into the office, the patient said in a somewhat angry tone: "Get you gone; your lamentations make me quite sick; I tell you I am only taking a sweat." "But I am sorry to think you have got a relapse; what can be the occasion of it? Do let me consult the doctor about it, for it were better to take it in time;" and so saying, he was hastening out of the room. No longer able to control his temper, and too impatient to explain, yet dreading to rise in a state of incipient perspiration, the old merchant raised his voice as loud as he dared, crying, "Don't go to the doctor, I say, and a plague upon you; only go out of the room." Upon this the young man, approaching nearer, and marking his uncle's rising colour, who at the same time bestowed the most abusive epithets upon him, began to think he was a little touched in the head, and that there was the greater occasion for a sharp leech the more he asserted the contrary. As he stood in a thoughtful posture, with his eyes fixed on the inflamed countenance of his uncle, the calmness of his manner, and his fixed resolution of calling a physician, so incensed the latter, that he suddenly burst into a violent rage, threatening not only to cut him off without a farthing, but to knock his brains out instantly if he ventured to provoke him more; for which purpose he would rise though he was in a beautiful perspiration. These words now confirmed the young gentleman's suspicions that something was wrong in his uncle's upper regions, being quite unlike himself, and he began to lament his situation louder than ever, ending with prayers and ejaculations for a physician. The uncle upon this put his threats into execution, leaping suddenly from his bed, while Federigo, on the other hand, believing him to be seized with a delirious paroxysm, ran towards him to keep him down, lest he should commit some horrible mischief. Escaping, however, from his hands, the enraged patient endeavoured to seize a large cudgel which he kept in the room, a design against which the young gentleman exerted himself to the utmost of his power. His ened; and, gathering strength from his despair, he began to press Messer Maffeo very hard, who, engaging in his night-cap and gown, certainly fought at a great disadvantage. breath began to grow short and his strength te fail, and no longer able to utter a word, he fairly yielded to his adversary. The latter not venturing to let a madman loose, held him firmly down, pinioning his hands behind him, and fixing his knees upon his stomach. When he had at length bound him, hand and foot, the careful nephew again commenced his lamentations over him, regretting that so sensible a man should have run mad so suddenly. On this his uncle beginning to grin and show his teeth, he very calmly buried him under a heap of bed-clothes, and locking him up fast in the chamber, went to consult a physician. The doctor, being just on the point of visiting one of the young princes at the court, had only time to advise the careful nephew to apply a couple of sharp blisters upon his uncle's shoulders, and he would endeavour to call upon him in the evening. He would then, if necessary, order him something of a still more caustic nature, and bleed the patient copiously. For there was nothing, he said, like meeting the evil in the beginning, and applying the remedies while the patient had strength to bear them. The anxious Federigo accordingly hastened to the surgeon's house, and finding him, unluckily for his uncle, at home, he took him, armed with lancet and blisters, along with him. Proceeding with all haste, they soon arrived at the patient's residence, the young man relating by the way the whole of his late engagement, as a clear proof of the patient's lunacy. The ancient housekeeper met them at the door, crossing herself devoutly, and shedding tears, as she repeated further instances of the insanity of her poor master, who had never ceased to bite and kick, and roar most outrageously, since his nephew had left the house. By the time the dutiful nephew and surgeon approached the chamber the violence of the old gentleman's proceedings certainly afforded strong presumptive evidence against him; and when they appeared in his presence he grew more furious than before-shouting, swearing, imploring, and laughing by turns. What, in heaven's name, must we do?" cried his nephew. A sharp contest for the possession of the stick now took place, sometimes inclining to one side, sometimes to the other; though the youth, believing his uncle endowed with the supernatural strength of a lunatic, was frequently on the point of being overcome. His "Let us stay till he has worn himself out, great object was to secure the patient before and the paroxysm is somewhat abated," said he succeeded in obtaining the cudgel, and in the barbarous leech; "we can then apply our flicting the severe castigation which he threat-caustics without fear of risk." "No, I think we had better begin now," replied the careful nephew; "let us lose no time; for he will do himself some injury if we permit him to go on thus. Follow me, and do not be afraid; for I think I shall manage him better this time," continued Federigo with the utmost coolness; "and when once I have pinioned down his arms you may seize him by the legs." "But he is mad, quite mad," cried the surgeon, "let him alone, I say: when the frenzy subsides you will find he will go to sleep, and we can seize him then." Such in fact was shortly the case, for, wearied with his violent efforts and exertions, the poor man, soon after they retired, fell into a sound sleep. But he was not long permitted to enjoy it; for the wily leech then addressing his nephew, said, "Now is the time: he is in a deep slumber, and what we have to do let us do quickly." "Softly, softly," said the careful Federigo, as he laid hands upon the poor merchant, "there, I have him now; bring the blisters and a basin for the blood before he is well awake." "Murder! help, help! for heaven's sake, help!" cried the patient, suddenly awakening, and beholding the fell surgeon approaching with the