entered Paris; it was almost a triumph. | doubly firm by mayor and priest, with all The regiment had been so distinguished in the accompaniments of trousseau and settleAlgeria that its return was a public event, ments, cashmeres and diamonds, took place; and the young colonel was regarded by his and the parties were the most elegant and friends as something hardly less than Bu- best dowered demoiselle à marier in Paris, geaud himself. Crowds assembled to wit- the daughter of the Viscount de Belleville, ness the entrance; and the novel appear and the distinguished young colonel of Spahis ance of the native Algerian troops combined-Auguste Dumont. A bouquet of beautiwith the knowledge of its services, all made the scene singularly striking and attractive. Adolphe and Eulalie stood on the same spot, outside the barrier, where they had witnessed its departure; and Auguste, older, browner, more worn, more military-at once the worse, and the better for wear-rode past them without recognition. The band of his regiment played something; Adolphe listened with ears and heart-it was not the Spahis' March. ful yellow roses was thrown into the bride's carriage as she left the church of the Madeleine, but it was not of that peculiar shade; a band serenaded the new married pair at their hotel, but it did not play the Spahis' March. At last Adolphe's eyes were opened, and he saw the truth. There could be no mistake; Auguste had forgotten both his friends and his promises. He lived in his splendid hotel in the Rue Rivoli, as the colonel Count Dumont; they in their small When Auguste was made colonel, A-house in the Quartier Latin, as the brother dolphe had been promoted from the Circus and sister Dupré. It is useless complaining orchestra to that of the Italian opera, where of the injustice of either man or fortune. his cornet-à-piston had given him higher Adolphe had never played his march to any rank and better wages than his trombone one but Eulalie, though he fancied (it might had done; and he was seated in his usual be a composer's vanity) that the Chef d'Orplace in the orchestra the night of the grand chestre at the opera would approve it. performance in honor of Auguste's regiment. But it had been promised, as it was dediThe musicians had tuned their instruments, cated to his early friend, and no one else and all were ready to begin when the Spahi seemed to have any right to it. Eulalie felt officers in full uniform entered their opera the same towards her rose plant; the flowboxes. Adolphe looked up and recognized ers she had plucked from it were always distinctly the handsome figure of his ex- admired, the buds she had made from it alfriend, though his hair was so short, his ways sold. And she might have sold the mustaches so large, and his face so thin, to plant, no doubt; but it was promised to say nothing of the loss of his arm. In honor Auguste. They little knew how soon they of their presence, the house stood up, smiled, would fulfil their promises. and waved handkerchiefs-whilst the orchestra played the regimental march, a wild and spirited Moorish air. Adolphe's cornetà-piston did its part; but his eyes filled, and his heart sank, for other notes rang in his ears the notes of his own Spahis' March. The performance was over, and he returned to his little room, his first faith shaken, but not destroyed. "It is thus Auguste has fulfilled his promises and yet, when has he time to think of us? You see, Eulalie, he has been so hurried, how could he? we must wait." "We must," said Eulalie, and she said nothing more. They did wait, and wait patiently, till one sunny morning, when bright Paris was looking its brightest, a marriage, first civil, then sacramental, a double tie, knotted The present and future of the count and countess Dumont had to be identical, but their past had been very dissimilar; for whilst Auguste was making razzias and killing Kabyles, Ernestine was singing duetts and listening to Bellini's languishing strains at the opera with her cousin Henri. Ernestine was beautiful, Henri devoted, and life was a dream of delight to both. But unfortunately they remembered their dream when they ought to have forgotten it; as Auguste found out to his loss, when nothing remained to him but to challenge the too fortunate beau cousin to a twelve paces' distance meeting in the Bois de Boulogne, where his usual good luck deserted him, and instead of avenging his wounded honor, he was brought home with Henri's ball in his breast, dying, to his wife; who had the satisfaction to know that her husband was killed and her lover escaped. In the prime of youth, health, glory, and prosperity, the young colonel of Spahis was carried to his grave with full military honors. The processsion was a very long one, and many people looked at it, though his widow shed no tear. At midnight from out the cemetery of Père la Chaise, borne along on the silent air, came the notes of music, long-drawn, sweet, subdued. A priest coming from administering the last rites of the church to a dying man, paused, crossed himself, then hastened on-there was something so strange and plaintive in the sound and the time. It had sounded no triumph on the conquest of a city; it had rung to no victorious entry; it had breathed no gentle serenade; but over the grave of broken friendship, hopes, and promises, Adolphe Dupré played the Spahis' March! On the following day, several persons walking in the cemetery saw at the head of a newly made grave a yellow rose plant of a peculiar shade. If they connected this circumstance with the sounds heard the night before, they did right. It was the record of a promise