his profession, the discourse not unnaturally diverged to the various changes and chances of a military life, thence to the different climes and countries through which, in the course of service, it was not unfrequently the soldier's lot to wander. On all these subjects, I found my companion possessed of such information as evinced that, in his progress through life, he had not hurried on with a careless or unobservant eye; the few sentences with which he had at first replied to my observations, increased in frequency and length, and, as the subject of his profession, its arduous duties, its pleasures and its cares, came more under our review, the deep dejection under which he had originally appeared to labour, softened into an expression of equanimity, at times almost rising into cheerfulness. Every succeeding moment I grew more pleased with the manner and sentiments of my new acquaintance, and heartily should I have regretted the arrival of the vehicle, which was to convey us to the place of our destination, had I not recollected that it rested with myself to decide whether our interview should be thus abruptly cut short or not. The rolling of wheels, the pattering of horses' hoofs, in conjunction with the cracking of the coachman's whip, and the shrill tantivy of the guard's horn, were now heard at a short distance in our rear, and announced the approaching termination of our walk. I had, as I have said already, fostered an incipient design of emigration from the interior to the exterior of that "infernal machine," and I was abundantly confirmed in my intention, when, on its coming up, and the guard tendering me his arm to assist me in resuming the situation I had quitted, I discovered, through the medium of more senses than one, that a most serious catastrophe had taken place there during my absence. Master Johnny had, it seems, previously to his introduction into that sepulchre of the living, been tolerably well provisioned for his journey. Independently of a hearty supper on ham and oysters, his pockets had been crammed with a fanciful variety of sweetmeats, and he had been farther furnished forth with a huge

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plum-cake, which he carried, enveloped in brown paper, on his knees. On this said cake he had commenced a formidable attack before we had reached the first milestone out of London, and, as the poor child laboured most heartily in his vocation, by the time we had arrived at the end of the first stage, he had made his "Ossa a wart. An addition so vast, and composed of such discordant materials, to the load with which she was previously encumbered, was a burden far heavier than Dame Nature chose to bear; the goddess turned restive, and the exertion used by the young gentleman in expressing his tribulation, assisting her endeavours, no sooner did the coach move on again, than, by a sudden and vigorous effort, she succeeded in disengaging herself from a considerable portion of the weight which oppressed her, transferring the onus to the lap of the quaker in the opposite corner, to the visible discomposure and defilement of his outward man. patience of Friend Penn himself could scarcely have withstood so sudden and severe a trial, much less that of Hezekiah Brimmer, whom Satan seized the opportunity to buffet sorely, and, like a cunning fiend as he is, nearly succeeded more than once in forcing an ugly word of malediction beyond the aperture of the good man's lips. As it was, Hezekiah seized the unlucky culprit with the arm of the flesh, and shook him unmercifully; but this ill-advised measure only served to produce a repetition of the offence, by which, from the different attitude poor John had been forced to assume, his mama and the honest tar now became fellow-sufferers. the guard opened the door, the storm within was at its height, and it may be questioned whether a greater confusion of tongues was heard in Babel itself within the same number of square feet. I did not hesitate a moment as to the course to be pursued, but, bidding the man close the door, sprang up the side of the carriage, and placed myself by my late companion who had already re-occupied his seat. Half-a-crown to the coachman procured me the loan of a supernumerary surtout, well calculated to keep out the night air,

As

and, thus caparisoned, I felt myself in an absolute Paradise compared with the Tartarus now immediately below me. If I might judge by the satisfaction he expressed, the arrangement was not less agreeable to my fellow-traveller than to myself; he was still, indeed, at times pensive and abstracted, but his conversation, though of a grave and sombre cast, possessed an undefined charm that continued to amuse and interest me exceedingly.

I know not how it happened that our discourse, which had hitherto been confined principally to the

manners, customs, and habits of foreign nations, as compared with, or distinguished from, our own, turned insensibly upon their superstitions; the Brownie of Scotland, the Obi of the Negroes, the Hungarian Vampire, the German Rubezahl, and even the now nearly subverted empire of the Fairies in our own country, came by turns under our review. It was not till the famous and inexhaustible subject of ghosts became our theme, that the slightest discordance of opinion existed between us, but, when this celebrated topic came at last upon the tapis, I could not but perceive an evident and decided reluctance in my companion to enter upon the discussion. The levity with which I at first treated the notion of a visit from the dead to the living seemed, I could not imagine why, to displease him; his answers to my remarks, if not absolutely petulant, were delivered in a tone by no means consonant with that urbanity and self-possession which he had up to this moment invariably maintained. His constrained replies ended at length in a pause of more than common duration; in the meantime the singular stillness and brilliancy of the night, the countless myriads of burning stars that gemmed the dark blue heavens above us, the mild and mellow lustre that prevailed, interrupt ed only by the momentary coruscations of some transient meteor, numbers of which, like stars darting from their spheres, occasionally shed a gleam of surpassing radiance as they winged their way across the expanse, -the finely contrasted shades of the brown woods which clothed on either hand a sort of defile, at the entrance of which we had now ar

