give him a degree of pleasure for which I had not | poor mother begged me no longer to make her looked. After a short time my visits were eagerly miserable by sailing on the perilous ocean; but the expected and frequently paid; but as yet, I had monotony of a life on land wore upon my spirits: gained no light on his former history. His lease of I could not obey her wishes, and another year life seemned short, and he did not repine. I found found me "once more upon the waters." After an that he had travelled much in the course of his life, absence of four long years I returned, with higher and observed men and manners with an accuracy deeds, and more startling tales to relate than before. few could rival. He possessed much information, I had a new auditor. Since my departure, ny and at times there was a subdued impetuosity in mother had adopted into her family a lovely girl— his manner, that told me the tire of passion had the daughter of a deceased friend. She was then once burnt fiercely in his bosom. about sixteen. I saw, loved, and finally married The incidents that I now relate were told me her, after promising that I would give up the sea, after our acquaintance had ripened into intimacy, and engage in commerce. This precipitate marat a period when his declining health promised him riage was encouraged by my mother, who believed but a short time with us. I was expressing my sur-that it would cure ine of my rambling propensities, prise that he had never allowed me, in all our long and gladly gave her consent to any plan which friendship the pleasure of seeing him at my house, promised to insure my living upon the land. I or introducing him to my family, when he replied, have now reason to believe that the only one who "Alas! you know not what you ask of me. My suffered by this arrangement was poor Charles; he dear friend, there are some sights that even now had lived in the same house with Emily Haven for would madden me. I would that I could only for three years, and, unknown to himself, loved her; a little while forget some passages in my life, and but she was captivated by my strange tales and then-then I would go with you. But this may not more assured manners, and forgot the gentle youth be: we have all our different parts to perform. It who had been for years to her as a brother and a is mine to suffer patiently—it is yours to enjoy with friend. moderation the blessings God gives. I am like a tree, scorched and scathed by the destroying lightning, but may you flourish long after my head is laid in the silent dust.

You have often expressed a wish to know the particulars of my life. I will now relate them, for my time is short, and I would not die willingly, unknown to every one. You have pitied me as an unhappy and lonely man; nor will your pity diminish, when you know the whole weight of that sorrow which presses me to the earth.

And what did this marriage bring to me? Oh! let me stop and gaze on this once sunny place of my life. Four short happy years passed over my head, and left me in quiet possession of every bliss man could desire. My wife was an angel of peace, and I can hear the musical tones of her voice yet. I had two innocent and lovely children-1 was blessed with competence and health: what more could I want? My cup was filled-why was not my heart satisfied?

In the fifth year after our marriage my mother I was born in the state of New York. My father died: happily ignorant of coming events, she followed the seas; he was a brave, bold man, en- closed her eyes in peace. After her death there thusiastically fond of his profession-noble and came strange visions to me again. I could not kind-hearted, but rough and seamanlike in manner. sleep, but the rushing of waters mingled with my My mother was a quiet, deep-feeling woman, sub- dreams. This was increased by an accidental cirdued by many griefs, and softened by an habitual cumstance; an old acquaintance of mine, in the dread of my father's violence. I had one brother: former years of my boyish folly and boyish hardihe was not like me; it seemed as if the difference hood-one whose path, like mine, had been upon in the minds and dispositions of the parents had the deep, and his home upon the wave,' chanced extended to their children, and it was not strange to stop for a few days at our house. He had folthat each parent beheld with a secret preference, lowed his old calling, and was possessed of an the child that could understand and sympathize ample share of wealth-far more than my wildest with their kindred feelings. Charles was like his desires had ever compassed; for, till then, the love mother, fair, gentle and deep feeling; but I had all of gold had been a stranger to my bosom. To promy father's propensities, and my fits of passion, ceed then, his conversation inflamed my fancywhen a mere boy, made my poor mother tremble at we indulged in long details of our former exploits, a violence which she too truly saw would be expi- and more than once in those dialogues, which now ated in tears and suffering. But my father had come back to me so vividly, did I observe the cheek none of these apprehension; he praised my bold, of my wife pale with apprehension, and her eyes adventurous turn of mind, and applauded my fond- filling with tears, when she saw how the dormant ness for his profession; and despite of my mother's thirst for adventure was roused in my soul. But entreaties, he persisted in taking me to sea with all in vain. The torch had been applied to my dehim, laughing at Charles' want of spirit, as he sires-they blazed out with new vehemence: I termed it, in not desiring to accompany me. I loved must go back to my early calling-I must feel my Charles with ardor: the very difference in our na- vessel bound swiftly over the wild billows once tures made me love him more, yet I exulted in my more. Why should my life rust away on the land? superior manliness, when after a few years, I re- I had a new inclination for wealth. The profit of turned with my tales of wonder, and deeds of my business seemed slow, and my station in life daring to narrate. Again and again I went to sea, mean, compared with what it might have been had till the love of the deep became a passion with me, persevered as my friend had done. How did my and I lived in its wild excitements. When I was gentle wife reprove this inordinate thirst for gold! about twenty years old my father died, and then my how did she paint to me the home that would be

