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cacy. They may stand on a 'aughty helevation, and may cry, in the words of Homer, the Greek poet,hodi profanum vulgus et hareco,' which, being translated, means-the common sort may go and be hanged; but we will answer them with a line, found by Mr. Layard on the left paw of the winged lion, during his recent exhalations among the ruins of Nincompoop, in Abyssynia. This line is in the Chinese language, and runs thus- Wox populi, wor Dei. It was written by King Belshazzar, the night his palace was burned by Alexander the Great, when he was drunk. The story is in the Bible-a book I never read, but always recommend to my friends. These words signify-Down with the peerage, and up with the people;' to which we will add, as an appendix-hurrah for the ballot! Men of Warwick, I have done. Remember your ancestor, Guy, who was only an aristocratick butcher, and killed his cow: and so never say die till the banners of Liberty, Confraternity, and Equality, float over your 'appy 'omes and 'ouses; till you have cheap beef, bread for nothing, and beer for the asking: and so once more I say- Wox populi, wox Dei!' The hat will now go round among you, gents, for a collection."

The orator sat down exhausted; he was very faintly cheered by the mob, who were too tired and hungry, and perhaps, if truth were told, too anxious about how matters would end, to be tickled by mere words; and there were men among them, too, of some education, who probably thought the orator-what he was-a consummate

ass.

At this moment a cry was heard from the avenue gate, and a mass of men, women, and children were seen running as if to join the main body of the malcontents who were before the house; while behind them, in gleaming brass helmets and streaming horsehair, and flashing sabres and clanking scabbards, and holstered saddles and jingling spurs, and royal scarlet, and bounding, earth-shaking, and richly caparisoned horses, rode at a steady but swift trot two troops of his Majesty's Dragoon Guards, commanded by Major a young,

slight, but very determined-looking officer. By his side was a full, handsome man, on a strong cob horse: this was Sir John Vernon, a magis

trate and vice-lieutenant of the county. As the troopers formed in two lines, by the word of command, under the windows, their horses' heads towards the mob, and the major sitting like a statue on his charger, with bis sword drawn in front of them, Sir John said

"Men, you had better go home at once; if an arm is raised or a stone thrown, I have the Riot Act in my pocket, which I shall read, and then the dragoons must do their duty. As for that prating silly rascal in the gig, be shall be arrested before he leaves the village, and shall have a taste of the treadmill in Warwick gaol, or my name's not John Vernon. The rest of you may go free. You have been foolish, but I understand you had some slight provocation, which, s Englishmen, you should have passed by. I heard to-day in Warwick that your mill is immediately to be refloored and refitted by a rich master from Dudley, and you will soon be st work again. Depart instantly, now; if a man among you remains here for twenty minutes longer, I shall have him arrested on a charge of trespass, and heavily punished. My friend, Major —, remains with a troop of dragoons here to-night; the other troop will patrol the country for the next twenty-four hours. Now, men, I am glad to see you are taking my advice and breaking up."

out,

And they were breaking up. Tired dispirited, and hungry, these sturdy mechanics had not physical strength or courage to face certain discomfiture with an armed and disciplined force; besides, every man of them respected Sir John, his character and his counsel. He was a thorough Englishman-genial, honest, and sensible; the best of landlords, and the poor man's friend.

The orator, dreadfully chopfallen and yellow in the gills, whipped his rawny Rosenante into a trot, but was arrested outside the avenue gates by the parish constables, and in half-anhour nothing was to be seen or heard before the stately façade of the house of Brockholes, save some half-dozen gardeners' lads, who were busy in raking the gravel, and rolling into pristine smoothness the smooth green sod which had been outraged by the clod shoon of the Bellua multorum capitum-the tramping multitude. A

single dragoon sat on his horse at each angle of the building, as immoveable as the living statues under the archway at Whitehall. A corporal's guard was billeted in the offices; the major, with two or three young officers, were going in to luncheon with the Pompadours, and all was peace again.

"This has been a brief and bloodless campaign, Sir John," said the young commander, as they ascended the grand staircase together, to pay their respects to the Earl and his family.

