to go home chuckling with
+amusement, overpowered with delight, from a party at which she had not
+once opened her lips. This is the party which she pronounces to have
+"gone off" well. Half-observant people fancy that the calculation is
+made on the score of the jellies and ice, and singing and dancing, and
+so on, and influenced by a secret comparison with her own achievements;
+but she has more depth than they imagine, and finer sympathies--they
+don't understand her.
+
+Not that the every-day married lady is unsocial--not at all: all
+comfortable people are social; but she is partial to her own class, and
+does not care to carry her confidences out of it. She has several
+intimate friends whom she is fond of meeting; but besides that, she is a
+sort of freemason in her way, and finds out every-day people by the word
+and sign. Rank has very little to do with this society, as you will find
+if you observed her sitting at a cottage door, where, in purchasing a
+draught of milk, she has recognized a sister. If these two every-day
+married women had been rocked in the same cradle, they could not talk
+more intimately; and, indeed, they have heavy matters to talk about, for
+of all the babies that ever came into this breathing world, theirs were
+the most extraordinary babies. The miracle is, that any of them are
+extant after such outrageous measles, and scarlet fevers, and
+chicken-poxes--prophesied of, so to speak, even before their birth, by
+memorabilia that might have alarmed Dr. Simson. The interlocutors part
+very well pleased with each other: the cottager proud to find that she
+has so much in common with a real lady, and the lady pronouncing the
+reflection of herself she had met with to be a most sensible individual.
+
+Although careless in this instance of the circumstance of rank, the
+every-day married lady has but little sympathy with the class of
+domestic servants. She looks upon her servants, in fact, as in some sort
+her natural enemies, and her life may therefore be said to be passed at
+the best in a state of armed neutrality. She commonly proceeds on the
+allowance system; and this is the best way, as it prevents so many
+sickening apprehensions touching that leg of mutton. Indeed the appetite
+of servants is a constant puzzle to her: she can not make it out. She
+has a sharp eye, too, upon the policeman, and wonders what on earth he
+always looks down her area for. As for followers, that is quite out of
+the question. Servants stay long enough upon their errands to talk to
+all the men and women in the parish; and the idea of having an
+acquaintance now and then besides--more especially of the male
+sex--tramping into the kitchen to see them, is wildly unnatural. She
+tells of a sailor whom she once detected sitting in the coolest possible
+manner by the fireside. When she appeared, the man rose up and
+bowed--and then sat down again. Think of that! The artful girl said he
+was her brother!--and here all the every-day married ladies in the
+company laugh bitterly. Since that time she has been haunted by a
+sailor, and smells tar in all sorts of places.
+
+If she ever has a passable servant, whom she is able to keep for a
+reasonable number of years, she gets gradually attached to her, and pets
+and coddles her. Betty is a standing testimony to her nice
+discrimination, and a perpetual premium on her successful rearing of
+servants. But alas! the end of it all is, that the respectable creature
+gets married to the green grocer, and leaves her indulgent mistress: a
+striking proof of the heartlessness and ingratitude of the whole tribe!
+If it is not marriage, however, that calls her away, but bad health; if
+she goes home unwell, or is carried to the infirmary--what then? Why,
+then, we are sorry to say, she passes utterly away from the observation
+and memory of the every-day married lady. This may be reckoned a bad
+trait in her character; and yet it is in some degree allied to the great
+virtue of her life. Servants are the evil principle in her household,
+which it is her business to combat and hold in obedience. A very large
+proportion of her time is spent in this virtuous warfare; and success on
+her part ought to be considered deserving of the gratitude of the
+vanquished, without imposing burdens upon the victor.
+
+The every-day married lady is the inventor of a thing which few foreign
+nations have as yet adopted either in their houses or languages. This
+thing is Comfort. The word can not well be defined, the items that enter
+into its composition being so numerous, that a description would read
+like a catalogue. We all understand, however, what it means, although
+few of us are sensible of the source of the enjoyment. A widower has
+very little comfort, and a bachelor none at all; while a married
+man--provided his wife be an every-day married lady--enjoys it in
+perfection. But he enjoys it unconsciously, and therefore ungratefully:
+it is a thing of course--a necessary, a right, of the want of which he
+complains without being distinctly sensible of its presence. Even when
+it acquires sufficient intensity to arrest his attention, when his
+features and his heart soften, and he looks round with a half smile on
+his face, and says, "This is comfort!" it never occurs to him to inquire
+where it all comes from. His every-day wife is sitting quietly in the
+corner: it was not she who lighted the fire, or dressed the dinner, or
+drew the curtains, and it never occurs to him to think that all these,
+and a hundred other circumstances of the moment, owe their virtue to her
+spiriting, and that the comfort which enriches the atmosphere, which
+sparkles in the embers, which broods in the shadowy parts of the room,
+which glows in his own full heart, emanates from her, and encircles her
+like an aureola. We have suggested, on a former occasion, that our
+conventional notions of the sex, in its gentle, modest, and retiring
+characteristics, are derived from the every-day young lady; and in like
+manner we venture to opine that the every-day married lady is _the_
+English wife of foreigners and moralists. Thus she is a national
+character, and a personage of history; and yet there she sits all the
+while in that corner, knitting something or other, and thinking to
+herself that she had surely smelt a puff of tar as she was passing the
+pantry.
+
+The curious thing is, that the dispenser of comfort can do with a very
+small share of it herself. When her husband does not dine at home, it is
+surprising what odds and ends are sufficient to make up the dinner.
+Perhaps the best part of it is a large slice of bread-and-butter; for it
+is wasting the servants' time to make them cook when there is _nobody_
+to be at the table. But she makes up for this at tea: that _is_ a
+comfortable meal for the every-day married lady. The husband, a
+matter-of-fact, impassive fellow, swallows down his two or three cups in
+utter unconsciousness of the poetry of the occasion; while the wife
+pauses on every sip, drinks in the aroma as well as the infusion, fills
+slowly and lingeringly out, and creams and sugars as if her hands
+dallied over a labor of love. With her daughters, in the mean time,
+grown up, or even half-grown up, she exchanges words and looks of
+motherly and masonic intelligence: she is moulding them to comfort,
+initiating them in every-dayism; and as their heads bend companionably
+toward each other, you see at a glance that the girls will do honor to
+their breeding. The husband calls this "dawdling," and already begins to
+fret. Let him: he knows nothing about it.
+
+It is surprising the affection of the daughters for their every-day
+mother. Not that the sentiment is steady and uniform in its expression,
+for sometimes one might suppose mamma to be forgotten, or at least
+considered only as a daily necessary not requiring any special notice.
+But wait till a grief comes, and mark to what bosom the panting girl
+flies for refuge and comfort; see with what _abandon_ she flings her
+arms round that maternal neck, and with what a passionate burst the
+hitherto repressed tears gush forth. This is something more than habit,
+something more than filial trust. There are more senses than five in
+human nature--or seven either: there is a fine and subtle link between
+these two beings--a common atmosphere of thought and feeling, impalpable
+and imperceptible, yet necessary to the souls of both. If you doubt
+it--if you doubt that there is a moral attraction in the every-day
+married lady, irrespective of blood-affinity, carry your view forward to
+another generation, and interrogate those witnesses who are never
+mistaken in character, and who never give false testimony--little
+children. They dote on their every-day grandmamma. Their natures, not
+yet seared and hardened by the world, understand hers; and with
+something of the fresh perfume of Eden about them still, they recognize
+instinctively those blessed souls to whom God has given to love little
+children.
+
+This is farther shown when the every-day married lady dies. What is
+there in the character we have drawn to account for the shock the whole
+family receives? The husband feels as if a thunder-cloud had fallen, and
+gathered, and blackened upon his heart, through which he could never
+again see the sun. The grown-up children, especially the females, are
+distracted; "their purposes are broken off;" they desire to have nothing
+more to do with the world: they lament as those who will not be
+comforted. Even common acquaintances look round them, when they enter
+the house, with uneasiness and anxiety--
+
+    "We miss her when the morning calls,
+      As one that mingled in our mirth:
+    We miss her when the evening falls--
+      A trifle wanted on the earth!
+
+    "Some fancy small, or subtle thought,
+      Is checked ere to its blossom grown;
+    Some chain is broken that we wrought,
+      Now--she hath flown!"
+
+And so she passes away--this every-day married lady--leaving memorials
+of her commonplace existence every where throughout the circle in which
+she lived, moved, and had her being, and after having stamped herself
+permanently upon the constitution, both moral and physical, of her
+descendants.
+
+
+
+
+ANECDOTE OF A SINGER.
+
+
+Signora Grassini, the great Italian singer, died a few months since at
+Milan. She was distinguished not only for her musical talents, but also
+for her beauty and powers of theatrical expression. One evening in 1810,
+she and Signor Crescentini performed together at the Tuileries, and sang
+in "Romeo and Juliet." At the admirable scene in the third act, the
+Emperor Napoleon applauded vociferously, and Talma, the great tragedian,
+who was among the audience, wept with emotion. After the performance was
+ended, the Emperor conferred the decoration of a high order on
+Crescentini, and sent Grassini a scrap of paper, on which was written,
+"Good for 20,000 livres.--NAPOLEON."
+
+"Twenty thousand francs!" said one of her friends--"the sum is a large
+one."
+
+"It will serve as a dowry for one of my little nieces," replied Grassini
+quietly.
+
+Indeed few persons were ever more generous, tender, and considerate
+toward their family than this great singer.
+
+Many years afterward, when the Empire had crumbled into dust, carrying
+with it in its fall, among other things, the rich pension of Signora
+Grassini, she happened to be at Bologna. There another of her nieces was
+for the first time presented to her, with a request that she would do
+something for her young relative. The little girl was extremely pretty,
+but not, her friends thought, fitted for the stage, as her voice was a
+feeble contralto. Her aunt asked her to sing; and when the timid voice
+had sounded a few notes, "Dear child," said Grassini, embracing her,
+"you will not want _me_ to assist you. Those who called your voice a
+contralto were ignorant of music. You have one of the finest sopranos in
+the world, and will far excel me as a singer. Take courage, and work
+hard, my love: your throat will win a shower of gold." The young girl
+did not disappoint her aunt's prediction. She still lives, and her name
+is Giulia Grisi.
+
+
+
+
+[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
+
+WHEN THE SUMMER COMES.
+
+
+I once knew a little boy, a little child of three years old; one of
+those bright creatures whose fair loveliness seems more of heaven than
+of earth--even at a passing glimpse stirring our hearts, and filling
+them with purer and holier thought. But this, the little Francie, was
+more of a cherub than an angel,--as we picture them--with his gladsome
+hazel eyes, his dazzling fairness, his clustering golden hair, and his
+almost winged step. Such he was, at least, until sickness laid its heavy
+hand on him; then, indeed, when, after days of burning, wasting
+fever--hours of weary restlessness--the little hand at last lay
+motionless outside the scarcely whiter coverlet of his tiny bed, the
+fair, still head, pressed down upon the pillow, and the pale face gazing
+with the silent wonder of returning consciousness on the anxious ones
+around it; then, indeed, a bright yet pitying look would flit across it,
+or dwell in the earnest eyes--a look such as we assign to angels in our
+dreams, when some fond fancy seems to bring them near us, weeping for
+mortal griefs beyond their remedy.
+
+It was a strange sickness for one so young--the struggle of typhus fever
+with a baby frame; but life and youth obtained the victory; and quicker
+even than hope could venture to expect, the pulses rallied, the cheeks
+grew round and rosy, and the little wasted limbs filled up again. Health
+was restored--health, but not strength: we thought this for a while. We
+did not wonder that the weakened limbs refused their office, and still
+we waited on in hope, until days, and even weeks, passed by: then it was
+found that the complaint had left its bitter sting, and little Francie
+could not walk a step, or even stand.
+
+Many and tedious and painful were the remedies resorted to; yet the
+brave little heart bore stoutly up, with that wonderful fortitude,
+almost heroism, which all who have watched by suffering childhood, when
+the tractable spirit bends to its early discipline, must at some time or
+other have remarked. Francie's fortitude might have afforded an example
+to many; but a dearer lesson was given in the hopeful spirit with which
+the little fellow himself noted the effect of each distressing remedy,
+marking each stage of progress, and showing off with eager gladness
+every step attained, from the first creeping on the hands and knees, to
+the tiptoe journey round the room, holding on by chairs and tables; then
+to the clinging to some loving hand; and then, at last, the graceful
+balancing of his light body, until he stood quite erect alone, and so
+moved slowly on.
+
+It was in autumn this illness seized on the little one, just when the
+leaves were turning, and the orchard fruits becoming ripe. His nurse
+attributed it all to his sitting on a grassy bank at play on one of
+those uncertain autumn days; but he, in his childish way, always
+maintained "It was Francie himself--eating red berries in the holly
+bower." However this may have been, the season and the time seemed
+indelibly impressed upon his mind. In all his long confinement to the
+house, his thoughts continually turned to outward objects, to the
+external face of nature and the season's change, and evermore his little
+word of hope was this, "When the _summer_ comes!"
+
+He kept it up throughout the long winter, and the bleak cold spring. A
+fairy little carriage had been provided for him, in which, well wrapped
+up from the cold, and resting on soft cushions, he was lightly drawn
+along by a servant, to his own great delight, and the admiration of many
+a young beholder. But when any one--attempting to reconcile him the
+better to his position--expatiated on the beauty or comfort of his new
+acquisition, his eager look and word would show how far he went beyond
+it, as, quickly interrupting, he would exclaim, "Wait till the summer
+comes--then Francie will walk again!"
+
+During the winter there was a fearful storm, it shook the windows,
+moaned in the old trees, and howled down the chimneys with a most
+menacing voice. Older hearts than Francie's quailed that night, and he,
+unable to sleep, lay listening to it all--quiet, but asking many a
+question, as his excited fancy formed similitudes to the sounds. One
+time it was poor little children cruelly turned out, and wailing; then
+something trilling, with its last hoarse cry; then wolves and bears,
+from far-off other lands. But all the while Francie knew he was snug and
+safe himself: no fears disturbed him, whatever the noise may have done.
+Throughout the whole of it he carried his one steadfast hope, and, in
+the morning telling of it all, with all his marvelous thoughts, he
+finished his relation with the never-failing word of comfort, "Ah! there
+shall be no loud wind, no waking nights, when once the summer comes!"
+
+The summer came with its glad birds and flowers, its balmy air; and who
+can paint the exquisite delight of the suffering child that had waited
+for it so long? Living almost continually in the open air he seemed to
+expect fresh health and strength from each reviving breath he drew, and
+every day would deem himself capable of some greater effort, as if to
+prove that his expectation had not been in vain.
+
+One lovely day he and his little playfellows were in a group amusing
+themselves in part of the garden, when some friends passed through.
+Francie, longing to show how much he could do, entreated hard to be
+taken with them "along the walk, just to the holly bower." His request
+was granted, and on he did walk; quick at first, then slowly slower: but
+still upheld by his strong faith in the summer's genial influence, he
+would not rest in any of the offered arms, though the fitful color went
+and came, and the pauses grew more and more frequent. No, with a heavy
+sigh he admitted, "'Tis a very, very long walk _now_; but Francie must
+not be tired: sure the summer is come." And so, determined not to admit
+fatigue in the face of the season's bright proofs around him, he
+succeeded in accomplishing his little task at last.
+
+Thus the summer passed away, and again came the changing autumn, acting
+on poor little Francie to a degree he had never reckoned on, and with
+its chill, damp airs, nearly throwing him back again. With a greater
+effort even than before, he had again tried the walk to the holly bower,
+the scene of his self-accusing misdemeanor as the cause of all his
+sufferings. He sat down to rest; above his head, as the autumnal breeze
+swept through them, "the polished leaves and berries red did rustling
+play;" and as little Francie looked upward toward them, a memory of the
+former year, and of all the time that had passed since then, seemed for
+the first time mournfully to steal over his heart. He nestled in closer
+to his mother's side; and still looking up, but with more thoughtful
+eyes, he said, "Mamma, is the summer _quite_ gone?"
+
+"Yes, my darling. Don't you see the scarlet berries, the food of winter
+for the little birds?"
+
+"Quite gone, mamma, and Francie not quite well?"
+
+His mother looked away; she could not bear her child to see the
+tell-tale tears his mournful little words called up, or know the sad
+echo returned by her own desponding thoughts. There was a moment's
+silence, only broken by the blackbird's song; and then she felt a soft,
+a little kiss, upon her hand, and looking down, she saw her darling's
+face--yes, surely now it was as an angel's--gazing upward to her,
+brightly beaming, brighter than ever; and his rosy lips just parted with
+their own sweet smile again, as he exclaimed in joyous tones, "Mamma,
+the summer will come again!"
+
+Precious was that heaven-born word of childish faith to the careworn
+mother, to cheer her then, and, with its memory of hope, still to
+sustain her through many an after-experiment and anxious watch, until,
+at last, she reaped her rich reward in the complete realization of her
+bright one's hope. Precious to more than her such words may be, if
+bravely stemming our present trouble, whatsoe'er it be--bravely
+enduring, persevering, encouraging others and ourselves, even as that
+little child--we hold the thought, that as the revolving year brings
+round its different seasons, as day succeeds to night--and even as
+surely as we look for this, and know it--so to the trusting heart there
+comes a time--it may be soon or late, it may be now, or it may be
+_then_--when this grief or grievance will have passed away; and so
+'twill all seem nothing--when the summer comes!
+
+
+
+
+[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
+
+VILLAINY OUTWITTED--FROM THE RECOLLECTIONS OF A POLICE OFFICER.
+
+
+The respectable agent of a rather eminent French house arrived one
+morning in great apparent distress at Scotland Yard, and informed the
+superintendent that he had just sustained a great, almost ruinous loss,
+in notes of the Bank of England, and commercial bills of exchange,
+besides a considerable sum in gold. He had, it appeared, been absent in
+Paris about ten days, and on his return but a few hours previously,
+discovered that his iron chest had been completely rifled during his
+absence. False keys must have been used, as the empty chest was found
+locked, and no sign of violence could be observed. He handed in full
+written details of the property carried off, the numbers of the notes,
+and every other essential particular. The first step taken was to
+ascertain if any of the notes had been tendered at the bank. Not one had
+been presented; payment was of course stopped, and advertisements
+descriptive of the bills of exchange, as well as of the notes, were
+inserted in the evening and following morning papers. A day or two
+afterward, a considerable reward was offered for such information as
+might lead to the apprehension of the offenders. No result followed; and
+in spite of the active exertions of the officers employed, not the
+slightest clew could be obtained to the perpetrators of the robbery. The
+junior partner in the firm, M. Bellebon, in the mean time arrived in
+England, to assist in the investigation, and was naturally extremely
+urgent in his inquiries; but the mystery which enveloped the affair
+remained impenetrable. At last a letter, bearing the St. Martin-le-Grand
+post-mark, was received by the agent, M. Alexandre le Breton, which
+contained an offer to surrender the whole of the plunder, with the
+exception of the gold, for the sum of one thousand pounds. The property
+which had been abstracted was more than ten times that sum, and had been
+destined by the French house to meet some heavy liabilities falling due
+in London very shortly. Le Breton had been ordered to pay the whole
+amount into Hoare's to the account of the firm, and had indeed been
+severely blamed for not having done so as he received the different
+notes and bills; and it was on going to the chest immediately on his
+return from Paris, for the purpose of fulfilling the peremptory
+instructions he had received, that M. le Breton discovered the robbery.
+
+The letter went on to state that should the offer be acceded to, a
+mystically-worded advertisement--of which a copy was inclosed--was to be
+inserted in the "Times," and then a mode would be suggested for
+safely--in the interest of the thieves of course--carrying the agreement
+into effect. M. Bellebon was half-inclined to close with this proposal,
+in order to save the credit of the house, which would be destroyed
+unless its acceptances, now due in about fourteen days, could be met;
+and without the stolen moneys and bills of exchange, this was, he
+feared, impossible. The superintendent, to whom M. Bellebon showed the
+letter, would not hear of compliance with such a demand, and threatened
+a prosecution for composition of felony if M. Bellebon persisted in
+doing so. The advertisement was, however, inserted, and an immediate
+reply directed that Le Breton, the agent, should present himself at the
+Old Manor-House, Green Lanes, Newington, unattended, at four o'clock on
+the following afternoon, bringing with him of course the stipulated sum
+_in gold_. It was added, that to prevent any possible treason
+(_trahison_, the letter was written in French), Le Breton would find a
+note for him at the tavern, informing him of the spot--a solitary one,
+and far away from any place where an ambush could be concealed--where
+the business would be concluded, and to which he must proceed
+unaccompanied, and on foot! This proposal was certainly quite as
+ingenious as it was cool, and the chance of out-witting such cunning
+rascals seemed exceedingly doubtful. A very tolerable scheme was,
+however, hit upon, and M. le Breton proceeded at the appointed hour to
+the Old Manor-House. No letter or message had been left for him, and
+nobody obnoxious to the slightest suspicion could be seen near or about
+the tavern. On the following day another missive arrived, which stated
+that the writer was quite aware of the trick which the police had
+intended playing him, and he assured M. Bellebon that such a line of
+conduct was as unwise as it would be fruitless, inasmuch as if "good
+faith" was not observed, the securities and notes would be inexorably
+destroyed or otherwise disposed of, and the house of Bellebon and
+Company be consequently exposed to the shame and ruin of bankruptcy.
+
+Just at this crisis of the affair I arrived in town from an unsuccessful
+hunt after some fugitives who had slipped through my fingers at
+Plymouth. The superintendent laughed heartily, not so much at the trick
+by which I had been duped, as at the angry mortification I did not
+affect to conceal. He presently added, "I have been wishing for your
+return, in order to intrust you with a tangled affair, in which success
+will amply compensate for such a disappointment. You know French too,
+which is fortunate; for the gentleman who has been plundered understands
+little or no English." He then related the foregoing particulars, with
+other apparently slight circumstances; and after a long conversation
+with him, I retired to think the matter over, and decide upon the
+likeliest mode of action. After much cogitation, I determined to see M.
+Bellebon _alone_; and for this purpose I dispatched the waiter of a
+tavern adjacent to his lodgings, with a note expressive of my wish to
+see him instantly on pressing business. He was at home, and immediately
+acceded to my request. I easily introduced myself; and after about a
+quarter of an hour's conference, said carelessly--for I saw he was too
+heedless of speech, too quick and frank, to be intrusted with the dim
+suspicions which certain trifling indices had suggested to me--"Is
+Monsieur le Breton at the office where the robbery was committed?"
+
+"No: he is gone to Greenwich on business, and will not return till late
+in the evening. But if you wish to re-examine the place, I can of
+course enable you to do so."
+
+"It will, I think, be advisable; and you will, if you please," I added,
+as we emerged into the street, "permit me to take you by the arm, in
+order that the _official_ character of my visit may not be suspected by
+any one there."
+
+He laughingly complied, and we arrived at the house arm-in-arm. We were
+admitted by an elderly woman; and there was a young man--a mustached
+clerk--seated at a desk in an inner room writing. He eyed me for a
+moment, somewhat askance, I thought, but I gave him no opportunity for a
+distinct view of my features; and I presently handed M. Bellebon a card,
+on which I had contrived to write, unobserved, "send away the clerk."
+This was more naturally done than I anticipated; and in answer to M.
+Bellebon's glance of inquiry, I merely said, "that as I did not wish to
+be known there as a police-officer, it was essential that the minute
+search I was about to make should be without witnesses." He agreed; and
+the woman was also sent away upon a distant errand. Every conceivable
+place did I ransack; every scrap of paper that had writing on it I
+eagerly perused. At length the search was over, apparently without
+result.
+
+"You are quite sure, Monsieur Bellebon, as you informed the
+superintendent, that Monsieur le Breton has no female relations or
+acquaintances in this country?"
+
+"Positive," he replied. "I have made the most explicit inquiries on the
+subject both of the clerk Dubarle, and of the woman-servant."
+
+Just then the clerk returned, out of breath with haste, I noticed, and I
+took my leave without even now affording the young gentleman so clear a
+view of my face as he was evidently anxious to obtain.
+
+"No female acquaintance!" thought I, as I re-entered the private room of
+the tavern I had left an hour before. "From whom came, then, these
+scraps of perfumed note-paper I have found in his desk, I wonder?" I sat
+down and endeavored to piece them out, but after considerable trouble,
+satisfied myself that they were parts of different notes, and so small,
+unfortunately, as to contain nothing which separately afforded any
+information except that they were all written by one hand, and that a
+female one.
+
+About two hours after this I was sauntering along in the direction of
+Stoke-Newington, where I was desirous of making some inquiries as to
+another matter, and had passed the Kingslaw Gate a few hundred yards,
+when a small discolored printed handbill, lying in a haberdasher's shop
+window, arrested my attention. It ran thus: "Two guineas reward.--Lost,
+an Italian gray-hound. The tip of its tail has been chopped off, and it
+answers to the name of Fidèle." Underneath, the reader was told in
+writing to "inquire within."
+
+"Fidèle!" I mentally exclaimed. "Any relation to M. le Breton's fair
+correspondent Fidèle, I wonder?" In a twinkling my pocket-book was out,
+and I reperused by the gas-light on one of the perfumed scraps of paper
+the following portion of a sentence, "_ma pauvre Fidèle est per_--" The
+bill, I observed, was dated nearly three weeks previously. I forthwith
+entered the shop, and pointing to the bill, said I knew a person who had
+found such a dog as was there advertised for. The woman at the counter
+said she was glad to hear it, as the lady, formerly a customer of
+theirs, was much grieved at the animal's loss.
+
+"What is the lady's name?" I asked.
+
+"I can't rightly pronounce the name," was the reply. "It is French, I
+believe; but here it is, with the address, in the day-book, written by
+herself."
+
+I eagerly read--"Madame Levasseur, Oak Cottage; about one mile on the
+road from Edmonton to Southgate." The handwriting greatly resembled that
+on the scraps I had taken from M. le Breton's desk; and the writer was
+French too! Here were indications of a trail which might lead to
+unhoped-for success, and I determined to follow it up vigorously. After
+one or two other questions, I left the shop, promising to send the dog
+to the lady the next day. My business at Stoke-Newington was soon
+accomplished. I then hastened westward to the establishment of a
+well-known dog-fancier, and procured the loan, at a reasonable price, of
+an ugly Italian hound: the requisite loss of the tip of its tail was
+very speedily accomplished, and so quickly healed, that the newness of
+the excision could not be suspected. I arrived at the lady's residence
+about twelve o'clock on the following day, so thoroughly disguised as a
+vagabond Cockney dog-stealer, that my own wife, when I entered the
+breakfast parlor just previous to starting, screamed with alarm and
+surprise. The mistress of Oak Cottage was at home, but indisposed, and
+the servant said she would take the dog to her, though, if I would take
+it out of the basket, she herself could tell me if it was Fidèle or not.
+I replied that I would only show the dog to the lady, and would not
+trust it out of my hands. This message was carried up-stairs, and after
+waiting some time outside--for the woman, with natural precaution,
+considering my appearance, for the safety of the portable articles lying
+about, had closed the street-door in my face--I was re-admitted, desired
+to wipe my shoes carefully, and walk up. Madame Levasseur, a
+showy-looking woman, though not over-refined in speech or manners, was
+seated on a sofa, in vehement expectation of embracing her dear Fidèle;
+but my vagabond appearance so startled her, that she screamed loudly for
+her husband, M. Levasseur. This gentleman, a fine, tall, whiskered,
+mustached person, hastened into the apartment half-shaved, and with his
+razor in his hand.
+
+"Qu'est ce qu'il y a donc?" he demanded.
+
+"Mais voyez cette horreur là," replied the lady, meaning me, not the
+dog, which I was slowly emancipating from the basket-kennel. The
+gentleman laughed; and reassured by the presence of her husband, Madame
+Levasseur's anxieties concentrated themselves upon the expected Fidèle.
+
+"Mais, mon Dieu!" she exclaimed again as I displayed the aged beauty I
+had brought for her inspection, "why, that is not Fidèle!"
+
+"Not, marm?" I answered, with quite innocent surprise. "Vy, ere is her
+wery tail;" and I held up the mutilated extremity for her closer
+inspection. The lady was not, however, to be convinced even by that
+evidence; and as the gentleman soon became impatient of my persistence,
+and hinted very intelligibly that he had a mind to hasten my passage
+down stairs with the toe of his boot, I, having made the best possible
+use of my eyes during the short interview, scrambled up the dog and
+basket, and departed.
+
+"No female relative or acquaintance hasn't he?" was my exulting thought
+as I gained the road. "And yet if that is not M. le Breton's picture
+between those of the husband and wife, I am a booby, and a blind one." I
+no longer in the least doubted that I had struck a brilliant trail; and
+I could have shouted with exultation, so eager was I not only to
+retrieve my, as I fancied, somewhat tarnished reputation for activity
+and skill, but to extricate the plundered firm from their terrible
+difficulties; the more especially as young M. Bellebon, with the
+frankness of his age and nation, had hinted to me--and the
+suddenly-tremulous light of his fine expressive eyes testified to the
+acuteness of his apprehensions--that his marriage with a long-loved and
+amiable girl depended upon his success in saving the credit of his
+house.
+
+That same evening, about nine o'clock, M. Levasseur, expensively, but
+withal snobbishly attired, left Oak Cottage, walked to Edmonton, hailed
+a cab, and drove off rapidly toward town, followed by an English swell
+as stylishly and snobbishly dressed, wigged, whiskered, and mustached as
+himself: this English swell being no other than myself, as prettily
+metamorphosed and made up for the part I intended playing as heart could
+wish.
+
+M. Levasseur descended at the end of the Quadrant, Regent-street, and
+took his way to Vine-street, leading out of that celebrated
+thoroughfare. I followed; and observing him enter a public-house,
+unhesitatingly did the same. It was a house of call and general
+rendezvous for foreign servants out of place. Valets, couriers, cooks,
+of many varieties of shade, nation, and respectability, were assembled
+there, smoking, drinking, and playing at an insufferably noisy game,
+unknown, I believe, to Englishmen, and which must, I think, have been
+invented in sheer despair of cards, dice, or other implements of
+gambling. The sole instruments of play were the gamesters' fingers, of
+which the two persons playing suddenly and simultaneously uplifted as
+many, or as few as they pleased, each player alternately calling a
+number; and if he named precisely how many fingers were held up by
+himself and opponent, he marked a point. The hubbub of cries--"cinq,"
+"neuf," "dix," &c.--was deafening. The players--almost every body in the
+large room--were too much occupied to notice our entrance; and M.
+Levasseur and myself seated ourselves, and called for something to
+drink, without, I was glad to see, exciting the slightest observation.
+M. Levasseur, I soon perceived, was an intimate acquaintance of many
+there; and somewhat to my surprise, for he spoke French very well, I
+found that he was a Swiss. His name was, I therefore concluded, assumed.
+Nothing positive rewarded my watchfulness that evening; but I felt quite
+sure Levasseur had come there with the expectation of meeting some one,
+as he did not play, and went away about half-past eleven o'clock with an
+obviously discontented air. The following night it was the same; but the
+next, who should peer into the room about half-past ten, and look
+cautiously round, but M. Alexandre le Breton! The instant the eyes of
+the friends met, Levasseur rose and went out. I hesitated to follow,
+lest such a movement might excite suspicion; and it was well I did not,
+as they both presently returned, and seated themselves close by my side.
+The anxious, haggard countenance of Le Breton--who had, I should have
+before stated, been privately pointed out to me by one of the force
+early on the morning I visited Oak Cottage--struck me forcibly,
+especially in contrast with that of Levasseur, which wore only an
+expression of malignant and ferocious triumph, slightly dashed by
+temporary disappointment. Le Breton staid but a short time; and the only
+whispered words I caught were--"He has, I fear, some suspicion."
+
+The anxiety and impatience of M. Bellebon while this was going on became
+extreme, and he sent me note after note--the only mode of communication
+I would permit--expressive of his consternation at the near approach of
+the time when the engagements of his house would arrive at maturity,
+without any thing having in the meantime been accomplished. I pitied him
+greatly, and after some thought and hesitation, resolved upon a new and
+bolder game. By affecting to drink a great deal, occasionally playing,
+and in other ways exhibiting a reckless, devil-may-care demeanor, I had
+striven to insinuate myself into the confidence and companionship of
+Levasseur, but hitherto without much effect; and although once I could
+see, startled by a casual hint I dropped to another person--one of
+ours--just sufficiently loud for him to hear--that I knew a sure and
+safe market for stopped Bank of England notes, the cautious scoundrel
+quickly subsided into his usual guarded reserve. He evidently doubted
+me, and it was imperatively necessary to remove those doubts. This was
+at last effectually, and, as I am vain enough to think, cleverly done.
+One evening a rakish-looking man, who ostentatiously and repeatedly
+declared himself to be Mr. Trelawney, of Conduit-street, and who was
+evidently three parts intoxicated, seated himself directly in front of
+us, and with much braggart impudence boasted of his money, at the same
+time displaying a pocket-book, which seemed pretty full of Bank of
+England notes. There were only a few persons present in the room besides
+us, and they were at the other end of the room. Levasseur I saw noticed
+with considerable interest the look of greed and covetousness which I
+fixed on that same pocket-book. At length the stranger rose to depart. I
+also hurried up and slipped after him, and was quietly and slyly
+followed by Levasseur. After proceeding about a dozen paces, I looked
+furtively about, but _not_ behind; robbed Mr. Trelawney of his
+pocket-book, which he had placed in one of the tails of his coat;
+crossed over the street, and walked hurriedly away, still, I could hear,
+followed by Levasseur. I entered another public-house, strode into an
+empty back-room, and was just in the act of examining my prize, when in
+stepped Levasseur. He looked triumphant as Lucifer, as he clapped me on
+the shoulder, and said in a low exulting voice, "I saw that pretty
+trick, Williams, and can, if I like, transport you!"
+
+My consternation was naturally extreme, and Levasseur laughed immensely
+at the terror he excited. "_Soyez tranquille_," he said at last, at the
+same time ringing the bell, "I shall not hurt you." He ordered some
+wine, and after the waiter had fulfilled the order, and left the room,
+said, "Those notes of Mr. Trelawney's will of course be stopped in the
+morning, but I think I once heard you say you knew of a market for such
+articles?"
+
+I hesitated, coyly unwilling to further commit myself. "Come, come,"
+resumed Levasseur, in a still low but menacing tone, "no nonsense. I
+have you now; you are, in fact, entirely in my power: but be candid, and
+you are safe. Who is your friend?"
+
+"He is not in town now," I stammered.
+
+"Stuff--humbug! I have myself some notes to change. There, now we
+understand each other. What does he give, and how does he dispose of
+them?"
+
+"He gives about a third generally, and gets rid of them abroad. They
+reach the Bank through _bonâ-fide_ and innocent holders, and in that
+case the Bank is of course bound to pay."
+
+"Is that the law also with respect to bills of exchange?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure it is."
+
+"And is _amount_ of any consequence to your friend?"
+
+"None, I believe, whatever."
+
+"Well, then, you must introduce me to him."
+
+"No, that I can't," I hurriedly answered. "He won't deal with
+strangers."
+
+"You _must_, I tell you, or I will call an officer." Terrified by this
+threat, I muttered that his name was Levi Samuel.
+
+"And where does Levi Samuel live?"
+
+"That," I replied, "I _can not_ tell; but I know how to communicate with
+him."
+
+Finally, it was settled by Levasseur that I should dine at Oak Cottage
+the next day but one, and that I should arrange with Samuel to meet us
+there immediately afterward. The notes and bills he had to dispose of, I
+was to inform Samuel, amounted to nearly twelve thousand pounds, and I
+was promised £500 for effecting the bargain.
+
+"Five hundred pounds, remember, Williams," said Levasseur, as we parted;
+"or, if you deceive me, transportation. You can prove nothing regarding
+_me_, whereas, I could settle _you_ offhand."
+
+The superintendent and I had a long and rather anxious conference the
+next day. We agreed that, situated as Oak Cottage was, in an open space
+away from any other building, it would not be advisable that any officer
+except myself and the pretended Samuel should approach the place. We
+also agreed as to the probability of such clever rogues having so placed
+the notes and bills that they could be consumed or otherwise destroyed
+on the slightest alarm, and that the open arrest of Levasseur, and a
+search of Oak Cottage, would in all likelihood prove fruitless. "There
+will be only two of them," I said, in reply to a remark of the
+superintendent as to the somewhat dangerous game I was risking with
+powerful and desperate men, "even should Le Breton be there; and surely
+Jackson and I, aided by the surprise and our pistols, will be too many
+for them." Little more was said, the superintendent wished us luck, and
+I sought out and instructed Jackson.
+
+I will confess that, on setting out the next day to keep my appointment,
+I felt considerable anxiety. Levasseur _might_ have discovered my
+vocation, and set this trap for my destruction. Yet that was hardly
+possible. At all events, whatever the danger, it was necessary to face
+it; and having cleaned and loaded my pistols with unusual care, and bade
+my wife a more than usually earnest farewell, which, by the way, rather
+startled her, I set off, determined, as we used to say in Yorkshire, "to
+win the horse or lose the saddle."
+
+I arrived in good time at Oak Cottage, and found my host in the highest
+possible spirits. Dinner was ready, he said, but it would be necessary
+to wait a few minutes for the two friends he expected.
+
+"_Two_ friends!" I exclaimed, really startled. "You told me last evening
+there was to be only one, a Monsieur le Breton."
+
+"True," rejoined Levasseur carelessly; "but I had forgotten that another
+party as much interested as ourselves would like to be present, and
+invite himself if I did not. But there will be enough for us all, never
+fear," he added, with a coarse laugh, "especially as Madame Levasseur
+does not dine with us."
+
+At this moment a loud knock was heard. "Here they are!" exclaimed
+Levasseur, and hastened out to meet them. I peeped through the blind,
+and to my great alarm saw that Le Breton was accompanied by the clerk
+Dubarle! My first impulse was to seize my pistols and rush out of the
+house; but calmer thoughts soon succeeded, and the improbability that a
+plan had been laid to entrap me recurred forcibly. Still, should the
+clerk recognize me? The situation was undoubtedly a critical one; but I
+was in for it, and must therefore brave the matter out in the best way I
+could.
+
+Presently a conversation, carried on in a loud, menacing tone in the
+next room between Levasseur and the new-comers, arrested my attention,
+and I softly approached the door to listen. Le Breton, I soon found was
+but half a villain, and was extremely anxious that the property should
+not be disposed of till at least another effort had been made at
+negotiation. The others, now that a market for the notes and securities
+had been obtained, were determined to avail themselves of it, and
+immediately leave the country. The almost agonizing entreaties of Le
+Breton that they would not utterly ruin the house he had betrayed, were
+treated with scornful contempt, and he was at length silenced by their
+brutal menaces. Le Breton, I further learned, was a cousin of Madame
+Levasseur, whose husband had first pillaged him at play, and then
+suggested the crime which had been committed as the sole means of
+concealing the defalcations of which he, Levasseur, had been the
+occasion and promoter.
+
+After a brief delay, all three entered the dining-room, and a slight but
+significant start which the clerk Dubarle gave, as Levasseur, with mock
+ceremony, introduced me, made my heart, as folk say, leap into my mouth.
+His half-formed suspicions seemed, however, to be dissipated for the
+moment by the humorous account Levasseur gave him of the robbery of Mr.
+Trelawney, and we sat down to a very handsome dinner.
+
+A more uncomfortable one, albeit, I never assisted at. The furtive looks
+of Dubarle, who had been only partially reassured, grew more and more
+inquisitive and earnest. Fortunately Levasseur was in rollicking spirits
+and humor, and did not heed the unquiet glances of the young man; and as
+for Le Breton, he took little notice of any body. At last this terrible
+dinner was over, and the wine was pushed briskly round. I drank much
+more freely than usual, partly with a view to calm my nerves, and partly
+to avoid remark. It was nearly the time for the Jew's appearance, when
+Dubarle, after a scrutinizing and somewhat imperious look at my face,
+said abruptly, "I think, Monsieur Williams, I have seen you somewhere
+before?"
+
+"Very likely," I replied, with as much indifference as I could assume.
+"Many persons have seen me before--some of them once or twice too
+often."
+
+"True!" exclaimed Levasseur, with a shout; "Trelawney, for instance!"
+
+"I should like to see monsieur with his wig off!" said the clerk, with
+increasing insolence.
+
+"Nonsense, Dubarle; you are a fool," exclaimed Levasseur; "and I will
+not have my good friend Williams insulted."
+
+Dubarle did not persist, but it was plain enough that some dim
+remembrance of my features continued to haunt and perplex him.
+
+At length, and the relief was unspeakable, a knock at the outer door
+announced Jackson--Levi Samuel I mean. We all jumped up and ran to the
+window. It was the Jew sure enough, and admirably he had dressed and now
+looked the part. Levasseur went out, and in a minute or two returned,
+introducing him. Jackson could not suppress a start as he caught sight
+of the tall, mustached addition to the expected company; and, although
+he turned it off very well, it drove the Jewish dialect in which he had
+been practicing, completely out of his thoughts and speech, as he said,
+"You have more company than my friend Williams led me to expect?"
+
+"A friend--one friend extra, Mr. Samuel," said Levasseur; "that is all.
+Come, sit down, let me help you to a glass of wine. You are an English
+Jew I perceive?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A silence of a minute or two succeeded, and then Levasseur said, "You
+are, of course, prepared for business?"
+
+"Yes--that is, if you are reasonable."
+
+"Reasonable! the most reasonable men in the world," rejoined Levasseur,
+with a loud laugh. "But pray, where is the gold you mean to pay us
+with?"
+
+"If we agree, I will fetch it in half an hour. I do not carry bags of
+sovereigns about with me into _all_ companies," replied Jackson, with
+much readiness.
+
+"Well, that's right enough: and how much discount do you charge?"
+
+"I will tell you when I see the securities."
+
+Levasseur arose without another word, and left the apartment. He was
+gone about ten minutes, and on his return, deliberately counted out the
+stolen Bank-of-England notes, and bills of exchange. Jackson got up from
+his chair, peered close to them, and began noting down the amounts in
+his pocket-book. I also rose, and pretended to be looking at a picture
+by the fire-place. The moment was a nervous one, as the signal had been
+agreed upon, and could not now be changed or deferred. The clerk Dubarle
+also hastily rose, and eyed Jackson with flaming but indecisive looks.
+The examination of the securities was at length terminated,
+and Jackson began counting the Bank-of-England notes aloud,
+"One--two--three--four--FIVE!" As the signal word passed his lips, he
+threw himself upon Le Breton, who sat next to him; and at the same
+moment I passed one of my feet between Dubarle's, and, with a dexterous
+twist hurled him violently on the floor; another instant and my grasp
+was on the throat of Levasseur, and my pistol at his ear. "Hurra!" we
+both shouted, with eager excitement; and, before either of the villains
+could recover from his surprise, or indeed perfectly comprehend what had
+happened, Levasseur and Le Breton were handcuffed, and resistance was
+out of the question. Young Dubarle was next easily secured.
+
+Levasseur, the instant he recovered the use of his faculties, which the
+completeness and suddenness of the surprise and attack had paralyzed,
+yelled like a madman with rage and anger, and but for us, would, I
+verily believe, have dashed his brains out against the walls of the
+room. The other two were calmer, and having at last thoroughly pinioned
+and secured them, and carefully gathered up the recovered plunder, we
+left Oak Cottage in triumph, letting ourselves out, for the
+woman-servant had gone off, doubtless to acquaint her mistress with the
+disastrous turn affairs had taken. No inquiry was made after either of
+them.
+
+An hour afterward the prisoners were securely locked up, and I hurried
+to acquaint M. Bellebon with the fortunate issue of our enterprise. His
+exultation, it will be readily believed, was unbounded; and I left him
+busy with letters to the firm, and doubtless one to "cette chère et
+aimable Louise," announcing the joyful news.
+
+The prisoners, after a brief trial, were convicted of felonious
+conspiracy, and were all sentenced to ten years' transportation. Le
+Breton's sentence, the judge told him, would have been for life, but for
+the contrition he had exhibited shortly before his apprehension.
+
+As Levasseur passed me on leaving the dock, he exclaimed in French, and
+in a desperately savage tone, "I will repay you for this when I return,
+and that infernal Trelawney too." I am too much accustomed to threats of
+this kind to be in any way moved by them, and I therefore contented
+myself by smiling, and a civil "Au revoir--allons!"
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+ATLANTIC WAVES.
+
+
+One brisk March morning, in the year 1848, the brave Steam-Ship Hibernia
+rolled about in the most intoxicated fashion on the broad Atlantic, in
+north latitude fifty-one, and west longitude thirty-eight, fifty--the
+wind blowing a hard gale from the west-southwest. To most of the
+passengers the grandeur of the waters was a mockery, the fine bearing of
+the ship only a delusion and a snare. Every thing was made tight on
+deck; if any passenger had left a toothpick on one of the seats, he
+would assuredly have found it lashed to a near railing. Rope was coiled
+about every imaginable item; and water dripped from every spar of the
+gallant vessel. Now it seemed as though she were traveling along through
+a brilliant gallery, flanked on either side by glittering walls of
+water; now she climbed one of the crested walls, and an abyss dark and
+terrible as the famous Maelstrom, which can't be found any where, yawned
+to receive her. The snorts of the engine seemed to defy the angry
+waters; and occasionally when a monster wave coiled about the ship, and
+thundered against her, she staggered for a moment, only to renew the
+battle with fresh energy.
+
+The cooks and stewards went placidly through their several daily
+avocations on board this rolling, fighting, shaking craft. If they had
+been Belgravian servants, or club-house waiters, they could not have
+performed their duties with more profound unconcern. Their coolness
+appeared nothing less than heroic to the poor tumbled heaps of clothes
+with human beings inside, who were scattered about the cabins below. An
+unhappy wight, who had never before been five miles from Boston, was
+anxiously inquiring of the chief steward the precise time in the course
+of that evening that the vessel might be expected to founder; while
+another steward, with provoking pertinacity, was asking how many would
+dine in the saloon at six, with the same business-like unconcern, as if
+the ship were gliding along on glass. So tremendous was the tossing, so
+extreme the apparent uncertainty of any event except a watery terminus
+to all expectation, that this sort of coolness appeared almost wicked.
+
+Then there was a monster in British form actually on deck--not braving,
+it was said, but tempting the storm to sweep him into eternity. He
+astonished even the ship's officers. The cook did not hesitate to
+venture a strong opinion against the sanity of a man who might, if he
+chose, be snugly ensconced in the cabin out of harm's way, but who
+_would_ remain upon deck, in momentary danger of being blown overboard.
+The cook's theory was not ill supported by the subject of it; for he was
+continually placing himself in all manner of odd places and grotesque
+postures. Sometimes he scrambled up on the cuddy-roof; then he rolled
+down again on the saloon deck; now he got himself blown up on the
+paddle-box; _that_ was not high enough for him, for when the vessel sunk
+into a trough of the sea, he stood on tip-toe, trying to look over the
+nearest wave. A consultation was held in the cuddy, and a resolution was
+unanimously passed that the amateur of wind and water (which burst over
+him every minute) was either an escaped lunatic or--a College Professor.
+
+It was resolved _nem. con._ that he was the latter; and from that moment
+nobody was surprised at any thing he might choose to do, even while the
+Hibernia was laboring in what the mate was pleased to call the most
+"lively" manner. The Professor, however, to the disgust of the sufferers
+below, who thought it was enough to _feel_ the height of the waves,
+without going to the trouble of measuring them, pursued his observations
+in the face of the contempt of the official conclave above mentioned. He
+took up his position on the cuddy roof, which was exactly twenty-three
+feet three inches above the ship's line of flotation, and there watched
+the mighty mountains that sported with the brave vessel. He was anxious
+to ascertain the height of these majestic waves, but he found that the
+crests rose so far above the horizon from the point where he was
+standing, that it was utterly impossible, without gaining a greater
+height for observation, that he could arrive at any just estimate on the
+subject. His observations from the cuddy-roof proved, however, beyond a
+doubt, that the majority of these rolling masses of water attained a
+height of considerably more than twenty-four feet, measuring from the
+trough of the sea to the crests of the waves. But the Professor was not
+satisfied with this negative proof; and in the pursuit of his
+interesting inquiry, did not feel inclined to be baffled. It is
+impossible to know what the secret thoughts of the men at the wheel
+were, when the valiant observer announced his intention of making the
+best of his way from the cuddy-roof to the larboard paddle-box. Now he
+was to be seen tumbling about with the motion of the ship; at one moment
+clinging to a chain-box; at the next, throwing himself into the arms of
+the second mate. Now he is buried in spray, and a few minutes afterward
+his spare form is seen clinging to the rails which connect the
+paddle-boxes.
+
+Despite the storm without, a calm mathematical process is going on
+within the mind of that ardent observer. The Professor knew he was
+standing at a height of twenty-four feet nine inches above the flotation
+mark of the ship: and allowing five feet six inches as the height of his
+eye, he found the elevation he had obtained to be altogether thirty feet
+three inches. He now waited till the vessel subsided fairly for a few
+minutes into the trough of the sea in an even and upright position,
+while the nearest approaching wave had its maximum altitude. Here he
+found also, that at least one-half part of the wave intercepted by a
+considerable elevation his view of the horizon. He declared that he
+frequently observed long ranges extending one hundred yards on one or
+both sides of the ship--the sea then coming right aft--which rose so
+high above the visible horizon, as to form an angle estimated at two to
+three degrees when the distance of the wave's crest, was about a hundred
+yards off. This distance would add about thirteen feet to the level of
+the eye. This immense elevation occurred about every sixth wave. Now and
+then, when the course of a gigantic wave was impertinently interfered
+with by another liquid giant, and they thundered together, their
+breaking crests would shoot upward at least ten or fifteen feet
+higher--about half the height of the monument--and then pour down a
+mighty flood upon the poor Professor in revenge for his attempt to
+measure their majesties. No quantity of salt water, however, could wash
+him from his post, till he had satisfactorily proved, by accurate
+observation, that the average wave which passed the vessel was fully
+equal to the height of his eye--or thirty feet three inches--and that
+the mean highest waves, not including the fighting or broken waves, were
+about forty-three feet above the level of the hollow occupied at the
+moment by the ship.
+
+Satisfied at length of the truth of his observations, the Professor,
+half-pickled by the salt water, and looking, it must be confessed, very
+cold and miserable, descended to the cabin. Throughout dinner-time a
+conversation was kept up between the Professor and the captain--the
+latter appearing to be about the only individual on board who took any
+interest whatever in these scientific proceedings. The ladies, one and
+all, vowed that the Professor was a monster, only doing "all this stuff"
+in mockery of their sufferings. Toward night the wind increased to a
+hurricane; the ship trembled like a frightened child before the terrible
+combat of the elements. Night, with her pall, closed in the scene: it
+was a wild and solemn time. Toward morning the wind abated. For thirty
+hours a violent northwest gale had swept over the heaving bosom of the
+broad Atlantic.
+
+This reflection hastened the dressing and breakfasting operations of the
+Professor, who tumbled up on deck at about ten o'clock in the morning.
+The storm had been subdued for several hours, and there was a visible
+decrease in the height of the waves. He took up his old position on the
+cuddy-roof, and soon observed, that, even then, when the sea was
+comparatively quiet, ten waves overtook the vessel in succession, which
+all rose above the apparent horizon; consequently they must have been
+more than twenty-three feet--probably about twenty-six feet--from ridge
+to hollow. From the larboard paddle-box, to which the Professor once
+more scrambled, he observed that occasionally four or five waves in
+succession rose above the visible horizon--hence they must have been
+more than thirty feet waves. He also observed that the waves no longer
+ran in long ridges, but presented more the form of cones of moderate
+elongation.
+
+Having so far satisfied himself as to the height of Atlantic waves in a
+gale of wind (the Professor's estimate must not be taken as the
+measurement of the highest known waves, but simply as that of a rough
+Atlantic sea), he directed his attention to minuter and more difficult
+observations. He determined to measure the period of time occupied by
+the regular waves in overtaking the ship, their width from crest to
+crest, and the rate of their traveling. The first point to be known was
+the speed of the ship; this he ascertained to be nine knots. His next
+object was to note her course in reference to the direction of the
+waves. He found that the true course of the vessel was east, and that
+the waves came from the west-northwest, so that they passed under the
+vessel at a considerable angle. The length of the ship was stated to be
+two hundred and twenty feet. Provided with this information the
+Professor renewed his observations. He proceeded to count the seconds
+the crest of a wave took to travel from stern to stem of the vessel;
+these he ascertained to be six. He then counted the time which
+intervened between the moment when one crest touched the stern of the
+vessel, and the next touched it, and he found the average interval to
+be sixteen seconds and a fraction. These results gave him at once the
+width between crest and crest. As the crest traveled two hundred and
+twenty feet (or the length of the vessel) in six seconds, and sixteen
+seconds elapsed before the next crest touched the stern, it was clear
+that the wave was nearly three times the length of the vessel; to write
+accurately, there was a distance of six hundred and five feet from crest
+to crest.
+
+The Professor did not forget that the oblique course of the ship
+elongated her line over the waves; this elongation he estimated at
+forty-five feet, reducing the probable average distance between crest
+and crest to five hundred and fifty-nine feet.
+
+Being quite satisfied with the result of this experiment, the hardy
+Professor, still balancing himself on his giddy height, to the wonder
+and amusement of the sailors, found that the calculations he had already
+made did not give him the actual velocity of the waves. A wave-crest
+certainly passed from stern to stem in six seconds, but then the ship
+was traveling in the same direction, at the rate of nine geographical
+miles per hour, or 15.2 feet per second; this rate the Professor added
+to the former measure, which gave 790.5 feet for the actual distance
+traversed by the wave in 16.5 seconds, being at the rate of 32.67
+English miles per hour. This computation was afterward compared with
+calculations made from totally different data by Mr. Scott Russell, and
+found to be quite correct.
