Little Classics, Volume 8 (of 18)

ays distant. No reasons were alleged, and no apologies offered, for this demand upon my time; but they had heard, it was clear, of my inquiries anent the missing director, and had a min

of some twelve or fourteen gentlemen seated in solemn conclave round a hug

specting Mr. John Dwerrihouse had come to the knowledge of the direction, and that they in consequence des

fty-six." Then came the inquiry of where I had seen him on that fourth day of December; to which I replied that I met him in a first-class compartment of the 4.15 down express; that he got in just as the train was leaving the London terminus, and that he alighted at B

the room. He was then examined as carefully as myself. He declared that he knew Mr. John Dwerrihouse perfectly well; that he could not be mistaken in him; that he remembered going down with the 4.15 express on the afternoon in question; that he remembered me; and that, there being one or two empty first-class compartments on that especial afternoon, he had, in compliance with my request, placed me in a carriage by myself. He was positive that I remained alone in that compartment all the way from London to Clayborough. He was ready to take his oath that Mr. Dwerrih

," said the chairman. "It contradicts yours in

ite as positive of the truth of my own asserti

s in possession of a private key. Are you sure that he had not aligh

train had fairly entered the station, and the other Blackwater pa

u see that pers

disti

scribe his

ushy mustache and beard, and he wore a closely fitting suit of gr

leave the station in

w them standing aside under a gas-jet, talking earnestly. After that I lost

other. One or two looked suspiciously at the guard. I could see that my evidence remained unsha

.15 express on the day in quest

eplied the guard; "fr

at Clayborough? I thought there was alw

e in force last midsummer; since when, the guards in

turned to t

he said, "if we had the day-boo

attendance to summon Mr. Raikes. From a word or two dropped by another of

st of light beard and mustache. He just showed himself at the door of the board-room, and, being

nd sudden, that it was not till the door had closed upon him that I found

same who met Mr. Dwerrihouse up

f surprise. The chairman looke

ford," he said, "tak

e of his identit

ou consider that you are bringing a charge of the gra

inute since is the same whom I saw talking with Mr. Dwerrihouse on the Blackwater pla

turned again

s in the train, or on

shook h

n the train," he said; "and I certai

urned next to

nter," he said. "Can you remember if

to speak positively. I have been away most afternoons myself lately, an

secretary returned with t

man, "to the entries of the fourth instant, and s

or four successive columns of entries. Stopping suddenly at the foot of a page, he then read

looked the under-secretary full in the fa

Mr. Raikes, on th

si

on the afternoon and evening of

unter's office. Wher

der-secretary's voice as he said this; bu

Raikes, that you were absent that afte

a day's holiday since September. M

e clerks in the adjoining office would be certain to know. Whereupon the senior c

Mr. Raikes had in no instance, to his knowledge, been absent durin

o me with a smile, in which a shade of

Mr. Langfor

t my conviction

ear that you 'dream dreams,' and mistake them for actual occurrences. It is a dangerous habit of mind, and might lead to dange

reply, but he g

lue throughout. The testimony of Benjamin Somers disproves his first statement, and the testimony of the last witness disproves his second. I think we may conclude that Mr. Langfor

n's manner. Most intolerable of all, however, was the quiet smile lurking about the corners of Benjamin Somers's mouth, and the half-triumphant, half-malicious gleam in the eyes of the under-secretary. The man was evidently p

g deserved, I begged leave to detain the attention of the board

d. "The chairman's right enough. You dre

not usually productive of tangible results, and that I requested to know in what way the chairman conceived I had evolved from my dream so

ur evidence. It is your only strong point, however, and there is just a possibility that we

hat any other should bear precisely this monogram,

ce, and then passed it to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunt

n Dwerrihouse's cigar-case to a certainty. I remem

an. "Yet how account for the way in which Mr. La

ted. It was in leaning out to look after him that I trod upon it; and it was in running after him for the pur

athan Jelf pluck

" he whispered,-

ing a moment before, and saw him, white as death wit

his way; to take him by the shoulders as if he were a child, and turn his cr

k at his face! I ask no better w

man's bro

ernly, "if you know anyth

om my grasp, the under-secretary s

ow nothing,-you have no rig

ge brought against you is either true or false. If true, you will do well to throw

ung his hands in an ag

the time! I know nothing about it-I have nothing to con

y!" echoed the chairma

to Mr. Hunter-Mr. Hunter knows I had three weeks' leave of absence!

, the directors began to whisper gravely among themselves; whi

o do with the matter?" said the chai

er," said the secretary; "about the t

that he had disappea

lice. In the mean while, Mr. Raikes, being myself a magistrate, and used to deal with these cases, I advise

wretch fell u

my life, and I will confess all! I didn't mean to harm him! I didn't m

tated. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed, "what h

aven," said Jonathan Jelf, "it m

"Not murder! No jury that ever sat could bring it in murder. I thought I had only stu

lation, the chairman covered his face with his

aid at length, "you h

urged me to throw myself u

n, "and which this board has no power either to punish or forgive. All that I can do for you is to

heavily against the table. His answer came r

ty-second of

ace, and he in mine. I felt my own paling with a strange sense o

pered, "what was it, then,

tting leaves, at the bottom of a deserted chalk-pit about half-way between Blackwater and Mallingford. I know that it spoke, and moved, and looked as that man spoke, and moved, and looked in life; that I heard, or seemed to hear, things related which I could never otherwise have learne

to Clayborough had not been in use for several weeks, and was in point of fact the same in which poor John Dwerrihous

Raikes, in the files of the Times for 1856. Enough that the under-secretary, knowing the history of the new line, and following the negotiation step b

own with the life-preserver, and so killed him; and how, finding what he had done, he dragged the body to the verge of an out-of-the-way chalk-pit, and there flung it in, and piled it over with branches and brambles,-are facts still fresh in the memories of those who, like the connoisseurs in De Quincey's famous essay, regard murder as a fine art. Strangely enough, the murderer, having done his work, was afraid to leave the country. He declared that he had not intended to take the director's life, but only to stun and rob him; and that, finding

ther acquaintance may see him any day (admirably done in wax) in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's exhibition, in Baker Street. He is there to be found in the midst of a select society of la

IGNAL

RLES D

Below

ut, instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said, for my life, what. But I know

oa! B

himself about again, and, raising hi

y which I can come d

earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an oncoming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapor as rose to

p flag towards a point on my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I called down to him, "All right!" and made for

became oozier and wetter as I went down. For these reasons, I found the way long enough to give m

ain had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and that left elbow rested on

