villainy, I hastened back to the house to warn him of the plot. It was strangely affecting to see him sitting with a cheerful countenance, quite free from the slightest suspicion of what was hanging over him. At the moment, in fact, he was telling the landlord that he intended soon to give up his present employment, and return, with the property he had acquired during twenty years' wandering about, to his native place, and there for the future to lead a quiet, steady, peaceable life. As he was rising to depart I went up to him, and, clapping him on the shoulder, said, "Is your name Steinacker, sir?" "At your service," said he; "but my name is no secret ;" and he appeared rather astonished at my manner of addressing him. "Then I can give you a little piece of information," I continued, "which is worth your while to attend to, and may astonish you. You would be dead to-night, sir, but for the red cock." With this I explained to him what I had heard in the garden, word for word. "The devil!" said he, much surprised, and with evident agitation. Now I understand what that fellow meant who followed me the whole day yesterday. Quite right, I must pass by a hollow oak to go to the city." "There stood a convent there formerly," said the landlord, "and we call the oak Margaret's Tree, because a nun of that name still plays the ghost there. The scoundrels are not stupid; they could not have selected a better place, for nobody of this neighbourhood will venture near the oak after dark." Preparations were immediately made to take the two vagabonds and deliver them up to justice. The landlord collected every person who was capable of carrying arms and would engage to assist. Steinacker made the plan of attack. I armed myself with a hay-fork, and was placed in the reserve, that, in case of retreat, I might, at least, have the office of leader. Everything succeeded to our wish. The wood was surrounded, and all our parties marched in to the hollow oak with as little noise as possible. The rogues were not aware of our approach till we were so close and so superior that there was no possibility of escape. Both were pinioned immediately, their weapons taken from them, and both brought in triumph to the public-house, where they were so closely secured till they could be delivered up to the magistrates, that I would not have been, for a great deal, in their situation. Such riotous joy now took place as was probably never before seen. Steinacker felt himself disposed to be generous, from his wonderful escape, and treated the whole society. So much was drunk, that, at length, it was difficult to understand a single word from the noise. Steinacker took me aside, called me his guardian angel, kissed me and hugged me, in the warmth of his gratitude, till my bones clattered, and I was obliged to escape from his grasp to draw breath. In vain I repeated that I had little share in saving him, and that he owed his preservation entirely to the red cock. He would not listen to me, and it was with difficulty I could prevent him from giving me the half of his money by assuring him that he had beforehand richly rewarded me in returning the letter-case. He was astonished, shook his head in unbelief, and became curious to know how a thing so inconsiderable in his eyes should have so great a value in mine. The whole conduct of the man, since I first saw him, had inspired me with confidence, and I did not hesitate to satisfy his curiosity by relating the history of the red cock, and all the circumstances of my attachment to Lina, in such a copious manner as might be expected from this being the first opportunity I had had since leaving home of pouring out my full heart. He appeared less astonished at my history than at hearing the name of my native village and the names of our neighbours. He rose from table, took a turn or two in the room, again took his place by my side, and with extraordinary gestures encouraged me to proceed in my story. I expressed to him my surprise at his evident confusion, and inquired what circumstances in my story had excited such strong feelings. He shook his head but spoke not, and continued to listen to me, and asked a thousand minute questions, while he attentively examined my countenance; so that, altogether, his conduct affected me in a very strange and wonderful manner. In the meantime the whole company had made themselves drunk at his expense, and in the joy of his heart he had also somewhat muddled his head. I was the only sober porson amongst them all. Suddenly one of them, made bold and quarrelsome by liquor, had the impertinence to call my courage in question, and impudently to say, that, when the attack was made on the two hedge-thieves, I had made a rapid side movement, had jumped over a hedge, and, as pale as death, had concealed myself in a ditch. At this scandalous (I may boldly call it) lie the whole company broke out into such an immoderate fit of laughter that the windows shook. Even Steinacker joined in it, and appeared for a moment to forget all the gratitude his wonderful deliverance had before excited. I was excessively vexed, though I endeavoured to appear as if I did not feel the insult, and said nothing in my own defence. When the company, however, overpowered by drink, had all sunk into sleep, I seized my knapsack, found my way out through an open window, and, before a soul was