lancet and basin in hand; but vain were his cries; vain all his efforts to extricate himself from his impending fate. The more he struggled the more did Federigo think it his duty to use prompt remedies, and Messer Maffeo shortly lay as helpless as a new-born child. Growing hotter and hotter, they at length became so intolerable that he declared he felt them eating his flesh away and drinking his blood: that gout and colic were a mere jest to them; and that he would give up the whole of the business and all he was possessed of in the world if his cruel nephew would consent to release him. The latter, however, only thought it a further sign of madness, and proposed to adopt still stronger applications, saying to the servant in the presence of the wretched patient, "Run quick, as far as the surgeon's; bring a large blister for the head, and I will shave him myself." Bitterly, now, did the poor merchant rue the hour when he admitted his careful nephew into his house, nor was it until he found all threats and imprecations vain, and after the blisters had done their work, that he succeeded, by dint of quiet reason and argument, in convincing the hopeful youth of the real state of the case, and that he had required nothing beyond a gentle sudorific. The dutiful nephew was forgiven, and the uncle was cured of his ague-fits. From the Italian. AUTUMN: A DIRGE. The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing, And the Year On the earth her deathbed, in a shroud of leaves dead, Come, Months, come away, Of the dead cold Year, The surgeon, however, in securing his legs, had already received several severe contusions in the face; for which he was proceeding to take ample revenge in the blood of his enemy. At first, indeed, he thought of running away, but the young man encouraged him to do his duty, while the patient on his side exhibited symptoms of extreme rage and terror And like dim shadows watch by her sepulchre. at his approach. The phlebotomist again advanced, and again drew back, like a spider that has got a wasp in his toils, holding his trenchant blade in his hand, nor was it until he was offered a double fee that he flew at him, and, in spite of all his shrieks and strug- The blythe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gles, fixed a deadly blister upon either shoulder. He next attempted to draw blood, the careful nephew holding the arm, while the surgeon, with the same caution, proceeded to pierce the vein; and having accomplished this, and applied some hot cataplasms to the soles of his feet, the man of blood departed. The patient now lay exposed to the rising pangs of the caustics, bound hand and foot. The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling, gone To his dwelling. Of the dead cold Year, And make her grave green with tear on tear. SHELLEY THE REIGN OF SUMMER. [James Montgomery, born in Irvine, Ayrshire, 4th November, 1771; died in Sheffield, 30th April, 1854. He spent ten years at school in Fulneck in training for the Moravian ministry; but not caring to devote himself to that profession, he was apprenticed to a chandler. Soon afterwards he made his way to London with a bundle of verses in MS. The publisher to whom he applied gave him employment as a clerk, but would not print his poems. He proceeded to Sheffield in 1792, and became assistant to the proprietor of the Sheffield Register. On account of an article in the paper offensive to the government the proprietor was obliged to leave England, and Montgomery became editor and publisher of the Register, the name of which he altered to that of the Iris. He was twice fined and imprisoned -1794-5-for printing matter disagreeable to the authorities, but he continued to conduct the journal successfully, and, in the end, numbered amongst his best friends many who had been formerly opposed to him in politics. His chief poetical works are:-Prison Amusements: The Wanderer in Switzerland; The World before the Flood; Songs of Zion; The Pelican Island, &c. Professor Wilson wrote in Blackwood:-" James Montgomery, of all the poets of this age, is in his poetryand, we believe, also out of it-the most religious man. All his thoughts, sentiments, and feelings are moulded and coloured by religion. A spirit of invocation, prayer, and praise pervades all his poetry, and it is as sincere as it is beautiful. The elements of air, earth, fire, and water are to him all sanctified, not by poetry alone, but by piety."] The hurricanes are fled! the rains, That plough'd the mountains, wreck'd the plains, Plants, flowers, and shrubs o'er all the land Grinds his wedged teeth, and spurns the ground; Loud o'er the mountains bleat the flocks; They seem the offspring of the morn. Daily the sun, in his career, In vain the gaudy season shines, Where cattle sought, with piteous moans, The wonted channel of the rill; Man proves the shock; through all his veins Or fellest hatred can inspire; Reckless whatever ill befall, There stood in that romantic clime, Reflecting, in the night-fall'n sky, The cultured sides were clothed with woods, Man pitch'd his tents, adorn'd his bowers, Those highlands form'd a last retreat The legions met in war-array; The mountaineers brook'd no delay, Aside their missile weapons threw, From holds impregnable withdrew, When fear, ere yet a blow is dealt, While, moved beneath their feet, the tomb An earthquake rent the void between, Men, chariots, steeds,-of either host The flower, the pride, the strength were lost: A solitude remains;-the dead Are buried there, -the living fled. Nor yet the reign of Summer closed; Who 'scaped the death their comrades died; That sound, those shocks, the sleepers woke; In distant fields, with drought consumed, When from that peak, through lowering skies, The presage of descending rain. The mountain now, like living earth, Earth's disembowell'd minerals boil, In whirlwind forms, to heaven's high roof, The mountaineers, in wild affright, Or perish'd by the lightning's stroke, A few the open field explore: The throng seek refuge on the shore, An earthquake seem'd to engulf the deep, |