-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky: the perspective one way, only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction, terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in

touched him. Not even then removing his eyes from

hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set free, had a newly awakened interest in these great works. To s

near the tunnel's mouth, and looked all about it, as i

part of his cha

low voice, "Don't

s and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man. I have

ction, I detected in his eyes some latent fear

, forcing a smile, "as i

returned, "whether I

he

he red light he

e?" I

me, he replied (but w

there? However, be that as it may,

he rejoined. "Yes

could only say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that form, and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a language down here,-if only to know it by sight, and to have formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be called learning it. He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little algebra; but he was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at figures. Was it necessary for him, when on duty, always to remain in that channel of damp air, and could he never

rhaps educated above that station, he observed that instances of slight incongruity in such-wise would rarely be found wanting among large bodies of men; that he had heard it was so in workhouses, in the police force, even in that last desperate resource, the army; and that he knew it was so, more or less, in any great railway staff. He had

to understand that he claimed to be nothing but what I found him. He was several times interrupted by the little bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. Once he had to stand without the door and display a flag as a train

en color, turned his face towards the little bell when it did NOT ring, opened the door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude the unhealthy damp), and looked out towards the red light nea

, "You almost make me think that

cknowledge that I sai

n the low voice in which he had first spoke

if he could. He had said them, ho

What is yo

ery, very difficult to speak of. If ever you

to make you another visi

ng, and I shall be on again

come at

r," he said, in his peculiar low voice, "till you have found the way up. When

lace strike colder to me, but I

all out! Let me ask you a parting question. What

d I. "I cried somet

r. Those were the very

words. I said them, no doub

other

ason could I p

they were conveyed to you

N

ails (with a very disagreeable sensation of a train coming behind me), until I found the p

f the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were striking elev

said, when we came close

l mean

then, and her

, sir, and

to his box, entered it, closed t

speaking in a tone but a little above a whisper, "that you shall not have to ask me tw

mist

t some o

is

n't k

ke

left arm is across the face, and the righ

action of an arm gesticulating with the utmost pa

d you. The voice seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, 'Look out! Look out!' And then again, 'Halloa! Below there! Look out!' I caught up my lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, 'What's wrong? What has happened?

e tunnel

ing through the arch. I ran out again, faster than I had run in (for I had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I looked all round the red light with my own red light, and I went up the

cate nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, were known to have often troubled patients, some of whom had become conscious of the nature of their affliction, and had even proved it by exper

ught to know something of the wind and the wires, he who so often passed long winter

he slowly added these

s Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and wounded were broug

But it was unquestionable that remarkable coincidences did continually occur, and they must be taken into account in dealing with such a subject. Though to be sure I must admit, I ad

o remark that he

rdon for being betray

. Six or seven months passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and shock, when one morning, as the day was breaking,

it cr

t was

wave i

ft of the light, with both han

s. It was an action of mourning. I have seen

u go up

artly because it had turned me faint. When I went to the

llowed? Nothing

is forefinger twice or thrice,

st in time to signal the driver, Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train drifted past here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, and as I went along

back, as I looked from the board

ecisely as it happen

and my mouth was very dry. The wind and the wir

is troubled. The spectre came back, a week ago. Ever sin

he li

Danger

es it se

assion and vehemence, that former gesticu

for many minutes together, in an agonized manner, 'Below there! Lo

r bell yesterday evening when I wa

wi

n to the bell, and, if I am a living man, it did NOT ring at those times. No, nor at any other time, e

g with the man's. The ghost's ring is a strange vibration in the bell that it derives from nothing else, and

seem to be there, w

AS th

h ti

firmly: "B

he door with me, an

on the step, while he stood in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. There was the dismal mouth

s were prominent and strained; but not very much more so, perhaps, than m

wered. "It i

ed,"

f it might be called one, when he took up the conversation in such a matter-of-course way, so assuming that

he said, "that what troubles me so dreadfully

told him, that I d

s the danger? Where is the danger? There is danger overhanging, somewhere on the Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. I

chief, and wiped the drop

I should get into trouble, and do no good. They would think I was mad. This is the way it would work:-Message: 'Danger! Take care!'

tal torture of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endu

,-if it must happen? Why not tell me how it could be averted,-if it could have been averted? When on its second coming it hid its face, why not tell me instead: 'She is going to die. Let them keep her at home'? If it came, on those two occasions, o

whoever thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at least it was his comfort that he understood his duty, though he did not understand these confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded far better than in the attempt to reason him ou

light, and that I should have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see no reason to conceal. No

o be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact; but how long might he remain so, in his state of mind? Though in a subordinate position, still

dle course to him, I ultimately resolved to offer to accompany him (otherwise keeping his secret for the present) to the wisest medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts, and to take his opin

n I traversed the field-path near the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my walk for an hour, I said

had first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, when, close at the mouth of the tunn

a little group of other men standing at a short distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made. The Danger-light was not yet li

hat fatal mischief had come of my leaving the man there, and causing no one to be sent to ov

matter?" I

killed this

belonging t

s,

e man I

o spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his own head and ra

happen?" I asked, turning from one t

It was just at broad day. He had struck the light, and had the lamp in his hand. As the engine came out of the tunnel, his

ress, stepped back to his former

ctive-glass. There was no time to check speed, and I knew him to be very careful. As he didn't seem to take hee

did yo

ok out! Look out! For Go

tar

ling to him. I put this arm before my eyes, not to see

the coincidence that the warning of the Engine-Driver included, not only the words which the unfortunate signal-man had repeated to me a

UNTED

AN CUN

curious these tales afford a rich fund of entertainment, from the many diversities of the same story; some dry and barren, and stripped of all the embellishments of poetry; others dressed out in all the riches of a superstitious belief and haunted imagination. In this they resemble the inland traditions of the peasants; but many of the oral treasures of the Galwegian or the Cumbrian coast have the stam

e us; and the bleat of the flocks from its summit, together with the winding of the evening horn of the reapers, came softened into something like music over land and sea. We pushed our shallop into a deep and wooded bay, and sat silently looking on the serene beauty of the place. The moon glimmered in her rising through the tall shafts of the pines of Caerlaverock; and the sky, with scarce a cloud, showered down on wood, and headl

the fishers are remarkably dexterous in striking their prey. The senior seated himself on a large gray stone, which overlooked the bay, laid aside his bonnet, and submitted his bosom and neck to the refreshing sea-

ows every creek and cavern and quicksand in Solway,-has seen the Spectre Hound that haunts the Isle of Man; has heard him bark, and at every bark has

his feet with two massy silver buckles. If the dress of the old man was rude and sordid, that of his grand-daughter was gay, and even rich. She wore a bodice of fine wool, wrought round the bosom with alternate leaf and lily, and a kirtle of the same fabric, which, almost touching her white and delicate ankle, showed her snowy feet, so fairy-light and round that they scarcely seemed to touch the grass where she stood. Her hair, a natural ornament which woman seeks much to improve, was of bright glossy brown, and encumbered rather than adorned with a snood, set thick with marine productions, among which the small clear pearl found in the Solway was

ooked on old Mark the Mariner, who, seated motionless on his gray stone, kept his eye fixed on the increasing waters with a look of seriousness and sorrow in which I saw little of the calculating spirit of a mere fisherman. Though he looked on the coming tide, his eyes seemed to dwell particularly on the black and decayed hulls

finds from you its song of sorrow and wail, its funeral processions, and its shrouded corses. Woe to the land where the wood grew that made ye! Cursed be the axe that hewed ye on the mountains, the hands that joined ye together, the bay that ye first swam in, and the wind that wafted ye here! Seven times have ye put my life in peril, three fair

