within whose polluted veins rankles the filthy poison of the Plica!' "And upon this declaration you were obedient, and gave up your lover?' enquired the pretty Dzidzilia, bending her eager eyes upon those of the venerable sybil. "No!' replied Maruchna, in a low hoarse voice. 'I was overbold in defying the vengeance of God. For the following year, having lost my kind father, instead of marking double reverence to the words of his lips, when those lips were cold in the grave, I turned aside from the desolate home where I was now an orphan, and became the wife of Pawel!' "But you were happy, dearest Maruchna,' cried Dzidzilia, her feelings deep ly interested by a tale of love and wilful wedlock. 666 - thing was within those walls that could make glad the heart of man. Pawel was cheerful, laborious, forbearing; our hirelings duteous,- -our trade thriving,—our babes-(there were three now rolling on the moss beside our forest door,) our babes beauteous as the imagined cherubim of Heaven!-All three were alike fair, alike gracious;-but it was the sport of Pawel to excite my mother's wrath by accusing me of partial favour towards the second-my little Jozia;~with her plaintive voice as of the calling quail,-her curls of golden brown floating over her graceful shoulders,-and her mild blue eyes that beamed as with the emanating spirit of God!-A moment!' -faltered the aged woman, pressing her hands upon her breast. I must gather breath to speak of all this.' "Let me forestal the relation, dearest Maruchna!' cried her nursling, willing to spare the pang of further explanation. 'Happy!' reiterated the old woman with fervour.' Why is there no brighter word in the mouths of men, to designate the joy of those who, loving long and long estranged, are at length united for eternity in the blessed marriage bond?Every thing was rapture around us!tening of his hand !-I see it all.' The skies, the earth, the very household duties which elsewhere had seemed irksome, were a delight when ministered to the service of my husband. Happy? What could surpass the happiness of being his; of finding him ever near me,with love upon his lips and transport in his eyes? Yet something did surpass it;-for soon I was fated to hold a babe of Pawel's within my arms, my husband's very self in smile and features, and while listening to his sportive declaration that it resembled only me, to bend my ear to the gentle murmurings of the fondled one ;-faint, low, plaintive, lovestirring!—Happy ?-All-righteous God, -what earthly happiness could out-mea sure mine?' The Almighty who dealt forth of old his judgments upon the patriarch whose flocks were fairest and whose offspring loveliest, smote you also with the chas "No!-none can see it as I saw it !' faltered the nurse. 'None can see, with the agony of my own watching, the change that came over the fair face of my cherished one! The burning forehead, the pallid cheeks, the blackened lips.""Tis the Plica,' cried my unfortunate Pawel when he heard the sweet voice of his child crying aloud upon us for aid and soothing. And I would not believe it-and in my horror, I cursed him for the word!—And even when those bright brown curls grew dim and clammy, and hung together and clung together, I would not own that it was disease that matted them in frightful entanglement; but smoothed them, and smoothed them, as was my wont; and kissed the pale cheeks of the sufferer, and said she would be better anon.-At length, maddened with the agony of watching the dishevelment of those lovely locks, I shore them closely off, and flung them upon the blaz"The aged father of my husband died ing logs !-Dzidzilia, there was blood ere I again became a mother,' said Ma- upon the steel as I laid it aside-Dzidziruchna, labouring to assume a calmer lia!—within a week from the act of rashdemeanour. 'And now we were rich ness, my gracious babe was in her grave! indeed. The old man had a lease of es--And for one bitter moment I was glad pecial favour from Prince Sapieha, of the when the earth closed over the loathforest of Szczoth, with its beaver-dams someness of my fondling! But soon, and rights of manorage; even where the very soon, I would have uprooted the weeping pine abounds, and the largest sod to gaze upon her disfigured face, and and clearest masses of Lithunian amber press to my lips,-to my heart of hearts, are dug up from the sand. Our com- -all that remained of her I loved with merce prospered, we had a dwelling in such overweening tenderness!the wild fast by the river side, with a hamlet as of our own around us. Every "Dzidzilia now drooped her gentle head on the bosom of the nurse. She wished that Maruchna might not see her weeping at the touching holiness of such a picture. "Then remembered I my father's curse!-For I knew that the fatal infection - must be in the veins of my surviving chil- ness and horror contended In his eyes, dren,-of my Pawel himself, and that a when he fixed them upon me as the first destiny was upon our little household. I pains of the pestilence assailed him ;— dared no longer lift my eyes upon them, the heavy brow, the burning hand, the lest I should descry the fatal sign upon bewildered brain!-Yes!-dearest, yes! their brows.