of murder, though on Frank the whole business made very little impression. He was too much accustomed to such things to be much affected by them, for a sailor's life is one of occurrences, while that of a studious man flows on so equally, that a simple thunder-storm is to him a matter of excitement. My brain seemed to reel again, and I was heartily glad when 11 o'clock gave me an excuse for retiring, for I was wearied out, mind and body, and wished for nothing so much as to be alone.

It was a dark and stormy night, though as yet no rain fell; the thunder, too, roared fearfully, and the lightning leapt along the waters, that were almost as black as the clouds above them. I was too weary for sleep, and feeling no inclination to toss about for hours in bed, placed myself at the window to enjoy the sublimity of the tempest. At any other time, this splendid scene would have been delightful to me, but now it awoke none of its usual sympathies; it was in vain that I tried to give myself up to it— my mind was out of tune for such things. Still 1 sate there, gazing on the sea, when my attention was diverted by a gentle tap at the door, and ere I could well answer, it swung slowly back on its hinges, and Nancy stood before me, with a lamp in one hand, and a large case-knife in the other. I thought she was asleep, for her eyes, though wide open, were fixed; and her voice, when she spoke, was subdued and broken, exactly like one who talks in his slumbers. Something, however, may be attributed to the excited state of my fancy.

"I must pass through your window, it opens upon the lawn-for the front door is locked, and the key taken away by the Lieutenant, who is out at sea to-night on the watch for smugglers."

As she muttered this indistinctly, she glided across the room to the window, and, undoing the button that held it, walked slowly out. Still impressed with the idea of her being asleep, I made no opposition, fearing that she might be seriously affected in health or mind by any sudden attempt to wake her. At the same time I resolved not to lose sight of her lest she should come into peril from the cliffs or the dykes, and accordingly I followed her steps at a short distance till we came to the public house. Late as the hour was, the people had not yet gone to bed, for lights were shining through the kitchen window, and from the room immediately over it came the glimmer of a solitary lamp that stood on a table by the casement. Hitherto Nancy had gone on without taking the least notice of my presence, which had served to confirm me in the idea that she walked in her sleep, but now she turned round upon

me

"The Lieutenant's wife told me truly; he is here: but not a word; follow me softly, as though you feared to wake the dead."

I saw now that she was really awake, and my first impulse was either by force or persuasion, to take her back. And yet to what purpose? If her madness should grow violent, I could always overpower her, and at any rate, we were going to, and not from, assistance. I did, therefore, as she bade me, and followed her in silence, while she went cautiously up to the window, and having examined what was passing within with all the deliberate cunning of a maniac, then gently lifted the latch of the door, which opened into a narrow brick passage to the left of the kitAt the end of it was a short flight of stairs, and

chen. these led us into the room where I had before observed the lamp was burning; in the middle of the chamber was a plain deal coffin on tressels, in which lay the corpse of poor Harry, all but the face covered over with a dirty table cloth. I now saw plainly that the peasants had held their watch below from pure fear of being in the same room with the dead, and a state of partial intoxication might account for their having left the door open; but to what purpose was this visit of Nancy's? She did not long leave me in doubt.

"Now, Mr. Seymour; you call yourself my father's friend; you have eaten of his bread; will you see him hung like a thief on a gibbet ?"

The strangeness of this appeal startled me so that I

She repeated the questa

knew not well what to answer. while her eyes flashed fire. "Will you see him hung?-hung ?-hung ?-You u derstand that word, I suppose." "My dear Nancy"

66

By God's light, coward, I have a mind to put th knife into you. Don't you see he is their prisoner--chains? and to-morrow he will be tried and hung. 1 my poor father will be hung."

And in her changing mood she wept and sobbed like infant; this, however, did not last long

"But they shall not-no, they shall not! Here, ta this knife; plunge it into him, that they may not ta him alive. "Tis a hard task for a daughter, and since y are here, take it and stab him as he sleeps; mind yea not wake him though; stab home-no half-work-ba to the heart; you know where it is; here-here." She placed my hand upon her heart as if to show drew back shuddering.

where to strike. "Coward! but you shall do it; it is a task of your seeking; you came here of your own free will; I did ask you to follow me, and you shall do it.

I knew not what to say or do, and for a moment the of flinging myself upon her to force away the knife, whe heard a scuffle below. A few blows were exchange single pistol-shot discharged, and immediately after z« { tramp of feet upon the stairs. Nancy uttered a shriek

"They are here !"