hands; but the more they strove, the faster advanced the peasant, till he stood to his middle in the water, while the tide increased every moment in depth and strength. "Andrew, Andrew," cried the young woman, in a voice quavering with emotion, "turn, turn, I tell you: O the ships, the Haunted Ships!" But the appearance of a fine run of fish had more influence with the peasant than the voice of bonnie Barbara, and forward he d

of that lad Andrew Lammie; can the chield be drowning, that he skirls sae uncannilie?" said the old woman, seating herself on the ground, and looking earnestly at the water

cing shriek of joy, and bounded toward us through the agitated element the full length of an oar. I saw him for a second on the surface of the water; but the eddying current sucked him down; and all I ever beheld of him again was his hand held above the flood, and clutching in agony at some imaginary aid. I sat gazing in horror on the vacant sea before us: but a brea

nd nigh them at midnight when the tide has subsided, and they arise in their former beauty, with forecastle, and deck, and sail, and pennon, and shroud! Then is seen the streaming of lights along the

eved I had seen one victim offered up; and I inquired of the old mariner, "How and when came these haunted ships there? To me they seem but

ir and so level, is a faithless quicksand, out of which none escape. Things are otherwise than they seem. Had you lived as long as I have had the sorrow to live; had you seen the storms, and braved the perils, and endured the distresses which have befallen me; had you sat gazing out on the dreary ocean at midnight on a haunted coast; had you seen comrade after comrade, brother after brother, and son

eauty: the sun had newly set; the moon came brighter and brighter out; and the reapers, laying their sickles at the root of the standing corn, stood on rock and bank, looking at the increasing magnitude of the waters, for sea and land were visible from Saint Bees to Barnhourie. The sails of two vessels were soon seen bent for the Scottish coast; and with a speed outrunning the swiftest ship, they approached the dangerous quicksands and headland of Borranpoint. On the deck of the foremost ship not a living soul was seen, or shape, unless something in darkness and form resembling a human shadow could be called a shape, which flitted from extremity to extremity of the ship, with the appearance of trimming the sails, and directin

it shadowy and unsubstantial, like the vessels they sail in, which are made out of a cockleshell or a cast-off slipper, or the paring of a seaman's right thumb-nail. I once got a hansel out of a witch's quaigh myself,-auld Marion Mathers, of Dustiefoot, whom they tried to bury in the old kirkyard of Dunscore, but the cummer raise as fast as they laid her down, and naewhere else would she lie but in the bonnie green kirkyard of Kier, among douce and sponsible fowk. So I'll vow that the wine of a witch's cup is as fell liquor as ever did a kindly turn to a poor man's heart; and be they fiends, or be they witches, if they have red wine asteer, I'll risk a drouket sark for ae glorious tout on't.'-'Silence, ye sinners,' said the minister's son of a neighboring parish, who un

y pilot who conducted the ships made it start toward the shore with the rapidity of lightning, and its head knocked against the bank where the four young men stood, who longed for the unblest drink. They leaped in with a laugh, and with a laugh were they welcomed on deck; wine-cups were given to each, and as they raised them to their lips the vessels melted away beneath their feet; and one loud shriek, mingled with laughter still louder, was heard over land and wa

though I mean not to say that I have been free of the folly of daunering and daffin with a youth in my day, and keeping tryste with him in dark and lonely places. However, as I say, these times of enjoyment were passed and gone with me; the mair's the pity that pleasure should fly sae fast away,-and as I could nae make sport I thought I should not mar any; so out I sauntered into the fresh cold air, and sat down behind that old oak, and looked abroad on the wide sea. I had my ain sad thoughts, ye may think, at the time: it was in that very bay my blythe goodman perished, with seven more in his company, and on that very bank where ye see the waves leaping and foaming, I saw seven stately corses streeked, but the dearest was the eighth. It was a woful sight to me, a widow, with four bonnie boys, with

onnie barge with its sails bent, and on board leaped the form, and scudded swiftly away. He came to one of the Haunted Ships; and striking it with his oar, a fair ship, with mast, and canvas, and mariners, started up: he touched the other Haunted Ship, and produced the like transformation; and away the three spectre ships bounded, leaving a track of fire behind them on the billows which was long unextinguished. Now was nae that a bonnie and a fearful sight to see beneath the light of the Hallowmass moon? But the tale is far frae finished; for mariners say that once a year, on a certain night, if ye stand on the Borranpoint, ye will see the infernal shallops coming snoring through the Solway; ye will hear the same laugh, and song, and mirth, and minstrelsy, which our ancestors heard; see them bound over the sandbanks and sunken rocks l

ir unhallowed mariners. She lives cannilie and quietly; no one knows how she is fed or supported; but her dress is aye whole, her cottage ever smokes, and her table lacks neither of wine, white and red, nor of fowl and fish, and white bread and brown. It was a dear scoff to Jock Matheson, when he called old Moll the uncannie carline of Blawhooly: his b

w the good wife of Kittlenaket wears rowan-berry leaves in the headband of her blue kirtle, and all for the sake of averting the unsonsie glance of Mary's right ee; and I know that the auld laird of Burntroutwater drives his seven cows to their pasture with a wand of witch-tree, to keep Mary from milking them. But what has all that to do with haunted shallops, visionary mariners, and bottomless boats? I have heard myself as pleasant a tale about t

e flesh and blood lovers of Alexander's bonnie wife all ceased to love and to sue her after she became another's, there were certain admirers who did not consider their claim at all abated, or their hopes lessened, by the kirk's famous obstacle of matrimony. Ye have heard how the devout minister of Tinwald had a fair son carried away, and bedded against his liking to an unchristened bride, whom the elves and the fairies provided; ye have heard how the bonnie bride of the drunken laird of Soukitup was stolen by the fairies out at the back-window of the bridal chamber, the time

creasing waters among the shells and the pebbles was heard for sundry miles. All at once lights began to glance and twinkle on board the two Haunted Ships from every hole and seam, and presently the sound as of a hatchet employed in squaring timber echoed far and wide. But if the toil of these unearthly workmen amazed the Laird, how m

to the waves. But ye shall hear. Home flew the Laird, collected his family around the hearth, spoke of the signs and the sins of the times, and talked of mortification and prayer for averting calamity; and finally, taking his father's Bible, brass clasps, black print, and covered with calf-skin, from the shelf, he proceeded without let or stint to perform domestic worship. I sho

ng from its back, and a heavy knock came to the door, accompanied by a voice saying, 'The cummer dri

eed! who could have thought it? the Laird has been heirless for s

hold shall you not stir to-night; and I have said, and I have sworn it: seek not to know why or wherefore; but, Lord,

say I am sair laid with a sudden sickness? though it's sinful-like to send the

stere Laird, 'so let him depart.' And the clatter of a horse's hoofs was heard, and

beside my dower, have brought you three as bonnie bairns as ever smiled aneath a summer sun. O man, you a douce man, and fitter to be an elder than even Willie Greer himself, I have the minister's ain word

een stayed in our devotion, so let us pray.' And down he knelt: his wife knelt also, for she wa

dient for a time; but if I dinna ken what all this is for before the morn by

snares of Satan; 'from witches, ghosts, goblins, elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre shallop of Solway; from spirits visible an

prayer from human lips before. But, Sandie, my man, Lord's sake, rise: what fearful light is this?-barn and byre and stable mau

es, common or extraordinary, were put in practice to entice or force the honest farmer and his wife to open the door; and when the like success attended every new stratagem, silence for a little while ensued, and a long, loud, and shrilling laugh wound up the dramatic efforts of the night. In the morning, when Laird Macharg went to the door, he found standing against one of the pilasters a piece of black ship oak, rudely fashioned into something like human form, and which skilful people declared would have been clothed with seeming flesh and blood, and palmed upon him by elfin adroitness for his wife, had he admitted his visitants. A synod of wise men and women sat upo