The rogues were hungry," answered the Baronet; "and no Englishman has any stomach for fighting when that organ is empty."

"I am very happy, indeed," answered Major," that it ended so pacifically. I hate to draw a sword against, or in any way hurt, an Englishman. Nevertheless, in Nottingham, last year, we had wild work among these factory lads. I lost a corporal and two privates, and my charger was lamed by the blow of a musketstock. Ha! what a handsome room is this library. I am glad the unhappy rogues were kept out, for they would have spoilt more than they would have got. Now, Sir John, will you introduce me to the ladies, whom I hear in the corridor?"

And in sailed the Countess, like a rich domestic argosy, laden with silks, laces, perfume, gold, and precious stones. Her hysterics had all passed away with the pressure from without which produced them, and her habitual expression of lofty froideur, which was in her a second nature, worse even than her first, had come back in all its repulsiveness. And in glided her two lady daughters, quite themselves again, looking as though they had had a bath of starch; excessively dressed, without the trace of an emotion-either fear at the past, or gratitude for the present, to disarrange the dull and well-bred set of their impenetrable features; and between them walked a fair, young, and graceful creature, in her riding-habit and gloves, her hat swinging from her hand, and her dark hair braided behind her small delicate ears, revealing a cheek of classic contour, and mantling with clearest health. Truth sits on his ivory throne in her brow. Kindness and humour alternately soften and kindle in her deep blue eye; while sweetness

and decisiveness contend to be the occupying characteristic of her mouth. Her father, who had arrived through the garden path, comes behind her with the Earl, and the other guests. His lordship is now really happy and in the expression of his gratitude to Sir John and Major appears a degree more amiable than usual. The meal is served, the fricandeau is faultless, the Rhine wines, which Lord Pompadour imports himself specially for his luncheon, are piquant and refreshing; and in half an-hour the greater portion of the company have forgotten the alarming scenes of the morning in the comfort and luxury of the afternoon meal.

Slowly and silently did the father and daughter pass through the gardens to gain their carriage on the upland down. Grace, though generally cheerful, and even merry, was now in the penserose vein, and gave one or two heavy sighs.

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Why are you sad?" said Mr. O'Donel. "I noticed you at luncheon abstracted, and scarcely giving heed to all the fine speeches of the young officer who sat next you."

"I was thinking," she replied, "of those poor, foolish, starving men, with their wives and children, and black, desolate hearths, and how different was their condition to ours, with such a measure of superfluity and expendi ture as that meal exhibited. I confess I could not eat, of choice, at the thought of so many who could not eat of necessity."

"Well," said Mr. O'Donel, "make your mind easy, for I did not sit down to my luncheon, which I certainly enjoyed much. Anxiety,' says the learned Galen, when calmed, induces appetite,'-so I made a hearty meal, but not until, in conjunction with that kind Sir John Vernon, I had ar ranged with the village innkeeper that the men should have a good, substan-tial meal in his stable-yard, and the women and children plenty of tea and bread before they went home. They are my parishioners, and this little act of attention to them, after their behaving so very ill, will give the scolding I am preparing for them tenfold vigour and point when it explodes. The cost was not very heavy, and Sir John threw a ten pound-note into my. charity-purse to help me to pay the landlord's bill."

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you who slew the boar. Your forethought and energy brought the means which saved Brockholes this day from what might have proved a scene of riot, pillage, and bloodshed. Major

and Sir John may have the gloire and their steadiness and quiet determination were admirable and beyond all praise-but you and I, dear daughter, will give the glory to One higher still; and I do indeed thank God that so peaceful an evening has set in after a red and stormy morning."

And thus, about a twelvemonth before my narrative commences, did Mr. O'Donel and his daughter commune together in their walk across the gardens.

HOW I BECAME AN EGYPTIAN.

[The following fragments were left at home by an eccentric young man, who had given some promise in the literary way, but volunteered the other day, to the grief of his friends, and sailed for the East. We give them to our readers as they have come into our hands, leaving them to decide whether he has assigned adequate exciting causes for the strange suspicions which seem to have taken hold of his imagination. Men know but little of the psychology of this portion of our organisation: anything, therefore, which tends to illustrate it, is interesting.-ED.]

