breathed upon by the warm air of spring, and he distinctly saw a pale, silvery light floating before him. With glowing enthusiasm, he cried, "I recognize thee, holy shade of my glorified Josephine; thou didst promise to hover over me with thy love; thou hast kept thy word. I feel thy breath, I feel thy kisses on my lips, I feel myself encompassed-embraced by thy glorified spirit!" With ecstacy he again seized his flute, and instantly again the harp sounded, but now ever softly and more softly, until its murmurs died away, as if melting into air.

Sellner's whole being was powerfully excited by this solemn and joyful communion with the spirit of his beloved. Greatly agitated, he threw himself upon his bed; and, in all the feverish dreams that visited him throughout the night, the heavenly sound of the harp mingled and predominated. He awoke late, and greatly exhausted. He felt his whole frame strangely affected, and he heard a voice within him, which seemed to him as a foreboding of his own speedy dissolution, and which betokened the triumph of the soul over the body. With indescribable impatience he awaited the evening, which he spent in Josephine's room, in earnest hope and undoubting faith. By the aid of his flute, he had succeeded in passing the time in peaceful dreams, until the ninth hour returned. Scarcely had the last stroke of the clock vibrated on his ear, when the tones of the harp again became audible—faint, low, hardly perceptible at first, but at length bursting into full power and harmony. The moment his flute was silent, the phantom tones of the harp were also mute, and he saw again passing before him the pale, silvery light. In his rapture he could only utter the words, "Josephine, Josephine, take me to thy faithful arms!" Again the harp took leave of him with faint, low notes, as if melting into air.

Still more affected by the events of this than of the former evening, Sellner was now so much changed that his servant, terrified at the appearance of his master, sent for his physician, who was, at the same time, his chosen friend.

The physician found the invalid laboring under a violent attack of fever, with the very same symptoms that he had formerly witnessed in Josephine, only much more severe. The fever increased considerably throughout the

night, during the whole of which he talked incessantly in his delirium of Josephine and her harp. In the morning he was calmer, for, in truth, the struggle was over, and he felt that his release was at hand, though the physician gave no encouragement to this impression.

The sick man disclosed to his friend the events of the two last evenings, and no representations of the physician could alter the opinion of his patient. As evening approached, Sellner became weaker and weaker, and begged in a trembling voice to be taken to Josephine's room. This was done. With inconceivable serenity he looked around, greeted each dear object once more with silent tears, and spoke collectedly, but with firm conviction, of the ninth hour as that of his death. The decisive moment approached; he made every one leave the room, after having taken leave of them, with the exception of his friend and physician, who insisted on remaining. At length the tower clock with a hollow sound struck the ninth hour. Sellner's countenance became transfigured, a deep emotion glowed upon the pale cheeks. "Josephine," cried he, as if inspired; "Josephine! salute me once more at the moment of my departure, that I may know that thou art near, and that I may overcome death by thy love."

At that moment the chords of the harp burst out miraculously into loud, heavenly harmony, like a song of triumph, and around the dying man there hovered a pale, silvery light. "I come! I come!" cried he, sinking back, and breathing hurriedly and violently, as if struggling with death. More and more softly sounded the tones of the harp; more and more violent became the convulsive struggles of the dying man; and, as he expired, the chords of the harp suddenly snapped asunder, as if broken by the hand of a spirit. The physician, in deep emotion, with a trembling hand, closed the eyes of the deceased, who, notwithstanding the violence of the last struggle, now lay as if in a sweet sleep.

Never did the physician lose the remembrance of this hour. It was a long time before he could prevail upon himself to speak of the last moments of his friend; but at length he communicated the events of that evening to some friends, and at the same time showed the harp, which he had appropriated to himself as a legacy of the deceased.

THE importance with which the isthmus has suddenly become invested, will perhaps render a brief account of the passage from Chagres to Panama interesting to most readers.

A number of years since we were ordered to Chagres with dispatches for Panama. Chagres was a miserable, dirty village, which, however, derived some importance from being at that time the starting-place from the Atlantic to Panama, and also the port at which specie and goods from Panama, destined for England via the West Indies, were embarked.

The dispatches with which we were charged were not only important, but urgent; and being out of the regular course of the mail, we could find no courier at Chagres to convey them to Panama; and, as I had a great desire to cross the isthmus, I volunteered my services as courier, and made arrangements for starting on the following morning. Fortunately, I found at Chagres a merchant who was also desirous to cross. He was an exceedingly pleasant Scotchman, who had been to Panama several times, and spoke the "Columbian Spanish" like a native.

