him, and discharged it, and laid it down upon the it may provide some further incidents worthy of earth by the side of the house. Then, after I had notice.

threatened him, and reproached their ingratitude, His former patroness, the widowed and lovely who durst trouble my lady or her tenants, who Lady Aboyne, on her deathbed earnestly recomwas, and yet is, the best friend that their chief Do-mended to Blackhall's protection her daughter, the nald Cameron hath; for, said I, he will tell you how I and another man of my lady's went to him where he was hiding himself with his cousin Ewan Cameron, in my lady's land, and brought them in croup to Aboyne, where they were kept secretly for three weeks, until their enemies the Covenanters had left off the seeking of them; and you, unthankful beasts as you are, have rendered a displeasure to my lady for her goodness toward you. He pretended ignorance of that courtesy done to his chief." Blackhall then made him swear that all that had been plundered from the tenants should be restored, and what had been consumed should be paid for and also "made him swear by the soul of his father that neither he, nor none whom he could hinder, should ever hereafter trouble or molest my lady or any of her tenants. He then ordered every man separately to come out and take the same oath.

Lady Henrietta Gordon. It is in the form of a letter to this lady that Blackhall describes his efforts to accomplish her mother's dying exhortation. His main object was to secure an appointment for the young lady in the household of the queen of France, the French court being then an asylum in which many of the decayed or oppressed aristocracy of Scotland found refuge. To pass over from the north of Scotland to France was a journey accompanied by no small array of perils in the early part of the seventeenth century; and it was not the less so, that the country was now raging from end to end with the troubles arising from the Covenant. The father had not proceeded many miles, before he encountered a rather formidable adventure. Along the northwest border of Aberdeenshire, where it marches with Banffshire, there is a wide, desolate moor, stretching over many miles of country to the foot of the "They did all come out severally, and took the mountain mass called the Buck of the Cabrach. same oath as I had commanded them; and as they It is a wild, dreary district at the present day, did come to me, I discharged their guns, to the differing probably but slightly in its outward feanumber of six or eight-and-forty, which made the tures from its state in Blackhall's time, however tenants convene to us from the parts where the different may be the guests one would find in the shots were heard; so that, before they had all primitive inn of Rhynie, which, when we last parcome out, we were nearly as many as they, armed took of its hospitalities, had as venerable an air as with swords, and targets, and guns. When they if it had been the actual house in which the folhad all made their oaths to me, I ranked our peo-lowing scene occurred. The narrative is, by the ple like two hedges, five spaces distant from one way, remarkable as illustrating the antiquity of another's rank, and but one pace every man from Finnan haddies, which must have been a highly another in that same rank, and turned the mouths esteemed dish; otherwise they would not, as in of their guns and their faces one toward another, this instance, have been conveyed inland nearly forty so as the Highlanders might pass, two and two miles from the place where they were cured. together, betwixt their ranks they passed so from the door of the hall in which they were, to the place where their guns were lying all empty. They trembled passing, as if they had been in a fever quartern. He and his men then saw the marauders fairly off Lady Aboyne's lands, and, returning to Aboyne, "told my lady the event of our siege, who was very joyful that there was no blood shed on either side."

"Passing by the muir of Rhynie," says Blackhall, "I intended to give my horse a measure of oats there, because I had eight miles to ride over the Cushnie Hills, as wild a piece of ground as is in all Britain." He then inquires of a man coming out of the inn if he would get good oats there; and "the unhappy rascal answering, said, Yes, sir; and good ale and beer also; but did not tell me the house was full of men, as drunk as men could be.

"I entered in the court, suspecting nothing; and as I descended from my horse, a gentleman, called John Gordon, son to Leichesten, did embrace me very kindly. He was exceedingly drunk."

The state of letter-writing is fully disclosed by the fact, that, in the space of eleven and a half years, Lady Aboyne had only received two letters, and these were from two of her sisters. Indeed, she appears to have lived a most lonely, desolate life. At her death, all her care seems to have been that her daughter, her only child, might be Blackhall then enters into the hall with him, brought up in the Catholic religion. For this pur- which hall he describes as being "full of soldiers, pose she had previously charged Blackhall with as drunk as beasts, and their captain, William the care of her; and manfully did he redeem the Gordon of Tilliangus, was little better" adding, pledge, as we find related in the chapter entitled" that Tilliangus had got a patent to list a com"The Good Offices done to Madame de Gordon, pany for the then holy, but now cursed. Covenant; now Dame D'Attour to Madame; by Gilbert and John Gordon of Leicheston was his lieutenBlackhall, priest❞—which we shall make the sub-ant; and hinting that every covenanting man was ject of a separate paper.

then more loyal than the king himself.

