There was a cheerful fire burning on a bright, but did not press the matter further at the moclean hearth. The kettle was singing on the ment. He contented himself with turning the hob for tea, and the contrast of the in-door com- conversation quietly upon this subject, and after fort was sensibly heightened by the wild gloom a while found the farmer and his wife confirm without. The farmer's wife, who had admitted to him every thing that he had heard. Once the stranger, soon went out, and called her hus- more then, and as incidentally, he expressed band from the fold-yard. He was a plain, hearty his regret that he could not gratify the curiosity sort of man; gave our friend a hearty shake of which had brought him so far; and, before the the hand, sate down, and began to converse. time for retiring arrived, again ventured to exA little time seemed to establish a friendly in- press how much what he had now heard had terest between the stranger and the farmer and increased his previous desire to pass a night in his wife. John Basford asked whether they that room. He did not profess to believe himwould allow him to smoke a pipe, which was self invulnerable to fears of such a kind, but was not only readily accorded, but the farmer joined curious to convince himself of the actual existhim. They smoked and talked alternately of ence of spiritual agency of this character. the country and the town, Leicester being the farmer's market, and as familiar to him as his own neighborhood. He soon came to know, too, who his guest was, and expressed much pleasure in the visit. Tea was carried into the parlor, and thither they all adjourned, for now the farming men were coming into the kitchen, where they sate for the evening.

Tea over, the two gentlemen again had a pipe, and the conversation wandered over a multitude of things and people known to both.

But the night was come down pitch dark, wild, and windy, and old John Basford had to return to Leicester.

"To Leicester!" exclaimed at once man and wife; "to Leicester!" No such thing. He must stay where he was-where could he be better?

John Basford confessed that that was true; he had great pleasure in conversing with them; but then, was it not an unwarrantable liberty to come to a stranger's house, and make thus free? "Not in the least," the farmer replied; "the freer the better!"

The matter thus was settled, and the evening wore on; but in the course of the evening, the guest, whose simple manner, strong sense, and deeply pious feeling, had made a most favorable impression on his entertainers, hinted that he had heard some strange rumors regarding this house, and that, in truth, had been the cause which had attracted him thither. He had heard, in fact, that a particular chamber in this house was haunted; and he had for a long time felt a growing desire to pass a night in it. He now begged this favor might be granted him.

As he had opened this subject, an evident cloud, and something of an unpleasant surprise, had fallen on the countenances of both man and wife. It deepened as he proceeded; the farmer had withdrawn his pipe from his mouth, and laid it on the table; and the woman had risen, and looked uneasily at their guest. The moment that he uttered the wish to sleep in the haunted room, both exclaimed in the same instant against it.

"No, never!" they exclaimed; "never, on any consideration! They had made a firm resolve on that point, which nothing would induce them to break through."

The guest expressed himself disappointed,

The farmer and his wife steadily refused. They declared that others who had come with the same wish, and had been allowed to gratify it, had suffered such terrors as had made their after-lives miserable. The last of these guests was a clergyman, who received such a fright that he sprang from his bed at midnight, had descended, gone into the stable, and saddling his horse, had ridden away at full speed. Those things had caused them to refuse, and that firmly, any fresh experiment of the kind.

The spirit visitation was described to be generally this: At midnight, the stranger sleeping in that room would hear the latch of the door raised, and would in the dark perceive a light step enter, and, as with a stealthy tread, cross the room, and approach the foot of the bed. The curtains would be agitated, and something would be perceived mounted on the bed, and proceeding up it, just upon the body of the person in it. The supernatural visitant would then stretch itself full length on the person of the agitated guest, and the next moment he would feel an oppression at his chest, as of a nightmare, and something extremely cold would touch his face.

At this crisis, the terrified guest would usually utter a fearful shriek, and often go into a swoon. The whole family would be roused from their beds by the alarm; but on no occasion had any traces of the cause of terror been found, though the house, on such occasions, had been diligently and thoroughly searched. The annoying visit was described as being by no means uniform. Sometimes it would not take place for a very long time, so that they would begin to hope that there would be no more of it; but it would, when least expected, occur again. Few people of late years, however, had ventured to sleep in that room, and never since the aforementioned clergyman was so terribly alarmed, about two years ago, had it once been occupied.

"Then," said John Basford, "it is probable that the annoyance is done with forever. If the troublesome visitant was still occasionally pres ent it would, no doubt, take care to manifest itself in some mode or place. It was necessary to test the matter to see whether this particular room was still subject to so strange a phenomenon."

This seemed to have an effect on the farmer

and his wife.

The old man urged his suit all the more earnestly, and, after further show of extreme reluctance on the part of his entertainers, finally prevailed.

