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"I had the good fortune," says the intelligent writer, "to travel from Brussels to Paris with a young Irish officer and his wife, an Antwerp lady of only sixteen, of great beauty and innocence. The husband was at the battle of QuatreBras as well as that of Waterloo. The unexpected advance of the French called him off at a moment's notice to Quatre-Bras; but he left with his wife, his servant, one horse, and the family baggage, which was packed upon an ass. Retreat at the time was not anticipated, but being suddenly ordered, he contrived to get a message to his wife, to make the best of her way, attended by the servant and baggage, to Brussels. The servant, a foreigner, had availed himself of the opportunity to take leave of both master and mistress, and make off with the horse, leaving the helpless young lady alone with the baggage-ass.

"With a firmness becoming the wife of a British officer, she boldly commenced, on foot, her retreat of twenty five miles, leading the ass by the bridle, and carefully preserving the baggage. No violence was dared by any one to so innocent a pilgrim, but no one could venture to assist her. She was soon in the midst of the retreating British army, and much retarded and endangered by the artillery; her fatigue was great; it rained in torrents, and the thunder and lightning were dreadful in the extreme. She continued to advance, and got upon the great road from Charleroi to Brussels, at Waterloo, in the evening, when the army were taking up their line for the awful conflict. In so extensive a field, among 80,000 men, it was in vain to seek hier husband; she knew that the sight of her there would embarrass and distress him, she kept slowly advancing to Brussels all night, the road choaked with all sorts of conveyances, wag

gons, and horses; multitudes of fugitives on the road, and flying into the great road, and many of the wounded walking their painful way, dropping at every step, and breathing their last; here and there lay a corpse or a limb, particularly, as she said, several hands. Many persons were actually killed by others, if they by chance stood in the way of their endeavours to help themselves; and to add to the horrors, the rain continued unabated, and the thunder and lightning still raged as if the heavens were torn to pieces.

"Full twelve miles further, during the night, this young woman marched, up to her knees in mud, her boots worn entirely off, so that she was bare-footed, but still, unhurt, she led her ass; and, although thousands lost their baggage, and many their lives, she calmly entered Brussels on the morning in safety, self, ass, bag, and baggage, without the loss of an article. In a few hours after her arrival commenced_the cannons' roar of the tremendous battle of Waterloo, exposed to which, for ten hours, she knew her husband to be; she was rewarded, amply rewarded, by finding herself in her husband's arms, he unhurt, and she nothing the worse, on the following day. The officer told the tale himself with tears in his eyes. With a slight Irish accent, he called her his dear little woman, and said she became more valuable to him every day of his life."

GRATITUDE.

A SWEEDISH Colonel, once by an accidental fire which consumed his house, lost the whole of his property. Some time after, a lottery was set on foot by his friends, to reimburse him. In the opening of this business, a letter arrived from Pomerania, enclosing one hundred and fifty rix-dollars, without the name of any donor, but with

a short note, requesting that the Colonel would remember "the broken punch-bowl." It was a long time before he could unravel this mystery; but at last, he recollected that many years before, being in a tavern where there was a great concourse of people and much rejoicing, a female servant dropped from her hands a large China punchbowl full of punch. Her mistress, in violent anger, threatened her with instant dismissal, and that she should be sent to prison if she did not make good the loss: upon which the Colonel interceded in behalf of the poor girl, and himself paid for the damage which had been sustained.

This curious anecdote soon becoming the subject of conversation in Stockholm, at length reached the ears of the King. Gustavus the Fourth was much pleased with it, and sent a present of one thousand rix-dollars, with this message. "I am aware that the Colonel's friends have instituted a lottery upon his account. It is prohibited by the laws, to undertake any lottery without previous permission from the master of the police. Tell the Colonel I know that officer; that he is an humane and polite man, not likely to refuse a reasonable request; it is my wish that the Colonel should ask his permission for the lottery, that I may be enabled to bear a part in it."-Dr E. D. CLARKE,

KING HENRY AND THE ABBOT.

passed for one of the king's guard, a place to which the fine proportions of his person might very properly entitle him.

A sirloin of beef was set before him, so knighted, saith tradition, by this King Henry, on which the king laid on lustily, not disgracing one of that place for whom he was mistaken.

"Well fare thy heart, quoth the abbot, and here in a cup of sack I remember the health of his grace, your master. I would give one hundred pounds, on the condition I could feed so heartily on beef as you do. Alas! my weak and squeazie stomach will hardly digest the wing of a small rabbit or chicken." The king pleasantly pledged him; and heartily thanking him for his good cheer, after dinner departed as undiscovered as he came thither.