I

made desolate if I left her-the little Paradise I would render lone and void.

smiling children, playing before my cottage door, as the red light of departing day lingered in the A fever was on my soul: her reasoning fell upon evening skies. I heard their ringing laughter-I the ear of the deaf. It seemed as if the current of listened to their innocent prayer as they came from my inclinations had been checked for a time only their sport, and knelt down at their mother's knee, to flow the more rapidly. I would not be guided and prayed to Him who heareth in Heaven the by her wishes, but tried vainly to soothe the grief I prayer of the innocent and the pure. And I know had caused. And Charles, whom I had seen but not why, but a solemn conviction came over me, little since my marriage, how did he beg me to de- that in such communion I could mingle no more. sist from my rash undertaking. But alas! I heeded And such thoughts wore upon me daily, till life nothing but threw up my business on land, and seemed wasted at its fountain-source. I had leisure once more spread my canvass to the breeze. With to review all my past hours, to see the beginning what a wild fatality we sometimes rush on our de- of my wilful madness, in the unrestrained indulstruction! Did I feel no foreboding of the heart gence of my early years-to trace back the waywhen I left the home that, as a husband and a father, wardness that after my father's death, sent me I should revisit no more ?-when the words of bles- again upon the deep waters. I saw my mother's sing and farewell quivered on Emily's lips, and pleading face and tearful eye, as she begged of me, my little children clung with despairing fondness her first-born, to remain with her, and be the stay to my knees? Yes! yes! there was a divine pre-of her declining years. Then my wife, my sweet sentiment upon my mind, but I was not warned. Emily; how I had assured her, when urging with And when I was again upon the deep-the broad, blue, boundless deep, how did my old associations come thronging back to me. I felt like one who had burst his fetters, and exulted in a new freedom. I forgot my fears—my apprehensions-almost my home-in the new sensations that overpowered me. I gloried in feeling that my love of adventure was not tamed, nor my spirit prisoned to the narrow limits of a counting-room existence.

the wild eloquence of passion, my claims to her love, that if she would be mine, I would never venture upon the treacherous sea again. Then her looks on the morning of my departure, and those of my deserted children. All-all things came back to me.

But I will not weary you, my kind friend, by dwelling any more on those long dreary years of gloom and darkness. At last, the fetters fell from my limbs, and I was free; but how? Could they give me back the buoyancy of hope, or the strength of manhood?

No! these were mine no more; but yet with a bounding heart did I think of my home. True, my frame was bowed as if with years, and my hair was prematurely gray; suffer ing and toil had broken my spirits, but still I looked forward, though ever and anon, the dark shadow of coming ill fell upon my mind. I know not why, but experience of grief makes us apprehensive, and whenever I thought of the meeting with my family, I trembled as before some unknown and fearful evil. Again I was at sea, and the vessel that now bounded over the deep billows, was bearing me swiftly on to my friends and home. Once more I began to dream-to look forward. Occupied with these thoughts, I was one day looking over a file of newspapers that I had found on board the vessel, when one of them caught my attention, as dated from my native place. I eagerly grasped it, and began to read its contents, when! God of mercy! what should meet my eye but the marriage of my own wife with my brother Charles, three years before! Just Heaven! they had deemed me no more; they must have heard that I was dead.