+
+With these facts the Professor scrambled from the larboard paddle-box of
+the Hibernia. He had also made some observations on the forms of waves.
+When the wind blows steadily from one point, they are generally regular;
+but when it is high and gusty, and shifts from point to point, the sea
+is broken up, and the waves take a more conical shape, and assume
+fantastical crests. While the sea ran high, the Professor observed now
+and then a ridge of waves extending from about a quarter to a third of a
+mile in length, forming, as it were, a rampart of water. This ridge was
+sometimes straight, and sometimes bent as of a crescent form, with the
+central mass of water higher than the rest, and not unfrequently with
+two or three semi-elliptical mounds in diminishing series on either side
+of the highest peak.
+
+When the wind had subsided, a few of the bolder passengers crawled upon
+deck in the oddest imaginable costumes. They had not much to encounter,
+for about a third part of the greater undulations averaged only
+twenty-four feet, from crest to hollow, in height. These higher waves
+could be seen and selected from the pigmy waves about them, at the
+distance of a quarter of a mile from the ship.
+
+The Professor had been very unpopular on board while the stormy weather
+lasted, and the ladies had vowed that he was a sarcastic creature, who
+_would_ have his little joke on the gravest calamities of life, but as
+the waves decreased in bulk, and the wind lulled, and the sun shone,
+and the men took off their oil-skin coats, and the cabin-windows were
+opened, the frowns of the fair voyagers wore off. Perfect good-will was
+general before the ship sighted Liverpool; and even the cook, as he
+prepared the last dinner for the passengers, was heard to declare (in
+confidence to one of the stokers) that, after all, there might be
+something worth knowing in the Professor's observations.
+
+When the Professor landed at Liverpool, he would, on no account, suffer
+the carpet-bag, containing his calculations, to be taken out of his
+sight. Several inquisitive persons, however, made the best use of their
+own eyes, to ascertain the name of the extraordinary observer, and found
+it to be legibly inscribed with the well-known name of Scoresby.
+
+That his investigations may be the more readily impressed on the
+reader's mind, we conclude with a summary of them. It would seem from
+Dr. Scoresby's intrepid investigations, that the highest waves of the
+Atlantic average in
+
+  Altitude                                43 feet
+  Mean Distance between each Wave        559  "
+  Width from Crest to Crest              600  "
+  Interval of Time between each wave      16 seconds
+  Velocity of each Wave per hour          32-1/2 miles.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO KILL CLEVER CHILDREN.[24]
+
+
+At any time in life, excessive and continued mental exertion is hurtful;
+but in infancy and early youth, when the structure of the brain is still
+immature and delicate, permanent injury is more easily produced by
+injudicious treatment than at any subsequent period. In this respect,
+the analogy is complete between the brain and the other parts of the
+body, as is exemplified in the injurious effects of premature exercise
+of the bones and muscles. Scrofulous and rickety children are the most
+usual sufferers in this way. They are generally remarkable for large
+heads, great precocity of understanding, and small, delicate bodies. But
+in such instances, the great size of the brain, and the acuteness of the
+mind, are the results of morbid growth, and even with the best
+management, the child passes the first years of its life constantly on
+the brink of active disease. Instead, however, of trying to repress its
+mental activity, as they should, the fond parents, misled by the promise
+of genius, too often excite it still further by unceasing cultivation
+and the never-failing stimulus of praise; and finding its progress, for
+a time, equal to their warmest wishes, they look forward with ecstasy to
+the day when its talents will break forth and shed a lustre on their
+name. But in exact proportion as the picture becomes brighter to their
+fancy, the probability of its becoming realized becomes less; for the
+brain, worn out by premature exertion, either becomes diseased or loses
+its tone, leaving the mental powers feeble and depressed for the
+remainder of life. The expected prodigy is thus, in the end, easily
+outstripped in the social race by many whose dull outset promised him an
+easy victory.
+
+To him who takes for his guide the necessities of the constitution, it
+will be obvious that the modes of treatment commonly resorted to should
+in such cases be reversed; and that, instead of straining to the utmost
+the already irritable powers of the precocious child, leaving his dull
+competitors to ripen at leisure, a systematic attempt ought to be made,
+from early infancy, to rouse to action the languid faculties of the
+latter, while no pains should be spared to moderate and give tone to the
+activity of the former. But instead of this, the prematurely intelligent
+child is generally sent to school, and tasked with lessons at an
+unusually early age, while the healthy but more backward boy, who
+requires to be stimulated, is kept at home in idleness merely on account
+of his backwardness. A double error is here committed, and the
+consequences to the active-minded boy are not unfrequently the permanent
+loss both of health and of his envied superiority of intellect.
+
+In speaking of children of this description, Dr. Brigham, in an
+excellent little work on the influence of mental excitement on health,
+remarks as follows: "Dangerous forms of scrofulous disease among
+children have repeatedly fallen under my observation, for which I could
+not account in any other way than by supposing that the brain had been
+excited at the expense of the other parts of the system, and at a time
+in life when nature is endeavoring to perfect all the organs of the
+body; and after the disease commenced, I have seen, with grief, the
+influence of the same cause in retarding or preventing recovery. I have
+seen several affecting and melancholy instances of children, five or six
+years of age, lingering a while with diseases from which those less
+gifted readily recover, and at last dying, notwithstanding the utmost
+efforts to restore them. During their sickness they constantly
+manifested a passion for books and mental excitement, and were admired
+for the maturity of their minds. The chance for the recovery of such
+precocious children is, in my opinion, small when attacked by disease;
+and several medical men have informed me that their own observations had
+led them to form the same opinion, and have remarked that, in two cases
+of sickness, if one of the patients was a child of superior and
+highly-cultivated mental powers, and the other one equally sick, but
+whose mind had not been excited by study, they should feel less
+confident of the recovery of the former than of the latter. This mental
+precocity results from an unnatural development of one organ of the body
+at the expense of the constitution."
+
+There can be little doubt but that ignorance on the part of parents and
+teachers, is the principal cause that leads to the too early and
+excessive cultivation of the minds of children, and especially of such
+as are precocious and delicate. Hence the necessity of imparting
+instruction on this subject to both parents and teachers, and to all
+persons who are in any way charged with the care and education of the
+young. This necessity becomes the more imperative from the fact that the
+cupidity of authors and publishers has led to the preparation of
+"children's books," many of which are announced as purposely prepared
+"for children from _two_ to _three_ years old!" I might instance
+advertisements of "Infant Manuals" of botany, geometry, and astronomy!
+
+In not a few isolated families, but in many neighborhoods, villages, and
+cities, in various parts of the country, children _under three years of
+age_ are not only required to commit to memory many verses, texts of
+Scripture, and stories, but are frequently sent to school for six hours
+a day. Few children are kept back later than the age of _four_, unless
+they reside a great distance from school, and some not even then. At
+home, too, they are induced by all sorts of excitements to learn
+additional tasks, or peruse juvenile books and magazines, till the
+nervous system becomes enfeebled, and the health broken. "I have
+myself," says Dr. Brigham, "seen many children who are supposed to
+possess almost miraculous mental powers, experiencing these effects and
+sinking under them. Some of them died early, when but six or eight years
+of age, but manifested to the last a maturity of understanding, which
+only increased the agony of separation. Their minds, like some of the
+fairest flowers were 'no sooner blown than blasted;' others have grown
+up to manhood, but with feeble bodies and disordered nervous system,
+which subjected them to hypochondriasis, dyspepsy, and all the Protean
+forms of nervous disease; others of the class of early prodigies exhibit
+in manhood but small mental powers, and are the mere passive instruments
+of those who in early life were accounted far their inferiors."
+
+This hot-bed system of education is not confined to the United States,
+but is practiced less or more in all civilized countries. Dr. Combe, of
+Scotland, gives an account of one of these early prodigies, whose fate
+he witnessed. The circumstances were exactly such as those above
+described. The prematurely developed intellect was admired, and
+constantly stimulated by injudicious praise, and by daily exhibition to
+every visitor who chanced to call. Entertaining books were thrown in its
+way, reading by the fireside encouraged, play and exercise neglected,
+the diet allowed to be full and heating, and the appetite pampered by
+every delicacy. The results were the speedy deterioration of a weak
+constitution, a high degree of nervous sensibility, deranged digestion,
+disordered bowels, defective nutrition, and, lastly, _death_, at the
+very time when the interest excited by the mental precocity was at its
+height.
+
+Such, however, is the ignorance of the majority of parents and teachers
+on all physiological subjects, that when one of these infant prodigies
+dies from erroneous treatment, it is not unusual to publish a memoir of
+his life, that other parents and teachers may see by what means such
+transcendent qualities were called forth. Dr. Brigham refers to a memoir
+of this kind, in which the history of a child, aged four years and
+eleven months, is narrated as approved by "several judicious persons,
+ministers and others, all of whom united in the request that it might be
+published, and all agreed in the opinion that a knowledge of the manner
+in which the child was treated, together with the results, would be
+profitable to both parents and children, and a benefit to the cause of
+education." This infant philosopher was "taught hymns before he could
+speak plainly;" "reasoned with," and constantly instructed until his
+last illness, which, "_without any assignable cause_," put on a violent
+and unexpected form, and carried him off!
+
+As a _warning to others_ not to force education too soon or too fast,
+this case may be truly profitable to both parents and children, and a
+benefit to the cause of education; but _as an example to be followed_,
+it assuredly can not be too strongly or too loudly condemned.
+
+
+    FOOTNOTE:
+
+    [24] From MAYHEW's Treatise on "Popular Education," soon to be
+    issued from the press of Messrs. Harper and Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+[From the Dublin University Magazine.]
+
+MAURICE TIERNAY, THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.
+
+(_Continued from Page 639._)
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+"AN OLD GENERAL OF THE IRISH BRIGADE."
+
+In obedience to an order which arrived at Saumur one morning in the July
+of 1798, I was summoned before the commandant of the school, when the
+following brief colloquy ensued:
+
+"Maurice Tiernay," said he, reading from the record of the school, "why
+are you called l'Irlandais?"
+
+"I am Irish by descent, sir."
+
+"Ha! by descent. Your father was then an Emigré?"
+
+"No, sir--my great grandfather."
+
+"_Parbleu!_ that is going very far back. Are you aware of the causes
+which induced him to leave his native country?"
+
+"They were connected with political troubles, I've heard, sir. He took
+part against the English, my father told me, and was obliged to make his
+escape to save his life."
+
+"You then hate the English, Maurice?"
+
+"My grandfather certainly did not love them, sir."
+
+"Nor can you, boy, ever forgive their having exiled your family from
+country and home: every man of honor retains the memory of such
+injuries."
+
+"I can scarcely deem that an injury, sir, which has made me a French
+citizen," said I, proudly.
+
+"True, boy--you say what is perfectly true and just; any sacrifice of
+fortune or patrimony is cheap at such a price; still you have suffered a
+wrong--a deep and irreparable wrong--and as a Frenchman you are ready to
+avenge it."
+
+Although I had no very precise notion, either as to the extent of the
+hardships done me, nor in what way I was to demand the reparation, I
+gave the assent he seemed to expect.
+
+"You are well acquainted with the language, I believe?" continued he.
+
+"I can read and speak English tolerably well, sir."
+
+"But I speak of Irish, boy--of the language which is spoken by your
+fellow-countrymen," said he, rebukingly.
+
+"I have always heard, sir, that this has fallen into disuse, and is
+little known, save among the peasantry in a few secluded districts."
+
+He seemed impatient as I said this, and referred once more to the paper
+before him, from whose minutes he appeared to have been speaking.
+
+"You must be in error, boy. I find here that the nation is devotedly
+attached to its traditions and its literature, and feels no injury
+deeper than the insulting substitution of a foreign tongue for their own
+noble language."
+
+"Of myself I know nothing, sir; the little I have learned was acquired
+when a mere child."
+
+"Ah, then you probably forget, or may never have heard the fact; but it
+is as I tell you. This, which I hold here, is the report of a
+highly-distinguished and most influential personage, who lays great
+stress upon the circumstance. I am sorry, Tiernay, very sorry, that you
+are unacquainted with the language."
+
+He continued for some minutes to brood over this disappointment, and, at
+last, returned to the paper before him.
+
+"The geography of the country--what knowledge have you on that subject?"
+
+"No more, sir, than I may possess of other countries, and merely learned
+from maps."
+
+"Bad again," muttered he to himself. "Madyett calls these 'essentials;'
+but we shall see." Then addressing me, he said, "Tiernay, the object of
+my present interrogatory is to inform you that the Directory is about to
+send an expedition to Ireland to assist in the liberation of that
+enslaved people. It has been suggested that young officers and soldiers
+of Irish descent might render peculiar service to the cause, and I have
+selected you for an opportunity which will convert those worsted
+epaulets into bullion."
+
+This, at least, was intelligible news, and now I began to listen with
+more attention.
+
+"There is a report," said he, laying down before me a very capacious
+manuscript, "which you will carefully peruse. Here are the latest
+pamphlets setting forth the state of public opinion in Ireland; and here
+are various maps of the coast, the harbors, and the strongholds of that
+country, with all of which you may employ yourself advantageously; and
+if, on considering the subject, you feel disposed to volunteer--for as
+a volunteer only could your services be accepted--I will willingly
+support your request by all the influence in my power."
+
+"I am ready to do so at once, sir," said I, eagerly; "I have no need to
+know any more than you have told me."
+
+"Well said, boy; I like your ardor. Write your petition, and it shall be
+forwarded to-day. I will also try and obtain for you the same regimental
+rank you hold in the school"--I was a sergeant--"it will depend upon
+yourself afterward to secure a further advancement. You are now free
+from duty; lose no time, therefore, in storing your mind with every
+possible information, and be ready to set out at a moment's notice."
+
+"Is the expedition so nearly ready, sir?" asked I, eagerly.
+
+He nodded, and with a significant admonition as to secrecy, dismissed
+me, bursting with anxiety to examine the stores of knowledge before me,
+and prepare myself with all the details of a plan in which already I
+took the liveliest interest. Before the week expired, I received an
+answer from the minister, accepting the offer of my services. The reply
+found me deep in those studies, which I scarcely could bear to quit even
+at meal-times. Never did I experience such an all-devouring passion for
+a theme as on that occasion. "Ireland" never left my thoughts; her
+wrongs and sufferings were everlastingly before me; all the cruelties of
+centuries--all the hard tyranny of the penal laws--the dire injustice of
+caste oppression--filled me with indignation and anger; while, on the
+other hand, I conceived the highest admiration of a people who,
+undeterred by the might and power of England, resolved to strike a great
+blow for liberty.
+
+The enthusiasm of the people--the ardent darings of a valor whose
+impetuosity was its greatest difficulty--their high romantic
+temperament--their devotion--their gratitude--the child-like
+trustfulness of their natures, were all traits, scattered through the
+various narratives, which invariably attracted me, and drew me more
+strongly to their cause--even from affection than reason.
+
+Madyett's memoir was filled with these, and he, I concluded, must know
+them well, being, as it was asserted, one of the ancient nobility of the
+land, and who now desired nothing better than to throw rank, privilege,
+and title into the scale, and do battle for the liberty and equality of
+his countrymen. How I longed to see this great man, whom my fancy
+arrayed in all the attributes he so lavishly bestowed upon his
+countrymen, for they were not only, in his description, the boldest and
+the bravest, but the handsomest people of Europe.
+
+As to the success of the enterprise, whatever doubts I had at first
+conceived, from an estimate of the immense resources of England, were
+speedily solved, as I read of the enormous preparations the Irish had
+made for the struggle. The Roman Catholics, Madyett said, were three
+millions, the Dissenters another million, all eager for freedom and
+French alliance, wanting nothing but the appearance of a small armed
+force to give them the necessary organization and discipline. They were
+somewhat deficient, he acknowledged, in fire-arms--cannon they had none
+whatever; but the character of the country, which consisted of
+mountains, valleys, ravines, and gorges, reduced war to the mere
+chivalrous features of personal encounter. What interminable
+descriptions did I wade through of clubs and associations, the very
+names of which were a puzzle to me--the great union of all appearing to
+be a society called "Defenders," whose oath bound them to "fidelity to
+the united nations of France and Ireland."
+
+So much for the one side. For the other, it was asserted that the
+English forces then in garrison in Ireland, were below contempt: the
+militia, being principally Irish, might be relied on for taking the
+popular side; and as to the Regulars, they were either "old men, or
+boys," incapable of active service; and several of the regiments, being
+Scotch, greatly disaffected to the government. Then, again, as to the
+navy, the sailors in the English fleet were more than two-thirds
+Irishmen, all Catholics, and all disaffected.
+
+That the enterprise contained every element of success, then, who could
+doubt? The nation, in the proportion of ten to one, were for the
+movement. On their side lay not alone the wrongs to avenge, but the
+courage, the energy, and the daring. Their oppressors were as weak as
+tyrannical, their cause was a bad one, and their support of it a hollow
+semblance of superiority.
+
+If I read these statements with ardor and avidity, one lurking sense of
+doubt alone obtruded itself on my reasonings. Why, with all these
+guarantees of victory, with every thing that can hallow a cause, and
+give it stability and strength--why did the Irish ask for aid? If they
+were, as they alleged, an immense majority--if theirs was all the
+heroism and the daring--if the struggle was to be maintained against a
+miserably inferior force, weakened by age, incapacity, and
+disaffection--what need had they of Frenchmen on their side? The answer
+to all such doubts, however, was "the Irish were deficient in
+organization."
+
+Not only was the explanation a very sufficient one, but it served in a
+high degree to flatter our vanity. We were, then, to be organizers of
+Ireland; from us were they to take the lessons of civilization, which
+should prepare them for freedom--ours was the task to discipline their
+valor, and train their untaught intelligence. Once landed in the
+country, it was to our standard they were to rally; from us were to go
+forth the orders of every movement and measure; to us this new land was
+to be an _Eldorado_. Madyett significantly hinted every where at the
+unbounded gratitude of Irishmen; and more than hinted at the future fate
+of certain confiscated estates. One phrase, ostentatiously set forth in
+capitals, asserted that the best general of the French Republic could
+not be any where employed with so much reputation and profit. There was,
+then, every thing to stimulate the soldier in such an enterprise--honor,
+fame, glory, and rich rewards were all among the prizes.
+
+It was when deep in the midst of these studies poring over maps and
+reports, taxing my memory with hard names, and getting off by heart
+dates, distances, and numbers, that the order came for me to repair at
+once to Paris, where the volunteers of the expedition were to assemble.
+My rank of sergeant had been confirmed, and in this capacity, as "sous
+officier," I was ordered to report myself to General Kilmaine, the
+Adjutant-General of the expedition, then living in the "Rue
+Chantereine." I was also given the address of a certain Lestaing--Rue
+Tarbout--a tailor, from whom, on producing a certificate, I was to
+obtain my new uniform.
+
+Full as I was of the whole theme, thinking of the expedition by day, and
+dreaming of it by night, I was still little prepared for the enthusiasm
+it was at that very moment exciting in every society of the capital. For
+some time previous a great number of Irish emigrants had made Paris
+their residence; some were men of good position and ample fortune; some
+were individuals of considerable ability and intelligence. All were
+enthusiastic, and ardent in temperament--devotedly attached to their
+country--hearty haters of England, and proportionately attached to all
+that was French. These sentiments, coupled with a certain ease of
+manner, and a faculty of adaptation, so peculiarly Irish, made them
+general favorites in society; and long before the Irish question had
+found any favor with the public, its national supporters had won over
+the hearts and good wishes of all Paris to the cause.
+
+Well pleased, then, as I was, with my handsome uniform of green and
+gold, my small chapeau, with its plume of cock's feathers, and the
+embroidered shamrock on my collar, I was not a little struck by the
+excitement my first appearance in the street created. Accustomed to see
+a hundred strange military costumes--the greater number, I own, more
+singular than tasteful--the Parisians, I concluded, would scarcely
+notice mine in the crowd. Not so, however; the print-shops had already
+given the impulse to the admiration, and the "Irish Volunteer of the
+Guard" was to be seen in every window, in all the "glory of his
+bravery." The heroic character of the expedition, too, was typified by a
+great variety of scenes, in which the artist's imagination had all the
+credit. In one picture the "jeune Irlandais" was planting a national
+flag of very capacious dimensions on the summit of his native mountains;
+here he was storming "La chateau de Dublin," a most formidable fortress
+perched on a rock above the sea; here he was crowning the heights of "La
+citadelle de Cork," a very Gibraltar in strength, or he was haranguing
+the native chieftains, a highly picturesque group--a cross between a
+knight crusader and a south-sea islander.
+
+My appearance, therefore, in the streets was the signal for general
+notice and admiration, and more than one compliment was uttered,
+purposely loud enough to reach me, on the elegance and style of my
+equipment. In the pleasant flurry of spirits excited by this flattery, I
+arrived at the general's quarters in the Rue Chantereine. It was
+considerably before the time of his usual receptions, but the glitter of
+my epaulets, and the air of assurance I had assumed, so far imposed upon
+the old servant who acted as valet, that he at once introduced me into a
+small saloon, and after a brief pause presented me to the general, who
+was reclining on a sofa at his breakfast. Although far advanced in
+years, and evidently broken by bad health, General Kilmaine still
+preserved traces of great personal advantages, while his manner
+exhibited all that polished ease and courtesy which was said to be
+peculiar to the Irish gentleman of the French court. Addressing me in
+English, he invited me to join his meal; and on my declining, as having
+already breakfasted, he said, "I perceive, from your name, we are
+countrymen; and as your uniform tells me the service in which you are
+engaged, we may speak with entire confidence. Tell me then, frankly, all
+that you know of the actual condition of Ireland."
+
+Conceiving that this question applied to the result of my late studies,
+and was meant to elicit the amount of my information, I at once began a
+recital of what I had learned from the books and reports I had been
+reading. My statistics were perfect--they had been gotten off by heart;
+my sympathies were, for the same reason, most eloquent; my indignation
+was boundless on the wrongs I deplored, and in fact, in the fifteen
+minutes during which he permitted me to declaim without interruption, I
+had gone through the whole "cause of Ireland," from Henry II. to George
+III.
+
+"You have been reading Mr. Madyett, I perceive," said he, with a smile;
+"but I would rather hear something of your own actual experience. Tell
+me, therefore, in what condition are the people at this moment, as
+regards poverty?"
+
+"I have never been in Ireland, general," said I, not without some shame
+at the avowal coming so soon after my eloquent exhortation.
+
+"Ah, I perceive," said he, blandly, "of Irish origin, and a relative
+probably of that very distinguished soldier, Count Maurice de Tiernay,
+who served in the Garde du Corps."
+
+"His only son, general," said I, blushing with eagerness and pleasure at
+the praise of my father.
+
+"Indeed!" said he, smiling courteously, and seeming to meditate on my
+words. "There was not a better nor a braver sabre in the corps than your
+father--a very few more of such men might have saved the monarchy--as it
+was, they dignified its fall. And to whose guidance and care did you
+owe your early training, for I see you have not been neglected?"
+
+A few words told him the principal events of my early years, to which he
+listened with deep attention. At length he said, "And now you are about
+to devote your acquirements and energy to this new expedition?"
+
+"All, general! Every thing that I have is too little for such a cause."
+
+"You say truly, boy," said he, warmly; "would that so good a cause had
+better leaders. I mean," added he, hurriedly, "wiser ones. Men more
+conversant with the actual state of events, more fit to cope with the
+great difficulties before them, more ready to take advantage of
+circumstances, whose outward meaning will often prove deceptive. In
+fact, Irishmen of character and capacity, tried soldiers, and good
+patriots. Well, well, let us hope the best. In whose division are you?"
+
+"I have not yet heard, sir. I have presented myself here to-day to
+receive your orders."
+
+"There again is another instance of their incapacity," cried he,
+passionately. "Why, boy, I have no command, nor any function. I did
+accept office under General Hoche, but he is not to lead the present
+expedition."
+
+"And who is, sir?"
+
+"I can not tell you. A week ago they talked of Grouchy, then of Hardy;
+yesterday it was Humbert; to-day it may be Bonaparte, and to-morrow
+yourself! Ay, Tiernay, this great and good cause has its national
+fatality attached to it, and is so wrapped up in low intrigue and
+falsehood, that every minister becomes in turn disgusted with the
+treachery and mendacity he meets with, and bequeaths the question to
+some official underling, meet partisan for the mock patriot he treats
+with."
+
+"But the expedition will sail, general?" asked I, sadly discomfited by
+this tone of despondency.
+
+He made me no answer, but sat for some time absorbed in his own
+thoughts. At last he looked up, and said, "You ought to be in the army
+of Italy, boy; the great teacher of war is there."
+
+"I know it, sir, but my whole heart is in this struggle. I feel that
+Ireland has a claim on all who derived even a name from her soil. Do you
+not believe that the expedition will sail?"
+
+Again he was silent and thoughtful.
+
+"Mr. Madyett would say, Yes," said he, scornfully, "though, certes, he
+would not volunteer to bear it company."
+
+"Colonel Cherin, general!" said the valet, as he flung open the door for
+a young officer in a staff-uniform. I arose at once to withdraw, but the
+general motioned to me to wait in an adjoining room, as he desired to
+speak with me again.
+
+Scarcely five minutes had elapsed when I was summoned once more before
+him.
+
+"You have come at a most opportune moment, Tiernay," said he; "Colonel
+Cherin informs me that an expedition is ready to sail from Rochelle at
+the first favorable wind. General Humbert has the command; and if you
+are disposed to join him I will give you a letter of presentation."
+
+Of course I did not hesitate in accepting the offer; and while the
+general drew over his desk to write the letter, I withdrew toward the
+window to converse with Colonel Cherin.
+
+"You might have waited long enough," said he, laughing, "if the affair
+had been in other hands than Humbert's. The delays and discussions of
+the official people, the difficulty of any thing like agreement, the
+want of money, and fifty other causes, would have detained the fleet
+till the English got scent of the whole. But Humbert has taken the short
+road in the matter. He only arrived at La Rochelle five days ago, and
+now he is ready to weigh anchor."
+
+"And in what way has he accomplished this?" asked I, in some curiosity.
+
+"By a method," replied he, laughing again, "which is usually reserved
+for an enemy's country. Growing weary of a correspondence with the
+minister, which seemed to make little progress, and urged on by the
+enthusiastic stories of the Irish refugees, he resolved to wait no
+longer; and so he has called on the merchants and magistrates to advance
+him a sum on military requisition, together with such stores and
+necessaries as he stands in need of."
+
+"And they have complied?" asked I.
+
+"Parbleu! that have they. In the first place, they had no other choice;
+and in the second, they are but too happy to get rid of him and his
+'Legion Noir,' as they are called, so cheaply. A thousand louis and a
+thousand muskets would not pay for the damage of these vagabonds each
+night they spent in the town."
+
+I confess that this description did not tend to exalt the enthusiasm I
+had conceived for the expedition; but it was too late for
+hesitation--too late for even a doubt. Go forward I should, whatever
+might come of it. And now the general had finished his letter, which,
+having sealed and addressed, he gave into my hand, saying, "This will
+very probably obtain you promotion, if not at once, at least on the
+first vacancy. Good-by, my lad; there may be hard knocks going where you
+will be, but I'm certain you'll not disgrace the good name you bear, nor
+the true cause for which you are fighting. I would that I had youth and
+strength to stand beside you in the struggle. Good-by."
+
+He shook me affectionately by both hands; the colonel, too, bade me
+adieu not less cordially; and I took my leave with a heart overflowing
+with gratitude and delight.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+LA ROCHELLE.
+
+La Rochelle is a quiet little town at the bottom of a small bay, the
+mouth of which is almost closed up by two islands. There is a sleepy,
+peaceful air about the place--a sort of drowsy languor pervades every
+thing and every body about it, that tells of a town whose days of busy
+prosperity have long since passed by, and which is dragging out life,
+like some retired tradesman--too poor for splendor, but rich enough to
+be idle. A long avenue of lime-trees incloses the harbor; and here the
+merchants conduct their bargains, while their wives, seated beneath the
+shade, discuss the gossip of the place over their work. All is
+patriarchal and primitive as Holland itself; the very courtesies of life
+exhibiting that ponderous stateliness which insensibly reminds one of
+the land of dykes and broad breeches. It is the least "French" of any
+town I have ever seen in France; none of that light merriment, that gay
+volatility of voice and air which form the usual atmosphere of a French
+town. All is still, orderly, and sombre; and yet on the night in
+which--something more than fifty years back--I first entered it, a very
+different scene was presented to my eyes.
+
+It was about ten o'clock; and by a moon nearly full, the diligence
+rattled along the covered ways of the old fortress, and crossing many a
+moat and draw-bridge, the scenes of a once glorious struggle, entered
+the narrow streets, traversed a wide place, and drew up within the ample
+portals of "La Poste."
+
+Before I could remove the wide capote which I wore, the waiter ushered
+me into a large salôn where a party of about forty persons were seated
+at supper. With a few exceptions they were all military officers, and
+sous-officiers of the expedition, whose noisy gayety and boisterous
+mirth sufficiently attested that the entertainment had begun a
+considerable time before.
+
+A profusion of bottles, some empty, others in the way to become so,
+covered the table, amidst which lay the fragments of a common
+table-d'hôte supper--large dishes of segars and basins of tobacco
+figuring beside the omelettes and the salad.
+
+The noise, the crash, the heat, the smoke, and the confusion--the
+clinking of glasses, the singing, and the speech-making, made a scene of
+such turmoil and uproar, that I would gladly have retired to some
+quieter atmosphere, when suddenly an accidental glimpse of my uniform
+caught some eyes among the revelers, and a shout was raised of "Holloa,
+comrades! here's one of the 'Gardes' among us." And at once the whole
+assembly rose up to greet me. For full ten minutes I had to submit to a
+series of salutations, which led to every form, from hand-shaking and
+embracing to kissing; while, perfectly unconscious of any cause for my
+popularity, I went through the ceremonies like one in a dream.
+
+"Where's Kilmaine?" "What of Hardy?" "Is Grouchy coming?" "Can the Brest
+fleet sail?" "How many line-of-battle ships have they?" "What's the
+artillery force?" "Have you brought any money?" This last question, the
+most frequent of all, was suddenly poured in upon me, and with a
+fortunate degree of rapidity, that I had no time for a reply, had I even
+the means of making one.
+
+"Let the lad have a seat and a glass of wine before he submits to this
+interrogatory," said a fine, jolly-looking old chef-d'escadron at the
+head of the table, while he made a place for me at his side. "Now, tell
+us, boy, what number of the Gardes are to be of our party?"
+
+I looked a little blank at the question, for in truth I had not heard of
+the corps before, nor was I aware that it was their uniform I was then
+wearing.
+
+"Come, come, be frank with us, lad," said he; "we are all comrades here.
+Confound secrecy, say I."
+
+"Ay, ay!" cried the whole assembly together--"confound secrecy. We are
+not bandits nor highwaymen; we have no need of concealment."
+
+"I'll be as frank as you can wish, comrades," said I; "and if I lose
+some importance in your eyes by owning that I am not the master of a
+single state secret, I prefer to tell you so, to attempting any unworthy
+disguise. I come here, by orders from General Kilmaine, to join your
+expedition; and except this letter for General Humbert, I have no claim
+to any consideration whatever."
+
+The old chef took the letter from my hands and examined the seal and
+superscription carefully, and then passed the document down the table
+for the satisfaction of the rest.
+
+While I continued to watch with anxious eyes the letter on which so much
+of my own fate depended, a low whispering conversation went on at my
+side, at the end of which the chef said:
+
+"It's more than likely, lad, that your regiment is not coming; but our
+general is not to be balked for that. Go he will; and let the government
+look to themselves if he is not supported. At all events, you had better
+see General Humbert at once; there's no saying what that dispatch may
+contain. Santerre, conduct him up stairs."
+
+A smart young fellow arose at the bidding, and beckoned me to follow
+him.
+
+It was not without difficulty that we forced our way up stairs, down
+which porters, and sailors, and soldiers were now carrying a number of
+heavy trunks and packing-cases. At last we gained an ante-room, where
+confusion seemed at its highest, crowded as it was by soldiers, the
+greater number of them intoxicated, and all in a state of riotous and
+insolent insubordination. Among these were a number of the townspeople,
+eager to prefer complaints for outrage and robbery, but whose subdued
+voices were drowned amid the clamor of their oppressors. Meanwhile,
+clerks were writing away receipts for stolen and pillaged articles, and
+which, signed with the name of the general, were grasped at with eager
+avidity. Even personal injuries were requited in the same cheap fashion,
+orders on the national treasury being freely issued for damaged noses
+and smashed heads, and gratefully received by the confiding populace.
+
+"If the wind draws a little more to the southward before morning, we'll
+pay our debts with the top-sail sheet, and it will be somewhat shorter,
+and to the full as honest," said a man in a naval uniform.
+
+"Where's the officer of the 'Regiment des Guides,'" cried a soldier from
+the door at the further end of the room; and before I had time to think
+over the designation of rank given me, I was hurried into the general's
+presence.
+
+General Humbert, whose age might have been thirty-eight or forty, was a
+tall, well-built, but somewhat over-corpulent man; his features frank
+and manly, but with a dash of coarseness in their expression,
+particularly about the mouth; a sabre-cut, which had divided the upper
+lip, and whose cicatrix was then seen through his mustache, heightening
+the effect of his sinister look; his carriage was singularly erect and
+soldierlike, but all his gestures betrayed the habits of one who had
+risen from the ranks, and was not unwilling to revive the recollection.
+
+He was parading the room from end to end when I entered, stopping
+occasionally to look out from an open window upon the bay, where by the
+clear moonlight might be seen the ships of the fleet at anchor. Two
+officers of his staff were writing busily at a table, whence the
+materials of a supper had not been removed. They did not look up as I
+came forward, nor did he notice me in any way for several minutes.
+Suddenly he turned toward me, and snatching the letter I held in my
+hand, proceeded to read it. A burst of coarse laughter broke from him as
+he perused the lines; and then throwing down the paper on the table, he
+cried out,
+
+"So much for Kilmaine's contingent. I asked for a company of engineers
+and a battalion of 'les Gardes,' and they send me a boy from the
+cavalry-school of Saumur. I tell them that I want some fellows
+conversant with the language and the people, able to treat with the
+peasantry, and acquainted with their habits, and here I have got a raw
+youth whose highest acquirement, in all likelihood, is to daub a map
+with water-colors, or take fortifications with a pair of compasses! I
+wish I had some of these learned gentlemen in the trenches for a few
+hours. Parbleu! I think I could teach them something they'd not learn
+from Citizen Carnot. Well, sir," said he, turning abruptly toward me,
+"how many battalions of the 'Guides' are completed?"
+
+"I can not tell, general," was my timid answer.
+
+"Where are they stationed?"
+
+"Of that also I am ignorant, sir."
+
+"Peste!" cried he, stamping his foot passionately; then suddenly
+checking his anger, he asked, "How many are there coming to join this
+expedition? Is there a regiment, a battalion, a company? Can you tell me
+with certainty that a sergeant's guard is on the way hither?"
+
+"I can not, sir; I know nothing whatever about the regiment in
+question."
+
+"You have never seen it?" cried he, vehemently.
+
+"Never, sir."
+
+"This exceeds all belief," exclaimed he, with a crash of his closed fist
+upon the table. "Three weeks letter-writing! Estafettes, orderlies, and
+special couriers to no end! And here we have an unfledged cur from a
+cavalry institute, when I asked for a strong reinforcement. Then what
+brought you here, boy?"
+
+"To join your expedition, general."
+
+"Have they told you it was a holiday-party that we had planned? Did they
+say it was a junketing we were bent upon?"
+
+"If they had, sir, I would not have come."
+
+"The greater fool _you_, then! that's all," cried he, laughing; "when I
+was your age, I'd not have hesitated twice between a merry-making and a
+bayonet-charge."
+
+While he was thus speaking, he never ceased to sign his name to every
+paper placed before him by one or other of the secretaries.
+
+"No, parbleu!" he went on, "La maitresse before the mitraille any day
+for me. But what's all this, Girard. Here I'm issuing orders upon the
+national treasury for hundreds of thousands without let or compunction."
+
+The aid-de-camp whispered a word or two in a low tone.
+
+"I know it, lad; I know it well," said the general, laughing heartily;
+"I only pray that all our requisitions may be as easily obtained in
+future. Well, Monsieur le Garde, what are we to do with you."
+
+"Not refuse me, I hope, general," said I, diffidently.
+
+"Not refuse you, certainly; but in what capacity to take you, lad,
+that's the question. If you had served--if you had even walked a
+campaign--"
+
+"So I have, general--this will show you where I have been;" and I handed
+him the "livret" which every soldier carries of his conduct and career.
+
+He took the book, and casting his eyes hastily over it, exclaimed,
+
+"Why, what's this lad? You've been at Kehl, at Emenendingen, at
+Rorshach, at Huyningen, through all that Black Forest affair with
+Moreau! You _have_ seen smoke, then. Ay! I see honorable mention of you
+besides, for readiness in the field and zeal during action. What! more
+brandy! Girard. Why, our Irish friends must have been exceedingly
+thirsty. I've given them credit for something like ten thousand 'velts'
+already! No matter, the poor fellows may have to put up with short
+rations for all this yet--and there goes my signature once more. What
+does that blue light mean, Girard?" said he, pointing to a bright blue
+star that shone from a mast of one of the ships of war.
+
+"That is the signal, general, that the embarkation of the artillery is
+complete."
+
+"Parbleu!" said he, with a laugh, "it need not have taken long; they've
+given in two batteries of eights, and one of them has not a gun fit for
+service. There goes a rocket, now. Isn't that the signal to heave short
+on the anchors? Yes, to be sure. And now it is answered by the other!
+Ha! lads, this does look like business at last!"
+
+The door opened as he spoke, and a naval officer entered.
+
+"The wind is drawing round to the south, general; we can weigh with the
+ebb if you wish it."
+
+"Wish it!--if I wish it! Yes, with my whole heart and soul I do! I am
+just as sick of La Rochelle as is La Rochelle of me. The salute that
+announces our departure will be a 'feu-de-joie' to both of us. Ay, sir,
+tell your captain that I need no further notice than that _he_ is ready.
+Girard, see to it that the marauders are sent on board in irons. The
+fellows must learn at once that discipline begins when we trip our
+anchors. As for you," said he, turning to me, "you shall act upon my
+staff with provisional rank as sous-lieutenant: time will show if the
+grade should be confirmed. And now hasten down to the quay, and put
+yourself under Colonel Lerrasin's orders."
+
+Colonel Lerrasin, the second in command, was, in many respects, the very
+opposite of Humbert. Sharp, petulant, and irascible, he seemed quite to
+overlook the fact, that, in an expedition which was little better than a
+foray, there must necessarily be a great relaxation of the rules of
+discipline, and many irregularities at least winked at, which, in
+stricter seasons, would call for punishment. The consequence was, that a
+large proportion of our force went on board under arrest, and many
+actually in irons. The Irish were, without a single exception, all
+drunk; and the English soldiers, who had procured their liberation from
+imprisonment on condition of joining the expedition, had made
+sufficiently free with the brandy-bottle to forget their new alliance,
+and vent their hatred of France and Frenchmen in expressions whose only
+alleviation was, that they were nearly unintelligible.
+
+Such a scene of uproar, discord, and insubordination never was seen. The
+relative conditions of guard and prisoner elicited national animosities
+that were scarcely even dormant, and many a bloody encounter took place
+between those whose instinct was too powerful to feel themselves any
+thing but enemies. A cry, too, was raised, that it was meant to betray
+the whole expedition to the English, whose fleet, it was asserted, had
+been seen off Oleron, that morning; and although there was not even the
+shadow of a foundation for the belief, it served to increase the alarm
+and confusion. Whether originating or not with the Irish, I can not say,
+but certainly they took advantage of it to avoid embarking; and now
+began a schism which threatened to wreck the whole expedition, even in
+the harbor.
+
+The Irish, as indifferent to the call of discipline as they were
+ignorant of French, refused to obey orders save from officers of their
+own country; and, although Lerrasin ordered two companies to "load with
+ball and fire low," the similar note for preparation from the
+insurgents, induced him to rescind the command and try a compromise. In
+this crisis I was sent by Lerrasin to fetch what was called the
+"Committee," the three Irish deputies who accompanied the force. They
+had already gone aboard of the Dedalus, little foreseeing the
+difficulties that were to arise on shore.
+
+Seated in a small cabin next the wardroom, I found these three
+gentlemen, whose names were Tone, Teeling, and Sullivan. Their attitudes
+were gloomy and despondent, and their looks anything but encouraging, as
+I entered. A paper on which a few words had been scrawled, and signed
+with their three names underneath, lay before them, and on this their
+eyes were bent with a sad and deep meaning. I knew not then what it
+meant, but I afterward learned that it was a compact formally entered
+into and drawn up, that if, by the chance of war, they should fall into
+the enemy's hands, they would anticipate their fate by suicide, but
+leave to the English government all the ignominy and disgrace of their
+death.
+
+They seemed scarcely to notice me as I came forward, and even when I
+delivered my message they heard it with a half indifference.
+
+"What do you want us to do, sir?" said Teeling, the eldest of the party.
+"We hold no command in the service. It was against our advice and
+counsel that you accepted these volunteers at all. We have no influence
+over them."
+
+"Not the slightest," broke in Tone. "These fellows are bad soldiers and
+worse Irishmen. The expedition will do better without them."
+
+"And _they_ better without the expedition," muttered Sullivan, drily.
+
+"But you will come, gentlemen, and speak to them," said I. "You can at
+least assure them that their suspicions are unfounded."
+
+"Very true, sir," replied Sullivan, "we can do so, but with what
+success? No, no. If you can't maintain discipline here on your own soil,
+you'll make a bad hand of doing it when you have your foot on Irish
+ground. And, after all, I for one am not surprised at the report gaining
+credence."
+
+"How so, sir," asked I, indignantly.
+
+"Simply that when a promise of fifteen thousand men dwindles down to a
+force of eight hundred; when a hundred thousand stand of arms come to be
+represented by a couple of thousand; when an expedition, pledged by a
+government, has fallen down to a marauding party; when Hoche or
+Kleber--But never mind, I always swore that if you sent but a corporal's
+guard, I'd go with them."
+
+A musket-shot here was heard, followed by a sharp volley and a cheer,
+and, in an agony of anxiety, I rushed to the deck. Although above half a
+mile from the shore, we could see the movement of troops hither and
+thither, and hear the loud words of command. Whatever the struggle, it
+was over in a moment, and now we saw the troops descending the steps to
+the boats. With an inconceivable speed the men fell into their places,
+and, urged on by the long sweeps, the heavy launches swept across the
+calm water of the bay.
+
+If a cautious reserve prevented any open questioning as to the late
+affray, the second boat which came alongside revealed some of its
+terrible consequences. Seven wounded soldiers were assisted up the side
+by their comrades, and in total silence conveyed to their station
+between decks.
+
+"A bad augury this!" muttered Sullivan, as his eye followed them. "They
+might as well have left that work for the English!"
+
+A swift six-oar boat, with the tricolor flag floating from a flag-staff
+at her stern, now skimmed along toward us, and as she came nearer, we
+could recognize the uniforms of the officers of Humbert's staff, while
+the burly figure of the general himself was soon distinguishable in the
+midst of them.
+
+As he stepped up the ladder, not a trace of displeasure could be seen on
+his broad bold features. Greeting the assembled officers with a smile,
+he asked how the wind was?
+
+"All fair, and freshening at every moment," was the answer.
+
+"May it continue!" cried he, fervently. "Welcome a hurricane, if it only
+waft us westward!"
+
+The foresail filled out as he spoke, the heavy mass heaved over to the
+wind, and we began our voyage.
+
+(_To be continued._)
+
+
+
+
+[From Colburn's Magazine.]
+
+THE WAHR-WOLF; OR, THE LOVERS OF HUNDERSDORF.
+
+
+There are few rambles that so well repay the summer wanderer who seeks
+for novelty, after the fatigues of a London season, as a voyage down the
+Danube from Ratisbon to Vienna. In the days when the charming "Lady
+Mary" passed along the swelling waters of the dark river in one of the
+"wooden houses" which she found so convenient, the romantic solitudes of
+the majestic Böhmer-wald had never been disturbed by the hissing of
+steam; and swiftly as her boat glided onward between the solemn banks of
+the then little frequented stream, the pace of the steamer which now
+bears the traveler to his destination, would shame the rowers of the
+enterprising embassadress, and leave her far behind.
+
+The native boats, _Weitz-zille_, are not, however, altogether banished
+from the watery way which they traversed alone but a few years since;
+and very picturesque is it to meet them as they float lazily on, urged
+by their two rowers, and guided by primitive-looking paddles. Many are
+the long, deal, raft-shaped vessels which still convey goods from one
+town to another; and strange do they appear with their sides painted
+with broad black stripes, some of them upward of a hundred feet long.
+
+From the deck of the narrow and elongated steamer the traveler can now
+with proud pity watch those relics of a simple period, and congratulate
+himself that his course is both swifter and surer.
+
+A party of strangers from Ratisbon had taken their places on board the
+steam-packet, and were rapidly clearing the waters beneath the rock of
+Donaustauf, gazing with admiration on the evidence of two eras presented
+in the gray ruins of the formidable middle-age fortress which crowns one
+height, and the piled-up white marble blocks of the recently completed
+temple of Valhalla, which shines so gloriously on the other, fairly
+eclipsing its antique brother, and lording it over the spreading waters,
+in which the image of its snowy columns lies reflected.
+
+There were travelers of many nations on board, and all, attracted by the
+sudden vision of this magnificent structure, fraternized to welcome it
+with exclamations of delight, uttered in various languages. Germans,
+French, and English were alike carried away with admiration; and those
+who had already beheld its wonders within became quite eloquent in
+describing to their neighbors the treasures with which this
+unapproachably splendid temple is filled to overflowing.
+
+This incident, at the very beginning of the voyage, made most of the
+passengers acquainted, so that the usual coldness and reserve common to
+northern nations was at once swept away, and animated conversation
+ensued. Among the passengers were two young Englishmen, who had been
+pointed out to the party leaving Ratisbon, by the porter of the Goldene
+Kreutz--(the house in which it is said Don Juan of Austria, the famous
+son of Charles V., was born in secrecy)--as "milors," though their
+weather-worn costumes gave but little idea of the importance of their
+station; they had attached themselves to a stately but courteous
+Bohemian baron, who, with a train of servants and carriages more than
+commonly well-appointed, was on his way to his castle situated opposite
+Vilshofen on the left bank of the river.
+
+The baron was well acquainted with every nook and corner in every valley
+of the winding Danube; and as he was full of good-humor, and described
+well, and, besides, was flattered at the interest his hearers took in
+his conversation, he enlivened the voyage by a continuous narration of
+circumstances which had fallen under his observation.
+
+A legend seldom comes amiss to an Englishman, and enthusiasm is never
+wanting in his mind for magnificent scenery, such as abounds on this
+glorious river, which possesses much of the beauty of the Rhine, and
+superior grandeur and sublimity. Perhaps its waters are scarcely so
+abounding, or its bed so filled to the brim, as that of the Rhine
+throughout its course; but, at times, one is half inclined to give the
+palm, even in this respect, to the more majestic rival of the beautiful
+torrent now so familiar to tourists as to have become an unappreciated
+treasure of picturesque riches.
+
+The baron directed the attention of his companions to all that was wild
+and striking in the scenes around them. As they passed Straubing he told
+the sad tale of poor Agnes Bernauer, the Agnes de Castro of the Danube,
+whose fate was even more terrible. The Englishmen shuddered as they
+looked on the spot where the old bridge stood, from whence the fair
+unfortunate was cast, and felt inclined to reproach the very waves which
+submitted to assist the crime of the cruel wretch whose hook dragged the
+shrieking beauty under water, and drowned her as she struggled to reach
+the shore.
+
+He told stories of the dark Bogenberg, as they now approached, now lost
+it in the windings of the capricious river; and related how the Emperor
+Charlemagne had visited a holy hermit there, whom he beheld, after
+cutting down a tree, hang his ax upon a sunbeam, a feat frequently
+performed by saints, who, in days of yore, seemed to have no other pegs
+for their mantles, caps, &c.
+
+His Satanic Majesty also figured as a conspicuous actor in the baron's
+legends, and the evidences of his prowess are sufficiently remarkable,
+it must be confessed, in these regions.
+
+For instance, it would be absurd to imagine any influence but that of
+the foul fiend could have been exerted to place the perpendicular rock
+of Natternberg in the way of the steamer, rising up suddenly, as it
+does, several hundred feet above the waters, and exhibiting on its
+rugged summit the ruins of the famous castle of Bogen, to reach which
+must have required help from the bad spirit himself, perched thus high
+out of reach. The lords of this castle were, however, such zealous
+worshipers of his, that doubtless he was not niggardly to them in
+lending a helping hand when called upon.
+
+It was while the steamer was gliding past the village of Hundersdorf,
+which lies at the embouchure of the stream of Kinzach, that the baron
+bethought himself of a circumstance which occasioned him to smile, as he
+exclaimed,
+
+"There is nothing very striking, you will say, in that little place; but
+a story was once told me concerning it which gives it a sort of fearful
+interest. But I have already tired you with too many of my legends, and
+will spare you this."
+
+"By no means," said one of the Englishmen. "We can not let you off so.
+Of course, in a place so close to the mysterious Bogenberg, there must
+be something more than common."
+
+"Oh, if you really like to hear what attracts me toward this
+insignificant village," replied the baron, "I am ready to tell the story
+as it was told to me."
+
+His auditors, grouping themselves round him as he spoke, he accordingly
+continued as follows:
+
+After a gloomy cold day the evening set in chill and dreary, and in
+spite of all the efforts I had made to reach Vilshofen before dark, I
+found myself, owing to various vexatious delays, benighted in one of
+the desolate passes of the majestic mountain range which borders the
+left bank of the Danube. The gloom became every moment deeper and
+deeper, and to proceed appeared almost impracticable; however, as the
+prospect of passing the night in the woods held out but small
+temptation, I urged my people forward, and accordingly we drove rapidly
+on, hoping at least to reach some spot more sheltered than the spectral
+valley where we found ourselves. Our haste was of little avail; the
+spirits of the mountains seemed to laugh our efforts to scorn; and to
+prove how much travelers are in their power, they so contrived it that
+the wheels of my carriage coming in contact with a heap of rugged
+stones, a violent overturn took place, and our further progress was
+altogether stopped. We had no choice now but to kindle a fire under a
+huge tree, dispose our cloaks and baggage so as to afford us some
+protection from the night air, and wait for dawn before we attempted to
+trust ourselves again in the shattered vehicle.
+
+Resolving to submit with a good grace to our misfortune, we produced our
+stock of provisions, which hunger made particularly palatable. The fire
+soon blazed cheerfully; and as masters and men drew round it, we began
+to think our adventure less woeful than we at first considered it. It
+was agreed that those of our party who were the most fatigued should
+endeavor to procure some sleep, while the watchful should nurse the
+useful flame which not only warmed but might protect us from the visits
+of wild animals, should any be attracted toward our neighborhood. We had
+with us a stout Bavarian, whose lively eyes told that he had little more
+inclination to sleep than myself: he and I therefore seated ourselves on
+the knotted roots of the ancient oak, and to beguile the time I asked
+him some particulars of the country, new at that time to me, but with
+which he seemed well acquainted. We are at this moment passing the
+places he named; and he said he had traversed these mountains during
+many years, indeed, had we followed his advice at Straubing, we had not
+then been sitting by the fire, benighted wanderers, listening to him as
+you now listen to me.
+
+"It is unlucky," said the Bavarian, "that there is no moon, for these
+heights look well in her broad light and shade; I could otherwise point
+out to you many a remarkable spot hereabouts. On the summit of the
+highest of these mountains stand the ruins of the famous Stammschloss of
+Bogenberg, once belonging to the powerful counts of that race, who
+lorded it over all the country they could see from their strong-hold,
+far into Bohemia. But it is long since their revels are over, and all is
+silent enough in those walls, except on the festivals of the
+Wahr-wolves, and then indeed there is such a noise and riot that one
+might think the old knights and their vassals were once more engaged in
+contest with their ancient enemies of Ortenburg."
+
+"What mean you," asked I, "by the Wahr-wolves?"
+
+He stared with astonishment.
+
+"Is it possible," said he, "that you have not heard of them? They are
+certainly more rare of late years, yet there are still too many in the
+country."
+
+"Are they banditti?" said I, instinctively laying my hand on my pistol.
+
+"Not so," he replied; "since you seem so surprised I will explain. A
+Wahr-wolf is a man who has entered into a compact with the Black
+Huntsman, which enables him to change his human shape for that of a
+wolf, and resume his own form at will. There are many men whom you would
+never suspect of such a thing who are known to be of the fraternity.
+They meet sometimes in bands and scour the country, doing more mischief
+than natural wolves, for when they get into a farm they make wild havoc,
+and are mighty beer-drinkers; sometimes, not content with drinking up
+all the beer they can find, they pile up the empty barrels in the middle
+of the cellar, and go off howling loud enough to scare the whole
+country. You smile, but I know a fact relating to one of them which many
+besides myself can vouch for as having occurred. A farmer from
+Straubing, with some of his people, was passing through these very
+mountains, and being overtaken by night, as we are, but not like us
+furnished with provisions, one of his men offered to procure some food,
+if they would all promise not to tell how he did it. Whereupon he went
+away, and in a short time they heard the howling of a wolf; presently
+one came in sight bearing a sheep which he had killed. They ran to hide
+themselves, but he quietly laid down his prey, and, turning about, ran
+off to the heights. Their companion returned not long after, quite out
+of breath and much fatigued. They proceeded to cut up and roast part of
+the slaughtered animal; but none of them would hold fellowship with the
+man afterward, because they knew him at once to be a Wahr-wolf."