Scarcely were the words uttered than she rushed the coffin, and ere I could prevent her, plunged the twice or thrice into the dead body. In the same insti room was filled with smugglers, headed by young riff, who was astonished, as well he might be, at the e ordinary scene before him.

"Mr. Seymour!-Nance too!-Poor girl!-But we no time for talking, so all hands to work and help best the old man to the boat-we'll soon have him in firs thoms of water out of the reach of these bd har "My father!You shall not take my father fro shrieked the poor maniac.

"Be quiet, Nance!—Gently, lads, down the stair-co look to our Nance, Mr. Seymour:-gently, lads-I'd knock twenty living men on the head than hear on given to a dead one."

So saying, and having again briefly entreated my car his sister, he followed the corpse out, while the unit maniac, quite contrary to my expectations, made no t opposition. She leant for a time against the window % out speaking a word, and, when I tried to persuade return, very calmly replied, "With all my heart. To purpose should I stay here since they have taken to from me? They'll hang him now, and I cannot help

"My poor girl, your father is dead." Nancy smiled contemptuously, and, passing her b across her brow as if exhausted, said, "I am ready to will you be kind enough to fetch me a glass of water,

She did, indeed, seem ready to drop, and I wen into the kitchen to fetch the water. Seven or eigh glers were there keeping watch over the peasants, a sentinel, mistaking me for an enemy, levelled his ris my head; but the priming flashed in the pan, and he could repeat the attack, an old man, who had o me with Frank, stepped between us just in time to sa by his explanation.

Upon telling him my purpose he directed me to the in the yard, at the same time putting a lantern in hand with a caution to "look to the rotting tackl a caution that was not given without good reason, fo wood-work round the well was so decayed that it scarcely bear the action of the cylinder.

In a few minutes I had drawn up the bucket, and tened back to Nancy with a jug full of the water. 1 great surprise she was gone, and I now saw-too la deed that her request for water was merely a trick rid of me, that she might the better escape, though, her farther object in it might be, I could not possi

THE STIRRUP CUP.

The fashion of compotation described in the text, was still occasionally practised in Scotland, in my youth. A company, after having taken leave of their host, often went to finish the evening at the clachan or village, in "womb of tavern." Their entertainer always accompanied them to take the stirrup-cup, which often occasioned a long and late revel.

The Poculum Potatorium of the valiant Baron, his blessed Bear, has a prototype at the fine old Castle of Glammis, so rich in memorials of ancient times; it is a massive beaker of silver, double gilt, moulded into the shape of a lion, and holding about an English pint of wine. The form alludes to the family name of Strathmore, which is Lyon, and, when exhibited, the cup must necessarily be emptied to the Earl's health. The author ought perhaps to be ashamed of recording that he has had the honour of swallowing the contents of the Lion; and the recollection of the feat served to suggest the story of the Bear of Bradwardine. In the family of Scott of Thirlestane (not Thirlestane in the Forest, but the place of the same name in Roxburghshire) was long preserved a cup of the same kind, in the form of a jack-boot. Each guest was obliged to empty this at his departure. If the guest's name was Scott, the necessity was doubly imperative.

When the landlord of an inn presented his guests with deoch an doruis, that is, the drink at the door, or the stirrup-cup, the draught was not charged in the reckoning On this point a learned Bailie of the town of Forfar pronounced a very sound judgment.

A., an Ale-wife in Forfar, had brewed her "peck of malt," and set the liquor out of doors to cool; the cow of B., a neighbour of A., chanced to come by, and seeing the good beverage, was allured to taste it, and finally to drink it up. When A. can.e to take in her liquor, she found her tub empty, and from the cow's staggering and staring, so as to betray her intemperance, she easily divined the mode in which her "browst" had disappeared. To take vengeance on Crummie's ribs with a stick, was her first effort. The roaring of the cow brought B., her master, who remonstrated with his angry neighbour, and received in reply a demand for the value of the ale which Crummie had drunk up. B. refused payment, and was conveyed before C., the Bailie, or sitting Magistrate. He heard the case patiently; and then demanded of the plaintiff A., whether the cow had sat down to her potation, or taken it standing. The plaintiff answered, she had not seen the deed committed, but she supposed the cow drank the ale while standing on her feet; adding, that had she been near, she would have made her use them to some purpose. The Bailie, on this admission, solemnly adjudged the cow's drink to be deoch an doruis-a stirrup-cup, for which no charges could be made, without violating the ancient hospitality of Scotland. Sir Walter Scott.

