Page images
PDF
EPUB

afterwards, that the Prior of the neighbouring monastery held his missal during service in his left hand, and kept his right, if he had one, under the sleeve of his cassock.

SINGULAR FACT.

Dr. Morrison, in his journey with Lord Amherst into the interior of China, discovered in the apartments of a Chinese, an European picture of our Saviour, crowned with thorns, holding a reed, &c. to which the owner of the apartment (not a Christian) paid adoration, and regarded with great veneration.

AN ANECDOTE OF TO-DAY. From the French of M. de Rougemont.

By G. G. CUNNINGHAM. Les hommes d'affaires sont-ils plus dangereux qu' utiles? Qui croirait qu' une pareille question a été résolue affirmativement par ceux memes qui ne peuvent s'en passer ?

Ir is now about twenty-five or twentysix years ago, since M. de Rosanges found himself compelled to quit France, and take up his residence in a foreign country. To have lingered longer than he did in his native land would have exposed him to extreme danger; although this estimable man-like many others similarly situated-was unwilling to regard his expatriation in any other light than that of a brief but necessary exile. Of course the preparations for his departure were made with the most profound secresy. No person suspected the designs of M. de Rosanges, and it was by the merest accident in the world that, at the moment of his stepping into the postchaise, Jacques and Clement Bidant presented themselves before him.

These two brothers were tenants of M. de Rosanges. For several years they had farmed the greater part of his estate; a bad harvest had thrown them behind in their payments, and they had now come to discharge two years' arrears of rent at once. A few hours earlier, and the money would have been most acceptable; but time now pressed,-M. de Rosanges' peril became every moment more imminent,—and a single minute's delay might annihilate his hopes of escape; aware then of the impossibility of settling accounts with the honest tenants at this critical juncture, he dismissed them with these words:

[ocr errors][merged small]

which I have reckoned upon, I will write to you. In the mean time keep this money as a deposit which I intrust to your probity, and which may one day be of greater use to me than it can be at present. Continue to take charge of my farms; conceal my departure from the world; the least indiscretion on your part may prove fatal to me, and I know you would not wish to ruin a master whom you love.”

"Ah, dear sir," exclaimed both the brothers at once, "we would sooner die ourselves than occasion you the least unhappiness. We will carefully preserve this sum of seventeen thousand francs which we had meant to have paid you just now, had you not directed us to keep it; it will be always at your disposal, for we will not allow it to pass out of our hands without instructions from you; this we solemnly swear."

The two brothers raised their hands towards heaven as they spoke, and remained mechanically in that attitude till the chaise which conveyed their beloved master drove out of sight.

The haste with which M. de Rosanges had been compelled to abandon his country and family, had left him little time to arrange his affairs. The secresy which he had determined should be over the place of his retreat, rendered it impossible for him to adopt any measures by which he could control them during his absence; his enemies, however, deceived by his apparent tranquillity, were not apprised of his flight till it was too late to prevent it. But their malevolence was not satisfied by his exile; the name of M. de Rosanges swelled the list de proscription,- his effects were sequestrated and sold, -his family cruelly driven from their home—and his debtors commanded, on pain of being dealt with as disaffected persons, to account to the public authorities for what sums they owed him. Thus was M. de Rosanges stript in one day of his birthright as a Frenchman, and his rank as a landed gentleman.

Many of his friends, although filled with indignation at the relentless conduct of his persecutors, hastened to pay over to government the sums of money which they were owing to M. de Rosanges; others of a more timid disposition shrunk from acknowledging their ever having had any transactions with the proscribed man, although they secretly determined not to lose sight of their own interests, should fortune again smile upon him. I know not how it

happened, whether from private information or the activity of its own agents, but so it was that government soon got notice of the transaction with the brothers Bidant; and an order was instantly issued for Clément's arrestment. Crossquestioned, cajoled, and threatened by turns, the poor Clément continued firmly to conceal his knowledge of the alleged transaction, and, for his obstinacy, was thrown into one of the thousand prisons which formed the peculiar ornament of the French capital at this epoch. He was given to understand, indeed, that the instant he made a full disclosure, he would be set at liberty; but, satisfied that he had done his duty, Clément remained true to his oath, and cheerfully resigned himself to his fate.

