about for the last two hours? My esteemed and talented neighbour, the author of 'Women's Dignity developed in Dialogues" "May gang to the deevil," interposed Major M'Toddy-"abeat in malam crucem, as a body may say-We've no time for havers, i præ, sequar, as a body may say. What's the number of her room?" "No. 14," said the Captain, and the three gentlemen passed on. Her room!" said Mr Clam, "another lady! Waiter!" soon as you discover any thing, and I'll send you the order by return of post.' "Coach is coming, sir," said the waiter. "And I'm going; and very glad I am to get out of the town alive. And as to the female banditti in the riding habit, with all the trunks and boxes; if you'll let me kuow" "The coach can't wait a moment, sir." Mr Clam cast a despairing look as he saw his last hope of finding out the mystery disappear. He stept into the inside of the coach "Coachman," he said, with his foot on the step "There's no lady inside, is there?" No, sir.' "Then drive on; if there had been, I wouldn't have travelled a mile with her." The roll of the coach drowned the remainder of Mr Clam's eloquence; and it is much feared that his enquiries have been unsuccessful to the present day. THE LAY OF ST. MEDARD. BY THOMAS INGOLDSBY, ESQ. "Heus tu! inquit Diabolus, hei mihi fessis insuper humeris reponenda est sarcina; fer opem quæso !" "Le Diable a des vices; c'est là ce qui le perd. Il est gourmand. Il eut dans cette minute-là l'idée de joindre l'âme de Medard aux autres âmes qu'il allait emporter.-Se rejeter en arrière, saisir de sa main droite son poignard, et en percer l'outre avec une violence et une rapidité formidable, c'est ce que fit Medard.-Le Diable poussa un grand cri. Les âmes délivrées s'enfuirent par l'issue que le poignard venait de leur ouvrir, laissant dans l'outre leurs noirceurs, leurs crimes, et leurs méchancetés," &c. &c. keeper. This I can vouch for, as I have seen it. They protect him with the same fidelity that a dog would defend his master, if any stranger should approach him during his slumbers. This I particularly know, as I unfortunately went to awake him, unaware of his faithful guardians, and nearly paid the penalty of my folly. The keeper, however, started up, and called them off. They obeyed with the docility of domestic animals, and fell behind him at his word of command. They belong, I believe, to the Governor-General for the time being, and are kept in the park of the government-house. It was here that I saw them run down a deer. Never in my life have I beheld anything so graceful as their movements, or so rapid as their speed. Considerably swifter than greyhounds, they bounded along, and soon brought down their game. Fatigued with the excitement of this beautiful sport, I returned to Calcutta, and, as I have mentioned, was lying on my couch when the information, conveyed by my friend at Berhampore, arrived. No time, however, was to be lost; so, starting up. I ordered my palanquin to be brought to the door, determined on travelling up the one hundred and sixteen miles by bearers. This mode of proceeding may appear strange to Europeans, who will scarcely believe the rapidity with which such a journey is accomplished. By the river, on account of the current, seven days are required to arrive at Berhampore; by land, it only takes twentyeight hours. The bearers, like post-horses, are relieved every twelve or fifteen miles. Each relay consists of eight men, who shift the burden to each other at the end of about every league. The others trot alongside to rest themselves, the whole party singing and jolting on at the rate of about four miles and a half an hour. During the night the disengaged bearers carry torches, to scare away the wild beasts. The fire-flies buzzing about, like innumerable stars, add to the beauty of the picture, and render this scene most romantic and picturesque; though I must confess the uneasy motion, the broiling of the un in this luxurious, coffin-like conveyance, and the fear of a voracious tiger, or other savage monster, take away, in my opinion, all the charms which would otherwise gild this mode of travelling. At daybreak on the second morning, (for I had halted a few hours at Aghardeep.) I arrived in the cantonments, and entered my house, which stood in the extensive barrack-square. I After breakfasting most luxuriously on Bombay ducks, (a small salt fish, something like the European caplin.) the sable fish, (closely resembling our salmon,) and snipes, which are here far more plentiful than sparrows in England, secretly sent for the WISE MAN of the place to come and discover the thief; then, ordering the servants to fall in, in a row under