I fled through the streets, crowded as they were, forcing my way, with the determination of terror; for I felt that I must make my escape, whatever came of it. The avenues of the city actually roared with life and blazed with light, frova a thousand voices and footsteps, a thousand wheels, and a thousand jets of vivid gas. Yet through all did I speed-speed alongI know not how, I scarcely know why, whither, or from what; but with some vague idea of reaching the river, as if its barks were the horns of the altar of Hope.

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city into this deserted avenue, and bounded along it, I began to hear, what I had only been intuitively conscious of before, the footsteps of one running behind me. It may be supposed that the sound added wings to my flight, which was further urged by the knowledge that I was fast approaching the banks of the river. În fact, the sullen rush of its black wa ters began to make itself audible, traversing at right angles the double row of grim houses, which ranked at either side off into shadow, and terminating the perspective before me. Here the ground, or street-way, too, began to descend, as the bank of the river was approached; and by some fainter lights, sparingly scattered, there came into view the shapeless hulls of barges, moored in masses along the shelving slime of the water's edge.

I suppose at any other period of 'my life I could not have contemplated casting myself into the gloomy and foul uncertainties of this dark region

without horror and dismay. Now the the one feeling was, escape. I looked forward into the blackness, as into the face of a friend. A wide wooden rail was about this time passed on my left, with oars leaning against it. Farther down, I brushed by a ring and rope. What was still lower, I could not see; and for an instant hesitated about trusting my foot down into the darkness, when one of the oars I had just left above me I heard fall-it had been touched, I felt, by the Pursuer. My mind was made up. I trod boldly forward, and found footing to make a spring on to the gunwale of a barge. I reached it; and passed with three strides across it to another, moored alongside, and then to a third, in crossing which I could discern the reflections of the dim lights of the opposite side of the river struggling, as it were, to hold their places against the rush of the black stream towards the left. My terror must have been extreme, enhanced by the bounding up of the planks behind me under the pursuing step, for 1 never slackened my pace, nor felt an instant's hesitation, but, fevered as I was by the hot speed of my course, sprung, as far as my wildest strength could carry me, out into the mid-stream.

Panting-wet-giddy-exhausted reeking with slime, which booted my legs up to the knees, I leaned against a damp wall to recover breath and consciousness after my transit. Involuntarily straining my eyes back into the tide I had just crossed, I experienced a feeling of relief, as I saw that there was nothing swimming across. So I have baffled the Pursuer, I said to myself—put the river between it and me! Well done! The swim was a tough one, and the flounder out tougher still.

I have been all but sucked down an ugly death. But here I am alone. The shadow of a smile stole across my features as I plashed slowly up the slope, and sought for some road or avenue that might conduct me within the lights, and towards the habitations of men. Nor was I long unsuccessful. The wall, which I had to feel along, turned abruptly to the right after a few yards, and I judged, from the difference of the footing, that I was now on a beaten path, which must have its

exit somewhere in a thoroughfare. Exhausted as I was-shocked, drenched, bemired-I could not help feeling proud of the feat I had accomplished; and a glow of exultation arising from this, joined with the feeling of safety, made me forget for an instant the sorry, sad plight I was in; and that as I approached the haunts and paths of men I should become an object of wonder, perhaps of suspicion, perhaps of ridicule of all things the hardest to bear. Those who have dreamt (not a very uncommon sequel of indigestion) that, by some strange, whimsical misadventure, they must commit themselves to public exposure, either partially or wholly undressed, and felt all the agonising acuteness of an exaggerated moral and personal modesty penetrating their entranced nature, and quivering in the vitals of their morbid over-consciousness, may understand what my sensations must have been when I had time, as yet in safety and solitude, to reflect upon what was inevitably before me, even before I could dash myself into a reluctant cab, and get, for an immenselyaugmented fare, driven home to my sofa, cigars, and astonished own people. Even my cloak was gone. I could not assume an incognito. I had flung it away early in my career. Besides, it was peculiar. I could not have hidden myself in it. There was something of the monk about it. It had a hood, and sleeves hanging outside.