You, my friend, who see me at this advanced period of my existence, cannot realize the strange defeature that time has written upon my face and form. Yet the inward work is the greatest; there hath the master change been. I repeat that you cannot realize in the old man, broken down by years and sorrow, the ardent and hot-headed youth, with a frame of iron and a heart of oak-eager for enterprise, and alive to excitement. But you will know in part what my sufferings have been, when I tell you that before the end of my ill-fated voyage, we were taken by an Algerine corsair, carried to port, condemned, and sold into servitude. This was the termination of my adventure; for this had I left my wife and children—for this had Inourished dreams of greatness-for this had I repined when sitting at ease with my happy ones beneath the shelter of our trees. For this! the thought was agony! I am describing to you now, my friend, the pent up feelings of years-the emotions that then overcame me. Thank God that I am better taught now: the day-star hath arisen; its beams give light to my once-benighted soul. I was a wanderer from the truth, an unprofitable servant, a thankless man, and the chastening of God's hand fell justly upon me. But in these long, dreary I recollected with horror that others of the same years of suffering, the iron entered my soul. I had no hope for the future-I could not dream of the past. And how the free soul of man sinks down in slavery! oh, never, never give heed to those that tell you the fetters may be patiently worn-that deem the clanking chain and the heavy lash neces-minded me of my misfortunes. sary restrictions on man's wild motion. Alas! a When I woke up from this dark and fearful mist fell upon my mind, and hope sank down; dream, what did I do? return to that home I had and year after year went by, and I continued in slavery. I grew old, even in my youth: its freshness and its dew went from me. And ever at the sunset hour came a dream of home, to thrill and subdue me. I saw my lovely wife; I saw my

name with myself had been confined with me, and had died. Why was I not added to their number? What are words, my friend, when I speak of this part of my life. I became fevered and delirious, and for a time lost that reason which now but re

abandoned-to the wife whose caresses were now given to another-to the children who had forgot ten my existence? No, no! I could not go back. I had been to them as the dead, and I felt that my place was among the living no more. But this sud

den and terrible grief seemed to wake up all the | guided my footsteps. I went to my children's dormant powers of life within me. I became in- graves! Aye, they were there, side by side; and spired with new energy-an unnatural activity I saw the sod green and fresh upon their graves, animated me. I entered eagerly into business. I and mourned not. It seemed a comfort to my achcould say with another, that rest was to me as toiling heart to feel that these were mine—all mine! to other men. The storm, the darkness, and the there I could weep-there I could call upon the strife of the waves were again familiar to my soul. dead. Yes! they had gone in their innocent beauty In the tempest and the calm I was the same, seek- back to Him who gave them, unstained, unstricken. ing vainly "to fling away a weary life:" but it Oh! it soothed me to weep above the narrow turf, would not part from me. Sometimes the wild and and speak the names of those I had loved and lost. fearful idea of self-destruction was present with I remained for hours in the same spot, and it was me; but the hand of God restrained me, and I could not till I had turned to go home, that my curiosity not be a self-murderer. was excited by seeing another stone erected near And so another era in my fitful life passed away, them. I drew near, and read my own name. Alas! till the excess of feeling calmed me, and the vio- that my place had been there-but let me not relence of my passionate grief subdued itself. Ipine. May the will of God be done. The time learnt to repress all outward demonstrations of of my pilgrimage is short. Soon shall I launch sorrow. A withering blight had fallen upon my soul-I was among living men, but I was not of them. But it was not so that my wounded heart could be healed; and at last the spirit of God found me upon the waters. I learnt to look to him who was chastened for our iniquities-to think of a new existence, where those I had loved on earth should again be with me. And a peace not to be described fell upon my heart-I was contented to endure that existence which was inflicted upon me. The sense of being a proscribed man-one, whose life, if known, would bring misery upon those who were nearest and dearest, wore off from my remembrance. I placed my trust above, and looked forward with hope to the time when I might leave this bitter world.

upon the ocean of eternity-soon will the silver cord be loosed, and the golden bowl broken. And may you, my friend, never repent the kindness with which you have poured wine and oil into the wounds of a forlorn stranger. I have prolonged this account too much for your patience, but I have lived so long in solitude, that sympathy has become dear."

