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presented itself to him for the first time as a generally opined they were too true. and had coherent chain of events, exemplifying cause a legal foundation. With heavy hearts, the and effect; and if his plans for the future did inhabitants of Ambermead commenced their not at that moment receive any determinate rural preparations for the reception of the change, he still kept repeating anxiously and squire and his bride; green arches were inquiringly, as he wandered on in the moon- erected, and wreaths of flowers were hung on light, the two strangely-suggestive words, the spreading branches beneath which the "And then?" It proved a long and a toil-travellers' road lay. It was the season of some night's journey for that belated traveller; for he had left Mr. Canute's cottage so hastily, that he had omitted to ask for certain landmarks on the hills leading to the place whither he was bound. In consequence, the stars faded in the sky, and the rosy morn broke through the eastern mists, ere the weary man, from the summit of a high hill which he had tortuously ascended, beheld afar off, down in the valley, the shining river, the bridge, and the church-tower of the town where his friend, in some anxiety, awaited his reäppearance.

roses and nightingales, when Ambermead was in its glory; and never had the rich red roses bloomed so profusely, and never had the chorus of the groves been more full and enchanting, than on the summer evening when the old and young of the hamlet, arrayed in their holiday attire, waited to greet the new-comers.

Mr. Canute stood at his cottage door; the bridge just beyond, over which the route conducted to the Hall through avenues of greenerie, was festooned with roses; and a band of maidens in white lined the picDuring all his after-life, that young man turesque approach. The sun was setting, never forgot the solitary night-walk when he when a carriage drove quickly up, slackening lost his way beneath a beautiful spangled its pace as it crossed the bridge, and stopping summer sky; the stars seemed to form the at Mr. Canute's humble gate. Two Words letters," And then?" the soft night-breeze himself, bareheaded, stepped forwards on seemed to whisper in his ear: " And then?" seeing a lady alight, who in another moment It is true, he had not gained the intelligence threw herself into his arms, exclaiming : he sought respecting the inmates of Amber-"Our first greeting must be from you, dear, mead Hall; but he had laid bare his own folly dear Mr. Canute! I need not introduce for the inspection of Mr. Canute; and, in Mr. Selby - he is known to you already." return, he had listened to no reproof-no Speechless from astonishment and emotion, tiresome lecture vouchsafed from prosy age to the old man could only say, "Miss Clara!" ardent youth, but simply two words had pene- -as he gazed from one to another, recogtrated his heart, and set him a thinking seri- nizing in the gentleman the wayfaring guest ously. Mystic little words!" And then?" who had departed so abruptly on his walking expedition over the moonlight hills, more than three years previously. Seizing the hand which Mr. Canute silently extended, Mr. Selby said with deep feeling ::

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It is to your instrumentality that I owe my present happiness."

"How so was Mr. Canute's reply, looking with pleased surprise into the open face, which, on a former occasion, had won his confidence and admiration.

For nearly three years after Mr. Harwell's decease, the old Hall, contrary to general anticipation, remained untenanted, save by domestics left in charge. Miss Clara had found shelter with her relative, Lady Ponsonby, though her memory was still fresh and warmly cherished among the humble friends in her beautiful native village. Mr. Canute, if possible, more silent than ever, still remained the village oracle; perhaps more "Two words spoken in season wrought a cherished than of yore, inasmuch as he was change in me, which all the preaching of the only memento remaining of the beloved friends and guardians had failed to effect,' Harwell the old familiar faces now seen no returned Mr. Selby, "and without which He would listen, and they would talk, Clara never would have blessed me with her of days gone by; he felt the loss even more hand. These years of probation have proved than others, for he mourned a companion and my sincerity; and Lady Ponsonby (a severe friend in Mr. Harwell, and Clara had been to and scrutinizing judge) pronounced my ref the good Two Words as an adopted daughter. ormation complete ere she permitted me to At length it was rumored that Mr. Selby, the address Clara. Those two little words, new proprietor, was soon expected to take" And then?" enigmatical to the uninitiated, possession of his property in due form; more- convey a deep and mystical meaning to my over, that he was on the point of marriage, heart; and they are of such significant imand that his young bride would accompany port, that by inserting them whenever I paint him. Il reports fly quickly; and it had been the future, I trust to become a wiser and a circulated in former times that Mr. Selby better man. was wild and extravagant, careless of others, selfish and profligate. Indeed, Mr. Canute had not contradicted such reports, so it was