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Blackhall, when he went into the hall, kept his The leading features in Father Blackhall's his- valise in his own hand, because there was in it a tory, at least the sole ground on which his memory suit of mass clothes, which might have discovered has been resuscitated by the printing of a substan- him; and as he was about to salute the company, tial quarto volume, is the services he performed to the captain, in a commanding way, said, Who "three noble ladies," as they are minutely set are you, sir? which did presently heat my blood. forth by himself. In the preceding article we And as I thought he spoke disdainfully to me, I have given whatever appeared curious or enter- answered in that same tone, saying, This is a taining in his intercourse with the second of his question indeed, sir, to have been asked at my footnoble employers. We now examine the third man, if you had seen him coming in to you. He book of his circumstantial history, in the hope that said it was a civil demand. I said it might pass for

any man, neither in the wood nor out of it; and | you to the port, but to send you to them by shiptherefore I will not stay one moment for any com- wreck, that they may get the spoil of her. And pany. I suspected that they might be voleurs; and to show that this is their meaning, said he, if the he also then said, Since you have so good courage, ship come well to the port, or eschew shipwreck, I will go with you. The way, said I, is free to they get up in anger, crying, The devil stick her, all men. But why do you not wait upon your she is away from us!" master, to come with him, seeing, as you say, the danger is so great? Oh, said he, they are two, well mounted, and fear no voleurs. I believe you, said I. So we went on until we entered into the wood, and then my fellow redoubled his pace, to come nearer to me; which I seeing, turned the mouth of my musket towards him, and commanded him to stay there. Wherefore that? said he. Because I will so, said I: thou shalt not make me thy prey. Therefore, if thou advance but one foot, I shall discharge my musket into thy belly. He stood, and said, You need not fear, having so good a baton in thy hand. I fear no man, said I; but I will make thee fear if thou remove one foot forward until I be out of the wood. In the mean time I was ever advancing forward, and mine eye towards him. So, seeing that I did hold my gun bent towards him, he turned his back to me, and went into the thick of the wood, and I did not see him any more. Then the peasant, who all the time had kept a good distance from me, but so as he did both see and hear what was passing betwixt us, said, God be blessed, sir, who inspired you with His grace to distrust this voleur, and hold him back from you; for if you had suffered him to come near you, he would undoubtedly have got hold of your clothes, and pulled you down from your horse, and stabbed you. Behold, he is hiding himself in the wood: you have saved your own life and mine; for how soon he had killed you, he would have killed me also, for fear I might have discovered him hereafter."

After a multitude of difficulties and dangers, which we cannot follow out in detail, the father returned with his ward to France; and here he found a new impediment in her intractable, haughty temper. With true Highland pride, the damsel thought that crowned heads were her only earthly superiors; and in the palaces of the French nobility, as different from her own rude home as a peer's mansion in London is from a farmer's cottage at the present day, her Highland blood boiled against the etiquettes and deferences to which the highest of the young nobility of France gave implicit obedience. Being placed in the family of the Countess of Brienne, to be trained for attendance at court, we are told that " Both the count and countess, for the queen's sake, were very civil to her; but the more they honored her, the less did she respect them. Whether that proceeded from pride, thinking that and much more was due unto her, or from inadvertency, not reflecting upon their civilities, which is called a kind of brutality, I know not; God knoweth. But what I have seen with my own eyes, and heard with mine ears, that I write here, and nothing more; for I have seen my Lady of Brienne sit in her own carriage, without her gate, upon the street, fretting a whole quarter of an hour for Mademoiselle de Gordon, sending and sending over and over again for her to go to the mass; and which did highly displease me, when she was at the carriage, stepped into it, not opening her mouth to make any excuse for making the lady stay for her, no more than if she On his way back to Scotland, the father was had been mistress of the carriage, and the lady wrecked on the coast of Holy Island; and he gives but only her servant. This I have, with much the following most expressive account of the state grief, seen more than two or three times; and that of society among a people who profit by ship-lady did complain to me of her as often as I did go wrecks:-"The country people convened the next day, to take the goods which the sea had cast to the land; amongst which there was a caseful of castor-hats, with gold hat-bands, for which the minister of the parish, a Scotsman, named Lindsay, and a gentleman dwelling near the island, did fight; and the minister did sore wound the gentle-queen's household. man; and the common people did get away the case, and broke it, and every one took away what he could get of it, whilst the church and the state were fighting for it in vain." He then mentions, "that the tempest having ceased, we went a walking in the island, and did go to the governor, Robin Rugg, a notable good fellow, as his great red nose, full of pimples, did give testimony. He made us breakfast with him, and gave us very good sack, and did show us the tower in which he lived, which is no strength at all, but like the watch-towers upon the coast of Italy. We did take him with us to our inn, and made him the best cheer that we could. He was a very civil and jovial gentleman, and good company; and among the rest of his merry discourses, he told us how the common people there do pray for ships which they see in danger. They all sit down on their knees, and hold up their hands, and say, very devoutly, Lord, send her to us; God, send her to us! You, said he, seeing them upon their knees, and their hands joined, do think that they are praying for your safety; but their minds are far from that. They pray God, not to save you, or send