on the road, set out in the first fogs of the morning to pursue my journey. My manner of escaping prevented any person knowing what was become of me; and Steinacker's efforts to find me, of which I afterwards heard, were unavailing, because I could procure no work in the city to which he was going, and was obliged, on the following day, to seek another home. I was afterwards more fortunate; and though sitting behind a loom now appeared a monotonous miserable life, yet I was obliged to submit, and happy, by this means, to obtain food. I was fortunate in making myself agreeable by the goodness of my manners and my industry, and I had many occasions to know that a man becomes immediately interesting to the other sex when his melancholy and solitariness give them to understand that he carries in his bosom the unhealing wounds of an unfortunate attachment. The reader will scarcely be interested by anything concerning the several masters whom I served, nor by anything concerning the masters' daughters, who severally appeared to cherish a soft and kind regard for me. I shall therefore pass over a period of two years and a half, and again take up my story, as a letter at this time recalled me home, by the news that my mother was dangerously ill. I long in learning that she had been reduced I It was on a beautiful spring evening, after a long journey of nearly three hundred miles, that I approached my native village. It would be in vain to attempt to describe my feelings when I first saw the aged pines on a hill in the clergyman's garden, rising far and proudly above the other surrounding trees. Doubt and anxiety, curiosity and desire, fear and hope, followed one another rapidly through my One evening, as I sat at the window in this troubled mind; my heart beat quick, and the melancholy mood, I heard the noise of a carperspiration stood in great drops on my fore- riage, which stopped at our neighbour's door, head as I entered my mother's house at the and, in spite of the feeble light, I saw Lina's beginning of night. From her sick bed she mother descend and enter the house in company stretched out her arms to welcome me; over- with a man, and the carriage immediately powered by sorrow and grief I threw myself drove off. "Perhaps Lina's bridegroom!" was on my knees beside her; speechless sighs were my first thought, which, with anxiety, weighed our only greeting after our three years' separa-heavy on my soul. Nor could I get rid of this tion, and it was only by tears that our hearts were made easy. A single glance at the scantiness of the furniture convinced me that many unpleasant changes had taken place during my absence, and that my mother had become much poorer than when I left home. Nor was supposition by all the arts of reason. To obtain certainty, or to relieve the horrid fear, if possible, I quitted the house, and pryed into Lina's. The little room into which I looked was well lighted, and formed, from the com. fort which apparently reigned there, a strong it; and after paying all our debts a little remained for a time of greater need. We hired a house at the farther end of the village, and the impatience of the new proprietor drove us speedily away from the place where we had passed so many years. We felt this severely, but I was doomed to be yet more humiliated. My loom was scarcely erected in our new house when Steinacker sent me a large parcel of yarn to weave into linen as quickly and as well as possible. It was the first work I had received since I had been admitted a master. Lina's hand might be traced in the fineness and equality of the thread, and thus my first per contrast with our dwelling. It was not possible this alteration could have been effected by the spinning-wheel; and the whole riddle would have been inexplicable, had not a closer in spection of the persons sitting at table cleared it up. With astonishment I saw that the man who had accompanied Lina's mother into the house was Steinacker. He appeared quite at home. Lina sat close by his side, and had her arm laid in a most familiar manner on his shoulder. Her gestures were so cheerful, and she appeared so perfectly friendly with Steinacker, that I cried for vexation. Immediately I thought I had found the clue to the whole matter. On that evening, so full of adven-formance was to form a part of her dowry. In tures, when Steinacker had questioned me so closely about Lina and her mother, I had displayed my eloquence at the expense of my discretion; and, in the fulness of my heart, had sketched so charming a picture of Lina that he had been tempted to visit her, had found appearance justify my praises, and had thought her an admirable assistant in that quiet plan of life he meant to follow. He had fallen desperately in love with her-how could it be otherwise?