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Clara gazed proudly and confidingly on her husband; and the news of her arrival having spread through the village, a crowd allanted.

whose joy and surprise found vent in tears and blessings, to say nothing of numerous asides, purporting that Miss Clara never would have espoused a bad man; ergo, Mr. Selby must be a worthy successor of the ancient race!

The prognostication proved correct; and the pathway, strewn with bright summer roses, over which Clara trod in bridal pomp on her way to the ancestral home where she was born, was indeed emblematical of the flowerly path which marked her future destiny.

HAUNTED GROUND.

BY DORA GREENWELL.

It is the soul that sees.

THE rest have wandered on

Stay thou with me, dear friend, awhile, awhile; This air is full of voices, leading on,

As o'er enchanted isle.

This ground is writ all o'er

With the soul's history; I may not choose, Spell-bound, but pause above this living lore To linger and to muse.

We give of what we take

From life of outward things; our spirits leave,

Where they have been, a glory in their wake

More bright than they receive.

And this was once my home;

The leaves, light rustling o'er me, whisper clear

"The sun but shines where thou dost roam, It smiled upon thee here."

And these are of the things

That God hath taken from me, safe to keep; Sometimes, to let me look on them, he brings Them to me in my sleep;

And I have been in sleep

So oft among them, now their aspect seems
The vague soft glow evanishing, to keep,
Of half remembered dreams.

Thou shouldst have been with me

Of old, dear friend, as now! and borne a part In all that was then Life were filled with thee As wholly as the Heart.

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As when my mother kept

Upon me, while I played, an eye of love; Since then, it oft has watched me while I wept Still, Mother, from above.

As then she used to smile,

And softly stroke my head; so now my heart These gentle memories stroke and soothe awhile,

Awhile we will not part.

Kind shadows! from the door,

At noon-day with a joyous shout flung wide I see the merry children rush, and pour A swift unfettered tide

The old domestic, gray

-

And bowed with weight of many years, whose

look

And grave kind smile still followed on the way Our flying footsteps took.

Such wealth was his in store

Of loving words when fain he would be stern And chide our rovings, all his speech the more To tenderness would turn !

As twilight brings a face

Drawn faint, yet perfect, on the darkening wall;

So on me rise the spirits of each place,
Yet bring not gloom withal.

Heaven's wasted wealth, the gold

It gave for treasure slighted and ungraced, Earth's kindly seeds of love on soil too cold Let darkly run to waste,

That needed but our care

To bloom forever round the heart serene ; These, these the forms of evil things that were, Of good that might have been.

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From the New Monthly Magazine.
A ROYAL WHIM.

FROM THE GERMAN OF WILHELM MEINHOLD, AU-
THOR OF "THE AMBER WITCH," &c.

WE are about to tell our readers a very strange event that occurred in the reign of Frederick William I. of Prussia, father of the great Frederick, and a man generally disliked on account of his rough and frequently tyrannical manner, but who was really one of the best regents of his fatherland, as he alone (and to this his son afterwards bore testimony) was the real founder of its future great

ness.

This extraordinary man, who should be judged by the customs of the age in which he lived, in order to prove him extraordinary both in his errors and his virtues, had one passion which far outweighed all othersnamely, love for the chase. We remember reading in his historian, Förster, that within one year he killed upwards of 3000 partridges with his own gun, without taking the other game into account, in which the queen was the greatest sufferer, as she had to find him, according to a marriage contract, in powder and shot gratis. When there was nothing for him to shoot in his own forests, he never declined the invitations of the landed gentry to pay them a visit.