The consent once being given, the farmer's wife retired to make the necessary arrangements. Our friend heard sundry goings to and fro; but at length it was announced to him that all was ready; the farmer and his wife both repeating that they would be much better pleased if Mr. Basford would be pleased to sleep in some other room. The old man, however, remained firm to his purpose; he was shown to his chamber, and the maid who led the way stood at some distance from the denoted door, and pointing to it, bade him good night, and hurried away.

but one of triumph and satisfaction. In the next instant, the farmer rushed into the room with a light in his hand, and revealed to John Basford that he held in his arms the struggling form of a huge Newfoundland dog!

"Let him go, sir, in God's name!" exclaimed the farmer, on whose brow drops of real anguish stood, and glistened in the light of the candle "Down stairs, Cæsar!" and the dog, released from the hold of the Quaker, departed as if much ashamed.

In the same instant, the farmer and his wife, who now also came in dressed, and evidently never having been to bed, were on their knees by the bedside.

"You know it all, sir," said the farmer; you see through it. You were too deep and strong-minded to be imposed on. We were, therefore, afraid of this when you asked to sleep in this room. Promise us now, that while we live you will never reveal what you know?"

Mr. Basford found himself alone in the haunted". room, he looked round and discovered nothing that should make it differ from any other good and comfortable chamber, or that should give to some invisible agent so singular a propensity to disturb any innocent mortal that nocturnated in it. Whether he felt any nervous terrors, we know not; but as he was come to see all that would or could occur there, he kept himself most vigilantly awake. He lay down in a very good feather bed, extinguished his light, and waited in patience. Time and tide, as they will wait for no man, went on. All sounds of life ceased in the house; nothing could be heard but the rushing wind without, and the bark of the yarddog occasionally amid the laughing blast. Midnight came, and found John Basford wide-awake and watchfully expectant. Nothing stirred, but he lay still on the watch. At length-was it so? Did he hear a rustling movement, as it were, near his door, or was it his excited fancy? He raised his head from his pillow, and listened intensely. Hush! there is something !—no !— it was his contagious mind ready to hear and see-what? There was an actual sound of the latch! He could hear it raised! He could not be mistaken. There was a sound as if his door was cautiously opened. List! it was true. There were soft, stealthy footsteps on the carpet; they came directly toward the bed; they paused at its foot; the curtains were agitated; there were steps on the bed; something creptdid not the heart and the very flesh of the rash old man now creep too?—and upon him sank a palpable form, palpable from its pressure, for the night was dark as an oven. There was a heavy weight on his chest, and in the same instant something almost icy cold touched his face.

With a sudden, convulsive action, the old man suddenly flung up his arms, clutched at the terrible object which thus oppressed him, and shouted with a loud cry,

"I have got him! I have got him!" There was a sound as of a deep growl, a vehement struggle, but John Basford held fast his hold, and felt that he had something within it huge, shaggy, and powerful. Once more he raised his voice loud enough to have roused the whole house; but it seemed no voice of terror,!

They then related to him, that this house and chamber had never been haunted by any other than this dog, which had been trained to play the part. That, for generations, their family had lived on this farm; but some years ago, their landlord having suddenly raised their rent to an amount that they felt they could not give, they were compelled to think of quitting the farm. This was to them an insuperable source of grief. It was the place that all their lives and memories were bound up with. They were extremely cast down. Suddenly it occurred to them to give an ill name to the house. They hit on this scheme, and, having practiced it well, did not long want an opportunity of trying it. It had succeeded beyond their expectations. The fears of their guests were found to be of a force which completely blinded them to any discovery of the truth. There had been occasions where they thought some clumsy accident must have stripped away the delusion; but no! there seemed a thick vail of blindness, a fascination of terror cast over the strongest minds, which nothing could pierce through. Case after case occurred; and the house and farm acquired such a character, that no money or consideration of any kind would have induced a fresh tenant to live there. The old tenants continued at their old rent; and the comfortable ghost stretched himself every night in a capacious kénnel, without any need of disturbing his slumbers by calls to disturb those of the guests of the haunted chamber.

Having made this revelation, the farmer and his wife again implored their guest to preserve their secret.

He hesitated.

"Nay," said he, "I think it would not be right to do that. That would be to make myself a party to a public deception. It would be a kind of fraud on the world and the landlord. It would serve to keep up those superstitious terrors which should be as speedily as possible dissipated."