Some weeks after, the abbot was sent for by the Pursuivant, brought up to London, clapped in the Tower, kept close prisoner, and fed for a short time with bread and water. Yet not so empty his body of food, as his mind was filled with fears, creating many suspicions to himself, when, and how, he had incurred the king's displeasure. At last a sirloin of beef was set before him, on which the abbot fed as the farmer of his grange, and verified the proverb, that two hungry meals makes the third a glutton. springs King Henry out of a private lobby, where he had placed himself, the invisible spectator of the abbot's behaviour.-" My lord," quoth the king, "presently deposit your hundred pounds, or else no going hence all the days of your

In

KING Henry the Eighth, as he was hunting in Windsor Forest, either casually, or (more probably) will-life; I have been your physician to fully losing himself, struck down, about dinner-time, to the Abbey of Reading, where disguising himself (much for delight, more for discovery to see unseen), he was invited to the Abbot's table, and

cure you of your squeazie stomach; and here, as I deserve, I demand my fee for the same." The abbot down with his dust, and, glad he had escaped so, returned to Reading, as somewhat lighter in purse,

so much more merrier in heart than when he came thence.-FULLER'S Ecclesiastical Hist.

ing suddenly into water, ignorant whither he was going, and uncertain, whether his next step might not be his last. In this dismal uncertainty, his horse unexpectedly

MAKING WONDERS OUT OF stood still. Marvel had heard much

NOTHING.

IN DR JOHNSON's Idler, is the following amusing account of one of those men, who make wonders out of nothing.

of the instincts of horses, and was in doubt what danger might be at hand. Sometimes he fancied that he was on the bank of a river, still and deep, and sometimes that a dead body lay across the track. He sat still awhile to re-collect his thoughts; and as he was about to alight, and explore the darkness, out stept a man with a lantern, and opened the turnpike-gate!

CHINESE.

My friend, Will Marvel, is not one of those who go out and return with nothing to tell. He has lately taken a journey, and has a story of his travels, which will strike a home-bred citizen with horror. When he left London, the morning was bright, and a fair day was promised. But Will is born to struggle FILIAL AFFECTION OF THE with difficulties. That happened to him, which has sometimes, perhaps, happened to others. Before he had gone ten miles, it began to rain. What course was to be taken? His soul disdained to turn back. He did what the King of Prussia might have done; he flapped his hat; buttoned up his cape, and went forwards; fortifying his mind by the stoical consolation, that whatever is violent, will be short.

His constancy was not long tried; at the distance of about half a mile, he saw an inn, which he entered, wet and weary, and found civil treatment, and proper refreshment. After a respite of about two hours, seeing the sky clear, he called for his horse, and rode on; passing many pools of water, of which it was impossible to guess the depth, and which he cannot review without some censure of his own rashness; but what a man undertakes, he must perform, and Marvel hates a coward at his heart.

At last, the sun set, and all the horrors of darkness came upon him. He then repented the weak indulgence of his long rest at noon; yet he went forward, sometimes rush

THE Chinese are remarkable for the extraordinary respect which they pay to their parents. If it even be true, as some writers assert, that with these people filial reverence is not so much a moral feeling as a precept which in the course of time has acquired all the force of a positive law, and that filial piety exists rather in the maxims of the government than in the hearts of the subjects, still it wears an appearance of a virtue, that demands admiration. The Chinese writers have carefully recorded a great number of remarkable instances of filial piety.

A boy, eight years of age, gave a very affecting proof of affection for his parents. They were so poor, that they could not afford to procure a kind of curtain, which is commonly used in the hot countries of the east to defend persons in bed from troublesome insects, called mosquitoes, and which is thence named a mosquito-curtain. poor boy strove in various ways to protect his parents from the painful bites of these insects, but in vain. At length, he hit upon a

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contrivance, which shows that no sacrifice is too great for real affection. When his parents had retired to rest, he seated himself by their bed, stripped off his clothes to the waist, and suffered the mosquitoes to settle upon him, without driving them away. "When they have filled themselves with my blood," said he, "they will not disturb my parents."

But the duties of children towards their parents are not limited to the duration of the lives of the latter. During the period of mourning for them, which is twenty seven months, public officers are not allowed to perform any kind of business. It is not uncommon for a family to expend the whole of the property left behind by a parent on his funeral; and when children are not in circumstances to bury a father in a respectable manner, they will keep his coffin for several years. These observations will serve to illustrate the following narrative.