+
+"Do you really credit this?" said I; "and could you suspect a companion
+of so incredible a propensity?"
+
+"When I tell you what was witnessed and recounted to me by my own
+father," said the Bavarian, with great gravity, "you will allow that I
+have reasons for my belief.
+
+"Hundersdorf is the native place of our family, and there, when my
+father was quite young, lived a mother and her two daughters, Margaret
+and Agatha. The first was soon married to a worthy man, a farmer, who by
+ill-luck took into his service a young fellow named Augustin Schultes.
+No one, to look at him, would have thought his face boded aught but
+good, he was so handsome, so gay, and obliging.
+
+"It was not long before he fell in love with the pretty Agatha, who was
+the general favorite of the village, though somewhat proud and shy. At
+first she looked down upon the servant of her brother-in-law, but by
+degrees was won by his insinuating behavior, for women seldom look
+beyond the outside. Her mother, however, would not listen to his or her
+entreaties, and nothing but weeping, scolding, and discontent was to be
+found in the cottage. All on a sudden every thing seemed altered; and
+whereas Augustin never dared to cross the threshold of their house, he
+was now a constant guest. By-and-by he left off service and bought a bit
+of land of his own and some sheep, having had, according to his own
+report, a legacy left him. This latter circumstance explained the change
+in the behavior of Agatha's mother, for a poor suitor and a rich one are
+widely different persons, and many who had never said a word in
+Augustin's favor, now came forward with offers of friendship. Heinrich
+Ziegler, however, an unsuccessful lover of Agatha's, was still heard on
+all occasions to speak slightingly of Augustin, throwing out hints that
+his money was not got in an honest way, so that his insinuations filled
+the minds of the neighbors with suspicions which they could not account
+for. Some thought he dealt in magic, or had found the Great Secret; but
+none imagined the truth, which at last came to light.
+
+"It happened one evening that my father was returning from work, and had
+to pass through a small wood which leads to the village; and, as the
+shades began to fall, he hurried on, because there are many strange
+things happen in these places which no good Christian should care to
+look upon. Suddenly he heard voices not far off, and, as he thought he
+recognized them, he stopped to ascertain, when he clearly distinguished
+those of Heinrich and Augustin, at least so it seemed to him.
+
+"'Augustin,' said the former, 'it is of no use; if you do not resign her
+I will tell the whole truth, and force you to give her up; for as soon
+as it is known what you are--'
+
+"'Tush!' interrupted the other, 'what better are you yourself? Did we
+not take the oath together, and are not you as deeply implicated as I
+am. Our master provides us with all we want, and our duty is not so very
+hard.'
+
+"'I tell you,' muttered Heinrich, sullenly, 'my duty is much worse than
+yours; the worst of yours is over, mine is but begun. Am I not obliged
+to scour the country in the darkest night _to bring sheep to your
+fold_?'
+
+"My father shuddered, a fearful suspicion darkened his mind, which was
+soon confirmed by what followed. Heinrich continued:
+
+"'You get the reward and I the pain; but I will no longer endure it;
+either give me up the gold you obtain through my means, or give me up
+Agatha.'
+
+"They then spoke together, too low to be heard, but my father gathered
+enough to learn that Augustin promised to take from his comrade the hard
+duty he complained of being obliged to perform at night; and still
+muttering to each other words of import which my father could not
+comprehend, they passed on, and he, terrified and his hair bristling
+with horror, hurried through the wood and reached home he scarcely knew
+how.
+
+"He resolved to watch the proceedings of the two comrades narrowly, and
+in a little time observed that Augustin's looks were much impaired;
+that he went about in the daytime fatigued and haggard, while Heinrich,
+who before was dull and heavy, assumed a more cheerful aspect. At length
+the time was fixed for the marriage of Agatha and Augustin, and as it
+approached he felt greatly disturbed, on considering the conversation he
+had overheard: he tried to persuade himself that he had mistaken the
+voices or the words, but he still could not divest himself of the
+conviction that the two men whose mysterious words he had listened to
+were no other than Augustin and Heinrich, and they were, beyond all
+possibility of doubt, Wahr-wolves!
+
+"The day before the wedding was to take place, he directed his steps to
+the cottage, and there found Agatha's mother alone; she was sitting in
+the window, with a face of wonder and alarm, and held in her hand a
+small piece of paper, which, as he entered, she handed to him.
+
+"'Read this,' said she; 'you are an old friend, advise me what to do to
+save my poor child.'
+
+"On the paper was written, 'Let Agatha fly from the Wahr-wolf.'
+
+"My father turned pale, and on the widow's earnest entreaties that he
+would assist her with his advice, he related all he knew. Great was her
+amazement and despair; the more so, as she felt certain that Agatha
+would never credit the fact, and must inevitably fall a sacrifice. While
+we were in this perplexity, we were startled by the sudden appearance of
+Heinrich. His face was very pale, and his eyes wild.
+
+"'You doubtless wonder,' said he, 'to see me here, and the more so when
+I tell you that I come as a saviour to your daughter. I alone have the
+means of delivering her, and if you will confide in me, she shall escape
+the fate which hangs over her.'
+
+"He then proceeded to relate that, won over by the deceitful persuasions
+of Augustin, he had consented to become his companion in his unhallowed
+proceedings; but, having repented, he now resolved to reveal the wicked
+practices of his late friend; and if the mother of Agatha would be
+guided by him, he would deliver her daughter from all harm. After much
+difficulty the mother, by my father's persuasions, at last agreed to
+trust him, as no better means offered; and accordingly, having obliged
+Heinrich to take a solemn oath of his sincerity, they resolved to
+assemble several neighbors, and to put themselves under the guidance of
+this new friend.
+
+"It was night when the whole party met, not far from the gate of
+Augustin's cottage. Heinrich advanced first, and, at a signal from him,
+every man concealed himself till it was observed that Augustin came out
+of the house, and proceeded cautiously onward till he reached the
+cemetery just without the village; the watchful band still close on his
+track.
+
+"He there began to undress himself, and having done so, hid his clothes
+under a grave-stone. Scarcely had he finished this arrangement, when
+the hoarse cry of a raven seemed to startle him, and the sound was
+presently answered by a low howl, when, to the inexpressible horror of
+all present, a hideous wolf rushed forth, as if from the tombs, and was
+lost in the surrounding gloom.
+
+"No one could stir from the spot where each stood but Heinrich, who
+darted toward the place where the garments were hid, and drawing them
+forth, wrapped them in a heap, and calling to the petrified group who
+looked on, bade them follow. They did so, and having returned to the
+village, prepared to complete the directions of Heinrich, who ordered a
+large fire to be made, into which all the clothes were thrown; but, to
+the surprise of all, among them was discovered the hood and vail of a
+female. They were burned with the rest, and as the last spark of the
+fire died away, the face of Heinrich seemed to have caught its glow, so
+fierce was the expression of his eyes, as he exclaimed,
+
+"'Now the work of vengeance is complete; now the Black Huntsman has his
+own!'
+
+"He told the trembling lookers-on that on the destruction of these
+habiliments depended the Wahr-wolf's power of resuming his human shape,
+which had now become quite impossible.
+
+"After all these ceremonies, each person returned to his respective
+dwelling; but my father was unable to obtain a moment's rest all night,
+for the continual shrieking of a raven close to his window. As day
+dawned the annoyance ceased, and he rose the next morning hoping all he
+had witnessed the preceding night was a dream. However, he hastened to
+the house of Agatha, and there he found all in confusion and dismay. She
+could be nowhere found, nor any trace of her discovered. Heinrich was in
+more consternation than any one, and hurried up and down almost
+distracted.
+
+"My father now related how his rest had been disturbed by the hoarse
+cries of the raven, and said that such an omen boded no good. He then
+proposed seeking for the unfortunate girl in the cemetery, as perhaps,
+her mysterious lover had murdered and buried her in one of the tombs. At
+the mention of this suspicion, a new light seemed to burst on the
+awe-struck Heinrich. He suddenly called out in a piercing voice,
+
+"'The hood--the vail!--it is too plain, I have betrayed him, and lost
+her forever. I burnt her garments, and doubtless, he had taught her his
+infernal art, so that she can never be restored to her human form. She
+will remain a raven, and he a Wahr-wolf, forever!'
+
+"So saying, he gnashed his teeth with rage, and, with a wild look,
+rushed from the house. No one observed where he went, but, from that
+hour, neither he, nor Augustin, nor Agatha, were ever beheld in the
+village of Hundersdorf; though often, on a wintry night, the howling of
+wolves is heard not far off, and the ill-boding scream of the raven is
+sure to echo their horrid yells."
+
+Such was the wild tale of the Bavarian; and when he had finished, I was
+so impressed with the earnestness of his manner, and the firm belief he
+attached to this strange relation, that I was not sorry to hear the
+voices of my awaking companions, nor unrelieved to observe that day was
+breaking. We soon resumed our journey, and it was with little regret I
+quitted the gloomy valley where I had listened to the fearful legend of
+the Wahr-wolf.
+
+The superstition is scarcely even yet done away with in these parts, in
+spite of the march of civilization, which has sent steam-boats on the
+Danube to drive away such follies. I believe, however, there are few
+places now, except in the Böhmer-wald, where such monstrous fables are
+believed. Such a belief was once current all over France, and, indeed,
+wherever wolves existed; but as our robber chiefs end black bands are
+pretty well rooted out, no one has any interest in keeping up the credit
+of these imaginary culprits.
+
+"But see," exclaimed the baron, "we are arrived at Vilshofen, and I am
+obliged to leave off my gossip, and allow you to pursue your way toward
+Vienna. Yonder are the walls of my domicile, and here I must bid you
+farewell."
+
+
+
+
+A TRUE GHOST STORY.
+
+
+"Did you ever hear," said a friend once to me, "a real true ghost story,
+one you might depend upon?"
+
+"There are not many such to be heard," I replied, "and I am afraid it
+has never been my good fortune to meet with those who were really able
+to give me a genuine, well-authenticated story."
+
+"Well, you shall never have cause to say so again; and as it was an
+adventure that happened to myself, you can scarcely think it other than
+well authenticated. I know you to be no coward, or I might hesitate
+before I told it to you. You need not stir the fire; there is plenty of
+light by which you can hear it. And now to begin. I had been riding hard
+one day in the autumn for nearly five or six hours, through some of the
+most tempestuous weather to which it had ever been my ill luck to be
+exposed. It was just about the time of the Equinox, and perfect
+hurricanes swept over the hills, as if every wind in heaven had broken
+loose, and had gone mad, and on every hill the rain and driving sleet
+poured down in one unbroken shower.
+
+"When I reached the head of Wentford valley--you know the place, a
+narrow ravine with rocks on one side, and those rich full woods (not
+that they were very full then, for the winds had shaken them till there
+was scarcely a leaf on their bare rustling branches) on the other, with
+a clear little stream winding through the hollow dell--when I came to
+the entrance of this valley, weather-beaten veteran as I was, I scarcely
+knew how to hold on my way; the wind, as it were, held in between the
+two high banks, rushed like a river just broken loose into a new
+course, carrying with it a perfect sheet of rain, against which my poor
+horse and I struggled with considerable difficulty: still I went on, for
+the village lay at the other end, and I had a patient to see there, who
+had sent a very urgent message, entreating me to come to him as soon as
+possible. We are slaves to a message, we poor medical men, and I urged
+on my poor jaded brute with a keen relish for the warm fire and good
+dinner that awaited me as soon as I could see my unfortunate patient,
+and get back to a home doubly valued on such a day as that in which I
+was then out. It was indeed dreary riding in such weather; and the scene
+altogether, through which I passed, was certainly not the most conducive
+toward raising a man's spirits; but I positively half wished myself out
+in it all again, rather than sit the hour I was obliged to spend by the
+sick-bed of the wretched man I had been summoned to visit. He had met
+with an accident the day before, and as he had been drinking up to the
+time, and the people had delayed sending for me, I found him in a
+frightful state of fever; and it was really an awful thing either to
+look at or to hear him. He was delirious, and perfectly furious; and his
+face, swelled with passion, and crimson with the fever that was burning
+him up, was a sight to frighten children, and not one calculated to add
+to the tranquillity even of full-grown men. I dare say you think me very
+weak, and that I ought to have been inured to such things, minding his
+ravings no more than the dash of the rain against the window; but,
+during the whole of my practice, I had never seen man or woman, in
+health or in fever, in so frightful a state of furious frenzy, with the
+impress of every bad passion stamped so broadly and fearfully upon the
+face; and, in the miserable hovel that then held me with his old
+witch-like mother standing by, the babel of the wind and rain outside
+added to the ravings of the wretched creature within. I began to feel
+neither in a happy nor an enviable frame of mind. There is nothing so
+frightful as where the reasonable spirit seems to abandon man's body,
+and leave it to a fiend instead.
+
+"After an hour or more waiting patiently by his bedside, not liking to
+leave the helpless old woman alone with so dangerous a companion (for I
+could not answer for any thing he might do in his frenzy), I thought
+that the remedies by which I hoped in some measure to subdue the fever,
+seemed beginning to take effect, and that I might leave him, promising
+to send all that was necessary, though fearing much that he had gone
+beyond all my power to restore him; and desiring that I might
+immediately be called back again, should he get worse instead of better,
+which I felt almost certain would be the case, I hastened homeward, glad
+enough to be leaving wretched huts and raving men, driving rain and
+windy hills, for a comfortable house, dry clothes, a warm fire, and a
+good dinner. I think I never saw such a fire in my life as the one that
+blazed up my chimney; it looked so wonderfully warm and bright, and
+there seemed an indescribable air of comfort about the room which I had
+never noticed before. One would have thought I should have enjoyed it
+all intensely after my wet ride, but throughout the whole evening, the
+scenes of the day would keep recurring to my mind with most
+uncomfortable distinctness, and it was in vain that I endeavored to
+forget it all in a book, one of my old favorites too; so at last I
+fairly gave up the attempt, as the hideous face would come continually
+between my eyes and an especially good passage; and I went off to bed
+heartily tired, and expecting sleep very readily to visit me. Nor was I
+disappointed: I was soon deep asleep, though my last thought was on the
+little valley I had left. How long this heavy and dreamless sleep
+continued, I can not tell, but gradually I felt consciousness returning,
+in the shape of the very thoughts with which I fell asleep, and at last
+I opened my eyes, thoroughly roused by a heavy blow at my window. I can
+not describe my horror, when, by the light of a moon struggling among
+the heavy surge-like clouds, I saw the very face, the face of _that_ man
+looking in at me through the casement, the eyes distended and the face
+pressed close to the glass. I started up in bed, to convince myself that
+I really was awake, and not suffering from some frightful dream; there
+it staid, perfectly moveless, its wide ghastly eyes fixed unwaveringly
+on mine, which, by a kind of fascination, became equally fixed and
+rigid, gazing upon the dreadful face, which alone without a body was
+visible at the window, unless an indefinable black shadow, that seemed
+to float beyond it, might be fancied into one. I can scarcely tell how
+long I so sat looking at it, but I remember something of a rushing
+sound, a feeling of relief, a falling exhausted back upon my pillow, and
+then I awoke in the morning ill and unrefreshed. I was ill at ease, and
+the first question I asked, on coming down stairs, was, whether any
+messenger had come to summon me to Wentford. A messenger had come, they
+told me, but it was to say I need trouble myself no further, as the man
+was already beyond all aid, having died about the middle of the night. I
+never felt so strangely in my life as when they told me this, and my
+brain almost reeled as the events of the previous day and night passed
+through my mind in rapid succession. That I had seen something
+supernatural in the darkness of the night, I had never doubted, but when
+the sun shone brightly into my room in the morning, through the same
+window, where I had seen so frightful and strange a sight by the
+spectral light of the moon, I began to believe more it was a dream, and
+endeavored to ridicule myself out of all uncomfortable feelings, which,
+nevertheless, I could not quite shake off. Haunted by what I considered
+a painful dream, I left my room, and the first thing I heard was a
+confirmation of what I had been for the last hour endeavoring to reason
+and ridicule myself out of believing. It was some hours before I could
+recover my ordinary tranquillity; and then it came back, not slowly as
+you might have expected, as the impression gradually wore off, and time
+wrought his usual changes in mind as in body, but suddenly--by the
+discovery that our large white owl had escaped during the night, and had
+honored my window with a visit before he became quite accustomed to his
+liberty."
+
+
+
+
+[From the London Critic.]
+
+SKETCHES OF LIFE. BY A RADICAL.
+
+
+It was an error to call this work[25] the autobiography of an
+individual. It is a picturing--faithful, minute, and eloquent--of the
+hardships, the sufferings, and the miseries endured by a large mass of
+our fellow men. It is an earnest and honest exposure of the hollowness
+that infests English society--an insight to the weakness of the
+substratum. It shows what education should have done, and what
+corruption really has done. ALTON LOCKE is also a personification of the
+failings, as well as of the sufferings, that make up the sum of
+existence of a large class.
+
+The author has effectually carried out his design--we will not say
+altogether with artistic consistency, or with book-making propriety. We
+know it is deemed a great offense against taste to make a novel the
+medium of exposing social dangers, or political inequalities and wrongs.
+We know that those who stick up for "the model," would have a fiction
+all fiction, or at least that the philosophy be very subordinate and the
+social aim be hidden so completely as not to be discernible excepting to
+the professional reader. But _Alton Locke_ is an exception to all these
+objections. Spite of its defects, it is a perfect work--perfect, that it
+is invested with an air of the wildest romance, while it goes home to
+the heart and the judgment as a faithful picture--perfect, that it is
+eloquent and natural, and consistent with itself. It is one of those
+books which defy classification. We have not seen its like. And to those
+readers who accept our eulogy in earnest, _Alton Locke_ will ever remain
+a token of rich enjoyment, and a memento that 1850 did produce at least
+one cherishable book.
+
+The story of the biography will not impress so much or so favorably as
+the style. The hero is a widow's only child: his mother is a stern
+Calvinist. Her teachings, and the teaching of the vipers in religious
+form who come to administer consolation and to drink the old lady's tea,
+are hateful to an intense degree to ALTON. He is of a poetic
+temperament, and a great admirer of nature. Opportunities of indulging
+his natural tastes are denied him. Born in a close London street, very
+rigidly watched and governed by his mother and the good men who come to
+visit her, his life is any thing but pleasant. But he subsequently
+becomes a tailor, reads largely, writes verses, turns Chartist, falls
+in love, and is imprisoned for spouting Chartism. The upshot of his
+rough life is, that he becomes a true Christian.
+
+Several characters are hit off with great perfection. Such is the mother
+of ALTON; and such is SANDYE MACKAYE, a friend to whom the boy
+occasionally ran for sympathy, and to borrow books.
+
+But we will now draw upon the pages of the work itself, merely repeating
+that it is a remarkable composition, and one which men in high places
+would do well to ponder. It is a growth from the defects of our time,
+and should be taken as a presage that change must come. The working-men
+of this country will be indebted to ALTON LOCKE for the manner in which
+he pleads their cause; all men should be gratified that the warning
+voice, which he will inevitably be deemed, is so moderate in tone and so
+philosophical in manner.
+
+ALTON'S youth, we have said, was not happy. The following are his
+descriptions of his mother, and one of her associates:
+
+
+ALTON'S MOTHER AND THE MISSIONARY.
+
+"My mother moved by rule and method; by God's law, as she considered,
+and that only. She seldom smiled. Her word was absolute. She never
+commanded twice, without punishing. And yet there were abysses of
+unspoken tenderness in her, as well as clear, sound, womanly sense and
+insight. But she thought herself as much bound to keep down all
+tenderness as if she had been some ascetic of the middle ages--so do
+extremes meet! It was 'carnal,' she considered. She had as yet no right
+to have any 'spiritual affection' for us. We were still 'children of
+wrath and of the devil'--not yet 'convinced of sin,' 'converted, born
+again.' She had no more spiritual bond with us, she thought, than she
+had with a heathen or a papist. She dared not even pray for our
+conversion, earnestly as she prayed on every other subject. For though
+the majority of her sect would have done so, her clear, logical sense
+would yield to no such tender inconsistency. Had it not been decided
+from all eternity? We were elect, or we were reprobate. Could her
+prayers alter that? If He had chosen us, He would call us in His own
+good time: and, if not, ----. Only, again and again, as I afterward
+discovered from a journal of hers, she used to beseech God with agonized
+tears to set her mind at rest by revealing to her His will toward us.
+For that comfort she could at least rationally pray. But she received no
+answer. Poor, beloved mother! If thou couldst not read the answer,
+written in every flower and every sunbeam, written in the very fact of
+our existence here at all, what answer would have sufficed thee? And
+yet, with all this, she kept the strictest watch over our morality.
+Fear, of course, was the only motive she employed; for how could our
+still carnal understandings be affected with love to God? And love to
+herself was too paltry and temporary to be urged by one who knew that
+her life was uncertain, and who was always trying to go down to deepest
+eternal ground and reason of every thing, and take her stand upon that.
+So our god, or gods rather, till we were twelve years old, were hell,
+the rod, the Ten Commandments, and public opinion. Yet under them, not
+they, but something deeper far, both in her and us, preserved us pure.
+Call it natural character, conformation of the spirit--conformation of
+the brain, if you like, if you are a scientific man and a phrenologist.
+I never yet could dissect and map out my own being, or my neighbor's, as
+you analysts do.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"My heart was in my mouth as I opened the door to them, and sunk back
+again to the very lowest depths of my inner man when my eyes fell on the
+face and figure of the missionary--a squat, red-faced, pig-eyed,
+low-browed man, with great soft lips that opened back to his very ears;
+sensuality, conceit, and cunning marked on every feature--an innate
+vulgarity, from which the artisan and the child recoil with an instinct
+as true, perhaps truer, than that of the courtier, showing itself in
+every tone and motion--I shrunk into a corner, so crest-fallen that I
+could not even exert myself to hand round the bread-and-butter, for
+which I got duly scolded afterward. Oh! that man!--how he bawled and
+contradicted, and laid down the law, and spoke to my mother in a
+fondling, patronizing way, which made me, I knew not why, boil over with
+jealousy and indignation. How he filled his teacup half full of the
+white sugar to buy which my mother had curtailed her yesterday's
+dinner--how he drained the few remaining drops of the three-penny worth
+of cream, with which Susan was stealing off to keep it as an unexpected
+treat for my mother at breakfast next morning--how he talked of the
+natives, not as St. Paul might of his converts, but as a planter might
+of his slaves; overlaying all his unintentional confessions of his own
+greed and prosperity, with cant, flimsy enough for even a boy to see
+through, while his eyes were not blinded with the superstition that a
+man must be pious who sufficiently interlards his speech with a jumble
+of old English picked out of our translation of the New Testament. Such
+was the man I saw. I don't deny that all are not like him. I believe
+there are noble men of all denominations doing their best, according to
+their light, all over the world; but such was the one I saw--and the men
+who are sent home to plead the missionary cause, whatever the men may be
+like who stay behind and work, are, from my small experience, too often
+such. It appears to me to be the rule that many of those who go abroad
+as missionaries, go simply because they are men of such inferior powers
+and attainments that if they staid in England they would starve."
+
+
+ALTON'S STUDY.
+
+"I slept in a little lean-to garret at the back of the house, some ten
+feet long by six wide. I could just stand upright against the inner
+wall, while the roof on the other side ran down to the floor. There was
+no fire-place in it or any means of ventilation. No wonder I coughed all
+night accordingly, and woke about two every morning with choking throat
+and aching head. My mother often said that the room was 'too small for a
+Christian to sleep in, but where could she get a better?' Such was my
+only study. I could not use it as such, however, at night without
+discovery; for my mother carefully looked in every evening, to see that
+my candle was out. But when my kind cough woke me, I rose, and creeping
+like a mouse about the room--for my mother and sister slept in the next
+chamber, and every sound was audible through the narrow partition--I
+drew my darling books out from under a board in the floor one end of
+which I had gradually loosened at odd minutes, and with them a
+rushlight, earned by running on messages, or by taking bits of work
+home, and finishing them for my fellows. No wonder that with this scanty
+rest, and this complicated exertion of hands, eyes, and brain, followed
+by the long dreary day's work of the shop, my health began to fail; my
+eyes grew weaker and weaker; my cough became more acute; my appetite
+failed me daily. My mother noticed the change, and questioned me about
+it, affectionately enough. But I durst not, alas! tell the truth. It was
+not one offense, but the arrears of months of disobedience which I
+should have had to confess; and so arose infinite false excuses, and
+petty prevarications, which embittered and clogged still more my already
+overtasked spirit. Before starting forth to walk two miles to the shop
+at six o'clock in the morning, I sat some three or four hours shivering
+on my bed, putting myself into cramped and painful postures, not daring
+even to cough, lest my mother should fancy me unwell, and come in to see
+me, poor dear soul!--my eyes aching over the page, my feet wrapped up in
+the bed-clothes to keep them from the miserable pain of the cold;
+longing, watching, dawn after dawn, for the kind summer mornings, when I
+should need no candlelight. Look at the picture awhile, ye comfortable
+folks, who take down from your shelves what books you like best at the
+moment, and then lie back, amid prints and statuettes, to grow wise in
+an easy chair, with a blazing fire and a camphine lamp. The lower
+classes uneducated! Perhaps you would be so too, if learning cost you
+the privation which it costs some of them."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But ALTON read largely, notwithstanding his privations. What of his time
+was not spent on the tailor's board, was devoted to the writings of the
+great spirits of the age. On a holiday he visited the National Gallery,
+and learned to love and bless the painters. He studied narrowly MILTON
+and TENNYSON, and many other writers, and among them "that great prose
+poem, the single epic of modern days, THOMAS CARLYLE'S _French
+Revolution_." ALTON'S daydreams were more numerous than we should
+imagine are those of the majority of men who are steeped in poverty as
+he was; and he has described them well. When he did learn to walk into
+the fields, he truly enjoyed the liberty thus attained.
+
+
+THE FIRST SIP OF FREEDOM.
+
+"It was a glorious morning at the end of May; and when I escaped from
+the pall of smoke which hung over the city, I found the sky a sheet of
+cloudless blue. How I watched for the ending of the rows of houses,
+which lined the road for miles--the great roots of London, running far
+out into the country, up which poured past me an endless stream of food,
+and merchandise, and human beings--the sap of the huge metropolitan
+life-tree! How each turn of the road opened a fresh line of terraces or
+villas, till hope deferred made the heart sick, and the country
+seemed--like the place where the rainbow touches the ground, or the El
+Dorado of Raleigh's Guiana settlers--always a little farther off! How,
+between gaps in the houses right and left, I caught tantalizing glimpses
+of green fields, shut from me by dull lines of high-spiked palings! How
+I peeped through gates and over fences at trim lawns and gardens, and
+longed to stay, and admire, and speculate on the names of the strange
+plants and gaudy flowers; and then hurried on, always expecting to find
+something still finer ahead--something really worth stopping to look
+at--till the houses thickened again into a street, and I found myself,
+to my disappointment, in the midst of a town! And then more villas and
+palings; and then a village: when would they stop, those endless houses?
+At last they did stop. Gradually the people whom I passed began to look
+more and more rural, and more toil-worn and ill-fed. The houses ended,
+cattle yards and farm buildings appeared; and right and left, far away,
+spread the low rolling sheet of green meadows and corn-fields. Oh, the
+joy! The lawns with their high elms and firs, the green hedgerows, the
+delicate hue and scent of the fresh clover-fields, the steep clay banks
+where I stopped to pick nosegays of wild flowers, and became again a
+child--and then recollected my mother, and a walk with her on the river
+bank toward the Red House. I hurried on again, but could not be unhappy,
+while my eyes ranged free, for the first time in my life, over the
+checkered squares of cultivation, over glittering brooks, and hills
+quivering in the green haze, while above hung the skylarks, pouring out
+their souls in melody. And then, as the sun grew hot, and the larks
+dropped one by one into the growing corn, the new delight of the blessed
+silence! I listened to the stillness; for noise had been my native
+element; I had become in London quite unconscious of the ceaseless roar
+of the human sea, casting up mire and dirt. And now, for the first time
+in my life, the crashing, confusing hubbub had flowed away, and left my
+brain calm and free. How I felt at that moment a capability of clear,
+bright meditation, which was as new to me, as I believe it would have
+been to most Londoners in my position. I can not help fancying that our
+unnatural atmosphere of excitement, physical as well as moral, is to
+blame for very much of the working-men's restlessness and fierceness. As
+it was, I felt that every step forward, every breath of fresh air, gave
+me new life. I had gone fifteen miles before I recollected that, for the
+first time for many months, I had not coughed since I rose."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The following is the utterance in a more eloquent mode, of some
+startling facts revealed by the London Correspondent of _The Morning
+Chronicle_:
+
+
+THE TERRORS OF THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM.
+
+"Well: one day our employer died. He had been one of the old sort of
+fashionable West-end tailors in the fast decreasing honorable trade;
+keeping a modest shop, hardly to be distinguished from a dwelling-house,
+except by his name on the window blinds. He paid good prices for work,
+though not as good, of course, as he had given twenty years before, and
+prided himself upon having all his work done at home. His work-rooms, as
+I have said, were no elysiums; but still, as good, alas! as those of
+three tailors out of four. He was proud, luxurious, foppish; but he was
+honest and kindly enough, and did many a generous thing by men who had
+been long in his employ. At all events, his journeymen could live on
+what he paid them.
+
+"But his son, succeeding to the business, determined, like Rehoboam of
+old, to go ahead with the times. Fired with the great spirit of the
+nineteenth century--at least with that one which is vulgarly considered
+its especial glory--he resolved to make haste to be rich. His father had
+made money very slowly of late; while dozens, who had begun business
+long after him, had now retired to luxurious ease and suburban villas.
+Why should he remain in the minority? Why should he not get rich as fast
+as he could? Why should he stick to the old, slow-going, honorable
+trade? Out of some 450 West-end tailors, there were not one hundred left
+who were old-fashioned and stupid enough to go on keeping down their own
+profits by having all their work done at home and at first-hand.
+Ridiculous scruples! The government knew none such. Were not the army
+clothes, the post-office clothes, the policemen's clothes, furnished by
+contractors and sweaters, who hired the work at low prices, and let it
+out again to journeymen at still lower ones? Why should he pay his men
+two shillings where the government paid them one? Were there not cheap
+houses even at the West-end, which had saved several thousands a year
+merely by reducing their workmen's wages? And if the workmen chose to
+take lower wages, he was not bound actually to make them a present of
+more than they asked for. They would go to the cheapest market for any
+thing they wanted, and so must he. Besides, wages had really been quite
+exorbitant. Half his men threw each of them as much money away in gin
+and beer yearly, as would pay two workmen at a cheap house. Why was he
+to be robbing his family of comforts to pay for their extravagance? And
+charging his customers, too, unnecessarily high prices--it was really
+robbing the public!
+
+"Such, I suppose, were some of the arguments which led to an official
+announcement, one Saturday night, that our young employer intended to
+enlarge his establishment, for the purpose of commencing business in the
+'show trade;' and that, emulous of Messrs. Aaron, Levi, and the rest of
+that class, magnificent alterations were to take place in the premises,
+to make room for which our work-rooms were to be demolished, and that
+for that reason--for of course it was only for that reason--all work
+would in future be given out, to be made up at the men's own homes....
+
+"'We were all bound to expect this. Every working tailor must come to
+this at last, on the present system; and we are only lucky in having
+been spared so long. You all know where this will end--in the same
+misery as fifteen thousand out of twenty thousand of our class are
+enduring now. We shall become the slaves, often the bodily prisoners, of
+Jews, middlemen, and sweaters, who draw their livelihood out of our
+starvation. We shall have to face, as the rest have, ever decreasing
+prices of labor, ever increasing profits made out of that labor by the
+contractors who will employ us--arbitrary fines, inflicted at the
+caprice of hirelings--the competition of women, and children, and
+starving Irish--our hours of work will increase one-third, our actual
+pay decrease to less than one-half; and in all this we shall have no
+hope, no chance of improvement in wages, but ever more penury, slavery,
+misery, as we are pressed on by those who are sucked by fifties--almost
+by hundreds--yearly, out of the honorable trade in which we were brought
+up, into the infernal system of contract work, which is devouring our
+trade and many others, body and soul. Our wives will be forced to sit up
+night and day to help us; our children must labor from the cradle
+without chance of going to school, hardly of breathing the fresh air of
+heaven; our boys, as they grow up, must turn beggars or paupers; our
+daughters, as thousands do, must eke out their miserable earnings by
+prostitution. And after all, a whole family will not gain what one of us
+had been doing, as yet, single-handed.'...
+
+"'Government--government? You a tailor, and not know that government are
+the very authors of this system? Not to know that they first set the
+example, by getting the army and navy clothes made by contractors, and
+taking the lowest tenders? Not to know that the police clothes, the
+postmen's clothes, the convicts' clothes, are all contracted for on the
+same infernal plan, by sweaters, and sweaters' sweaters, and sweaters'
+sweaters' sweaters, till government work is just the very last, lowest
+resource to which a poor, starved-out wretch betakes himself to keep
+body and soul together? Why, the government prices, in almost every
+department, are half, and less than half, the very lowest living price.
+I tell you, the careless iniquity of government about these things will
+come out some day. It will be known, the whole abomination; and future
+generations will class it with the tyrannies of the Roman emperors and
+the Norman barons. Why, it's a fact, that the colonels of the
+regiments--noblemen, most of them--make their own vile profit out of us
+tailors--out of the pauperism of the men, the slavery of the children,
+the prostitution of the women. They get so much a uniform allowed them
+by government to clothe the men with; and then--then, they let out the
+jobs to the contractors at less than half what government give them, and
+pocket the difference. And then you talk of appealing to government!'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Only DICKENS or THACKERAY could have rivaled the following sketch of a
+discussion on
+
+
+THE REAL OFFICE OF POETRY.
+
+"'What do you mean, Mr. Mackaye!' asked I, with a doleful and
+disappointed visage.
+
+"'Mean--why, if God had meant ye to write about Pacifics, He'd ha put ye
+there--and because He means ye to write aboot London town, He's put ye
+there--and gien ye an unco sharp taste o' the ways o't; and I'll gie ye
+anither. Come along wi' me.'
+
+"And he seized me by the arm, and hardly giving me time to put on my
+hat, marched me out into the streets, and away through Clare Market to
+St. Giles's.
+
+"It was a foul, chilly, foggy Saturday night. From the butchers' and
+greengrocers' shops the gas-lights flared and flickered, wild and
+ghastly, over haggard groups of slip-shod, dirty women, bargaining for
+scraps of stale meat, and frost-bitten vegetables, wrangling about short
+weight and bad quality. Fish-stalls and fruit-stalls lined the edge of
+the greasy pavement, sending up odors as foul as the language of the
+sellers and buyers. Blood and sewer-water crawled from under doors and
+out of spouts, and reeked down the gutters among offal, animal and
+vegetable, in every stage of putrefaction. Foul vapors rose from
+cow-sheds and slaughter-houses, and the doorways of undrained alleys,
+where the inhabitants carried the filth out on their shoes from the back
+yard into the court, and from the court up into the main street; while
+above hanging like cliffs over the streets--those narrow, brawling
+torrents of filth, and poverty, and sin--the houses with their teeming
+load of life were piled up into the dingy choking night. A ghastly,
+deafening, sickening sight it was. Go, scented Belgravian! and see what
+London is! and then go to the library which God has given thee--one
+often fears in vain--and see what science says this London might be!
+
+"'Ay,' he muttered to himself, as he strode along, 'sing awa; get
+yoursel' wi' child wi' pretty fancies and gran' words, like the rest of
+the poets, and gang to hell for it.'
+
+"'To hell, Mr. Mackaye?'
+
+"'Ay, to a verra real hell, Alton Locke, laddie--a warse ane than ony
+fiend's' kitchen, or subterranean Smithfield that ye'll hear o' in the
+pulpits--the hell on earth o' being a flunkey, and a humbug, and a
+useless peacock, wasting God's gifts on your ain lusts and
+pleasures--and kenning it--and not being able to get oot o' it, for the
+chains o' vanity and self-indulgence. I've warned ye. Now look there--'
+
+"He stopped suddenly before the entrance of a miserable alley:
+
+"'Look! there's not a soul down that yard, but's either beggar,
+drunkard, thief, or warse. Write aboot that! Say how ye saw the mouth o'
+hell, and the twa pillars thereof at the entry--the pawnbroker's shop o'
+one side and the gin palace at the other--twa monstrous deevils, eating
+up men and women, and bairns, body and soul. Look at the jaws o' the
+monsters, how they open and open, and swallow in anither victim and
+anither. Write aboot that.'
+
+"'What jaws, Mr. Mackaye!'
+
+"'Thae faulding-doors o' the gin shop, goose. Are na they a mair
+damnable man-devouring idol than ony red-hot statue o' Moloch, or wicker
+Gogmagog, wherein thae auld Britons burnt their prisoners? Look at _thae
+barefooted, barebacked hizzies, with their arms roun' the men's necks,
+and their mouths full o' vitriol and beastly words_! Look at that
+Irishwoman pouring the gin down the babbie's throat! Look at that raff
+o' a boy gaun out o' the pawnshop, where he's been pledging the
+handkerchief he stole the morning, into the ginshop, to buy beer
+poisoned wi' grains o' paradise, and cocculus indicus, and saut, and a'
+damnable, maddening, thirst-breeding, lust-breeding drugs! Look at that
+girl that went in wi' a shawl on her back and cam out wi'out ane!
+_Drunkards frae the breast!--harlots frae the cradle!--damned before
+they're born!_ John Calvin had an inkling o' the truth there, I'm a'most
+driven to think, wi' his reprobation deevil's doctrines!'
+
+"'Well--but--Mr. Mackaye, I know nothing about these poor creatures.'
+
+"'Then ye ought. What do ye ken aboot the Pacific? Which is maist to
+your business?--thae bare-backed hizzies that play the harlot o' the
+other side o' the warld, or these--these thousands o' barebacked hizzies
+that play the harlot o' your ain side--made out o' your ain flesh and
+blude? You a poet! True poetry, like true charity, my laddie, begins at
+hame. If ye'll be a poet at a', ye maun be a cockney poet; and while the
+cockneys be what they be, ye maun write, like Jeremiah of old, o'
+lamentation and mourning and woe, for the sins o' your people. Gin ye
+want to learn the spirit o' a people's poet, down wi' your Bible and
+read thae auld Hebrew prophets; gin ye wad learn the style, read your
+Burns frae morning till night; and gin ye'd learn the matter, just gang
+after your nose, and keep your eyes open, and ye'll no miss it.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One other extract, and we will have done with this original but
+captivating and convincing volume. ALTON speaks prophetically of
+
+
+THE DANGERS THAT ARE LOOMING.
+
+"Ay, respectable gentlemen and ladies, I will confess all to you--you
+shall have, if you enjoy it, a fresh opportunity for indulging that
+supreme pleasure which the press daily affords you of insulting the
+classes whose powers most of you know as little as you do their
+sufferings. Yes; the Chartist poet is vain, conceited, ambitious,
+uneducated, shallow, inexperienced, envious, ferocious, scurrilous,
+seditious, traitorous.--Is your charitable vocabulary exhausted? Then
+ask yourselves, how often have you yourself, honestly resisted and
+conquered the temptation to any one of these sins, when it has come
+across you just once in a way, and not as they came to me, as they come
+to thousands of the working-men, daily and hourly, 'till their torments
+do, by length of time, become their elements?' What, are we covetous,
+too? Yes? And if those who have, like you, still covet more what wonder
+if those who have nothing, covet something? Profligate too? Well, though
+that imputation as a generality is utterly calumnious, though your
+amount of respectable animal enjoyment per annum is a hundred times as
+great as that of the most self-indulgent artisan, yet, if you had ever
+felt what it is to want, not only every luxury of the senses, but even
+bread to eat, you would think more mercifully of the man who makes up by
+rare excesses, and those only of the limited kinds possible to him, for
+long intervals of dull privation, and says in his madness, 'Let us eat
+and drink, for to-morrow we die!' We have our sins, and you have yours.
+Ours may be the more gross and barbaric, but yours are none the less
+damnable; perhaps all the more so, for being the sleek, subtle,
+respectable, religious sins they are. You are frantic enough if our part
+of the press calls you hard names, but you can not see that your part of
+the press repays it back to us with interest. _We_ see those insults,
+and feel them bitterly enough; and do not forget them, alas! soon
+enough, while they pass unheeded by your delicate eyes as trivial
+truisms. Horrible, unprincipled, villainous, seditious, frantic,
+blasphemous, are epithets of course when applied to--to how large a
+portion of the English people, you will some day discover to your
+astonishment. When will that day come, and how? In thunder, and storm,
+and garments rolled in blood? Or like the dew on the mown grass, and the
+clear shining of the sunlight after April rain?"
+
+
+    FOOTNOTE:
+
+    [25] ALTON LOCKE, Tailor and Poet--An Autobiography. In the press
+    of Messrs. Harper and Brothers.
+
+
+
+
+BURKE AND THE PAINTER BARRY.
+
+
+Burke delighted in lending a helping hand to genius struggling against
+adversity; and many who were wasting their powers in obscurity were led
+by his assistance to the paths of eminence. Barry, the painter, was
+among those to whom he had shown great kindness; he found pleasure in
+the society of that eccentric being. A long time had passed without his
+having seen him, when one day they met accidentally in the street. The
+greeting was cordial, and Barry invited his friend to dine with him the
+next day. Burke arrived at the appointed hour, and the door was opened
+by Dame Ursula, as she was called. She at first denied her master, but
+when Burke mentioned his name, Barry, who had overheard it, came running
+down stairs. He was in his usual attire; his thin gray hair was all
+disheveled; an old and soiled green shade and a pair of mounted
+spectacles assisted his sight; the color of his linen was rather
+equivocal, but was evidently not fresh from the bleach-green; his
+outward garment was a kind of careless _roquelaire_. He gave Burke a
+most hearty welcome, and led him into the apartment which served him for
+kitchen, parlor, studio, and gallery; it was, however, so filled with
+smoke that its contents remained a profound mystery, and Burke was
+almost blinded and nearly suffocated. Barry expressed the utmost
+surprise, and appeared utterly at a loss to account for the state of the
+atmosphere. Burke, however, without endeavoring to explain the mystery
+on philosophical principles, at once brought the whole blame of the
+annoyance home to Barry--as it came out that he had removed the stove
+from its wonted situation by the chimney-piece, and drawn it into the
+very middle of the room. He had mounted it on an old dripping-pan, to
+defend the carpet from the burning ashes; he had in vain called in the
+assistance of the bellows, no blaze would come--but volumes of smoke
+were puffed out ever and anon, as if to show that the fire could do
+something if it pleased. Burke persuaded Barry to reinstate the stove in
+its own locality, and helped him to replace it; this done and the
+windows opened, they got rid of the smoke, and the fire soon looked out
+cheerfully enough on them, as if nothing had happened. Barry invited
+Burke to the upper rooms to look at his pictures. As he went on from one
+to the other, he applied the sponge and water with which he was
+supplied, to wash away the dust which obscured them. Burke was delighted
+with them, and with Barry's history of each, and his dissertation as he
+pointed out its particular beauties. He then brought him to look at his
+bedroom; its walls were hung with unframed pictures, which had also to
+be freed from the thick covering of dust before they could be admired;
+these, like the others, were noble specimens of art. In a recess near
+the fire-place the rough stump-bedstead stood, with its coverlet of
+coarse rug.
+
+"That is my bed," said the artist; "you see I use no curtains; they are
+most unwholesome, and I breathe as freely and sleep as soundly as if I
+lay upon down and snored under velvet. Look there," said he, as he
+pointed to a broad shelf high above the bed, "that I consider my
+_chef-d'oeuvre_; I think I have been more than a match for them; I have
+outdone them at last."
+
+Mr. Burke asked of whom it was he spoke.
+
+"The rats," replied he, "the nefarious rats, who robbed me of every
+thing in the larder. But now all is safe; I keep my food beyond their
+reach. I may now defy all the rats in the parish."
+
+Barry had no clock, so depended on the cravings of his stomach to
+regulate his meals. By this unerring guide, which might have shamed the
+most correct regulator in a watchmaker's shop, he perceived that it was
+time for dinner; but forgot that he had invited Burke to partake of it,
+till reminded by a hint.
+
+"I declare, my dear friend, I had totally forgotten, I beg your
+pardon--it quite escaped my memory; but if you'll just sit down here and
+blow the fire, I'll get a nice beef-steak in a minute."
+
+Burke applied all his energies to the bellows, and had a nice clear fire
+when Barry returned with the steak rolled up in cabbage-leaves, which he
+drew from his pocket; from the same receptacle he produced a parcel of
+potatoes; a bottle of port was under each arm, and each hand held a
+fresh French-roll. A gridiron was placed on the fire, and Burke was
+deputed to act as cook while Barry performed the part of butler. While
+he laid the cloth the old woman boiled the potatoes, and at five
+o'clock, all being duly prepared, the friends sat down to their repast.
+Burke's first essay in cookery was miraculously successful, for the
+steak was done to admiration, and of course greatly relished by the
+cook. As soon as dinner was dispatched the friends chatted away over
+their two bottles of port till nine o'clock. Burke was often heard to
+say that this was one of the most amusing and delightful days he had
+ever spent.
+
+
+
+
+[From Hogg's Instructor.]
+
+THE IRON RING.
+
+A TALE OF GERMAN ROBBERS AND GERMAN STUDENTS.
+
+
+"I am inclined to side with our friend," said the venerable pastor, "and
+I would rather not see you so skeptical, Justus. I have known, in my own
+experience, several remarkable instances of presentiments; indeed, on
+one occasion, I and those who were with me, all save one, greatly
+profited by the strange prophetic apprehension of one of our party.
+Would we had listened to him sooner! But it was not so to be."
+
+"Come, tell us the story, dear grandfather," said Justus; "it will
+doubtless edify our guest; and, as for me, I do not object to be
+mystified now and then."
+
+"Justus, Justus, lay aside that scoffing mask. You put it on, I know, to
+look like another Mephistopheles, but you don't succeed."
+
+"Don't I?" returned Justus, with a smile. "Well, grandfather, that ought
+to be a comfort to you."
+
+"No, you don't, so you may as well give up trying. But come, if you
+would really like to hear the story" (the fact was, that the good man
+was anxious to tell it, and feared to lose the opportunity), "I shall be
+happy to please you. I think, however, we shall be better out of doors.
+Let us go and take our wine under the great plane-tree. You had as well
+bring your chair with you, my young friend" (this was addressed to me),
+"for the bench is somewhat hard. And Trinchen, my girl, put glasses on a
+tray, and some bottles of wine in a pail, and bring them out to us under
+the great plane-tree. And you, Justus, my boy, be kind enough to
+transport thither this big chair of mine, like a dutiful grandson and a
+stout, as you are."
+
+We were soon established in the pleasant shade. The pastor took an easy
+posture in his chair, when, after many efforts, Justus had coaxed it
+into touching the ground with all its four legs at once; I straddled
+across the seat of mine, and, placing my arms on the back, reposed the
+bowl of my long pipe on the ground; and Justus, with his cigar in his
+mouth--the twentieth, or thereby, that day--threw himself down on the
+turf at a convenient distance from the wine-pail, prepared to replenish
+our glasses, as need might be. Noble glasses they were, tall and green,
+with stalks to be grasped, not fingered.
+
+"It is now nearly sixty years ago," began the pastor, when our
+arrangements were complete, "a long time--a long time, indeed, to bear
+the staff of one's pilgrimage. I was then in my third year at the
+university, and was something like what you are now, Justus--a merry,
+idle, and thoughtless student, but not a very bad boy either."
+
+"Thank you, grandfather," said Justus; "however, that accounts for your
+being the man you are at your years."
+
+"No, it does not," said the old man, smiling; "but let me tell my story,
+my boy, without interrupting me--at least, unless you have something
+better to say than that. As I was saying, I was in my third year, and,
+of course, I had many acquaintances. I had, however, only two friends.
+One was a countryman of yours, young gentleman, and his name was
+Macdonald. The name of the other was Laurenberg."
+
+"Why, that was my grandmother's name!" said Justus.
+
+"Laurenberg was your grandmother's brother," continued the pastor, "and
+the event I am about to relate to you was the means of my becoming
+acquainted with her. But has any one ever told you his fate, Justus?"
+
+"No," said Justus, "I never before even heard of him."
+
+"That is not wonderful, my boy; for, since his sister was taken from me,
+there has been no one but me to remember my poor Laurenberg. But, as I
+was saying, these two were my only friends. That summer, when the
+vacation came, we three resolved to make a pedestrian tour together.
+(Fill our glasses, Justus.) So, after some discussion, we decided on
+visiting the great Thuringian Forest, and one fine morning off we set.
+Just as we got beyond the town, Macdonald said, 'My dear brothers, let
+us return; this expedition will bring us no good.' 'You would almost
+make one think you were a prophet,' said Laurenberg, with mock gravity.
+'And what if I be?' cried the other, quickly. 'Why, then, don't be a
+prophet of evil--that is to say, unless you can not help it. Come, my
+dear fellow.' 'I tell you,' interrupted Macdonald, 'that, if we go on,
+one of us will never see Göttingen again--and Laurenberg, my beloved
+Laurenberg, it is you who will be that one. You will never return,
+unless you return now. I tell you this, for I know it.' 'Oh, nonsense,'
+said the other; 'pray, how do you know it?' It seemed to me that
+Macdonald slightly shuddered at the question, but he went on as if not
+heeding it: 'He of us three who first left the house, is destined never
+to enter it again, and that was the reason why I tried to get out before
+you. You, Laurenberg, in your folly, ran past me, and it is thus on you
+that the lot has fallen. Laugh if you will; if you had let me go before
+you, I would have said nothing; but as it is, I say, laugh if you will,
+and call me a dreamer, or what you please, only return, my friends,
+return. Let us go back.' 'Let us go on. Forward!' cried Laurenberg; 'I
+do not laugh at you, my brother, but I think you are scarcely
+reasonable; for either you have truly foreseen what is to happen, or you
+have not. If you have, then what is to happen _will_ happen, and we can
+not avoid it; if you have not, why, then it will not happen, and that is
+all. Either you foresee truly my destiny--' He was going on, but
+Macdonald interrupted him: 'It is with such reasoning that men lose
+themselves in this world--and in the next,' he added, after a pause.
+'Oho! dear schoolfox,' returned the other, 'we have not undertaken our
+march to chop logic and wind metaphysics, but, on the contrary, to be
+merry and enjoy ourselves. So,' and he sung,
+
+    'There wander'd three Burschen along by the Rhine;
+    At the door of a wine-house, they knocked and went in,
+    Landlady, have you got good beer and wine?'
+
+'Laurenberg, your gayety is oppressive,' interrupted Macdonald; 'why
+sing that song? You know there is death in it.' 'It is true,' replied
+Laurenberg, somewhat gravely, 'the poor little daughter of the landlady
+lies in her coffin. Another stave, then, if you like it better,
+
+    'Up, brothers! up! enjoy your life!'
+
+and so on he went with that stupid song."
+
+"Stupid!" cried Justus, rising suddenly on his elbow; "stupid, did you
+say, grandfather?"
+
+"Well, my boy, I think it stupid now, though at your age, perhaps, I
+thought differently. But there," continued the pastor, "I was sure of
+it; I never can keep both my pipe and my story going at the same time.
+Give me a light, Justus. Thank you. Those matches are a great invention.
+In our time, it was all flint, and steel, and trouble. Now, fill our
+glasses, and then I shall go on again."
+
+Justus obeyed, and his worthy relative thus proceeded:
+
+"Notwithstanding all his singing, Laurenberg was evidently more
+impressed by our companion's words than he was willing to own; and, as
+for me, I was much struck with them, for your countryman, young
+stranger, was no common man. But all that soon wore off. Even Macdonald
+seemed to forget his own forebodings. We marched on right cheerfully.
+That night we stopped at Heiligenstadt, very tired, for it was a long
+way for lads so little used to walking as we were."
+
+"Did you put up at the Post, grandfather?" asked Justus. "It is a
+capital inn, and the landlady is both pretty and civil. I staid there
+when I went from Cassel to Halle."
+
+"I don't remember where we put up," replied the pastor, "but it is
+scarcely likely we put up at the Post. In those days, students preferred
+more modest hostelries. Don't interrupt me. The next night we slept at
+Dingelstadt; and I remember that at supper Laurenberg knocked over the
+salt-cellar, and that Macdonald said, 'See, I told you! every thing
+shows it!' Next night we were at Mülhausen, making short journeys, you
+see; for, after all, our object was to enjoy, not to tire ourselves.
+Mülhausen is a very prettily situated town, and, though I have never
+been there since, I remember it quite well. The next afternoon we got to
+a place whose name I forget at this moment. Stay--I think it was
+Langensalza; yes, it was Langensalza; and the following day we arrived
+in Gotha, and lodged at the sign of the Giant, in the market-place.
+Gotha is the chief town in the duchy, and--"
+
+Here the worthy pastor diverged into a description of Gotha and its
+environs. This, however, I lost, for, the interest of the story ceasing,
+I went off into a sort of reverie, from which I was awakened only by the
+abrupt cessation of the tale, and the words, "Justus, my boy, you are
+not asleep, are you? Give me a cigar; my pipe is out again."