HAT NO M

RT T. S

my tale, this ti

ers of land and sea; and he had visited the farther countries, whose indwellers, having been once at home in the green fields and under the sky and roofs of t

.

seen and remembered, for myself, words and things from crowded streets and fairs and shows and wave-washed quays and murmurous market-places, in many lands; and for his ,-his people wrapt in cloud and vapor, whom "no glad su

eying for Government. One of my old friends there was Skipper Benjie Westham, of Brigus, a shortish, stout, bald man, with a cheer

pper Benjie when he began; and I had an hour by the watch to spend. The neighborhood, all about, was still; the only men who were in sight were so far

in books: it's on'y like what we planters[2] tells of a winter's night or sech: but it's feelun, mubbe

ote 1:

e 2: Fis

, healthy man, a good fisherman and a good seaman. There was no nee

v'yage ever was, ef 't was n' the very first; an' 't was the last for me, an' worse agen f

ng his story wait, after this opening, he took one hole to begin at in mending, chose his seat, and drew the seine up to his knee. At the same time I got nearer to the fellowship of the f

seemun it's a cruel, bloody place, jes' so well,-but not all thinks alike, sure

m as if she would a good deal rather go with him than stay; but she stayed, nevertheless, and worked at the seine. I interpreted to myself Ski

water; an' then I found 'em so friendly, when I was wantun friends badly. But I s'pose the swile-fishery's needful; an' I knows, in course, that even Christens' blood's got to be taken sometimes, when it's bad blood, an' I would n' be childish about they things: on'y-ef it's me-when I can live

ote 3:

even his own family, up to his own way in everything; and it might easily be thought that the young fisherman had different

company,-the Sparrow. There was a many of us was n' too good, but we thowt wrong of 'e's takun the Lord's Day to 'e'sself. Wull, Sir, afore I comed 'ome, I was in a great desert country, an' float

three days yet; on'y we was workun along; pokun the cakes of ice away, an' haulun through wi' main strength sometimes, holdun on wi' bights o' ropes out o' the bow; an' more times, agen, in clear wa

e on the horizon, from t

all so bright! I never looked upon the like. An' so I stood in the bows; an' I don' know ef I thowt o' God first, but I was thinkun o' my girl that I was troth-plight wi' then, an' a many things, when all of a sudden we comed upon the hardest ice we'd a-had; an' into it; an' then, wi' pokun an' haulun, workun along. An' there was a cry goed up,-like the cry of a babby, 't was, an' I thowt mubbe 't was a somethun had got upon one o' they islands; but I said, agen, 'How could it?' an' one John Harris said 'e thowt 't was a bird. Then another man (Moff

5: A you

I saw her tears. The stout fisherman smoothed out the net a little upon his kne

derness, "they swiles were friends to I, after.) Dear, O dear! I could n' stand it; for 'e might ha' killed un; an' so 'e goes for a quart o' rum, for fetchun fi

snow comun agen, so fast as ever it could come: but out the men 'ould go, all mad like, an' my watch goed, an' so I mus' go. (I did n' think wh

cal word for the cr

lled 'em: on'y the poor mother baste ketched my gaff, that I was goun to strike wi', betwixt her teeth, an' I could n' get it away. 'T was n' like fishun! (I was weak-hearted like: I s'pose 't was wi' what was comun that I did n' know.) Then comed a hail, all of a sudden, from the schooner (we had n' been gone more 'n a five minutes, ef 't was so much,-no, not more 'n a three); but I was glad to hear it come then, however: an' so every man ran, one afore t' other. There the schooner was, tearun through all, an' we runnun for dear life. I fal

e, between large cakes

nd brace his feet against the ground, and clutch his net. The young woman looked up, this time; and the cold snow-blast seemed to howl through that still summer's noon, and t

began to s

Lard, help me!' an' crawlun away, wi' the snow in my face (I

my armès in cold water, part-ways to the bottom o' th' ocean; and a'most head-first into un, as I'd

r, not yet frozen, but lo

outside, an' she gone miles an' miles away; an' by two hours' time, even ef she'd come to, itself, an' all clear weather, I could n' never see her; an' ef

r her, nor I could n' anchor her, nor bring her to, but she would go, wind or calm, an' she'd never come to port, but out in th' ocean she'd go to pieces! I sid 't was so, an' I must take it, an' do my best wi' it. 'T was jest a great, white, frozen raft, driftun bodily away, wi' storm blowun

then I thowt, 'Mubbe I may be goun wrong way.' So I groaned to the Lard to stop the snow. Then I on'y ran this way an' that way, an' groaned for snow to knock off.[9] I knowed we was driftun mubbe a twenty leagues a day, and anyways I wanted to be doun what I could, keepun up over th' Ice so well as I could,

te 9: T

he Ice, myself, and assured him, that, though I could get along pretty well on land,

ep, I stumbled upon somethun in the snow, seemed soft, like a body! Then I comed all together, hopun an' fearun an' all toget

'who's this? Be t

afore a gale (I would n' mind about 'em), an' a poor lost Christen may show a good turn to a hurt thing, ef 't was on'y a baste. So I smoothed away the snow wi' my cuffs, an' I sid 't was a poor thing wi' her whelp close by her, an' her tongue out, as ef she'd a-died fondlun an' lickun it; an' a great puddle o' blood,-it looked tarrible heartless, when I was so nigh to death, an' was n' hungry. An' then I feeled a stick, an' I thowt, 'It may be a help to me,' an' so I pulled un, an'

te 10:

cleared away; but jes' drift wi' the great Ice down from the Nothe, away down over the say, a sixty mile a day, mubbe. I was n' a good Christen, an' I could n' help a-thinkun o' home an' she I was troth-plight wi', an' I doubled

p being moved, and glanced over toward the daughter's seat; but she was gone, and, turn

d to her leaving, but

very one of 'em flashun up as ef they'd kendled up a bonfire, but no sign of a schooner! no sign of a schooner! nor no sign o' man's douns, but

dden 'e rared up, an' turned over an' over, wi' a tarrible thunderun noise, an' comed right on, breakun everything an' throwun up great seas; 't was frightsome for a lone body away out among 'em! I stood an' looked at un, but then agen I thowt I may jes' so well be goun to thick ice an' over Noofundland-ways

