he was either deaf, or affected deafness. After voices ceased, leaving Cathleen uncertain as to supper, Cathleen desired to be shown to her apart-her fate. ment. The old woman lighted a lamp and led the way up some broken steps, into a small room, where she showed her two separate beds, standing close together, which the strangers were to occupy, there being no others in the house. Cathleen said her prayers, only partly undressed herself, and lifting up the worn out coverlet, lay down upon the bed. The pedlar threw himself down on his bed, and in a few minutes, as she judged by his hard and equal breathing, the old man was in a deep sleep. All was now still in the house, but Cathleen could not sleep. She was feverish and restless, and whenever she tried to compose herself to slumber, the faces of the two men she had left below flittered and glared before her eyes. The latch of the door was raised cautiously, the Cork. Cathleen affected great wonder and perdoor opened, and the two Hogans entered: they trod so softly that, though she saw them move before her, she heard no foot-fall. They approached the bed of Halloran, and presently she heard a dull heavy blow, and then sounds-appalling sickening sounds—as of subdued struggles and smothered agony, which convinced her that they were murdering the unfortunate pedlar.

Shortly after the door opened, and the father and son again entered, and carried out the body of the wretched pedlar. The night ended at lengththat long, long night of horror. Cathleen lay quiet till she thought the morning sufficiently advanced. She then rose, and went down into the kitchen: the old woman was lifting a pot off the fire, and nearly let it fall as Cathleen suddenly addressed her, and with an appearance of surprise and concern, asked for her friend the pedlar, saying she had just looked into his bed, supposing he was still asleep, and to her great amazement had found it empty. The old woman replied, that he had set out at early daylight for Mallow, having only just remembered that his business called him that way before he went to

plexity, and reminded the woman that he had promised to pay for her breakfast.

"An' so he did, sure enough," she replied, "and paid for it too;" so saying, she placed a bowl of stirabout and some milk before Cathleen, and then sat down on the stool opposite to her, watching her intently.

Poor Cathleen! she had but little inclination to Cathleen listened, almost congealed with horror, eat, and felt as if every bit would choke her: yet but she did not swoon: her turn, she thought, must she continued to force down her breakfast, and apcome next, though in the same instant she felt parently with the utmost ease and appetite even to instinctively that her only chance of preservation the last morsel set before her. While eating, she was to counterfeit profound sleep. The murderers inquired about the husband and son, and the old having done their work on the poor Pedlar, ap-woman replied, that they had started at the first proached her bed; she lay quite still, breathing burst of light to cut turf in a bog, about five miles calmly and regularly. They brought the light to distant. Cathleen on finishing her breakfast enher eye-lids, but they did not wink or move;-treated to be informed the nearest way to Cork, there was a pause, a terrible pause, and then a whispering; and presently Cathleen thought she could distinguish a third voice, as of expostulation, but all in so very low a tone that though the voices were close to her she could not hear a word that was uttered. After some moments, which appeared an age of agonizing suspense, the wretches withdrew, and Cathleen was left alone, and in darkness.

and was told by the old woman that the distance was about seven miles by the usual road, but that there was a much shorter one, across some fields, which she pointed out; and after thanking her for the direction the poor creature proceeded on her fearful journey, but had not gone more than a mile, when on approaching a thick and dark grove of underwood, she beheld an old woman setting on the road side; under this disguise she recognized She then turned her thoughts to the possibility of young Hogan, who endeavored to beg money from escape. The window first suggested itself: but, her, and after questioning her as to how she passed she was aware that the slightest noise must cause the night, and satisfying himself she did not susher instant destruction. She thus resolved on re-picion their foul work, she was permitted to promaining quiet.

It was most fortunate that Cathleen came to this determination, for without the slightest previous sound, the door again opened, and in the faint light, to which her eyes were now accustomed, she saw the head of the old woman bent forward in a listening attitude: in a few minutes the door closed, and then followed a whispering outside. She could not at first distinguish a word until the woman's sharper tones broke out, though in suppressed vehemence, with "If ye touch her life, Barny, a mother's curse go with ye! enough's done."

"She'll live, then, to hang us all," said the

creant son.

ceed.