-I dared not wander forth with them into the sunshine, lest peradventure its fervours might stimulate the latent poison. If the rain rained, I dreaded its humid exhalations ;—if the wind blew, I closed up with moss every cranny of our dwelling. I could not sleep by night for creeping to the cradle of my boys, and feeling that their little hands lay calm and feverless on the coverlid. I could not rest by day for stealing out to the cottages of the peasants, and questioning them of their own experience, and of the signs and symptoms of the malady; till the thought of the new formed nail, and new springing hair, and scarified flesh, became as tokens of horror to my mind!-1 saw them before me when I waked; I dreamed of them in my dreams by night!' "Dzidzilia started, and gazed inquiringly into the face of Maruchna; who, without notice of her agitation, speedily resumed. 'My terrors, dearest, were both not premature. Both sickened died!-Pawel, (the gay-hearted one who so much resembled his father)-perished first,-in fearful and bitter anguish. Franciszek, the little one, the youngest born, of slow and gradual suffering, as if pining for the playmates gone before. Three babes! Dzidzilia Bremglicz!three glorious, lovely, loving babes,-all taken from a heart overflowing with mother's love, to be thrust into darkness beneath our forest turf!-I was hopeless! I dared not speak my grief to my husband, lest he should hold it in reproach, or imbibe injurious alarm on his own behalf.—I dared not complain, 1 dared not even weep. I could only pray, pray, pray-clasp my hands in heartbroken fervour and supplication, and trust that the earnest voice from the wilderness would reach the pitying ear of the Almighty! "But that merciless ear was closed against my entreating and the hand of the avenger was against me. The worst was yet to come!-Pawel, conscious of the fate that awaited him and dreading the contagion his touch might convey, now tarried hour after hour, day after day, from the desolate dwelling of his wife; he would no longer hold my hand in his ; he would not even press his arm around me when we wept together upon the grave of our children! He shuddered whenever I approached him; and oh! what glaring looks of tender with him the Plica took its deadliest shape; and the howlings of a lunatic were soon heard in our happy dwelling. Two years did I watch by him;-even when the gyves were upon him,-andbut why should I thus agonize your gentle nature? He, too, died;-and dying heirless, the laws of the land awarded to the lord of the soil all that the industry of his bondsman had amassed. A desolate widow, I was turned forth into the world. A distant kinsman at Rosienie afforded me a refuge ;-and it was there, sweet, I became the hireling of your grandsire, and took the new-born Jakob tenderly into my arms, as a remembrancer of the precious ones that had been wrested from them.' 666 "One word, Maruchna!' faintly ejaculated Dzidzilia Bremlicz, without venturing to raise her face from the bosom of the nurse. 'On Ludwyk's hands the nails are springing newly; on Ludwyk's cheek there is a wide and fearful scarMy poor child!' replied her monitress, your fears forestal my warning. -Tis even as you dread.-The young stranger has been, and will be again, a victim to the loathsome Plica. A fearful infection already riots in the veins of him you love!' "And the youth, the good youth?"cried her impatient auditors. "Wounded, stunned, senseless, and scorched to the very marrow of his young bones, he was extricated from the smoking pile !" "To die!" murmured the gentle Dzidzilia clasping her hands. "An evil fate is over the destinies of the heroes of Poland!" 66 No, not to die," interrupted Jakob; "but to suffer agonies in a cause which even his prowess could not render triumphant. Slowly recovering, his father's interest would not have availed to save his forfeit life, but that he had been surreptitiously conveyed from the country." "Heaven is gracious!-Praise be to the virgin of virgins!!"-cried the eager listeners. "In Wilna, as you may guess, the name of this boy-patriot is worshipped as that of the first of heroes ;-and for my own part," continued Jakob, brushing his hand hastily over his eyes, " I would give half my substance-not to be syndic of Walna, but to call the noble one my son!" "Delay not then the concession!" happy household of the Pasieka raised cried Ludwyk, having risen from his the chorus of the National Mazurka." seat, and throwing himself upon the neck of Bremglicz. "Give me your daughter and your blessing;-and my wounds, my sufferings, my banishment, are a thousand fold overpaid !" "And you reviled those honourable scars as tokens of Plica-stricken ?" whispered Dzidzilia reproachfully to Maruchna. "Why did he slay the wood-serpent?" grumbled the old woman. "That one misdeed misled me!". But Dzidzilia had no further leisure for reproaches; she was required by her father to kneel down and receive his benediction of betrothment, hand in hand with Ludwyk ;-and by her mother to be kissed and wept over and congratulated, as the plighted love of the champion of little Janek,-the bride of the patriotic defender of the liberties of Poland! At that moment not one among them had a thought for the temporal dig. nities of the son of the Right Honour. able the Syndic of the city of Wilna! "Heir to a Kasztellan and chief ma gistrate!" cried old