Thus it happened that it might be about the year 1720- the rich landed proprietor, Von Wsent his majesty an invitation to a wolf-hunt, with the humble request that he would bring his most illustrious consort with him, as the nobleman's wife had formerly belonged to her majesty's suite.

On a fine September day, then, the king and queen, with several officers and ladies of the bedchamber, as well as the court fool, Baron von Gündling, arrived at the nobleman's ancestral château. On the very next day the chase commenced, and Von Gündling, who found as little pleasure in the sports of the field as the king did in the arts and sciences, took a solitary walk in the meadows, and lay down to read in the long grass.

would grow very angry
the very thing his
tormentors wished and would lay a protest
before the king against a man of his rank
being so treated, which naturally increased
the general laughter. Through such scenes,
which were in that day considered remarka-
bly comical, our fool had become a necessity
for the king and court. Besides, we may add
that he was a walking lexicon, and had to
give all possible explanations in the daily
meetings of the so-termed "tabaks collegien."
His pedantry, in fact, was the best thing
about him; as for wit he possessed as little as
a mule; but, to make up for it, he could be as
vicious and obstinate as that amiable animal.

The Baron von Gündling, then, lay at full length in the grass, in his peculiar dress, the chief ornament of it being an immense fullbottomed wig, and in such a position that only the locks of his peruke could be seen as he moved from side to side. A gentleman who arrived rather late for the chase happened to notice it, and, taking it for some strange animal, fired point blanc at the wig, but very fortunately missed it. His excellency sprung up immediately, in the highest indignation, and cried out,

you -???

"You vagabond rascal, how dare The gentleman, however, when he perceived that the strange animal must necessarily belong to the royal suite, did not wait to reply, but ran off at full speed to the neighboring forest. The baron, however, was not satisfied with this, but, as he saw a man ploughing at a short distance from him, he called out in his arrogant manner,

"Come hither, man!"

The reply he received was, "I have no time or inclination to do so; but if you 'll speak civilly, I may."

His excellency was not accustomed to such an answer; he, therefore, walked towards the impudent ploughman with upraised stick, and was about to apply it to his back, when he noticed that it was the clergyman of the village, whom he had seen the preceding evening at the nobleman's chateau. The baron, therefore, lowered his stick, and contented himself by punishing the clergyman with his tongue.

"How can he be such an impertinent ass Does he not know who I am?"

66

Oh, yes! he's the king's fool." His excellency trembled with rage, and raised his stick again; but on measuring the sturdy pastor from head to foot, and seeing no help near, he let it fall for the second time, and merely uttered the threat,

But before we hear what happened further, we must first give our readers a description of this strange man. He was, as we have already remarked, the king's fool, and had received all imaginable titles and honors, in order to afford his majesty and the court still greater sport. In fact, his Excellency, the Supreme Master of the Ceremonies, Privy Councillor, and President of the Academy of Arts, Baron von Gündling, acquired such arrogance through his titles, that nothing could be more comical than the contrast be-out ploughing." tween these dignities and the indignities he had to suffer daily, even from the youngest lieutenants. His excellency on such occasions

"Just wait, my fine fellow. I'll tell the king you pretend to be a pastor, and yet go

The clergyman replied, quite calmly,

"My gracious master will probably remember that Cincinnatus ploughed too, and ho

was a dictator, while I am only a poor village | gentleman had less than three he fell into pastor."

"

Yes," the baron said, after inspecting his coarse and peasant-like dress; "but when Cincinnatus ploughed, he did not look like a common peasant.

"I am certain he did not look like a fool," the clergyman replied, as he drove his oxen

en.

This was too much for the baron, and he rushed away towards a peasant he saw approaching, vowing vengeance on the impudent pastor, whom he determined to ruin on the first opportunity.