rived, and up whose steep ascent our conductor allowed his horses to proceed at an easier pace-all, the whole scene, which developed nature in her most captivating state of tranquil majesty, so enchanted me, that, with the subject we had been discussing fresh in my mind, I could not forbear exclaiming in the words of the poet,

"How sweet and solemn is this midnight scene!

At such an hour as this, in such a spot,
If ancestry can be in ought believed,
Descending spirits have conversed with

man,

And told the secrets of the world un. known! "

My companion shuddered as I pronounced the last two lines, and fixed his gaze alternately on the woods that hemmed us in on either side, as if he indeed expected to behold some supernatural visitant issue from their deep recesses. The wild expression of his countenance was altogether so remarkable, that I could not avoid taking notice of it.

Really, sir," I continued, laughing, "I could almost persuade my. self that you had indeed resolved to give that credence to our worthy ancestors on this formidable subject, which their unbelieving posterity are determined to refuse them."

"And why should I not?" returned he, in a voice serious even to sadness, and betraying, as I imagined, some slight token of displeasure; "what is there so absurd in the idea that the disembodied spirit should yet desire to linger among the scenes it has delighted in, or joy to watch over and protect the happiness of those whom it has loved ?"

Absurdity? nay, I do not go the length of pronouncing the idea absurd; the theory, on the contrary, is a mighty pretty one, and at times I am almost tempted to regret that it rests on so unsubstantial a foundation. For my own part I should desire nothing better than to discover the ghost of some good-natured grandmother occasionally at my elbow, with sage hints for the better conducting of my life and manners; or some maiden aunt, of a dozen generations standing, extending her long and boney finger to intimate where I might replenish an exhaust

ed exchequer by the discovery of some recondite pot of money.'

The voice of my companion assumedadditional sternness as he replied "These, and silly tales like these, the foolish inventions of boys and idiots, the babblings of nurses, and the visionary dreams of mercenary blockheads eager in believing what they earnestly wish for-these they are that have thrown suspicion on the actual visits of immortal beings, undertaken for far higher purposes, and with far nobler designs than the pointing out a few ounces of sordid dross, or with the still more contemptible view of exciting causeless terror in beings so infinitely below their purified nature. These are the tales which the careless and the vain mix up and associate in their imagination with recorded facts of a more dignified description,-facts to the authenticity of which some of the wisest and best of men have borne testimony in all ages of the world."

"I am fully aware," rejoined I, "that many of the narratives you allude to appear to rest upon no mean authority; that Plutarch, for instance, has given us several, while, in more modern times, the comprehensive mind of that giant in intellect,' our own Johnson, was deeply imbued with a similar persuasion; yet, nevertheless, I cannot help imputing the whole system which has obtained from the darker ages down to our more enlightened days, either to successful imposture, or to the effects of a strong imagination operating upon weak nerves. That many of these traditionary anecdotes were firmly believed by the persons who have handed them down, and even by some who were actors in the scenes described, I entertain no doubt; still I am not a whit the nearer giving my assent to the actual appearance of any one spectre, from that of Cæsar down to the scarcely less celebrated Sir George Villiers, or Mrs Veal with her rustling silk gown.'

"And on what is this disbelief founded? You doubtless admit that Providence governs the world by general laws; what is there, then, ridiculous in supposing that those laws may be occasionally dispensed with when the high and inscrutable purposes of Heaven require it? when

the detection of secret guilt, or the punishment of open villany, demand its interference ?"

"Well," cried I, in the same tone which I had maintained through the whole conversation, on occasions of such moment as those to which you allude, still less should I wish to deny myself to any deceased gentleman or lady who might think proper to favour me with a call. The redressing of wrong and re-establishing of right is a glorious task, and, with a ghost to back one, and take all the responsibility upon itself, must be especially delightful; I really could almost wish I might be selected by some aërial avenger for so very respectable an office.'