+
+Justus complied, and the old man, leaning his long pipe, with the rich
+bowl, against the great plane-tree, received "fire" from his grandson,
+lit the Cuba, and, after admonishing the youth to fill our glasses, thus
+went on:
+
+"Our new friends were students from Jena. They were each of a different
+country. One was a Frenchman; one a Pole; the third alone was a German.
+They were making a sort of pilgrimage to the different places remarkable
+for events in the life of Luther--had been at Erfurt, to see his cell in
+the orphan-house there, and were now going to Eisenach and the Castle of
+Wartburg, to visit the Patmos of 'Junker George.' However, on hearing
+that we proposed marching through the Thuringian Forest, they gave up
+their original plan, and agreed to join us, which pleased us much, for
+all three were fine fellows. That night we got to Ohrdruff, and the next
+day we set off for Suhl. But we were not destined ever to reach that
+town. About noon, Laurenberg said, 'Come, brothers, do you not find this
+road tiresome? This is the way every body goes. Suppose we strike off
+the road, and take this footpath through the wood. Is it not a pleasure
+to explore an unknown country, and go on without knowing where you will
+come to? For my part, I would not have come so far only to follow a
+beaten track, where you meet carts and carriages, and men and women, at
+every step. If all we wanted was to walk along a road, why, there are
+better roads near Göttingen. Into the wood, say I! Why, who knows but
+there may be an adventure before us? Follow me!' Macdonald would have
+remonstrated, but our new friends, and I also, I am sorry to say, felt
+much as Laurenberg did, so we took the footpath, and plunged into the
+forest. We soon thought ourselves repaid. The solitude seemed to deepen
+as we proceeded. Excepting the almost imperceptible footpath, every
+thing bespoke the purest state of nature. The enormous pines that
+towered over our heads seemed the growth of ages. Great red deer stared
+at us from a distance through the glades, as if they had never before
+seen such animals as we, and then bounded away in herds. High up we saw
+many bustards--"
+
+Here my excellent host launched in a current of descriptive landscape,
+which, though doubtless very fine, was almost entirely lost to me, for
+my thoughts again wandered. From time to time, the words "valleys,"
+"mountains," "crags," "streamlets," "gloom," "rocks," "Salvator Rosa,"
+"legends," "wood-nymphs," and the like, fell on my ear, but failed to
+recall my attention. And this must have lasted no little time, for I was
+at length aroused by his asking for another cigar, the first being done.
+
+"The glen gradually opened out into a plain," resumed the pastor, "and
+our progress became easier. We, however, had no idea where we were, or
+which way to turn in order to find a resting-place for the night; we
+were completely lost, in short. Nevertheless, we pressed on as fast as
+our tired limbs would admit of, and after half an hour's march across
+the wooded level, we were rewarded by coming on a sort of road. It was,
+indeed, nothing more than the tracks of hoofs upon the turf, but we were
+in ecstasies at its appearance. After some deliberation as to whether we
+should take to the right or to the left along it, we resolved on
+following it to the right. Half an hour more, and we saw before us a
+house among the trees. It was a cheerful sight to us, and we gave a
+shout of joy. 'I trust they will give us hospitality,' said Richter, the
+German from Jena. 'If not,' exclaimed his French friend, 'it is my
+opinion that we will take it.' 'What! turn robbers?' said the Pole,
+laughing. 'It is a likely looking place for robbers,' remarked
+Macdonald, looking rather uneasily round him. We soon reached the house.
+It was a long building, with low walls, but a very high thatched roof.
+At one end was a kind of round tower, which seemed much older than the
+rest of the structure. It might at one time have been much higher than
+it then was, but in its actual state it scarcely overtopped the gable
+built against it. Fill our glasses, Justus, if you please."
+
+"Ready, grandfather," said Justus. "But, before you go on, tell us
+something of the personal appearance of Laurenberg and Macdonald. As for
+the Jena boys, I don't care about them."
+
+"Laurenberg, Justus, was a tall and very handsome lad. His golden hair
+curled over his shoulders, for he wore it very long, and his blue eyes
+were like his sister's. Macdonald, again, was rather under the middle
+height; his features were dark, and his expression composed, or perhaps,
+I should rather say, melancholy. Laurenberg was always gay, vivacious,
+and even restless; Macdonald, on the contrary, was usually listless,
+almost indolent. But, as you will see, when the time of need came, he
+was a man of iron. But where was I? Yes, I remember. Well, we came up to
+the door, and knocked at it. It was opened, after a short delay, by a
+young girl. The evening shadows were closing in, but, even by the
+imperfect light we had, we could see she was very beautiful."
+
+"Ha! grandfather, come, that is very interesting!" cried Justus.
+
+"Don't interrupt me, my boy. We could see she was very beautiful. We
+asked if we could be accommodated for the night, and she answered very
+readily that we could, but that we should have to sleep all in one room,
+and that we must be content with a poor supper. 'You will give us the
+best you have, at all events,' said Richter; 'we are well able to pay
+for it;' and he jingled his money-pouch. 'Oh, that I do not doubt!' said
+she, her eyes glistening at the sound; 'but my old grandmother and I
+live alone here, so we have not much to offer.' 'You two live alone in
+this large house?' said Macdonald, rather harshly. The girl turned her
+eyes on him for the first time--Richter had been our spokesman--and she
+seemed somewhat confused at the scrutinizing glance she met. 'Yes,' said
+she, at last; 'my father, and his father before him, were foresters
+here--we were not always so poor--and since their death, we have been
+allowed still to occupy the place.' 'I beg your pardon,' said Macdonald,
+in a softer tone. 'But why,' resumed he, in a sharp, quick way--'why
+must we all sleep in one room?' The girl gave him a keen, inquiring
+look, as if to ask what he meant by his questions, and then answered,
+firmly, 'Because, sir, besides our own room, we have only one other
+furnished. But had you not better walk in? You seem tired, gentlemen;
+have you come far?' 'To be sure we have, my pretty girl,' said the
+Frenchman; 'and the fact is, we have lost our way. But why do we stand
+talking here? Let us go in, my lads.' 'Stay a moment, my friends,'
+interposed Macdonald. 'We should perhaps be burdensome to you,' said he,
+addressing the girl: 'how far is it to the nearest inn?' 'About two
+hours' good walking,' replied she. 'And which is the way?' he asked.
+'This bridle-road,' said she, 'will bring you in an hour to a
+country-road. By turning to your left, you will then reach Arnstadt in
+another.' 'Good,' said Macdonald, 'many thanks. It is my advice, my
+friends, that we push on to Arnstadt.' 'What!' cried the Pole, 'two
+hours more walking! If we were on horseback it would be different; but
+on foot, I will not go another yard;' and, as he spoke, he entered the
+house. 'I beg you a thousand pardons, mademoiselle, for keeping you here
+so long, and a heavy dew falling, too. Come, let us in at once,' said
+the Frenchman, and he followed the Pole. 'It would certainly be far more
+comfortable to have good beds at Arnstadt,' said Richter, 'instead of
+sleeping six in a room; but I am too tired;' and he, too, went in.
+Macdonald cast an imploring look at Laurenberg, who seemed irresolute.
+But at the same moment the girl, who had already made a step to follow
+our Jena companions into the house, turned slowly round, and, throwing a
+bewitching glance at my poor friend, said, in a voice full of
+persuasion, 'And you, fair young sir?' At that moment, the moon, which
+had risen, passed from behind a cloud, and, throwing her light on the
+maiden's features, gave them an almost unearthly beauty. As for
+Macdonald, he remained in the shade; but his expressive eye flashed a
+look of stern warning such as I had never seen it assume before. I shall
+never forget that scene. Laurenberg was between his good and his evil
+angel. But so it is ever. Poor humanity is constantly called on to make
+the choice; and, alas! how much oftener is the evil preferred than the
+good! In this world--"
+
+But here Justus, who seemed greatly to dread his grandfather's homilies,
+and to have an instinctive presentiment of their approach, rose on his
+knees to fill our glasses. This done, he exclaimed, "That's a bad cigar,
+grandfather. It does not burn even, and, besides, the ash is quite
+black: throw it away, and take another."
+
+The interruption was successful. "Thank you, my boy," said the pastor.
+"Don't, however, break in so often on my story. Where was I?"
+
+"Laurenberg was just about to go into the house with the beautiful
+maiden--at least, I suppose so," said Justus.
+
+"Yes," resumed the old man. "After a moment's hesitation, he took her
+hand, which she yielded easily, and they entered together. 'Come,' said
+Macdonald to me, with a sigh, 'since it must be so, we must go with
+them.' He took my arm, and continued, 'We enter here according to our
+degrees of wisdom and folly--the Pole first, you and I last; but who is
+to pay for their blindness?' Give me a light, Justus. Is that the same
+wine? It seems to me a little hard."
+
+"It is the same wine," said Justus. "Perhaps you find it hard, because
+it is cooler than the first."
+
+"It may be so. Well, we went in, entering by a passage into a kind of
+hall. Here we heard the Frenchman's voice: 'Come along, my beauty, and
+show us your wonderful and enchanted chamber, where we are to sleep; for
+I suppose it is there we are to sup, too. I have been trying all the
+doors, and not one of them will open.' 'This way, gentlemen,' said the
+girl, disengaging herself from Laurenberg, and opening one of several
+doors which entered off the place we were in. 'That is your grandmother,
+I suppose?' said Macdonald, pointing to a figure bending over a small
+fire, which was expiring on the hearth. 'Good evening, my good woman;
+you seem to feel chilly;' and, as he addressed these latter words to the
+crouching creature, he made a step as if he would approach; but the
+girl, quickly grasping his arm, whispered in his ear, 'Do not disturb
+her. Since my father's death, she scarcely ever speaks to any one but
+me. She is very old and feeble. Pray, leave her alone.' Macdonald threw
+another of his penetrating glances at the girl, but said nothing, and he
+and I followed her along a passage, some twenty paces in length, and
+very narrow. At the end of it was another door, and this opened into the
+chamber we were to occupy. It was a round room, and we immediately
+guessed that it formed the under story of the tower we had remarked. The
+girl brought a lamp, and we found that the furniture consisted of a
+table and some stools, a large press, a heap of mattresses and bedding,
+a few mats of plaited straw, and a pile of fire-wood. The most curious
+thing about the place, however, was a strong pole, or rather mast, which
+stood in the very centre, and seemed to pass through the roof of the
+room. This roof, which was at a considerable distance from the floor,
+was formed--a thing I had never seen before--of furze-bushes, supported
+upon slender branches of pine, and appeared so rickety as to threaten
+every moment to come down about our heads. On questioning the girl, I
+was told that the mast supported the outer roof, which was possible
+enough. 'In the first place,' said Richter to the damsel, when we had
+seated ourselves, and she seemed to wait for our orders, 'is this an
+inn, or is it not?' 'You may see, gentlemen,' replied she, 'by the
+scantiness of the accommodation, that it is not exactly an inn.
+Nevertheless, you can make yourselves at home, as if it was, and
+welcome.' 'Good. Then, in the second place, have you any wine?' 'Plenty.
+We sell a good deal to the foresters, who pass here often, and so have
+always a supply.' 'Where is it?' asked Macdonald. 'Below, in the
+cellar.' 'Very well,' returned he. 'I and two more of us will go down
+and help you to bring up a dozen bottles or so, if you will show us the
+way.' 'Certainly,' said she. While Macdonald and two of the others were
+absent with her, I contrived to light a fire, and the Frenchman, on
+exploring the press, having found that it contained plates, knives, and
+forks, he and the Pole laid the table; so that when the others, laden
+with bottles, re-appeared, the place had somewhat of a more cheerful
+look. 'They have not had time to drug our wine, at least,' whispered
+Macdonald to me. 'Pooh, my friend,' returned I, 'you are far too
+suspicious. You will smile to-morrow at having had such ideas.' 'We
+shall see,' said he. Presently, the girl brought in some bacon, some
+eggs, and a piece of venison. These we cooked ourselves, staying our
+appetite, in the mean time, with bread and wine. Then we made a hearty
+supper, and became very merry. Richter and the Pole plied the bottle
+vigorously, while Laurenberg and the Frenchman vied with each other in
+somewhat equivocal gallantries to the damsel. As for Macdonald, he wore
+an expression of mingled resignation, vigilance, and resolution, which
+made me uncomfortable, I knew not why--"
+
+"Come, grandfather, don't keep us so long in suspense. Tell us at once
+if Macdonald's suspicions were well-founded," exclaimed Justus. "Had you
+fallen into a den of thieves, or were you among honest people? Were you
+all robbed and murdered before morning, or were you not?"
+
+"Justus, my boy, you must let me tell my story my own way," said the old
+pastor; "and pray don't interrupt me again. Where was I?"
+
+"At supper grandfather."
+
+"True. When we had supped, smoked a few pipes, and finished our wine, we
+began to make our beds. As we were so occupied, the girl came in and
+offered to help us. We readily consented, for we were tired enough. In a
+very short time, she had made six beds on the floor. 'Why do you lay
+them all with the head to the middle of the room?' asked Macdonald,
+observing that all the pillows were ranged round the mast in a circle,
+and as near it as possible.--'That is the way I always do,' said she,
+with a careless air. But she did not succeed in concealing a certain
+strange expression which her features assumed for a moment, and which
+both Macdonald and I remarked, without understanding it. We well
+understood afterward what it meant. As she was retiring, the Frenchman
+and Laurenberg assailed her with some rather too free jokes. She turned,
+and cast on them a look of ineffable indignation and scorn; then,
+without a word, she passed out at the door, and closed it behind her. We
+all admired her for her modesty and virtue. Fill our glasses, Justus.
+But appearances are deceitful; this world is but a vain show; all is not
+gold that glitters; and--"
+
+But, a second time, Justus cut short the homily. He dextrously spilt
+some of the wine, as he performed his Ganymedian office, and so drew
+down on himself a mild sarcasm for his awkwardness.
+
+Forgetting the sermon he had begun, the old man therefore thus went on:
+"All, except Macdonald, were soon in bed. We had, however, only half
+undressed. As for Macdonald, he drew a stool toward the fire, and,
+seating himself, buried his face in his hands, as if in thought. I
+almost immediately fell asleep, and must have slept for some time, for
+when I awoke the fire was out. But I did not awaken of myself; it was
+Macdonald who aroused me. He did the same to the others. He had thrown
+himself on his bed, and spoke in a whisper, which, however, as our heads
+were close together, was audible to all. 'Brothers,' said he, 'listen;
+but for your lives make no noise, and, above all, do not speak. From the
+first moment we arrived at this house, I feared that all was not right;
+now I am sure of it. It seemed odd to me that two solitary women should
+inhabit so large a house; that the girl should have been so ready, or
+rather so anxious to receive us; that she should have shown no fear of
+six young men, all strangers to her; and I said to myself, 'She and her
+grandmother do not live here alone; she depends upon aid, if aid be
+necessary, and that aid is not far off.' Again, I am used to read the
+character in the countenance, and, despite her beauty, if ever treachery
+was marked on the human face, it is on hers. Then why make us all sleep
+in one room? If the others are empty, our beds would be as well on the
+floor in them as in this one. However, all that was mere suspicion. But
+there is more. You saw me examine the windows during supper. I could
+then open the outside shutters; they have since been fastened; and, what
+is more, the door is locked or barred on us, and will not yield. But,
+what is most important, my ear, which is very quick, caught the sound of
+steps in the passage--heavy steps, though taken on tiptoe--steps, in
+short, of a man, or rather, I should say of men, for there were at least
+two. I stole to the door, and I distinctly heard whisperings. Now, what
+do you think of all that? Speak one at a time, and low.'--'Bah!'
+whispered the Frenchman, 'I think nothing of it. It is quite common to
+fasten the shutters outside; and, as for the door, your friend and I
+were rather free with the girl last night, and she may have locked us in
+for her own security, or she might be afraid of our decamping in the
+morning without paying the reckoning. As for the footsteps, I doubt if
+you can distinguish a man's from a woman's; and the whisperings were
+probably the girl and the old woman conversing. Their voices, coming
+along the passage, would sound like whisperings.' This explanation was
+so plausible, that all expressed themselves satisfied with it. But
+Macdonald resumed, and this time he spoke in a whisper so terrible--so
+full of mysterious power, that it went straight to every heart, and
+curdled all our blood. 'Brothers,' he said, 'be wise in time. If you
+will not listen to common sense, take warning of a supernatural sense.
+Have you never had a dim presentiment of approaching evil? I know you
+have. Now, mark. I have at this moment the sure certitude of coming
+evil. I know, I _know_, I KNOW, that if you continue to lie here, and
+will not listen to my words, neither you nor I will ever see another
+sun. I _know_ that we shall all certainly die before the morning. Will
+you be advised? If not, your blood be on your own heads! As for mine, I
+forgive it you. Decide!--resolve!'--These words, the tones in which they
+were uttered, and our knowledge of the speaker, produced a profound
+impression. As for me, I shuddered; but it was less at the idea of the
+threatened material danger, than at that of an occult influence hovering
+round us, inspiring Macdonald, and filling the place with its mysterious
+presence. Laurenberg was the first to speak, or rather to whisper.
+'Macdonald,' said he, 'I yield myself to your guidance.' I immediately
+said, 'And I.' The others followed the example. Macdonald immediately
+took the command on himself. 'Rise,' said he, 'but make not the
+slightest noise. Collect yourselves and pay attention to the slightest
+thing. Leave your shoes; take your swords'--I should tell you, my young
+friend," said the pastor, addressing me, "that in those days students
+wore swords, especially when they traveled. And they were not such
+swords, Justus, as you fight your absurd duels with--not slim things,
+that you can bend double, and of which only a foot or so is sharp--not
+playthings to scratch each other's faces with; but good steel blades,
+meant for thrusting as well as cutting--blades not to be trifled with
+when wielded by a skillful and strong arm. But where was I? I remember.
+'Take your swords,' said Macdonald. 'As it is so dark, there will
+probably be confusion. We must have watchwords, therefore. Let them be
+_Jena_ and _Göttingen_. Also, to avoid our blindly encountering each
+other, let each of us, if it comes to a fight, keep calling _Burschen!
+Burschen!_ I believe the attack I apprehend will come from the door. Let
+us range ourselves three on each side of it. We from Göttingen will take
+the right side, you from Jena the left. When they open the door, we rush
+into the passage. I will lead my file, and do you brother,' said he to
+the Frenchman, 'lead yours. When you hear me cry _Burschen!_ follow me,
+and, remember, you strike for your lives.' All this was said in the
+lowest whisper, but at the same time so distinctly and deliberately,
+that we did not lose a word. We took the places assigned us, grasping
+our bared swords. For a time--it seemed an interminable time--so we
+stood silent, and hearing nothing. Of course, we could not see each
+other, for the place was quite dark. At last our excited ears heard
+footsteps cautiously approaching. Some one came to the door, and was
+evidently listening. In about a minute, we heard the listener whisper to
+some one in the passage--'They must all be asleep now. Tell Hans to cut
+loose.' Our hearts beat quick. There was a pause of some minutes; then
+suddenly we heard overhead a cracking sound among the furze bushes which
+composed the roof of the room, and the next instant something fell to
+the ground with a crash so tremendous that the whole house seemed to
+shake. Then we heard a bolt withdrawn, then a key was turned. The door
+began to open. '_Burschen!_' cried Macdonald, as he dashed it wide ajar,
+and sprang into the passage. '_Burschen!_' cried the Frenchman, and the
+next moment he was by our comrade's side. '_Burschen!_' cried we all, as
+we made in after them."
+
+"_Die Burschen sollen leben!_" (Students forever!) exclaimed Justus, in
+a state of no little excitement.
+
+"The robbers retreated precipitately into the hall, where we had seen
+the old woman the previous night. It was brightly illuminated by a large
+fire which was blazing on the hearth. Here we fought. '_Burschen!_'
+thundered Macdonald, as he struck down a man armed with a hatchet. '_A
+bas les voleurs!_' cried the Frenchman, quitting German for his mother
+tongue, in the heat of the moment. '_Jena! Göttingen!_' shouted some of
+us, forgetting in our excitement that these names were our passwords and
+not our war-cry. '_Burschen!_' cried Laurenberg, as he drove into a
+corner one of the enemy armed with a dagger and a sword. '_Burschen!_'
+cried he again, as he passed his weapon twice through the robber's body.
+'_Jena!_' yelled Richter, as his left arm, which he interposed to defend
+his head, was broken by a blow with an iron bar. '_And Göttingen!_'
+added he with a roar, as he laid his assailant at his feet. Meanwhile
+the Pole and I had sustained a fierce attack from three robbers, who, on
+hearing the cries and the clashing of arms, had rushed out of one of the
+doors opening into the hall. The Pole was already slightly wounded, and
+it was going hard with us, when the others came to our assistance. This
+decided the fight, and we found ourselves victors."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Justus, throwing his cap into the air. "That wasn't bad,
+grandfather!" and taking the old man's hand, he kissed his cheek.
+
+"You are a good boy, Justus," said the pastor, "but don't interrupt me.
+Where was I? Oh, yes. We had gained the victory, and all the robbers lay
+about the floor, killed or wounded. We stood still a moment to take
+breath. At this moment, the girl of the previous evening rushed into the
+hall, and threw herself on the body of the man who had fallen by the
+hand of Laurenberg. She put her hand on his heart, then she approached
+her cheek to his mouth. 'He is dead!' cried she, starting to her feet.
+'You have killed my Heinrich! my beloved Heinrich! you have killed my
+Heinrich! Dead! dead! dead!' Still speaking, she disappeared. But she
+returned almost instantly. She had a pistol in each hand. 'It was _you_,
+young sir,' said she, calmly and deliberately. 'I saw you,' and, as she
+spoke, she covered Laurenberg with her weapon, taking a cool aim. With a
+bound, Macdonald threw himself before the victim. But the generous
+movement was in vain. She fired; and the bullet, grazing Macdonald's
+shoulder, passed through poor Laurenberg's throat, and lodged in a door
+behind him. He staggered and fell."
+
+"Oh, weh!" exclaimed Justus.
+
+"We all stood thunderstruck. 'Your life for his--and mine,' said the
+girl. With these words, she discharged her other pistol into her bosom,
+and sank slowly upon the corpse of her lover."
+
+"What a tragedy!" cried Justus.
+
+"It was indeed a tragedy," resumed the pastor, in a low voice. "I knelt
+down beside my friend, and took his hand. Macdonald raised him up a
+little, supporting him in a sitting posture. He said, 'My
+pocket-book--the letter--my last wish.' Then he pressed my hand. Then he
+said, 'Farewell, comrades--farewell, my brothers. Remember me to my
+mother and Anna.' Then he pressed my hand again. And so he died."
+
+Here the worthy pastor's voice faltered a little, and he paused. Justus
+and I were silent. At last the old man began again. "Many, many years
+have passed since then, but I have never forgotten my early friend, nor
+ceased to mourn him. We laid him gently on his back; I closed his blue
+eyes. Macdonald placed his sword upon his gallant breast, now still
+forever, and crossed his arms over it. Meanwhile the Frenchman and the
+Pole, finding the girl quite dead, had laid her decently by the side of
+the man she had called Heinrich. 'That is enough in the mean time,' then
+said Macdonald, 'the living before the dead. We must see to our own
+safety first, and attend to the wounded.' We accordingly went over the
+house, and satisfied ourselves that no one else was concealed in it; we
+examined the fastenings of all the doors and windows, to guard against
+an attack from any members of the gang who might be outside. We found a
+considerable quantity of arms and ammunition, and congratulated
+ourselves on having surprised our enemies, as otherwise we might have
+been shot down like dogs. Returning to the door where we had supped, we
+found that the thing which had fallen from the roof, with such a crash,
+was an enormous ring or circle of iron, bigger than a cart-wheel. It was
+lying on our beds, the mast being exactly in the centre of it, and
+serving, as we found, to sustain it when it was hoisted up. Had we not
+obeyed Macdonald's voice, we certainly should all have been crushed to
+death, as it was plain many a victim had already been, for the infernal
+thing was stained with blood, and in some places, patches of hair were
+still sticking to it."
+
+"And the old woman? the old grandmother?" asked Justus.
+
+"We found her clothes, but not herself. Hence, we guessed that some one
+of the gang had personated the character, and Macdonald reminded us how
+the girl had prevented his approaching her supposed relative, and how he
+had got no answer to his address, the man in disguise being probably
+afraid that his voice might betray him. On examining the field of
+battle, we found that the robbers were nine in number, and that two
+besides Heinrich were dead. We bound the wounds of the others as well
+as we could. They were all sturdy fellows, and, when we considered their
+superior strength and numbers, we wondered at our own success. It was to
+be attributed solely--of course, I mean humanly speaking--to our attack
+being so unexpected, sudden, and impetuous. Indeed the combat did not
+last five minutes, if nearly so long. On our side, there was the
+irreparable loss of Laurenberg. Richter's broken arm gave him much pain,
+and the Pole had lost a considerable quantity of blood; but, besides
+this, we had only a few scratches. 'Now, lie down and rest,' said
+Macdonald, 'for you have all need of it. As for me, I can not sleep, and
+so will keep watch till morning.' We did as he recommended, for in
+truth, now that the excitement was over, I could scarcely keep my eyes
+open, and the rest were like me. Even Richter slept. Give us some wine,
+Justus, my boy."
+
+"He was a fine fellow that Macdonald," said Justus, as he obeyed.
+
+"It was several hours before he awakened us," continued the pastor. "My
+first thoughts were of poor Laurenberg. I remembered what he said about
+a pocket-book. I searched his dress, and found it. What it contained, I
+shall tell you presently. We breakfasted on some bread and wine, and
+then Macdonald called a council of war. After putting a negative on the
+absurd proposal of the Pole, that we should set fire to the house, and
+to the stupid suggestion of Richter (he was in a state of fever from his
+hurt) that, before doing any thing else, we should empty the cellar, we
+unanimously agreed that our first step should be to give information to
+the proper authorities of all that had happened. The Frenchman and I
+were deputed to go and seek them out. 'You remember what the girl said
+about the way to Arnstadt?' said Macdonald. 'I think you may so far rely
+on it; but you must trust a good deal to your own judgment to find your
+way.' With this piece of advice, we started."
+
+The journey to Arnstadt, the interview with the bürgermeister, the
+reference to the rural amptman, the expedition of that functionary to
+the scene of the tragedy, the imprisonment of the surviving robbers,
+their trial, confession, and punishment, were all minutely dwelt upon by
+the worthy but somewhat diffuse narrator; none of these circumstances,
+however, interested me, and I took little note of them. At last, the
+pastor returned to personages more attractive of attention.
+
+"We buried Laurenberg by night," said he. "There chanced to be some
+students from other universities in the neighborhood of Arnstadt, and
+they joined us in paying him all due honor. We followed the coffin, on
+which lay his sword and cap, walking two-and-two, and each bearing a
+torch. When the body was lowered into the grave, we quenched the
+torches, and sung a Latin dirge. Such was the end of my friend."
+
+"And the pocket-book?" asked Justus.
+
+"It contained a letter to me, a very curious letter. It was dated
+Gotha, and bore, in substance, that Macdonald's presentiments were
+weighing on the mind of the writer, more than he was willing should be
+known until _after_ the anticipated catastrophe, if, indeed, any should
+take place. But, that such a thing being _possible_, he took that
+opportunity of recommending his mother and sister to my care, and of
+expressing his hope that I should find I could love Anna, and that so I
+would one day make her my wife. I need not relate to you how I performed
+the sad duty of bearing the news of his death to his two dear relatives.
+As you know, Justus, Anna in about three years afterward became mine.
+And here, in this house, young stranger, we lived very happily for
+thirty years. Here, too, she died. And yonder, in the church-yard, near
+the west porch, she awaits being rejoined by her own--by her children,
+and her husband."
+
+We were all silent for some time. At length Justus, whose emotions were
+yet as summer clouds, inquired of his grandfather, "And your other
+comrades in the Thuringian Forest affair?"
+
+"Of the Jena students I heard no more till many years afterward. It was
+in November, 1813; Napoleon was retreating from the nation-fight at
+Leipsic. The battle of Hanau, too, had been fought. A wounded French
+officer asked hospitality of me here. Of course, I granted it, and he
+remained more than two months with me; for, though not for several days
+after his arrival, I discovered that he was the French student who, with
+Richter and the Pole, had joined our party at Gotha. He had returned to
+France about a year after our fatal adventure, had entered the army, and
+had been fighting almost ever since. When he left me, he was sent to
+Mainz, a prisoner on parole; but, at the Restoration in his own country,
+he was allowed to return. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he
+however once more took up arms for his old master, and, with the many
+other victims of one man's ambition, and the, alas! too prevalent thirst
+for military glory common among his countrymen, he was killed at
+Waterloo. When will such things cease? When--"
+
+"And Richter?" asked Justus, nipping in the bud the dreaded moralizing.
+
+"Richter was killed in a duel--"
+
+"And Macdonald?"
+
+"Don't interrupt me, my boy; fill our glasses instead. Richter was
+killed in a duel; so the Frenchman told me. I also heard of the fate of
+the Pole through him. It was a strange and melancholy one. He, too, had
+gone to France, and entered the army, serving zealously and with
+distinction. In 1807, being then with the division that was advancing on
+the Vistula, he obtained leave to visit his father, whom he had not seen
+for years, but whom he hoped to find in the paternal mansion, situated
+in a wild part of the country, but not very far from the route which his
+corps was taking. He was, however, surprised by the night, as he was
+still riding through a forest of firs which seemed interminable. He
+therefore put up at a small roadside inn, which presented itself just
+as he reached the limits of the wood. Here the Frenchman's account of
+the matter became rather obscure, indeed, his friend the Pole had never
+told him very exactly all the circumstances. Suffice it that there were
+two ladies in the inn--a mother and daughter--two Polish ladies, who
+were hurrying to meet the husband of one of them, a colonel in Jerome
+Bonaparte's army. They were in a great state of alarm, the conduct of
+the people about the place having roused their suspicions. At their
+request, the Pole took up his quarters in a room from which their
+chamber entered, so that no one could reach them without passing by him.
+The room he thus occupied was on the first floor, and at the top of a
+staircase, from which access was obtained by a trap-door. This trap the
+officer shut, and fastened by a wooden bolt belonging to it. Then,
+telling the ladies to fear nothing, he placed his sword and pistols on a
+table beside him, and resolved to keep good watch. About midnight, he
+heard steps on the staircase. No answer was returned to the challenge he
+immediately made; on the contrary, some one tried to force the trap. The
+officer observing a hole two or three inches square in it, passed the
+muzzle of one of his pistols through it, and fired. There was the sound
+of a body rolling down the staircase. But the attempt was soon after
+renewed; this time, however, differently. A hand appeared through the
+hole, and grasped the bolt. The bolt was even half withdrawn, when the
+Pole, at a single blow, severed the hand from the body it belonged to.
+There followed groans and horrid imprecations; but nothing more took
+place that night. In the morning, a squadron of French cavalry arrived,
+and the ladies were placed in safety. Not a single person was found in
+the inn. The officer continued his way to his father's house. One thing,
+however, had much struck him; the hand he had cut off was very small,
+delicate, and white; moreover, one of the fingers wore a ring of
+considerable value. This ring he took possession of, with a strange,
+uncomfortable feeling of coming evil, which increased as he went on.
+Arrived at his father's house, he was told that his parent was ill, and
+in bed. He was, however, soon introduced to his presence. The old man
+was evidently suffering great pain; but he conversed with his son for
+some time, with tolerable composure. Suddenly, however, by a convulsive
+movement, he threw off the bedclothes, and the officer, to his horror,
+saw that his father's right hand was wanting. 'It was then you! and this
+is your ring!' he cried, in an agony of conflicting passions, as,
+throwing the jewel on the floor, he rushed out of the house, mounted his
+horse, and rode off at full speed. A few weeks afterward, he sought and
+found his death amid the bloody snows of Prussian Eylau."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Justus. "And Macdonald?"
+
+"Of Macdonald's fate," said the pastor, gravely, "I know nothing. When I
+returned to Göttingen, after visiting Anna and her mother, he was gone.
+He had left his rooms the previous day with a stranger, an elderly man,
+dressed in gray. And he never returned. I made every inquiry all round
+Göttingen, but could get no tidings of him, no one on any road had seen
+him or his companion pass. In short, I never saw or heard any thing more
+of him. His books and things were sold some two or three months after; I
+bought every thing I thought he cared for, in order some day to restore
+them to him. But he has never appeared to claim them, and so I have them
+still. His sword hangs between Laurenberg's and mine, in my study. But
+come, the dew is falling, let us go in. Justus, my boy, be kind enough
+to carry in my chair for me. Trinchen will come out for the rest of the
+things."
+
+So ended the worthy pastor's story.
+
+
+
+
+THE COUNTESS--A TALE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
+
+BY PERCY B. ST. JOHN.
+
+
+The Citizen Aristides Godard was the very beau ideal of a republican
+patriot during the early times of the Terror. During the day, the
+Citizen Godard sold cloth to his brother and sister democrats, and
+talked politics by the yard all the while. He was of the old
+school--hated an aristocrat and a poet with an intensity which
+degenerated into the comic, and never once missed a feast of reason, or
+any other solemnity of those days. Enter his shop to purchase a few
+yards of cloth, and he would eagerly ask you for the latest news,
+discuss the debate of the previous night in the Convention, and invite
+you to his club. His club! for it was here the Citoyen Godard was great.
+The worthy clothier could scarcely read, but he could talk, and better
+still, he could perorate with remarkable emphasis and power, knew by
+heart all the peculiar phrases of the day, and even descended to the
+slang of political life.
+
+The Citoyen Godard was a widower, with an only son, who having inherited
+a small fortune from his mother, had abandoned trade, and given up his
+whole time to the affairs of the nation. Paul Godard was a young man, of
+handsome form and mien, of much talent, full of sincerity and
+enthusiasm; and with these characteristics was, though not more than
+four-and-twenty, president and captain of his section, where he was
+distinguished for his eloquence, energy, and civism. Sincerely attached
+to the new ideas of the hour, he, however, had none of the violence of a
+party man; and though some very exaggerated patriots considered him
+lukewarm, the majority were of a very different opinion.
+
+It was eight o'clock on one gloomy evening in winter, when the Citizen
+Godard entered the old convent, where sat the Jacobin Club. The hall
+was, as usual, very full. The locality contained nearly fourteen hundred
+men, seated upon benches placed across the room, in all the strange and
+varied costumes of the time. Red caps covered many heads, while
+tricolored vests and pantaloons were common. The chief characteristic
+was poverty of garb, some of the richest present wearing wooden shoes,
+and using a bit of cord for strings and buttons. The worst dressed were,
+of course, the men who assumed the character of Jacobins as a disguise.
+
+One of these was speaking when Godard entered, and though there was
+serious business before the club, was wasting its time in denouncing
+some fabulous aristocratic conspiracy. Godard, who was late, had to take
+his place in the corner, where the faint glimmer of the taller candles
+scarcely reached him. Still, from the profound silence which as usual
+prevailed, he could hear every word uttered by the orator. The Jacobins,
+except when there was a plot to stifle an unpopular speaker, listened
+attentively to all. The eloquent rhetorician, and the unlettered
+stammerer, were equally attended to--the matter, not the manner, being
+cared for.
+
+The orator who occupied the tribune was young. His face was covered with
+a mass of beard, while his uncombed hair, coarse garments, dirty hands,
+and a club of vast dimensions, showed him to be a politician by
+profession. His language was choice and eloquent, though he strove to
+use the lowest slang of the day.
+
+"Word of a patriot!" said the Citoyen Godard, after eying the speaker
+suspiciously for some time. "I know that voice. He is fitter for the
+_Piscine des Carmagnoles_[26] than for the tribune."
+
+"Who is the particular?" asked a friend of the clothier, who stood by.
+
+"It is the Citizen Gracchus Bastide," said a third, in a soft and shrill
+tone, preventing the reply of Godard; and then the speaker bent low, and
+added--"Citoyen Godard, you are a father and a good man. I am Helene de
+Clery; the orator is my cousin. Do not betray him!"
+
+The Citoyen Godard looked wildly at the speaker, and then drew the young
+woman aside. Her garb was that of a man. A red cap confined her
+luxuriant hair; a full coat, loose tricolored pantaloons, and a sword
+and brace of pistols completed her attire.
+
+"_Citoyenne!_" said the revolutionary clothier, drily, "thou art an
+aristocrat. I should denounce thee!"
+
+"But thou wilt not?" replied the young woman, with a winning smile, "nor
+my cousin, though playing so foolish, so unworthy a part."
+
+"Oh!" said Godard, "thou ownest this, then?"
+
+"Papa Godard," answered the young countess, in a low, imploring tone,
+"my father was once thy best customer, and thou hadst never reason to
+complain of him. He was a good man. For his and for my sake, spare my
+cousin, led away by bad counsels and by fatal ambition."
+
+"I will spare him," said the clothier, moving away, "but let him take
+the warning I shall give him."
+
+The clothier had noticed that the Citoyen Gracchus Bastide was about to
+finish, and he hurried to ask a hearing, which was instantly granted
+him. The Citoyen Godard was not an orator, and, as is the case under
+such circumstances, his head, arms, and feet were more active than his
+tongue. Ascending the tribune, he struck the desk three times with his
+feet, while his eyes seemed ready to start out of his head, at the same
+time that his lips moved inarticulately. At length, however, he spoke:
+
+"The truths spoken by the citizen who preceded me are truths of which
+every man is fully aware, and I am not here in consequence to reiterate
+them. The friends of the defunct Louis Capet are conspiring in the midst
+of us every day. But the citoyen _preopinant_ forgot to say, that they
+come to our very forum--that they dress like true patriots--that they
+take names which belong rightly only to the faithful--and denounce often
+true men to cheat us. Many a Gracchus hides a marquis--many a _bonnet
+rouge_ a powdered crown! I move the order of the day."
+
+The citizen Gracchus Bastide had no sooner caught sight of Godard
+advancing toward the tribune, than he hurried toward the door, and ere
+the conclusion of the other's brief oration, had vanished. Godard's
+object gained, he descended from the forum, and gave way to a speaker
+big with one of those propositions which were orders to the Legislature,
+and which swayed the fate of millions at that eventful period.
+
+Godard reassumed his former post, which he patiently kept until a late
+hour, when the sitting being terminated, after speeches from Danton,
+Robespierre, and Camille Desmoulins, he sallied forth into the open air.
+
+It was eleven o'clock, and the streets of Paris were dark and gloomy.
+The order for none to be out after ten, without a _carte de civisme_,
+was in force, and few were inclined to disobey it. At that time, Paris
+went to bed almost at night-fall, with the exception of those who did
+the government business of the hour, and they never rested. Patriots,
+bands of armed men guarding prisoners, volunteers returning from
+festivals, the chiefs of different parties sitting in committees, the
+orators writing their speeches for next day, the sections organizing
+public demonstrations--such was the picture of this great town by night.
+Dawn was the most unwelcome of times, for then the statesman had to
+renew his struggle for existence, the accused had to defend himself, the
+suspected began again to watch the hours as they flew, and the terrific
+machine that depopulated the earth was at work--horrid relic of
+ignorance and barbarism, that killed instead of converting.
+
+Father Godard had scarcely left the Jacobins, when from a narrow passage
+darted a slight figure, which he instantly recognized as that of Helene
+de Clery. The young girl caught hold of his arm and began speaking with
+extreme volubility, she said that her father had been dead six months,
+leaving her and a hot-headed cousin alone in the world. This young man
+embraced with fiery zeal the cause of the exiled royal family, and had
+already twice narrowly escaped--once on the occasion of the king's
+execution, and on that of the queen's. Every royalist conspiracy, every
+movement for insurrection against the Committee of Public Safety, found
+him mixed up in it. For some time they had been able to exist on what
+remained of her father's money, but now their resources were utterly
+exhausted. It was only by the charity of royalist friends that she
+starved not, and to obtain even this she had to disguise herself, and
+act with her party. But Helene said, that she had no political instinct.
+She loved her country, but she could not join with one party against
+another.
+
+"Give me some work to do--show me how to earn a livelihood, with my
+fingers, Father Godard, and I will bless you."
+
+"No person shall ask me how to be a good citizen in vain. Citoyenne
+Helene, thou art under my protection. My wife is dead: wilt thou be too
+proud to take charge of my household?"
+
+"Surely too grateful."
+
+"And thy cousin?"
+
+"Heaven have mercy on him. He will hear no reason. I have begged and
+implored him to leave the dark road of conspiracy, and to seek to serve
+his country, but in vain. Nothing will move him."
+
+"Let the wild colt have his course," replied Godard, adding rather
+coarsely, "he will end by sneezing in Samson's sack."
+
+Helene shuddered, but made no reply, clinging firmly to the old
+_sans-culotte's_ arm as he led her through the deserted streets.
+
+It was midnight when the residence of the clothier was reached. It was
+in a narrow street running out of the Rue St. Honore. There was no
+coach-door, and Godard opened with a huge key that hung suspended at his
+girdle. Scarcely had the old man inserted the key in the key-hole when a
+figure darted forth from a guard-house close at hand.
+
+"I thought I should find the old Jacobin," said a merry, hearty voice;
+"he never misses his club. I am on duty to-night in the neighborhood,
+and, says I, let us see the father, and get a crust out of him."
+
+"Paul, my boy, thou art a good son, and I am glad to see thee. Come in:
+I want to talk seriously to thee."
+
+The clothier entered, Helene followed him closely, and Paul closed the
+door. A lantern burned in the passage, by which some candles were soon
+lit in the cosy back sitting-room of the old _sans-culotte_. Paul looked
+curiously at the stranger, and was about to let a very impertinent grin
+cross his face, when his father taking off his red cap, spoke with some
+emotion, laying aside, under the impression of deep feeling, all his
+slang.
+
+"My son, you have heard me speak often of my benefactor and friend, the
+Count de Clery, who for some trifling service, rendered when a lad, gave
+me the means of starting in life. This is his daughter and only child.
+My boy, we know how terrible are the days. The daughter of the royalist
+Count de Clery is fated to die if discovered. We must save her."
+
+Paul, who was tall, handsome, and intellectual in countenance, bowed low
+to the agitated girl. He said little, but what he said was warm and to
+the point. Helene thanked both with tears in her eyes, begging them also
+to look to her cousin. Paul turned to his father for an explanation,
+which Papa Godard gave.
+
+"Let him beware," said Paul, drily. "He is a spy, and merits death. Ah!
+ah! what noise is that?"
+
+"Captain," cried half a dozen voices in the street, "thou art wanted. We
+have caught a suspicious character."
+
+"'Tis perhaps Albert, who has followed me," cried Helene. "He thinks I
+would betray him."
+
+Paul rushed to the door. Half a dozen national guards were holding a
+man. It was Citizen Gracchus Bastide. Paul learned that no sooner had he
+entered the house, than this man crept up to the door, listened
+attentively, and stamped his feet as if in a passion. Looking on this as
+suspicious, the patriots had rushed out and seized him.
+
+"Captain," cried the Citizen Gracchus, "what is the meaning of this? I
+am a Jacobin, and a known patriot."
+
+"Hum!" said Paul, "let me look at thee. Ah! pardon, citizen, I recognize
+thee now; but why didst thou not knock? We wait supper for thee. Come
+in. Bravo, my lads, be always on the alert. I will join you soon."
+
+And pushing the other into the passage, he led him without another word
+into the parlor. For an instant all remained silent. Paul then spoke:
+
+"Thou art a spy and a traitor, and as such worthy of death. Not content
+with foreign armies and French traitors on the frontiers, we must have
+them here in Paris. Albert de Clery, thou hast thy choice--the
+guillotine, or a voluntary enrollment in the army. Go forth, without
+regard to party, and fight the enemies of thy country, and in one year
+thou shalt find a cousin, a friend, and, I suppose, a wife."
+
+Godard, Helene, Paul, all spoke in turns. They joined in regretting the
+misery of Frenchmen fighting against Frenchmen. They pointed out that,
+no matter what was its form of government, France was still France.
+Albert resisted for some time, but at last the strong man yielded. The
+four men then supped in common, and the young royalist, as well as the
+republican, found that men may differ in politics, and yet not be
+obliged to cut each other's throats. They found ample subjects for
+agreement in other things. Before morning, Albert, led away by the
+eloquence of young Paul, voluntarily pledged himself not to fight
+against France. Next day he took service, and, after a tearful adieu,
+departed. He went with a ragged band of raw recruits to fight the
+battles of his country, a little bewildered at his new position; but not
+unconvinced that he was acting more wisely than in fomenting the evil
+passions of the hour.
+
+Immediately after the leave-taking, Helene commenced her new existence
+in plain and ordinary garb, taking her post as the old clothier's
+housekeeper. An old woman was cook and housemaid, and with her aid
+Helene got on comfortably. The warm-hearted _sans-culotte_ found, in
+additional comfort, and in her society, ample compensation for his
+hospitality. Helene, by gentle violence, brought him to the use of clean
+linen, which, like Marat, and other semi-insane individuals, Godard had
+originally affected to reject, as a sign of inferior civism. He became,
+too, more humanely disposed in general to his enemies, and, ere three
+months, ardently longed for the end of the awful struggle which was
+desolating the land. Aristides Godard felt the humanizing influence of
+woman, the best attribute of civilization--an influence which, when men
+can not feel it, they at once stamp their own character.
+
+Paul became an assiduous visitor at his father's house. He brought the
+fair countess news from the army, flowers, books, and sometimes letters
+from cousin Albert. They soon found much mutual pleasure in each other's
+society, but Paul never attempted to offer serious court to the
+affianced wife of the young Count de Clery. Paul was of a remarkably
+honorable character. Of an ardent and passionate temperament, he had
+imbibed from his mother a set of principles which were his guide through
+life. He saw this young girl, taken away from the class in which she was
+brought up, deprived of the pleasures of her age and rank, and compelled
+to earn her living, and he did his utmost to make her time pass
+pleasantly. Helene was but eighteen, and the heart at this age, knows
+how to bound away from sorrow, as from a precipice, when a better
+prospect offers; and Helene, deeply grateful at the attention paid her,
+both by father and son, soon became reconciled to her new mode of
+existence, and then quite happy. Paul devoted every spare hour to her,
+and as he had read, thought, and studied, the once spoiled child of
+fortune found much advantage in his society.
+
+At the end of three months, Albert ceased to write, and his friend
+became anxious. Inquiries were made, which proved that he was alive and
+well, and then they ceased to hear of him. A year passed, two years, and
+calmer days came round, but no tidings reached of the absent one. Helene
+was deeply anxious--her cheeks grew pale--she became thin. Paul did all
+he could to rouse her. He took her out, he showed her all the amusements
+and gayeties of Paris, but nothing seemed to have any effect. The poor
+fellow was in despair, as he was deeply attached to the orphan girl.
+Once a week, at least, he pestered the war office with inquiries about
+Bastide, the name under which the cousin had enrolled himself.
+
+Father Godard, when the days of the club were over, doubly grateful for
+the good deed he had done, and which had its full reward, retired from
+business, took a simple lodging in a more lively quarter, and found in
+Helene a dutiful and attached daughter. For a wonder, there was a garden
+attached to the house, and here the retired tradesman, on a summer's
+evening, would smoke his pipe and take his coffee, while Paul and Helene
+strolled about the alleys or chatted by his side.
+
+One evening in June--one of those lovely evenings which makes Paris half
+Italian in look, when the boulevards are crowded with walkers, when
+thousands crowd open-air concerts, and all is warm, and balmy, and
+fragrant, despite a little dust--the trio were collected. Father Godard
+was smoking his second pipe, Helene was sipping some sugar and water,
+and Paul, seated close by her side, was thinking. The young man's face
+was pale, while his eyes were fixed on Helene with a half-melancholy,
+half-passionate expression. There was a world of meaning in that look,
+and Paul perhaps felt that he was yielding to an unjustifiable emotion,
+for he started.
+
+"A flower for your thoughts, Paul," said Helene, quietly.
+
+"My thoughts," replied Paul, with rather a forced laugh, "are not worth
+a flower."
+
+Helene seemed struck by the tone, and she bowed her head and blushed.
+
+"Helene," said Paul, in a low, hushed, and almost choking tone, "this
+has been too much; the cup has at last overflowed. I was wrong, I was
+very wrong to be near you so much, and it has ended as I should have
+expected. I love you, Helene! I feel it, and I must away and see you no
+more. I have acted unwisely--I have acted improperly."
+
+"And why should you not love me, Paul?" replied Helene, with a great
+effort, but so faintly none else but a lover could have heard.
+
+"Are you not Albert's affianced wife?" continued Paul, gravely.
+
+"At last I can explain that which fear of being mistaken has made me
+never say before. I and Albert were never affianced, never could be, for
+I could not love him."
+
+"Helene! Helene!" cried Paul, passionately, "why spoke you not two years
+ago? I said he should find his cousin, his friend, and his affianced
+wife when he came back, and I must keep my word."
+
+"True, true--but Paul, he could not have heard you. But you are
+right--you are right."
+
+"Let me know all," said the young man, moodily, "but for this
+unfortunate accident."
+
+"Paul, you have been to me more than a brother and I will be just toward
+you. Influenced by this mistake you clearly did not care more for me
+than a friend, and what else has made me ill, and pale, and gloomy but
+shame, because--"
+
+"Because what?" asked the young man, eagerly.
+
+"Because, under the circumstances in which I was placed, I had let my
+heart lean where it could find no support."
+
+No man could hear such a confession unmoved, and Paul was half wild with
+delight; but he soon checked himself, and, gravely rising, took Helene's
+hand respectfully.
+
+"But I have been wrong to ask you this until Albert gives me back my
+word."
+
+At this instant a heavy step was heard, the clanking of spurs and arms
+on the graveled way, and now a tall cavalry officer of rank, preceded by
+a woman-servant running, was seen coming toward them. Both trembled--old
+Godard was asleep--and stood up, for both recognized Albert de Clery.
+
+"Ah! ah! my friend," cried the soldier, gayly; "I find you at last,
+Helene, my dear cousin. Let me embrace you! Eh! how is it? Still
+mademoiselle, or are you madam by this time? Paul, my good friend, give
+me your hand again. But come into the house. I have brought my wife to
+show you--an Italian, a beauty, and an heiress. How do you do, Papa
+Godard?"
+
+"Hum--ah! I was asleep. Ah! Citizen Gracchus--Monsieur Albert, I
+mean--glad to see you."
+
+"Guide me to the house," continued the soldier, "my wife is impatient to
+see you. Give me your arm, Papa Godard; follow, cousin, and let us talk
+of old times."
+
+One look, one pressure of the hand, and arm-in-arm they followed, happy
+in reality for the first time for two years.
+
+Madame de Clery was indeed a fascinating and beautiful Italian, and upon
+her Albert laid the blame of his not writing. He had distinguished
+himself greatly, and, remarked by his officers, had risen with
+surprising rapidity to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. On the Rhine, he
+was one day located in the house of a German baron, with two handsome
+daughters. An Italian girl, an heiress, a relation by marriage, was
+there, and an attachment sprung up between the young people. The
+difficulties in the way of marriage were many; but it is an old story,
+how love delights in vanquishing them. Antonia contrived to enter France
+under a safe conduct, and then was married. Albert had obtained a
+month's leave of absence. He thought at once of those who had paved the
+way for his success.
+
+Godard, who had seen something of what had been going on, frankly
+explained why Helene was still unmarried. Albert turned round, and shook
+Paul by the hand.
+
+"My dear friend, I scarcely heard your sentence. But you are a noble
+fellow. I shall not leave Paris until you are my cousin."
+
+This sentence completed the general delight. The meeting became doubly
+interesting to all, and ere ten days the wedding took place, Albert
+carrying every thing with a high hand, as became a gallant soldier. He
+did more. He introduced Paul to influential members of the government,
+and obtained for him an excellent position, one that gave him an
+occupation, and the prospect of serving his country. Old Godard was
+delighted, but far more so when some years after, in a garden near
+Paris, he scrambled about with the children of Madame Paul and Madame de
+Clery, who resided with the first, her husband being generally on
+service. Paul and his wife were very happy. They had seen adversity, and
+been chastened by it. Helene doubly loved her husband, from his nobility
+of character in respecting her supposed affianced state; and never once
+did the descendant of the "ancient and noble" House of Clery regret that
+in finding that great and sterling treasure, a good husband, she had
+lost the vain and empty satisfaction of being called Madame "the
+Countess."
+
+
+    FOOTNOTE:
+
+    [26] Another slang word for the guillotine.
+
+
+
+
+[From Bentley's Miscellany.]
+
+A MIDNIGHT DRIVE.--A TALE OF TERROR.
+
+
+I was sitting one night in the general coach-office in the town of ----,
+reflecting upon the mutability of human affairs, and taking a
+retrospective glance at those times when I held a very different
+position in the world, when one of the porters of the establishment
+entered the office, and informed the clerk that the coach, which had
+long been expected, was in sight, and would be at the inn in a few
+minutes. I believe it was the old Highflyer, but at this distance of
+time I can not speak with sufficient certainty. The strange story I am
+about to relate, occurred when stage-coaches were the usual mode of
+conveyance, and long before any more expeditious system of traveling had
+engaged the attention of mankind.
+
+I continued to sit by the fire till the coach arrived, and then walked
+into the street to count the number of the passengers, and observe their
+appearance. I was particularly struck with the appearance of one
+gentleman, who had ridden as an inside passenger. He wore a large black
+cloak, deeply trimmed with crape; his head was covered with a black
+traveling-cap, surmounted with two or three crape rosettes, and from
+which depended a long black tassel. The cap was drawn so far over his
+eyes that he had some difficulty to see his way. A black scarf was
+wrapped round the lower part of his face, so that his countenance was
+completely concealed from my view. He appeared anxious to avoid
+observation, and hurried into the inn as fast as he could. I returned to
+the office and mentioned to the clerk the strange appearance of the
+gentlemen in question, but he was too busy to pay any attention to what
+I had said.