Just then I found a path crossing mine at right angles, which caused a break in the continuity of wall. This path led into the one I was traversing by a turn-stile. I glanced for the instant I took in passing it through the opening to the right, behind which lights, many, though distant, gleamed. An instant sense of suffocation seized me. Some object remained photographed upon my eye, fixed there during its momentary transit. A figure was approaching the turn-stile, within three yards of it; and on this figure was my cloak!

Once again! Forward, forward, forward! On, on! Into or out-to anything, so that that Form, that Thing, be escaped from! A hundredth part of the glimpse it got of me in passing would have been enough for it. For me, its identity would have been revealed by the lightning's flash. It

needed not mine inky cloak to recognise it. I saw how it was. The bodily Shadow was up with me by the time I had reached the first verge of light.

A great forge, a distillery -a foundry a house on fire, perhaps! A light before me glowed high into the murky heavens, in which a canopy of red hung over something of deeper red, like a curtain over a corpse murdered in bed. But a minute before, I had recoiled from exposure. Now, the idea of there being crowds congregated, fire-engines, police, a furious mob seeking for plunder, was a relief. Among them might be safety-must be bewilderment. I made straight for the glare, the fatal footfall echoing my own all the way.

Fleet-fleet was my footstep! The things I passed by seemed to pass me by in a swift procession; those nearest me flashing across me like projectiles. With my eye upon the ruddy sky before me, I sped for its centre, observing such turns, where they occurred, as would conduce to that point. For intricate ways did now offer obstacles to a direct course, and I was obliged to exercise a prompt but firm discretion at the several corners I encountered. Here and there, too, a human figure might be seen passing, at one side or the other; but not near enough either to obstruct or assist me. Indeed, I could not bring myself to wish a closer proximity to any of these single and unknown wayfarers. Rather did I experience an undefined dread of league and collusion, perhaps, with the Enemy in pursuit, under which impression I gave single figures a wide berth wherever I could. When I could not, my passage was so instantaneous, that I recognised nothing more than a startled turn of the head, or a hasty withdrawal from my path, before the individual, whoever it was, was gathered up with the great mass of things I had swept behind me.

On, on! Heavens! I hear it breathing! Short and hurried respirations come from over my shoulders, at but a few yards distance.

We are now more in the country. Strips of hedges alternate with walls; the foot-path is edged with grass; there is a freshness of smell, and less of noise. The region lies black about me,

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Walls again. The road, too, is the light, growing fiercer,

narrower

right a-head. Very fierce must that light be, to throw up such a reflection. I cannot be far off, I thought; yet I hear no sound, no roaring multitude, no congregating crowds, no charging engines, no stroke of the pumps. What can it be after all? Can it be is it -is it? In short, I began to suspect that my moth-like flight might in the end prove not only unavailing but disastrous. Suppose an actual furnace reached. I enter, face the fire, and am either recognised as a bedlamite, or devoured by the grim Feature at my heels.

1

I was strongly inclined to take a new line, and make for another point; and with this idea made some observations on the bearings. It may be believed that by this time I was tolerably well breathed. I have said nothing of this; but I suppose human lungs and muscles were never more desperately and fearfully tasked than were mine at that moment. One by one, every encumbrance was flung off; every garment went, until I was left with scarcely more than my shirt and drawers upon me, streaming with perspiration, my veins swelled to bursting, my face all of a glow, my hair hanging in tangled mats about my ears, or floating on the dew of my forehead, and gasping sobs issuing convulsively from my over-laboured breast. It was as I turned to examine my chance of escape by some other avenue than that which led straight to the fire, that I percieved the Pursuer had insensibly gained upon me, and was now almost in contact with me! I felt his breath hot upon my shoulder, and upon the exposed part of the throat just behind the ear; andoh, horror! just at the same instant there came upon me the conviction that escape there was really none; that I was caught in a cul-de-sac : in short, that the way was not open before me! I was confirmed in the former dread suspicion by distinctly perceiving that on my essaying once or twice to draw across to one side of the road or to the other, with a view to doubling, so as to return by the path I had travelled, the Thing seemed conscious of my intention, and swerved to the right or left, as the case might be, with the manifest

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