Jakob,-having with Anulka's aid and at Ludwyk's suggestion decyphered the letter of paternal sanction which Ludwyk's visit to the post office of Rosienie, had that very evening secured. "A distinguished student of the learned University!" exclaimed Aunt Anulka, bestowing upon her niece the kiss of peace. "And the best snarer of cray-fish and netter of quails in the country!" vociferated Janek and Benisia, flinging them selves into the arms of their new brother. "And so let me even accomplish my own prophecy!" cried Jacubowa, encircling the lovely brows of her daughter with her head-gear of pearls. Said 1 not that the Dzierzawea's city-token would well become a bride ?" "God is good!" murmured Maruchna devoutly crossing herself in joyful recognizance of the prosperous fortunes of her nursling. "The duteous daughter will make a happy wife." "Push aside the tables!" cried Jakob, clapping his hands.—“ Broach me a hogshead of Lipiec, and call in the knaves and wenches.-Grzegorz, man!-fetch thy dulcimer, and give us our Mazurek. Sister Anulka,-wife,-Marzanna,-Malgorzata,-Janowa, your voices. your voices to the burden!" - "And while Ludwyk and his pretty bride stood whispering at the window(discussing perhaps the culture of the Bee Garden on which they were gazing) the Varieties. INCIDENT OF A DISABLED QUEEN BEE. -The people of my village, many of whom are fond of keeping bees, make use of strange expedients to induce bees to stay in the hives into which they are first shaken. One of my hives threw off a swarm, which settled upon the branch of a plumb-tree; it was hived in the usual way, but in the evening went back to the parent hive tree, where it was again hived, but it again went back. I applied to a woman for advice, who was remarkable for her skill in the management of bees. She told me that one certain method of success was to rub the inside of the hive with the saliva of a sow. Not much liking the expedient, 1 put on a veil, and as the swarm was issuing the third time, and settling on the same tree, I examined the mouth of the parent hive, and there I beheld the queen, with only one wing, making vain attempts to accompany the swarm. I instantly picked her up, put her into the hive, and shook the swarm in upon her, and all immediately began to work, I knew that was well. After the bees. remained, they the queen (leading off a second swarm and consequently being young,) would be barren, because impregnation takes place in the air, and this queen could not fly. I therefore united the next swarm I got to the colony over which she presided, and was glad to find that, in the single combat which was sure to take place between the rival queens, she of the one wing lost her life and was thrown Field Naturalist's Mag. out. A DOG'S AFFECTION. After the battle of Barossa, the wounded of both nations, were, from want of means of transport, necessarily left upon the field of action the whole night and part of the following day. General Rousseau, a French general of division, 'was of the number; his dog, a white one of the poodle kind, which had been left in quarters upon the advance of the French force, finding that the General returned not with those who escaped from the battle, set out in search of him; found him at night in his dreary resting place, and expressed his affliction by moans and by licking the hands and feet of his dying master. When the fatal crisis took place some hours after, he seemed fully aware of the dreadful change, attached himself closely to the body, and for three days refused the sustenance which was offered him. Arrangements having been made for the interment of the dead, the body of the General was, like the rest, committed to its honourable grave; the dog lay down upon the earth which covered the beloved remains, and evinced by silence and deep dejection his sorrow for the loss he had sustained. The English commander, General Graham, whose fine feelings had prompted him to superintend the last duties due to the gallant slain, observed tne friendless mourner, drew him, now no longer resisting, from the spot, and gave him his protection, which he continued to him until his death, many years after, at the General's residence in Perthshire. United Ser. Jour. HOGARTH'S TAIL PIECE. -A few months before that ingenious artist, Hogarth, was seized with the malady which deprived society of one of its most distinguished ornaments, he proposed adding to his matchless and unrivalled collection the picture he has entitled "Tail Piece." The first idea of this is said to have been started in company at his own table. "My next uudertaking," said Hogarth, "shall be the End of all Things.' "If that is the case," replied one of his friends, " your business will be finished; for there will be an end of the painter." "There will be so," answered Hogarth, sighing heavily, and therefore the sooner my work is done the better." Accordingly he began the next day, and continued his design till he had completed it. "So far good," cried Hogarth, "nothing remains but this." Then taking his pencil in a sort of prophetic fury, and dashing off the similitude of a painter's pallet broken-" Finis," exclaimed he, "the deed is done, all is It is very remarkable, and a well-known fact, that he never again took the pallet in hand. It is a circumstance less known, perhaps, that he died about a year after he had finished this extraordinary" Tail Piece." Over!" THE RAVEN.