Jacques endeavoured, by every means in his power, to soften the hardship of his brother's situation; he supplied him with every little comfort or necessary which he could command; but for all the gold in the world he would not, even in this emergency, have touched a single franc of the sum which had been intrusted to his keeping. Meanwhile he sought by every imaginable ruse to learn something of M. de Rosanges' situation, whose return could no longer be calculated upon; but all his endeavours for this purpose were ineffectual. M. de Rosanges himself had calculated on his being able to return to his native country, in the course of the following year; he was therefore not a little embarrassed by the situation in which his enemies had placed him; he could not address a letter to any of his friends without compromising their safety, and this generous motive imposed absolute silence upon him, however great the interest he had at stake. Jacques in the meanwhile spared no pains to discover the place of retreat which his beloved master had chosen; but M. de Rosanges had become unfortunate, and no one knew or cared to tell that he knew aught about him.

The firmness of Clément, at last, triumphed over the virulence of his persecutors; unable to extort the desired confession from his lips, they at last gave him his liberty; but this victim of fidelity had caught a mortal disease in the place of his confinement, and in a short time sealed his devotion to M. de Rosanges with his own life: worn out by the fatigue and privations which he had endured, he breathed his last in the arms of his brother, after having adjured him to maintain his secret inviolable.

Such charge was indeed unnecessary. Jacques, the son of a poor farmer in the neighbourhood of Lagny, had received little or no education; but nature had bestowed upon him a quick sense of right and wrong, and a character of decided shrewdness and honesty; a virtuous action was to him a natural one; and from his infancy he had been trained to uprightness of conduct, and the thought had never entered into his head that he could by any means shake himself free of an obligation once undertaken; although he clearly saw that every day rendered the return of M. de Rosanges more difficult, and although many persons argued that it was no longer to be looked for, and that the exile should be considered as having succumbed to his misfortunes, Jacques was never once tempted to appropriate to his own use the money which had already cost him so much to protect.

With the produce of his industry and his share of his father's succession, Jacques had bought a small farm nigh to Roissy, upon which he lived in a degree of comfort, to which his economy gave the appearance of competence. His heart, which hitherto had resisted the soft impressions of love, now became alive to the tender sentiment. Rose Delaunay, the daughter of a wealthy neighbour, was the first to inspire him with a real passion, and she herself did not long remain insensible to his attachment. The two lovers seemed fortunate in their attachment, and every thing favoured their approaching union, when an unfortunate event threatened the destruction of their fairest hopes. Delaunay's steading took fire, and a frightful conflagration reduced him in a few hours from a state of affluence to poverty. Jacques would have gladly come to his succour; but his means were altogether insufficient for his generous purposes; and at this critical moment a neighbouring farmer, who had been rejected in his former addresses, formerly demanded Rose's hand from her father, and offered to rebuild, at his own expense, Delaunay's steading, and advance two thousand crowns to enable him to repair his losses, provided he would favour his suit. To a man in Delaunay's circumstances such an offer was too tempting to be resisted, and he soon gave Jacques to understand how decidedly he now preferred the wealthier Durand for his son-in-law. A sigh was the only answer from poor Jacques. With less virtue, he might still have possessed the object of his love.

No person knew of the existence of M. de Rosanges' fifteen thousand francs. The silence of the proprietor authorised him, so to speak, to dispose of it for his own purposes. But Jacques remained true to what honesty dictated; and courageously, though not without regret, he sacrificed his happiness to his integrity.

The father of Rose had given his for. mal consent to neighbour Durand's propositions. The wedding-day was fixed, and all the village sympathised with poor Rose, whose distress was too evident to be concealed. A secret presentiment led her steps one day towards Jacques' abode; she perceived him, sad and thoughtful, seated upon a stone bench at the entrance of his garden;-she approached; he spoke ;-she listened ;she became his confident, and burst from him with a cry of surprise! Filled with admiration for a man who could thus sacrifice every thing that he held dearest upon earth to preserve his integrity unsullied, she threw herself at the feet of her father,recounted to him with tearful eyes all that Jacques had told her, extolled his heroical sacrifice with all the eloquence which love and admiration could inspire, and ended by declaring that she would never consent to be separated from him. The earnestness of her entreaties, the fervour of her words, that force which ever accompanies the language of truth, shook the resolution of Delaunay. He raised his daughter from her knees; embraced her; comforted her with soothing words; and constrained by the influence of a noble example, consented to receive Jacques for his sonin-law. Virtue is not always accompanied by misfortune.