to see her."

We must conclude with a specimen of the extremities to which the damsel's pride reduced her, notwithstanding the anxiety of her courtly friends to serve her; premising, for the reader's comfort, that the whole ended in her being received into the

"When they arrived at St. Germain, the queen knew not how to dispose of her, because the number of her filles [maids of honor] was complete, and Madame de Brienne would not meddle with her any more. The queen told her that she, having no vacant place for her, would place her with Madame la Princesse. She answered her majesty very courageously, saying she had never done anything to displease her relatives, who, she knew, would be highly displeased, hearing that she, who came to France to wait upon her majesty, had descended to serve the Princess of Condé; and prayed her majesty to excuse her, if she refused to do what her relatives would disavow in her. The queen did not take it ill of her, this her generous answer, but did pray monsieur the prince, and madame, to keep her with them as a friend, until she could take her to herself, which at the present she could not do. They, to oblige the queen, did accept of her as a friend, and made her sit at their own table, where she remained in that posture until the princes-to wit, Condé, Conti, and Longueville-were sent prisoners to Bois de Vincienne; and then the princess would

"The alligator is a formidable-looking creature, it is true, but he is generally harmless. His office is to prowl in the sluggish waters of this southern region, pick up what he can, and digest it into excellent oil for the illumination of our houses."

Is not this the perfect type of a penny-a-liner? Are not his looks-his office-his brilliant result, as burning in the columns of the press-all shadowed forth in this? The Egyptians were a wise people. We call them barbarous idolaters for worshipping the crocodile. They put jewelled rings in his ears, and built a city-Crocodilopolis

not keep her any longer, but, a few days after into a code his grand panacea-his never-failing their imprisonment, sent her to Madame de Bri-" punch on the head"—with the most beneficent enne in a sedan; and Madame de Brienne would effect. not receive her, but sent her to my Lord Aubeny, who sent her back to Madame de Brienne, and bade tell her that he had no woman in his house, and therefore could not receive her without disparagement of her honor and his. Madame de Brienne would not let her come within her house, but sent for Madame de Ferrand, a councillor's lady, and prayed her to take the young lady in her carriage, and deliver her to Madame de la Flotte in the Palais Royal. When they arrived there, it was near nine o'clock at night. Madame de la Flotte, seeing them come to her at that time of night, and thinking that this lady-to wit, Madame de Ferrand-had been but one of Madame de Bri--in his honor. A hideous, ravenous, filthy enne's gentlewomen, did claw her up soundly for bringing Mademoiselle de Gordon to her at that time of night." But Madame de la Flotte, when she saw she was mistaken in the lady, asked her pardon, and showed her how she could not possibly receive Mademoiselle de Gordon that night, A "FORLORN HOPE."-Marshal Bugeaud has but would next day; and back she was taken to hit upon a new expedient for capturing Abd-el-kaMadame de Brienne, who, late as the hour was, der. He has taken his dog. The cunning Marrefused to let her in; and Madame de Ferrand shal evidently thinks that his only chance of findwas at last constrained to take her with her to her ing out Abd-el-kader's hiding place is by following own house; Blackhall remarking, "So Mademoi- in the track of his dog. It would make a fine selle de Gordon might have learned, by Madame picture for Versailles- The French army marchde Brienne's unkindness towards her, how im- ing to Victory," and a poodle at the head of it.— provident a thing it is to neglect powerful persons, Punch. able both to do good and evil."