The farmer was in agony. He rose and

porary of M. Rollin, that he was not particularly Réforme had been originally conducted by Godedistinguished either for his industry or his docil- froy Cavaignac, the brother of the general, who ity in early life. The earliest days of the reign continued editor till the period of the fatal illnes of Charles X. saw M. Ledru Rollin an étudiant which preceded his death. The defense of en droit in Paris. Though the schools of law Dupoty, tried and sentenced under the ministry had been re-established during the Consulate of Thiers to five years' imprisonment, as a regpretty much after the fashion in which they ex-icide, because a letter was found open in the isted in the time of Louis XIV., yet the appli- letter-box of the paper of which he was editor, cation of the alumni was fitful and desultory, addressed to him by a man said to be implicated and perhaps there were no two classes in France, in the conspiracy of Quenisset, naturally brought at the commencement of 1825, who were more M. Rollin into contact with many of the writers imbued with the Voltarian philosophy, and the in La Réforme; and these persons, among doctrines and principles of Rosseau, than the others Guinard Arago, Etienne Arago, and élèves of the schools of law and medicine. Flocon, induced him to embark some portion Under a king so skeptical and voluptuous, so of his fortune in the paper. From one step he much of a philosophe and pyrrhonéste, as Louis was led on to another, and ultimately became XVIII, such tendencies were likely to spread one of the chief, indeed, is not the chief proprithemselves through all ranks of society-to per- etor. The speculation was far from successful meate from the very highest to the very lowest in a pecuniary sense; but M. Rollin, in furtherclasses; and not all the lately acquired ascet-ance of his opinions, continued for some years to icism of the monarch, his successor, nor all the disburse considerable sums in the support of the efforts of the Jesuits, could restrain or control journal. By this he no doubt increased his the tendencies of the étudiants en droit. What popularity and his credit with the republican the law students were antecedently and subse-party, but it can not be denied that he very quent to 1825, we know from the Physiologie materially injured his private fortune. In the de l'Homme de Loi; and it is not to be supposed that M. Ledru Rollin, with more ample pecuniary means at command, very much differed from his fellows. After undergoing a three years' course of study, M. Rollin obtained a diploma as a licencié en droit, and commenced his career as stagiare somewhere about the end of 1826, or the beginning of 1827. Toward the close of 1829, or in the first months of 1830, he was, we believe, placed on the roll of advocates: so that he was called to the bar, or, as they say in France, received an advocate, in his twenty-than monarchical. For this he was sentenced second or twenty-third year.

earlier portion of his career M. Rollin was, it is known, not indisposed to seek a seat in the chamber under the auspicies of M. Barrot, but subsequently to his connection with the Réforme, he had himself become thoroughly known to the extreme party in the departments, and on the death of Garnier Pagès the elder, was elected in 1841 for Le Mans, in the department of La Sarthe.

In addressing the electors after his return, M. Rollin delivered a speech much more republican

to four months' imprisonment, but the sentence was appealed against and annulled on a technical ground, and the honorable member was ultimately acquitted by the Cour d'Assizes of Angers.

The first years of an advocate, even in France, are generally passed in as enforced an idleness as in England. Clients come not to consult the greenhorn of the last term; nor does any avoué among our neighbors, any more than any The parliamentary début of M. Rollin took attorney among ourselves, fancy that an old place in 1842. His first speech was delivered head is to be found on young shoulders. The on the subject of the secret-service money. The years 1830 and 1831 were not marked by any elocution was easy and flowing, the manner oratorical effort of the author of the Decline of oratorical, the style somewhat turgid and bomEngland; nor was it till 1832 that, being then bastic. But in the course of the session M. one of the youngest of the bar of Paris, he pre- Rollin improved, and his discourse on the modipared and signed an opinion against the placing fication of the criminal law, on other legal subof Paris in a state of siege consequent on the jects, and on railways, were more sober speciinsurrections of June. Two years after he pre- mens of style. In 1843 and 1844 M. Rollin pared a memoir, or factum, on the affair of the frequently spoke; but though his speeches were Rue Transonian, and defended Dupoty, accused a good deal talked of outside the walls of the of complicité morale, a monstrous doctrine, in- chamber, they produced little effect within it. vented by the Attorney-general Hebert. From Nevertheless, it was plain to every candid› ob1834 to 1841 he appeared as counsel in nearly server that he possessed many of the requisites all the cases of émeute or conspiracy where of the orator-a good voice, a copious flow of the individuals prosecuted were Republicans or words, considerable energy and enthusiasm, a quasi-Republicans. Meanwhile, he had become sanguine temperament and jovial and generous the proprietor and rédacteur en chief of the disposition. In the sessions of 1845-46, M. Réforme newspaper, a political journal of an Rollin took a still more prominent part. ultra-liberal-indeed, of a republican-com- purse, his house in the Rue Tournon, his plexion, which was then called of extreme counsels and advice, were all placed at the opinions, as he had previously been editor of a service of the men of the movement; and by legal newspaper called Journal du Palais. La the beginning of 1847 he seemed to be acknowl Vol. I.-No. 4-H H