He was very glad, then, to find in the peasant a most determined enemy to the elergyman, who complained bitterly of his sternness, and of the fact of his compelling him to make up a quarrel he had carried on very successfully with his wife for several weeks.

partial disgrace; and so each captain, about review time, which was close at hand, tried to procure a few young men by any method, legal or illegal, but especially those particularly tall, for the king had a peculiar delight in such soldiers.

"Woe is me! I've but one," the officer replied, "and he 's only a journeyman tailor." "Well, then," Gündling replied, "you an get a journeyman clergyman of six feet two.

"Well, that 's no tremendous height, but still it's better than nothing.”

The captain then requested an explanation, and both discussed the measures by which to get hold of the clergyman's son. They soon agreed that the officer should feign illness when the king departed. Gündling would remain with him as company; a few soldiers would be secretly procured from a neighbor Our fool was clever enough to see that this ing town, and the young candidate taken anecdote would not be of any service to himnolens volens by the ears, and transported to the next garrison.

in trying to injure the pastor with the king; he therefore answered, most pathetically, "But the pastor was perfectly in the right; that could do you no harm?"

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"Well that's very true," the peasant replied, "especially as he 's getting old, and can't carry on as he used; but I'm sure when his son takes his place-a fellow like a church steeple he 'll break all our bones for us. For that reason, if the matter was left to me, I would n't choose him for our clergyman; for if the patron is to beat us on work-days, and the pastor play the same game on Sunday, when will our backs find time to get well?

Gündling now listened attentively, and his plan was soon formed, when he learned that the pastor's son would return from Halle in a few days to preach his trial sermon on the next Sunday, as the patron had promised him his father's living. He therefore quitted the peasant with a mocking smile, and made some pretext for visiting the sexton, to make further inquiries into the matter. The latter confirmed the story, and gave his opinion that the young master must be at least six feet two in height, and as straight as a poplar

tree.

64

Wait!" Gündling murmured between his teeth, as soon as he again reached the street; "we will put a blue coat on the young fellow, and that will annoy that vagabond preacher." He therefore returned to the château, where he looked up a captain of his acquaintance, whom he took on one side, with the hurried question, "How many fellows have you already got?"

To understand this question, our readers must know that the king, at every review, requested each commander of a company to present his new recruits to him. If the poor

In the mean while, the king and his suite followed the chase on the next day with their usual ardor. It so happened that two ladies in attendance on the queen, tortured by ennui, followed the windings of the stream, which led them from the nobleman's garden into the open fields. One of them, Wilhelmine von B

was a young and charming creature, and was evidently attempting to cheer her companion, who was silent, and not nearly so charming. In consequence there was a deal of laughing, which might have been heard at some distance off, and might have led to the conclusion that the old, though still ever new, story of marriage and love was being discussed by the ladies. They had gradually wandered some quarter of a mile from the village, when a wolf, probably disturbed by the beaters, and which they at first took for a dog, ran towards them, regarding them with a look which they interpreted: "This little darling I'll make my breakfast off, and the other little darling I'll leave on that bed of forget-me-nots till supper time."

The poor girls had not in the least expected such a bridegroom, and stood petrified with fear as soon as they recognized the animal,. for they possibly did not know that a wolf, in the summer or autumn, would attack nobody, and that the Isegrim who fascinated their eyes was, probably, as much afraid of them as they were of him. The silent young lady sobbed out a masculine name - we presume that of her lover-while the charming one, after recovering from her first terror, looked round on all sides for assistance.

Suddenly a carriage made its appearance from a branch road, drawn by two horses, in which a young and handsome man was sitting. Both ladies cried out together in

joyful surprise when they perceived this unexpected assistance, and the wolf immediately ran off, and took up his station some distance from them. "You have saved us from death," the charming Wilhelmine said, as she approached the young man, who immediately ordered the coachman to stop, and leaped from the carriage. After begging, in the style of French gallantry, to have his doubts cleared up as to whether he looked upon nymphs or hamadryads, or actual mortals, and all possible explanations had been furnished him, he presented himself to the ladies as the son of the old pastor, and just arrived from Halle, in order to act as curate to his father. The young man, whom we will call Carl, then invited the ladies to take seats in his vehicle, and thus return to the château.