We engaged a large canoe, the after part of which was covered by a caravan-roof, composed of wicker-work and stout grass mats. This formed an excellent defense from the sun by day and the heavy dew by night; and had it not been for the musquitoes, which invaded our snuggery like an army of trumpeters, singing in our ears, and stinging us right and left, we should have been comfortable enough. As it was, we smoked, to endeavor to choke them; and by laughing at our troubles we made them lighter. In truth, we had great need of all our philosophy, for the current ran so strong, that the four stout Indians who composed our boat's crew were obliged to abandon the paddle, and pole up the river the whole distance of sixty miles; consequently it was not until the afternoon of the third day that we landed to refresh ourselves on the bank, a few miles below the point where the part of the journey by water terminates. Thus far the journey had been exceedingly monotonous and tedious; the only amusement being an occasional shot either at

birds-which, if they fell,were lost in the woods, growing in wild luxuriance to the water's edge -or at a lazy alligator basking in the sun on a bank of mud, and which, if the ball struck his impervious hide, rolled over and over like a log, till he sunk beneath the stream and disappeared. The heat by day was intense; for although the river is very deep, it is very narrow, and so choked with foliage on both sides, that a breath of agitated air is an unknown luxury. Then, although the heights were cooler, it was impossible to meet with a vacant spot to take exercise; and it may be imagined that three days and two nights of such purgatory was irksome in the extreme.

The spot where our canoe was now hauled up on the muddy bank commanded a beautiful view, considering it was in a wilderness, and flat. On the opposite side of the river Nature had formed for herself a perfect park; the velvet lawns sloped and undulated as if they had been laid out by elaborate art, whilst the majestic trees, centuries old, "now singly stood, and now in groups," and it only required a stretch of fancy to picture an old baronial hall in the distance, to transport one in imagination from a wilderness where possibly the foot of man had never trodden, to a country-seat in dear old England; so true is it that all the beautiful designs of art may be traced to Nature for their model.

It was during our rest at this place that I nearly lost "the number of my mess:" the Indians were busied making a fire of dried sticks to roast a guana I had shot, and I determined to take advantage of their absence from the canoe to make my toilette. I was leaning over the side of the boat, bathing my head in the rapid stream, when the canoe suddenly tilted with my weight upon her gunwale, and, losing my equilibrium, I plunged headlong into the river. How wonderful is the flight of thought! I could not have been more than a few seconds under water, and yet in that brief space I recollected not only that alligators were abundant, but that, about a fortnight before, a brave officer had lost his life by falling into this same river, and getting, as was supposed, into a

strong under-current, was hurried away by it, and unable to rise to the surface. What an age it seemed before I shook my head above the water; and, when I did so, I found the stream had already swept me a considerable distance from the canoe, and more into the middle of the current. "Courage" shouted the captain of the boat's crew.

"Are there any alligators ?" I cried.

"Oh no," said he, laughing encouragingly; and in a few minutes I reached the bank, and, by a desperate effort, threw myself on a bed of mud, from which I emerged darker in hue than our sable boatmen.

At about nine in the evening we arrived at Cruces, the place where the water-carriage ceases; and, proceeding to the "head inn," I pleased myself with visions of a good dinner, and a refreshing night's rest, preparatory to the ride of thirty miles onward to Panama on the day following. Alas, that our waking visions should so often prove no less illusory than our dreams of the night!

The head inn was not a dwelling for either feasting or repose: the room into which I was shown to rest for the night was furnished with two grass hammocks, suspended from the rafters, and exactly resembling a large net made from the tough, variegated grasses of South America, the meshes being about the size, and the net-work about the strength and substance, of an ordinary cabbage-net. I stretched myself in one of these, and had just begun to enter the realms of Somnus, when I was startled by the shrill crowing of a cock within a yard of my ear. This was followed by another, and another crow, and anon half-a-dozen throats were screaming defiance at one and the same moment. The noise in so confined a place was absolutely painful, and, jumping out of the hammock, I discovered that there were eight fighting cocks, each tied by the leg, in the four corners, and in the centre of the four sides of the room. We cannot afford to be very particular on board ship as to noise, and by long habit, we sleep through the scrubbing decks, or the tramp of a hundred men immediately overhead; indeed, I have known a man sleep undisturbed by a salute of cannon fired on the deck above him; but the screaming of eight fighting cocks, with the accompaniment of flapping of wings, and struggling to free themselves, was beyond even a sailor's powers of

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somnolency, and I rushed into the open air in despair.

I may remark that the love of cock-fighting among the Creole Spaniards amounts to a passion. At Santa Martha and Carthagena, and other places, I have seen heavy sums change hands at cock-fights; and judging from the living ornaments of my sleeping apartment, the passion for this species of amusement must have been equally strong at Cruces.

As soon as I found my friend the merchant, he very kindly acceded to my desire to proceed to Panama that night. It having become known that we intended to cross, four or five Spanish travellers requested to join us; and, after some delay in procuring mules and a guide, our cavalcade left the head inn, and took the road to Panama.

