-when

very night for a plot, and Mr. Quilkin was ripe for onethis "minister of the gospel of peace (!)" set out for the abode of Mr. Tobias Pincher. "I am come, Mr. Pincher," said Quilkin as he entered the room where this renowned smuggler was writing out an invoice of contraband goods, "to try if we can't devise some plan of showing our mode of regeneration to that popish dog Hieron." "I'm not quite ready yet, Quilkin," responded the sage counsellor, "but just sit down a minute on that barrel of brandy, till I've made up my list, and then I'll help ye." So after the lapse of a few minutes Pincher began :-"When's there going to be a baptism next, d'ye know?" "Yes, they are going to perform the carnal rite on the old scoundrel churchwarden's child to-morrow." "That's all right. I'll tell ye the plan," answered Pincher, "I've just had in forty kegs of brandy, and I'll give ye one if you'll just pay Bill Ducker sixpence to pour it into the font, while the second lesson is reading: that Puseyite scamp wont christen till then now." "Done!" shouted Quilkin, as he dashed his fist on the table, so as almost to crush it, "done! there could not be a better plan."

THE matter was settled in a moment; off set the preacher and the smuggler, pryceeded with his invoice, chuckling inwardly over what (poor ignorant man) he called "a good spree!" The boy was hired; the brandy was prepared; and on the next day (being Friday, the congregation small, and the few that attended, at the east end), the Font was to have been filled by means of a funnel. The day arrived; and the boy Ducker, intent on his errand, set out for the Church. To prevent suspicion he started early, so as to be able to enter the Church with the rest of the congregation.

Now it happened that the rector had been busily employed during the week, painting texts and various ornamental designs on the walls of the church, of course greatly to the chargrin of the Independents, &c.

BUT Mr. Pincher and his friend Quilkin, who had been exceedingly busy in denouncing these proceedings, were not

aware that these very paintings were to be the means of the overthrow of their nefarious plot. But so it was. Bill went with the brandy as he was directed, himself in great spirits about the feat he was going to perform.

He did not know that the rector had been painting, and therefore when he entered the porch, and saw gilt and varied colors glittering over the inner door, he could not help stopping to look at them. So he stopped and read :-" SURELY THE LORD IS IN THIS PLACE, AND I KNEW IT NOT; THIS IS NONE OTHER THAN THE HOUSE OF THe Lord, and thIS IS THE GATE OF HEAVEN.”

GoD is really here, and I
Surely it must be wrong

"DEAR me," he exclaimed, "so knew it not-no, I did'nt know it. to play off such games here." But then he thought of Mr. Quilkin's wrath, and the laughter of his own playmates; and he pushed on, so that he might hide from his eyes the text, which had so appalled him. But he could not escape: by entering the sacred building he became more confused than before; for all around the walls glittered with holy texts and divine pictures. There was in the great east window CHRIST on the cross; over the chancel arch was painted the Great Doom; but more than all as he cast his eyes down the Church he saw in brilliant lettering these words :-"THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE." "Then he is here really I expect," said the boy in a loud whisper, "I will stay no longer and will not do it; and I don't care what Mr. Quilkin says."

So OFF he started, leaving all the brandy behind him: Mr. Quilkin was very wroth, and became really furious when he heard the boy say why he was afraid to perform the horrid deed.

"WHAT a fool you were, Bill," he said, “to look at those silly pictures. I thought you had sense enough to know that it is all popish mummery and superstition."

"You ought," answered the boy, "to know better than me, Mr. Quilkin, but all I can say is, whether it be popish

mummery or no it was that that prevented my doing so wicked a thing."

THIS infuriated the Independent preacher, who stamped on the floor and exclaimed:...

"You knave and scoundrel! Do you dare to call me wicked, you little miserable, little wretched, little.”

“I—I; oh, if—if you—beat me, I'll get father down on you." Mr. Quilkin had raised his arm, and was meditating to practise on poor Bill a charitable sample of the Inquisition, in order forsooth to show him what popery was, if he did not acknowledge the superstitious nature of the texts—but he was an ineffable coward, and when he saw in his mind's eye the strong muscular arm of Hal Ducker upraised against him, he quailed beneath the mere thought of so untoward a catastrophe; and, having ordered poor Bill to go about his business, he retired into his study to compose a discourse on the very awful signs of these latter-days, which, when delivered in the rostrum of his meeting-house, produced a considerable senşntion; and no wonder, for the whole affair from beginning to end was a species of rambling, incoherent essay on the popery of the texts on the Church walls.