I assured the old man that I had long wanted to hear this full statement of his feelings, and begged to know if he had seen his wife, to which he replied, "Ah, yes! I past by the house where we lived together in our young days and saw her again. I leaned over the gate that opened once at my approach, and gazed earnestly upon her to whom my face was that of a stranger. Time had I thirsted to gaze once more upon my home, but wrought little change upon her-she had not suf I feared for my strength of purpose, and my heart fered as I had; and though her smile seemed graver, failed me when I dreamed of again crossing the it was even more serene than of yore. My Heart threshold of my once happy abode, as a shadow grew sick when I thought that my gentle and kind from the grave. But my children-could I never brother might make her happier than the way ward see them again? My resolution grew faint; I and fitful being who once clasped her to his bosom, must go back, yet I did not do so at first. I dreaded and in the fulness of joy, called her his. She had to meet the trial. Time passed silently away, till other children, and I heard their voices, and saw one night a strange vision came to me. I thought that they were beautiful and loving too; and thenI was at home; no more a tempest-tossed wanderer, dark thoughts came over me, and I hurried from nor a self-doomed exile, dragging out the remnant the scene. You know now why I cannot go, as of his days in a strange land, but a calm and happy others can, among the happy ones of this world. man, as I had once been; sitting in the little porch It wakes memories that yet can thrill and overcome before my door, where I had spent so many bliss- me. It jars chords that I would might slumber. ful hours. My wife was by my side, beautiful and My retribution has been just. I bless the hand that gentle as ever; she was singing a song familiar to has chastened me. Since then I have led a solitary me then my children were clustering round my life, waiting for my summons to depart. My life chair, and I was regarding with a father's fondness is wasting away. I am like a withered leaf; but their sweet and joyous faces, when suddenly the my heart faints not at the prospect of approaching expression of their countenance changed to some-death-blessed be God." thing purer, holier than belonged to earth: they smiled upon her, and called my name, in accents of affection, but my heart was filled with awe. woke up, and I felt that they were dead: we could meet on earth no more.

This conviction became stronger every day, and I set out upon my pilgrimage home. It was a brilliant day in June when I entered the town where I was born-not as I went out, in the flush of youth, and the confidence of hope, but as a feeble and sorrowful old man, with a bowed frame and broken spirit. Alas! every thing seemed bright and joyous, the same as I had left them. I only was changed. I did not yet go to that part of the town where my house had been-a surer revelation

The words of the old man were right; he lingerIed with us but a little while, and his last hours were tranquil and happy. In another and a brighter world, may he have found that rest which was denied him here; and drink of those pure fountains whose waters are never bitter, like the troubled springs of earth.

L. H.

The scripture may have more senses besides the literal; because God understands all things at once; but a man's writing has but one true sense, which is that which the author meant when he wrote it.

TEL FUT LE MONDE DES LE COMMENCEMENT.

A SKETCH.

"TEL fut le monde des le commencement." window, when one of the men thrusting his piece These words struck my ear about five years back, as I was lounging on the Boulevard des Italiens. They were dropped by a man who walked before me, in company with another, and as I looked in his face, drawn and wrinkled more by care than age, and saw his eye bent sadly and musingly on the ground, I readily judged his opinion of the world, and that its troubles and vexations were the cause of his exclamation.

Many times since then, and on many different occasions, some of which my habits of mind keep fresh in my memory, I have repeated his words, and in much of what I conceive to have been his mood. From amongst these I will mention a few, hoping they may not be altogether without a moral.