t was dead by its dead whelp, an' hauled it away, where the t' other poor things could n' si' me, an' I sculped[11] it, an' took the pelt;-for I thowt I'd wear un, now the poor dead thing did n' want to make oose of un no more,-an' partly becase 't was sech a lovun thing. An' so I set out, walkun this way

te 11:

utiful,-yellow, an' different sorts o' red, like the sky itself in a manner, an' flashun like glass. So then it comed night; an' I thowt I should n' go to bed, an' I may forget my prayers, an' so I'd, mubbe, best say 'em right away; an' so I doned: 'Lighten our dar

t; but then I give over agen, an' would n' think, ef I could help it; on'y tryun to say an odd psalm, all through singu

ships an'

e seas

tun, through

ass an'

re force-p

works, wh

dreadful de

vellous

said), an' same uns many times, over: for I would keep o

oked at me; an' when I turned round, he walked a

shelter, ef it comed on to blow; an' so I stood, an'

ould n' think, ef I could help it; an' I prayed a bit, an' kep' up my psalms, an' varses out o' the

a great groanun, an' more times tarrible loud shriekun! There was great white fields, an' great white hills, like countries, comun down to be destroyed; an' some great bargs a-goun faster, an' tearun through, breakun other

ody'd let 'e'sself think! I sid a great black bear, an' hard un growl; an' 't was feelun, like, to hear un so bold an' s

Many's the one I'd a-ketched, daytime, an' talked to un, an' patted un on the head, as ef they'd a-been dogs by the door, like;

night goed down tarrible slowly, an' it comed up day o' t' other side: an' there was n' no land; nawthun but great mountains meltun an' breakun up, an' fields wastun away. I sid 't was a rollun barg made the noise like breakers; throwun up great seas o' both sides of un; no sight nor sign o' shore, nor ship, but dazun white,-enough to blind a body,-an' I knowed 't was all floatun away, over the say. Then I said my prayers, an' tooked a drink o' water, an' set out agen for Nor-norwest: 't was all I could do. Sometimes snow, an' more times fair agen; but no sign o' man's things, an' no sign o' land, on'y white ice an' black water; an' ef a schooner was n' into un a'ready, 't was n' likel

first look struck me a'most like a bullet! There I sid a sail! 'T was a sail, an' 't was like heav

n' bawled out, 'Glory be to God!' an' then I stopped, an' made proper thanks to Un. An' there she was, same as ef I'd a-walked off from her

t her, thank God! 'T was n' the Baccaloue (I sid that long before), 't was t' other schooner, the Sparrow, repai

rrow kep' her men, an' fotch home about thirty-eight hundred swiles, an' a poor man off th'

the poor baste, Sir:

ooner that brought away the lost man from the Ice; the green of the earth would not, at first, show itself through the white with which the fancy covered it; and at first I could not quite feel tha

hings, and took my leave. I went away the more gratified that I had a chance of lifting my cap to a matron, dark-haired and comely (w

ISIBLE

NCIS O

ver the monotonous duties assigned me, and the unvarying prospect of sea and sky, all so tedious that I grew as morose after a time as a travelling Englishman. Neither was coasting, with restricted liberty and much toil, amongst people whose language I could not speak, quite all that my fancy painted it,-although Genoa, Venice, the Bay of Naples,-crimsoned by Vesuvius, and canopied by an Italian sky,-and the storied scenes of Greece, all rich i

nent to continent. Around us were ships and sailors from all parts of the habitable globe; while through shine and shadow flitted boats and caiques innumerable, and exce

vespers, while we awaited the coming on board of our captain. Meanwhile the shadows crept up the Asian hills, till

what followed appear as possible to you as it did to us who were long his companions. I never knew to what country he belonged; for he spoke any language occasion called for, with the same apparent ease and fluency. He was far beyond the ordinary stature, yet it was only when you saw him in comparison with other men that you observed anything gigantic in his

d sound that the victims of the rattlesnake's fascination are said to undergo. Whatever sensations they occasioned, men shrank from renewing them, and the frankest and boldest of the crew shunned occasions for addressing him. Stranger still, this feeling, instead of wearing off by the close companionship of our little bark, seemed to deepen and strengthen, until at length, except myself, no one spoke to him who could a

silent adieu to the Geni

er first actual revelation to

capital, grope over the Acropolis and invoke Athenian Pallas," said Mike; "but for me these painted seraglios and terraced, bower-canopied gardens, v

naldos and Sir Guyons always waste your gardens of v

"all but the abomina

those bright lattice cages even now, who can follow neither their hearts' desires nor their sou

fter all, leave the Fatimas to their fate. The barriers that fence them in from their hearts' desires and souls' aspirations here are not more real, if more palpable, than those that guard them in our land of boasted freedom; neither are they altogether secur

ady in the so

lor I'll ne

I will trea

rsal rule at home, and encouraged him to rival the "swabber,

smiss both your songs as 'scurvy tunes,' and, sw

of his own rejected suit, "that Stephano's phi

the purest and most refined souls may shine through bright eyes without being especially chilled for those whom a cold destiny makes especially needful of their heart-warming influences. The

o Fred, he advised him to try its note on the hard-hearted parent who opposed his happiness. In the dee

d I'll come t

outright, exc

on's whistle, at

gates I understood shut Mr. Smith out from his true love. A single

d as money to you

us orders on a neighboring grocery, in lieu of cash for our wages. But I must co

for it at once,"

h a puzzled expression which seemed to ask: Is t

are size and color, and therefore valuable. But the power of the spell it is said to possess remains to be tested. I give it to you because in you, a

maiden, come t

. "Now hoist your signal and hail the daughter of the Grand Turk,

moonbeams blushed red in it, and calling o

maiden, come to

oked toward him for an explanation of the silence, and beheld him spitting

of paper that had been compressed within it, and holding it

the Bank of England, duly signed and indorse

for an explanation, but t

"but he's got no hold on me,-no claim to a b

expressed considerable anxiety and impatience. A breeze sprang up and began to curl the surface of the water, and clouds obscured the moon. Then the wind freshened to a storm, and lifted the waves on the channel, and roared in the cypress forests above Pera and Scutari. Under the light sails already set, the ship tugged hard at her cable. Yet the boat did not return. The captain walked the deck nervously, and finally ga

gorgeously clad and flashing with jewels, held easily and firmly by one encircling arm. His disengaged right hand was stained as if

king form, and, while her great dark eyes, dilated with horror, like those of a captured bird, threw wild, eager glances to left and

leave, take possession of it at once." So saying, he led her gently f

rom the harem of some palace, probably from the royal seraglio itself, off which we had been lying. And the horror depicted on her face, as well as the stains of blood on her abductor, told with what ruthless v

dered a rash amount of sail to be set. The mate, a bluff, powerful man, swore a

a piece of business very likely to bring all our heads to the block unless

What's done cannot be helped; but if she suffers further wrong in o

keep her safe and inviolate is more my right and interest than yours, and it must therefore be my especial dut