WE have seen how Pincher and Quilkin had been foiled in their villainous attempt at sacrilege and their rage thereat : in our next chapter will be detailed the plans which they afterwards attempted, their temporary success and eventual failure.

(To be continued.)

REPORTERS.-When a tax on newspapers, proposed by Mr. Pitt, in 1789, was under discussion in the House of Commons, Mr. Drake said he disliked the tax, and would oppose it from a motive of gratitude. "The gentleman concerned in writing for them had been particularly kind to him; they had made him deliver many well-shapen speeches, though he was convinced he had never spoken so well in his whole life."

ESCAPE OF MRS. SPENCER SMITH.

In 1806 the French force, under General Lauriston, entered Venice, and established there a new government. Mrs. Spencer Smith, the sister-in-law of the gallant Sir Sidney Smith, wa then resident there, for the benefit of her health, with two infant children.

She received an order to appear before the French police. On obeying the summons, she was declared to be under arrest as a French prisoner; and she received an order to depart within a week, for the city of Bassano, the place fixed upon by the government for her residence. She demanded to know the reason for which she was thus treated; and was answered, "Your country and your name."

A very few days after, it appeared that the order to repair to Bassano was a mere feint, and that the real instructions of the French police were to send her prisoner of war to the fortress of Valenciennes ! At the moment when she was anxiously waiting to receive a passport, to enable her to quit Venice, she was arrested by a party of gendarmes, who told her of her destination to Valenciennes, and placed in a state of close confinement, in her chamber, previously to being conducted to France.

The friends of Mrs. Smith were struck with consternation and grief at this change in her fate; but, endued herself with an admirable degree of fortitude, she roused the courage of those who wept around her; nor once appeared shaken till her lovely infants came running to her arms, to ask their mamma why she was so sad? She wished, by any sacrifice, to preserve them from the fate to which she was doomed. But how was this to be done?

Who was able to help her by saving them? In evident anguish she looked round on each of the small circle of friends, who sympathized with her situation, and in mournful silence her eyes explained her supplication to them all.

Among the number of these friends was a young Sicilian nobleman, the Marquess de Salvo. Overcome by the sensations which so tender a scene excited, he rushed from the room; and when he had recovered composure sufficient to return, it was to intimate privately to Mrs. Smith, that he had formed and resolved to ex

ecute, at all hazards, the generous design of effecting the escape both of herself and of her children.

The children not having been placed under the immediate vigilance of the police, the Marquess succeeded, without any great I difficulty, in getting them conveyed away to Gratz, where the Countess Strazzoldo, a sister of Mrs. Smith, resided; but he did I not think it prudent to make the attempt to effect Mrs. Smith's own escape, till after she had left Venice, and was on her way to the Alps.

It was necessary to the success of the project, that the MarI quess de Salvo should accompany Mrs. Smith on the road; and nothing being more reasonable than her request, that a friend might be permitted to travel with her, it was readily complied with, and the Marquess took his seat beside Mrs. Smith, in the gondola which conveyed her prisoner from Venice.

H

It was at Brescia that the Marquess had determined to accomplish Mrs. Smith's deliverance, it being the nearest place to a neutral territory. The party were to stop here two days. The room of the inn in which Mrs. Smith was confined, was fifty feet from the ground, and gens-d'armes were posted in the room adjoining, with the door open. The Marquess de Salvo occupied an apartment in another part of the house. Early on the morning after their arrival the Marquess slipped out unseen by the gens-d'arms; and while the police of Brescia were yet in ignorance of his arrival with Mrs. Smith, went, and got a passport signed for the Tyrol. From the police he hastened to survey the outlets of the city; but, to his sorrow, could see no other passage than through the gates, which were all strongly guarded. He was not, however, dismayed, but immediately set about procuring all the means for their escape; a light carriage, which could travel any where; horses, to spare them the necessity of waiting at the post-houses; a man's dress for the disguise of Mrs. Smith; and, finally, a bill of health, which would be requisite on entering another country. All this he accomplished before ten o'clock in the morning, when he returned to Mrs. Smith, and availed himself of an hour, while the soldiers were at the street-door, to settle with her all that was to be prepared and attempted. It was agreed that he should go next day to reconnoitre the enviorns of