the verandah, quietly and confidently awaited his arrival. I had often seen his powers tested, and never knew them fail. I am aware that my countrymen will smile at my credulity; but, as I have the conviction from personal and constant observation, I do not hesitate to assert, that his manner of discovering crime, though the simplest, was the most wonderful that I ever beheld. The present instance served to strengthen my belief. In every bazaar or village in India there exists a wise man, a sort of half.priest, halfconjuror, who predicts events, tells fortunes, secures families, and discovers crimes. These individuals are looked upon with great awe by the natives, and are often found useful in the last instance by Europeans. On the arrival of the magician, he made the men form a circle round him; then, uttering some prayers, he produced a small bag of rice, and taking out a handful, gave it to the man nearest to him, and desired him to chew it, while he continued to recite certain prayers, or incantations. In a moment or two he held a plate to the man, and desired him to spit out the grain. He did so; it was well chewed, and the man instantly declared innocent. Another and another succeeded. At length he came to one of my favourite servants--one whom I never suspected. On taking the rice, the man seemed dreadfully convulsed. He ground his teeth, and worked hard to masticate it; but all in vain. When he rendered it on the plate, the grain was uncrushed, unchewed, The WISE MAN instantly proclaimed him to be the thief; upon which, the servant, falling on his knees, confessed the crime, and detailed a series of thefts, for which I had suspected, and even punished, others. By his own showing he must have been the greatest rascal, the greatest scoundrel alive. He had, however, lived long with me; so I contented myself with instantly dismissing him. In the evening I was sitting at whist, when I was called out by my sedar-bearer, whom I before mentioned as one of the most faithful creatures in existence. He begged of me instantly to set out for Moorshedabad-a distance of about ten miles, in order to see a cousin of mine, who had sent me a verbal message by a pune (a foot-runner,) requesting my instant attendance, as he had met with a serious accident,, When I asked to see the servant, I found he was already gone; and, when I expressed my astonishment that he had not even sent me a chit (note), my bearer assured me the accident had deprived him of the power of writing; but that he earnestly solicited me to lose no time in setting out. Of course I did not hesitate ordering my palanquin out once more. Though sadly tired, I started off, after making an apology to my friends for thus abruptly leaving them. On my arrival at Moorshedabad, I hurried to the bungalow of my relative.' Here I found all the world fast asleep; and, amongst others, my cousin. He was perfectly well, and slumbering most comfortably. On being awoke, he positively denied having sent any messenger whatever to me, and had met with no accident, nor was ever better in his life. The deception thus practised on me staggered me so much, that, in spite of every remonstrance, I borrowed a relay of bearers, and set out on my instant return home. On re-entering my quarter I found all quiet and still as the grave. I aroused some of the sleeping-servants; and, having obtained a light, asked for the sedar-bearer, determined to make an example of the rascal for having thus played off a practical joke on me. None of the others, corpse. Stone dead before me was stretched my late favourite servant. On a close examination I found a sharp-pointed instrument (probably poisoned) thrust into his heart, from which it was still undrawn. I could not decipher the dreadful mystery. however, knew where he was; so I proceeded | I attempted in anger to awake him. He was a to my bed-room, resolved to punish him in the morning. As I passed through my dressing-room, I perceived my drawers open; I examined them, and found that a suit of my clothes had been extracted; and, by a turban I found lying near, I discovered that they had been taken by the sedar. That a man, whom I had hitherto looked upon as incorruptibly honest, should thus act, was a matter of the greatest surprise. That one, who had ever been considered as the most faithful of my servants, should thus suddenly turn thief, annoyed, and disappointed me. But, what puzzled me more than all was, that my people declared he had been seen to enter this room early in the evening, but most positively had not passed out again. Tired with conjecture, I went into my sleeping apartment. I started back with surprise, Upon