His

edged by the extreme party as its most conspicuous and popular member. Such, indeed, was his position when the electoral reform bananets, on a large scale, began to take place in one autumn of 1847. These banquets, promoted and forwarded by the principal members of the opposition to serve the cause of electoral reform, were looked on by M. Rollin and his friends in another light. While Odillon Barrot, Duvergier d'Hauranne, and others, sought by means of them to produce an enlarged constituency, the member for Sarthe looked not merely to functional, but to organic reform-not merely to an enlargement of the constituency, but to a change in the form of the government. The desire of Barrot was à la vérité, à la sincerité des institutions conquises en Julliet 1830; whereas the desire of Rollin was, à l'amélioration des classes laborieuses: the one was willing to go on with the dynasty of Louis Philippe and the Constitution of July improved by diffusion and extension of the franchise, the other looked to a democratic and social republic. The result is now known. It is not here our purpose to go over the events of the Revolution of February, 1848, but we may be permitted to observe, that the combinations by which that event was effected were ramified and extensive, and were long silently and secretly in motion.

The personal history of Ledru Rollin, since February, 1848, is well known and patent to all the world. He was the ame damnée of the Provisional Government-the man whose extreme opinions, intemperate circulars, and vehement patronage of persons professing the political creed of Robespierre-indisposed all moderate men to rally around the new system. It was in covering Ledru Rollin with the shield of his popularity that Lamartine lost his own, and that he ceased to be the political idol of a people of whom he must ever be regarded as one of the literary glories and illustrations. On the dissolution of the Provisional Government, Ledru Rollin constituted himself one of the leaders of the movement party. In ready powers of speech and in popularity no man stood higher; but he did not possess the power of restraining his followers or of holding them in hand, and the result was, that instead of being their leader he became their instrument. Fond of applause, ambitious of distinction, timid by nature, destitute of pluck, and of that rarer virtue moral courage, Ledru Rollin, to avoid the imputation of faint-heartedness, put himself in the foreground, but the measures of his followers being ill-taken, the plot in which he was mixed up egregiously failed, and he is now in consequence an exile in England.

[From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.] A CHIP FROM A SAILOR'S LOG. was a dead calm-not a breath of air-the sails flapped idly against the masts; the helm had lost its power, and the ship turned her head how and where she liked. The heat was intense,

IT

so much so, that the chief mate had told the boatswain to keep the watch out of the sun; but the watch below found it too warm to sleep, and were tormented with thirst, which they could not gratify till the water was served out. They had drunk all the previous day's allowance; and now that their scuttle but was dry, there was nothing left for them but endurance. Some of the seamen had congregated on the top-gallant forecastle, where they gazed on the clear blue water with longing eyes.

"How cool and clear it looks," said a tall, powerful young seaman; "I don't think there are many sharks about: what do you say for a bath, lads ?"

"That for the sharks!" burst almost simultaneously from the parched lips of the group: "we'll have a jolly good bath when the second mate goes in to dinner." In about half an hour the dinner-bell rang. The boatswain took charge of the deck; some twenty sailors were now stripped, except a pair of light duck trows. ers; among the rest was a tall, powerful, coastof-Africa nigger of the name of Leigh: they used to joke him, and call him Sambo.

"You no swim to-day, Ned ?" said he, addressing me. "Feared of shark, heh? Shark nebber bite me. Suppose I meet shark in water, I swim after him-him run like debbel." I was tempted, and, like the rest, was soon ready. In quick succession we jumped off the spritsail yard, the black leading. We had scarcely been in the water five minutes, when some voice in-board cried out, "A shark! a shark!" In an instant every one of the swimmers came tumbling up the ship's sides, half mad with fright, the gallant black among the rest. It was a false alarm. We felt angry with ourselves for being frightened, angry with those who had frightened us, and furious with those who had laughed at us. In another moment we were all again in the water, the black and myself swimming some distance from the ship. For two successive voyages there had been a sort of rivalry between us: each fancied that he was the best swimmer, and we were now testing our speed.

"Well done, Ned!" cried some of the sailors from the forecastle. "Go it, Sambo!" cried some others. We were both straining our utmost, excited by the cheers of our respective partisans. Suddenly the voice of the boatswain was heard shouting, "A shark! a shark! Come back for God's sake!"

"Lay aft, and lower the cutter down," then came faintly on our ear. The race instantly ceased. As yet, we only half believed what we heard, our recent fright being still fresh in our memories.

"Swim, for God's sake!" cried the captain, who was now on deck; "he has not yet seen you. The boat, if possible, will get between you and him. Strike out, lads, for God's sake!” My heart stood still: I felt weaker than a child as I gazed with horror at the dorsal fin of a large shark on the starboard quarter. Though in the water, the perspiration dropped from me