The ladies quickly accepted this invitation, and Carl had the pleasure of lifting them into the lofty carriage, in which he also took his seat, exactly opposite the fair Wilhelmine, who, however, was cruel enough, for some time, to look every way but at him. At Rength, when he began to speak of Halle, where he had been several years "Famulus," at the house of Freylinghausen, she turned her eyes with pleasure towards him, for she was well acquainted with this poet, and became so eloquent that her companion blushed, nudged her repeatedly, and at length whispered in her ear, "Ah, mon Dieu! he 's not a nobleman." Wilhelmine, however, paid no attention to her, and as the young man was very well read, and recited several of Freylinghausen's newest poems, the time passed so quickly, that they stopped before the rectory almost without perceiving it. Here all the family assembled round the carriage, and wished to embrace their dear relative; but this he declined, and first presented his fair companions, who were immediately invited into the rectory, which the silent one at first declined, but the other immediately accepted.

After the first stormy salutation the old clergyman clasped his hands, and commenced the hymn, "Praise God for all his gifts!" in which the whole family joined; among them our friend Carl, with such a splendid tenor voice, that the young lady could not refrain from saying, after the hymn was ended,

"If you would do me a real favor, you would sing me that song of Freylinghausen's which you recited to us on our road here."

This request was so flattering, that Carl could not refuse to comply with it. He therefore sang, as solo, the song, "My heart should feel contented," without the least idea that, in a very short time, not merely all his censolation, but all his good fortune, would originate from this song.

The charming Wilhelmine was highly delighted when he had finished the song; and

the two ladies took their leave, on the earnest persuasion of the silent one of the two. Carl politely accompanied them to the neighboring gate of the château, where they parted with mutual compliments.

The young man felt for the first day or two as if he had lost something necessary to his existence; but as the difference of rank between himself and a lady of the royal suite appeared to him an insurmountable obstacle, he soon forgot the strange adventure, in which he was materially assisted by the com position of his trial sermon, which he was to preach the next Sunday before his patron and the congregation. In the mean while, however, the king and his suite had returned to Berlin, while Gündling and the captain remained behind to carry out their treacherous scheme. The captain pretended to be suffer ing from a frightful attack of gout, and had secretly ordered a corporal and six men to come on the ensuing Sunday night from the neighboring garrison of G- -n, as he had learned that their kind host intended to pay a visit at a gentleman's house some thirty miles off, as soon as the candidate's sermon was ended, and would not return for a week. During that time they expected to have the young recruit so securely hidden away, that any reclamation would be unavailing; and besides, the king's adjutant, who attended to all military affairs, was the captain's cousin. Gündling, after his usual fashion, rubbed his stomach with both hands, as he thought of the pastor's terrible despair at the loss of his beloved son.

As soon as the anxiously-desired Sunday arrived, both gentlemen went to the overcrowded church; the captain, as he hypocritically told his host, to return thanks for his sudden and fortunate recovery, but in truth, to have a nearer look at his young recruit, whose height he was delighted with, and paid Gündling repeated compliments for his discrimination. The poor young man gained complete approbation from his patron and the whole parish, and even Gündling. after the service was over, approached the pastor, and treacherously praised his good fortune in having such a son. We must say, that the captain, to his credit, was not guilty of such hypocrisy in this case.

At a late hour in the evening, which was both stormy and cold, the sound of arms and a loud knocking was heard at the door of the parsonage. The door was at length opened by the unfortunate Carl, with the words.

"Who are you, and what do you want at this unseasonable hour of the night?"

"We want you!" the captain exclaimed, as he sprang forward, and seized the young man by the arm. "You must come with us, and change your black coat for a blue one."

We may easily imagine the terror of the

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