turned in with my watch, my sleep was undisturbed by any fear of wind or water, though it was full of troubled dreams. Now a lovely form in royal vesture beckoned to me from a lattice; anon the gleam of a lantern flickered across the

ore strong gales, through those famous seas we had cruised so often in youthful

ted himself entirely to the care of the Invisible Princess, as we grew to call her. But though invisible to our eyes, hers was the pervading presence of our thoughts. Not a wave rocked the ship, not a cloud overshadowed it, not a morning breeze came fresh from the sea, or an evening breeze brought fragrance from the shore, but was thought of in some relation with her. There was none like her, we said, in the broad continents to right of us, to left of us, or before us; and we doubted if there was her like in the lands of

w were on deck watching the lurid peak of Etna and the pavement of golden waves stretching toward it, and listening not to premonitions of Scylla or Charybdis, but to the song of the nightingales from the dim shore, or to tales of Enceladus and the Cyclops from Fred, and whimsical comments from Mike, she came hesitatingly forth, arousing an excitement an

men, evidently by a great effort, done that which she shrank from doing; but whether in obedience to her own will or to that of another, we could not guess. The ice thus broken, however, she was the Invisible Princess no longer. Emboldened by two or three subsequent moonlight and twilight ventures, she at length came out in the sunset, and I doubt if the setting sun ever revealed

words to catch; and without any power of revealing this individuality, this all that distinguished her from merely mortal woman and made her angelic, where is the use of attempting to describe her? Of her garments, by a recurrence to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu for the names of them, I could give you a description, from the golden-flowered, diamond-studded kerchief wreathed in her hair, to the yellow Cinderella slippers that covered her fairy feet. But the gauzy fabric that enfolded though it scarcely concealed her bosom, th

weather that followed, each time with less of blushing and confusion in the beautiful face; and at length, som

earingly, before that inscrutable countenance, as if her spirit wavered between a dream of terror and a contentful awaking. And many imagined that, as those dark eyes began to turn more lovingly and

rom us, as it came to us, without ceremony or warning, and leave us to cross the great ocean in the world of intolerable loneliness that would settle on the ship when she was gone. There was something like a patriotic aspiration in our desire to transplant this brightest of Eastern

m the sorrow or sympathy which all felt in spite of our engrossing battle for life against the tempest. For though there was no change in his appearance or demeanor, all were conscious that a deep feeling stirred his heart. Even when we doubted if all our energies could preserve the vessel from being dashed back upon the coast we had just lef

ith which hitherto she had never quite ceased to regard him who supported her was gone also, and in its place the large, dark eyes were filled by a glance of such indescribable gratitude and trust as only her eyes could express. He, for the first time, looked neither more nor less than a man. Her shrinking from our presence, too, had disappeared, and her look of recognition now was unmis

ring above it. But even after it became evident that the sweet evening air had no balm for the drooping girl, she loved to look out on the glories of the sunset, as i

arouse the fair invalid, who was reclined upon a couch. The enchanting halo of her perfect beauty was unabated by disease; and she was surrounded by articles so rare, so costly, and in such profusion, as to force themselves upon my attention even in that first glance. A faint smi

to so wretched a fate. Even in her mind's wanderings, she seldom went back to former pomps or pleasures, and her tongue preferred rather to stumble through the rough and unfami

how it was tossed upon them-and it ached, and-and-" Then, giving a s

, and then, with an expression as inscrutab

ht them with no such abstracted regard as mine. Fixedly and sternly he seemed to be watching among them some portentous index of fate. Soon a change came over his countenance, and he resumed his place beside the scarcely breathing form. Then the fountains of the great deep within him were broken up, and the rushing torrent of its emotions shook his whole frame and convulsed his features. Stooping, he ki

ise. O," he exclaimed, "this sacrifice is too great, too great! and for nothing! Even had she perished on the destined altar, an accepted sacrifice, it were too great! But I tore her from home and fri

, I called you here that you and she might look your last upon each other. Go now, and though your present emotion accords duly with the part I

d and murmured an adieu, and returned among my compani

our hopes a change of weather. But this indication, important as it was after the long calm, was evidently not that which the whole ship's crew, offic

l hands of us, from the captain down, acted in regard to this matter with the incapacity of men in a nightmare. Fear is a condition under which a true man should not breathe a moment without contest; and yet I

"to investigate this affair. Don't be too impuls

more substantial reasons. He was aware of his wealth and power when we were not. How, without his knowledge, could the treasures wort

alternately thrilled it in that position, did it now exhibit. The bright eyes were closed, the beautiful features settled in lasting repose. The glossy hair was daintily braided. The spotless garments were gracefully disposed. The jewels glittered conspicuously, as if relieved from the outvying lustre of her eyes. All, as in life, was pure and

wrapped the preciously weighted linen around her, stepped easily upon the bulwark, and with that perfect and deliberate poise so peculia

gleam of this strange jewel, a true type and testimony of it, I might yet g

ATE'S WED

HERINE

nity, and were near neighbors, they naturally hated each other. Their enmity commenced at school, where the delicate and refined De Chaulieu, being the only gentilhomme amongst the scholars, was the favorite of the master (who was a bit of an aristocrat in his heart), although he was about the worst dressed boy in the establishment

rising out of the state of the times, till a separation ensued, in consequence of an aunt of Antoine de Chaulieu's unde

t his resources failed, and then his health. He had no sooner returned to his home than, to complicate his difficulties completely, he fell in love with Miss Natalie de Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris, where she had been completing her education. To expatiate on the perfections of Mademoiselle Natalie would be a waste of ink and paper; it is sufficient to say that she re

date his rough humor to treat them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult them. The liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought him into contact with the higher classes of society, had led him into many scrapes, out of which his father's money had in one way or another relea

had each, characteristically, given vent to their enmity, the one in contemptuous monosyllables, and the other in a volley of insulting words. But Claudine had another lover, more nearly of her own condition of life; this was Claperon, the deputy-governor of the Rouen jail, with whom she had made acquai

ved to go out rather late on the previous evening, but whether he had returned nobody could tell. He had not appeared at supper, but that was too ordinary an event to awaken suspicion; and little alarm was excited till

nds with speedy vengeance. On the fatal evening, Alphonse and Claudine had been seen together in the neighborhood of the now dismantled brewery; and as Jacques, betwixt poverty and democracy, was in bad odor with the respectable part of society, it was not easy for him to bring witnesses to character or to prove an unexceptionable alibi. A

his mistress, and perhaps of the lady herself. The evidence against Jacques, it is true, was altogether presumptive; there was no proof whatever that he had committed the crime; and for his own part, he stoutly denied it. But Antoine de Chaulieu entertained no doubt of his guilt, and the speech

ng before the trial was to come on, which tended strongly to exculpate the prisoner, without indicating any other person as the criminal. Her

the court was crowded with all the beauty and fashion of Rouen, and amongst the rest,

persisted in asserting his innocence, founding his defence chiefly on circumstances which were strongly corr

self; warmed with his own eloquence, he believed what he said. But when the glow was over, and he found himself alone, he did not feel so comfortable. A latent doubt of Rollet's guilt now pressed strongly on his mind, and he felt that the blood of the innocent would be on his head. It was true there was yet time to save the life of

y one morning the guillotine was erected in the court-yard of the gaol, three criminals ascended the scaffold, and three heads fell

oung advocates in Paris. His success in one line brought him success in another; he was soon a favorite in society, and an object of interest to speculating mothers; but his affections still adhered to his old love, Natalie de Bellefonds, whose family now gave thei

e should come to Paris to provide her trousseau, it was agreed that the wedding should take place there, instead of at Bellefonds, as had been

in visiting Versailles, or St. Cloud, or even the public places of the city, is generally all that precedes the settling down into the habits of daily life. In the present

to spend his last night in his bachelor apartments. His wardrobe and other small possessions had already been packed up, and sent to his future home; and t