+
+Presently afterward a porter brought a small carpet-bag into the office,
+and placed it upon the table.
+
+"Whose bag is that, Timms?" inquired the clerk.
+
+"I don't wish to be personal," replied the man, "but I think it belongs
+to ----," and the fellow pointed to the floor.
+
+"You don't mean _him_, surely?" said the clerk.
+
+"Yes, I do though; at any rate, if he is not the gentleman I take him
+for, he must be a second cousin of his, for he is the most unaccountable
+individual that ever I clapped my eyes on. There is not much good in
+him, I'll be bound."
+
+I listened with breathless anxiety to these words. When the man had
+finished, I said to him,
+
+"How was the gentleman dressed?"
+
+"In black."
+
+"Had he a cloak on?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A traveling-cap drawn over his eyes?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's the man I saw descend from the coach," I said to the clerk.
+
+"Where is he?" inquired that gentleman.
+
+"In the inn," replied the porter.
+
+"Is he going to stay all night?" I inquired.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"It's very odd," observed the clerk, and he put his pen behind his ear,
+and placed himself in front of the fire; "very odd," he repeated.
+
+"It don't look well," said the porter; "not at all."
+
+Some further conversation ensued upon the subject, but as it did not
+tend to throw any light upon the personage in question, it is
+unnecessary for me to relate it.
+
+Awhile afterward, the clerk went into the hotel to learn, if possible,
+something more relative to this singular visitor. He was not absent more
+than a few minutes, and when he returned his countenance, I fancied, was
+more sedate than usual. I asked him if he had gathered any further
+information.
+
+"There is nobody knows any thing concerning him," he replied; "for when
+the servants enter the room, he always turns his back toward them. He
+has not spoken to a single individual since he arrived. There is a man
+who came by the same coach, who attends upon him, but he does not look
+like a servant."
+
+"There is something extraordinary in his history, or I am much
+deceived."
+
+"I am quite of your opinion," observed the clerk.
+
+While we were conversing, some persons entered the office to take places
+by the mail, which was to leave early on the following morning. I
+hereupon departed, and entered the inn with the view of satisfying my
+curiosity, if possible, which was now raised to the utmost pitch. The
+servants, I remarked, moved about more silently than usual, and
+sometimes I saw two or three of them conversing together, _sotto voce_,
+as though they did not wish their conversation to be overheard by those
+around them. I knew the room that the gentleman occupied, and
+stealthily and unobserved stole up to it, hoping to hear or see
+something that might throw some light upon his character. I was not,
+however, gratified in either respect.
+
+I hastened back to the office and resumed my seat by the fire. The clerk
+and I were still conversing upon the subject, when one of the girls came
+in, and informed me that I was to get a horse and gig ready immediately,
+to drive a gentleman a distance of fifteen or twenty miles.
+
+"To-night!" I said in surprise.
+
+"Immediately!"
+
+"Why, it's already ten o'clock!"
+
+"It's the master's orders; I can not alter them," tartly replied the
+girl.
+
+This unwelcome intelligence caused me to commit a great deal of sin, for
+I made use of a number of imprecations and expressions which were quite
+superfluous and perfectly unavailing. It was not long before I was ready
+to commence the journey. I chose the fastest and strongest animal in the
+establishment, and one that had never failed me in an emergency. I lit
+the lamps, for the night was intensely dark, and I felt convinced that
+we should require them. The proprietor of the hotel gave me a paper, but
+told me not to read it till we had proceeded a few miles on the road,
+and informed me at the same time in what direction to drive. The paper,
+he added, would give me further instructions.
+
+I was seated in the vehicle, busily engaged in fastening the leathern
+apron on the side on which I sat, in order to protect my limbs from the
+cold, when somebody seated himself beside me. I heard the landlord cry,
+"Drive on;" and, without looking round, I lashed the mare into a very
+fast trot. Even now, while I write, I feel in some degree the
+trepidation which stole over me when I discovered who my companion was.
+I had not gone far before I was made acquainted with this astounding
+fact. It was as though an electric shock had suddenly and unexpectedly
+been imparted to my frame, or as, in a moment of perfect happiness, I
+had been hastily plunged into the greatest danger and distress. A
+benumbing chilliness ran through me, and my mouth all at once became dry
+and parched. Whither was I to drive? I knew not. Who and what was my
+companion? I was equally ignorant. It was the man dressed so
+fantastically whom I had seen alight from the coach; whose appearance
+and inexplicable conduct had alarmed a whole establishment, whose
+character was a matter of speculation to every body with whom he had
+come in contact. This was the substance of my knowledge. For aught I
+knew, he might be--. But no matter. The question that most concerned me
+was, how was I to extricate myself from this dilemma? Which was the best
+course to adopt? To turn back, and declare I would not travel in such a
+night, with so strange a person, or to proceed on my journey? I greatly
+feared the consequences of the former step would be fatal to my own
+interests. Besides, I should be exposed to the sneers and laughter of
+all who knew me. No: I had started, and I would proceed, whatever might
+be the issue of the adventure.
+
+In a few minutes we had emerged from the town. My courage was now put to
+the severest test. The cheerful aspect of the streets, and the light
+thrown from the lamps and a few shop-windows, had hitherto buoyed me up,
+but my energy and firmness, I felt, were beginning to desert me. The
+road on which we had entered was not a great thoroughfare at any time,
+but at that late hour of the night I did not expect to meet either
+horseman or pedestrian to enliven the long and solitary journey. I cast
+my eyes before me, but could not discern a single light burning in the
+distance. The night was thick and unwholesome, and not a star was to be
+seen in the heavens. There was another matter which caused me great
+uneasiness. I was quite unarmed, and unprepared for any attack, should
+my companion be disposed to take advantage of that circumstance. These
+things flashed across my mind, and made a more forcible impression than
+they might otherwise have done, from the fact of a murder having been
+committed in the district only a few weeks before, under the most
+aggravated circumstances. An hypothesis suggested itself. Was this man
+the perpetrator of that deed--the wretch who was endeavoring to escape
+from the officers of justice, and who was stigmatized with the foulest,
+the blackest crime that man could be guilty of? Appearances were against
+him. Why should he invest himself with such a mystery? Why conceal his
+face in so unaccountable a manner? What but a man conscious of great
+guilt, of the darkest crimes, would so furtively enter an inn, and
+afterward steal away under the darkness of the night, when no mortal eye
+could behold him? If he was sensible of innocence, he might have
+deferred his journey till the morning, and faced, with the fortitude of
+a man, the broad light of day, and the scrutiny of his fellow-men. I
+say, appearances were against him, and I felt more and more convinced,
+that whatever his character was--whatever his deeds might have
+been--that the present journey was instigated by fear and apprehension
+for his personal safety. But was I to be the instrument of his
+deliverance? Was I to be put to all this inconvenience in order to favor
+the escape of an assassin? The thought distracted me. I vowed that it
+should not be so. My heart chafed and fretted at the task that had been
+put upon me. My blood boiled with indignation at the bare idea of being
+made the tool of so unhallowed a purpose. I was resolved. I ground my
+teeth with rage. I grasped the reins with a tighter hold. I determined
+to be rid of the man--nay, even to attempt to destroy him rather than it
+should be said that I had assisted in his escape. At some distance
+further on there was a river suitable for that purpose. When off his
+guard, he could in a moment be pushed into the stream; in certain
+places it was sufficiently deep to drown him. One circumstance perplexed
+me. If he escaped, he could adduce evidence against me. No matter; it
+would be difficult to prove that I had any intention of taking away his
+life. But should he be the person I conceived, he would not dare to come
+forward.
+
+Hitherto we had ridden without exchanging a word. Indeed, I had only
+once turned my eyes upon him since we started. The truth was, I was too
+busy with my own thoughts--too intent upon devising some plan to
+liberate myself from my unparalleled situation. I now cast my eyes
+furtively toward him. I shuddered as I contemplated his proximation to
+myself. I fancied I already felt his contaminating influence. The cap,
+as before, was drawn over his face; the scarf muffled closely round his
+chin, and only sufficient space allowed for the purpose of respiration.
+I was most desirous of knowing who he was; indeed, had he been "the Man
+with the Iron Mask," so many years incarcerated in the French Bastile,
+he could scarcely have excited a greater curiosity.
+
+I deemed it prudent to endeavor to draw him into conversation, thinking
+that he might drop some expression that would, in some measure, tend to
+elucidate his history. Accordingly, I said,
+
+"It's a very dark, unhealthy night, sir."
+
+He made no reply. I thought he might not have heard me.
+
+"A bad night for traveling!" I shouted, in a loud tone of voice.
+
+The man remained immovable, without in the least deigning to notice my
+observation. He either did not wish to talk, or he was deaf. If he
+wished to be silent, I was contented to let him remain so.
+
+It had not occurred to me till now that I had received a paper from the
+landlord which would inform me whither my extraordinary companion was to
+be conveyed. My heart suddenly received a new impulse--it beat with hope
+and expectation. This document might reveal to me something more than I
+was led to expect; it might unravel the labyrinth in which I was
+entangled, and extricate me from all further difficulty. But how was I
+to decipher the writing? There was no other means of doing so than by
+stopping the vehicle and alighting, and endeavoring to read it by the
+aid of the lamp, which, I feared, would afford but a very imperfect
+light, after all. Before I had recourse to this plan, I deemed it
+expedient to address once more my taciturn companion.
+
+"Where am I to drive you to?" I inquired, in so loud a voice that the
+mare started off at a brisker pace, as though I had been speaking to
+her. I received no reply, and, without further hesitation, I drew in the
+reins, pulled the paper from my pocket, and alighted. I walked to the
+lamp, and held the paper as near to it as I could. The handwriting was
+not very legible, and the light afforded me so weak, that I had great
+difficulty to discover its meaning. The words were few and pointed. The
+reader will judge of my surprise when I read the following laconic
+sentence: "_Drive the gentleman to Grayburn Church-yard!_" I was more
+alarmed than ever; my limbs shook violently, and in an instant I felt
+the blood fly from my cheeks. What did my employer mean by imposing such
+a task upon me? My fortitude in some degree returned, and I walked up to
+the mare and patted her on the neck.
+
+"Poor thing--poor thing!" I said; "you have a long journey before you,
+and it may be a dangerous one."
+
+I looked at my companion, but he appeared to take no notice of my
+actions, and seemed as indifferent as if he were a corpse. I again
+resumed my seat, and in part consoled myself with the prospect of being
+speedily rid of him in some way or other, as the river I have already
+alluded to was now only two or three miles distant. My thoughts now
+turned to the extraordinary place to which I was to drive--Grayburn
+Church-yard! What could the man do there at that hour of the night? Had
+he somebody to meet? something to see or obtain? It was
+incomprehensible--beyond the possibility of human divination. Was he
+insane, or was he bent upon an errand perfectly rational, although for
+the present wrapped in the most impenetrable mystery? I am at a loss for
+language adequate to convey a proper notion of my feelings on that
+occasion. He shall never arrive, I internally ejaculated, at Grayburn
+Church-yard; he shall never pass beyond the stream, which even now I
+almost heard murmuring in the distance! Heaven forgive me for harboring
+such intentions! but when I reflected that I might be assisting an
+assassin to fly from justice, I conceived I was acting perfectly correct
+in adopting any means (no matter how bad) for the obviation of so horrid
+a consummation. For aught I knew, his present intention might be to
+visit the grave of his victim, for now I remembered that the person who
+had so lately been murdered was interred in this very church-yard.
+
+We gradually drew nearer to the river. I heard its roaring with fear and
+trepidation. It smote my heart with awe when I pondered upon the deed I
+had in contemplation. I could discover, from its rushing sound, that it
+was much swollen, and this was owing to the recent heavy rains. The
+stream in fine weather was seldom more than a couple of feet deep, and
+could be crossed without danger or difficulty; there however were places
+where it was considerably deeper. On the occasion in question, it was
+more dangerous than I had ever known it. There was no bridge constructed
+across it at this place, and people were obliged to get through it as
+well as they could. Nearer and nearer we approached. The night was so
+dark that it was quite impossible to discern any thing. I could feel the
+beatings of my heart against my breast, a cold, clammy sweat settled
+upon my brow, and my mouth became so dry that I fancied I was choking.
+The moment was at hand that was to put my resolution to the test. A few
+yards only separated us from the spot that was to terminate my journey,
+and, perhaps, the mortal career of my incomprehensible companion. The
+light of the lamps threw a dull, lurid gleam upon the surface of the
+water. It rushed furiously past, surging and boiling as it leaped over
+the rocks that here and there intersected its channel. Without a
+moment's hesitation, I urged the mare forward, and in a minute we were
+in the midst of the stream. It was a case of life or death! The water
+came down like a torrent--its tide was irresistible. There was not a
+moment to be lost. My own life was at stake. With the instinctive
+feeling of self-preservation, I drove the animal swiftly through the
+dense body of water, and in a few seconds we had gained the opposite
+bank of the river. We were safe, but the opportunity of ridding myself
+of my companion was rendered, by the emergency of the case, unavailable.
+
+I know not how it was, but I suddenly became actuated by a new impulse.
+Wretch though he was, he had intrusted his safety, his life, into my
+hands. There was, perhaps, still some good in the man; by enabling him
+to escape, I might be the instrument of his eternal salvation. He had
+done me no injury, and at some period of his life he might have rendered
+good offices to others. I pitied his situation, and determined to render
+him what assistance I could. I applied the whip to the mare. In a moment
+she seemed to be endowed with supernatural energy and swiftness. Though
+he was a murderer--though he was henceforth to be driven from society as
+an outcast, he should not be deserted in his present emergency. On, on
+we sped; hedges, trees, houses were passed in rapid succession. Nothing
+impeded our way. We had a task to perform--a duty to fulfill; dangers
+and difficulties fled before us. A human life depended upon our
+exertions, and every nerve required to be strained for its preservation.
+On, on we hurried. My enthusiasm assumed the appearance of madness. I
+shouted to the mare till I was hoarse, and broke the whip in several
+places. Although we comparatively flew over the ground, I fancied we did
+not go fast enough. My body was in constant motion, as though it would
+give an impetus to our movements. My companion appeared conscious of my
+intentions, and, for the first time, evinced an interest in our
+progress. He drew out his handkerchief, and used it incessantly as an
+incentive to swiftness. Onward we fled. We were all actuated by the same
+motive. This concentration of energy gave force and vitality to our
+actions.
+
+The night had hitherto been calm, but the rain now began to descend in
+torrents, and at intervals we heard distant peals of thunder. Still we
+progressed; we were not to be baffled, not to be deterred; we would yet
+defy pursuit. Large tracts of country were passed over with amazing
+rapidity. Objects, that at one moment were at a great distance, in
+another were reached, and in the next left far behind. Thus we sped
+forward--thus we seemed to annihilate space altogether. We were endowed
+with superhuman energies--hurried on by an impulse, involuntary and
+irresistible. My companion became violent, and appeared to think we did
+not travel quick enough. He rose once or twice from his seat, and
+attempted to take the remnant of the whip from my hand, but I resisted,
+and prevailed upon him to remain quiet.
+
+How long we were occupied in this mad and daring flight, I can not even
+conjecture. We reached, at length, our destination; but, alas! we had no
+sooner done so, than the invaluable animal that had conveyed us thither
+dropped down dead!
+
+My companion and I alighted. I walked up to where the poor animal lay,
+and was busy deploring her fate, when I heard a struggle at a short
+distance. I turned quickly round, and beheld the mysterious being with
+whom I had ridden so fatal a journey, in the custody of two powerful
+looking men.
+
+"Ha, ha! I thought he would make for this here place," said one of them.
+"He still has a hankering after his mother's grave. When he got away
+before, we nabbed him here."
+
+The mystery was soon cleared up. The gentleman had escaped from a
+lunatic asylum, and was both deaf and dumb. The death of his mother, a
+few years before, had caused the mental aberration.
+
+The horrors of the night are impressed as vividly upon my memory as
+though they had just occurred. The expenses of the journey were all
+defrayed, and I was presented with a handsome gratuity. I never ceased,
+however, to regret the loss of the favorite mare.
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+SPIDER'S SILK.
+
+
+Urged by the increased demand for the threads which the silk-worm
+yields, many ingenious men have endeavored to turn the cocoons of other
+insects to account. In search of new fibres to weave into garments, men
+have dived to the bottom of the sea, to watch the operations of the
+pinna and the common mussel. Ingenious experimentalists have endeavored
+to adapt the threads which hold the mussel firmly to the rock, to the
+purposes of the loom; and the day will probably arrive when the minute
+thread of that diminutive insect, known as the money-spinner, will be
+reeled, thrown, and woven into fabrics fit for Titania and her court.
+
+In the early part of last century, an enthusiastic French gentleman
+turned his attention to spiders' webs. He discovered that certain
+spiders not only erected their webs to trap unsuspecting flies, but that
+the females, when they had laid their eggs, forthwith wove a cocoon, of
+strong silken threads, about them. These cocoons are known more
+familiarly as spiders' bags. The common webs of spiders are too slight
+and fragile to be put to any use; but the French experimentalist in
+question, Monsieur Bon, was led to believe that the cocoons of the
+female spiders were more solidly built than the mere traps of the
+ferocious males. Various experiments led M. Bon to adopt the
+short-legged silk spider as the most productive kind. Of this species he
+made a large collection. He employed a number of persons to go in search
+of them; and, as the prisoners were brought to him, one by one, he
+inclosed them in separate paper cells, in which he pricked holes to
+admit the air. He kept them in close confinement, and he observed that
+their imprisonment did not appear to affect their health. None of them,
+so far as he could observe, sickened for want of exercise; and, as a
+jailer, he appears to have been indefatigable, occupying himself
+catching flies, and delivering them over to the tender mercies of his
+prisoners. After a protracted confinement in these miniature Bastiles,
+the grim M. Bon opened the doors, and found that the majority of his
+prisoners had beguiled their time in forming their bags. Spiders exude
+their threads from papillæ or nipples, placed at the hinder part of
+their body. The thread, when it leaves them, is a glutinous liquid,
+which hardens on exposure to the air. It has been found that, by
+squeezing a spider, and placing the finger against its papillæ, the
+liquid of which the thread or silk is made may be drawn out to a great
+length.
+
+M. Reaumur, the rival experimentalist to M. Bon, discovered that the
+papillæ are formed of an immense number of smaller papillæ, from each of
+which a minute and distinct thread is spun. He asserted that, with a
+microscope, he counted as many as seventy distinct fibres proceeding
+from the papillæ of one spider, and that there were many more threads
+too minute and numerous to compute. He jumped to a result, however, that
+is sufficiently astonishing, namely, that a thousand distinct fibres
+proceed from each papillæ; and there being five large papillæ, that
+every thread of spider's silk is composed of at least five thousand
+fibres. In the heat of that enthusiasm, with which the microscope filled
+speculative minds in the beginning of last century, M. Leuwenhoek
+ventured to assert that a hundred of the threads of a full-grown spider
+were not equal to the diameter of one single hair of his beard. This
+assertion leads to the astounding arithmetical deduction, that if the
+spider's threads and the philosopher's hair be both round, ten thousand
+threads are not bigger than such a hair; and, computing the diameter of
+a thread spun by a young spider as compared with that of an adult
+spider, four millions of the fibres of a young spider's web do not equal
+a single hair of M. Leuwenhoek's beard. The enthusiastic experimentalist
+must have suffered horrible martyrdom under the razor, with such an
+exaggerated notion of his beard as these calculations must have given
+him. A clever writer, in Lardner's Cyclopædia notices these
+measurements, and shows that M. Leuwenhoek went far beyond the limits of
+reality in his calculation.
+
+M. Bon's collection of spiders continued to thrive; and, in due season,
+he found that the greater number of them had completed their cocoons or
+bags. He then dislodged the bags from the paper boxes; threw them into
+warm water, and kept washing them until they were quite free from dirt
+of any kind. The next process was to make a preparation of soap,
+saltpetre, and gum-arabic dissolved in water. Into this preparation the
+bags were thrown, and set to boil over a gentle fire for the space of
+three hours. When they were taken out and the soap had been rinsed from
+them, they appeared to be composed of fine, strong, ash-colored silk.
+Before being carded on fine cards, they were set out for some days to
+dry thoroughly. The carding, according to M. Bon, was an easy matter:
+and he affirmed that the threads of the silk he obtained were stronger
+and finer than those of the silk-worm. M. Reaumur, however, who was
+dispatched to the scene of M. Bon's investigations by the Royal Academy
+of Paris, gave a different version of the matter. He found, that whereas
+the thread of the spider's bag will sustain only thirty-six grains, that
+of the silkworm will support a weight of two drachms and a half--or four
+times the weight sustained by the spider-thread. Though M. Bon was
+certainly an enthusiast on behalf of spiders, M. Reaumur as undoubtedly
+had a strong predilection in favor of the bombyx; and the result of
+these contending prejudices was, that M. Bon's investigations were
+overrated by a few, and utterly disregarded by the majority of his
+countrymen. He injured himself by rash assertions. He endeavored to make
+out that spiders were more prolific, and yielded a proportionably larger
+quantity of silk than silkworms. These assertions were disproved, but in
+no kindly spirit, by M. Reaumur. To do away with the impression that
+spiders and their webs were venomous, M. Bon not only asserted, with
+truth, that their bite was harmless, but he even went so far as to
+subject his favorite insect to a chemical analysis, and he succeeded in
+extracting from it a volatile salt which he christened Montpelier drops,
+and recommended strongly as an efficacious medicine in lethargic states.
+
+M. Bon undoubtedly produced, from the silk of his spiders, a material
+that readily absorbed all kinds of dyes, and was capable of being worked
+in any loom. With his carded spider's silk the enthusiastic
+experimentalist wove gloves and stockings, which he presented to one or
+two learned societies. To these productions several eminent men took
+particular exceptions. They discovered that the fineness of the separate
+threads of the silk detracted from its lustre, and inevitably produced a
+fabric less refulgent than those woven from the silkworm. M. Reaumur's
+most conclusive fact against the adoption of spider's silk as an
+article of manufacture, was deduced from his observations on the
+combativeness of spiders. He discovered that they had not arrived at
+that state of civilization when communities find it most to the general
+advantage to live on terms of mutual amity and confidence; on the
+contrary, the spider-world, according to M. Reaumur (we are writing of a
+hundred and forty years ago), was in a continual state of warfare; nay,
+not a few spiders were habitual cannibals. Having collected about five
+thousand spiders (enough to scare the most courageous old lady), M.
+Reaumur shut them up in companies varying in number from fifty to one
+hundred. On opening the cells, after the lapse of a few days, "what was
+the horror of our hero," as the graphic novelist writes, "to behold the
+scene which met his gaze!" Where fifty spiders, happy and full of life,
+had a short time before existed, only about two bloated insects now
+remained--they had devoured their fellow spiders! This horrible custom
+of the spider-world accounts for the small proportion of spiders in
+comparison to the immense number of eggs which they produce. So
+formidable a difficulty could only be met by rearing each spider in a
+separate cage; whether this separation is practicable--that is to say,
+whether it can be made to repay the trouble it would require--is a
+matter yet to be decided.
+
+Against M. Bon's treatise on behalf of spider's silk, M. Reaumur urged
+further objections. He asserted that, when compared with silkworm's
+silk, spider's silk was deficient both in quality and in quantity. His
+calculation went to show that the silk of twelve spiders did not more
+than equal that of one bombyx; and that no less than fifty-five thousand
+two hundred and ninety-six spiders must be reared to produce one pound
+of silk. This calculation is now held to be exaggerated; and the spirit
+of partisanship in which M. Reaumur's report was evidently concocted,
+favors the supposition that he made the most of any objections he could
+bring to bear against M. Bon.
+
+M. Bon's experiments are valuable as far as they go; spider's silk may
+be safely set down as an untried raw material. The objections of M.
+Reaumur, reasonable in some respects, are not at all conclusive. It is
+of course undeniable that the silkworm produces a larger quantity of
+silk than any species of spider; but, on the other hand, the spider's
+silk may possess certain qualities adapted to particular fabrics, which
+would justify its cultivation. At the Great Industrial Show, we shall
+probably find some specimens of spider's silk; such contributions would
+be useful and suggestive. The idea of brushing down cobwebs to convert
+them into ball-room stockings, forces upon us the association of two
+most incongruous ideas; but that this transformation is not impossible,
+the Royal Society, who are the possessors of some of M. Bon's
+spider-fabric, can satisfactorily demonstrate.
+
+
+
+
+[From the Dublin University Magazine.]
+
+THE RAILWAY.
+
+
+    The silent glen, the sunless stream,
+        To wandering boyhood dear,
+    And treasur'd still in many a dream,
+        They are no longer here;
+    A huge red mound of earth is thrown
+    Across the glen so wild and lone,
+        The stream so cold and clear;
+    And lightning speed, and thundering sound,
+    Pass hourly o'er the unsightly mound.
+
+    Nor this alone--for many a mile
+        Along that iron way,
+    No verdant banks or hedgerows smile
+        In summer's glory gay;
+    Thro' chasms that yawn as though the earth
+    Were rent in some strange mountain-birth,
+        Whose depth excludes the day,
+    We're born away at headlong pace,
+    To win from time the wearying race!
+
+    The wayside inn, with homelike air,
+        No longer tempts a guest
+    To taste its unpretending fare,
+        Or seek its welcome rest.
+    The prancing team--the merry horn--
+    The cool fresh road at early morn--
+        The coachman's ready jest;
+    All, all to distant dream-land gone,
+    While shrieking trains are hurrying on.
+
+    Yet greet we them with thankful hearts,
+        And eyes that own no tear,
+    'Tis nothing now, the space which parts
+        The distant from the dear;
+    The wing that to her cherish'd nest
+    Bears home the bird's exulting breast,
+        Has found its rival here.
+    With speed like hers we too can haste,
+    The bliss of meeting hearts to taste.
+
+    For me, I gaze along the line
+        To watch the approaching train,
+    And deem it still, 'twixt me and mine,
+        A rude, but welcome chain
+    To bind us in a world, whose ties
+    Each passing hour to sever tries,
+        But here may try in vain;
+    To bring us near home many an art,
+    Stern fate employs to keep apart.
+
+
+
+
+[From Bentley's Miscellany.]
+
+THE BLIND SISTER, OR CRIME AND ITS PUNISHMENT.
+
+
+For real comfort, snugness, and often rural beauty, where are there in
+the wide world any dwellings that can equal the cottage homes of
+England's middle classes? Whether they be clad with ivy and woodbine,
+half hidden by forest-trees, and approached by silent, shady lanes, or,
+glaring with stucco and green paint, stand perched upon flights of
+steps, by the side of dusty suburban roads--whether they be
+cockney-christened with fine titles, and dignified as villas, halls, or
+lodges, or rejoice in such sweet names as Oak Cottage or Linden
+Grove--still within their humble walls, before all other places, are to
+be found content, and peace, and pure domestic love.
+
+Upon the slope of a gentle hill, about a mile from a large town, where I
+was attending to the practice of an absent friend, there stood a neat
+and pretty residence, with slated roof and trellised porch. A light
+verandah shaded the narrow French windows, opening from the favorite
+drawing-room upon a trim, smooth lawn, studded with gay parterres, and
+bounded by a sweetbriar hedge; and here old Mrs. Reed, the widow of a
+clergyman, was busily employed, one lovely autumn afternoon, peering
+through her spectacles at the fast-fading flowers, or plucking from some
+favorite shrub the "sear and yellow leaf" that spoke of the summer
+passed away, and the dreary season hurrying on apace. Her daughter, a
+pale and delicate-looking girl, sat with her drooping head leant against
+the open window-frame, watching her mother sorrowfully as she felt her
+own declining health, and thought how her parent's waning years might
+pass away, uncared for, and unsolaced by a daughter's love. Within the
+room, a young man was reclining lazily upon a sofa; rather handsome,
+about the middle height, _but_ had it not been for a stubby mustache,
+very long hair, and his rather slovenly costume--peculiarities which he
+considered indispensable to his profession as an artist--there was
+nothing in his appearance to distinguish him from the generality of
+young English gentlemen of his age and station. Presently there fell
+upon his ear the notes of a beautiful symphony, played with most
+exquisite taste upon the harp, and gradually blending with a woman's
+voice, deep, soft and tremulous, every now and then, as if with intense
+feeling, in one of those elaborate yet enervating melodies that have
+their birth in sunny Italy. The performer was about twenty-five years of
+age, of haughty and dazzling beauty. Her dark wavy hair, gathered behind
+into a large glossy knot, was decked on one side with a bunch of pink
+rose buds. A full white robe, that covered, without hiding, the outline
+of her bust and arms, was bound at the waist with a thick cord and
+tassel of black silk and gold, adding all that dress could add to the
+elegance of her tall and splendid figure. Then, as she rose and
+stretched out her jeweled hand to tighten a loose string, the ineffable
+grace of the studied attitude in which she stood for some moments showed
+her to be well skilled in those fascinating arts that so often captivate
+the senses before the heart is touched.
+
+This lady was the daughter of Mrs. Reed's only sister, who in her youth
+had run away with an Italian music master. Signor Arnatti, although a
+poor adventurer, was not quite devoid of honor, for, when first married,
+he really loved his English wife, and proudly introduced her to his
+friends at Florence, where her rank and fortune were made much of, and
+she was caressed and fêted until half wild with pleasure and excitement.
+But this was not to last. Her husband, a man of violent and
+ungovernable temper, was heard to utter certain obnoxious political
+opinions; and it being discovered that he was connected with a dangerous
+conspiracy against the existing government, a speedy flight alone saved
+him from the scaffold or perpetual imprisonment. They sought a temporary
+home in Paris, where, after dissipating much of their little fortune at
+the gambling-table, he met with a sudden and violent death in a
+night-brawl, just in time to save his wife and child from poverty. The
+young widow, who of late had thought more of her infant than its father,
+was not long inconsolable. Discarded by her own relations, who, with
+bitter and cruel taunts, had refused all communication with her, and now
+too proud to return to them again, she settled with her little girl in
+Italy, where a small income enabled her to lead a life of unrestrained
+gayety, that soon became almost necessary to her existence. Here young
+Catherine was reared and educated, flattered and spoiled by all about
+her; and encouraged by her vain mother to expect nothing less than an
+alliance with high rank and wealth, she refused many advantageous offers
+of marriage, and ere long gained the character of a heartless and
+unprincipled coquette, especially among the English visitors, who
+constituted a great part of the society in which she moved. Her mother
+corresponded occasionally with Mrs. Reed; and the sisters still
+cherished an affection for each other, which increased as they advanced
+in years; but their ideas, their views, even their religion was
+different, and the letters they exchanged once, or at most twice a year,
+afforded but little satisfaction to either. When the cholera visited
+Italy, Madame Arnatti was seized with a presentiment that fate had
+already numbered her among its victims, and, under the influence of this
+feeling, wrote a long and touching letter to her sister, freely
+confessing the sin and folly of her conduct in regard to her daughter's
+management, of whom she gave a long description, softened, it is true,
+by a mother's hand, yet containing many painful truths, that must have
+caused the doting parent infinite sorrow to utter. She concluded by
+repeating her conviction that her end was near, and consigning Catherine
+to her sister's care, with an entreaty that she would take her from the
+immoral and polluted atmosphere in which they lived, and try the effect
+of her piety, and kindness, and steady English habits on the young
+woman's violent and ungovernable passions. Months passed away; and then
+Mrs. Reed received a letter from Catherine herself, telling of her
+mother's death; also one from a lady, in whose company she was traveling
+homeward, in accordance with her mother's dying wish. Another long
+interval elapsed, and the good lady was preparing to visit London for
+the purpose of consulting an eminent physician on her daughter's state
+of health when news reached the cottage of Miss Arnatti's arrival in
+that city, which had been retarded thus long by tedious quarantine laws,
+illness, and other causes.
+
+Her guardian was apparently glad enough to get rid of the charge she had
+undertaken, and within a week Catherine removed to her aunt's lodgings,
+where she was received and treated with every affectionate attention;
+but a constant yearning after gayety and amusements, indelicate and
+unfeeling as it appeared to her relatives, so soon after the loss of an
+only parent; the freedom and boldness of her manners when in company or
+in public, and her overbearing conduct to those about her, augured but
+little in favor of such an addition to their circle. However, the good
+aunt hoped for better things from the removal to her quiet country-home.
+Their stay in London was even shorter than they had intended, and, for
+some time after their return to the cottage, Miss Arnatti endeavored to
+adapt herself to the habits that must have been so strange and new to
+her; she even sought, and made herself agreeable in the very orderly but
+cheerful society where her aunt and cousin introduced her, although
+Annie Reed's increasing weakness prevented them from receiving much
+company at their own house.
+
+Edwin Reed, Catherine's other cousin, was absent on a tour in Wales, and
+had only returned a few days previous to the afternoon on which we have
+described him as listening, enraptured, to the lady's native music.
+Seating herself at the piano, she followed this by a brilliant waltz,
+the merry, sparkling notes of which made the eye brighten and the brain
+whirl, from very sympathy; and then returning to her favorite
+instrument, she sang, to a low, plaintive accompaniment, a simple
+English ballad, telling of man's heartlessness, and woman's frailty and
+despair. The last verse ran:
+
+    So faith and hope her soul forsaking,
+    Each day to heavier sorrow waking
+    This cruel love her heart was breaking
+        Yet, ere her breath
+        Was hushed in death,
+        She breathed a prayer
+        For her betrayer--
+    Angels to heaven her poor soul taking.
+
+Scarcely had she finished, when, as if in thorough contempt of the
+maiden's weakness, she drew her hand violently across the strings with a
+discordant crash, that startled poor little Annie painfully, and pushing
+the harp from her with an impatient gesture, abruptly quitted the room.
+
+The old lady had gone in to enjoy a gossip with her next-door neighbor,
+and so the brother and sister were alone. The signs of tears were on the
+latter's cheek as Edwin approached and sat down by her side; attributing
+this to her extreme sensibility wrought upon by what they had just
+heard, he spoke some kind and cheering words, and then began to talk
+enthusiastically of their cousin's beauty and accomplishments. She
+listened to him quietly for some time, and then,
+
+"Dear brother," she said, timidly, "you must forgive me for what I am
+about to say, when it is to warn and caution you against those very
+charms that have already made such an impression on you. I am not one,
+Edwin, as you know, to speak ill, even of my enemies, if such there be;
+and to any other but yourself would hide her faults, and try to think of
+some pleasing trait on which to dwell, when her name was mentioned. Nay,
+do not interrupt me, for rest assured, I am only prompted by a sister's
+love. I have seen much of Catherine, and heard more; I fear her dreadful
+temper--her different faith; although, indeed, she seems to neglect all
+religious duties, even those of her own church. Then I think of her
+rudeness and inattention to our dear mother, who is so kind and gentle
+to her. Had you been in London when we first met, you would not wonder
+at our being shocked and pained at all we witnessed there."
+
+"But, Annie, dear," said her brother, "why should you talk thus
+earnestly to me? Surely I may admire and praise a handsome woman,
+without falling hopelessly in love."
+
+"You may, or you may not," continued Annie, warmly. "But this I know and
+feel, that, unless she were to change in every manner, thought, and
+action, she is the last person in the world that I would see possess a
+hold upon my brother's heart. Why, do you know, she makes a boast of the
+many lovers she has encouraged and discarded; and even shows, with
+ill-timed jests, letters from her admirers, containing protestations of
+affection, and sentiments that any woman of common feeling would at
+least consider sacred."
+
+"And have you nothing, then, to say in her favor?" said young Reed,
+quietly. "Can you make no allowance for the manner in which she has been
+brought up? or, may she never change from what you represent her?"
+
+"She may, perhaps; but let me beg of you, Edwin, to pause, and think,
+and not be infatuated and led away, against your better judgment, as so
+many have already been."
+
+"Why, my dear sister," he replied, "if we were on the point of running
+off together, you could not be more earnest in the matter; but I have
+really never entertained such thoughts as you suggest, and if I did,
+should consider myself quite at liberty to act as I pleased, whether I
+were guided by your counsel or not."
+
+"Well, Edwin, be not angry with me; perhaps I have spoken too strongly
+on the subject. You know how much I have your happiness at heart, and
+this it is that makes me say so much. I often think I have not long to
+live, but while I am here would have you promise me--"
+
+A chilly breeze swept over the lawn, and the invalid was seized with a
+violent fit of coughing; her brother shut the casement, and wrapped the
+shawl closer round her slight figure. Mrs. Reed entered the room at the
+same instant, and their conversation ended.
+
+Catherine Arnatti was in her own chamber, the open window of which was
+within a few yards of where her cousins had been talking. Attracted
+thither by the sound, she listened intently, and leaning out, apparently
+employed in training the branches of a creeping plant, she had heard
+every word they uttered.
+
+The winter passed away pleasantly enough, for two at least of the party
+at the cottage.
+
+Catherine and Edwin were of necessity much thrown together; she sat to
+him as a model, accompanied him in his walks, and flattered him by
+innumerable little attentions, that were unnoticed by the others; but
+still her conduct to his mother and sister, although seemingly more kind
+of late, was insincere, and marked by a want of sympathy and affection,
+that often grieved him deeply. Her temper she managed to control, but
+sometimes not without efforts on her part that were more painful to
+witness than her previous outbreaks of passion. Six months had elapsed
+since Miss Arnatti had overheard, with feelings of hatred toward one,
+and thorough contempt of both speakers, the dialogue in which her faults
+had been so freely exposed. Yet she fully expected that young Reed would
+soon be at her feet, a humble follower, as other men had been; but
+although polite, attentive, and ever seeking her society, he still
+forbore to speak of love, and then, piqued and angry at his conduct, she
+used every means to gain his affection, without at first any real motive
+for so doing; soon, however, this wayward lady began to fancy that the
+passion she would only feign was really felt--and being so unexpectedly
+thwarted gave strength to this idea--and in proportion also grew her
+hatred toward Miss Reed, to whose influence she attributed her own
+failure. Before long she resolved that Edwin _should_ be her husband, by
+which means her revenge on Annie would be gratified, and a tolerable
+position in the world obtained for herself, for she had ascertained that
+the young man's fortune, although at present moderate, was yet
+sufficient to commence with, and that his prospects and expectations
+were nearly all that could be desired.
+
+Neither was Edwin altogether proof against her matchless beauty. At
+times he felt an almost irresistible impulse to kneel before her, and
+avow himself a slave forever, and as often would some hasty word or
+uncongenial sentiment turn his thoughts into another channel; and then
+they carried him away to an old country seat in Wales, where he had
+spent the summer of last year on a visit to some friends of his family.
+A young lady, of good birth and education, resided there as governess to
+some half-dozen wild and turbulent children. Her kind and unobtrusive
+manners and gentle voice first attracted his attention toward her; and
+although perhaps not handsome, her pale sweet face and dark blue eye
+made an impression that deepened each day as he discovered fresh
+beauties in her intellectual and superior mind. After an acquaintance of
+some months he made an offer of his hand, and her conduct on this
+occasion only confirmed the ardent affection he entertained for her.
+Candidly admitting that she could joyfully unite her lot with his, she
+told her previous history, and begged the young man to test his feelings
+well before allying himself to a poor and portionless girl, and for this
+purpose prayed that twelve months might elapse before the subject of
+their marriage were renewed. She would not doubt him then; still he
+might see others, who would seem more worthy of his regard: but if, in
+that time, his sentiments were unchanged, all that she had to give was
+his forever. In vain he tried to alter this resolution; her arguments
+were stronger than his own, and so at last, with renewed vows of
+fidelity, he reluctantly bade her farewell. For various reasons he had
+kept this attachment a secret from his family, not altogether sure of
+the light in which they might view it; and the position of the young
+governess would have been rendered doubly painful, had those under whose
+roof she dwelt been made acquainted with the circumstances. Although
+fully aware in cooler moments that, even had he known no other, his
+cousin Catherine was a person with whom, as a companion for life, he
+could never hope for real happiness, still he knew the danger of his
+situation, and resolved not without a struggle, to tear himself away
+from the sphere of her attractions; and so, one evening, Edwin announced
+his intention of setting off next day on a walking excursion through
+Scotland, proposing to visit Wales on his return. Different were the
+feelings with which each of the ladies received this intelligence.
+Catherine, who had but the day before refused a pressing invitation to
+join a gay party, assembled at the London mansion of one of her old
+acquaintances, turned away and bit her lip with rage and chagrin, as
+Miss Reed repeated to her mother, who had grown deaf of late, over and
+over again to make her understand, that Edwin was about to leave them
+for a time--was going to Scotland, and purposed leaving by the mail on
+the morrow night. She had of course no objection to offer, being but too
+glad to believe that nothing more than friendship existed between her
+son and sister's child; yet wondered much what had led to such a sudden
+resolution.
+
+Catherine Arnatti never closed her eyes that night; one instant fancying
+that Edwin loved her, and only paused to own it for fear of a refusal,
+and flattering herself that he would not leave without. These thoughts
+gave way to bitter disappointment, hatred, and vows of revenge against
+him, and all connected with him, more particularly his sister, whose
+words she now recalled, torturing herself with the idea that Annie had
+extorted a promise from her brother never to wed his cousin while she
+lived; and the sickly girl had improved much since then, and might,
+after all, be restored to perfect health; then, the first time for
+years, she wept--cried bitterly at the thought of being separated from
+one against whom she had but just before been breathing threats and
+imprecations, and yet imagined was the only man she had ever really
+loved. A calmer mood succeeded, and she lay down, resolving and
+discarding schemes to gain her wishes, that occupied her mind till
+daylight.
+
+The next day passed in busy preparations; Edwin avoiding, as he dreaded,
+the result of a private interview with his cousin. Toward the afternoon
+Miss Reed and her mother happened to be engaged with their medical
+attendant, who opportunely called that day, and often paid longer visits
+than were absolutely necessary; and Catherine, who with difficulty had
+restrained her emotions, seizing on the opportunity, and scarcely
+waiting to knock at the door, entered Edwin's apartment. He was engaged
+in packing a small portmanteau, and looking up, beheld her standing
+there, pale and agitated, more beautiful he thought than ever, and yet a
+combination of the angel and the fiend. Some moments passed in silence;
+then, advancing quickly, holding out her hand, she spoke in a husky
+voice:
+
+"Edwin, I have come to bid you a farewell--if, indeed, you go to-night,
+in this world we shall never meet again; neither hereafter, if half that
+you believe is true. It sets one thinking, does it not? a parting that
+we feel to be for ever, from those with whom we have been in daily
+intercourse, even for a few short months."
+
+"And pray, Catherine," he asked, trying to talk calmly, "why should we
+not meet again? Even if I were about to visit the antipodes I should
+look forward to return some day; indeed it would grieve me much to think
+that I should never enjoy again your company, where I have spent so many
+pleasant hours, and of which, believe me, I shall ever cherish a
+grateful recollection. Be kind to poor Annie and my mother when I am
+gone, and if you think it not too great a task, I shall be very glad
+sometimes to hear the news from you, and in return will write you of my
+wanderings in the Highlands."
+
+"Well, good-by, Edwin," she repeated; "for all you say, my words may yet
+prove true."
+
+"But I do not go yet for some hours, and we shall meet again below
+before I leave; why not defer good-by till then?"
+
+There was another pause before she answered, with passionate energy, and
+grasping his arm tightly:
+
+"And is this all you have to say? Now listen to me, Edwin: know that I
+love you, and judge of its intensity by my thus owning it. I am no
+bashful English girl, to die a victim to concealment or suspense, but
+_must_ and _will_ know all at once. Now, tell me, sir, have I misplaced
+my love? Tell me, I say, and quickly; for, by the powers above, you
+little know how much depends upon your answer."
+
+She felt his hand, cold and trembling; his face was even paler than her
+own, as, overwhelmed with confusion, Edwin stammered out,
+
+"Really, Miss Arnatti--Catherine--I was not aware; at least, I am so
+taken by surprise. Give me time to think, for--"
+
+"What, then, you hesitate," she said, stamping her foot; and then, with
+desperate calmness, added, in a softer tone, "Well, be it so; body and
+soul I offer, and you reject the gift." A violent struggle was racking
+the young man's breast, and, by the working of his countenance she saw
+it, and paused. But still he never raised his eyes to hers, that were so
+fixed on him; and she continued, "You ask for time to think, oh! heaven
+and hell, that I should come to this! But take it, and think well; it is
+four hours before you quit this roof; I will be there to say adieu. Or
+better, perhaps, if you will write, and give at leisure the result of
+your deliberations."
+
+She spoke the last words with a bitter sneer; yet Edwin caught at the
+suggestion, and replied,
+
+"Yes, I will write, I promise you, within a month. Forgive my apparent
+coldness; forgive--"
+
+"Hush!" interrupted Catherine; "your sister calls; why does she come
+here now? You will not mention what has passed, I know; remember, within
+a month I am to hear. Think of me kindly, and believe that I might make
+you love me even as I love you. Now, go to her, go before she finds you
+here."
+
+Edwin pressed her hand in parting, and she bent down her forehead, but
+the kiss imprinted there was cold and passionless. He met his sister at
+the door, and led her back affectionately to the drawing-room she had
+just quitted.
+
+The old gardener had deposited a portmanteau and knapsack on the very
+edge of the footpath by the side of the high road, and had been watching
+for the mail, with a great horn lantern, some half-hour or so before it
+was expected; while the housemaid was stationed inside the gate, upon
+the gravel-walk, ready to convey the intelligence, as soon as the lights
+were visible coming up the hill; and cook stood at the front-door,
+gnawing her white apron. The family were assembled in that very
+unpleasant state of expectation, that generally precedes the departure
+of a friend or relative; Edwin walking about the room, wrapped up for
+traveling, impatient and anxious to be off. At last, the gardener
+halloed out lustily; Betty ran toward the house, as if pursued by a wild
+beast, and screaming, "It's a-coming;" and cook, who had been standing
+still all the time, rushed in, quite out of breath, begging Mr. Edwin to
+make haste, for the coach never waited a minute for nobody; so he
+embraced his mother and sister; and then, taking Catherine's hand,
+raised it hastily, but respectfully to his lips. Miss Reed watched the
+movement, and saw how he avoided the piercing gaze her cousin fixed upon
+him, not so intently though, but that she noted the faint gleam of
+satisfaction that passed over Annie's pale face; and cursed her for it.
+Strange, that the idea of any other rival had never haunted her.
+
+"Good-by, once more," said Edwin. "I may return before you expect me;
+God bless you all!"
+
+And, in another five minutes, he was seated by the side of the frosty
+old gentleman who drove the mail, puffing away vigorously at his
+meerschaum.
+
+The ladies passed a dismal evening; more so, indeed, than the
+circumstances would seem to warrant. Annie commenced a large piece of
+embroidery, that, judging from its size and the slow progress made,
+seemed likely to afford her occupation and amusement until she became an
+old woman; while Mrs. Reed called to mind all the burglaries and murders
+that had been committed in the neighborhood during the last twenty
+years; deploring their unprotected situation, discussing the propriety
+of having an alarm-bell hung between two of the chimney-pots, and making
+arrangements for the gardener to sleep on the premises for the future.
+Miss Arnatti never raised her eyes from the book over which she bent.
+Supper, generally their most cheerful meal, remained untouched, and,
+earlier than usual, they retired to their respective chambers.
+
+For several hours, Catherine sat at her open window, looking out into
+the close, hazy night. The soft wind, that every now and then had
+rustled through the trees, or shaken dewdrops from the thick ivy
+clustered beneath the overhanging eaves, had died away. As the mist
+settled down, and a few stars peeped out just over head, a black curtain
+of clouds seemed to rise up from the horizon, hiding the nearest objects
+in impenetrable darkness. The only sounds now heard were those that told
+of man's vicinity, and his restlessness: the occasional rumble of a
+distant vehicle; the chime of bells; sometimes the echo of a human
+voice, in the direction of the town; the ticking of a watch, or the hard
+breathing of those that slept; and these fell on the ear with strange
+distinctness, amid the awful stillness of nature. Presently, the clouds,
+that hung over a valley far away, opened horizontally for an instant,
+while a faint flash of lightning flickered behind, showing their
+cumbrous outline. In a few minutes a brighter flash in another quarter
+was followed by the low roll of distant thunder; and so the storm worked
+round, nearer and nearer, until it burst in all its fury over the hill
+on which the cottage stood.
+
+Miss Reed, who from her childhood had always felt an agonizing and
+unconquerable fear during a thunder-storm, roused from her light
+slumber, lay huddled up, and trembling, with her face buried in the
+pillow. She did not hear the door open or the footstep that approached
+so stealthily, before a hand was laid upon her shoulder; and starting up
+she recognized her cousin.
+
+"Oh, Catherine!" she faltered, covering her eyes, "do stay with me
+awhile; I am so terrified--and think of Edwin, too, exposed as he must
+be to it."
+
+"I _have_ been thinking of him, Annie."
+
+"But you are frightened, also, a little, are you not--with all your
+courage, or what made you shake so then?" said the poor girl, trying to
+draw her cousin nearer as flash after flash glared before her eyelids,
+and louder claps of thunder followed each other at shorter intervals.
+
+"I frightened?" replied the dauntless woman, "I frightened; and what
+at? Not at the thunder, surely; and as for lightning, if it strikes,
+they say, it brings a sudden and painless death, leaving but seldom even
+a mark upon the corpse. Who would not prefer this, to lingering on a bed
+of sickness."
+
+"Do not say so, Catherine, pray do not; only think if--O God, have mercy
+on us! Was not _that_ awful?"
+
+"Was it not grand? Magnificent--awful if you will. Think of its raging
+and reveling uncontrolled, and striking where and what it will, without
+a bound or limit to its fury. And fancy such a storm pent up in the
+narrow compass of a human breast, and yet not bursting its frail prison.
+What can the torments that they tell us of, hereafter, be to this?"
+
+"And what reason can you have, dear cousin, for talking thus. Kneel down
+by me, for once, and pray; for surely, at such a time as this, if at no
+other, you must feel there is a God."
+
+"No; you pray, Annie Reed, if it will comfort you; pray for us both.
+There, now, lie down again, and hide your face. I will stand by your
+side and listen to you."
+
+She drew the slender figure gently back. Then, with a sudden movement,
+seizing a large pillow dashed it over Annie's face, pressing thereon
+with all her strength. The long, half-smothered, piteous cry that
+followed, was almost unheard in the roaring of the storm that now was at
+its height. By the vivid light that every instant played around, she saw
+the violent efforts of her victim, whose limbs were moving up and down,
+convulsively, under the white bed-clothes. Then, throwing the whole
+weight of her body across the bed, she clutched and strained upon the
+frame, to press more heavily. Suddenly all movement ceased, and the
+murderess felt a short and thrilling shudder underneath her. Still, her
+hold never relaxed; untouched by pity or remorse, exulting in the
+thought that the cruel deed was nearly done, so easily, and under
+circumstances where no suspicion of the truth was likely to arise;
+dreading to look upon the dead girl's face too soon, lest the mild eyes
+should still be open, and beaming on her with reproach and horror. But
+what was it she felt then, so warm and sticky, trickling down her arm?
+She knew it to be blood, even before the next flash showed the crimson
+stain, spreading slowly over the pillow. Again the electric fluid darted
+from the clouds, but this time charged with its special mission from on
+high. The murderess was struck! and springing up, she fell back with one
+shrill, wild, piercing shriek, that reached the ears of those below,
+before it was drowned in the din of falling masonry, and the tremendous
+crash that shook the house to its foundation, until the walls quivered,
+like the timbers of a ship beating on a rocky shore.
+
+That night I had been to visit a patient at some distance, and finding
+no shelter near when returning, had ridden on through the storm. Just
+entering the town, I overtook a man, pressing on quickly in the same
+direction. Making some passing remark upon the weather, I was recognized
+by the old gardener, who begged me for God's sake to hurry back; the
+cottage, he said, was struck by lightning, and two of the ladies either
+dying or dead from the injuries they had received. In a few minutes my
+horse was at the gate. I had just time to observe that two of the
+chimneys were thrown down, and some mischief done to the roof. On
+entering the house, I was guided, by the low, wailing sound of intense
+grief, to an upper room, where I beheld one of those scenes that, in an
+instant, stamp themselves upon the memory, leaving their transfer there
+forever.