The integrity of Jacques was yet to endure fresh trial. Twice during the calamities attendant upon foreign invasion did he behold his little dwelling sacked and plundered, and his fields laid waste; and twice did he abandon his own property the better to protect the sacred deposit intrusted to his keeping; the only thing which he preserved from danger was that which he had least interest in protecting.

The father-in-law, who while he admired Jacques' fidelity did not altogether approve of that excess of probity which dictated such sacrifices for the sake of another, at last became desirous to know at what point of time a sum of money, already twenty-five years deposited with another, might cease to be regarded in the strict light of a deposit, and might be appropriated to the private

purposes of the holder. With this view he consulted a man of business who was in the habit of looking to his own interests while managing those of others. This personage quickly proved to him, both by argument and precedent, that a deposit, if remaining unclaimed at the end of twenty-five years, had become invested with all the negative qualities of a lost sum as far as regarded the pledger, and, of right, became the absolute property of him in whose hands it had been originally placed. Well-pleased at the result of this consultation-for which our man of business received a fee proportionate to the agreeableness of his advice, Delaunay hastened to impart the information he had gained to his son-inlaw, who, in the meantime, had made a discovery of another kind.

In glancing over the newspapers, Jacques had met with the name of Rosanges. He uttered an exclamation of mingled surprise and joy at the discovery; and having hastily arrayed himself in his holiday suit, directed his steps towards the house mentioned in the advertisement. With some difficulty he obtained an interview with the master of the establishment. He appeared a young man of about twenty-six years of age. Jacques trembled to ask him whether he was related to M. de Rosanges, whom he had known, for he remembered that his old master had no children. "True," replied the young de Rosanges, with much suavity of manners, to the inquiry of the honest countryman; "I am only his nephew."

"And how is he himself, the worthy gentleman?"

"He is dead!"

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

"It makes no difference with me,-a deposit is a thing which does not belong to me. I would sooner perish of hunger than touch it; my coat does not bespeak a rich man, but it covers an honest heart."

M. de Rosanges felt that he could not sufficiently admire the integrity of the honest rustic; he wrote down his address, and promised that he would call upon him one of these mornings; whereupon Jacques made his obeisance and took his way home to his cottage, whistling as he went.,

"What good fortune has befallen you to-day, Jacques?" inquired his fatherin-law, as he entered with a blythe

countenance.

"I have found M. de Rosanges," answered Jacques, while his wife threw herself into his arms.

Jacques had scarcely quitted M. de Rosanges' hotel, when the man of business entered. It was the same person whom Delaunay had consulted, and the young Rosanges quickly informed him of his good fortune.

"What! seventeen thousand francs!" exclaimed our man of quirks. "Above twenty-six years! Quite inconceivable ! We live in an age of wonders!" A sudden thought, however, seemed to strike him, his forehead smoothed up, and a diabolical grin distorted his saturnine features as he proceeded with his devilish insinuations:-"This fellow, I presume, has imagined that you were in possession of the titles?"

"I hold none."

you mark me? The dear man, you
may depend upon it, has not kept this
sum lying inactive in his hands all this
while."

"He swore to me he had."
"And do you credit him?"

"This action is a sufficient evidence of his honesty."

"Of his address! hear me then; you are yet a young man,-you know little about business-matters. Every sum of money, when placed in any one's hands, ought to bear interest. Now, the money——"

"It was a deposit."

"With your leave we will come to that by-and-by. I would take security for it; we will give him time. You must be sensible that I would not willingly distress the man; but your interests are mine, and I ought to look after them. You will thank me some day for the interest which I have taken on your behalf." With these words the man of business took his leave.

The following morning M. de Rosanges directed his steps towards Jacques' abode. He entered,—but what were his feelings when a whole family threw themselves at his feet in tears! With indignation he perused a letter which Jacques had just received from his man of business, calling upon him to pay up the whole interest on the twenty-six years' deposit, and threatening him with a prosecution in case of refusal! His indignation was, if possible, increased on its being ascertained, that the creature who now, in his name, demanded payment of interest as well as principal from the faithful custodiers of his uncle's property, was the very man who had advised Delaunay to consider a twenty-five years' deposit as having in effect become his own property. He hastened to relieve the poor but virtuous family from their alarms; and though he did not offend them by pressing upon their acceptance the whole sum which had proved to them the object of so many misfortunes and so much solicitude, yet he begged that they would henceforward regard him as their protector, and offered Jacques, on the spot, the

"That your uncle had left you this office of keeper of his chateau de Saint

[blocks in formation]

The same day, Delaunay received intimation that M. de Rosanges no longer needed his services.