Another half-mile brought her to the top of a rising ground, within sight of the high road; she could see crowds of people on horseback and on foot; and now she had reached the middle of the last field, and a thrill of new-born hope was beginning to flutter at her heart, when suddenly two men burst through the fence at the farther side of the field, and advanced towards her. One of these she thought at the first glance resembled her husband, but that it was her husband himself was an idea which never entered her mind. Her imagimis-nation was possessed with the one supreme idea of danger and death by murderous hands; she doubted not that these were the two Hogans in some new disguise. At this moment one of the men throwing up his arms, ran forward, shouting her name, in a voice-a dear and well known voice, in which she could not be deceived:-it was her

"Hisht! I tell ye, no,-no; the ship's now in the Cove of Cork that's to carry her or the salt seas far enough out of the way: and havn't we all she has in the world? and more, didn't she take the bit out of her own mouth to put into mine?"

The son again spoke inaudably; and then the husband!

The poor woman, who had hitherto supported her spirits and her self-possession, stood as if rooted to the ground, weak, motionless, and gasping for breath; she sank down at his feet in strong convulsions.

Reilly, much shocked at what he supposed the effect of sudden surprise, knelt down and chafed his wife's temples; his comrade ran to a neighboring spring for water, which they sprinkled plentifully over her: when, however, she returned to life, her intellects appeared to have fled for ever, and she uttered such wild shrieks and exclamations, and talked so incoherantly, that the men became exceedingly terrified, and poor Reilly himself almost as distracted as his wife.

At this moment Cathleen rushed from the arms of her husband, and throwing herself on her knees, with clasped hands, and cheeks streaming with tears, begged for mercy for the old woman. "Mercy, my lord judge!" she exclaimed. "Gentlemen, your honors, have mercy on her. She had mercy on me! She only did their bidding. The judge, though much affected, was obliged to have her forcibly carried from the court, and justice took its awful course. Sentence of death was pronounced on all the prisoners; but the woman was reprieved, and afterward transported.

of the money, Cathleen, who, among her other perfections, was exceedingly pious after the fashion of her creed and country, founded yearly masses for the soul of the poor pedlar; and vowed herself to make a pilgrimage of thanksgiving to St. Gobnate's well. Mr. L., the magistrate who had first examined her in the little inn at Balgowna, made her a munificent present; and anxious, perhaps, to offer yet farther amends for his former doubts of her veracity, he invited Reilly, on very advantageous terms, to settle on his estate, where he rented a neat cabin, and a handsome plot of potatoe ground. There Reilly and his Cathleen were living ten years ago, with an increasing family, and in the enjoyment of much humble happiness; and there, for aught I know to the contrary, they may be living at this day.

ORIGINAL TRANSLATION.

The reader may wish to know what has become of Cathleen, our heroine, in the true sense of the word. Her story, her sufferings, her extraordinary Towards evening she became more composed, fortitude, and pure simplicity of character, made and was able to give some account of the horrible her an object of general curiosity and interest: a events of the preceding night. It happened, op- subscription was raised for her, which soon amountportunely, that a gentleman of fortune in the neigh-ed to a liberal sun; they were enabled to procure borhood, and a magistrate, was riding by late that Reilly's discharge from the army, and with a part evening on his return from the Assizes at Cork, and stopped at the inn to refresh his horse. Hearing that something unusual and frightful had occurred, he alighted, and examined the woman himself, in the presence of one or two persons. Her tale appeared to him so strange and wild from the manner in which she told it, and her account of her own courage and sufferings so exceedingly incredible, that he was at first inclined to disbelieve the whole, and suspected the poor woman either of imposture or insanity. He did not, however, think proper totally to neglect her testimony, but inmediately sent off information of the murder to Cork. Constables with a warrant were despatched the same night to the house of the Hogans, which they found empty, and the inmates already fled: but after a long search, the body of the wretched Halloran, and part of his property, were found concealed in a stack of old chimneys among the ruins; and this proof of guilt was decisive. The country was instantly up; the most active search after the murderers was made by the police, assisted by all the neighboring peasantry; and before twelve o'clock the following night, the three Hogans, father, mother, and son, had been apprehended in different places of concealment, and placed in safe custody. The surgeon, who had been called to examine the body of Halloran, deposed to the cause of his death;—that the old man had been first stunned by a heavy blow on the temple, and then strangled. Other witnesses deposed to the finding of the body: the previous character of the Hogans, and the circumstances attending their apprehension; but the principal witness was Cathleen. She appeared leaning on her husbb nd, her face was ashy pale, The gentleman who accompanied him appeared and her limbs too weak for support; yet she, how-some years younger, His perfumed hair escaped ever, was perfectly collected, and gave her testi- from under a toque sparkling with precious stones. mony with that precision, simplicity, and modesty, A short mantle of crimson velvet, richly embroipeculiar to her character. When she had occasion to allude to her own feelings, it was with such natural and heart-felt eloquence that the whole court was affected; and when she described her recontre at the stile, there was a general pressure and a breathless suspense: and then a loud murmur of astonishment and admiration fully participated by even the bench of magistrates. The evidence was clear and conclusive; and the jury. without retiring, gave their verdict, guilty-death. | which they were passing.