+
+Day was just breaking; a cold gray light slowly gaining strength over
+the yellow glare of some unsnuffed candles, while the occasional boom of
+distant thunder told that the storm was not yet exhausted. Extended on a
+low couch, and held by the terrified servants, was the wreck of the once
+beautiful Catherine Arnatti; at short intervals her features became
+horribly distorted by an epileptic spasm, that seized one side of the
+body, while the other half appeared to be completely paralyzed; and the
+unmeaning glare of the eye, when the lid was raised, told that the organ
+of vision was seriously injured, if not entirely destroyed. Close by,
+the mother bent sobbing over the helpless form of her own child,
+blanched and inanimate, with a streak of blood just oozing from her
+pallid lips. I found afterward, that Miss Reed, in her fearful struggle,
+had ruptured a vessel, and, fainting from the loss of blood, had lain
+for some time to all appearance dead. Shortly, however, a slight
+fluttering over the region of the heart, and a quiver of the nostril,
+told that the principle of life still lingered in the shattered
+tenement. With the aid of gentle stimulants, she recovered sufficiently
+to recognize her mother; but as her gaze wandered vacantly around, it
+fell on the wretched and blasted creature, from whose grasp she had been
+so wonderfully rescued. As if some magnetic power was in that glance,
+Catherine rose up suddenly, despair and horror in the glassy stare she
+fixed on the corpse-like form before her, as, with another yell, such as
+burst forth when first struck by the hand of God, she relapsed into one
+of the most dreadful and violent paroxysms I have ever witnessed. Annie
+clung tightly to her mother, crying, in a faint, imploring voice, "Oh,
+save me--save me from her!" ere, with a heavy sigh, she once more sank
+into insensibility. It was not until late in the afternoon, and then
+only with great difficulty, that she was able to make those around her
+understand what had taken place, and account for the intense horror that
+seized upon her, when at times a groan or cry was heard from the
+adjoining chamber, in which Miss Arnatti lay. It became, therefore,
+necessary that this person should be removed, and accordingly, the same
+night she was taken to lodgings in the town. Her conduct there was such
+as to induce a belief that she might be insane, and steps were taken
+toward placing her in a private asylum. Once only, a few days after her
+removal, she asked, suddenly, if Miss Reed were not dead; but appeared
+to betray no emotion on being informed, that although still alive, her
+cousin was in most imminent danger, and, turning away, from that time
+maintained a determined silence, which nothing could induce her to
+break, obstinately refusing all medical aid.
+
+I visited her in company with the physician in attendance, about six
+weeks afterward, when she appeared to have recovered, in a great
+measure, the use of her limbs; but every lineament of the face was
+altered; the sight of one eye quite destroyed, and drawn outward, until
+little could be seen but a discolored ball, over which the lid hung down
+flabby and powerless; while a permanent distortion of the mouth added to
+the frightful appearance this occasioned. The beautiful hair was gone,
+and the unsightly bristles that remained were only partly concealed by
+the close-fitting cap she wore. It was indeed a sight to move the
+sternest heart. That proud and stately woman who had so cruelly abused
+the power her personal beauty alone had given her; trifling alike with
+youth's ardent and pure first love, as with the deeper and more lasting
+affection of manhood, and glorying in the misery and wretchedness she
+caused! Stopped in her full career, her punishment began already. Yet
+was there no index on that stolid face to tell how the dark spirit
+worked within; whether it felt remorse or sorrow for the crime, and pity
+for its victim, fearing a further punishment in this world or the next;
+whether the heart was torn by baffled rage and hatred still, scheming
+and plotting, even now that all hope was gone. Or was the strong
+intellect really clouded?
+
+That night her attendant slept long and heavily; she might have been
+drugged, for Miss Arnatti had access to her desk and jewel case, in the
+secret drawers of which were afterward found several deadly and
+carefully prepared poisons.
+
+In a room below was a large chimney-glass, and here Catherine first saw
+the full extent of the awful judgment that had befallen her. A cry of
+rage and despair, and the loud crash of broken glass, aroused the
+inmates early in the morning: they found the mirror shivered into a
+thousand fragments, but their charge was gone. We learned that day, that
+a person answering to her description, wearing a thick vail, and walking
+with pain and difficulty, had been one of the passengers on board a
+steam-packet that left the town at daylight.
+
+For a long time Annie Reed lay in the shadow of death. She lived,
+however, many years, a suffering and patient invalid. Edwin married his
+betrothed and brought her home, where his fond mother and sister soon
+loved her as they loved him; and Annie played aunt to the first-born,
+and shared their happiness awhile; and when her gentle spirit passed
+away, her mother bent to the heavy blow, living resigned and peacefully
+with her remaining children to a good old age.
+
+All efforts to trace the unhappy fugitive proved unavailing, and much
+anxiety was felt on her account; but about ten months after her
+disappearance, Mrs. Reed received a letter relative to the transfer of
+what little property her niece had possessed to a convent in Tuscany.
+The lady-abbess, a distant relative of Miss Arnatti's, had also written
+much concerning her, from which the following is extracted:
+
+"When a child, Catherine was for two years a boarder in this very house.
+Fifteen years passed since then, and she came to us travel-worn, and
+weak, and ill. Her history is known only to her confessor and myself;
+and she has drawn from us a promise that the name of England should
+never more be mentioned to her; and whatever tidings we may hear, in
+consequence of this communication, from those she had so cruelly
+injured, whether of life and health, or death--of forgiveness, or hatred
+and disgust at her ingratitude--that no allusion to it should be ever
+made to her. She follows rigidly the most severe rules of the
+establishment, but avoids all intercourse with the sisters. Much of her
+time is spent at the organ, and often, in the dead of night, we are
+startled or soothed by the low melancholy strains that come from the
+dark chapel. Her horror always on the approach of thunder-storms is a
+thing fearful to witness, and we think she can not long survive the
+dreadful shocks she suffers from this cause. They leave her, too, in
+total darkness many days. A mystery to all, we only speak of her as the
+BLIND SISTER."
+
+
+
+
+[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.]
+
+FORTUNES OF THE GARDENER'S DAUGHTER.
+
+
+Between Passy and Auteuil were still to be seen, some few years ago, the
+remains of what had been a gentleman's residence. The residence and the
+family to whom it had belonged had both fallen during the first
+Revolution. The bole of a once magnificent tree, stag-headed, owing to
+the neighboring buildings having hurt the roots, was all the evidence
+that remained of a park; but bits of old moss-grown wall--broken steps
+that led to nothing--heads and headless trunks of statues that once
+adorned the edges of what, now a marsh, had formerly been a piece of
+ornamental water--little thickets of stunted trees stopped in their
+growth by want of care--all hinted of what had been, although they could
+give no idea of the beauty which had once made Bouloinvilliers the pride
+of the neighborhood and its possessor. Such was the aspect of the place
+recently; but when the following anecdote begins, France was to external
+appearance prosperous, and Bouloinvilliers was still in its bloom.
+
+At a cottage within the gate which entered the grounds lived the
+gardener and his wife. They had been long married, had lost all their
+children, and were considered by every body a staid, elderly couple,
+when, to the astonishment of all, a girl was born. This precious plant,
+the child of their old age, was the delight especially of Pierre's life:
+he breathed but in little Marie, and tended her with the utmost care.
+Although attired in the costume appropriate to her station, her clothes
+were of fine materials; every indulgence in their power was lavished
+upon her, and every wish gratified, except the very natural one of going
+outside the grounds--_that_ was never permitted to her whom they had
+dedicated to the blessed Virgin, and determined to keep "unspotted from
+the world." Pierre himself taught her to read very well, and to write a
+little; Cécilon to knit, sew, and prepare the _pot-au-feu_; and
+amusement she easily found for herself. She lived among green leaves and
+blossoms: she loved them as sisters: all her thoughts turned toward the
+flowers that surrounded her on every side; they were her sole
+companions, and she never wearied playing with them. An old lime, the
+branches of which drooped round like a tent, and where the bees sought
+honey as long as there was any lingering on its sweetly-odorous
+branches, was her house, as she termed it; a large acorn formed a
+coffee-pot; its cups her cups, plates, porringers, and saucers,
+according to their size and flatness; and bits of broken porcelain,
+rubbed bright, enlivened the knotted stump, which served for shelves,
+chimney, and all; a water-lily was her _marmite_; fir-cones her cows; a
+large mushroom her table, when mushrooms were in season, at other times
+a bit of wood covered with green moss or wild sorrel. Her dolls even
+were made of flowers--bunches of lilies and roses formed the faces, a
+bundle of long beech-sprigs the bodies; and for hours would she sit
+rocking them, her low song chiming in with the drowsy hum of the
+insects.
+
+When grown older, and become more adventurous, she used to weave little
+boats from rushes upon bits of cork, and freight them with flowers.
+These she launched on the lake, where the fresh air and fresh water kept
+them sometimes longer from fading than would have otherwise been their
+fate, during the hot dry days of July and August, on their native beds.
+Thus passed her happy childhood: often and often she dreamed over it in
+after-life, pleasing herself with the fancy, that perhaps as God, when
+he made sinless man in his own image, gave him a garden as his home, so
+for those who entered into "the joy of our Lord" a garden might be
+prepared in heaven, sweeter far than even that of Bouloinvilliers--one
+where sun never scorched, cold never pinched, flowers never faded, birds
+never died. The death of a bird was the greatest grief she had known, a
+cat the most ferocious animal she had as yet encountered. She attended
+the private chapel on Sundays and saints' days. The day she made her
+first communion was the first of her entry into the world, and much
+distraction of mind did the unwonted sight of houses, shops, and crowds
+of people, cause to our little recluse, which served for reflection,
+conversation, and curious questioning for many a day after. On a
+white-painted table with a drawer there stood a plaster-cast of the
+Virgin Mary, much admired by its innocent namesake, and associated in
+her mind with praises and sugar-plums--for whenever she had been
+particularly good she found some there for her. It was her office to
+dust it with a feather brush, supply water to the flowers amid which the
+little figure stood, and replace them with fresh ones when faded.
+Whenever she was petulant a black screen was placed before the table,
+and Marie was not suffered to approach it. This was her only punishment;
+indeed the only one she required, for she heard and saw nothing wrong;
+her parents never disputed, and they were so gentle and indulgent to
+her, that she never felt tempted to disguise the truth. The old priest
+often represented to the father that unless he intended his child for
+the cloister, this mode of bringing her up in such total seclusion and
+ignorance was almost cruel; but Pierre answered that he could give her a
+good fortune, and would take care to secure a good husband for her; and
+her perfect purity and innocence were so beautiful, that the
+kind-hearted but unwise ecclesiastic did not insist farther.
+
+In the mean time she grew apace; and her mother being dead, Marie lived
+on as before with her father, whose affection only increased with his
+years, both of them apparently thinking that the world went on as they
+did themselves, unchanged in a single idea. Alas! "we know not what a
+day may bring forth," even when we have an opportunity of seeing and
+hearing all that passes around us. Pierre and Marie were scarcely aware
+of the commencement of the Revolution until it was at its height--the
+marquis, his son, and the good priest massacred--madame escaped to
+England--and the property divided, and in the possession of others of a
+very different stamp from his late kind patron, a model of suavity and
+grace of manner even in that capital which gave laws of politeness to
+the rest of Europe. All this came like a clap of thunder upon the
+astonished Pierre; and although he continued to live in his old cottage,
+he never more held up his head. Finally he became quite childish, and
+one day died sitting in his chair, his last words being "Marie," his
+last action pointing to the little figure of the Virgin. When his death,
+however, became known, the new propriétaire desired that the cottage
+should be vacated, and came himself to look after its capabilities. He
+was astonished at the innocent beauty of the youthful Marie, but not
+softened by it; for his bold, coarse admiration, and loud, insolent
+manner, so terrified the gentle recluse, that as soon as it was dark she
+made a bundle of her clothes, and taking the cherished little earthern
+image in her hand, went forth, like Eve from paradise, though, alas! not
+into a world without inhabitants. Terrified to a degree which no one not
+brought up as she had been can form the least idea of, but resolved to
+dare any thing rather than meet that bold, bad man again, she plunged
+into the increasing gloom, and wandered, wearied and heart broken, she
+knew not whither, until, hungry and tired, she could go no farther. She
+lay down, therefore, at the foot of a tree, with her head on her bundle,
+and the Virgin in her hand, and soon fell sound asleep.
+
+She was awakened from a dream of former days by rough hands, and upon
+regaining her recollection, found that some one had snatched the bundle
+from beneath her head, and that nothing remained to her but the little
+image, associated in her mind with that happy childhood to which her
+present destitute and friendless condition formed so terrible a
+contrast. The sneers, and in some cases the insults of the passers-by,
+terrified her to such a degree, that, regardless of consequences, she
+penetrated further into the Bois de Boulogne, when at length weak, and
+indeed quite exhausted, from want of food, she sank down, praying to God
+to let her die, and take her to heaven. She waited patiently for some
+time, hoping, and more than half expecting, that what she asked so
+earnestly would be granted to her. About an hour passed, and Marie,
+wondering in her simple faith that she was still alive, repeated her
+supplications, uttering them in her distraction in a loud tone of voice.
+Suddenly she fancied she heard sounds of branches breaking, and the
+approach of footsteps, and filled with the utmost alarm lest it might be
+some of those much-dreaded men who had derided and insulted her, she
+attempted to rise and fly; but her weakness was so great, that after a
+few steps she fell.
+
+"My poor girl," said a kind voice, "are you ill? What do you here, so
+far from your home and friends?"
+
+"I have no home, no friend but God, and I want to go to Him. Oh, my God,
+let me die! let me die!"
+
+"You are too young to die yet: you have many happy days in store, I
+hope. Come, come; eat something, or you _will_ die."
+
+"But eating will make me live, and I want to die, and go to my father
+and mother."
+
+"But that would be to kill yourself, and then you would never see either
+God or your parents, you know. Come, eat a morsel, and take a mouthful
+of wine."
+
+"But when _you_ go, there is no one to give me any more, so I shall only
+be longer in dying."
+
+"Self-destruction, you ought to know, if you have been properly brought
+up, is the only sin for which there _can_ be no pardon, for that is the
+only sin we _can not_ repent."
+
+Marie looked timidly up at the manly, sensible, kind face which bent
+over her, and accepted the food he offered. He was dressed as a workman,
+and had on his shoulders a hod of glass: in fact, he was an itinerant
+glazier. His look was compassionate, but his voice, although soft, was
+authoritative. Refreshed by what she had taken, Marie sat up, and very
+soon was able to walk. She told her little history, one word of which
+he never doubted.
+
+"But what do you mean to do?" asked the young man.
+
+"To stay with you always, for you are kind and good, and no one else is
+so to me."
+
+"But that can not be: it would not be right, you know."
+
+"And why would it not be right? Oh, _do_ let me! don't send me away! I
+will be so good!" answered she, her entire ignorance and innocence
+preventing her feeling what any girl, brought up among her
+fellow-creatures, however carefully, would at once have done.
+
+Auguste was a Belgian, without any relations at Paris, and with little
+means of supporting a wife; but young, romantic, and kind-hearted, he
+resolved at once to marry his innocent protégée, as soon at least as he
+could find a priest to perform the ceremony--no easy task at that time,
+and in the eyes of the then world of Paris no necessary one, for
+profligacy was at its height, and the streets were yet red with the
+blood of the virtuous and noble. They began life, then, with his load of
+glass and her gold cross and gold ear-rings, heir-looms of considerable
+value, which providentially the robbers had not thought of taking from
+her. With the produce of the ear-rings they hired a garret and some
+humble furniture, where they lived from hand to mouth, Marie taking in
+coarse sewing, and her husband sometimes picking up a few sous at his
+trade. Often, however, they had but one meal a day, seldom any fire; and
+when their first child was born, their troubles of course materially
+increased, and Auguste often returned from a weary ramble all over Paris
+just as he had set out--without having even gained a solitary sou. The
+cross soon followed the ear-rings, and they had now nothing left that
+they could part with except the little plaster figure so often alluded
+to, which would not bring a franc, and which was loved and cherished by
+Marie as the sole remaining object connected with Bouloinvilliers, and
+the last thing her father had looked at on earth. The idea of parting
+with this gave her grief which is better imagined than described; for,
+although the furniture of the cottage undoubtedly belonged to Marie, her
+husband knew too well that at a time when might was right, any steps
+taken toward recovering its value would be not only fruitless, but
+dangerous: he, therefore, never even attempted to assert their rights.
+
+One day, however, they had been without food or firing for nearly
+twenty-four hours, and the little Cécile was fractious with hunger,
+incessantly crying, "Du pain! du pain!" Marie rose, and approaching the
+Virgin, said, "It is wicked to hesitate longer: go, Auguste, and sell it
+for what you can get."
+
+She seized it hastily, as though afraid of changing her resolution, and
+with such trepidation, that it slipped through her fingers, and broke in
+two. Poor Marie sank upon her face at this sight, with a superstitious
+feeling that she had meditated wrong, and was thus punished. She was
+weeping bitterly, when her husband almost roughly raised her up,
+exclaiming in joyful accents, "Marie, Marie, give thanks to God! Now I
+know why your father pointed when he could not speak! Sorrow no more: we
+are rich!"
+
+In the body of the statuette were found bills to the amount of fifteen
+hundred francs--Marie's fortune, in fact, which her father had told the
+chaplain he had amassed for her. We need not dwell upon the happiness of
+this excellent couple, or the rapture, mingled with gratitude, in which
+the remainder of this day was passed. Those who disapprove of
+castle-building may perhaps blame them; for several castles they
+constructed, on better foundations, however, than most of those who
+spend their time in this pleasing but unprofitable occupation. Next day
+they took a glazier's shop, stocked it, provided themselves with decent
+clothing and furniture, and commenced their new life with equal
+frugality and comfort--Marie doing her own work, and serving in the shop
+when her husband was out engaged in business. But in time he was able to
+hire an assistant, and she a young girl, to look after the children
+while she pursued the avocation of a _couturière_, in which she soon
+became very expert. The little image was fastened together again, placed
+upon a white table, similar to that which used to stand in her
+childhood's home, surrounded with flowers, and made, as of old, the
+abode of sugar-plums and rewards of good conduct. But alas! there are
+not many Maries in the world. In spite of her good example and good
+teaching, her children would at times be naughty. They sometimes
+quarreled, sometimes were greedy; and what vexed their simple-minded
+mother more than all the rest, sometimes told stories of one another.
+Still they were good children, as children go; and when the black screen
+was superseded by punishments a little more severe, did credit to their
+training. They were not permitted to play in the street, or to go to or
+from school alone, or remain there after school-hours. Their father took
+pains with their deportment, corrected false grammar, and recommended
+the cultivation of habits more refined than people in his humble
+although respectable position deem necessary. As their prosperity
+increased, Marie was surprised to observe her husband devote all his
+spare time to reading, and not only picture-cleaning and repairing, but
+painting, in which he was such an adept, that he was employed to paint
+several signs.
+
+"How did you learn so much?" she said one day. "Did your father teach
+you?"
+
+"No; I went to school."
+
+"Then he was not so _very_ poor?"
+
+"He was very poor, but he lived in hopes that I might one day possess a
+fortune."
+
+"It would seem as if he had a foreknowledge of what my little statue
+contained?"
+
+"No, my love; he looked to it from another source; for a title without a
+fortune is a misfortune."
+
+"A title! Nay, now you are playing with my simplicity."
+
+"No, Marie; I am the nephew of the Vicomte de ----, and for aught I
+know, may be the possessor of that name at this moment--the legal heir
+to his estate. My father, ruined by his extravagance, and, I grieve to
+add, by his crimes, had caused himself to be disowned by all his
+relations. He fled with me to Paris, where he soon after died, leaving
+me nothing but his seal and his papers. I wrote to my uncle for
+assistance; but although being then quite a boy, and incapable of having
+personally given him offense, he refused it in the most cruel manner;
+and I was left to my own resources at a time when my name and education
+were rather a hindrance than a help, and I found no opening for entering
+into any employment suited to my birth. My uncle had then two fine,
+healthy, handsome boys; the youngest is dead; and the eldest, I heard
+accidentally, in such a state of health that recovery is not looked for
+by the most sanguine of his friends. I never breathed a word of all this
+to you, because I never expected to survive my cousins, and resolved to
+make an independent position for myself sooner or later. Do you remember
+the other day an old gentleman stopping and asking some questions about
+the coat of arms I was painting?"
+
+"Yes; he asked who had employed you to paint those arms, but I was
+unable to inform him."
+
+"Well, my dear, he came again this morning to repeat the question to
+myself; and I am now going to satisfy him, when I expect to bring you
+some news."
+
+Marie was in a dream. Unlike gardeners' daughters of the present day,
+she had read no novels or romances, and it appeared to her as impossible
+that such an event should happen as that the cap on her head should turn
+into a crown. It _did_ happen, however. The old gentleman, a distant
+relation and intimate friend of the uncle of Auguste, had come to Paris,
+at his dying request, to endeavor to find out his nephew and heir; and
+the proofs Auguste produced were so plain, that he found no difficulty
+in persuading M. B----de that he was the person he represented himself
+to be. He very soon after went to Belgium, took legal possession of all
+his rights, and returned to hail the gentle and long-suffering Marie as
+Vicomtesse de ----, and conduct her and the children to a handsome
+apartment in the Rue ----, dressed in habiliments suitable to her
+present station, and looking as lady-like as if she had been born to
+fill it. She lived long and happily, and continued the same pure,
+humble-minded being she had ever been, whether blooming among the
+flowers at Bouloinvilliers, or pining for want in a garret in the
+Faubourg St. Antoine. Two of her daughters are alive now. Her son, after
+succeeding to his father, died, without children, of the cholera, in
+1832; and the son of his eldest sister has taken up the _title_, under a
+different name, these matters not being very strictly looked after in
+France.
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN.
+
+
+Many travelers know the "Rutland Arms" at Bakewell, in the Peak of
+Derbyshire. It is a fine large inn, belonging to his Grace of Rutland,
+standing in an airy little market-place of that clean-looking little
+town, and commanding from its windows pleasant peeps of the green hills
+and the great Wicksop Woods, which shut out the view of Chatsworth, the
+Palace of the Peak, which lies behind them. Many travelers who used to
+traverse this road from the south to Manchester, in the days of long
+coaches and long wintry drives, know well the "Rutland Arms," and will
+recall the sound of the guard's bugle, as they whirled up to the door,
+amid a throng of grooms, waiters, and village idlers, the ladder already
+taken from its stand by the wall, and placed by the officious Boots in
+towering position, ready, at the instant of the coach stopping, to clap
+it under your feet, and facilitate your descent. Many travelers will
+recall one feature of that accommodating inn, which, uniting
+aristocratic with commercial entertainment, has two doors; one lordly
+and large in front, to which all carriages of nobility, prelacy, and
+gentility naturally draw up; and one at the end, to which all gigs,
+coaches, mails, and still less dignified conveyances, as naturally are
+driven. Our travelers will as vividly remember the passage which
+received them at this entrance, and the room to the left, the
+Travelers'-room, into which they were ushered. To that corner room,
+having windows to the market-place in front, and one small peeping
+window at the side, commanding the turn of the north road, and the
+interesting arrivals at the secondary entrance, we now introduce our
+readers.
+
+Here sat a solitary gentleman. He was a man apparently of
+five-and-thirty; tall, considerably handsome; a face of the oval
+character, nose a little aquiline, hair dark, eyebrows dark and strong,
+and a light, clear, self-possessed look, that showed plainly enough that
+he was a man of active mind, and well to do in the world. You would have
+thought, from his gentlemanly air, and by no means commercial manner,
+that he would have found his way in at the great front door, and into
+one of the private rooms; but he came over night by the mail, and, on
+being asked, on entering the house, by the waiter, to what sort of room
+he would be shown, answered, carelessly and abruptly, "any where."
+
+Here he was, seated in the back left-hand corner of the room, a large
+screen between himself and the door, and before him a table spread with
+a goodly breakfast apparatus--coffee, eggs, fresh broiled trout from the
+neighboring Weye, and a large round of corned beef, as a _dernier
+ressort_.
+
+It was a morning as desperately and delugingly rainy as any that showery
+region can send down. In the phrase of the country, it _siled_ down, or
+run, as if through a sieve. Straight down streamed the plenteous
+element, thick, incessant, and looking as if it would hold on the whole
+day through. It thundered on the roof, beat a sonorous tune on porches
+and projections of door and window, splashed in torrents on
+window-sills, and streaming panes, and rushed along the streets in
+rivers. The hills were hidden, the very fowls driven to roost--and not a
+soul was to be seen out of doors.
+
+Presently there was a sound of hurrying wheels, a spring-cart came up to
+the side door, with two men in it, in thick great coats, and with sacks
+over their shoulders; one huge umbrella held over their heads, and they
+and their horse yet looking three parts drowned. They lost no time in
+pitching their umbrella to the hostler, who issued from the passage,
+descending and rushing into the inn. In the next moment the two
+countrymen, divested of their sacks and great coats, were ushered into
+this room, the waiter, making a sort of apology, because there was a
+fire there--it was in the middle of July. The two men, who appeared Peak
+farmers, with hard hands, which they rubbed at the fire, and tanned and
+weather-beaten complexions, ordered breakfast--of coffee and broiled
+ham--which speedily made its appearance, on a table placed directly in
+front of the before solitary stranger, between the side look-out window
+and the front one.
+
+They looked, and were soon perceived by our stranger to be, father and
+son. The old man, of apparently upward of sixty, was a middle-sized man,
+of no Herculean mould, but well knit together, and with a face thin and
+wrinkled as with a life-long acquaintance with care and struggle. His
+complexion was more like brown leather than any thing else, and his
+hair, which was thin and grizzled, was combed backward from his face,
+and hung in masses about his ears. The son was much taller than the
+father, a stooping figure, with flaxen hair, a large nose, light blue
+eyes, and altogether a very gawky look.
+
+The old man seemed to eat with little appetite, and to be sunk into
+himself, as if he was oppressed by some heavy trouble. Yet he every now
+and then roused himself, cast an anxious look at his son, and said,
+"Joe, lad, thou eats nothing."
+
+"No, fayther," was the constant reply; "I towd you I shouldn't. This
+reen's enough te tak any body's appetite--and these t'other things,"
+casting a glance at the stranger.
+
+The stranger had, indeed, his eyes fixed curiously upon the two, for he
+had been watching the consumptive tendency of the son; not in any cough
+or hectic flush, or peculiar paleness, for he had a positively sunburnt
+complexion of his own, but by the extraordinary power he possessed of
+tossing down coffee and ham, with enormous pieces of toast and butter.
+Under his operations, a large dish of broiled ham rapidly disappeared,
+and the contents of the coffee-pot were in as active demand. Yet the old
+man, ever and anon, looked up from his reverie, and repeated his
+paternal observation:
+
+"Joe, lad, thou eats nothing!"
+
+"No, fayther," was still the reply; "I towd you I shouldn't. It's this
+reen, and these t'other things"--again glancing at the stranger.
+
+Presently the broiled ham had totally vanished--there had been enough
+for six ordinary men. And while the son was in the act of holding the
+coffee-pot upside down, and draining the last drop from it, the old man
+once more repeated his anxious admonition: "Joe, lad, thou eats
+nothing!"--and the reply was still, "No, fayther, I towd you I
+shouldn't. It's this reen, and these t'other things."
+
+This was accompanied by another glance at the stranger, who began to
+feel himself very much in the way, but was no little relieved by the son
+rising with his plate in his hand, and coming across the room, saying,
+"You've a prime round of beef there, sir; might I trouble you for some?"
+
+"By all means," said the stranger, and carved off a slice of thickness
+and diameter proportioned to what appeared to him the appetite of this
+native of the Peak. This speedily disappeared; and as the son threw down
+the knife and fork, the sound once more roused the old man, who added,
+with an air of increased anxiety, "Joe, lad, thou eats nothing."
+
+"No, fayther," for the last time responded the son. "I towd you I
+shouldn't. It's this reen, and this t'other matter--but I've done, and
+so let's go."
+
+The father and son arose and went out. The stranger who had witnessed
+this extraordinary scene, but without betraying any amusement at it,
+arose, too, the moment they closed the door after them, and, advancing
+to the window, gazed fixedly into the street. Presently the father and
+son, in their great coats, and with their huge drab umbrella hoisted
+over them, were seen proceeding down the market-place in the midst of
+the still pouring rain, and the stranger's eyes followed them intently
+till they disappeared in the winding of the street. He still stood for
+some time, as if in deep thought, and then turning, rung the bell,
+ordered the breakfast-things from his table, and producing a
+writing-case, sat down to write letters. He continued writing, pausing
+at intervals, and looking steadily before him as in deep thought, for
+about an hour, when the door opened, and the Peak farmer and his son
+again entered. They were in their wet and steaming greatcoats. The old
+man appeared pale and agitated; bade the son see that the horse was put
+in the cart, rung the bell, and asked what he had to pay. Having
+discharged his bill, he continued to pace the room, as if unconscious of
+the stranger, who had suspended his writing, and was gazing earnestly at
+him. The old man frequently paused, shook his head despairingly, and
+muttered to himself, "Hard man!--no fellow feeling!--all over! all
+over!" With a suppressed groan, he again continued his pacing to and
+fro.
+
+The stranger arose, approached the old man, and said, with a peculiarly
+sympathizing tone,
+
+"Excuse me, sir, but you seem to have some heavy trouble on your mind; I
+should be glad if it were any thing that were in my power to alleviate."
+
+The old man stopped suddenly--looked sternly at the stranger--seemed to
+recollect, himself, and said rather sharply, as if feeling an
+unauthorized freedom--"Sir!"
+
+"I beg pardon," said the stranger. "I am aware that it must seem strange
+in me to address you thus; but I can not but perceive that something
+distresses you, and it might possibly happen that I might be of use to
+you."
+
+The old man looked at him for some time in silence, and then said,
+
+"I forgot any one was here; but you can be of no manner of use to me. I
+thank you."
+
+"I am truly sorry for it; pray excuse my freedom," said the stranger
+with a slight flush; "but I am an American, and we are more accustomed
+to ask and communicate matters than is consistent with English reserve.
+I beg you will pardon me."
+
+"You are an American?" asked the old man, looking at him. "You are quite
+a stranger here?"
+
+"Quite so, sir," replied the stranger, with some little embarrassment.
+"I was once in this country before, but many years ago."
+
+The old man still looked at him, was silent awhile, and then said, "You
+can not help me, sir; but I thank you all the same, and heartily. You
+seem really a very feeling man, and so I don't mind opening my mind to
+you--I am a ruined man, sir."
+
+"I was sure you were in very deep trouble, sir," replied the stranger.
+"I will not seek to peer into your affairs; but I deeply feel for you,
+and would say that many troubles are not so deep as they seem. I would
+hope yours are not."
+
+"Sir," replied the old man--the tears starting into his eyes, "I tell
+you I am a ruined man. I am heavily behind with my rent, all my stock
+will not suffice to pay it; and this morning we have been to entreat the
+steward to be lenient, but he will not hear us; he vows to sell us up
+next week."
+
+"That is hard," said the stranger. "But you are hale, your son is young;
+you can begin the world anew."
+
+"Begin the world anew!" exclaimed the old man, with a distracted air.
+"Where?--how? when? No, no! sir, there is no beginning anew in this
+country. Those days are past. That time is past with me. And as for my
+son: Oh, God! Oh, God! what shall become of him, for he has a wife and
+family, and knows nothing but about a farm."
+
+"And there are farms still," said the stranger.
+
+"Yes; but at what rentals? and, then, where is the capital?"
+
+The old man grew deadly pale, and groaned.
+
+"In this country," said the stranger, after a deep silence, "I believe
+these things are hard, but in mine they are not so. Go there, worthy old
+man; go there, and a new life yet may open to you."
+
+The stranger took the old man's hand tenderly; who, on feeling the
+stranger's grasp, suddenly, convulsively, caught the hand in both his
+own, and shedding plentiful tears, exclaimed, "God bless you, sir; God
+bless you for your kindness! Ah! such kindness is banished from this
+country, but I feel that it lives in yours--but there!--no, no!--there I
+shall never go. There are no means."
+
+"The means required," said the stranger, tears, too, glittering in his
+eyes, "are very small. Your friends would, no doubt--"
+
+"No, no!" interrupted him the old man, deeply agitated; "there are no
+friends--not here."
+
+"Then why should I not be a friend so far?" said the stranger. "I have
+means--I know the country. I have somehow conceived a deep interest in
+your misfortunes."
+
+"You!" said the old man, as if bewildered with astonishment; "you!--but
+come along with us, sir. Your words, your kindness, comfort me; at least
+you can counsel with us--and I feel it does me good."
+
+"I will go with all my heart," said the stranger. "You can not live far
+from here. I will hence to Manchester, and I can, doubtless, make it in
+my way."
+
+"Exactly in the way!" said the old man, in a tone of deep pleasure, and
+of much more cheerfulness, "at least, not out of it to signify--though
+not in the great highway. We can find you plenty of room, if you do not
+disdain our humble vehicle."
+
+"I have heavy luggage," replied the stranger, ringing the bell. "I will
+have a post-chaise, and you shall go in it with me. It will suit you
+better this wet day."
+
+"Oh no! I can not think of it, sir," said the farmer. "I fear no rain. I
+am used to it, and I am neither sugar nor salt. I shall not melt."
+
+The old man's son approached simultaneously with the waiter, to say that
+the cart was ready. The stranger ordered a post-chaise to accompany the
+farmer, at which the son stood with an open-mouthed astonished stare,
+which would have excited the laughter of most people, but did not move a
+muscle of the stranger's grave and kindly face.
+
+"This good gentleman will go with us," said the old man.
+
+"Oh, thank you, sir!" said the son, taking off his hat and making a low
+bow, "you are heartily welcome; but it's a poor place, sir."
+
+"Never mind that," said the old man. "Let us be off and tell Millicent
+to get some dinner for the gentleman."
+
+But the stranger insisted that the old man should stay and accompany him
+in the chaise, and so the son walked off to prepare for their coming.
+Soon the stranger's trunks were placed on the top of the chaise, and
+the old man and he drove off.
+
+Their way was for some time along the great high-road; then they turned
+off to the left, and continued their course up a valley till they
+ascended a very stony road, which wound far over the swell of the hill,
+and then approached a large gray stone house, backed by a wood that
+screened it from the north and east. Far around, lay an immense view,
+chiefly of green, naked, and undulating fields, intersected by stone
+walls. No other house was near; and villages lying at several miles
+distant, naked and gray on the uplands, were the only evidences of human
+life.
+
+The house was large enough for a gentleman's abode, but there were no
+neatly kept walks; no carefully cultivated shrubberies; no garden lying
+in exquisite richness around it. There was no use made of the barns and
+offices. There were no servants about. A troop of little children who
+were in the field in front, ran into the house and disappeared.
+
+On entering the house, the stranger observed that its ample rooms were
+very naked and filled only by a visible presence of stern indigence. The
+woodwork was unpainted. The stone floors were worn, and merely sanded.
+The room into which he was conducted, and where the table was already
+laid for dinner, differed only in having the uncarpeted floor marked in
+figures of alternating ochre and pipe-clay, and was furnished with a
+meagre amount of humblest chairs and heavy oak tables, a little shelf of
+books and almanacs, and a yellow-faced clock. A shabby and tired-looking
+maid-servant was all the domestics seen within or without.
+
+Joe, the simple-looking son, received them, and the only object which
+seemed to give a cheering impression to the stranger, was Joe's wife,
+who presented herself with a deep courtesy. The guest was surprised to
+see in her a very comely, fresh colored, and modestly sensible woman,
+who received him with a kindly cordiality and native grace, which made
+him wonder how such a woman could have allied herself to such a man.
+There were four or five children about her, all evidently washed and put
+into their best for his arrival, and who were pictures of health and
+shyness.
+
+Mrs. Warilow took off the old man's great coat with an affectionate
+attention, and drew his plain elbow chair, with a cushion covered with a
+large-patterned check on its rush bottom, toward the fire; for there was
+a fire, and that quite acceptable in this cold region after the heavy
+rain. Dinner was then hastily brought in; Mrs. Warilow apologizing for
+its simplicity, from the short notice she had received, and she might
+have added from the painful news which Joe brought with him; for it was
+very evident, though she had sought to efface the trace of it, by
+copious washing, that she had been weeping.
+
+The old man was obviously oppressed by the ill result of his morning's
+journey to the steward, and the position of his affairs. His
+daughter-in-law cast occasional looks of affectionate anxiety at him,
+and endeavored to help him in such a manner as to induce him to eat; but
+appetite he had little. Joe played his part as valiantly as in the
+morning; and the old man occasionally rousing from his reverie, again
+renewed the observation of the breakfast-table.
+
+"Joe, lad, thou eats nothing;" adding too now, "Milly, my dear, thou
+eats nothing. You eat nothing, sir. None of you have any appetite, and I
+have none myself. God help me!"
+
+An ordinary stranger would scarcely have resisted a smile--none appeared
+on the face of the guest.
+
+After dinner they drew to the fire, which consisted of large lumps of
+coal burning under a huge beamed chimney. There a little table was set
+with spirits and home-made wine, and the old man and Joe lit their
+pipes, inviting the stranger to join them, which he did with right
+good-will. There was little conversation, however; Joe soon said that he
+must go over the lands to see that the cattle was all right; he did
+more, and even slept in his chair, and the stranger proposed to Mrs.
+Warilow a walk in the garden, where the afternoon sun was now shining
+warmly. In his drive hither in the chaise, he had learned the exact
+position of the old farmer. He was, as he had observed, so heavily in
+arrear of rent, that his whole stock would not discharge it. When they
+had seated themselves in the old arbor, he communicated his proposal to
+her father-in-law to remove to America; observing, that he had conceived
+so great a sympathy for him, that he would readily advance him the means
+of conveying over the whole family.
+
+Mrs. Warilow was naturally much surprised at the disclosure. Such an
+offer from a casual stranger, when all friends and family connections
+had turned a deaf ear to all solicitations for aid, was something so
+improbable that she could not realize it. "How can you, sir, a stranger
+to us, volunteer so large a sum, which we may never be in a position to
+repay?"
+
+The stranger assured her that the sum was by no means large. That to him
+it was of little consequence, and that such was the scope for industry
+and agricultural skill in America, that in a few years they could
+readily refund the money. Here, from what the old gentleman had told him
+of the new augmented rate of rental, there was no chance of recovering a
+condition of ease and comfort.
+
+Mrs. Warilow seemed to think deeply on the new idea presented to her,
+and then said, "Surely God has sent Mr. Vandeleur (so the stranger had
+given his name), for their deliverance. Oh, sir!" added she, "what shall
+we not owe you if by your means we can ever arrive at freedom from the
+wretched trouble that now weighs us down. And oh! if my poor father
+should ever, in that country, meet again his lost son!"
+
+"He has lost a son?" said the stranger, in a tone of deep feeling.
+
+"Ah, it is a sad thing, sir," continued Mrs. Warilow, "but it is that
+which preys on father's mind. He thinks he did wrong in it, and he
+believes that the blessing of Heaven has deserted him ever since. Sure
+enough, nothing has prospered with him, and yet he feels that if the
+young man lives he has not been blameless. He had not felt and forgiven
+as a son should. But he can not be living--no, he can not for all these
+years have borne resentment, and sent no part of his love or his fortune
+to his family. It is not in the heart of a child to do that, except in a
+very evil nature, and such was not that of this son."
+
+"Pray go on," said the stranger, "you interest me deeply."
+
+"This thing occurred twenty years ago. Mr. Warilow had two sons. The
+eldest, Samuel, was a fine active youth, but always with a turn for
+travel and adventure, which was very trying to his father's mind, who
+would have his sons settle down in this their native neighborhood, and
+pursue farming as their ancestors had always done. But his eldest son
+wished to go to sea, or to America. He read a vast deal about that
+country, of winter nights, and was always talking of the fine life that
+might be led there. This was very annoying to his father, and made him
+very angry, the more so that Joseph, the younger son, was a weakly lad,
+and had something left upon him by a severe fever, as a boy, that seemed
+to weaken his limbs and his mind. People thought he would be an idiot,
+and his father thought that his eldest brother should stay and take care
+of him, for it was believed that he would never be able to take care of
+himself. But this did not seem to weigh with Samuel. Youths full of life
+and spirit don't sufficiently consider such things. And then it was
+thought that Samuel imagined that his father cared nothing for him, and
+cared only for the poor weakly son. He might be a little jealous of
+this, and that feeling once getting into people, makes them see things
+different to what they otherwise would, and do things that else they
+would not.
+
+"True enough, the father was always particularly wrapped up in Joseph.
+He seemed to feel that he needed especial care, and he appeared to watch
+over him and never have him out of his mind, and he does so to this day.
+You have no doubt remarked, sir, that my husband is peculiar. He never
+got over that attack in his boyhood, and he afterward grew very rapidly,
+and it was thought he would have gone off in a consumption. It is
+generally believed that he is not quite sharp in all things. I speak
+freely to you, sir, and as long habit, and knowing before I married
+Joseph what was thought of him, only could enable me to speak to one who
+feels so kindly toward us. But it is not so--Joseph is more simple in
+appearance than in reality. No, sir, he has a deal of sense, and he has
+a very good heart; and it was because I perceived this that I was
+willing to marry him, and to be a true help to him, and, sir, though we
+have been very unfortunate, I have never repented it, and I never
+shall."
+
+The stranger took Mrs. Warilow's hand, pressed it fervently, and said,
+"I honor you, Madam--deeply, truly--pray go on. The eldest son left, you
+say."
+
+"Oh yes, sir! Their mother died when the boys were about fifteen and
+seventeen. Samuel had always been strongly attached to his mother, and
+that, no doubt, kept him at home; but after that he was more restless
+than ever, and begged the father to give him money to carry himself to
+America. The father refused. They grew mutually angry; and one day, when
+they had had high words, the father thought Samuel was disrespectful,
+and struck him. The young man had a proud spirit. That was more than he
+could bear. He did not utter a word in reply, but turning, walked out of
+the house, and from that hour has never once been heard of.
+
+"His father was very angry with him, and for many years never spoke of
+him but with great bitterness and resentment, calling him an unnatural
+and ungrateful son. But of late years he has softened very much, and I
+can see that it preys on his mind, and as things have gone against him,
+he has come to think that it is a judgment on him for his hardness and
+unreasonableness in not letting the poor boy try his fortune as he so
+yearned to do.
+
+"Since I have been in the family, I have led him by degrees to talk on
+this subject, and have endeavored to comfort him, telling him he had
+meant well, and since, he had seen the thing in a different light. Ah,
+sir! how differently we see things when our heat of mind is gone over,
+and the old home heart begins to stir in us again. But, since he has
+done this, and repented of it, God can not continue his anger, and so
+that can not be the cause of his misfortunes. No, sir, I don't think
+that--but things have altered very much of late years in this country.
+The farms up in this Peak country used to be let very low, very low
+indeed; and now they have been three several times valued and raised
+since I can remember. People can not live on them now, they really can
+not. Then the old gentleman, as farming grew bad, speculated in lead
+mines, and that was much worse; he did not understand it, and was sorely
+imposed on, and lost a power of money; oh! so much that it is a misery
+to think of. Then, as troubles, they say, fly like crows in companies,
+there came a very wet summer, and all the corn was spoiled. That put a
+finish to father's hopes. He was obliged to quit the old farm where the
+Warilows had been for ages, and that hurt him cruelly--it is like
+shifting old trees, shifting old people is--they never take to the new
+soil.
+
+"But as Joseph was extremely knowing in cattle, father took this
+farm--it's a great grazing farm, sir, seven hundred acres, and we feeden
+cattle. You would not believe it, sir, but we have only one man on this
+farm besides Joseph and father."
+
+"It is very solitary," said the stranger.
+
+"Ah, sir, very, but that we don't mind--but it is a great burden, it
+does not pay. Well, but as to the lost son. I came to perceive how
+sorely this sat on father's mind, by noticing that whenever I used to
+read in the old Bible, on the shelf in the house-place, there, that it
+opened of itself at the Prodigal Son. A thought struck me, and so I
+watched, and I saw that whenever the old gentleman read in it on
+Sundays, he was always looking there. It was some time before I ventured
+to speak about it; but, one day when father was wondering what could
+have been Samuel's fate, I said, 'Perhaps, father, he will still come
+home like the Prodigal Son in the Scripture, and if he does we'll kill
+the fatted calf for him, and no one will rejoice in it more truly than
+Joseph will.'
+
+"When I had said it, I wished I had not said it--for father seemed
+struck as with a stake. He went as pale as death, and I thought he would
+fall down in a fit; but, at last, he burst into a torrent of tears, and,
+stretching out his arms, said, 'And if he does come, he'll find a
+father's arms open to receive him.'
+
+"Ah, sir! it was hard work to comfort him again. I thought he would
+never have got over it again; but, after that, he began at times to
+speak of Samuel to me of himself, and we've had a deal of talk together
+about him. Sometimes father thinks he is dead, and sometimes he thinks
+he is not; and, true enough, of late years, there have come flying
+rumors from America, from people who have gone out there, who have said
+they have seen him there--and that he was a very great gentleman--they
+were sure it was him. But then there was always something uncertain in
+the account, and, above all, father said he never could believe that
+Samuel was a great gentleman, and yet never could forgive an angry blow,
+and write home through all these years. These things, sir, pull the old
+man down, and, what with his other troubles, make me tremble to look
+forward."
+
+Mrs. Warilow stopped, for she was surprised to hear a deep suppressed
+sob from the stranger; and, turning, she saw him sitting with his
+handkerchief before his face. Strange ideas shot across her mind. But at
+this moment the old farmer, having finished his after-dinner nap, was
+coming out to seek them. Mr. Vandeleur rose, wiped some tears from his
+face, and thanked Mrs. Warilow for her communication. "You can not
+imagine," he said, with much feeling, "how deeply you have touched me.
+You can not believe how much what you have said resembles incidents in
+my own life. Depend upon it, madam, your brother will turn up. I feel
+strongly incited to help in it. We will have a search after him, if it
+be from the St. Lawrence to the Red River. If he lives, he will be
+found; and I feel a persuasion that he will be."
+
+They now met the old man, and all walked into the house. After tea,
+there was much talk of America. Mr. Vandeleur related many things in his
+own history. He drew such pictures of American life, and farming, and
+hunting in the woods; of the growth of new families, and the prosperous
+abundance in which the people lived; that all were extremely interested
+in his account. Joe sate devouring the story with wonder, luxuriating
+especially in the idea of those immense herds of cattle in the prairies;
+and the old man even declared that there he should like to go and lay
+his bones. "Perhaps," added he, "there I should, some day, find again my
+Sam. But no, he must be dead, or he would have written: Many die in the
+swamps and from fever, don't they, sir?"
+
+"Oh! many, many," said Mr. Vandeleur, "and yet there are often as
+miraculous recoveries. For many years I was a government surveyor. It
+was my business to survey new tracts for sale. I was the solitary
+pioneer of the population; with a single man to carry my chain, and to
+assist me in cutting a path through the dense woods. I lived in the
+woods for years, for months seeing no soul but a few wandering Indians.
+Sometimes we were in peril from jealous and savage squatters; sometimes
+were compelled to flee before the monster grisly bear. I have a strange
+fascinating feeling now of those days, and of our living for weeks in
+the great caves in the White Mountains, since become the resort of
+summer tourists, with the glorious 'Notch' glittering opposite, far
+above us, and above the ancient woods. These were days of real hardship,
+and we often saw sights of sad sorrow. Families making their way to
+distant and wild localities, plundered by the inhuman squatters, or by
+the Indians, and others seized by the still more merciless swamp fever,
+perishing without help, and often all alone in the wilderness.
+
+"Ah! I remember now one case--it is nearly twenty years ago, but I never
+can forget it. It was a young, thin man--he could scarcely be twenty. He
+had been left by his party in the last stage of fever. They had raised a
+slight booth of green bushes over him, and placed a pumpkin-shell of
+water by his side, and a broken tea-cup to help himself with; but he was
+too weak, and was fast sinking there all alone in that vast wilderness.
+The paleness of death appeared in his sunken features, the feebleness of
+death in his wasted limbs. He was a youth who, like many others, had
+left his friends in Europe, and now longed to let them know his end. He
+summoned his failing powers to give me a sacred message. He mentioned
+the place whence he last came."
+
+"Where was it?" exclaimed the old man, in a tone of wild excitement.
+"Where--what was it? It must be my Sam!"
+
+"No, that could not be," said the stranger, startled by the old man's
+emotion; "it was not this place--it was--I remember it--it was another
+name--Well--Well--Welland was the place."
+
+The old man gave a cry, and would have fallen from his chair, but the
+stranger sprung forward and caught him in his arms. There was a moment's
+silence, broken only by a deep groan from the old man, and a low murmur
+from his lips, "Yes! I knew it--he is dead!"
+
+"No, no! he is not dead!" cried the stranger; "he lives--he recovered!"
+
+"Where is he, then? Where is my Sam? Let me know!" cried the old man,
+recovering and standing wildly up--"I must see him!--I must to him!"
+
+"Father! father! it is Sam!" cried his son Joe; "I know him!--I know
+him!--this is he!"
+
+"Where?--who?" exclaimed the father, looking round bewildered.
+
+"Here!" said the stranger, kneeling before the old man, and clasping his
+hand and bathing it with tears. "Here, father, is your lost and unworthy
+son. Father!--I return like the Prodigal Son. 'I have sinned before
+Heaven and in thy sight; make me as one of thy hired servants.'"
+
+The old man clasped his son in his arms, and they wept in silence.
+
+But Joe was impatient to embrace his recovered brother, and he gave him
+a hug as vigorous as one of those grisly bears that Sam had mentioned.
+"Ah! Sam!" he said, "how I have wanted thee; but I always saw thee a
+slim chap, such as thou went away, and now thou art twice as big, and
+twice as old, and yet I knew thee by thy eyes."
+
+The two brothers cordially embraced, and the returned wanderer also
+embraced his comely sister affectionately, and said, "You had nearly
+found me out in the garden."
+
+"Ah, what a startle you gave me!" she replied, wiping away her tears;
+"but this is so unexpected--so heavenly." She ran off, and returning
+with the whole troop of her children, said, "There, there is your dear,
+lost uncle!"
+
+The uncle caught them up, one after another, and kissed them
+rapturously.
+
+"Do you know," said the mother, laying her hand on the head of the
+eldest boy, a fine, rosy-looking fellow, "what name this has? It is
+Samuel Warilow! We did not forget the one that was away."
+
+"He will find another Samuel in America," said his uncle, again
+snatching him up, "and a Joe, and a Thomas, the grandfather's name. My
+blessed mother there lives again in a lovely blue-eyed girl; and should
+God send me another daughter, there shall be a Millicent, too!"
+
+Meantime, the old man stood gazing insatiably on his son. "Ah, Sam!"
+said he, as his son again turned, and took his hand, "I was very hard to
+thee, and yet thou hast been hard to us, too. Thou art married, too,
+and, with all our names grafted on new stems, thou never wrote to us. It
+was not well."
+
+"No, father, it was not well. I acknowledge my fault--my great fault;
+but let me justify myself. I never forgot you; but for many years I was
+a wanderer, and an unsuccessful man. My pride would not let me send,
+under these circumstances, to those who had always said that I should
+come to beggary and shame. Excuse me, that I mention these hard words.
+My pride was always great; and those words haunted me.
+
+"But at length, when Providence had blessed me greatly, I could endure
+it no longer. I determined to come and seek forgiveness and
+reconciliation; and, God be praised! I have found both. We will away
+home together, father. I have wealth beyond all my wants and wishes; my
+greatest joy will be to bestow some of it on you. My early profession of
+a surveyor gave me great opportunities of perceiving where the tide of
+population would direct itself, and property consequently rise rapidly
+in value. I therefore purchased vast tracts for small sums, which are
+now thickly peopled, and my possessions are immense. I am a member of
+Congress."
+
+The next day, the two brothers drove over to Bakewell, where Joe had the
+satisfaction to see the whole arrears paid down to the astonished
+steward, on condition that he gave an instant release from the farm; and
+Joe ordered, at the auctioneer's, large posters to be placarded in all
+the towns and villages of the Peak, and advertisements to be inserted in
+all the principal papers of the Midland counties, of the sale of his
+stock that day fortnight.
+
+We have only to record that it sold well, and that the Warilows of
+Welland, and more recently of Scarthin Farm, are now flourishing on
+another and more pleasant Welland on the Hudson. There is a certain
+tall, town-like house which the traveler sees high on a hill among the
+woods, on the left bank of the river, as the steamer approaches the
+Catskill Mountains. There live the Warilows; and, far back on the rich
+slopes that lie behind the mountains, and in richer meadows, surrounded
+by forests and other hills, rove the flocks and herds of Joe; and there
+comes Squire Sam, when the session at Washington is over, and,
+surrounded by sons and nephews, ranges the old woods, and shoots the
+hill-turkey and the roe. There is another comely and somewhat matronly
+lady sitting with the comely and sunny-spirited Millicent, the happy
+mistress of the new Welland; and a little Millicent tumbles on the
+carpet at their feet. The Warilows of Welland all bless the Prodigal
+Son, who, unlike the one of old, came back rich to an indigent father,
+and made the old man's heart grow young again with joy.
+
+
+
+
+[From Sharpe's Magazine.]
+
+THE LIGHT OF HOME.
+
+
+It was years ago when we first became acquainted with Lieutenant
+Heathcote, an old half-pay officer who resided with his young
+grand-daughter in a tiny cottage. It was a very humble place, for they
+were poor; but it was extremely pretty, and there were many comforts,
+even elegances, to be found in the small rooms. The old gentleman
+delighted in cultivating the garden; the window of the sitting-room
+opened on it, and beneath this window, grew the choicest roses and
+pinks, so that the atmosphere of the apartment was in summer laden with
+their fragrance. The furniture was poor enough. Mrs. ---- of ---- Square
+would have said with a genteel sneer, that "all the room contained was
+not worth five sovereigns." To her--no! but to the simple hearted
+inmates of the cottage every chair and table was dear from long
+association, and they would not have exchanged them for all the grandeur
+of Mrs. ----'s drawing-room suite, albeit her chairs were of inlaid
+rosewood, and cost six guineas apiece.
+
+If you went into that little humbly-furnished parlor about four o'clock
+on a summer's afternoon, you would find Lieutenant Heathcote seated in
+his easy chair (wheeled by careful hands to the precise angle of the
+window that he liked), his spectacles on, and the broad sheet of the
+newspaper spread before him. Occasionally he puts down the newspaper for
+awhile, and then his eyes rove restlessly about the room, till at length
+they light on the figure of his unconscious grand-daughter. Once there,
+they stay a good while, and when they turn to the newspaper again, there
+is a serene light in them, as though what they had seen had blessed
+them.