faithfully made and faithfully kept. From Dickens' "Household Words." OUR PHANTOM SHIP. JAPAN. WE may as well go by the Northwest Passage as by any other, on our phantom voyage to Japan. Behring Straits shall be the door by which we enter the Pacific Ocean. We are soon flitting between islands; from the American peninsula of Aliaska runs a chain of islands,-the Aleutian,-which lie sprinkled upon our track, like a train of crumbs dropped by some Tom Thumb among the giants, who may aforetime have been led astray, not in the wood, but on the water. If he landed on Kamtchatka, from the point of that peninsula he made a fresh start, dropping more crumbs,—the Kurile Islands, -till he dropped some larger pieces, and a whole slice for the main island of Japan, before he again reached the continent and landed finally on the Corea. In sailing by these islands, we have abundant reason to observe that they indicate main lines of volcanic action. From Behring Straits, in fact, we enter the Pacific, between two great batteries of subterranean fire. Steering for Japan, we pass, on the Kamtchatkan coast, the loftiest volcano in the old world, Kamtchatskaja, (fifteen thousand, seven hundred. and sixty-three feet.) Following the course of the volcanic chain of Kurile Islands, of which the most northerly belong to Russia, the southern Kuriles are the first land we encounter subject to Japan. We do not go ashore here, to be sent to prison like Golownin, for we are content, at present, to remember that the natives of these islands are the hairiest among men. We sail on, too polite to outrage Japanese propriety by landing, even from a Phantom Ship, on the main island; so we sail to Kiusiu, and run into the bay of Nagasaki. The isles of Japan, calling rocks islands, are in number three thousand, eight hundred and fifty. The main island, Nippon, is larger than Ireland, and is important enough to have been justly called the England of the Pacific Ocean. Only there is a mighty difference between this England, talking about liberty, or cherishing free trade, and that Dai Nippon; in which not a soul does as he pleases, and from which the commerce of the whole world is shut out. Dai (or great) Nippon is the name of the whole state, which the Chinese modify into Jih-pun, and which we have further altered to Japan. On Kiusiu, a large southern island, Nagasaki is the only port into which, on any possible excuse, a foreign vessel is allowed to enter. This port we are now approaching; the dark rocks of the coast line are reflected from a brilliant sea; we pass a mountain island, cultivated to the very summit, terrace above terrace; green hills invite us to our haven, and blue mountains in the distance tempt us to an onward journey. There are white houses shining among cedars; there are pointed temple roofs; boats with their sails up make the water near us lively; surely we shall like Japan. We enter the bay now, and approach Nagasaki, between fruitful hills and temple groves, steeps clothed with evergreen oak, cedars, and laurels, picturesque rocks, attacked by man, and wheedled out of practicable ground for corn and cabbages. There is Nagasaki on a hill-side, regularly built, every house peeping from its little nest of greens; and there is the Dutch factory, named Dezima. Zima in Japanese means "island," for this factory is built upon an island. No Europeans but the Dutch; no Dutch except these managers of trade who are locked up in Dezima, may traffic with Japan; and these may traffic to the extent only of two ships yearly, subject to all manner of restrictions. As for the resident Dutch, they are locked up in Dezima, which is an island made on purpose for them. As if three thousand, eight hundred and fifty were not enough, another little island, fanshaped, was built up out of the sea a few yards from the shore of Nagasaki. There the Dutchmen live; a bridge connects their island with the mainland, but a high gate and a guard of soldiers prevent all unseasonable rambles. In another part of the town there is a factory allowed to the Chinese. Other strangers entering this port are treated courteously, are supplied gratuitously with such necessaries as they want, but are on no account allowed to see the town, still less to penetrate into the country, and are required to be gone about their business as soon as possible. Strangers attempting entry at any other port belonging to Japan, are without ceremony fired upon as enemies. The admitted Dutch traders are rigorously searched; every thing betraying Christianity is locked up; money and arms are removed, and hostages are taken. Every man undergoes personal scrutiny. The Dutch are allowed no money. The Japanese authorities manage all sales for them; pay the minutest items of expenditure, and charge it on the profits of their trade, which are then placed on the return vessel, not in money but in goods. The Japanese deal justly, even generously, in their way; but it is their way to allow the foreigners no money power. They restrict their exports almost wholly to camphor and copper, and allow no native workmanship to go abroad. Yet among themselves, as between one island and another, commerce is encouraged to the utmost. The Japanese territories range in the temperate zone through a good many degrees, and include all shades of climate between that of Liverpool and that of Constantinople. Between island and island, therefore, busy interchange takes place by means of junks, like these which now surround us in the Nagasaki harbor. You can observe how weak they look about the sterns, with rudders insecure. The law compels them to be so; for that is an acute