-had thrown his well-stuffed purse on the table, and everything was right. These were the thoughts with which I left my post of observation, and returned home bitterly vexed. It might be perhaps some hours after this when Steinacker entered our house. He was perhaps astonished at the appearance I made, sitting still and silent in the corner, for it was some time before he was able to speak. At length he began to reproach me for my secret flight from the public-house-spoke of a distant relationship between him and Lina's motheralluded to the service I had rendered him, and said he still cherished the wish to show me his gratitude. I repeated that I was already rewarded, and assured him that I was now, as then, far from wishing to make any use of his offer. He called me obstinate and capricious, spoke in a dark sort of manner of domestic comforts, and closed his tiresome conversation by making me an offer of buying our old house. I was glad to get rid of him by referring him for an answer till to-morrow. On this he left me and took up his night's quarters at our neighbour's. My mother, on my representation that it was impossible we could retain and repair our house, consented to part with it, and the contract for selling it to Steinacker was concluded without much difficulty. What he offered and gave for it was a mere trifle, but my wish to get far away from Lina made me readily accept a sorrowful mood I began the piece, and chose rather to labour at night when everything about me was still. In the meantime I learned that our former house and the neighbouring one were pulled down, and that a new stone one was building in their place with great haste. This was sufficient reason for my hastening with the web, which, as I had little else to do, was soon completed. It was sent home, and as it was extremely disagreeable to me to think of being paid for it, poor as I was, I imagined a thousand means of rejecting any reward which might be offered. My cares were, however, at present ill-founded. Steinacker said nothing of payment, but expressed his satisfaction at the work, and sent me another parcel of yarn to be woven into cloth. In this manner the summer passed gradually away, no smile had ever mixed with the melancholy that had now become habitual to me. My mother, indeed, had recovered so much as to be at present out of danger, but this was the only consolation I enjoyed. By my retired manner of living I can safely say I had no hand in unfairly spreading my reputation as a clever weaver, but in truth, such an account was gradually given of me. Good friends may, perhaps, have spoken of me; perhaps Steinacker himself; but certain it is, that at this time I had more work than two persons could perform. The second web for him had long been done and he said nothing of payment. I could not believe that he had guessed my wishes, and though I felt contented with his silence, I was at a loss to explain it. At length he appointed me to come to him at a particular hour on a Sunday evening, requesting me at the same time to stay to supper with him. I went at the appointed hour, but with the firm determination of refusing all payment, and of leaving him to cat his supper alone; and now, for the first time, I saw the new house, which I had hitherto carefully avoided. The owner received me in a cheerful room close to the door, asked me to sit at a table covered with a green cloth, and requested my account. Now began our dispute. I persisted I had no account to give, that I was happy in this way to show my gratitude for the money advanced on our house, and that I had always resolved not to take anything for the linen. He said the workman was worthy of his hire; that he could not hear of such untimely generosity; that I was an obstinate fellow, but that he knew a way to bend me, which he would soon employ, if I did not give in. In the midst of our dispute somebody rang at the outer door; Steinacker opened it, and, by the aid of the light in the room, I saw a female, whom I believed to be my mother. This supposition added considerably to my confusion, and, when Steinacker returned, as I was again defending my opinion, and constantly blundering from one thing to another, I at last said the yarn was spun by Lina, and that there was no necessity for a third person to interfere between us. At this moment Steinacker clapped his hands and laughed aloud. To my astonishment a sidedoor opened, and Lina, with her mother and my own, entered. I stood as if rooted to the spot, felt as if all my limbs were paralyzed, and stared at them all, one after another, without saying a word. Steinacker put an end to this by conducting Lina to me, and assuring me that the elected of my heart had always been true to me, and that, now he had done everything necessary to cancel an old debt, nothing was wanting to complete our happiness, if the interference of a third person was not declared to be of no use or value. But who could think this? It now turned out that Steinacker was a half-brother of Lina's mother, and had resided here a twelvemonth, constantly occupied in carrying a project into execution he had formed on the first evening of our wonderful acquaintance. There was no deception; Lina hung on my arm, I could press her to my heart; and the founder of our fortunes wished us happiness and joy by his smiles. "Is it possible," said I to Lina, "that you have constantly thought of our former friendship, though I insulted you so rudely? Can you always have loved me, when I formerly treated you so ill?" Always," said she, with a glance that was more convincing than her words; "and I have even preserved more carefully than, from circumstances, you suppose, perhaps, the present which I formerly received from your hand." At these words she drew | away the green cloth, and, with joyful sur prise, I there saw the very red cock which I myself had formerly made for her. He was now pasted on the middle of the