+
+Yet an ordinary gazer would have found little or nothing attractive in
+the appearance of Rose Heathcote, for she was but a homely,
+innocent-looking girl, such as we meet with every day of our lives. Her
+eyes were neither "darkly blue," nor "densely black," her tresses
+neither golden, nor redundant. She had, to be sure, a sufficient
+quantity of dark brown hair, which was very soft and pleasant to touch,
+her grandfather thought, when he placed his hand caressingly on her
+head, as he loved to do: and this hair was always prettily
+arranged--braided over her forehead in front, and twisted into a thick
+knot behind--a fashion which certainly showed to advantage the graceful
+form of her head, the solitary beauty, speaking critically, which the
+young girl possessed. However, Lieutenant Heathcote thought his little
+Rose the prettiest girl in the world. Eyes that look with love, lend
+beauty to what they gaze on. And no one who knew Rose as she was in her
+home, could fail to love her.
+
+She was always up with the lark, and busied in various employments till
+her grandfather came down to breakfast. Then she poured out the tea, cut
+the bread-and-butter, or made the toast, talking and laughing the while,
+in the spontaneous gayety of her heart. To eke out their little income,
+she had pupils who came to her every morning, and whom she taught all
+she knew, with a patient earnest zeal that amply compensated for her
+deficiency in the showy accomplishments of the day. So, after breakfast,
+the room was put in order, the flowers were watered, the birds were
+tended, grandpapa was made comfortable in his little study, and then the
+school books, the slates and copy-books were placed in readiness for the
+little girls: and then they came, and the weary business began, of
+English history, geography, arithmetic, and French verbs. The children
+were not very clever--sometimes, indeed, they were absolutely stupid,
+and obstinate, moreover; they must have tried her patience very often;
+but a harsh rebuke never issued from her lips: it was a species of
+selfishness in her not to chide them, for if she did so, though ever so
+mildly, the remembrance of it pained her gentle heart all day, and she
+was not quite happy until the little one was kissed and forgiven again.
+
+The children loved her very much and her pupils gradually increased in
+number. Dazzling visions danced before her eyes, visions of wealth
+resulting from her labors; yes, wealth! for, poor innocent, the four or
+five golden sovereigns she had already put by, _her first earnings_,
+multiplied themselves wonderfully in her sanguine dreams. She had
+magnificent schemes floating in her little brain of luxuries to be
+obtained with this money--luxuries for her grandfather; a new easy
+chair, cushioned sumptuously, and a new pair of spectacles, gold
+mounted, and placed in a case of her own embroidery. Thoughts of
+possible purchases for her own peculiar enjoyment sometimes intruded.
+There was a beautiful geranium she would like, and a new cage for her
+bird--a new bonnet, even for herself; for Rose was not free from a
+little spice of womanly vanity, which is excusable, nay, lovable,
+because it is so womanly, and she was quite susceptible of the pleasure
+most young girls feel in seeing themselves prettily dressed.
+
+That these dreams might be realized, Rose worked hard. She sat up late
+at night, arranging the exercises and lessons of her pupils, and rose
+early in the morning, in order that none of her household duties should
+be neglected. And in the course of time, this unceasing exertion began
+to injure her health, for she was not strong, although, hitherto, she
+had been but little prone to ailments. One morning she arose languid,
+feverish, and weak; she was compelled to give herself a holiday, and all
+day she lay on the sofa in the sitting-room, in a kind of dreamy yet
+restless languor she had never felt before. Her grandfather sat beside
+her, watching and tending her with all the care of a mother, reading
+aloud from her favorite books, ransacking his memory for anecdotes to
+amuse her, and smiling cheerfully when she raised her heavy eyes to his.
+But when she fell into a fitful doze, the old man's countenance changed;
+an indefinable look of agony and doubt came over his features; and
+involuntarily, as it seemed, he clasped his hands, while his lips moved
+as if in prayer. He was terrified by this strange illness; for the first
+time, the idea occurred to him that his darling might be taken away from
+him. The young sometimes left the world before the old, unnatural as it
+seemed; what if she should die? We always magnify peril when it comes
+near our beloved, and the old man gradually worked himself into a frenzy
+of anxiety respecting his child. The next day she was not better--a
+doctor was sent for, who prescribed rest and change of air if possible,
+assuring Lieutenant Heathcote that it was no serious disorder--she had
+overworked herself, that was all.
+
+It was the summer time, and some of Rose's pupils were about to proceed
+to the sea-side. Hearing of their dear Miss Heathcote's illness, they
+came to invite her to go with them, and the grandfather eagerly and
+joyfully accepted the offer for her, although she demurred a little. She
+did not like to leave him alone; she could not be happy, she said,
+knowing he would be dull and lonely without her; but her objections were
+overruled, and she went with her friends, the Wilsons.
+
+It was pleasant to see the old man when he received her daily epistles.
+How daintily he broke the envelope, so as not to injure the little seal,
+and how fondly he regarded the delicate handwriting. The letters brought
+happier tidings every day; she was better, she was much better, she was
+well, she was stronger and rosier than ever, and enjoying herself much.
+Those letters--long, beautiful letters they were--afforded the old man
+his chief pleasure now. His home was very desolate while she was away;
+the house looked changed, the birds sang less joyously, and the flowers
+were not so fragrant. Every morning he attended to her pets, himself,
+and then he wandered about the rooms, taking up her books, her papers,
+and her various little possessions, and examining the contents of her
+work-basket with childish curiosity. In the twilight he would lean back
+in his chair, and try to fancy she was in the room with him. Among the
+shadows, it was easy to imagine her figure, sitting as she used to sit,
+with drooped head and clasped hands, thinking. At these times, her
+letter received that morning, was taken from his bosom and kissed, and
+then the simple, loving old man would go to bed and dream of his
+grandchild.
+
+At length she came home. She rushed into her grandfather's arms with a
+strange eagerness: it was as if she sought there a refuge from peril; as
+if she fled to him for succor and comfort in some deep trouble. Poor
+Rose! she wept so long and so passionately; it could scarce have been
+all for joy.
+
+"Darling! you are not sorry to come home, are you?"
+
+"Oh no! so glad, so very, very glad!" and then she sobbed again, so
+convulsively, that the old man grew alarmed, and as he tried to soothe
+her into calmness, he gazed distrustfully in her face. Alas! there was a
+look of deep suffering on her pale features that he had never seen there
+before; there was an expression of hopeless woe in her eyes, which it
+wrung his loving heart to behold.
+
+"Rose!" he cried, in anguish, "what has happened? you are changed!"
+
+She kissed him tenderly, and strove to satisfy him by saying, that it
+was only the excitement of her return home that made her weep; she would
+be better the next morning, she said. But she was not better then. From
+the day of her return she faded away visibly. It was evident, and _he_
+soon saw it, that some grief had come to her, which her already weakened
+frame was unable to bear. He remembered, only too well, that her mother
+had died of consumption, and when he saw her gradually grow weaker day
+by day, the hectic on her cheek deepen, and her hands become thin till
+they were almost transparent, all hope died in his heart, and he could
+only pray that heaven would teach him resignation, or take him too, when
+_she_ went.
+
+For a little while, Rose attempted to resume her teaching, but she was
+soon compelled to give up. Only, till the last she flitted about the
+cottage, performing her household duties as she had ever done, and being
+as she had ever been, the presiding spirit of the home that was so dear
+to her grandfather. In the winter evenings, too, they sat together, she
+in her olden seat at his feet, looking into the fire, and listening to
+the howling wind without, neither speaking, except at rare intervals,
+and then in a low and dreamy tone that harmonized with the time. One
+evening they had sat thus for a long time, the old man clasping her
+hands, while her head rested on his knee. The fire burned low and gave
+scarcely any light; the night was stormy, and the wind blew a hurricane.
+At every blast he felt her tremble.
+
+"God help those at sea," he cried, with a sudden impulse.
+
+"Amen, Amen!" said Rose, solemnly, and though she started and shivered
+when he spoke, she kissed his hands afterward, almost as if in
+gratitude.
+
+There was a long pause; then she lifted her head, and said in a very low
+voice: "Remember, dear grandpapa, if at any time, by-and-by, you should
+feel inclined to be angry, vexed, with--any one--because of me; you are
+to forgive them, for my sake: for my sake, my own grandpapa.--Promise!"
+
+He did so, and she wound her arms lovingly round his neck, and kissed
+his brows, as of old she had done every night before retiring to rest.
+And then her head sunk on his shoulder, and she wept. In those tears how
+much was expressed that could find no other utterance! the lingering
+regret to die that the young must ever feel, even when life is most
+desolate; the tender gratitude for the deep love her grandfather had
+ever borne her; sorrow for him, and for herself! And he, silent and
+tearless as he sat, understood it all, and blessed her in his heart.
+
+The next day she died quietly, lying on her little bed, with her pale
+hands meekly folded on her breast; for her last breath exhaled in prayer
+for her grandfather--and one other. It happened that the Wilsons and
+some other acquaintances came in the evening to inquire how she was. For
+sole reply, Lieutenant Heathcote, whose tearless eyes and rigid lips
+half frightened them, led them where she lay. They retired, weeping,
+subdued, and sad, and as they were leaving the cottage, he heard Mrs.
+Wilson say to her friend, while she dried her eyes: "Poor girl, poor
+girl! She was very amiable, we all liked her exceedingly. I am afraid
+though, on one occasion, I was rather harsh to her, and, poor child, she
+seemed to take it a good deal to heart. But the fact was, that our
+Edward, I half fancied"--there followed a whispering, and then, in a
+louder tone--"but his father, thinking with me, sent him off to sea, and
+there was an end of the matter."
+
+An end of the matter! Alas! think of the bereaved old man, wandering
+about his desolate abode, _home_ to him no longer; with the sad, wistful
+look on his face of one who continually seeks something that is not
+there. The cottage, too, was very different now to what it had been; the
+_home_ that was so beautiful was gone with her. He set her little bird
+at liberty the day she died; he could not bear to hear it singing,
+joyously as when _she_ had been there to listen. But for this, the
+parlor always remained in the same state it was in on that last evening.
+The empty cage in the window, a bunch of withered flowers on a chair
+where they had fallen from her bosom, and the book she had been reading,
+open at the very page she had left off. Every morning the old man stole
+into the room to gaze around on these mute memorials of his lost
+darling. This was the only solace of his life now, and we may imagine
+what it cost him to leave it. But when they came and told him he must
+give up possession of his cottage, that it was to be razed to the ground
+shortly, he only remonstrated feebly, and finally submitted. He was old,
+and he hoped to die soon, but death does not always come to those
+longing for it. He may be living yet, for aught we know; but he has
+never been heard of in his old neighborhood for years, and we may hope
+that he is happier, that he has at length gone home to _her_.
+
+
+
+
+[From Dickens's Household Words.]
+
+HOW WE WENT WHALING OFF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
+
+
+At Algoa Bay, in the eastern provinces of the Cape Colony, there is, and
+has been for thirty years, a whaling establishment. By what instinct
+these monsters of the deep ascertain the settlement of man on the shores
+they frequent, it would be difficult to say. But that they do so, and
+that they then comparatively desert such coasts is undoubted. Where one
+whale is now seen off the southeastern coast of Africa, twenty were seen
+in former times, when the inhabitants of the country were few. It is the
+same in New Zealand, and every other whale-frequented coast.
+Nevertheless, the whaling establishment I have mentioned is still kept
+up in Algoa Bay--and with good reason. _One_ whale per annum will pay
+all the expenses and outgoings of its maintenance; every other whale
+taken in the course of a year is a clear profit.
+
+The value of a whale depends, of course, upon its size--the average is
+from three hundred pounds to six hundred pounds. The establishment in
+Algoa Bay consists of a stone-built house for the residence of the
+foreman, with the coppers and boiling-houses attached; a wooden
+boat-house, in which are kept three whale-boats, with all the lines and
+tackle belonging to them; and a set of javelins, harpoons, and
+implements for cutting up the whales' carcases. Then, there are a boat's
+crew of picked men, six in number, besides the coxswain and the
+harpooner. There are seldom above two or three whales taken in the
+course of a year; occasionally not one.
+
+The appearance of a whale in the bay is known immediately, and great is
+the excitement caused thereby in the little town of Port Elizabeth,
+close to which the whaling establishment is situated. It is like a
+sudden and unexpected gala, got up for the entertainment of the
+inhabitants, with nothing to pay.
+
+A treat of this sort is suddenly got up by the first appearance of a
+whale in those parts. Tackle-boats and men are got ready in a twinkling.
+We jump into the stern-sheets of the boat. Six weather-beaten, muscular
+tars are at work at the oars, and there, in the bows, stands the
+harpooner, preparing his tackle; a boy is by his side. Coils of line lie
+at their feet, with harpoons attached to them, and two or three spears
+or javelins.
+
+"Pull away, boys; there she blows again!" cries the coxswain, and at
+each stroke the strong men almost lift the little craft out of the
+water. The harpooner says nothing; he is a very silent fellow; but woe
+to the unlucky whale that comes within the whirl of his unerring
+harpoon!
+
+Meantime, our fat friend of the ocean is rolling himself about, as if
+such things as harpoons never existed; as if he were an infidel in
+javelins. We are approaching him, a dozen more strokes and we shall be
+within aim. Yet the harpooner seems cool and unmoved as ever; he holds
+the harpoon it is true, but he seems to grasp it no tighter, nor to make
+any preparation for a strike. He knows the whale better than we
+do--better than his crew. He has been a harpooner for thirty years, and
+once harpooned twenty-six whales in one year with his own hand. He was
+right not to hurry himself, you see, for the whale has at last caught
+sight of us, and has plunged below the surface.
+
+Now, however, the harpooner makes an imperceptible sign to the coxswain.
+The coxswain says, "Give way, boys," scarcely above his breath, and the
+boat skims faster than ever over the waves. The harpooner's hand
+clutches more tightly the harpoon, and he slowly raises his arm; his
+mouth is compressed, but his face is as calm as ever. A few yards ahead
+of us a wave seems to swell above the others--"Whiz"--at the very moment
+you catch sight of the whale's back again above the water, the harpoon
+is in it eighteen inches deep, hurled by the unerring arm of the silent
+harpooner.
+
+The red blood of the monster gushes forth, "incarnadining" (as Macbeth
+says) the waves. "Back water," shouts the harpooner, as the whale
+writhes with the pain, and flings his huge body about with force enough
+to submerge twenty of our little crafts at one blow. But he has plunged
+down again below the surface, and the pace at which he dives you may
+judge of, by the wonderful rapidity with which the line attached to the
+harpoon runs over the bows of the boat. Now, too, you see the use of the
+boy who is bailing water from the sea in a small bucket, and pouring it
+incessantly over the edge of the boat where the line runs, or in two
+minutes the friction would set fire to it.
+
+You begin to think the whale is never coming back; but the crew know
+better. See too, the line is running out more slowly every instant; it
+ceases altogether now, and hangs slackly over the boat's side. He is
+coming up exhausted to breathe again. There are a few moments of
+suspense, during which the harpooner is getting ready and poising one of
+the javelins. It is longer, lighter, and sharper than the harpoon, but
+it has no line attached to it. The harpoon is to catch--the javelin to
+kill. Slowly the whale rises again, but he is not within aim. "Pull
+again boys"--while the boy is hauling in the line as fast as he can. We
+are near enough now. Again a whiz--again another--and the harpooner has
+sent two javelins deep into the creature's body; while the blood flows
+fast. Suddenly, the whale dashes forward. No need of pulling at the oars
+now; we are giving him fresh line as fast as we can, yet he is taking us
+through the water at the rate of twenty miles an hour at least. One
+would fancy that the harpoons and the javelins have only irritated him,
+and that the blood he has lost has diminished nothing of his strength.
+Not so, however; the pace slackens now: we are scarcely moving through
+the water.
+
+"Pull again, boys," and we approach; while another deadly javelin
+pierces him. This time he seems to seek revenge. He dashes toward
+us--what can save us?
+
+"Back water," cries the harpooner, while the coxswain taking the hint at
+the same moment, with a sweep of his oar the little boat performs a kind
+of curvet backward, and the monster has shot past us unharming, but not
+unharmed; the harpooner, cool as ever, has hurled another javelin deep
+into him, and smiles half pityingly at this impotent rage, which, he
+knows full well, bodes a termination of the contest. The red blood is
+spouting forth from four wounds, "neither as deep as a well, nor as wide
+as a church-door," but _enough_ to kill--even a whale. He rolls over
+heavily and slowly; a few convulsive movements shake his mighty frame;
+then he floats motionless on the water--and the whale is dead!
+
+Ropes are now made fast round him, and he is slowly towed away to shore,
+opposite the whaling establishment. A crowd is collected to see his huge
+body hauled up on to the beach, and to speculate on his size and value.
+In two days all his blubber is cut away and melting in the coppers.
+Vultures are feeding on his flesh, and men are cleansing his bones. In
+two months, barrels of his oil are waiting for shipment to England. The
+fringe-work which lined his mouth, and which we call whalebone, is ready
+for the uses to which ladies apply it. His teeth, which are beautiful
+ivory, are being fashioned into ornaments by the turner; and his immense
+ribs are serving as landmarks on the different farms about the country,
+for which purpose they are admirably adapted. Meanwhile our friend the
+harpooner and his crew are reposing on their laurels, and looking out
+for fresh luck; while the proprietor of the establishment is five
+hundred pounds the richer from this "catching a whale."
+
+
+
+
+HYDROPHOBIA.
+
+
+M. Buisson has written to the Paris Academy of Sciences, to claim as
+his, a small treatise on hydrophobia, addressed to the academy so far
+back as 1835, and signed with a single initial. The case referred to in
+that treatise was his own. The particulars, and the mode of cure
+adopted, were as follows:--He had been called to visit a woman who, for
+three days, was said to be suffering under this disease. She had the
+usual symptoms--constriction of the throat, inability to swallow,
+abundant secretion of saliva, and foaming at the mouth. Her neighbors
+said that she had been bitten by a mad dog about forty days before. At
+her own urgent entreaties, she was bled, and died a few hours after, as
+was expected.
+
+M. Buisson, who had his hands covered with blood, incautiously cleansed
+them with a towel which had been used to wipe the mouth of the patient.
+He then had an ulceration upon one of his fingers, yet thought it
+sufficient to wipe off the saliva that adhered, with a little water. The
+ninth day after, being in his cabriolet, he was suddenly seized with a
+pain in his throat, and one, still greater, in his eyes. The saliva was
+continually pouring into his mouth; the impression of a current of air,
+the sight of brilliant bodies, gave him a painful sensation; his body
+appeared to him so light that he felt as though he could leap to a
+prodigious height. He experienced, he said, a wish to run and bite, not
+men, but animals and inanimate bodies. Finally, he drank with
+difficulty, and the sight of water was still more distressing to him
+than the pain in his throat. These symptoms recurred every five minutes,
+and it appeared to him as though the pain commenced in the affected
+finger, and extended thence to the shoulder.
+
+From the whole of the symptoms, he judged himself afflicted with
+hydrophobia, and resolved to terminate his life by stifling himself in a
+vapor bath. Having entered one for this purpose, he caused the heat to
+be raised to 107° 36" Fahr., when he was equally surprised and delighted
+to find himself free of all complaint. He left the bathing-room well,
+dined heartily, and drank more than usual. Since that time, he says, he
+has treated in the same manner more than eighty persons bitten, in four
+of whom the symptoms had declared themselves; and in no case has he
+failed, except in that of one child, seven years old, who died in the
+bath. The mode of treatment he recommends is, that the person bit should
+take a certain number of vapor baths (commonly called Russian), and
+should induce every night a violent perspiration, by wrapping himself in
+flannels, and covering himself with a feather-bed; the perspiration is
+favored by drinking freely of a warm decoction of sarsaparilla. He
+declares, so convinced is he of the efficacy of his mode of treatment,
+that he will suffer himself to be inoculated with the disease. As a
+proof of the utility of copious and continual perspiration, he relates
+the following anecdote: A relative of the musician Gretry was bitten by
+a mad dog, at the same time with many other persons, who all died of
+hydrophobia. For his part, feeling the first symptoms of the disease, he
+took to dancing, night and day, saying that he wished to die gayly. He
+recovered. M. Buisson also cites the old stories of dancing being a
+remedy for the bite of a tarantula; and draws attention to the fact,
+that the animals in whom this madness is most frequently found to
+develop itself spontaneously, are dogs, wolves, and foxes, which never
+perspire.
+
+
+
+
+THE DOOM OF THE SLAVER.
+
+AN ENGLISH STORY OF THE AFRICAN BLOCKADE.
+
+
+On a glorious day, with a bright sun and a light breeze, Her Majesty's
+brig Semiramis stood along under easy sail, on a N.W. course up the
+Channel of Mozambique. Save the man at the wheel and the "look-outs" in
+the tops, every one seemed taking it easy. And indeed there was no
+inducement to exertion; for the sky was cloudless, and the temperature
+of that balmy warmth that makes mere existence a luxury. The men,
+therefore, continued their "yarns" as they lounged in little groups
+about the deck; the middies invented new mischief, or teased the cook;
+the surgeon divided his time between watching the flying-fish and
+reading a new work on anatomy (though he never turned a fresh page);
+while the lieutenant of the watch built "châteux-en-Espagne," or
+occasionally examined, with his telescope, the blue hills of Madagascar
+in the distance.
+
+"Sail ho!" shouted the look-out in the foretop.
+
+"Where away?" cried the lieutenant, springing to his feet, while at the
+same moment every man seemed to have lost his listlessness, and to be
+eager for action of any kind.
+
+"Over the starboard quarter, making sou' west."
+
+The captain hastened on deck, while the second lieutenant ran aloft to
+have a look at the strange craft.
+
+"What do you make her out, Mr. Saunders?" asked the captain.
+
+"A fore-and-aft schooner, hull down."
+
+"'Bout ship," cried the captain; and in an instant every man was at his
+post.
+
+"Helm's a lee--raise tacks and sheets"--"mainsail haul," &c.; and in
+five minutes the Semiramis was standing in pursuit of the stranger,
+while the men were employed in "cracking on" all sail to aid in the
+chase.
+
+What is it that makes a chase of any kind so exciting? The indescribable
+eagerness which impels human nature to hunt any thing huntable is not
+exaggerated in "Vathek," in which the population of a whole city is
+described as following in the chase of a black genie, who rolled himself
+up into a ball and trundled away before them, attracting even the halt
+and the blind to the pursuit. But who shall describe the excitement of a
+chase at sea? How eagerly is every eye strained toward the retreating
+sails! how anxiously is the result of each successive heaving of the log
+listened for! how many are the conjectures as to what the stranger ahead
+may prove to be! and how ardent are the hopes that she may turn out a
+prize worth taking! For be it remembered that, unlike the chase of a fox
+on land, where no one cares for the object pursued, cupidity is enlisted
+to add to the excitement of a chase at sea. Visions of prize-money float
+before the eyes of every one of the pursuers, from the captain to the
+cabin-boy.
+
+The Semiramis, being on the tack she had now taken, considerably to the
+windward of the stranger, there was every chance of her soon overtaking
+her, provided the latter held the course she was now steering. But who
+could hope that she would do that! Indeed, all on board the brig
+expected every moment to hear that she was lying off and running away.
+If she did not do so, it would be almost a proof that she was engaged in
+lawful commerce, and not what they had expected, and, in truth, hoped.
+
+An hour had passed; and the Semiramis had visibly gained on the
+schooner; so much so, that the hull of the latter, which was long, low,
+black, and rakish-looking, could now be seen from the brig's tops.
+
+"Surely they must see us," said the captain.
+
+"She's just the build of the Don Pedro we took off this coast," said the
+second lieutenant, from the maintop.
+
+"I hope she will turn out a better prize," replied the captain.
+
+The truth is, they had captured that same Don Pedro, condemned her, and
+broken her up. The captain and owners of her had appealed; proved to the
+satisfaction of the Admiralty that she was _not_ engaged in the slave
+trade; and, consequently, every man on board the Semiramis who had
+assisted at her capture, was obliged to cash up his quota of "damages"
+instead of pocketing prize-money. The Don Pedro, therefore, was a sore
+subject on board the Semiramis.
+
+Another hour elapsed: the hull of the schooner began to be visible from
+the deck of the cruiser. She was a wicked-looking craft; and Jack
+slapped his pockets in anticipation of the cash she would bring into
+them.
+
+"Well, it's odd she don't alter course, anyhow," said the boatswain on
+the forecastle; "may be she wants to throw us off the scent, by
+pretending to be all right and proper, and not to have a notion that we
+can be coming after her."
+
+"Show the colors," cried the captain on the quarter-deck; "let's see
+what flag she sports."
+
+The British ensign was soon floating from the Semiramis; but the
+schooner at first showed no colors in reply.
+
+Presently the first lieutenant, who was watching her through the glass,
+cried out, "Brazilian by Jove!"
+
+There was a short pause. Every sort of spy-glass in the ship was in
+requisition. Every eye was strained to its utmost visual tension. The
+captain broke the silence with "Holloa! She's easing off; going to run
+for it at last."
+
+"She's a _leetle_ too late," said the lieutenant. "Before the wind these
+fore-and-aft schooners are tubs, though _on_ the wind they're clippers."
+
+However, it was clear that the schooner had at last resolved to run for
+her life. By going off with the wind she got a good start of the brig;
+and, although it was her worst point of sailing, still the breeze was so
+light that, while it suited her, it was insufficient to make the heavier
+brig sail well.
+
+For three hours the chase continued, and neither vessel seemed to gain
+on the other; but the breeze was now freshening, and the Semiramis at
+length began to diminish the distance between herself and the Brazilian.
+Right ahead, in the course they were pursuing, lay a point of land
+projecting far into the sea, and the chart showed a tremendous reef of
+rocks extending some three miles beyond it. It was certain that neither
+vessels could clear the reef, if they held the course they were then
+steering.
+
+"Keep her a little more to windward," cried the captain. "We shall have
+her; she will be obliged to haul up in about an hour's time, and then
+she can't escape, as we shall be well to windward."
+
+The hour went by; and still the schooner showed no signs of altering her
+course. The captain of the Semiramis again examined his charts; but the
+reef was clearly laid down, and it seemed utterly impossible that the
+schooner could weather it by the course she was then steering. Yet,
+either from ignorance of the danger, or from the determination to brave
+it, she tried; knowing that if she escaped it and cleared the point, she
+would have gained an immense advantage over her pursuers.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the anxiety with which all on board
+the Semiramis now watched the little Brazilian. She was literally
+rushing into the jaws of destruction; and, as she rose over each
+successive wave, it seemed as if she must be dashed on the treacherous
+reef at the next dip. Still she stood bravely on; and, though doubtless
+the lips of those on board her might be quivering at that moment in the
+agony of suspense, the little craft looked so beautiful, and sailed so
+gayly, her white sails and slender spars flashing in the sunlight that
+even her pursuers mentally prayed for her safety, quite irrespective of
+the prize-money they would lose by her destruction on the rocks. Jack
+does not like to see a pretty craft run ashore, at any price.
+
+They began almost to think the schooner "bore a charmed life;" for she
+seemed to be floating over the very reef itself, and the white foam of
+the breakers could be seen all round her.
+
+"Blessed, if I don't think she's the Flying Dutchman," said one blue
+jacket to another.
+
+"Gammon, Bill--ain't we round the Cape? and don't you know that's just
+where the Flying Dutchman never could get to?" replied his messmate.
+
+The little schooner bounded onward merrily--suddenly she staggers, and
+every spar shivers.
+
+"She has struck!" cried twenty voices at once.
+
+Now she rises with a coming wave, and now she settles down again with a
+violence that brings her topmasts on the deck.
+
+"Out with the boats," is the order on board the Semiramis, and the men
+fly to execute it.
+
+Another wave lifts the schooner--another fearful crash--she rolls
+over--her decks are rent asunder--her crew are struggling in the
+water--and with them (every man shudders at the sight) hundreds of
+negroes, manacled to each other and fettered to the lower deck, are shot
+out into the foam.
+
+Bravely pulled the seamen in the boats of the Semiramis; but two strong
+swimmers, who had fought their way through the boiling surf were all
+they saved. So slight was the build of the little schooner that she had
+gone to pieces instantly on striking; and, within sight of the
+Semiramis, within hearing of the death-shrieks that rent the air from
+_six hundred and thirty human beings_, who, shackled together with heavy
+irons, were dashed among the waters, and perished a slow and helpless
+death, two only of their jailers survived to tell of the number that had
+sunk!
+
+Surely this sad tale may at least be added to the catalogue of ills
+produced by England's "good intentions" in striving to suppress the
+slave trade.
+
+
+
+
+INDUSTRY OF THE INSANE.
+
+
+The change that has taken place of late years in the treatment of insane
+patients, presents one of the finest features in the civilization of the
+age; but the boon of wholesome labor is, perhaps, the greatest benefit
+that has yet been conferred upon this class of sufferers. The fact is
+strikingly illustrated in the annual report for the last year of the
+Royal Edinburgh Asylum. The number of patients treated was 738, and at
+the close of the year there remained as inmates 476. Of this latter
+number, upward of 380 were employed daily, and sometimes as many as 100
+working in the open air in the extensive grounds of the asylum. "Among
+these," says Dr. Skae, "may be daily seen many of the most violent and
+destructive of the inmates busily engaged in wheeling earth, manure, or
+stones, who for years have done little else than destroy their clothing,
+or spend their days and nights in restless agitation, or incoherent
+raving. The strong necessity which appears to exist, in many cases, for
+continual movement, or incessant noise, seems to find vent as naturally
+in active manual labor, if it can with any propriety be substituted and
+regulated." And a curious illustration of this is given in the case of
+"one of the most violent, restless, and unmanageable inmates of the
+asylum during the past year," whose calling was that of a miner. He was
+"tall and muscular, and occupied himself, if permitted to mix with
+others, in pursuing his fellow-patients, and fighting with them; if left
+alone in the airing courts, in running round and knocking his elbows
+violently on the stone walls; and if secluded, in continual
+vociferations and incessant knocking on the wall. I directed him to be
+sent to the grounds, and employed with the wheelbarrow--a special
+attendant being intrusted with him on his _début_. Hard work seemed to
+be all he required. He spent his superfluous energies in wheeling
+stones; he soon proved himself to be one of the most useful and
+able-bodied of the awkward squad, and ere long was restored to his
+natural condition--that of a weak-minded but industrious coal-miner."
+
+Oakum-picking proves a useful occupation not only for imbeciles capable
+of no higher industry, but for malingerers and idlers, who are soon
+anxious to escape from it into the shoemaker's, tailor's, blacksmith's,
+or carpenter's shops. "In the same manner the females have been
+gradually broken into habits of industry to a degree hitherto
+unprecedented. Those who have done nothing for many years but mutter to
+themselves, or crouch in corners, now sew or knit from morning till
+night. Knitting, sewing, straw-bonnet making, and other occupations, are
+carried on throughout the house to such an extent that, I fear, in a
+very short time, unless some outlet is obtained for exportations, we
+shall be at a loss to know what to do." In addition to the usual
+handicraft employments, which are all practiced in the establishment, it
+is interesting to observe that some patients occupy themselves in
+engraving, drawing, and land-surveying. A considerable portion of one of
+the houses has been elegantly painted, and in part refurnished, by the
+patients.--_Chambers._
+
+
+
+
+MONTHLY RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS.
+
+
+Congress adjourned on the 30th of September, in accordance with the
+resolution noticed in the last number of the Magazine. Very little
+business of general interest was transacted in addition to that of which
+a record has already been made. The appropriation bills were passed, and
+in one of them was inserted a prohibition of flogging in the navy and
+aboard merchant vessels of the United States, which received the
+sanction of both houses and became a law. A provision was also inserted,
+granting land bounties to soldiers in the war of 1812, and in any of the
+previous wars of the United States. The passage of the bill involving,
+directly or indirectly, the slavery issue, of which we have already
+given a full account, restored a greater degree of harmony and of
+calmness to both branches of Congress than had hitherto prevailed, and
+the same influence has had an important effect, though to a less extent,
+upon the country at large.
+
+The political incidents of the month have not been without interest. A
+State Convention, representing the Whigs of New York, assembled at
+Syracuse, on the 27th of September, for the nomination of State
+officers. Hon. Francis Granger was chosen President, and a committee was
+appointed to report resolutions expressing the sentiments of the
+Convention,--Hon. William Duer, member of Congress from the Oswego
+district, being Chairman. The resolutions were at once reported. They
+expressed confidence in the national administration, approved the
+measures recently adopted by Congress connected with slavery, and
+declared the respect of the Convention for the motives which had
+animated the Whig Senator from New York, and the majority of the New
+York Congressional delegation in the course they had taken upon them. By
+a vote of the majority, the Convention proceeded to the nomination of
+State officers--the minority refusing to participate in the current
+business until the resolutions should have been acted on. Hon.
+Washington Hunt was nominated for Governor, George J. Cornell, of New
+York City, for Lieutenant Governor, Ebenezer Blakely, for Canal
+Commissioner, Abner Baker, for State Prison Inspector, and Wessel S.
+Smith, for Clerk of the Court of Appeals. After the nominations had been
+made, the resolutions were taken up. A substitute for part of them was
+offered by Hon. George W. Cornwell of Cayuga County, expressing
+confidence in the ability, patriotism, and statesmanship of President
+Fillmore, and approving of the course pursued by Mr. Seward in the
+Senate of the United States. The latter resolution passed by a vote of
+76 to 40; and the minority immediately withdrew from the Convention, the
+President, Mr. Granger, leaving the chair, and organized anew elsewhere.
+One of the Vice Presidents took the chair thus vacated, and the
+Convention, after completing its business, and appointing a State Whig
+Central Committee, adjourned. The seceders appointed a committee to
+issue an address, and adjourned. The Address soon after appeared, and
+after reciting the history of the Syracuse Convention, aiming to show
+that its approval of the course of Senator Seward deprived its doings of
+all binding force, concluded by calling a convention of delegates,
+representing those Whigs who disapproved of the action at Syracuse, to
+be held at Utica, on the 17th of October. Delegates were accordingly
+elected in nearly all the counties of the state, and the Convention met
+on the day appointed. Hon. Francis Granger was elected President.
+Resolutions, setting forth the position and principles of those
+represented, were passed, and the candidates nominated at Syracuse were
+adopted. The Convention appointed another State Central Committee, and
+then adjourned. It will be observed that the only point in which the two
+conventions came into collision, so far as future political movements
+are concerned, is in the appointment of those two committees. Each will,
+undoubtedly, endeavor to exercise the ordinary functions of such
+committees, in calling state conventions, &c., and thus will arise a
+direct conflict of claims which may lead to a permanent division of the
+party.----Hon. WASHINGTON HUNT has written a letter in reply to
+inquiries from Mr. GRANGER, in which he declines to express any opinion
+as to the differences which arose at Syracuse. So far as that difference
+relates to the merits of individuals, he considers it unworthy the
+attention of a great party, each individual of which must be left
+entirely at liberty to entertain his own opinion and preferences. He
+considers the Whigs of the North pledged to oppose the extension of
+slavery into free territory, and refers to their previous declarations
+upon the subject, to show that the South must not ask or expect them to
+abandon that position. He says that the terms on which the Texas
+boundary dispute was settled, were not altogether satisfactory to him,
+but he nevertheless cheerfully acquiesces in them since they have become
+the law of the land. He expresses dissatisfaction with the provisions of
+the Fugitive Slave bill, thinking it far more likely to increase
+agitation than allay it, and says that it will require essential
+modifications. He very earnestly urges union and harmony in the councils
+of the Whig party.----The Anti-Renters held a convention at Albany, and
+made up a ticket for state offices, selected from the nominations of
+the two political parties. Hon. Washington Hunt was adopted as
+their candidate for Governor, and Ebenezer Blakely for Canal
+Commissioner--both being the Whig nominees for the same offices: the
+others were taken from the Democratic ticket.----Considerable excitement
+prevails in some of the Southern States in consequence of the admission
+of California at the late session of Congress. Governor Quitman of
+Mississippi has called an extra session of the Legislature, to commence
+on the 23d of November, to consider what measures of resistance and
+redress are proper. In South Carolina a similar sentiment prevails,
+though the Governor has decided, for prudential reasons, not to convene
+the Legislature in extra session. In Georgia a state convention,
+provided for in certain contingencies at the late session of the
+Legislature, is soon to meet, and a very active popular canvass is going
+on for the election of delegates--the character of the measures to be
+adopted forming the dividing line. Some are for open resistance and
+practical secession from the Union, while others oppose such a course as
+unwarranted by any thing experienced thus far, and as certain to entail
+ruin upon the Southern States. Hon. C.J. JENKINS, who declined a seat in
+the Cabinet, tendered to him by President FILLMORE, has taken very high
+ground against the disunionists, saying that no action hostile to the
+South has been had by Congress, but that all her demands have been
+conceded. In every Southern State a party exists warmly in favor of
+preserving the Union, and in most of them it will probably be
+successful.----The Legislature of Vermont commenced its annual session
+on the 13th ult. Hon. SOLOMON FOOTE has been elected U.S. Senator to
+succeed Hon. S.S. PHELPS whose term expires in March next.----GEORGE N.
+BRIGGS has been nominated by the Whigs for re-election as Governor of
+Massachusetts.----The _Arctic_, the third of the American line of mail
+steamers, between New York and Liverpool, is completed, and will very
+soon take her place; the _Baltic_ will soon be ready.----The assessed
+value of real and personal property in the City of New York, according
+to a late report of the Board of Supervisors, is set at 286 millions;
+the tax on which is $339,697. This property is all taxed to about 6,000
+persons. The increase for the year is thirty millions, nearly 10 per
+cent. The value of the real and personal estate of the State of New
+York, according to the last report of the Comptroller, was $536,161,901.
+The State tax of 1849 amounted to $278,843.10; of which $130,000, or
+nearly one half, was paid by the city.----Some years since a colony of
+Swedes settled in the northwestern part of Illinois, in Henry county,
+near the Mississippi. They are represented as an industrious and
+thriving people, supporting themselves chiefly by the manufacture of
+table-cloths, napkins, sheets, and other linens. Last year they suffered
+much from the cholera; but their numbers will soon be increased by a
+new colony of about 300 members who are now on their way from Sweden,
+and are expected soon to arrive with a considerable amount of capital,
+the fruits of the sale of their own property, and the property of their
+brethren already here.----A good deal of excitement prevails in some of
+the Northern States in regard to the execution of the new law for the
+recovery of fugitive slaves. The first instance in which it was carried
+into effect occurred in New York city, where a fugitive named James
+Hamlet, who had lived in Williamsburgh for some two years with his
+family, was apprehended, taken to Baltimore, and restored to his owner.
+The process was so summary that no resistance was offered or excitement
+created: but after the whole was over a great deal of feeling was
+elicited, and money enough was speedily raised by subscription to
+purchase the slave, who was returned to his family amidst great public
+demonstrations of rejoicing among the colored population. In Detroit an
+attempt to arrest a fugitive excited a popular resistance to suppress
+which it was found necessary to call out troops of the United States;
+the negro was seized, but purchased by voluntary subscriptions. Large
+public meetings have been held in various cities and towns, to protest
+against the law, and to devise measures for defeating its operation. One
+of the largest was held at Boston on the 4th ult., at which Hon. Josiah
+Quincy presided. The tone of the address and resolutions was less
+inflammatory than in many other places, as obedience to the law while it
+stands upon the statute book was enjoined; but its spirit was warmly
+reprobated, and the necessity of agitating for its immediate repeal was
+strongly urged. Fugitives from service at the South are very numerous in
+portions of the Northern States. Many of them, since the passage of the
+law, have taken refuge in Canada, while others depend on the sympathy of
+the community in which they live for immunity from the operation of the
+law. The law undoubtedly requires modification in some of its details,
+but the main object it is designed to secure is so clearly within the
+provisions of the Federal Constitution that its enforcement is
+universally felt to be a public duty.----JENNY LIND, whose arrival and
+public reception in New York were mentioned in our last number, has been
+giving concerts in that city, Boston, Providence, and Philadelphia. In
+each place there has been a strong competition in the purchase of the
+first ticket for the first concert. In New York it was sold for $250; in
+Boston for $625; in Providence $650; and in Philadelphia $625. The
+evident object of the purchaser in each case was notoriety. Her concerts
+have been densely crowded, and the public excitement in regard to her
+continues unabated.----Intelligence has been received from Rome, that
+the Pope, at the request of the late council assembled in Baltimore, has
+erected the See of New York into an Arch-episcopal See, with the Sees of
+Boston, Hartford, Albany, and Buffalo, as Suffragan Sees. The Right
+Rev. Bishop HUGHES is, of course, elevated to the dignity of Archbishop.
+The brief of the Pope is signed by Cardinal Lambruschini, and is dated
+on the 19th of July last.----Public sentiment in Texas seems to be
+decidedly in favor of accepting the terms offered in the Boundary Bill.
+No official action has yet been had upon the subject, but it is believed
+that the Legislature will either accept the proposition at once or
+submit it to a popular vote. Mr. KAUFMAN, one of the Members of Congress
+from that State, has addressed a circular to his constituents, refuting
+many of the objections that have been urged against the bill. The area
+of Texas, with the boundary now established, is 237,321 miles, which is
+more than five times that of New-York.----An interesting official
+correspondence between our Government and that of Central America, has
+recently been published, mainly relating to the subject of canals and
+railroads across the Isthmus. Mr. CLAYTON'S plan appears to have been to
+encourage, by every constitutional means, every railroad company, as
+well as every canal company, that sought to shorten the transit between
+the American States on both oceans. For this purpose he endeavored to
+extend the protection of this Government to the railroads at Panama and
+Tehuantepec. It was not his purpose to exclude other nations from the
+right of passage, but to admit them all on the same terms; that is,
+provided they would all agree equally to protect the routes--a principle
+adopted originally by President JACKSON, in pursuance of a resolution of
+the Senate, of which Mr. CLAYTON was the author, while a member of that
+body, on the 3d of March, 1835. The principles of this resolution were
+fully sustained by General JACKSON, who sent Mr. BIDDLE to Central
+America and New Grenada for the purpose, and were afterward fully
+adopted by President POLK, as appears by his message transmitting to the
+Senate the treaty for the Panama railroad. General TAYLOR followed in
+the same train with his predecessors, as appears by his message of
+December last, thus fully sustaining the views of the Senate resolution
+of the 3d of March, 1835, the principles of which may now be considered
+as illustrating the policy of the American Government on this
+subject.----In accordance with the provisions of the treaty recently
+concluded with the United States, the British Government has withdrawn
+all its demands for port and other dues from the harbor of San Juan de
+Nicaragua, and the navigation of that noble river and the lakes
+connected with it are fully open to American enterprise.----A shock of
+an earthquake was felt at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 1st of October. The
+shock lasted about two seconds, and was so violent as to produce a
+jarring and rattling of windows and furniture, and was accompanied by a
+rumbling sound, like distant thunder, which lasted three or four
+seconds. On the same night a very brilliant meteor was observed in the
+Eastern States, and a very remarkable aurora at sea.----The General
+Convention of the Episcopal Church has been in session at Cincinnati.
+The House of Bishops, to which the subject had been referred by the
+Diocese of New York, has decided against the restoration of Bishop
+Onderdonk, by a vote of two to one, and the General Convention has
+provided for the election of an Assistant Bishop in such
+cases.----Conventions in Virginia and Indiana are in session for the
+revision of the Constitutions of those States.----The U.S. Consul at
+Valparaiso has written a letter concerning the establishment of a line
+of monthly steamers between that port and Panama. Since the discovery of
+the gold mines in California, he says, the travel and trade upon that
+coast has increased fivefold. For the last ten years there has been in
+successful operation a line of English steamers plying between Panama,
+in New Grenada, and Valparaiso, in Chili, with a grant from the British
+Government of _one hundred thousand dollars per annum_, for the purpose
+of carrying the English mail; which, together with the immense amount of
+travel, in the last four years, renders it a most lucrative monopoly.
+The charter, originally granted to the company for ten years, has lately
+expired, and the liberal Republics of Chili, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia
+have peremptorily refused to renew the monopoly, and have generously
+opened their ports to the competition of American steamers. Between
+Valparaiso and Panama there are twenty-one different ports at which
+these steamers stop, in performing their monthly trips to and fro, for
+freight and passengers, leaving Panama on the 27th and Valparaiso on the
+30th of each month. The voyage is punctually performed in twenty-four
+days. The feasibility of establishing an American line of steamers upon
+that coast is strongly urged. The wealth of the silver mines of Copiapo
+is so great that every English steamer at Panama transmits hundreds of
+thousands of dollars' worth to England in solid bars.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From CALIFORNIA we have intelligence to the 15th of September. The
+disturbances at Sacramento City, growing out of resistance to the land
+claims, have entirely subsided, the squatters having been dispersed.
+Three or four persons were killed upon each side in the riots of which
+we have already given an account. A gentleman had arrived in California
+deputed by Mr. LETCHER, U.S. Minister in Mexico, to attend to the
+settlement of land titles. He had expressed the belief that most of the
+grants made by the Governors before the acquisition of California by the
+United States will be confirmed by our Government, on the evidence Mr.
+Letcher is prepared to furnish from the official records in the city of
+Mexico, as to the invariable practice of the Mexican Government in this
+particular. His assurances upon the subject had given general
+satisfaction.----Early in September there was a complete panic in the
+money market at San Francisco, and several of the most prominent houses
+had failed. Confidence, however, had been fully restored at the date of
+our latest advices. The losses by the three great fires which had
+visited the city were supposed to have occasioned the monetary
+difficulties.----Fears were entertained that the overland emigrants
+would suffer greatly during the present season. It was believed that ten
+thousand were on the way who had not crossed the Great Desert, one half
+of whom would be destitute of subsistence and teams on reaching Carson
+River. They had been deceived into taking a longer and more difficult
+route, and had lost most of their animals, and not unfrequently men,
+women, and children had sunk under the hardships of the road, and
+perished of hunger or thirst.----Indian difficulties still continued in
+different parts of California, the troops and citizens were making some
+progress in breaking up the bands which caused them the most
+difficulty.----The accounts from the mines continue to be highly
+encouraging. It is unnecessary to give in detail the reports from the
+various localities; they were all yielding abundant returns. It was
+believed that much larger quantities of gold will be taken from the
+mines this season than ever before.----From the 1st of August to Sept.
+13th, there arrived at San Francisco by sea 5940 persons, and 4672 had
+left.----The tax upon foreign miners does not succeed as a revenue
+measure.----The expedition which sailed in July last to the Klamath and
+Umpqua rivers, has returned to San Francisco. It has been ascertained
+that the Klamath and Trinity unite, and form the river which discharges
+its waters into the sea, in latitude 41° 34´ north, and that there is no
+river answering to the description of the Klamath, in 42° 26´, as laid
+down in the charts of Frémont and Wilkes. From this river, the
+expedition visited the Umpqua, which they found to have an opening into
+the sea, of nearly one mile in width, with some three or four fathoms of
+water on the bar, and navigable about thirty miles up, when it opens
+into a rich agricultural district.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From OREGON our advices are to Sept. 2. There is no news of general
+interest. The country seems to be steadily prosperous. New towns are
+springing up at every accessible point, and a commercial interest being
+awakened that is highly commendable. The frequency of communication by
+steam between California and Oregon strongly identifies their interests.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From ENGLAND there is no intelligence of much interest. The reception of
+Baron Haynau by the brewers of London has engaged the attention, and
+excited the discussion of all the organs of opinion in Europe. Most of
+the English journals condemn in the most earnest language the conduct of
+the mob, as disgraceful to the country, while only a few of them express
+any special sympathy with the victim of it. The London _Times_ is more
+zealous in his defense than any other paper. It not only denounces the
+treatment he received at the hands of the English populace, but
+endeavors to vindicate him from the crimes laid to his charge, and
+assails the Hungarian officers and soldiers in turn with great
+bitterness. In its anxiety to apologize for Haynau, it asserts that
+English officers, and among them the Duke of Wellington and General Sir
+Lacy Evans, committed acts during their campaigns quite as severe as
+those with which he is charged. This line of defense, however, avails
+but little with the English people. The public sentiment is unanimous in
+branding Haynau as one of the most ruthless monsters of modern times,
+and the verdict is abundantly sustained by the incidents and deeds of
+his late campaigns. After his expulsion from England he returned to
+Austria, being received with execrations and indignities at several
+cities on his route.----Further advices have been received from the
+Arctic Expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin, but they contain
+no satisfactory intelligence. A report, derived from an Esquimaux Indian
+whom Sir John Ross met near the northern extremity of Baffin's Bay,
+states that in the winter of 1846 two ships were broken by the ice a
+good way off from that place, and destroyed by the natives, and that the
+officers and crews, being without ammunition, were killed by the
+Indians. The story is very loosely stated, and is generally discredited
+in England. The vessel, Prince Albert, attached to the Expedition, has
+arrived at Aberdeen, and announced the discovery, at Cape Reilley and
+Beechy Island, at the entrance of the Wellington Channel, of traces of
+five places where tents had been fixed, of great quantities of beef,
+pork, and birds' bones, and of a piece of rope with the Woolwich mark
+upon it. These were considered, with slight grounds, however, undoubted
+traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition. The exploring vessels were
+pushing boldly up Wellington Channel.----The preparations for the great
+Industrial Exhibition of 1851, are going on rapidly and satisfactorily.
+In nearly every country of Europe, extensive arrangements are in
+progress for taking part in it, while in London the erection of the
+necessary buildings is steadily going forward.----A curious and
+interesting correspondence with respect to the cultivation of cotton in
+Liberia has taken place between President Roberts, of Liberia, Lord
+Palmerston, the Board of Trade, and the Chamber of Commerce at
+Manchester, tending to show that cotton may be made a most important
+article of cultivation in the African republic.----Lord Clarendon has
+been making the tour of Ireland, and has been received in a very
+friendly manner by the people of every part of the island. He took every
+opportunity of encouraging the people to rely upon their own industry
+and character for prosperity, and pledged the cordial co-operation of
+the country in all measures that seemed likely to afford them
+substantial aid or relief.----The statutes constituting the Queen's
+University in Ireland have received the sanction of the Queen, and gone
+into effect.----A Captain Mogg has been tried and fined for endangering
+lives by setting the wheels of his steamboat in operation while a number
+of skiffs and other light boats were in his immediate vicinity.----The
+ship Indian, a fine East Indiaman, was wrecked on the 4th of April, near
+the Mauritius. She struck upon a reef and almost immediately went to
+pieces. The utmost consternation prevailed among the officers and crew.
+The captain seized and lowered the boat, and with eight seamen left the
+ship: they were never heard of again. Those who remained succeeded in
+constructing a rude raft, on which they lived fourteen days, suffering
+greatly from hunger and thirst, and were finally rescued by a passing
+ship.----Two steamers, the Superb and Polka, were lost, the former on
+the 16th, and the latter on the 24th, between the island of Jersey and
+St. Malo. No lives were lost by the Superb, but ten persons perished in
+the wreck of the Polka.----The Queen has been visiting Scotland.----Some
+of the Irish papers have been telling astounding stories of apparitions
+of the _Great Sea Serpent_. A Mr. T. Buckley, writing from Kinsale on
+the 11th instant, informs the Cork Reporter that he was induced by some
+friends to go to sea, in the hope of falling in with the interesting
+stranger, and that he was not long kept in suspense, for "a little to
+the west of the Old Head the monster appeared." Its size, he truly
+avers, is beyond all description, and the head, he adds, very like a
+(bottle-nose) whale. One of the party fired the usual number of shots,
+but, of course, without effect.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of LITERARY INTELLIGENCE there is but little in any quarter. A good deal
+of interest has been excited by a discreditable attack made by the Whig
+Review upon the distinguished author Mr. G.P.R. JAMES. The Review
+discovered in an old number of the Dublin University Magazine some
+verses written by Mr. JAMES for a friend who without his knowledge sent
+them for publication. They were upon the clamor that was then afloat
+about war between England and the United States: Mr. James, alluding to
+the threats from America against England, had said that "bankrupt states
+were blustering high;" and had also spoken of Slavery in the United
+States as a "living lie," which British hands in the event of a war,
+would wipe out and let their bondmen free. The Review denounces Mr.