The Maniac.

Two strangers were passing through the city of Ferrare, in Italy, some years ago, and proposed while there to pay a visit to the hospital, or rather prison, of St. Anne, in which lunatics are confined. The elder traveller had an open and pleasing expression of countenance, and his head was entirely bald. As he now and then asked a question of the rude guide that Father Antonio Mosti had given them, his dark and piercing eye seemed to read his inmost soul, and decypher the expected answer before the coarse and rugged features of the gaoler could give it utterance,

dered, was thrown over his shoulders, and hung in graceful folds down to his waist, permitting only a partial glimpse of the ermined doublet underneath, and the large and brilliant links of a magnificent gold chain. His hand rested carelessly upon the hilt of an elegant sword, which hung by his side, and the clang of his spurs, as they struck against the marble pavement was the only sound that disturbed the stillness of the long corridor through

La Boetie and the gaoler hastened to extricate Montaigne from the clutches of this maniac; and while they were dragging him to a dungeon, “Friend,” said Montaigne, readjusting his gown, 'assuredly we should not hold up our heads in vanity, at the soundness of our own judgment, when we have this moment been admiring the intelligence of a lunatic, and have mistaken for a lunatic the greatest genius of Italy. Verily, Socrates had good reason to profess that he knew but one single thing, and that was, that he knew nothing; Pliny, to write there is nothing certain but uncertainty;' and I to repeat after them- What do I know?'

THE PRECIPIC E.

Here's the place :-stand still. How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low."-SHAKSPEARE.

THE inhabitant of a level country can form no idea of the influence which mountains possess over the mind of a mountaineer. His spirit would almost seem to have emanated from his native soil, and to rejoice in proportion as it approaches its original home. His pulse beats more brisklyhis foot bounds more lightly, as he breathes the keen air, as he treads upon the giddy ledge of the mountain side. As the old song has it—

"He feels his blood mounting Like streams in a fountain, That merrily sparkle and play." when his eye rests upon the snowy peak, and precipice rises above precipice around, above, and below his dwelling. Accordingly, we find the love of country, in its stricter sense especially-the arca paterna as contradistinguished from the patria-of peculiar warmth and force in the heart of a mountaineer. The Swiss-the Scotch highlanders-are instances too familiar to need more than a bare mention. They wander, it is true, from home; but they bear the image of that home, impressed upon their hearts, indelibly. It is the "one green spot in Memory's waste:"-the affections revert to it through years of absence; across the distance of half the globe the song of the valley still sounds in their ear, the breeze of the mountain still blows upon their cheek-and, after years of expectation, and toil, and sickness, and danger, they return to lay their bones upon their own hill side, at last.