SCRAPS. Original and Selected

MATERNAL AFFECTION.-I observed the motions of a young female, among the shrubs, where grief and sorrow re. tire to uninterrupted solitude. She was a wife and had lost her first-born. With what care did she replace the old and faded flowers with fresh ones. How lightly did she press her foot on the spade, which she feared to make enter too deeply into the soil. With what care did she use the contents of a small watering-pot, which she took from behind a yew tree; and how lovely, yet how melancholy, her smile at the first shoots of verdure. It was a smile portraying the deep pathos of maternal affection. Three feet of soil seemed not to conceal from her the face of her son. She appeared to look upon him, and hung over his tomb as if it were his cradle. Tender mother! thy babe is asleep, thou smilest upon him, and fearest to awaken him. A stranger to everything around her, and her attention absorbed by fond recollections, she heard not the bustle of the rich man's funeral. Every one else ran to witness this pomp; and each, to save himself trouble, climbed over the graves in his way, sullied with his footsteps the white grave-stones, and made

the slight black rails, which form but a feeble rampart to the sepulchres, bend under his weight. The very persons who, but an instant before, had, with religious care, adorned the tomb of a relative or friend, trampled, without pity, upon the freshly turned flower-borders which filia! piety had not yet the courage to surround with railings, or threw down the garlands of white flowers which surmonted the monumental inscriptions or adorned the graves. So true is it, that even the cypress of the tomb is sacredfe him only by whom it is planted. This heedless profanation is renewed each time that a bier is attended to the last pla of its deposit by solemn and ostentatious pomp.-Cercis du Pere la Chaise in Le Livre de Cent-et-Un.

MENTAL PHYSIC.-I look to tranquillity of mind azd patience to contribute as much as anything whatever to the curing diseases. On this principle I account for the c cumstance of animals not labouring under illness so leng as human beings. Brutes do not think so much as we, no vex themselves about futurity; but endure their maladi without reflecting on them, and recover from them by the sole means of temperance and repose.--Sorbiere, an erl. nent French physician.

the

STATISTICS OF SMOKING. The propensity of smoking is declared by the physicians to be actually one of the most elast causes of the German tendency to diseases of the lungs. In point of expense. its waste is enormous. In Hamburg aan, 50,000 boxes of cigars have been consumed in a year; each let it is to be remembered, that even this is but a part of the er costing about L.3 sterling, L, 150,000 puffed into the air! Ari pense; the cigar adorning the lip only of the better orders, at juring this small vanity, and blowing away with the mighty even among those, only of the young; the mature generally meerschaum of their ancestors. This plague, like the Egyp plague of frogs, is felt every where and in every thing. It sons the streets, the clubs, and the coffee-houses; furnitur clothes, equipage, and person, are redolent of the abomination. It makes even the dulness of the newspaper doubly narcotic; napkin on the table tells instantly that native hands have her over it; every eatable and drinkable, all that can be seen, feit heard, or understood, is saturated with tobacco; the very ar we breathe is but a conveyance for this poison into the lungs plexion of a boiled chicken. From the hour of their waking, if and every man, woman, and child, rapidly acquires the com nine-tenths of the population can ever be said to awake at a to the hour of their lying down, which in innumerable instances the peasantry do in their clothes, the pipe is never out of ther mouths; one mighty fumigation reigns, and human store $ smoke-dried by tens of thousands of square miles. But if it le a crime to shorten life, or extinguish faculties, the authority of the chief German physiologists charges this custom with affect ing both in a very remarkable degree. They compute, that of twenty deaths of men between eighteen and thirty-five, ten or ginate in the waste of the constitution by smoking. The on versal weakness of the eyes, which makes the Germans par ecellance a spectacled nation, is probably attributed to the sare cause of general nervous debility. Tobacco burns out the blood, their teeth, their eyes, and their brains; turning their sh into mummies, and their minds into metaphysics. Journal of Defence of Hamburgh.

CONTENTS OF NO. XXII.
Address to our Readers.....

On the Mismanagement of Public Institutions...
Heat.-concluded.........

Sketch of Professor Wilson, by Mr. De Quincey.....................
Mutiny at the Nore......

COLUMN FOR THE LADIES-Anniversary of a Marriage.
ELEMENTS OF THOUGHT-The Author by Profession-High
Living and Mean Thinking.........
THE STORY TELLER-English Smugglers...
The Witch Dance on the Brocken.....
VERSES FOR THE YOUNG.............
The Stirrup Cup........

SCRAPS-Original and Selected-Maternal Affection-Mental
Physic-Statistics of Smoking