GAME ALLIGATORS.

YOUR Alligators are looking up. They have been considered dull, stupid wretches; but are now discovered to have a world of light in them, when properly extracted and kindled in a word, they are to be killed for their oil. We have almost used up whales, and shall now begin to burn the midnight alligator. An expedition has started from Montreal, for Black Creek, for the fishery. The writer says

"You know how many of these enormous animals are shot out of wantonness, from the decks of the steamboats that plough our waters I expect hereafter to hear of laws passed for their pro

tection."

We would do more than protect-we would suggest that they be fed by a regular supply of men, women, and children. We-in merry England here-compare peasants, their wives and families, to our game, our birds and partridges : why should not the folks on the border of Black Creek make alligators game, and so fatten them upon live Indians? But this will come. A sense of the value of alligators is evidently gaining ground.

"We must allow them to be killed only at a proper season, when they are fattest, and not permit their destruction at the season when they lay their eggs."

wretch he seems to us; but the Egyptians, doubtless, knew of his oil, and treating him like an unacknowledged genus, worshipped him for his hidden light.-Punch.

THE APPEALS IN THE LORDS.-A foreigner would be very much struck by the air of calm decency that pervades the hearing of appeals in the house of lords. Three peers are sufficient to form a house, and these three are not required to keep awake during the proceedings; so that the chairman generally goes off first, into the arms of Somnus, and his example is speedily followed by his two supporters. Lord Brougham, who never will go to sleep under any circumstances, generally smuggles the last new novel under his papers, and amuses himself with a quiet read;" or, while pretending to take notes, he is not unfrequently rattling off some "copy" for one of the numerous works that he always has in the hands of the printer. The counsel go quietly on with their speeches, utterly regardless of the inattention they experience; and the whole affair has an aspect of sober quietude that is peculiarly imposing on all who witness it. We shall look in some day, and give a verbatim report of the proceedings. -Punch.

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REFORM OF THE LAW.-Chancellors, ex-chancellors, and queen's counsel, are members of a society for the reform of the law. They meet and denounce the wickedness of costs, and then hie away to practice. This reminds us of a passage in Borrow's Gipsies of Spain :-"And now, my dears," says the head of the family to the younger branches-"now you have said your prayers, go out and steal."-Punch.

Louisiana has passed an act for the protection of all debtors who are willing to take arms against Mexico; thus offering a premium to those heroes who, at home, are not "worth powder and shot." -Punch.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO FIGHT.-The State of

Thus, doubtless, there will be alligator preserves; and to poach alligators' eggs in the south, will be made as criminal as to poach the eggs of pheasants in the west. Foreign states besought Bentham for constitutions-why do not the folks of Montreal apply to Mr. Grantley Berkeley for a short, concise, stringent law-or a set of laws, like a set of razors-one for every week-day, and a particularly sharp one for Sundays, for the protection of alligators? Surely he might work Bill.-Punch.

DETERMINED SUICIDE.-Sir Robert Peel intends to persevere in endeavoring to carry the Coercion

MR. JEAMES AGAIN.

"DEAR MR. PUNCH,

"As newmarus inquiries have been maid both at my privit ressddence, The Wheel of Fortune Otel, and at your Hoffis, regarding the fate of that dear babby, James Hangelo, whose primmiture dissappearnts caused such hagnies to his distracted parents, I must begg, dear sir, the permission to ockupy a part of your valuable collams once more, and hease the public mind about my blessid boy. "Wictims of that nashnal cuss, the Broken Gage, me and Mrs. Plush was left in the train to Cheltenham, soughring from that most disagreeble of complaints, a halmost broken Art. The skreems of Mrs. Jeames might be said almost to out-Y the squeel of the dying, as we rusht into that fashnable Spaw, and my pore Mary Hann found it was not Baby, but Bundles I had in my lapp.