A young friend of mine, residing at Paris, who had foolishly embarked in some of the political speculations which preceded the abdication of Charles X., induced me once to attend a secret meeting of his associates,-men, he said, of firm honor, fast courage, unswerving determination, and whose chief desire was to die in the cause they had undertaken. At ten at night we left his lodgings, well disguised, and reached, by a circuitous route, through bye streets, the place of rendezvous, a miserable garret or loft, where some ten or twelve of the united brethren, as they called themselves, sate in conclave. A man with a dark lantern was placed on the stairs, whose duty it was to inspect all comers, and, in need, to give the alarm, the agitators themselves being in utter darkness.

up the chimney, introduced the bayonet into some soft substance, which forth with came rattling down, screaming mercy, and murder, and shrieking out all kinds of vociferative entreaties, and promises to disclose all. "Can it be possible?" I said; "that voice?" They dragged the sooty abomination into the middle of the room; he spoke more composedly as he tendered himself for king's evidence, (for which honorable station the rest of the detenus forthwith became clamorous candidates,) and I knew him then, past all doubt, to be the orator who had so eloquently offered to offer his life at the shrine of his country's weal,—

"But 'stead of his throat he cut his corns." "Ah!" said I, as we were marched along-" Tel fut le monde des le commencement."

On another, and a melancholy occasion, I was present at a police office in London, when a respectable man was brought up, charged with an assault on a noble lord. The unfortunate man was placed at the bar, where pickpockets, prostitutes, burglars, and forgers, had just preceded him; his accuser sate on the magistrates' bench, lolling the time away in stately listlessness. The case was called on, and his lordship narrated how the prisoner had, for whole days and nights, watched him, tracing him from town to country, and from the country to town; to the theatre, the opera, Almack's, the club, in fact, whereever he moved, continually seeking an opportunity to assault him. That on the previous day his lordship was alighting from his carriage, when the prisoner rushed at him with a stick in his hand, with which he aimed a blow at him, which he believed would have reached him, if his lordship's porter had not knocked the prisoner down, and that when he rose again, he repeated his attempt, when four of his lordship's servants interfered, and his lordship took shelter within his house till the prisoner was given in charge, and led away.

Our arrival caused a pause in their proceedings, but my friend having given the pass word, we were admitted, and the orator then in possession of the meeting, resumed his declamation, winding up in these words: "I hold my life to be my country's property, and if the axe of despotism must light on a victim to my country's liberty, may mine be the first name to win the undying glory of a patriot's martyrdom." A loud murmur of applause follow- After this, some five or six menials, six feet high, ed this conclusion, when suddenly a scuffle on the as fat as porpoises, and clothed like princes, gave stairs, and a battering at the door, were heard. A their evidence, "That my lord was very nigh hit, cry of police was raised, and the brethren rushed if they had not twice knocked down the prisoner, in a body to the window; only four of them, how-who was very noisy; and my lord was very much, ever, had time to gain the roof before the authorities alarmed-and my lord said, "Give that fellow into effected an entrance, and secured the rest who were to be found, and having placed them in one corner, under the surveillance of two gentlemen with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, they proceeded to search for the others, piercing the rotten panelling of the room in all directions with their swords, but without effect.

It is very odd," said I, who was myself under the care of the two gentlemen aforesaid; and I was wondering how the devotee to his country's weal had escaped, as from his position in the room, I conceived he must have been the last to attain the

custody," and then they gived him into custody, and my lord did not perfectly recover till after dinner," etc. etc. etc.

The prisoner, who had been laboring gigantically to repress his agitation, being now called on for his defence, burst out in a torrent of rage.

"Your worship," he cried, "that scoundrel, sitting by your side on the bench, seduced the wife of my bosom, and a fond and faithful wife till then, from her home, her duty, and her children."

"Prisoner," said the magistrate, interrupting him, "that, if true, is ground for a civil action-we

cannot listen to such matters-it is wasting our time, and that of the public; the king's peace must be kept."

"Well, gentlemen, I kept it long, but my wife's brother was not of my patient nature, he was an officer in the navy, he challenged that titled hound, who, like a coward, and a base cur that he is, gave information of the challenge, and put the officers on the scent. My brother-in-law, to avoid them, went down to his friends at Dover, but the officers knew they would be well paid for their job, followed him there, when to escape them, for they were close upon him, he pushed a boat off from the beach, and ran out to sea. Shortly after a gale came on, which blew all night, and the next morning his corpse was found on the shore. Let the coward there, deny these things if he can. It was for these I followed him, and will follow him, while I have a soul in my body, till I am revenged."

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"Is the matter of disagreement very serious, then?" I inquired.

"I believe," said the surgeon, "it is some dispute on the purity of the pedigree of a pointer."