-A curious anecdote of the raven is related in the "Gentleman's Magazine.' He lived many years ago at the Red Lion Inn, Hungerford, and was called Rafe. It is given in the words of a gentleman who lodged at the innComing into the inn yard," says he, my chaise ran over and bruised the leg of my Newfoundland dog; and while we were examining the injury, Rafe was evidently a concerned spectator; for, the minute the dog was tied up under the manger with my horse Rafe, not only visited him, but brought him bones, and attended on him with particular and repeated marks of kindness. I observed it to the ostler, who told me that the bird had been brought up with a dog, and that the affection between them was mutual, and all the neighbourhood had been witnesses of their many reciprocal acts of kindness. Rafe's poor dog after a while broke his leg, and during the long time he was confined, Rafe waited on him constantly, carried him his provisions, and scarcely ever left him alone. One night by accident the stable-door had been shut, and Rafe had been deprived of the company of his friend the whole night; but the ostler found in the morning the door so pecked away, that had it not been opened, in another hour Rafe would have made his own entrance. My landlady confirmed this account, and mentioned several other acts of kindness shown by this bird to all dogs in general, but particularly to maimed or wounded ones. Hancock's Essay on Instinct. APOLOGY FOR THE LION.-That the lion is idle, except when he is hungry, may be admitted; but what is the plea for human occupation in general, except that a man 'must live;' that he must 'get his bread;' and that if he is idle, he will have no butcher's meat. It is astonishing with what coolness we fish-eating, fish-hooking, stag-hunting, war-making, borough-mongering, two-legged animals, sit in judgment upon our fellow-creatures the quadrupeds; and abuse them for doing, out of sheer instinct and compulsion, what we perpetrate out of a deliberate self-indulgence! Let those among us who have really not been educated for nothing, and who have a decent quantity of humanity to go upon, do justice to the common instincts of lion and noble lord. As to his walking off before a multitude of men and dogs with loaded muskets, and all sorts of advantages over him, it is what, in a Xenophon or a Frederick the Second, would have been called a retreat, not a skulking away. The lion refuses to risk his life, and that of others, to no purpose; and instead of praising him for it, we call him idle and skulking. It is surely enough that, before he makes up his mind to decline the battle, he can look calmly upon his enemies; nay, (as they acknowledge themselves,) with the most lofty and courageous aspect. If a dog or so happens to come too near him on that occasion, he makes a movement of his paw, invisible as one of Belcher's pieces of by-play, and smites the mongrel to death; which is just as if he had said, 'Do not misinterpret me, and behave like a puppy. I am standing thus, not for fear of you, but like a proper general calculating his forces.' When Homer speaks of a lion walking off, it is in compliment to his bravest warriors, and the reluctance with which they retire. Tait's Mag. Hlustrated Article. THE SEA-SIDE HUT. For the Olio. "Mercy on us, what a storm!" exclaimed old Alice Bridport, as a flash of lightning momentarily illumined the wretched hovel, accompanied, rather than followed, by an awful peal of thun. der, which seemed to shake the very bowels of the earth. "Where can my boy Will be, tarrying at such a time? Grant heaven he's safe." "Never fear, good mother," said her daughter Jane, "Will has been the road too often to mistake it, e'en were the night much darker than it is." 66 Open the lattice Jane; if my ears deceive me not, I hear footsteps.' Jane threw it open-but no sound, save the wind and the roar of the proximate sea, betokened Will's return. "Heaven shield me in my old age," said the mo ther, "for it can boast no other tutelage. What matter-I shall soon take my long rest beside my good old Jonathan." "Ay, very soon," said a rough voice from without. VOL. XI. See page 133 "Good God! what can that mean?" exclaimed Alice, hastily, glancing at. Jane, who stood agbast on hearing the ominous words. "Look to the door, Jane, is it barred ?'' ""Tis fast," answered the girl, and with a trembling hand she closed the window shutters. "It can be no friend who calls at such a time as this," said Alice, "raising her tottering form from her oaken chair. "Open the door," shouted the same hoarse voice, "if ye give me not ready admission now, it shall go hard with ye when I've gained it by force." "What want ye here?" said old Alice, "if 'tis money, you will find none; for I am poor, and need it, mayhap, more than thee. 66 99 "You lie, dame Alice," said the ruffian; you know-but open without further parley, or I'll spare neither thee nor. thine young nursling." A tremendous blow which made the old door quiver on its hinges, followed these menaces. "He'll soon force it," said the dame; "haste, haste, Jane, and fetch Will's pis tols, you know where they hang. Hie thee, girl, or we are lost.' 291 |