the bed lay a figure, the very counterpart of myself! My heart misgave me as I rushed forward, and tore a handkerchief from the features of my other self, who so closely resembled me, as he appeared stretched on my bed, that my followers kept staring first at me, and then at the figure before them, as if doubtful of my identity. As the covering was removed. I perceived the countenance of my sedar. He was fast asleep. Presently one of my kidmutgars rushed up. He held a leaf in his hand on which some characters in Hindostannee had been traced (as usual) with a pin. I sent for my munchee (interpreter), who thus translated them. "Beloved master! a plot was formed by the man whom you this day discovered to be a thief, to murder you. It was too well planned for you to escape. I was too solemnly sworn to dare to reveal it to you! Pardon me, beloved master! but I ventured to deceive you. I took your place: and have felt happy to die for you! May the God of the white man make you happy!" The riddle was solved. The delinquent, thinking he had completed his deed of blood, had fled. I provided for the family of my attached servant. Not one of his fellows, however, seemed astonished at the act. They appeared to look upon such devotion as a matter of course. For myself, I never can, I never will, forget the fidelity of my devoted "sedar." THE SMUGGLING RUN. THERE was an unusual stir that day all along the coast in the neighbourhood of Rathmore. That seldom-visited spot of Ireland lies out of the reach of trade; and having but few attractions from its beauty or convenience-being traversed by no road, and accessible to none but the smallest craft by sea--it has escaped, even to our own day, almost every eye but that of the engineer of the ordnance survey, and remains a yet unopened page in the sketch-book of the artist, and the note-book of the traveller. Imagine an estuary formed by the junction of a small fishing-stream with the sea, which seemed between them to have cast back the shifting and shallow sands to a considerable extent at either hand, and agreed that in return for the free exit of the former, the latter should have the privilege of entry some miles up its channel every six hours, and overflow besides I know not how many thousands of acres all around. On one bank (the southern) of this wide seaarm, a low barrier of rock forbid the further advance of the encroaching elements, and defined the boundary of a cultivated and fruitful district; but on the northern side, a distance of some miles across, desolation reigned paramount, and there seemed no reason why the sea might not in time carry the encroachment which yearly tore mass after mass from the land, to any conceivable length, and in the end submerge the village of Rathmore full as many feet below it as it now stood above it. Indeed, from the peculiar nature of the country there, every winter, nay, every gale transformed its features; and the long-absent sailor, arriving towards night-fall in the neighbourhood of his former home, has been known to experience considerable difficulty in recognising the locality and identifying the site of the cabin in which he was born. The region is, in fact, but an accumulation of almost pure sea-sand, which has cast itself into all the wild and fantastic shapes of a miniature mountain range, as the gales have had effect upon its valleys or across its ridges. These undula tions, which would otherwise constitute a shifting desert, derive some degree of stability from a growth of rank grass, of the nature of the rush, with which a short time and a scanty deportation of earth from the more inland districts have invested them; and they are thus rendered sufficiently secure to afford foundation for the hut of the fisherman here and there, and a place for his "garden," as the piece of land, sufficient scantily to feed his cow, his pig. and his children, is generally called in Ireland. At the same time, although there is so far little crusting over of vegetation, it is but thin and inadequate, and the slightest disturbance is sufficient to restore the pure, barren, and shifting sand to its original position, and to sweep out all traces of fertility from the district. As it is, nothing can be more sickly than the appearance of all that grows upon it. The rushy grass comes up in tufts of a light green; a small pale moss puts forth its skinny fingers to hold down the shallow soil; and here and there the dwarf thistle shakes its bluish leaf in the blast, and presents its keen thorns against the rudeness it is exposed to. And yet amidst these bleak and miserable tracts, and upon the soil of this melancholy and forbidding |