"Now, Heaven in its mercy forbid!" exclaimed he, with a wild energy that made me start, then clasping his hands, which still quivered with some strong emotion," You know not what you are asking; rash and unthinking young man, bitterly would you rue the hour should your mad wish be granted!" His whole frame shook with agitation, his eyes glistened in the moonlight with an unnatural brightness, and his tones sunk into even sepulchral hoarseness, as he continued-" No! Heaven forbid that another wretch should suffer the torments which have been mine since first this dreadful commission was enjoined me!"

He paused, and, unclasping his hands, covered with them the whole of his countenance. During the latter part of his ejaculation, he had appeared to have become totally unconscious of my presence; and the strange import of the words he had used, together with the violent agitation which assailed him, combined to give strength to an opinion I had before begun to form, that the intellects of my new friend were, on this point at least, not altogether unclouded. True, that on every other subject his conversation had been of a superior description; that he had diffused, with no sparing hand, much valuable information, chastened by a correctness of thinking, a genuine taste and elegance of expression, that evinced the richness and cultivation of his mind: still I was quite aware that among the melancholy victims of mental aberration, such circumstances are by no means un

common; that, in numerous instances, the fatal malady lies dormant and unsuspected, till some one preconceived and rooted idea, which has warped the imagination, is accidentally called into play, and succeeds, for a time, in driving reason from her throne.

Such, I began to be apprehensive, might be the unhappy condition of my fellow-traveller, when his emotion having at length in some degree subsided, I ventured to direct his attention to the faint streak of golden light that now marked the extremity of the horizon, as the grey tints of morning succeeded the darker shadows of a night fast hastening to its close. But my hopes of thus diverting his thoughts, from what I felt convinced was a subject of pain and distress to him, proved abortive. In vain did I point out to his observation the beauties of the surrounding landscape, which every moment rendered more distinct; in vain did the mounting skylark welcome with his cheerful notes the first beam of the rising sun, that glittered on his little breast, while all below lay yet unconscious of its cheering influence; in vain did vegetation, redolent of sweetness, convey to the charmed sense the choicest perfume; wrapt in a melancholy gloom, he appeared dead to the charms of nature that surrounded him, while the few replies, which I at times succeeded in eliciting, were so cold and constrained, and pronounced in an air so distrait, that I at length ceased to importune him by remarks, which only seemed to annoy him, and, turning my thoughts inward for the remainder of the journey, became insensibly almost as abstracted as himself. My cogitations, it must be confessed, were by no means of an agree able nature. Wounded in every feeling by the unaccountable conduct of Lord Manningham, I would have given worlds for the power to Danish his lovely daughter from my recollection, and to have "left them to their pride," but this I found myself utterly incapable of performing; my chains were too securely rivet ed to be so easily shaken off; I loved with all the intensity of a young and first passion; and as I recalled to mind the pleasing thought that she at least had given me no

offence, hope failed not to whisper that the behaviour of her father, if indeed it had reached her knowledge, must be viewed by her with the same disapprobation as it was by myself. Youth is naturally vain and sanguine, and I flattered myself that the time spent in her company at the theatre had not been thrown away, though what on earth could have taken her into that part of it, so accompanied, was a mystery beyond my power to solve. If I had read the language of her expressive eyes aright, the penchant had been reciprocal; and, as this delightful idea took possession of my imagination, the remembrance of his lordship's strange harshness comparatively faded from my mind. I began to rack my invention to furnish excuses for his conduct; an eager desire laid hold upon me to unravel the mistake, which I became more and more convinced must have taken place, and to receive the apologies which, at the dénouement, he would undoubtedly tender to my acceptance with no small confusion of face. I was roused from my reverie by a circumstance that threatened utterly to subvert all my castle-building in the very outset; this was no other than the overturning of the coach, and my consequent immersion in a narrow but rapid stream, that ran beneath a bridge, on the centre of which we were when the accident occurred. What was the immediate cause of our sudden subversion is more than I am able to state; whether the tackling and cordage, so plentifully lavished by "Bill," upon the fractured splinter-bar, had given way, in spite of all the science of honest Jack, or whether any other part of the machinery had been equally unsound, I cannot say; all I know is, that I found myself in a moment up to my neck in the river.

Of all sublunary applications there is perhaps not one which possesses greater efficacy in a love case than a good sousing in cold water: if its effects fail to be permanent, they at least give the fit a complete check for the time; and in cases where a radical cure is out of the question, that is no trifling point gained. Heaven is my witness-I confess it with shame-that for a full hour after my ducking, I thought no more of Ame