He sat up in bed to look at the clock, which was exactly opposite; and as he did so, in the large mirror over the fireplace, he perceived a figure standing behind him. As the dilated eyes met his own, he s

but of late, borne along by success and the hurry of Parisian life, these unpleasant remembrances had grown rarer, till at length they had faded away altogether. Nothing had been further from his thoughts than Jacques Rollet when

polished boots. When he was dressed, scarcely venturing to cast a glance in the mirror as he passed it, he quitted the room and descended the stairs, taking the key of the door with him, for the purpose of leaving it with the port

look happy, with that pall

ed? You are surely ill?" were the excl

ax his features were but distorted grimaces. However, the church was not the place for further inquiries; and whilst Natalie gently pressed his hand in token of sympathy, they advanced to the a

sband?" inquired Natalie,

but a restless night and a little overwork, in order

sure? Is ther

y don't take notice of it

tented herself with observing him quietly and saying nothing; but as he felt she was observing him,

, and betrayed a degree of temper altogether unusual with him. Then everybody looked astonished; some whispered their rema

liquids, of which he indulged in copious libations; and it was an exceeding relief to him when the carriage

o saw how eager he was to be gone, threw her shawl over her sh

nd bridegroom, to avoid each other's eyes, affected to be gazing out of the windows; but when they reached that part of the road w

time so reacted upon her, that she could not respond to his efforts; and thus the conversation languished, till b

o visit Mademoiselle de Bellefonds, who was overjoyed to see her sister and new brother-in-law, and dou

lieu's thoughts were now forced into another direction, his cheerfulness began insensibly to return. Natalie looked so beautiful, too, and the affection betwixt the two young sisters was so pleas

and there as they went to inspect a monument or a painting, when happening to turn his head aside to see if his wife, who had stopped to take a last look at the tomb of King Dagobert, was following, he beheld with horror the face of Jacques Rollet appearing from behind a c

aulieu, who, till that morning, seemed not to have a care in the world? For, plead illness as he might, she felt certain, from the expression of his features, that his sufferings were not of the body, but of the mind; and unable to imagine any reason for such extraordinary manifestations, of which she had

to eat. The young sister alone did justice to the repast; but although the bridegroom could not eat, he could swallow champagne in such copio

till, overcome with disappointment and grief, she quitted the room with her sister,

sband in his present condition to the eyes of strangers, Natalie prepared to reconduct her to the Maison Royal herself. Looking into the dining-room as they passed, they saw De Chaulieu lying on a sofa, fas

indeed, were these sensations, that they quite overpowered his previous ones, and, in his present vexation, he for the moment forgot his fears. He knelt at his wife's feet,

on ensued, not quite sincere on the part of the wife, and very humbling on the part of the husband. Under these circumstances it was impossible that he should recover his spirits or facility of manner; his

e Chaulieu anticipated a triumph in exhibiting the elegant home he had prepared for her. With some alacrity, therefore, they stepped out of the carriage, the gates of the hotel were thrown open, the concierge rang t

a man standing in a corner, as if to make way for them. The flash from above fell up

was lifting his foot to place it on the top stair: the sudden shock caused him to miss the step, and

s from above, and an attempt was made to raise the unfortunate man f

lying words I argued away the life of a fellow-creature, whom, whilst I uttered them, I half believed to be innocent; and now, when I have attained all I desired and reached the summit of my hopes, the Almighty has sent h

lirious,"

u, Antoine de Chaulieu! I am no apparition, but the veritable Jacques Rollet, who was saved by one who well knew my innocence. I may name him,

were three,"

but before I had time to speak, you awoke, and I recognized your features in the glass. Knowing that I could not vindicate my innocence if you chose to seize me, I fled, and seeing an omnibus starting for St. Denis, I got on it with a vague idea of getting on to Calais and crossing the Channel to England. But having only a franc or two in my pocket, or indeed in the world, I did not know how to procure the means of going forward; and whilst I

, "that sin is off my soul. Natalie, de

in haste, held up the cross before his failing sight; a few strong convu

BIRT

ANIEL H

y recent discovery of electricity and other kindred mysteries of Nature seemed to open paths into the region of miracle, it was not unusual for the love of science to rival the love of woman in its depth and absorbing energy. The higher intellect, the imagination, the spirit, and even the heart might all find their congenial aliment in pursuits which, as some of their ardent votaries believed, would ascend from one step of powerful intelligence to another, until the philosopher should

es and a deeply impressive moral. One day, very soon after their marriage, Aylmer sat

er occurred to you that the mark

manner, she blushed deeply. "To tell you the truth, it has been so oft

a, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesi

ening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then why d

n almost fearful distinctness. Its shape bore not a little similarity to the human hand, though of the smallest pygmy size. Georgiana's lovers were wont to say that some fairy at her birth hour had laid her tiny hand upon the infant's cheek, and left this impress there in token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts. Many a desperate swain would have risked life for the privilege of pressing his lips to the mysterious hand. It must not be concealed, however, that the impression wrought by this fairy sign-manual varied exceedingly according to the difference of temperament in the beholders. Some fastidious persons-but they were exclusively

with every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain. The crimson hand expressed the ineludible gripe in which mortality clutches the highest and purest of earthly mould, degrading them into

l point of all. With the morning twilight Aylmer opened his eyes upon his wife's face and recognized the symbol of imperfection; and when they sat together at the evening hearth his eyes wandered stealthily to her cheek, and beheld, flickering with the blaze of the wood fire, the spectral hand that wrote mortality whe

rdly to betray the stain on the poor wife's cheek, she he

feeble attempt at a smile, "have you any recollect

ne, affected for the sake of concealing the real depth of his emotion, "I might well

he had to say. "A terrible dream! I wonder that you can forget it. Is it possible to forget this one expression?-'It

at perchance belong to a deeper one. Aylmer now remembered his dream. He had fancied himself with his servant Aminadab attempting an operation for the removal of the birthmark; but the deeper went

s of sleep, and then speaks with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practise an unconscious self-deception during our waking moments. Until now he had

its removal may cause cureless deformity; or it may be the stain goes as deep as life itself. Again: do we know that there is a

the subject," hastily interrupted Aylmer. "I am con

and disgust,-life is a burden which I would fling down with joy. Either remove this dreadful hand, or take my wretched life! You have deep science. All the world bears witness of it. You have achieved grea