Among the sublime Alps, or the beautiful Pyrenees, it is, perhaps, not extraordinary, that this feeling should exist: but the principle holds good in even the most inhospitable regions. We go to stroll away the Summer among the mountains I have named: but who was ever known to make a tour of pleasure into Norway? The wild and desolate mountains of that country are, probably, as it regards grand and striking scenery, at the least, equal, if not superior, to any to be found in Europe. But we look upon them only as if they were the throne of the King of Storms; the very chosen home of winter. To the Norwegian, on the contrary, his forests of pine-his salient rocks-his foaming torrents—are dear as are the smiling vales of Guienne, or the teeming plains of Andalusia, to the Gascon and the Spaniard.

of snow: the sources of the waters are unlocked, the snows disappear, and without tardy gradations, without relapse, or check, or stint-the gorgeous summer is there, in all its bloom, in all its perfume, in all its beauty; the sun glows in the air; the vivid verdure of the grass, and the bright hues of the flowers, shine from the earth; winter has passed away, like the morning dream of a sleeper awakened; and the land is glad in the living waters, and the sweet odours, and the fair colors of a very Eden!

And if its summer be more splendid in its appearances and its gifts, so is its winter more grand and awful in its terrors. The phenomena of mountain atmosphere are more frequent, and more perfect. The very name of the Aurora Borealis sufficiently betokens its country. The violence of the gusts, also, through the ravines and clefts which abound in the mountains, is of a degree to which even the Alps can scarcely afford a parallel. The torrent which flows from the side of the precipice, is, by the force of one of those gusts, blown from the face of the rock and dispersed in spray through the air!

It was in a village situated among these mountains, that one winter night, a party of goatherds and hunters was assembled round the fire of the little inn-whiling away the hours with tale, and song, and jest, to give a zest to their liquor. They were chiefly young men, and their conversation turned upon their exploits and adventures of danger among the mountains: the pride, both of their calling and of their country, occasioned them to excel in the exercises which such a region must demand and to exult in that excellence when acquired. If the very truth must be spoken, perhaps, they added another point of similiarity to the love of country, which I have stated them to possess in common with the Gascons-a quality for which the latter are so nationally famous, as to have conferred upon it their national name. At least, there was an old man, who had said very little, but had listened, attentively, as he smoked his pipe in the chimney corner, who seemed to be of this opinion. For, as the members of the party were vying with each other in their narrations of "accidents by flood and field," the old man itted, in the midst of an increased cloud of smoke, an ejaculatory "Humph!" Norway, however, is a country of which the phy-of a most sceptical, nay, infidel intonation. He sical aspects furnish sufficient ground for national was a very fine old man; and, as the blaze of the pride and love. The change from winter to sum- pine logs shone upon his brow, he might have formmer is a burst of sudden richness and beauty, such ed a painter's study for a veteran mountaineer. as no temperate climate can even give an idea of. His skin was hard and dry, but it was not much The rocks are buried under snow---the frost winds wrinkled; and his brilliant grey eye was, to his sweep through the gullies of the mountains with a face, what the sun is to the heavens-it sheds, withforce unknown in Southern Europe. The land out a figure, brightness over his whole counteseems to be the region of eternal winter: when nance. His hair was grey and thin upon the forelo! the breath of the south steals over these wastes head, but flowing in long floating waves, from the

rest of the scalp. His frame was wiry, strong and continued, and the tear glistened in his eye as he active, although somewhat decayed through age: spoke-" poor fellow, he is dead, long since, and but, as well as his aspect, it gave sufficient indica- his son," stooping and fondling the dog at his feet, tion that, in youth, his had been a body of steel and" is old now: but if I had but one crust of bread, and one cup of water in the world, old Thor should whale-bone, and a soul of fire. share with me for his father's sake."

A dog lay at his feet; old, like his master, but, The dog looked up, as though he understood his like him, to appearance still strong and agile. He was of a breed resembling what in England, we master's meaning; for he smiled in his face, with call a lurcher, grey, shaggy, intelligent, and attach- that expression of thankful fondness which the ed as a shepherd's dog, and almost as fleet as a countenance of his race alone shares with that of greyhound. He was sleeping in the warmth of the human species. the fire, nestled between his master's legs.

After listening for some time, to the accounts which the young men were giving of their prowess, the old hunter, having finished his pipe and knocked the ashes out, took up the tale in his turn:"My young friends," said he, "you have been telling us some very marvellous adventures; but as I am an old hunter, and therefore, am fond of the spirit which leads you into them, I will not strive to sift the grain from the chaff, the exact facts, from But the colors in which you have dressed them. I will give you, in my turn, an account of an accident which, you all know, by report, did actually happen to me, as the limp in my gait can testify to this day.