"Good God!" I said; "are these men going to stake their lives, perhaps their immortal souls, on the chastity of a bitch? Gentlemen," I continued, addressing the seconds, who had come up to ascertain the cause of my intrusion, "surely you will never allow these two friends of yours to point their weapons at each other in such a trumpery dispute as this?"

"Trumpery, sir!" they both exclaimed.
"Yes, trumpery."

"I don't understand you, sir," continued one of them; "there has been a very serious difference between them; there is, in fact, a great mistake on one side, sir."

"Well," I replied, "is that a reason why they should attempt to murder each other, or why you should abet their endeavors that way? If, as you say, there has been a difference, and there is a mistake between them, let them reason themselves

Prisoner!" again said the magistrate, "these statements are most irregular, and cannot be permitted; it is monstrous to suppose that a nobleman of his lordship's rank is to be libelled in this ex-right; surely they are capable of infusing more parte manner, and even threatened, and in the face logic into an argument than into a bullet?" of this bench, with impunity. We must fine you ten pounds for the assault, and call upon you to find security, yourself in one thousand pounds, and two sureties in five hundred pounds each, to keep the peace towards his lordship."

Here his worship turned to his lordship, with a look that seemed to say, I think that's pretty well; and my lord, uncrossing his legs, and raising his head from the newspaper, which he had been coolly perusing, smiled a gracious approval.

"Five hundred pounds each!" cried the prisoner. "Good God! where am I to find such securities? it is but three weeks since I became a bankrupt, owing to the confusion that crept into my affairs, through that villain's doings."

"Well," said the magistrate, "you have threatened to pursue his lordship till you are revenged; if I relax something of the amount of the securities, will you retract that threat, and give an assurance of your peaceable intentions?"

"No!" said the prisoner.

Pooh, pooh, sir!" said the other second, "that's not the custom," and taking the arm of his fellow spadassin, they turned their backs upon me, and proceeded to load. As a last resource, I addressed myself to one of the principals; he received me sullenly, and asked me if I was in the commission of the peace. I answered that I was not.

Then, sir," said he, "have the goodness to spare me your opinions. Gentlemen," he added, sneeringly, "have ways of their own of settling their differences."

I then applied to the other, a very young man, of an open and ingenuous countenance. In answer to my entreaties to him to desist, he said, "I should have no objection to oblige you, sir, but I'll see that fellow," eyeing his antagonist, "d-n'd first."

As he said these words, the seconds went up to their respective friends, and it was insisted on that I should withdraw, which I did, with great reluctance, taking my stand by the side of the surgeon. A moment after I had retired, the seconds gave the "Then you must be locked up till you find the signal, and both parties fired at the same time; and securities," replied the man in office, and his in the same moment that I saw the flashes from worship again turned to his lordship, and com- their barrels, I saw the younger spin round, with menced an interchange of small talk, while the his arms spread out in the air, like the sails of poor man was led away by the gaoler. His a windmill, rise from the ground, and then fall worship afterwards bowed and smiled his lordship flat and heavily on it, with his face downwards, out, and next day the prisoner cut his throat and like a huge lump of clay or lead dropped from died. And when I heard his fate. I added a sigh, | a height. Myself, the surgeon. the other princiand a curse to my exclamation, " Tel fut le monde pal, and the seconds, were quickly grouped round des le commencement." him.

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"Where are

Some few years back I was walking early in the It's all over," said the surgeon. morning over an unfrequented part of Wimbledon the carriages?" Common, when I suddenly came on a low insulated spot, where some gentlemen were, as I soon perceived, preparing for a duel. While the principals were standing aloof, and the seconds were deliberating on the necessary preliminaries, I stepped up to the surgeon, who was alone, and some little distance from them, and begged to know if there was no possibility of preventing the contemplated collision.

"We must be off, by God!" cried the seconds. "D- -n!" exclaimed the surviving duellist, gnashing his teeth in agony," this quarrel was my seeking. I am a murderer!”

. I am afraid not," he answered.

In another minute I was alone with the corpse, and as I gazed on it, and thought of what had passed, wept for the perversity of human nature, as I whispered again-"Tel fut le monde des le commencement!"

EPHRAIM TWIGG.