less perfect than yourself. Georgiana, you have led me deeper than ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully competent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most belov

ling. "And, Aylmer, spare me not, though you should

k,-her right cheek,-not that which b

and of the profoundest mines; he had satisfied himself of the causes that kindled and kept alive the fires of the volcano; and had explained the mystery of fountains, and how it is that they gush forth, some so bright and pure, and others with such rich medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom of the earth. Here, too, at an earlier period, he had studied the wonders of the human frame, and attempted to fathom the very process by which Nature assimilates all her precious influences from earth and air, and from the spiritual world, to create and foster man, her masterpiece. The latter pursuit, however, Aylmer had long laid aside in unwilling recogn

ully into her face, with intent to reassure her, but was so startled with the intense glow of the birthmar

houted Aylmer, stamping

ntific career, and was admirably fitted for that office by his great mechanical readiness, and the skill with which, while incapable of comprehending a single principle, he executed all the details of his master's experiments. With his vast stre

boudoir, Aminadab," said A

ifeless form of Georgiana; and then he muttered to himself,

bode of a lovely woman. The walls were hung with gorgeous curtains, which imparted the combination of grandeur and grace that no other species of adornment can achieve; and, as they fell from the ceiling to the floor, their rich and ponderous folds, concealing all angles and straight lines, appeared to shut in the scene from infinite space. For aught Georgiana knew, it might be a pavilion among the clouds. And

intly; and she placed her hand over her cheek to

! Believe me, Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single im

"Pray do not look at it again. I neve

ptical phenomena, still the illusion was almost perfect enough to warrant the belief that her husband possessed sway over the spiritual world. Then again, when she felt a wish to look forth from her seclusion, immediately, as if her thoughts were answered, the procession of external existence flitted across a screen. The scenery and the figures of actual life were perfectly represented, but with that bewitching yet indescribable differen

ried Georgiana. "I

you may. The flower will wither in a few moments and leave nothing save its br

han the whole plant suffered a blight, its leave

ul a stimulus," said

triking upon a polished plate of metal. Georgiana assented; but, on looking at the result, was affrighted to find the features of the portrait blurred and indef

which the golden principle might be elicited from all things vile and base. Aylmer appeared to believe that, by the plainest scientific logic, it was altogether within the limits of possibility to discover this long-sought medium. "But," he added, "a philosopher who should go deep enough to acquire the power would attain too lofty a wisdom to stoop to

g at him with amazement and fear. "It is terrible to

self by working such inharmonious effects upon our lives; but I would have you cons

eorgiana, as usual, shrank as if a

urs of absence, Aylmer reappeared and proposed that she should now examine his cabinet of chemical products and natural treasures of the earth. Among the former he showed her a small vial, in which, he remarked, was contained a gentle yet most powerful fragra

stal globe containing a gold-colored liquid. "It is so beaut

tion the lifetime of any mortal at whom you might point your finger. The strength of the dose would determine whether he were to linger out years, or drop dead in the mids

terrific drug?" inquir

ee! here is a powerful cosmetic. With a few drops of this in a vase of water, freckles may be washed away as easily as the

you intend to bathe my cheek?

"this is merely superficial. Your case

at she was already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken with her food. She fancied likewise, but it might be altogether fancy, that there was a stirring up of her system,-a strange, indefinite sensation creeping throu

ertus Magnus, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and the famous friar who created the prophetic Brazen Head. All these antique naturalists stood in advance of their centuries, yet were imbued with some of their credulity, and therefore were believed, and perhaps imagined themselves to have acquired from the investigation of nature a p

from materialism by his strong and eager aspiration toward the infinite. In his grasp the veriest clod of earth assumed a soul. Georgiana, as she read, reverenced Aylmer and loved him more profoundly than ever, but with a less entire dependence on his judgment than heretofore. Much as he had accomplished, she could not but observe that his most splendid successes were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest pebbles, and felt to be so by himself, in comparison with the inestimab

she laid her face upon the open volume and burst into

nance was uneasy and displeased. "Georgiana, there are pages in that volume which I can

rship you more tha

you will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But come, I h

hat the result was already certain. Scarcely had he departed when Georgiana felt irresistibly impelled to follow him. She had forgotten to inform Aylmer of a symptom which for two or three hours past had begun to e

were retorts, tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of chemical research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate use. The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous odors which had been tormented forth by the processes of science. Th

watchfulness whether the liquid which it was distilling should be the draught of immortal happiness or m

hou man of clay," muttered Aylmer, more to himself than his assistant

d Aminadab. "Loo

ler than ever, on beholding Georgiana. He rushed towards her and se

d he, impetuously. "Would you throw the blight of that fatal birt

ain. You mistrust your wife; you have concealed the anxiety with which you watch the development of this experiment. Think not so unwo

said Aylmer, impatien

ver draught you bring me; but it will be on the same principle tha

rimson hand, superficial as it seems, has clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of which I had no previous conception. I have already adminis

itate to tell me

aid Aylmer, in a low vo

shall be left upon my cheek!" cried Georgiana. "Remove it,

lmer, sadly. "And now, dearest, return to your

pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than he had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment than that meaner kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to holy love by degrading its pe

rless as water, but bright enough to be the draught of immortality. Aylmer was pale; but it seemed

said he, in answer to Georgiana's look. "Unless

nce to any other mode. Life is but a sad possession to those who have attained precisely the degree of moral advancement at which I stand. Were I weaker and bl

ed her husband. "But why do we speak of dying? The dr

Aylmer poured a small quantity of the liquid upon the soil in which it grew. In a little time, when the roots

ana, quietly. "Give me the goblet. I

ervid admiration. "There is no taint of imperfection on thy

uid and returned th

ow not what of unobtrusive fragrance and deliciousness. It allays a feverish thirst that had parched me for many days. Now

er to a man the whole value of whose existence was involved in the process now to be tested. Mingled with this mood, however, was the philosophic investigation characteristic of the man of science. Not the minutest symptom escaped him. A heightened flush of the cheek, a slight irregularity of brea

uneasily and murmured as if in remonstrance. Again Aylmer resumed his watch. Nor was it without avail. The crimson hand, which at first had been strongly visible upon the marble paleness of Georgiana's cheek, now grew more faintly outlined. She remained not less pale than eve

y. "I can scarcely trace it now. Success! success! And now it is like the faintest rose c

nto the room and rest upon her cheek. At the same time he heard a gross, hoarse

have served me well! Matter and spirit-earth and heaven-have both done their

aint smile flitted over her lips when she recognized how barely perceptible was now that crimson hand which had once blazed forth with such disastrous

ylmer!" mu

vored!" exclaimed he. "My peerless bri

oftily; you have done nobly. Do not repent that, with so high and pure a feeling, yo

nd her soul, lingering a moment near her husband, took its heavenward flight. Then a hoarse, chuckling laugh was heard again! Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence which, in this dim sphere of half development, demands the completeness of a higher state. Yet, had Aylmer reac