"It is now about twenty years ago, that I was one day out hunting as usual. I had got sight of a chamois, and was advancing upon him, when having almost got within shot, I sprang across a chasm a few yards wide, upon a ledge of snow opposite. The outer part of this was, alas! only of snow;it was frozen hard; but, as I came upon it with considerable force, I felt it giving way beneath me. The man, who says that he never felt fear, never was in a situation such as this. The agony of terror-and what agony greater? rushed throughout my frame. My first impulse was to spring forward, to reach the firm ground. But the very effort I made to save myself, accelerated my fate-the mass broke short off-and I fell!

"I felt," continued the hunter, "I felt numbed and stiffened, and in considerable pain all over; so much so, that I could not distinguish any one particular hurt as being more severe than the rest. I endeavored to rise, and that soon showed to me where my chief injury lay. I fell back again, instantly; my thigh was broken. In addition to this, two fingers of my right hand, and one of my left, were broken also, and I was bruised in almost every part. But I was alive! As I looked up to the pinnacle from which I had fallen, I could scarcely believe that to be possible.

"The spot where I lay, was in a narrow cleft between two cliffs, which diverged from each other, as they advanced, leaving a sort of triangular platform open between them and a third. A torrent threw itself, like a wild horse's main, from the rock above me; bat in the numberless eddies which whirled in the hollow, it was dispersed into air before it reached the place, distant through its depth, where I lay.

"Night now began to thicken fast-the faster on account of the deep den in which I was. The wind blew as though all the quarters of the heaven sent forth their blasts at once, and that they all met and battled there. I had escaped one dreadful death, and I now began to fear another more dreadful still, because more slow and more felt. I feared that I should die through cold, and hunger, and untended hurts. The cold, too, I now felt more severely ; for shortly after I had given up in despair, all attempts to extricate myself from my situation, my dog, after whining and yelping piteously for some time, went off. As he turned the corner of the rock which hid him from my sight, I felt as if my last hold of life had gone from me—as though the friend of my bosom had left me to die. He too, abandons me!' I exclaimed, and I blush to confess it, I burst into tears. Being forsaken by that which I thought faithful, cut me to the heart. Who, indeed, can bear that?

"I have since been to view that spot; and standing in safety on its brink, my nerves have shivered as I have looked down the awful precipice. How I escaped being dashed into as many atoms as there are pebbles at its base, it is impossible to divine. The height is upwards of seventy feet: there was no projecting rock, no jutting tree, to break my fall. Perhaps the snow which fell along with me in vast quantities, and which crumbled as it fell, served to protect me. When I perceived my footing yield, the earth, as it were, to sink from under me, I felt "The world now seemed to have closed upon the common hyperbole, that my heart sprang to my throat, almost cease to be one. One gasp of my sight forever; my wife, my children, my dear mortal agony, as it burst from my lungs, gave me home-I should see them no more! I figured to mythe sensation of choking, which the phrase I have self all the delights and charities of that home, and mentioned strives to express. The feelings of my I felt how bitter it was to be torn from life while mind may be all summed in the exclamation which, life was yet strong-all its ties firmly knit-all its I believe, escaped me-Oh, God!-I'm gone!'-affections glowing. My next thought was one momentary appeal to me, I thought of my wife anxiously listening for my step, or rather for the well known step of Thor prethat God's mercy,—and then I thought no more. When I recovered my senses, day was begin- ceding me-and the bright gleaming upon smiling ning to close. I lay enveloped in snow. My children's faces, the fairest ornament and the dearhunting spear was beside me, broken; and, stretch- est comfort of a fire-side; and the rosy lips held up ed upon my bosom, lay my faithful dog,-spread for a father's kiss; and the little hands clinging out, as it were, to protect me from the cold, and round the knees to attract a father's notice; and breathing upon my face, as if to communicate his their mother's gladsome smile of welcome to me, life to bring back mine. Poor fellow," the old man and unchiding reproof to them; such was the pic

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As darkness settled around