It was a lovely night; the full moon literally flooded the landscape with her splendor; but after riding about a mile from Cruces, we entered upon the actual road, and there the trees, and banks, and excavated rocks on either side, so perfectly excluded the moon's rays, that it was impossible to see the road, which was in a most ruinous state, never having been repaired since it was first made by the Spaniards some fifty years before. At one moment the mule was stumbling over a heap of stones, which the torrent of the rainy season had piled together; and the next, he plunged into the hole from which they had been dislodged. Of course our progress was very slow, and at seven o'clock in the morning we were still ten miles from Panama, having been eight hours travelling the twenty miles from Cruces.

As the road up to this time had been almost one continued lane, running between banks more or less steep, I considered there could be no danger of missing the party if I dismounted to refresh myself, by bathing my face in a clear. brook which rippled across the road. I was rather behind the rest, and my stopping was not observed by any one, for all were jaded and silent with the tedious and laborious journey of the night. Having finished my ablutions, I endeavored to push on to overtake the cavalcade; and, although I could not see any of them, I concluded that it was simply some turn of the road which concealed them from my sight. The beast I rode, however, was either knocked up, or had never been accustomed to any pace faster than a walk. In vain I coaxed

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or flogged him; flagellation seemed rather to retard than accelerate his movements; in vain I struck the spurs, with rowels the size of penny-pieces, into his ribs; I might as well have spurred a rhinoceros, for out of a deliberate walk he would not move. After travelling about a mile in this way, I came to a large, open plain nearly surrounded by a wood. I looked in all direciions, but could discover no trace, not even the print of a hoof, from which I might judge which way my companions had gone. But as the sagacity of the mule is by some wise man said to be equal to his obstinacy, I threw the reins upon the neck of mine, and suffered him to "go his own way ;" and he, crossing the plain in a straight line, entered the wood. At first the trees were so thick, and the branches so interwoven, that it was difficult to force a passage; but after a while the wood became more open, and having proceeded so far as to have lost all chance of finding the way out again, the mule suddenly stopped on the brink of a very extensive marsh, muddy and overgrown with rushes. The spot upon which he stood was clear, and the grass excellently good, to judge by the avidity with. which my quadruped attacked it. I dismounted, and paused for some time, revolving in my mind what was to be done. I was hemmed in by the wood, except where it was bounded by the marsh, and to return to the forest again would be only to get into a labyrinth from which I might never be able to extricate myself.

Therefore I resolved to cross the marsh if possible, and to climb to the top of a mountain I saw in the distance, and from the summit of which I calculated I must see the city of Panama. In execution of this purpose, I loosed from the mule's neck a rope, which I used as a tether when those animals halt to graze on a journey; and, fastening one end of it to his neck, and the other round my arm, I drove him into the marsh, which no effort of mine could make him enter whilst I remained on his back. The first plunge into the stagnant morass was as deep as my waist, and I had not gone twenty yards when my feet became so fettered by the rushes that I lost my balance and fell at full length. Before I could recover my footing the mule had turned to the place we had left, and, being a large, powerful brute, he dragged me after him like a wellhooked salmon; and in his final bound to regain the bank, the rope broke, and he trotted

out of reach and resumed his breakfast, casting a sly glance at me, as much as to say, "I hope you are refreshed by your cold bath."

I now felt in a perfect dilemma; for the valise containing the dispatches was strapped behind the saddle, and all my efforts to catch the mule were ineffectual. Whenever I approached, his heels were ready to launch out; and if in desperation I rushed at him, he bounded off with an inconceivable agility and force, until at length I was fairly exhausted; and spreading my cloak upon the grass I endeavored to collect my thoughts, and to realize if possible the true nature of my position. In the course of my experience I have been often struck with the difference of the state of mind under the prospect of immediate, and apparently inevitable death, and when the prospect of death is not so immediate, and apparently inevitable. I recollect, for example, being once wrecked; and when, in half an hour after, the vessel struck, she began to fill, and death appeared unavoidable-the boats being either washed away, or destroyed by the falling masts; the water increasing more and more in the hold; and there appearing not a doubt but all hands must perish. On that occasion I found it impracticable to fix my mind for three minutes together-my imagination was so busy catching at straws, that it was impossible to collect my thoughts and meditate soberly; but now, as I lay on the grass, in the wild forest, I could deliberately plan, reject, and replan, with the thoughts perfectly under control. Not but the possibility of death crossed my mind; for the want of rest in the canoe, the tedious journey of the night, and lack of any refreshment since the afternoon of the preceding day, made me doubt whether I should be equal to crossing the marsh, climbing the distant mountain, and then walking some ten or a dozen miles to Panama; if even I could contemplate the idea of leaving the valise containing the dispatches, on the chance of its being recovered afterwards. This, however, I felt I could never have done. We admire the heroism of the soldier who, when he was picked up dead upon the field, was found to have the colors he had borne stuffed into his bosom; but I believe that the same spirit is very general amongst men accustomed to military life, and subjected to military discipline. L'esprit du corps' is the ruling principle, before which life and all other considerations become secondary.