device by which they are prevented from travelling too far; they dare not trust themselves too boldly to the mercy of the sea, and as it is, many wrecked men accuse the prudence of their lawgivers. But life is cheap; the population of Japan is probably near thirty million,-and who should care for a few dozen mariners? If you please, we will now walk up into Nagasaki, with our phantom cloaks about us. Being in a region visited by earthquakes, of course we find the houses of one story, lightly built; they are built here of wood and clay with chopped straw,-coated over, like our town suburban villas, with cement. Paper, instead of glass for window panes, Venetian blinds, and around each house a veranda, we observe at once. But our attention is attracted from the houses to the people. How very awkardly they slip along! With so much energy and vigor in their faces, how is it that they never thought of putting reasonable shoes upon their feet? They wear instead of shoes mere soles of wood or matting, held to the foot each by a peg which runs between the great toe and its neighbor, through a hole made for that purpose in the sock. These clouts they put away on entering a house, as we should put away umbrellas, and wear only socks indoors. Nevertheless the people here look handsome in their loose, wide gowns, bound by a girdle round the waist, with long sleeves, of which, by the by, you may perceive, that the dependent ends are Japanese coat-pockets. Thence you see yonder gentleman drawing his nose-paper,—one of the little squares of clean white paper always ready in the sleeve-pocket to serve the purpose of our handkerchief. That little square when used, is, you see, thrown away; but if the gentleman were in a house he would return it to his pocket, to be got rid of in a more convenient place. The women's robes are like those of the men in form, but richer in material, more various with gold and color. As to the head equipment, we observe, however, a great difference between the sexes. The men shave their own heads, leaving hair only at the back part and upon the temples, which they gather forward, and tie up into a tuft. The women keep their entire crop of hair standing, and they make | entering themselves as domestics to a man the most of it; they spread it out into a of rank, they may enjoy the privilege of turban, and stick through it not a few pieces carrying one sword. These are the only of polished tortoise-shell, as big as office people by whom wealth can be accumulated. rulers.* Inviting admiration, the young Class seven-artists, artisans, and petty shopbeauty of Japan paints her face red and keepers. Class eight-day laborers and white, and puts a purple stain upon her lips; peasants. Tradesmen who work on leather, but the remaining touches are forbidden to tanners, &c., are excluded from classification. a damsel till her heart is lost. The swain They are defiled, and may not even live who seeks to marry her, fixes outside her with other men; they live in villages of father's house a certain shrub; if this be their own, so thoroughly unrecognized, that taken in-doors by the family, his suit he Japanese authority, in measuring the miles knows to be accepted; and when next he along a road, breaks off at the entrance of a gets a peep at his beloved, he watches with currier's village, leaves it excluded from his a palpitating heart the movement of her measurement, which is resumed upon the lips, to see whether her teeth be blackened; other side. So, if we travel post, we get for by blackened teeth she manifests the re- through leather-sellers' villages for nothing. ciprocal affection. Only after marriage, however, is the lady glorified with a permission not only to have black teeth, but also to pull out her eyebrows. Those are not little beggars yonder trotting by that lady who is so magnificently dressed; they are her children. The children of the Japanese are all dressed meanly, upon moral grounds. Notice those gentlemen who bow to one another; the ends of a scarf worn by each of them exactly meet the ground, yet one bows lower than another, and they go on walking in the bowed position until each has lost the other from his sight. Those scarfs are regulated by the law; each man must bow so that his scarf shall touch the ground, and it is so made long or short, that he may humble himself more or less profoundly in exact accordance with his rank. Of rank there are eight classes after the Mikado and the Ziogoon, whom we shall come to visit in our travels presently. There are, one, the princes; two, the nobles, who owe feudal service to the prince, or the empire; three, the priests; and four, the soldiers; these four form the higher orders, and enjoy the privilege of wearing two swords and petticoat trowsers. Class five counts as respectable; inferior officials and doctors constitute this class, and wear one sword with the trowsers. Merchants and respectable tradesman form class six, whose legs may not pollute the trowsers, though, by * Hats are not used by either sex except in rainy weather, but every Japanese carries a fan; even the beggar yonder holds his fan to that young lady, whereupon she drops her charitable gift. These houses in Nagasaki, which at a distance looked so much like mansions, are the store-rooms wherein tradesmen keep their valuable stock, and families their valuable furniture. For desolating fires are common in the towns and cities of Japan; so common, that almost every house is prudently provided with a fire-proof storeroom, having copper shutters to the windows, and the walls covered a foot thick with clay. Attached to each is a large vessel