WILD SPORTS IN AFRICA.

THE following graphic sketch of a panther hunt, is from a late novel called "Makanna, or the land of the Savage,"

the scene of which is laid in the southern his dilated tail grew restless as an angry portion of Africa:

"Hold back! That howl betokens harm!"

"Yes, by Jove, the dog will bleed to death! That hind-leg's broken, and the throat torn to the shoulder-bone!"

"Stand back! The hottentots are cowering; 'tis no common beast! Each look to his prime-firm heart, and steady eye, the death-shot takes the skin."

"A panther! Yes, by Jove, big as a tiger! That spring has cleared the jungle! Look! he's thrown himself betwixt the forked limbs of that old thunderrifted oak, and like a wild cat, lies on his side at bay! Now-"

“No, massa! me say no fire, massa! No, no, let de beast play de fisty-cuff'ee wid de dogg'e.'

[ocr errors]

The voice of Gaspal sounded just in time for a reprieve, and three of the dogs ran gallantly in. The panther's eyes glowed red with a fiery intensity, but still he remained as motionless on his post of vantage as if an inanimate

carcass.

The largest hound having warily measured his distance, now made a desperate snatch; but, with the dexterity of a juggler, the savage pard struck him at once right and left with his armed paws, and the unfortunate lurcher fell, blinded, bleeding and howling to the earth. The second, cowed at the fate of his comrade, ran, yelping off; but a fourth, coming to succour the third, both sprang forward open-mouthed. As if amazed, the panther half raised himself for the encounter, and when the dogs closed, first striking his claws with a sudden blow into the brain of the lowest, he caught the other in his jaws by the nape of the neck, and slung him over his head, spinning through the air.

"Now, by the prince of the duyvils, that dogbutcher would slaughter a pack Stand back, Gaspal, I'll have a shot!

Back!"

The elephant" roar of Drakenstein was brought to a level, his finger on the trigger, when, with the most provoking nonchalance, the wilful Gaspal perched himself on a fragment of rock immediately before the intended victim.

"No, not de massa fire! me teach'ee de beast von ittle trick'ee, de last he ebber vont to learn."

As if awake to the hint, but with rather an equivocal expression of gratitude, the lips of the panther retracted, until the glistening ivory of his fanged teeth was perfectly apparent: his back began to arch, as if he anticipated a leap, and

serpent.

The hottentot felt that time was precious, and whirling his glittering poleaxe round his head with a most intimidating flourish, he brought it down with the rapidity of a thunder-clap, as he supposed, on the skull of his adversary!

As he supposed! Gaspal had a keen eye, but the panther had a quicker, and thus, by a change of attitude, the agile animal gave the descending axe free way to bury its fury in the harmless wood.

Disconcerted by this unexpected failure, Gaspal forgot himself so far as to lean forward, in attempting to withdraw his weapon. The panther caught the momentary vantage, and striking a tremendous backward blow at the head of the unfortunate hottentot, he tore off the better half of his left ear, and ripped up a considerable portion of his scalp.

Cootje bit his lip with rage, and fired! Men do nothing well in a passion, and an excellent charge was villanously wasted.

The panther again crouched, as if preparing to bound on the wounded hottentot, who, howling with pain, still staggered forward, when the strange smile which has before been noted, played like a momentary gleam on the countenance of Laroon; his small rifle was brought as it were instinctively to his eye, and in an instant, shot through the brain, the panther lay gasping on the sand.

MISCELLANIES.

STAGE TRICKERY.

In

In a little town in Germany, the directors of the theatre, seeking to draw a house, advertised, that in a melo-drama which was to be performed, they would exhibit the head of a noted robber. order to effect this, one of the actors was placed in such a manner, that the head alone was exhibited upon the table; but a wag, wishing to raise a laugh at the expense of the manager, slily placed a small quantity of sneezing-powder in such a manner that it came in contact with the nose of the reputed robber's head, and caused it to burst into a violent fit of sneezing, to the great amusement C. C. C.

of the audience.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »