that he would return; but the simple creature mourned as for a treasure which was gone for ever. The following day I had him placed, unknown to her, at the door; and when I called in the afternoon, I found her in raptures; the lost jewel was found, and her joys were extatic! To prevent her, however, from expiring in bliss, I found means, before I left the house, to let my knife fall, by accident, of course, upon the glass globe which held her gold fishes, and cracked it nearly in two parts. What a misfortune! what must she do! she was again in tears-her fishes would die, and her husband would be so vexed! I also affected to be sorry, hoped she would not lose them, and blamed my carelessness with so good a grace, that she believed me to be in earnest. I now left her to fret and fume alone, and out of respect to her feelings, I discontinued my visits altogether. Having arrived at the age of fifteen, my father was persuaded, by a friend, to send me from home to finish my education, and to give me an opportunity of seeing something of life, as it exists in, or near London; because, as I was to be a merchant, it would be necessary, in two or three years, to place me at a desk in the office, and to introduce me on the walks of the Exchange. I smiled when my mother told me that it was their intention to place me under the Rev. Dr Plumtree, who was a profound classic, resided near London, received only four young gentlemen into his house at one time, for which he charged only the moderate sum of two hundred and fifty pounds a-year each, and which, according to agreement, was to cover all expenses, and every one was to be treated just as if he were one of the family. The first half-year I made a considerable progress in the higher classics, but the old gentleman's sight began to fail him, and my next half-year was not quite so profitably spent. My desire for mischief had not been entirely extinguished; it lay something like a spark among wet litter, ready to burst out whenever any favourable wind might chance to blow. Two old cronies, of nearly the same standing as the Doctor and his maiden sister, came every night to play at whist; and as our tutor always read prayers, and saw us into our bedrooms at nine, the remainder of the evening, till eleven, was generally spent over a rubber. It soon occurred to my fertile imagination, that, as we could not go to sleep at nine o'clock, our time might be much better employed in the street, than in our rooms, or in bed. With some difficulty I prevailed upon the other three to accompany me in an evening's excursion. We walked down the stairs, the first time, with fear and trembling, with our shoes in our hands, slipt out at the door leading into the garden, and from thence we easily escaped into the street. My companions were sadly afraid of being detected; so we only indulged in a short walk, purchased a little fruit and some tarts, and then hurried home. We all, however, soon became bolder, and sometimes did not return before ten. One night we were caught, just entering, by Robert the footman, who inquired where we had been, and why we were out of our rooms? I informed him that I had taken ill, and was obliged to go down into the garden, and that as I did not like to go alone, the other young gentlemen had been kind enough to accompany me. One morning, as I was walking in the garden, it happened that a rat-catcher was passing by with some rats in a cage: I gave him half-a-crown for the largest in his possession, which was indeed a rat of a noble size, and I tied him up in my pocket-handkerchief, and no one knew any thing about the matter, or the purchase I had made. I placed him behind my back, under my coat, and when we had just entered on our lesson, and every one was engaged, I undid the knot, and down fell the rat, and began to scamper about at a great rate. rat!" they all exclaimed ; and before the Doctor had time to rise, the animal, in a fright, leaped upon the table, and running across his book, brushed against his spectacles, and put him into a terrible panic. The doors were all closed, and there was no way for the poor beast to escape, except he could climb the chimney, and there was a fire in the grate. Robert was quickly summoned with the terrier dog; and though my rat "A was as brave a rat as ever breathed, and showed much game, he was obliged to give in to superior force, and was, after much hard fighting, fairly worried in one corner of the room. The old gentleman's nerves were so agitated, on this occasion, that he was obliged to retire, and he did not resume his duties for nearly a fortnight, during all which time we had holidays, and had liberty to take pleasant walks to the neighbouring villages, when I had an opportunity of throwing some of the gates open, by which means the cattle grazing in the lanes had the power of regaling themselves in the adjoining corn-fields. At one time I had the misfortune to be observed by a farmer in the very act of setting his gate open, when he inquired what I was going to do? I made no answer, but gave him a look of the most imperturbable impudence." My lad," said he, "I plainly perceive that thou art one of those cumber-grounds, who often despise better people than themselves; thou hast been badly tutored, better fed than taught; but for once I'll endeavour to teach thee better manners. Bite him, Jowler!" said he, and he sent his great rough dog Jowler after me. The dog tore off the skirt of my coat, bit me sorely in several places, and frightened me till I trembled and shook like a person in an ague fit. About this time the players paid us a visit, and obtained permission to act five nights each week, for two months, in the large room at the Red-Lion Inn, which had been fitted up for the purpose. Twice aweek we had leave to attend the caricatured representations of this band of strolling Thespians; but as we had all of us seen better performers, as soon as the novelty of the thing had a little subsided, instead of attending the theatre, we ordered a supper at one of the hotels, drank wine, and thus enjoyed what we thought more substantial pleasures. As these pranks became very frequent, our money vanished with great rapidity; the twenty pounds with which I had been supplied for my half-yearly pocket expenses was all gone, and I was obliged to apply to my mother for another sum to the same amount. This request I qualified by having had my best hat stolen at a ball; my great-coat had also been run away with, and my best coat was too shabby to appear in at a grand party to which I was invited the ensuing week. The money came; for what will not a fond mother do for a darling absent boy! her motherly affection, her love, are called into action; and are, in such cases, up in arms, and far more than a match for her duty. In this way, boys are sometimes ruined. Of all this, and of my private expenses, my poor father was as ignorant as the Caliph of Bagdad. It was now summer; the Doctor relapsed in his discipline, and we had permission to walk in the evenings, for the good of our health. This was a glorious privilege, for we sometimes set out at five; and from five o'clock to eleven is six hours. We now often hired gigs, and drove to London and back, which was a very pleasant manner of spending the evening, and an excellent method of getting rid of our money. On our return, one evening, we had some fun with a little Jew. The poor Levite was trudging along the dusty road by the side of a deep ditch, about five feet broad. I drove up to him, and forced him to the brink, when he bawled out, "Mine Got, Sir, vill you kill me? take care, for I vill shoot you, or I vill shoot your horse." I still pressed him, and he was in a great rage. "You be von great big rashcal," said he; "you vill be hanged for my murder." "Leap! Mosey," said I; "leap, man!" But he screamed aloud, "You are a villain! I cannot leap! and I shall be drowned." I forced him to leap, but his feet stuck in the mud on the other side, and he fell backwards into the ditch; the weight of his box held him down, and he could not get out; of course, without some aid he must have been drowned. I immediately jumped out of the gig, and assisted in drag ging the poor wretch out of the mire. As soon he was on his legs again, I threw him down a shilling, which he very quickly kicked into the ditch, and before I had time to make good my retreat, he gave me a blow on my face, that made my jaws rattle, and I was nearly stunned; I thought it would be best, however, to pocket the affront, and we drove off at full speed, leaving the poor Israelite to follow at his leisure. The next morning he waited on Dr Plumtree; "I am, Sir," said he, "a poor priest of the dispersed house of Israel, my name is Shamvel Moshish, and I vud shpeak mit you." "And what may be your business with me, Sir?" replied the Doctor. The Jew told him that he had been injured, both in his person and property, by some young men who lived in his house. "And what," said the Doctor in a very pompous manner, "have I to do with that? "Only to hear, Sir," said Mosey, "vat I have got to shay." "Then be brief, Sir, for I very much dislike to have my time appointed for instruction intruded upon." "I dare shay, Sir, just as much as I dislike to be trown in a ditch, by a pack of scoundrels." "I shall not allow you, or any other person, to call my young gentlemen scoundrels, so pray go about your business. My bishness, Doctor! I am now about my bishness; my bishness is mit you, and I sal tank you 33 to do your duty." "You are an impudent fellow, and I have done with you." "Pardon me, Sir," said the Jew," but I have not done mit you; a constable is now at the door, mit four varrants for your four hopeful young gentlemen, to take dem before de magistrate, for an assault made on me last night; mit your leave I vill ashk him to come in." This information altered our tutor's haughty look, and lowered the tone of his voice at least one octave. He now told Mosey, that if injury had been done, reparation should be made. "Dat ish vell," said the Jew, "and dat ish all I vant; pay me forty pound, and all vill be shettled in a minute." The Doctor's colour flushed his fat cheeks; we looked wistfully at each other; but the money was paid, and the Levite, bowing with a supercilious air, left us to finish our lessons, and proceeded on his way. The Reverend Doctor was greatly vexed, but the matter was hushed; and as every thing in this transient state has an end, the termination of this half year terminated my juvenile amusements. THE DEATH OF CARDINAL CRESCENTIO; A DRAMATIC SKETCH. [Cardinal Crescentio died at Verona in the sixteenth century. The story is to be found in Sleidan's Commentaries, III. c. 23.] Cardinal-(aside.)-Damned fiend, Why turn thy sullen eyes on me alone? Begone, scare some one else. Away! dost think That I will truckle to thee? A Lord. Something moves him. Giovanni.-Hush, hush, he's often so. More wine, more music! Let us hail the boy Of fair-eyed Semele-see, how I tremble! But it's with joy, believe me. [Spills the wine. See, it spreads Its liquid fragrance on the polish'd floor, A ruby sea. The godlike sons of Cecrops, Earth-born themselves, could never find a fitter Gift to their mother Tellus. Let us hail The lucky omen. (Aside.) Again, again! I'll face thee, I'll beard thee, cursed sprite. Another goblet Full, brimful! (Aside.) Let your hollow, hollow eyes, Glare through the burning wine-what is't to me? Nay, I will give thee all that I possess If thou will leave me but one hour. Ah! no, I see thee still! I'll quit the banquet, Lords; A sudden pang-a sickness of the heartAnd I must leave you. May the god of Naxos Shower all his choicest blessings! My Giovanni! [Exeunt Cardinal and train. SCENE II-A Bed-Chamber. Cardinal-Giovanni-Confessor. Cardinal.-Peace, father! it must be. Oh! raise the pillow A little higher, and withdraw the shade Of yonder silken screen, that I may feel The freshening breeze of midnight-so. Giovanni! Thou know'st it not. When I am dead, the father Will tell thee all the hideous tale. Away! Away! embrace me not, good youth, but weep, Aye, weep! Oh, blest if every scalding tear Could blot a fault of mine! Have I seem'd happy At yonder joyous orgie? Have I sate Like Heathen epicure, with graceless wreaths RECOLLECTIONS OF MY VOYAGE. I HAD been for some months in expectation of an appointment in India, in the civil service of the Company, and the "habitude of my thoughts had been moulded (somewhat) into the fashion of my expect ed destiny;" but still, when the order arrived, I scarcely received it in sober equanimity; and then the shortness of the notice!-I must bid adieu to friends and fatherland in three short weeks. Not very familiar with life, at least with the action of life, I felt considerably at a loss how to turn myself on the occasion. Of course, I fell to thinking, and, like many youthful thinkers, thought so much on what I had to do, and should do, that I did nothing. I had been accustomed to rely hitherto on the advice and provident foresight of an excellent father. Happy it is for many a man that his father lived before him, and happy was it for me, in the order of events, that my father had the precedure ! He was both Philip and Aristotle to me. To be sure, his philosophical attainments were not excessive; they were not equal to the goodness of his heart; he would boggle sadly about the origin of moral and physical evil, as many a wiser man had done before him; but he was the best of fathers, orderly, exemplary, kind. I turned to him on this sudden summons:-I wanted his counsel,-that he would freely give, nay, be disappointed if it were not asked. I wanted also money,-for his exchequer was my exchequer, with this difference only, that his right was possessory, mine petitory; he was the Chancellor, I the suitor. Counsel and money! How different the zeal with which they are dispensed! and to this venerable truism the practice of my father was no little time before, and I had felt nothing but anxiety to be quit of a life of expectation, to launch into the wide ocean, and be far hence. As the prospect neared of realizing the wish, it lost much of its fascination, exception. To say the truth, he was not over-fond of giving away money. He had a hive of a family, and I was the nearest to himself, that is, the eldest, and had been the object, one way or other, of pretty large draughts, and he had afford-in fancy, clouds were seen to lower ed me a liberal education, and had put me in the way of bestirring me for myself, and he thought he had done enough; he wished he had as much done for the others. Perhaps this could not be denied; but I felt that now was the occasion when it was necessary for him to do something more; I suspected, at first, he would say No; but I thought I might calculate that this emphatic negative would not be pronounced until after the money was numerated, and ready to pass from his pocket to mine; that it would be employed, half to impress the social truth of mutual dependence, (it was a part of his character to indulge rather in modern instances,) and half as the last act of expiring authority. To my father then I wrote. He lived in a distant town in Scotland, and I was in London; I mentioned the appointment, the limitation in time, and what appeared necessary in outfit and supplies. I longed to see him before I sailed the seas,' to bid him adieu face to face, and charge him with a thousand remembrances; but the season of the year, (it was the month of November,) the length and danger of the voyage along a rocky coast, and with dismal accommodation,-these together forbade the request that he would undertake the voyage; and I merely hinted, selfishly, perhaps, the satisfaction I should have in seeing him, and left it to himself to determine whether it should be so. Honest gentleman, his own comfort and safety were ideas that never once crossed him; and a fortnight after my letter was despatched, he was in London. I was sitting over the breakfast-table, revolving future scenes and prospects, and sometimes in hope, building bright visions of success, and sometimes despondingly figuring disappointment and troubles, when the door opened, and he entered. It was as I expected. I had a lecture on economy, heard of the numerous claims on him, and got all I required. A VOL. XIV. where all before was gay in sunny ૨૧ |