"When the old Dowidger, Lady Bareacres, who was waiting heagerly at the train, that owing to that abawiinable brake of Gage, the luggitch, her Ladyship's Cherrybrandy box, the cradle for Lady Hangelina's baby, the lace, crockary, and chany, was rejuiced to one immortial smash; the old cat howld at me and pore dear Mary Hann, as if it was huss, and not the infunnle Brake of Gage, was to blame; and as if we ad no misfortns of our hown to deplaw. She bust out about my stupid imparence; called Mary Hann a good for nothing creecher, and wep and abewsd and took on about her broken Chayny Bowl, a great deal more than she did about a dear little Christian child. Don't talk to me about your bratt of a babby,' (seshe;) where's my bowl?-where's my medsan ?— where 's my bewtiffle Pint lace?-All in rewins through your stupiddaty, you brute, you!'

was scrouging round us by this time--pawters & clarx and refreshmint people and all. 'What's this year row about that there babby?' at last says the Inspector, stepping hup. I thought my wife was going to jump into his harms. Have you got him?' says she.

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Was it a child in a blue cloak?' says he. "And blue eyes!' says my wife.

666

I put a label on him and sent him on to Bristol ; he 's there by this time. The Guard of the Mail took him and put him in a letter-box,' says he : he went 20 minutes ago. We found him on the broad gauge line, and sent him on by it, in course,' says he. And it'll be a caution to you, young woman, for the future, to label your children along with the rest of your luggage.'

"If my piguniary means had been such as once they was, you may imadgine I'd have had a speshle train and been hoff like smoak. As it was, we was oblidged to wait 4 mortial hours for the next train (4 ears they seemed to us,) and then away we went.

"My boy! my little boy!' says poor, choking Mary Hann, when we got there. A parcel in a blue cloak,' says the man? 'Nobody claimed him here, and so we sent him back by the mail. An Irish nurse here gave him some supper, and he's at Paddington by this time. Yes,' says he, looking at the clock, he's been there these ten minutes.'

"But seeing my poor wife's distracted histarricle state, this good-naturd man says, I think, my dear, there's a way to ease your mind. We'll know in five minutes how he is.

"Sir,' says she, ' don't make sport of me.' "No, my dear, we 'll telegraph him.'

"And he began hopparating on that singlar and ingenus elecktricle inwention, which aniliates time, and carries intellagence in the twinkling of a peg-post.

"I'll ask,' says he, for the child marked G. W. 273.'

"Bring your haction against the Great Western, Maam,' says I, quite riled by this crewel and unfealing hold wixen. Ask the pawters at Gloster, why your goods is spiled-it's not the fust time they've been asked the question. Git the gage haltered against the nex time you send for medsan-and meanwild buy some at the Plow-right.' they keep it very good and strong there, I'll be bound. Has for hus, we 're a going back to the cussid station at Gloster, in such of our blessid child.'

"You don't mean to say, young woman,' seshee, that you 're not going to Lady Hangelina: what's her dear boy to do? who's to nuss it?' "You nuss it, Maam,' says I. 'Me and Mary Hann return this momint by the Fly.' And so (whishing her a suckastic ajew) Mrs. Jeames and I lep into a one oss weakle, and told the driver to go like mad back to Gloster.

"I can't describe my pore gals hagny juring our ride. She sat in the carridge as silent as a milestone, and as madd as a march Air. When we got to Gloster she sprang hout of it as wild as a Tigris, and rusht to the station, up to the fatle Bench.

"My child, my child,' shreex she, in a hoss, hot voice. 'Where's my infant? a little bewtifle child, with blue eyes-dear Mr. Policeman, give it to me a thousand guineas for it.'

"Back comes the telegraph, with the sign' All Ask what he 's doing, sir,' said my wife, quite amazed. Back comes the answer in a Jiffy

"C. R. Y. I. N. G.'

"This caused all the bystanders to laugh excep my pore Mary Hann, who pull'd a very sad face. "The good-naterd feller presently said,' he 'd have another trile;' and what d'ye think was the answer? I'm blest if it was n't

"P. A. P.'

"He was eating pap! There's for youthere's a rogue for you there's a March of Intelleck! Mary Hann smiled now for the fust time. He'll sleep now,' says she. And she sat down with a full heart.

"If hever that good-natered Shooperintendent comes to London he need never ask for his skore at the Wheel of Fortune Hotel, I promise youwhere me and my wife and James Hangelo now is; and where only yesterday, a gent came in and drew this pictur of us in our bar.

"And if they go on breaking gages; and if the child, the most precious luggage of the Henglishman, is to be bundled about in this year way, why it won't be for want of warning, both from Professor Harris, the Commissioner, and from

"My dear Mr. Punch's obeajent servant,

"JEAMES PLUSH."