+James, in very coarse and abusive terms for the poem, and seeks to
+excite against him the hostility of the American people. The matter was
+commented upon in several of the journals, and Mr. James wrote a manly
+letter to his legal adviser Mr. M.B. FIELD, which is published in the
+_Courier and Enquirer_, in which he avows himself the author of the
+verses in question, explains the circumstances under which they were
+written, and urges the injustice of making them the ground of censure or
+complaint. His letter has been received with favor by the press
+generally, which condemns the unjust and unwarrantable assault of the
+Review upon the character of this distinguished author. It is stated
+that Mr. James intends to become an American citizen, and that he has
+already taken the preliminary legal steps.----The principal publishers
+are engaged in preparing gift-books for the coming holidays. The
+APPLETONS have issued a very elegant and attractive work, entitled "Our
+Saviour with Prophets and Apostles," containing eighteen highly finished
+steel engravings, with descriptions by leading American divines. It is
+edited by Rev. Dr. WAINWRIGHT and forms one of the most splendid volumes
+ever issued in this country. They have also issued a very interesting
+volume of Tales by Miss MARIA J. McINTOSH, entitled "Evenings at
+Donaldson Manor," which will be popular beyond the circle for which it
+is immediately designed.----Other works have been issued of which
+notices will more appropriately be found in another department of this
+Magazine.----The English market for the month is entirely destitute of
+literary novelties.----A series of interesting experiments has been
+undertaken by order of Government, for the purpose of testing the value
+of iron as a material for the construction of war-steamers. When the
+vessels are comparatively slight, it is found that a shot going through
+the side exposed, makes a clean hole of its own size, which might be
+readily stopped; but on the opposite side of the vessel the effect is
+terrific, tearing off large sheets; and even when the shot goes through,
+the rough edges being on the outside, it is almost impossible to stop
+the hole. If the vessels are more substantially constructed the
+principal injury takes place on the side exposed; and this is so great
+that two or three shot, or even a single one, striking below water line,
+would endanger the ship. As the result of the whole series of
+experiments, the opinion is expressed that iron, whether used alone or
+in combination with wood, can not be beneficially used for the
+construction of vessels of war.----The wires of the submarine telegraph
+having been found too weak to withstand the force of the waves, it has
+been determined to incase the wires in a ten-inch cable, composed of
+what is called "whipped plait," with wire rope, all of it chemically
+prepared so as to protect it from rot, and bituminized. A wire thus
+prepared is calculated to last for twenty years.----In the allotment of
+space in the Industrial Exhibition, 85,000 square feet have been
+assigned to the United States; 60,000 to India; 47,050 to the remaining
+British colonies and possessions; 5000 to China. Hamburg asked for
+28,800, and France for 100,000 feet. Commissions have been formed in
+Austria, Spain, and Turkey.----A correspondent of the Chronicle says
+that the great beauty of the leaves of some American trees and plants
+renders them an appropriate article of ornament, and suggests that
+specimens preserved be sent to the Exhibition; and that a large demand
+for them would ensue.----An edition of the Works of JOHN OWEN, to be
+comprised in sixteen volumes, under the editorial charge of Rev.
+William H. Goold, has been commenced. The doctrinal works will occupy
+five volumes, the practical treatises four, and the polemical seven. The
+first volume contains a life of Owen, by Rev. Andrew Thomson of
+Edinburgh. This edition is edited with remarkable fidelity and care, and
+will prove a valuable accession to theological literature.----Washington
+Irving has received from Mr. Murray £9767 for copyrights and £2500 from
+Mr. Bentley, who has paid nearly £16,000 to Cooper, Prescott, and Herman
+Melville.----The Principal Theological Faculties in Germany are those of
+Berlin and Halle. The subjoined list will show that almost all the
+Professors have attained a wide reputation in the department of sacred
+letters. At Berlin the Professors are: NITZSCH, Theology, Dogmatic, and
+Practical; HENGSTENBERG and VATKE, Exegesis of the Old and New
+Testaments, and Introduction; TWESTEN, Exegesis of the New Testament,
+Dogmatic Theology; F. STRAUSS, Homiletics; JACOBI, Ecclesiastical
+History; UBBMANN, Oriental Languages. The Professors at Halle are:
+JULIUS MULLER, Theology, Dogmatic, and Practical; THOLUCK, Exegesis and
+Moral Philosophy; HUPFELD, Hebrew and Oriental Languages; GUERICKE,
+Ecclesiastical History, Introduction; HERZOG, MAYER, and THILO,
+Ecclesiastical History.----A new apparatus for the production of heat
+has been invented by Mr. D.O. Edwards. It is named the "atmopyre," or
+solid gas fire. A small cylinder of pipe clay, varying in length from
+two to four inches, perforated with holes the fiftieth of an inch in
+diameter, in imitation of Davy's safety lamp, is employed. The cylinder
+has a circular hole at one end, which fits upon a "fish-tail" burner;
+gas is introduced into the interior of the cylinder, with the air of
+which it becomes mixed, forming a kind of artificial fire-damp. This
+mixture is ignited on the outside of the vessel, and burns entirely on
+the exterior of the earthenware, which is enveloped in a coat of pale
+blue flame. The clay cylinder which Mr. Edwards calls a "hood," soon
+becomes red hot, and presents the appearance of a solid red flame. All
+the heat of combustion is thus accumulated on the clay, and is thence
+radiated. One of these cylinders is heated to dull redness in a minute
+or two; but an aggregate of these "hoods" placed in a circle or cluster,
+and inclosed in an argillaceous case, are heated to an orange color, and
+the case itself becomes bright red. By surrounding this "solid gas fire"
+with a series of cases, one within another, Mr. Edwards has obtained a
+great intensity of heat, and succeeded in melting gold, silver, copper,
+and even iron. Mr. Palmer, the engineer of the Western Gas-light
+Company, by burning two feet of gas in an atmopyre of twelve "hoods,"
+raised the temperature of a room measuring 8551 cubic feet, five degrees
+of Fahrenheit in seventeen minutes. The heat generated by burning gas in
+this way is 100 per cent. greater than that engendered by the ordinary
+gas flame when tested by the evaporation of water. 25 feet of gas burnt
+in an atmopyre per hour, produces steam sufficient for one-horse power.
+Hence the applicability of the invention to baths, brewing, &c.----At
+the late meeting of the British Association, Major Rawlinson, after
+enumerating many interesting particulars of the progress of Assyrian
+discoveries, stated that Mr. Layard, in excavating part of the palace at
+Nineveh had found a large room filled with what appeared to be the
+archives of the empire, ranged in successive tables of terra cotta, the
+writings being as perfect as when the tablets were first stamped. They
+were piled in huge heaps, from the floor to the ceiling, and he had
+already filled five large cases for dispatch to England, but had only
+cleared out one corner of the apartment. From the progress already made
+in reading the inscriptions, he believed we should be able pretty well
+to understand the contents of these tables--at all events, we should
+ascertain their general purport, and thus gain much valuable
+information. A passage might be remembered in the Book of Ezra, where
+the Jews having been disturbed in building the Temple, prayed that
+search might be made in the house of records for the edict of Cyrus
+permitting them to return to Jerusalem. The chamber recently found might
+be presumed to be the House of Records of the Assyrian Kings, where
+copies of the Royal edicts were duly deposited. When these tablets had
+been examined and deciphered, he believed that we should have a better
+acquaintance with the history, the religion, the philosophy, and the
+jurisprudence of Assyria 1500 years before the Christian era, than we
+had of Greece or Rome during any period of their respective
+histories.----M. Guillen y Calomarde has just discovered a new
+telescopic star between the polar star and Cynosure, near to the rise of
+the tail of the Little Bear--a star at least that certainly did not
+exist in October last. According to the observations of M. Calomarde,
+the new star should have an increasing brilliancy, and it is likely that
+in less than a month this star, which now is visible only through a
+telescope, may be seen with the naked eye.----The Senate of the
+University of Padua is at present preparing for publication two curious
+works, of which the manuscripts are in the library of that
+establishment. One is a translation in Hebrew verse of the "Divina
+Commedia," of Dante, by Samuel Rieti, Grand Rabbi of Padua, in the 16th
+century. The second is a translation of Ovid's "Metamorphoses," likewise
+in Hebrew, in stanzas of 18 verses of a very complicated metre, from the
+pen of the Rabbi.----ELIOT WARBURTON is engaged in collecting materials
+for a History of the Poor, which is to appear in the spring.
+
+The captain and second mate of the steamer Orion, which was wrecked in
+June, have been sentenced, the former to eighteen months' imprisonment,
+the latter to ten years' transportation, for gross and culpable
+negligence of duty.----Lieutenant Gale, somewhat celebrated as an
+aeronaut, lost his life while making an ascent on horseback at
+Bordeaux. He had descended in safety, and the horse was removed; the
+diminution of the weight caused the balloon to ascend rapidly, with the
+aeronaut, who was somewhat intoxicated, clinging to it. He of course
+soon fell, and, a day or two after, his body was found, with the limbs
+all broken, and mutilated by dogs.----Mr. Mongredien, a London
+corn-factor, has published a pamphlet, in which he endeavors to estimate
+the probable amount of home-grown food upon which Ireland can calculate
+the coming year. As the result of extensive inquiries, he is of the
+opinion that the potato crop will suffice as food for the masses only
+until January; and that the wheat-crop amounts to but three-fourths of
+last year's amount.----The Postmaster General has directed that all
+letters addressed to the United States, shall be forwarded by the first
+mail packet that sails, whether British or American, unless specially
+directed otherwise.----Viscount Fielding, who occupied the chair at the
+great Church Meeting in Free-Mason's Hall, on the 23d of July, has
+abandoned the English Church for that of Rome.----A number of the
+Catholic bishops of Ireland were appointed by government as official
+visitors of the New College, to which they were known to be bitterly
+opposed. The appointments have been scornfully rejected by the
+bishops.----The Britannia Bridge, one of the greatest triumphs of modern
+engineering, was completed on the 13th of September, by the lowering of
+the last of the tubes to its permanent resting-place. Some curious
+acoustic effects have been observed in connection with this work. Pistol
+shots, or any sonorous noises, are echoed within the tube half a dozen
+times. The cells at the top and bottom, are used by the engineers as
+speaking tubes, and they can carry on conversation through them in
+whispers; by elevating the voice persons may converse through the length
+of the bridge--nearly a quarter of a mile. The total cost of the entire
+structure has been £601,865. The total weight of each of the wrought
+iron roadways now completed, represents 12,000 tons, supported on a
+total mass of masonry of a million and a half cubic feet, erected at the
+rate of three feet in a minute.----Mount Blanc was ascended on the 29th
+of September, to its top-most peak, by two gentlemen from Ireland, Mr.
+Gratton, late of the army, and Mr. Richards, with a party of the brave
+mountaineers of Chamouni. The enterprise was considered so dangerous,
+that the guides left their watches and little valuables behind, and the
+two gentlemen made their wills, and prepared for the worst. The ascent
+is always accompanied with great peril, as steps have to be cut up the
+sloping banks of the ice; one of the largest glaciers has to be passed,
+where one false step entails certain death, as the unfortunate falls
+into a crevice of almost unknown depth, from which no human hand could
+extricate him. A night has to be passed on the cold rock amidst the
+thunders of the avalanche, and spots have to be passed where, it is
+said, no word can be spoken lest thousands of tons of snow should be set
+in motion, and thus hurl the party into eternity, as was the case some
+years back when a similar attempt was made. This latter impression,
+however, as to the effect of the voice upon masses of snow, is
+unquestionably absurd. An avalanche may have occurred simultaneously
+with a conversation; but that the latter caused the former is
+incredible.----The Turkish government has manifested its intention to
+set Kossuth and his companions at liberty in September, the end of the
+year stipulated in the Convention. Austria, however, remonstrates,
+contending that the year did not commence till the moment of
+incarceration. The prisoners are to be sent in a government vessel
+either to England or America, and are to be furnished with 500 piastres
+each, to meet their immediate wants on landing.----The two American
+vessels, Advance and Rescue, sent in search of Sir John Franklin, had
+been seen by an English whale-ship west of Devil's Thumb, in Greenland,
+having advanced 500 miles since last heard from.----The new Cunard
+Steamer Africa, of the same dimensions with the Asia, is nearly ready to
+take her place in the line, and the Company are about to commence
+another ship of still larger size and power.----Disastrous inundations
+have destroyed all the crops in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy.
+Subscriptions were opened in Milan, the aggregate amount of which (about
+50,000 francs) was sent to the relief of the unfortunate
+inhabitants.----There are in the prisons at Naples at present no less
+than 40,000 political prisoners; and the opinion is that, from the
+crowded state of the jails, the greater number will go mad, become
+idiots, or die.----Lines of electric telegraph are extending rapidly
+over Central Europe. Within four months, 1000 miles have been opened in
+Austria, making 2000 in that empire, of which 500 are under ground.
+Another 1000 miles will be ready next year. The telegraph now works from
+Cracow to Trieste, 700 miles.----On the 1st of October, the new
+telegraph union between Austria, Prussia, Saxony, and Bavaria, was to
+come into operation, under a uniform tariff, which is one-half of the
+former charges.----The Hungarian musicians accustomed to perform their
+national airs in the streets of Vienna, have been ordered to quit the
+city. It is said they will go through Europe, in order to excite popular
+sympathy in behalf of their unfortunate country, by means of their
+music, the great characteristic of which is a strange mixture of wild
+passion and deep melancholy.----After eight years' labor, the gigantic
+statue of the King of Bavaria has been finished, and is now placed on
+the hill of Saint Theresa, near Munich. The bronze of the statue cost
+92,600 florins, or £11,800.----The will of Sir Robert Peel prohibits his
+executors investing any of his real or personal property on securities
+in Ireland.----From a late parliamentary return, it appears there are
+thirty-two iron steamers in Her Majesty's Navy.----Recent letters from
+the East speak of very valuable and expensive sulphur mines just
+discovered upon the borders of the Red Sea, in Upper Egypt. The products
+of these mines are said to be so abundant, that a material fall in the
+prices of Sicilian sulphur must inevitably soon take place. The working
+of the newly-discovered mine and its productiveness are greatly
+facilitated by its proximity to the sea. The Egyptian Government, which
+at first leased the mines to a private company, is now about to resume
+possession and work them on its own account.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From FRANCE the only intelligence of interest relates to political
+movements, concerning which, moreover, there is nothing but partisan and
+unreliable rumors. The President, in his various letters, addresses,
+&c., insists uniformly on the necessity of maintaining the existing
+order of things, and speaks confidently of an appeal to the people.
+Contradictory rumors prevail as to his intentions--some believing that
+he meditates a _coup-d'état_, but most regarding his movements as aimed
+to secure the popular vote. The Assembly is to meet on the 11th of
+November, and his opponents intend then to force him to some
+ultra-constitutional act which will afford them ground for an appeal. A
+series of military reviews has engaged public attention; they have been
+closely watched for incidents indicative of the President's purposes: it
+is remarked that those who salute him as Emperor are always rewarded for
+it by some preference over others.----The Councils-general of France
+have closed their annual session. The chief topic of their deliberations
+has been the revision of the Constitution, and the result is of interest
+as indicating the state of public opinion upon that subject. It seems
+that twenty-one councils separated without taking the subject into
+consideration; ten rejected propositions for revision; two declared that
+the constitution ought to be respected; thirty-three departments,
+therefore, refused, more or less formally, to aid the revision. On the
+other hand, forty-nine councils came to decisions which the revisionist
+party claim for themselves. But a very great diversity is to be
+perceived in these decisions. Thirty-two pronounced in favor of revision
+only "so far as it should take place under legal conditions," or "so far
+as legality should be observed;" two of those called attention to the
+forty-fifth article of the constitution, which makes Louis Napoleon
+incapable of being immediately rechosen; but another demanded that his
+powers should be prolonged. One council voted for revision, and also
+desired to prolong the President's power; ten simply voted for revision;
+five pronounced for immediate revision, but by very small majorities;
+one went further, and proposed to give the present Assembly--which is
+legislative and not constituent--authority to effect the revision. Three
+councils express merely a desire for a remedy to the present situation.
+Thirty-three departments have not pronounced for the revision, or have
+pronounced against it; thirty-three are in favor of a legal revision;
+thirteen demand the revision without explaining on what conditions they
+desire to see it effected; and six demand it immediately; making the
+total of eighty-five.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From GERMANY the most important intelligence relates to the Electorate
+of Hesse Cassel, a state containing less than a million of inhabitants,
+and having a revenue of less than two and a half millions of dollars. By
+the Constitution the Chamber has the exclusive right of voting taxes.
+The Elector, acting probably under the advice of Austria, resolved to
+get rid of the Constitution; and as the first step toward it, he
+appointed as his minister Hassenpflug, a man wholly without character,
+and who had been convicted of forgery in another State, and with him was
+associated Haynau, brother of the infamous Austrian General. Months past
+away without the Chamber being summoned, but at the time when the
+session usually closed, the Parliament was called together, and an
+immediate demand made for money and for powers to raise the taxes,
+without specific votes of the Chamber. The Parliament replied by an
+unanimous vote, that however little the ministers possessed the
+confidence of Parliament, they would not go the length of refusing the
+supplies, but requested to have a regular budget laid before them, which
+they promised to examine, discuss, and vote. To so fair and
+constitutional a resolution the minister replied by dissolving the
+Parliament, and proceeding to levy the taxes in spite of the Parliament
+and the Constitution. The cabinet went to the extremity of proclaiming
+the whole Electorate in a state of siege, and investing the
+commander-in-chief with dictatorial powers against the press, personal
+liberty, and property. The town council unanimously protested against
+these arbitrary acts; and such a spirit of resistance was excited that
+the Elector and his minister were constrained to seek safety in flight.
+The Elector left Cassel on the morning of the 13th, and arrived the same
+evening at Hanover, where he was afterward joined by Hassenpflug. Some
+of the accounts state that M. Hassenpflug was agitated by terror in his
+flight. On the 16th, the Elector and his ministers were at Frankfort.
+The government of the Electorate had been assumed by the Permanent
+Committee of the Assembly.----In Mecklenberg-Schwerin a similar
+revolution seems likely to take place. In October, 1849, a new
+Constitution was formed by the deputies of this Duchy, which received
+the assent of the Duke. This Constitution was quite democratic in
+character. The Duke now feeling himself strong enough coolly pronounces
+the Constitution invalid, absolves his subjects from all allegiance to
+it, and restores the old Constitution, which was formed in 1755. It is
+supposed that the Diet will adopt the Hesse Cassel system of stopping
+the supplies, and so starving out their sovereign.
+
+
+
+
+LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+A new work by Rev. WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, the eminent Baptist clergyman in
+New York, has just been issued by Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, entitled
+_Religious Progress_, consisting of a series of Lectures on the
+development of the Christian character, founded on the beautiful
+gradation of religious excellencies described by St. Peter in his second
+Epistle. The subjects, which succeed each other in the order of the
+text, are, Religion a Principle of Growth, Faith its Root, Virtue,
+Knowledge, Temperance, Patience, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness, Charity.
+No one who has read any of the former productions of the author can fall
+into the error of supposing that these topics are treated according to
+any prescribed, stereotyped routine of the pulpit, or that they labor
+under the dullness and formality which are often deemed inseparable from
+moral disquisitions. On the contrary, this volume may be regarded as a
+profound, stringent, and lively commentary on the aspects of the present
+age, showing a remarkable keenness of observation, and a massive
+strength of expression. The author, although one of the most studious
+and erudite men of the day, is by no means a mere isolated scholar. His
+vision is not confined by the walls of his library. Watching the
+progress of affairs, from the quiet "loop-holes of his retreat," he
+subjects the pictured phantasmagoria before him to a rigorous and
+searching criticism. He is not apt to be deluded by the dazzling shows
+of things. With a firm and healthy wisdom, acquired by vigilant
+experience, he delights to separate the genuine from the plausible, the
+true gold from the sounding brass, and to bring the most fair-seeming
+pretenses before the tribunal of universal principles. The religious
+tone of this volume is lofty and severe. Its sternness occasionally
+reminds us of the sombre, passionate, half despairing melancholy of John
+Foster. The modern latitudinarian finds in it little either of sympathy
+or tolerance. It clothes in a secular costume the vast religious ideas
+which have been sanctioned by ages, but makes no attempt to mellow their
+austerity, or reduce their solemn grandeur to the level of superficial
+thought and worldly aspirations. The train of remark pursued in any one
+of these Lectures can never be inferred from its title. The suggestive
+mind of the writer is kindled by the theme, and luxuriates in a singular
+wealth of analogies, which lead him, it is true, from the beaten track,
+but only to open upon us an unexpected prospect, crowned with original
+and enchanting beauties. His power of apt and forcible illustration is
+almost without a parallel among recent writers. The mute page springs
+into life beneath the magic of his radiant imagination. But this is
+never at the expense of solidity of thought or strength of argument. It
+is seldom indeed that a mind of so much poetical invention yields such a
+willing homage to the logical element. He employs his brilliant fancies
+for the elucidation and ornament of truth, but never for its discovery.
+On this account, he inspires a feeling of trust in the sanity of his
+genius, although its conclusions may not be implicitly adopted. Still,
+with the deep respect with which we regard the intellectual position of
+Dr. Williams, we do not think his writings are destined to obtain a wide
+popularity. Their condensation of thought, the elaborate and often
+antique structure of their sentences, the profoundly meditative cast of
+sentiment with which they are pervaded, and even their Oriental
+profusion of imagery, to say nothing of the adamantine rigor of their
+religious views, are not suited to the great mass of modern readers,
+whose tastes have been formed on models less distinguished for their
+austerity than for their airiness and grace.
+
+Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, Boston, have recently issued neat reprints
+of _The Poetry of Science_, by ROBERT HUNT, a popular English work,
+exhibiting the great facts of science, in their most attractive aspects,
+and as leading the mind to the contemplation of the Universe; _The
+Footprints of the Creator_, by HUGH MILLER, with a memoir of the author,
+by Professor AGASSIZ, who characterizes his geological productions as
+possessing "a freshness of conception, a power of argumentation, a depth
+of thought, a purity of feeling, rarely met with in works of that
+character, which are well calculated to call forth sympathy, and to
+increase the popularity of a science which has already done so much to
+expand our views of the plan of Creation;" and a third edition of _The
+Pre-Adamite Earth_, by JOHN HARRIS, whose valuable contributions to
+theological science have won for him a high reputation both in England
+and our own country.
+
+Harper and Brothers have published Nos. 7 and 8 of LOSSING'S _Pictorial
+Field Book of the American Revolution_. The character of this popular
+serial may be perceived from the extracts at the commencement of the
+present number of our Magazine. With each successive issue, Mr.
+Lossing's picturesque narrative gains fresh interest; he throws a charm
+over the most familiar details by his quiet enthusiasm and winning
+naïveté; and under the direction of such an intelligent and genial guide
+it is delightful to wander over the battle-fields of American history,
+and dwell on the exploits of the heroes by whose valor our national
+Independence was achieved. Among the embellishments in these numbers, we
+observe a striking likeness of the venerable Timothy Pickering, of
+Massachusetts, portraits of Gen. Stark, Joel Barlow, Gen. Wooster, and
+William Livingston, and exquisite sketches of Baron Steuben's
+Headquarters, View near Toby's Eddy, The Susquehanna at Monocasy Island,
+The Livingston Mansion, The Bennington Battle-Ground, and other
+beautiful and interesting scenes in the history of the Revolution.
+
+_Household Surgery; or Hints on Emergencies_, by JOHN F. SOUTH (H.C.
+Baird, Philadelphia), is a reprint of a popular and amusing work by an
+eminent London surgeon, designed for non-professional readers, and
+pointing out the course to be pursued in case of an accident, when no
+surgical aid is at hand. The author puts in a caveat against
+misapprehending the purpose of his book, which he wishes should be
+judged solely on its merits. No one is to expect in it a whole body of
+surgery, nor to obtain materials for setting up as an amateur surgeon,
+to practice on every unfortunate individual who may fall within his
+grasp; but directions are given which may be of good service on a pinch,
+when the case is urgent, and no doctor is to be had. In the opinion of
+the author, whoever doctors himself when he can be doctored, is in much
+the same case with the man who conducted his own cause, and had a fool
+for his client. With this explanation, Dr. South's volume may be
+consulted to great advantage; and although no one would recommend a
+treatise on bruises and broken bones for light reading, it must be
+confessed, that many popular fictions are less fertile in entertainment.
+
+An exquisite edition of _Gray's Poetical Works_ has been issued by H.C.
+Baird, with an original memoir and notes, by the American Editor, Prof.
+HENRY REED, of Philadelphia. It was the intention of the Editor to make
+this the most complete collection of Gray's Poems which has yet
+appeared, and he seems to have met with admirable success in the
+accomplishment of his plan. The illustrations of Radclyffe, engraved in
+a superior style of art, by A.W. Graham, form the embellishments of this
+edition. We have rarely, if ever, seen them surpassed in the most costly
+American gift-books. The volume is appropriately dedicated to JAMES T.
+FIELDS, the poet-publisher of Boston.
+
+The second volume of the _Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers_, by his son-in-law,
+WILLIAM HANNA, is issued by Harper and Brothers, comprising a most
+interesting account of his labors during his residence at Glasgow, and
+bringing his biography down to the forty-third year of his age. The
+whole career of this robust and sinewy divine is full of instruction,
+but no part of it more abounds with important events than the period
+devoted to efforts in bringing the destitute classes of Glasgow under
+the influence of Christian ministrations. Whether in the pulpit, in the
+discharge of his parochial duties, in the construction of his noble
+schemes for social melioration, or in the bosom of his family, Dr.
+Chalmers always appears the same whole-hearted, frank, generous,
+energetic man, commanding our admiration by the splendor of his
+intellect, and winning our esteem by the loveliness of his character.
+Some interesting reminiscences of the powerful but erratic preacher,
+Edward Irving, who was at one time the assistant of Dr. Chalmers in the
+Tron Church, are presented in this volume.
+
+_History of Propellers and Steam Navigation_, by ROBERT MACFARLANE
+(G.P. Putnam), is the title of a useful work, describing most of the
+propelling methods that have been invented, which may prevent ingenious
+men from wasting their time, talents, and money on visionary projects.
+It also gives a history of the attempts of the early inventors in this
+department of practical mechanics, including copious notices of Fitch,
+Rumsey, Fulton, Symington, and Bell. A separate chapter, devoted to
+Marine Navigation, presents a good deal of information on the subject
+rarely met with in this country.
+
+_The Country Year-Book; or, The Field, The Forest, and The Fireside_
+(Harper and Brothers), is the title of a new rural volume by the bluff,
+burly, egotistic, but good-natured and humane Quaker, WILLIAM HOWITT,
+filled with charming descriptions of English country life, redolent of
+the perfume of bean-fields and hedge-rows, overflowing with the affluent
+treasures of the four seasons, rich in quaint, expressive sketches of
+old-fashioned manners, and pervaded by a generous zeal in the cause of
+popular improvement. A more genial and agreeable companion for an autumn
+afternoon or a winter's evening could scarcely be selected in the shape
+of a book.
+
+_Success in Life. The Mechanic_, by Mrs. L.C. TUTHILL, published by G.P.
+Putnam, is a little volume belonging to a series, intended to illustrate
+the importance of sound principles and virtuous conduct to the
+attainment of worldly prosperity. Without believing in the necessary
+connection between good character and success in business, we may say,
+that the examples brought forward by Mrs. Tuthill are of a striking
+nature, and adapted to produce a deep and wholesome impression. In the
+present work, she avails herself of incidents in the history of John
+Fitch, Dr. Franklin, Robert Fulton, and Eli Whitney, showing the
+obstacles which they were compelled to encounter, and the energy with
+which they struggled with difficulties. She writes in a lively and
+pleasing manner; her productions are distinguished for their elevated
+moral tone; and they can scarcely fail to become favorites with the
+public.
+
+_Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet; An Autobiography_, is the quaint title of
+a political and religious novel, understood to be written by a clergyman
+of the Church of England, which is said to have fallen like a bomb-shell
+on the old-fashioned schools of political economy in that country. It
+purports to be the history of a youth of genius, doomed to struggle with
+the most abject poverty, and forced by the necessity of his position to
+become a Chartist and a Radical. Brought up in the sternest school of
+ultra-Calvinism, he passes by natural transitions from a state of
+hopeless and desperate infidelity, to a milder and more cheerful
+religious faith, and having taken an active part in schemes for the
+melioration of society by political action, he learns by experience the
+necessity of spiritual influences for the emancipation of the people.
+The tone of the narrative is vehement, austere, and often indignant;
+never vindictive; and softened at intervals by a genuine gush of poetic
+sentiment. With great skill in depicting the social evils which are
+preying on the aged heart of England, the author is vague and
+fragmentary in his statement of remedies, and leads us to doubt whether
+he has discovered the true "Balm of Gilead" for the healing of nations.
+The book abounds with weighty suggestions, urgent appeals, vivid
+pictures of popular wretchedness, deep sympathy with suffering, and a
+pure devotion to the finer and nobler instincts of humanity. With all
+its outpouring of fiery radicalisms, it is intended to exert a
+reconciling influence, to bring the different classes of society into a
+nearer acquaintanceship, and to oppose the progress of licentious and
+destructive tendencies, by enforcing the principles of thorough reform.
+Such a work can not but be read with general interest. Its strong
+humanitary spirit will recommend it to a large class of readers, while
+its acknowledged merits as a work of fiction will attract the literary
+amateur.--Published by Harper and Brothers.
+
+_The Builder's Companion_, and _The Cabinetmaker and Upholsterer's
+Companion_, are two recent volumes of the _Practical Series_, published
+by H.C. Baird, Philadelphia, reprinted from English works of standard
+excellence. They present a mass of valuable scientific information, with
+succinct descriptions of various mechanical processes, and are well
+suited to promote an intelligent interest in industrial pursuits.
+
+_Lessons from the History of Medical Delusions_ (Baker and Scribner), is
+a Prize Essay by Dr. WORTHINGTON HOOKER, whose former work on a similar
+subject has given him considerable reputation as a writer in the
+department of medical literature. He is a devoted adherent to the old
+system of practice, and spares no pains to expose what he deems the
+quackeries of modern times. His volume is less positive than critical,
+and contains but a small amount of practical instruction. There are many
+of his suggestions, however, which can not be perused without exciting
+profound reflection.
+
+RUSCHENBERGER'S _Lexicon of Terms used in Natural History_, a valuable
+manual for the common use of the student, is published by Lippincott,
+Grambo, and Co., Philadelphia.
+
+Another volume of LAMARTINE'S _Confidences_, translated from the French,
+under the title of _Additional Memoirs of My Youth_, is published by
+Harper and Brothers, and can not fail to excite the same interest which
+has been called forth by the previous autobiographical disclosures of
+the author. It is written in the rich, glowing, poetical style in which
+LAMARTINE delights to clothe his early recollections, and with a naïve
+frankness of communication equal to that of Rousseau, is pervaded with a
+tone of tender, elevated, and religious sentiment. The description of a
+troop of family friends gives a lively tableau of the old school of
+French gentlemen, and furnishes the occasion for the picturesque
+delineation of manners, in which LAMARTINE commands such an admirable
+pen. The Confessions would not be complete without one or two love
+episodes, which are accordingly presented in a sufficiently romantic
+environment.
+
+Harper and Brothers have published a cheap edition of _Genevieve_,
+translated from the French of LAMARTINE, by A.R. SCOBLE. This novel,
+intended to illustrate the condition of humble life in France, and to
+furnish popular, moral reading for the masses, is written with more
+simplicity than we usually find in the productions of Lamartine, and
+contains many scenes of deep, pathetic interest. The incidents are not
+without a considerable tincture of French exaggeration, and are hardly
+suited, one would suppose, to exert a strong or salutary influence in
+the sphere of common, prosaic, unromantic duties. As a specimen of the
+kind of reading which LAMARTINE deems adapted to the moral improvement
+of his countrymen, _Genevieve_ is a literary curiosity.
+
+Little and Brown, Boston, have published a handsome edition of Prof.
+ROSE's _Chemical Tables for the Calculation of Quantitative Analyses_,
+recalculated and improved, by the American Editor, W.P. DEXTER.
+
+Harper and Brothers have issued _The History of Pendennis_, No. 7,
+which, to say the least, is of equal interest with any of the preceding
+numbers, showing the same felicitous skill in portraying the every-day
+aspects of our common life, which has given Thackeray such a brilliant
+eminence as a painter of manners. The unconscious case with which he
+hits off a trait of weakness or eccentricity, his truthfulness to
+nature, his rare common sense, and his subdued, but most effective
+satire, make him one of the most readable English writers now before the
+public.
+
+STOCKHARDT'S _Principles of Chemistry_, translated from the German, by
+C.H. PEIRCE, is published by John Bartlett, Cambridge. This work is
+accompanied with a high recommendation from Prof. Horsford of Harvard
+University, which, with its excellent reputation as a textbook in
+Germany, will cause it to be sought for with eagerness by students of
+chemistry in our own country.
+
+_Petticoat Government_, by Mrs. TROLLOPE, is the one hundred and
+forty-eighth number of Harper's _Library of Select Novels_, and in spite
+of the ill odor attached to the name of the authoress, will be found to
+exhibit a very considerable degree of talent, great insight into the
+more vulgar elements of English society, a vein of bitter and caustic
+satire, and a truly feminine minuteness in the delineation of character.
+The story is interspersed with dashes of broad humor, and with its
+piquant, rapid, and not overscrupulous style, will reward the enterprise
+of perusal.
+
+George P. Putnam has published _A Series of Etchings_, by J.W. EHNINGER,
+illustrative of Hood's "Bridge of Sighs." The plates, which are eight in
+number, are executed with a good deal of spirit and taste, representing
+the principal scenes suggested to the imagination by Hood's exquisitely
+pathetic poem.
+
+A.S. Barnes and Co. have published _The Elements of Natural Philosophy_,
+by W.H.C. BARTLETT, being the first of three volumes intended to present
+a complete system of the science in all its divisions. The present
+volume is devoted to the subject of Mechanics.
+
+G.P. Putnam has issued a new and improved edition of Prof. CHURCH's
+_Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus_.
+
+_Lonz Powers, or the Regulators_, by JAMES WEIR, Esq. (Philadelphia,
+Lippincott, Grambo, and Co.), is a genuine American romance, written in
+defiance of all literary precedents, and a vigorous expression of the
+individuality of the author, as acted on by the wild, exuberant frontier
+life in the infancy of Western Society. The scenes and characters which
+are evidently drawn from nature, are portrayed with a bold, dramatic
+freedom, giving a perpetual vitality and freshness to the narrative, and
+sustaining the interest of the reader through a succession of
+adventures, which in the hands of a less skillful chronicler, would have
+become repulsive by their extravagance and terrible intensity. In
+addition to the regular progress of the story, the author leads us
+through a labyrinth of episodes, most of them savoring of the jovial
+forest life, in which he is so perfectly at home, though dashed with
+occasional touches of deep pathos. The reflections and criticisms, in
+which he often indulges to excess, though considerately printed in a
+different type to show that they may be skipped without damage, are too
+characteristic to be neglected, and on the whole, we are glad that he
+had enough verdant frankness to present them to his readers just as they
+sprung up in his mercurial brain. We imagine that the fame of Milton
+will survive his attacks, in spite of the mean opinion which he
+cherishes of the Paradise Lost. With all its exaggerations and
+eccentricities, Lonz Powers has many of the elements of a superior
+novel--glowing imagination, truthfulness of description, lively humor,
+spicy satire, and an acute perception of the fleeting lights and shades
+of character. If it had ten times its present faults, it would be
+redeemed from a severe judgment, by its magnetic sympathies, and the
+fascinating naturalness with which it pours forth its flushed and joyous
+consciousness of life.
+
+_The History of Xerxes_, by JACOB ABBOTT (Harper and Brothers), is
+intended for juvenile reading and study, but its freshness and
+simplicity of manner give it a charm for all ages, making it a
+delightful refreshment to those who wish to recall the remembrance of
+youthful studies.
+
+_Universal Dictionary of Weights and Measures_, by J.H. ALEXANDER,
+published by Wm. Minifie and Co., Baltimore, is a work of remarkable
+labor and research, presenting a comparative view of the weights and
+measures of all countries, ancient and modern, reduced to the standards
+of the United States of America. It is executed in a manner highly
+creditable to the learning and accuracy of the author, and will be found
+to possess great practical utility for the man of business as well as
+the historical student.
+
+_America Discovered_ (New York, J.F. Trow), is the title of an anonymous
+poem in twelve books, founded on a supposed convention of the heavenly
+hierarchs among the mountains of Chili in the year 1450, to deliberate
+on the best mode of making known the American continent to Europeans.
+Two of their number are elected delegates to present the subject before
+the Court of Heaven. In the course of their journey, after meeting with
+various adventures, they fall in with two different worlds, one of which
+has retained its pristine innocence, while the other has yielded to
+temptation, and become subject to sin. Their embassy is crowned with
+success, and one of them is deputed to break the matter to Columbus,
+whose subsequent history is related at length, from his first longings
+to discover a new world till the final consummation of his enterprise.
+The poet, it will be seen, soars into the highest supernal spheres, but,
+in our opinion, displays more ambition than discretion. He does not
+often come down safe from his lofty flights to solid ground.
+
+_Christianity Revived in the East_, by H.G.O. DWIGHT (Baker and
+Scribner), is a modest narrative of missionary operations among the
+Armenians of Turkey, in which the author was personally engaged for a
+series of several years. The volume describes many interesting features
+of Oriental life, and presents a vivid picture of the toils and
+sacrifices by which a new impulse was given to the progress of
+Christianity in the East. The suggestions of the author with regard to
+the prosecution of the missionary enterprise are characterized by
+earnestness and good sense, but they are sometimes protracted to so
+great an extent as to become tedious to the general reader.
+
+_Grahame; or, Youth and Manhood_ (Baker and Scribner), is the title of a
+new romance by the author of _Talbot and Vernon_, displaying a natural
+facility for picturesque writing in numerous isolated passages, but
+destitute of the sustained vigor and inventive skill which would place
+it in the highest rank of fictitious composition. The scene, which is
+frequently shifted, without sufficient regard to the locomotive
+faculties of the reader, betrays occasional inaccuracies and
+anachronisms, showing the hand of a writer who has not gained a perfect
+mastery of his materials. Like the previous work of the same author, the
+novel is intended to support a certain didactic principle, but for the
+accomplishment of this purpose, recourse is had to an awkward and
+improbable plot, many of the details of which are, in a high degree,
+unnatural, and often grossly revolting. The pure intentions of the
+writer redeem his work from the charge of immorality, but do not set
+aside the objections, in an artistic point of view, which arise from the
+primary incidents on which the story is founded. Still, we are bound to
+confess, that the novel, as a whole, indicates a freshness and fervor of
+feeling, a ready perception of the multifarious aspects of character
+and society, a lively appreciation of natural beauty, and a racy vigor
+of expression, which produce a strong conviction of the ability of the
+author, and awaken the hope that the more mature offerings of his genius
+may be contributions of sterling value to our native literature.
+
+_George Castriot, surnamed Scandeberg, King of Albania_, by CLEMENT C.
+MOORE (D. Appleton and Co.), is an agreeable piece of biography, which
+owes its interest no less to the simplicity and excellent taste of the
+narrative, than to the romantic adventures of its subject. Castriot was
+a hero of the fifteenth century, who gained a wide renown for his
+exploits in the warfare of the Christians against the Turks, as well as
+for the noble and attractive qualities of his private character. Dr.
+Moore has made free use of one of the early chronicles, in the
+construction of his narrative, and exhibits rare skill in clothing the
+events in a modern costume, while he retains certain quaint and
+expressive touches of the antique.
+
+George P. Putnam has issued the second volume of _The Leather Stocking
+Tales_, by J. FENIMORE COOPER, in the author's revised edition,
+containing _The Last of the Mohicans_, to which characteristic and
+powerful work Mr. Cooper is so largely indebted for his world-wide
+reputation. He will lose nothing by the reprint of these masterly Tales,
+as they will introduce him to a new circle of younger readers, while the
+enthusiasm of his old admirers can not fail to be increased with every
+fresh perusal of the experiences of the inimitable Leather Stocking.
+
+C.M. Saxton has published a neat edition of Professor JOHNSTON'S
+_Lectures on the Relations of Science and Agriculture_, which produced a
+very favorable impression when delivered before the New York State
+Agricultural Society, and the Members of the Legislature, in the month
+of January last. Among the subjects discussed in this volume, are the
+relations of physical geography, of geology, and mineralogy, of botany,
+vegetable physiology, and zoology to practical agriculture; the
+connection of chemistry with the practical improvement of the soil, and
+with the principles of vegetable and animal growth; and the influence of
+scientific knowledge on the general elevation of the agricultural
+classes. These lectures present a lucid exposition of the latest
+discoveries in agricultural chemistry, and it is stated by competent
+judges, that their practical adaptation to the business of the farmer
+will gain the confidence of every cultivator of the soil by whom they
+are perused.
+
+An elaborate work from the pen of a native Jew, entitled _A Descriptive
+Geography of Palestine_, by RABBI JOSEPH SCHWARTZ, has been translated
+from the Hebrew by ISAAC LEESER, and published by A. Hart, Philadelphia.
+The author, who resided for sixteen years in the Holy Land, claims to
+have possessed peculiar advantages for the preparation of a work on this
+subject, in his knowledge of the languages necessary for successful
+discovery, and in the results of personal observations continued for
+several years with uncommon zeal and assiduity. The volume is handsomely
+embellished with maps and pictorial illustrations, the latter from the
+hand of a Jewish artist, and appears, in all respects, to be well
+adapted to the race, for whose use it is especially intended.
+
+_The Life of Commodore Talbot_, by HENRY T. TUCKERMAN (New York, J.C.
+Riker), was originally intended for the series of American Biography,
+edited by President Sparks, but on the suspension of that work, was
+prepared for publication in a separate volume. Commodore Talbot was born
+in Bristol county, Massachusetts, and at an early age commenced a
+seafaring life in the coasting trade, between Rhode Island and the
+Southern States. Soon after the breaking out of the Revolution--having
+been present at the siege of Boston as a volunteer--he offered his
+services to General Washington, and was at once employed in the
+discharge of arduous and responsible duties. At a subsequent period,
+after having distinguished himself by various exploits of almost
+reckless valor, he received a commission as Captain in the Navy of the
+United States. His death took place in 1813, in the city of New York,
+and his remains were interred under Trinity Church. Mr. Tuckerman has
+gathered up, with commendable industry, the facts in his career, which
+had almost faded from the memory, and rescued from oblivion the name of
+a brave commander and devoted patriot. The biography abounds with
+interesting incidents, which, as presented in the flowing and graceful
+narrative of the author, richly reward perusal, as well as present the
+character of the subject in a very attractive light. Several pleasing
+episodes are introduced in the course of the volume, which relieve it
+from all tendency to dryness and monotony.
+
+_The Quarterlies for October._--The first on our table is _The American
+Biblical Repository_, edited by J.M. SHERWOOD (New York), commencing
+with an article on "The Hebrew Theocracy," by Rev. E.C. Wines, which
+presents, in a condensed form, the views which have been brought before
+the public by that gentleman in his popular lectures on Jewish Polity.
+"The Position of the Christian Scholar" is discussed in a sound and
+substantial essay, by Rev. Albert Barnes. Dyer's "Life of Calvin"
+receives a summary condemnation at the hands of a sturdy advocate of the
+Five Points. Professor Tayler Lewis contributes a learned dissertation
+on the "Names for Soul" among the Hebrews, as an argument for the
+immortality of the soul. Other articles are on Lucian's "de Morte
+Peregrini," "The Relations of the Church to the Young," "The Harmony of
+Science and Revelation," and "Secular and Christian Civilization." The
+number closes with several "Literary and Critical Notices," written, for
+the most part, with ability and fairness, though occasionally betraying
+the influence of strong theological predilections.
+
+_The North American Review_ sustains the character for learned
+disquisition, superficial elegance, and freedom from progressive and
+liberal ideas, which have formed its principal distinction under the
+administration of its present editor. This venerable periodical, now in
+its thirty-eighth year, has been, in some sense, identified with the
+history of American literature, although it can by no means be regarded
+as an exponent of its present aspect and tendencies. It belongs
+essentially to a past age, and shows no sympathy with the earnest,
+aspiring, and aggressive traits of the American character. Indeed its
+spirit is more in accordance with the timid and selfish conservatism of
+Europe, than with the free, bold, and hopeful temperament of our
+Republic. The subjects to which the present number is mainly devoted, as
+well as the manner in which they are treated, indicate the peculiar
+tastes of the Review, and give a fair specimen of its recent average
+character. The principal articles are on "Mahomet and his Successors,"
+"The Navigation of the Ancients," "Slavic Language and Literature,"
+"Cumming's Hunter's Life," "The Homeric Question," all of which are
+chiefly made up from the works under review, presenting admirable models
+of tasteful compilation and abridgment, but singularly destitute of
+originality, freshness, and point. An article on "Everett's Orations"
+pays an appreciative tribute to the literary and rhetorical merits of
+that eminent scholar. "The Works of John Adams" receive an appropriate
+notice. "Furness's History of Jesus" is reviewed in a feeble and shallow
+style, unworthy the magnitude of the heresy attacked, and the number
+closes with a clever summary of "Laing's Observations on Europe," and
+one or two "Critical Notices."
+
+The _Methodist Quarterly Review_ opens with a second paper on "Morell's
+Philosophy of Religion," in which the positions of that writer are
+submitted to a severe logical examination. The conclusions of the
+reviewer may be learned from the passage which closes the article. "We
+believe Mr. Morell to be a sincere and earnest man, one who reverences
+Christianity, and really desires its advancement, but we also believe
+that for this very reason his influence may be the more pernicious; for
+in attempting to make a compromise with the enemies of truth, he has
+compromised truth itself; and in abandoning what he deemed mere
+antiquated outposts to the foe, he has surrendered the very citadel."
+The next article is a profound and learned statement of the "Latest
+Results of Ethnology," translated from the German of Dr. G.L. KRIEGK.
+This is followed by a discussion of the character of John Calvin, as a
+scholar, a theologian, and a reformer. The writer commends the manifest
+impartiality of Dyer's "Life of Calvin," although he believes that it
+will not be popular with the "blind admirers of the Genevan Reformer,
+and that the Roman Catholics, as in duty bound, will prefer the
+caricature of Monsieur Audin." "The Church and China," "Bishop
+Warburton," and "California," are the subjects of able articles, and
+the number closes with a variety of short reviews, miscellanies, and
+intelligence. The last named department is not so rich in the present
+number, as we usually find it, owing probably to the absence of Prof.
+M'Clintock in Europe, whose cultivated taste, comprehensive learning,
+and literary vigilance admirably qualify him to give a record of
+intellectual progress in every civilized country, such as we look for in
+vain in any contemporary periodical.
+
+_The Christian Review_ is a model of religious periodical literature,
+not exclusively devoted to theological subjects, but discussing the
+leading questions of the day, political, social, and literary, in
+addition to those belonging to its peculiar sphere, from a Christian
+point of view, and almost uniformly with great learning, vigor,
+profoundness, and urbanity, and always with good taste and exemplary
+candor. The present number has a large proportion of articles of
+universal interest, among which we may refer to those on "Socialism in
+the United States," and "The Territories on the Pacific," as presenting
+a succinct view of the subjects treated of, and valuable no less for the
+important information they present, than for the clearness and strength
+with which the positions of the writers are sustained. The first of
+these articles is from the pen of Rev. Samuel Osgood, minister of the
+Church of the Messiah, in this city, and the other is by Prof. W.
+Gammel, of Brown University. "The Confessions of Saint Augustine," "The
+Apostolical Constitutions," "Philosophical Theology," and a critical
+examination of the passage in Joshua describing the miracle of the sun
+standing still, are more especially attractive to the theological
+reader, while a brilliant and original essay on "Spirit and Form," by
+Rev. Mr. Turnbull, can not fail to draw the attention of the lovers of
+æsthetic disquisition. The brief sketches of President Taylor and of
+Neander are written with judgment and ability, and the "Notices of New
+Publications" give a well-digested survey of the current literature of
+the last three months. The diligence and zeal exhibited in this
+department, both by the Christian Review and the Methodist Quarterly
+present a favorable contrast to the disgraceful poverty of the North
+American in a branch which was admirably sustained under the editorship
+of President Sparks and Dr. Palfrey.
+
+_Brownson's Quarterly_ is characterized by the extravagance of
+statement, the rash and sweeping criticisms, and the ecclesiastical
+exclusiveness for which it has obtained an unenviable preeminence. Its
+principal articles are on "Gioberti," "The Confessional," "Dana's Poems
+and Prose Writings," and the "Cuban Expedition." Some inferences may be
+drawn as to the Editor's taste in poetry from his remarks on Tennyson,
+in whom he "can discover no other merit than harmonious verse and a
+little namby-pamby sentiment." He strikes the discriminating reviewer as
+"a man of feeble intellect," and "a poet for puny transcendentalists,
+beardless boys, and miss in her teens."
+
+
+
+
+Fashions for November.
+
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--PROMENADE AND CARRIAGE COSTUMES.]
+
+As the cold weather approaches, different shades of brown, dust color,
+green, and other grave hues, predominate, diversified with pink, blue,
+lilac, and purple. The beautiful season of the Indian Summer, which
+prevails with us in November, allows the use of out-of-door costume, of
+a character similar to that of September, the temperature being too high
+to require cloaks or pelises. Bonnets composed of Leghorn and fancy
+straws, are appropriate for the season. They are trimmed with _noeuds_
+of pink, straw color, and white silk, which are used to decorate
+Florence straws. These are ornamented, in the interior, with _mancini_,
+or bunches of harebells, heaths, and jacinths, intermixed with rose-buds
+and light foliage. There are plain and simple _pailles de riz_, having
+no other ornament than a kind of _noeud_ of white silk, placed at the
+side, and the interior of the front lined with pink or white _tulle_,
+and clusters of jacinths, tuberoses, and rose-buds, forming a most
+charming _mélange_. Fancy straws, called _paille de Lausanne_, are very
+fashionable abroad, resembling embroideries of straw, and trimmed with a
+bouquet of the wild red poppies, half blown, while those which are
+placed next the face are of a softer hue, with strings of straw colored
+silk ribbon.
+
+FIG. 1 represents a graceful afternoon promenade costume, and a carriage
+costume. The figure on the left shows the promenade costume. The dress
+is made quite plain, with low body and long sleeves, with cuffs of plain
+fulled muslin; chemisette of lace, reaching to the throat, and finished
+with a narrow row encircling the neck. _Pardessus_ of silk or satin,
+trimmed in an elegant manner, with lace of the same color, three rows of
+which encircle the lower part, and two rows the half long sleeves. These
+rows are of broader lace than the rows placed on either side of the
+front of the _pardessus_. Drawn white crape bonnet, decorated with small
+straw colored flowers, both in the interior and on the exterior.
+
+The figure on the right shows the carriage costume. It is a dress of
+pale pink _poult de soié_; the corsage, high on the shoulders, opens a
+little in the front. It has a small cape, falling deep at the back, and
+narrowing toward the point, pinked at the edge; the waist and point
+long; the sleeves reach but a very little below the elbow, and are
+finished with broad lace ruffles. The skirt has three deep scalloped
+flounces, a beautiful spray of leaves being embroidered in each scallop.
+Manteau of India muslin, trimmed with a broad frill, the embroidering of
+which corresponds with the flowers of the dress. The bonnet of _paille
+de riz_; trimmed inside and out with bunches of roses; the form very
+open. There are others of the same delicate description, lined with pink
+_tulle_, and decorated with tips of small feathers, shaded pink and
+white, or terminated with tips of pink _marabout_.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.--MORNING COSTUME.]
+
+FIG. 2 represents a morning costume. Dress high, with a small ruffle
+and silk cravat. The material is plain _mousseline de soié_, white, with
+a small frill protruding from the slightly open front. The body is full,
+and the skirt has a broad figured green stripe. Sleeves full and
+demi-long, with broad lace ruffles. The skirt is very full, and has
+three deep flounces.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.--OPERA COSTUME.]
+
+FIG. 3 is a plain, and very neat costume for the opera. The body,
+composed of blue or green silk, satin, or velvet, fits closely. The
+sleeves are also tight to the elbows, when they enlarge and are turned
+over, exhibiting a rich lining of pink or orange, with scalloped edges.
+The corsage is open in front, and turned over, with a collar, made of
+material like that of the sleeves, and also scalloped. Chemisette of
+lace, finished at the throat with a fulled band and _petite_ ruffle.
+Figures 2 and 3 show patterns of the extremely simple CAPS now in
+fashion; simple, both in their form and the manner in which they are
+trimmed. Those for young ladies partake mostly of the lappet form,
+simply decorated with a pretty _noeud_ of ribbon, from which droop
+graceful streamers of the same, or confined on each side the head with
+half-wreaths of the wild rose, or some other very light flower. Those
+intended for ladies of a more advanced age are of a _petit_ round form,
+and composed of a perfect cloud of _gaze_, or _tulle_, intermixed with
+flowers.
+
+TRAVELING DRESSES are principally composed of _foulard coutit_, or of
+flowered jaconets, with the _cassaquette_ of the same material. Plain
+cachmires are also much used, because they are not liable to crease.
+They are generally accompanied by _pardessus_ of the same material. When
+the dress is of a sombre hue, the trimmings are of a different color, so
+as to enliven and enrich them. The skirts are made quite plain, but very
+long and of a moderate breadth; the bodies high and plain, and
+embroidered up the fronts.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+
+Words surrounded by _ are italicized.
+
+Obvious punctuation errors have been repaired, other punctuations have
+been left as printed in the paper book.
+
+Captions added to captionless illustrations.
+
+Obvious printer's errors have been repaired, other inconsistent
+spellings have been kept, including:
+- use of hyphen (e.g. "birth-day" and "birthday");
+- any other inconsistent spellings (e.g. "panel" and "pannel").
+
+Following proper names have been corrected:
+- Pg 728, "Fanueil" corrected to be "Faneuil" (Faneuil Hall).
+- Pg 773, "Hazledeans" corrected to be "Hazeldeans" (The Hazeldeans in
+chorus) and "Higgingbotham's" corrected to be "Higginbotham's" (Captain
+Higginbotham's lead).
+- Pg 800, "Agatha mother's" corrected to be "Agatha's mother" (found
+Agatha's mother alone).
+- Pg 846, "tartantula" corrected to be "tarantula" (bite of a
+tarantula).
+- Pg 860, "Lowz" corrected to be "Lonz" (Lonz Powers).
+- Pg 860, "Minifee" corrected to be "Minifie" (Wm. Minifie and Co.).
+
+Following corrections are by removal or addition of a word:
+- Pg 723, word "by" removed (surrounded by [by] tall trees).
+- Pg 781, word "in" added (and in spite of).
+- Pg 801, word "I" added (that I was not sorry).
+- Pg 855, word "are" removed (there are [are] thirty-two).
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. VI,
+November 1850, Vol. I, by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40147 ***