table, and destined to be the lasting ornament of this piece of furniture. A paper with the magistrate's seal lay near it. Times and customs change," said Steinacker. Formerly the cock gave you pennies to satisfy your boyish appetites; now he gives you a stone-built house to dwell in, and large enough for you to supply old Steinacker with a place of repose for the rest of his days.' "The cock," said I, "had no need to give any orders on this point." Here, then, do I gaily and cheerfully, as I began, conclude my narration. I live in a well-built, airy, roomy house, have been for some time united to Lina, rejoice in the daily increase of my business, and expect shortly that a young Godfred will hail me with the name of father. In taking leave of the welldisposed reader, I cannot do less than entreat the favour of his company at the expected christening. From the German of PRATZEL. THE SANDS OF DEE. 'O Mary, go and call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands of Dec;' The western wind was wild and dank with foam, And all alone went she. The creeping tide crept up along the sand, The blinding mist came down, and hid the land: 'Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hairA tress of golden hair, A drowned maiden's hair Was never salmon yet that shone so fair They rowed her in across the rolling foam, But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle nome CHARLES KINGSLEY. LAURA'S BOWER. THE CELEBRATED CANZONE OF PETRARCH, BEGINN NG "CHIARE, FRESCHE, E DOLCE ACQUE." Clear, fresh, and dulcet streams, Which the fair shape, who seems To me sole woman, launted at noon tide; Bough, gently interkuit, (I sigh to think of it) Which form'd a rustic chair for her sweet side; And turf, and flow'rs bright-eye O'er which her folded gown Flow'd like an angel's down; And you, O holy air and hush'd, Where first my heart at her sweet glances gush'd; Give ear, give ear, with one consenting, To my last words, my last and my lamenting. If is my fate below, And Heav'n will have it so, That love must close these dying eyes in tears, May my poor dust be laid In middle of your shade, While my soul, naked, mounts to its own spheres. The thought would calm my fears, When taking, out of breath, The doubtful step of death; For never could my spirit find A stiller port after the stormy wind: Nor in more calm, abstracted bourne, Slip from my travaill'd flesh, and from my bones out worn. Perhaps some future hour, To her accustomi'd bower, Might come th' untamed and yet the gentle she; And where she saw me first, Might turn with eyes athirst, And kinder joy to look again for me; Then, oh the charity! Seeing betwixt the stones The earth that held my bones, A sigh for very love at last Might ask of Heaven to pardon me the past; As with her gentle veil she wiped the tears away. How well I call to mind, When from those bowers the wind Shook down upon her bosom flower on flower; In midst of all that pride, And seem'd to dress the curls, Some, showing, on her drapery stopp'd, Some on the earth, some on the water dropp'd; While others, flutt'ring from above, Seem'd wheeling round in pomp, and saying, "Here reigns Love." How often then I said, Inward, and fill'd with dread, -Doubtless this creature came from Paradise!" For at her look the while, Her voice, and her swest smile. And heav'nly air, truth parted from mine eyes: So that, with long-drawn sighs, I said, as far from men, "How came I here, and when?" I had forgotten; and, alas! Fancied myself in heav'n, not where I was; And from that time till this I bear Such love for the green bower, I cannot rest elsewher LEIGH HUNT. EXTRACTS FROM THE [William Cowper, born in Berkhampstead. Hertfordshire, 15th November (old style), 1731; died 5th April, 1800. He was the son of the rector of Great Berkhampstead. At the age of eighteen he entered a solicitor's office in London, where he remained three years. He then took chambers in the Middle Temple and studied for the bar. In 1763 the influence of a relative obtained for him the appointment of Clerk of the Journals of the House of Lords. Lefore this ap pointment was confirmed, however he was unexpectedly required to stand an examination at the bar of the House to show his fitness for the post. His anxiety on this account so much affected his over sensitive nature that be became insane and attem¡ ted to commit suicide. His friends removed him t› St. Alban's and placed him under the care of Dr. Cotton, where he remained until his recovery in 1765. His insanity assumed the form of religious despondency; and the malady unhappily returned to him at three subsequent periods. It was not until the winter of 1780-1 that he prepared his first volume of poems, comprising Table Talk, Hope, The Progress of Error, &c., which was published two years afterwards. In 1785 appeared the Task and Tirocinium, the former, as is well known, having been suggested to the poet by the widow of Sir Robert Austen. Ilis translation of Homer occupied him six years, and was published in 1791. His last composition. The Castaway, was written in 1799, during a brief interval of relief from the affliction which darkened the six years preceding his death.] TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON. If a Board of Inquiry were to be established, at which poets were to undergo an examination respecting the motives that induced them |