arrival of the distinguished foreigner, in order to communicate himself the dinner intelligence, and consult on measures to be now taken. In consequence of this arrangement I found myself the gainer by a great man's loss; for Herr Y. brought me into the inn, gave me some cherries from the basket, a bit of cake, and a glass of wine.

The five carriages and cart having come up, we set off again as avant courier, and jolted, bounded, and swung along, "leaving him," as Herr Y. emphatically said, "to eat whatever the house afforded."

"There is Eidsvold," said Herr Y., pointing to an unremarkable country-house. It was the only object he had shown to my notice along the road. "Is that where the Baths are ?"

"Nay, that is further off, close to Lake Miösen." "Whose house, then, is that?"

"Ours; Norway's. We bought it. It was there the constitution was framed. It belongs to the country now."

The constitution! That is the proudest word even Norwegian lips can speak.

"The constitution," I said, merely for the sake of diverting poor Herr Y.'s tender solicitudes, "is it not the same as the Swedish?"

"Swedish! pah! Sweden has none.”

"Yet Sweden and Norway are one kingdom." "No such thing."

"How? You have only one king."

"Norway is a kingdom in itself. The King is the King of Norway."

"Of Sweden and Norway," I interposed.

"Nay, of Norway; and, if you will, of Sweden." "Oh! you put Norway first."

"That is certain."

"And the Swedes, I suppose, do the same ?" "The Swedes may do as they like." After a little pause, Herr Y. added, "In all that relates to our country, the King must style himself King of Norway he may add Sweden if he pleases."

"But was it not Sweden gave you the constitution which makes your grand distinction ?" “Nay.”

"Denmark, then ?"

“Nay.”

"Who, then?"

"Ourselves." Herr Y. was silent, thinking, as I imagined, that he had told me enough; but after a time he resumed, without my questioning, the information he was so good as to give me. "Norway," he said, "was declared to be a separate and independent kingdom by Prince Christian, of Denmark, who was willing to be its king.

England behaved very badly to us; but we have forgiven that now. The King of Sweden promised to accept our constitution, and so we accepted him as our king."

"What stupid accounts Swedish historians may give of this matter," I remarked, "making it appear an act of grace on the part of Sweden to give you the constitution, when, thanks to English interference, your country was in their power." "The Swedes know nothing about it," said Herr Y., and leaning back in the carriage, closed his eyes and the subject together.

Another jerk roused him, and nearly flung me out of the carriage.

"Why is not this road mended ?" I asked. "It forms the chief line of traffic to the North."

"That depends on the farmers; they are a little obstinate; they mostly opposed the railroad; they prefer old ways in all things."

"Yet they are your legislators? are your legislators? I doubt if

that be so well for a country."

"It has always been so," said Herr Y., weariedly, and in a mode of reasoning that is unanswerable in old Norway.

And so we got to Eidsvold Baths, where there was nothing to be seen but a great many ladies;

and some few of those of the same sex whom we designate as "women." Eidsvold is one of those places to which I believe the people of all lands condemn themselves, either from gregarious habits, or on account of the waters for which they attain a reputation. Herr Y. left me there, saying I would find it naturally quite to my taste. I did not agree with Herr Y. in this, though I did of course in most other things; so I went to the steam-boat that lay anchored on the Miösen, waiting to receive-I was going to sayme-but Herr Y. interposed another pronounhim. The boat was lowered to take me on board; a scarlet flag was spread upon the seat; the mate stepped into it, and the captain stood bowing to me from the deck. These honours re-assured me; "For surely," I said to myself, "I must after all be the distinguished foreigner." But there was to be no end of my mystifications and self-delusions ! It was only the next day that I found the cause of all my honours was-that I was taken for the wife of a civil engineer!-perhaps the very dear lady who had an artilleryman to attend her travels in Norway, or to Ringerige. The mistake was not wonderful, considering that thirteen-or eleven-I forget which, though I know it was an

odd number, of civil engineers were actually to be passengers by that boat. The fact was there was going to be a railroad in Norway. Like the heroine of a romance, I was gradually coming round to my senses, and finding the spell uplifting.

Herr Y. followed soon afterwards to the steamboat. He could not however converse with me, for, he said, he must attend only to the preparations for HIS supper.

As my aching limbs already bore testimony to the zeal evinced in ordering HIS dinner, I went to what Herr Y. termed my cabin; it was about as large as a condemned cell. I opened both windows, settled myself on an upper sofa beside me, and looking out at whatever was to be seenthere was little more than the rising moon just then I felt soon inclined to fall asleep, and forget my fancied honours or my real fatigues and miseries. Alas! before midnight, one after another of that unhapppy sex who are doomed to the united miseries of the ladies' cabin, came dropping in, until fifteen or sixteen living, breathing bodies shared with me the little cell that I had considered

to be " my cabin."

One window was instantly shut; the people of Norway seem to have as sincere a horror of air as