of liquid mud, with which the whole building is smeared on an alarm of fire; and this method of fire-insurance is exceedingly effective, where there is nothing like a Sun or Atlas Company to fall upon, and the most abstemious of fires eats up, at any rate, a street. That door is open, and there is no horseshoe over it-there's not an iron horse-shoe in Japan,-so two ghosts slip into the house unperceived. First, here is a portico for palanquins, shoes, and umbrellas; into this the kitchens open. In the back apartments we shall find the family. We walk into the drawing-room, and there the master sits. It is most fortunate that we are now invisible; for, did we visit in the flesh, we should be teased by the necessities of Japanese civility. That gentleman would sit upon his heels before us; we should sit on our heels before him; we should then all bow our heads as low as possible. Then we should make compliments to one another, the answer to each being "He, he, he !" Then pipes and tea would be brought in; after this we might begin to talk. Before we left we should receive sweetmeats on a sheet of white paper, in which it would be our duty to fold up whatever we did not eat, and put it in our pockets. Eat what you like, and pocket what remains, is Japanese goodbreeding. At a dinner party the servant of each guest brings baskets, that he may take away his master's portion of the feast. This master, however, is unconscious of our shadowy appearance, and continues busy with his book. It is Laplace, translated into Japanese, through Dutch. The Japanese are thoroughly alive to the advanced state of European science, and on those fixed occasions when the Dutchmen from the factory visit the capital, the Dutch physician is invariably visited by the native physicians, naturalists, and astronomers, who display on their own parts wonderful acumen, and most dexterously pump for European knowledge. Scientific books in the Dutch language they translate and publish into Japanese. The country has not been shut up out of contempt for foreigners, and native men of science have so diligently profited by opportunities afforded from without, that they construct by their own artificers, barometers, telescopes, make their own almanacs, and calculate their own eclipses. Hovering about this gentleman, our eyes detect at once that the impression on his page is taken from a wood-cut imitation of handwriting; movable types are not yet introduced into Japan. The writing, like Chinese, is up and down the page, and not across it. Three or four different characters seem to be used indiscriminately, and some of them are certainly Chinese. The good folks of Dai Nippon are indebted to the Chinese for the first strong impulse to their civilization; not being themselves of Chinese origin, but a distinct branch of the Mongolian family. Their language is quite different, and has exceedingly long words, instead of being built up, like Chinese, of monosyllables. Japanese written in Chinese character is understood by any Chinabut so would English be, since Chinese writing represents ideas. So, if a Spaniard writes five, an Englishman reads it as "five," and understands correctly, yet the Spaniard would tell you that he wrote not" five," but " cinco." man; we admire his sword. The hilt is very beautiful, composed of various metals blended into a fine enamel. This enamel is used in Japan where Europeans would use jewels, because the art of cutting precious stones is not known to the Japanese. For the blade of this sword it is not impossible that a sum has been given not unlike a hundred pounds; the tempering of steel is carried to perfection in Japan, where gentlemen are connoisseurs in sword-blades. Young nobles lend their maiden swords to the executioner (who is always chosen from the defiled leatherselling race) that they may be tried upon real flesh and blood; as executions in Japan are generally cruel, and some criminals are hacked to death, rather than killed outright, the swords on such occasions are refreshed with a fair taste of blood. The mats upon the floor are the next things we notice; a thick matting of straw forms a substratum, over which are spread the fine mats, elegantly fringed. To see that lackered work inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which we familiarly call Japan, in its perfection, we must evidently visit it at home. Any thing of the kind so exquisitely beautiful as this little table, is not to be found in Europe. Whatever trinkets pass out of these islands into Europe, do so nayboen,—that is, with secret connivance, but the first-rate manufacturers are in no way suffered to come to us. Without nayboen, life would be insupportable in a minute wilderness of rules and customs. People even die nayboen; that is, a man lies unburied, and is said to be alive, when his death otherwise would lead to disagreeable results. Here, as elsewhere, when rules are made intolerably strict, evasion is habitual. The amount that cannot be evaded is astonishing enough, as we shall see ere we return to England; now we are in the house of this gentleman at Nagasaki. His wife enters, and by their mutual behavior, it is evident that ladies in Japan are to their husbands very much what ladies are in England. This lady passes to the garden; the room ends with a projecting angle open to the garden on each side, a sort of bay, which every house has; and if there be no more ground than just the supplementary triangles on each side to complete the square, still there is always that; and that is always quite enough, for want of more. It is enough to spend a fortune upon, in dwarf trees and |