A man, having been apprehended on a charge of having committed an offence against the state, escaped from the custody of his guards, and sought refuge with his friend Loonan-kin. His retreat was soon discovered.

Loo-nan-kin was imprisoned, and preparations were making for his trial, when the younger brother came forward. "It is I who harboured the fugitive," said he, " of course I ought to die, and not my brother."

Loo-nan-kin, on the other hand, declared that he alone was guilty, and that his brother had falsely accused himself. The judge crossquestioned the young man with such skill, as to involve him in contradictions, and he was at length obliged to confess the imposture. "Alas!" said he, "I had strong reasons for acting thus: it is a long time since our mother died,

and we have not yet been able to pay her the duties of sepulture. We have, moreover, a sister unmarried. My elder brother alone has it in his power to provide for these exigencies; so that it were better for me to die in his stead. I conjure you, therefore, to receive my evidence." The judge was deeply affected: he reported this instance of filial piety and brotherly love to the supreme tribunal, and the emperor pardoned the culprit.

THE DUTCH SHIPMASTER AND THE RUSSIAN COTTAGER. THE following interesting anecdote occurs in a German work intituled A Picture of St. Petersburgh.

In a little town, five miles from St. Petersburgh, lived a poor German woman. A small cottage was her only possession, and the visits of a few shipmasters, on their way to Petersburgh, her only livelihood. Several Dutch shipmasters having supped at her house one evening, she found, when they were gone, a sealed bag of money under the table. Some one of the company had no doubt forgotten it, but they had sailed over to Cronstadt, and the wind being fair, there was no chance of their putting back. The good woman put the bag into her cupboard, to keep it till it should be called for. Full seven years, however, elapsed and no one claimed it; and though often tempted by opportunity, and oftener by want, to make use of the contents, the poor woman's good principles prevailed, and it remained untouched.

One evening, some shipmasters again stopped at her house for refreshment. Three of them were English, the fourth a Dutchman. Conversing on various matters, one of them asked the Dutchman if he had ever been in that town before. "Indeed, I have," replied he,

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"I know the place but too well; my being here, cost me once seven hundred rubles." "How so?" Why, in one of these wretched hovels, I once left behind me a bag of rubles." "Was the bag sealed?" asked the old woman, who was sitting in a corner of the room, and whose attention was roused by the subject. "Yes, yes, it was sealed, and with this very seal, here at my watch chain." The woman knew the seal instantly. "Well then," said she, "by that you may recover what you have lost." "Recover it, mother! No, no, I am rather too old to expect that: the world is not quite so honest-besides it is full seven years since I lost the money; -say no more about it, it always makes me melancholy."

Meanwhile, the good woman slipped out, and presently returned with the bag. "See here," said she, "honesty is not so rare, perhaps, as you imagine;" and she threw the bag on the table.

The guests were astonished, and the owner of the bag, as may be supposed, highly delighted. He seized the bag, tore open the scal, took out one ruble (worth 4s. 6d., English money), and laid it on the table for the hostess, thanking her civilly for the trouble she had taken. The three Englishmen were amazed and indignant at so small a reward being offered, and remonstrated warmly with him. The old woman protested she required no recompense for merely doing her duty, and begged the Dutchman to take back even his ruble. But the Englishmen insisted on seeing justice done; "The woman," said they, "has acted nobly, and ought to be rewarded." At length, the Dutchman agreed to part with one hundred rubles; they were counted out, and given to the old woman, who thus, at length, was handsomely rewarded for her honesty.

CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF A LODG

ING IN THE WOODS.

THERE is a passage in the Travels of Pietro della Valle, so picturesque that my readers, possibly, may not be displeased with it.

Speaking of his passing through a forest or wood in Mazenderan, (a province of Persia) into which they entered on the 11th of February, and complaining of the badness and heaviness of the roads there, he tells us, "We did at length master them, but with so much difficulty, that we could not get forward above two leagues that day, and night overtook us before we got through the forest. We endeavoured to find some place of retreat, in different parts, to which the barking of dogs, or the noise made by other animals, seemed to guide us. But at last, finding no inhabited place near us, we passed the night in the same forest, among the trees, under which we made a kind of intrenchment with our baggage, in a place where we found many dry leaves that had fallen from the trees. These served us for a carpet and for bedding both, without any other tent than the branches of the great trees there, through which the moonshine reached us, and made a kind of pavilion of cloth and silver. There was no want of wood for the making a great fire, any more than of provisions for supper, which we sent for from the nearest village in the forest, seated by the highway side, where, after some contest with a people of a savage and suspicious temper, who were ready to come to blows with my messengers, without knowing any reason why they should; they, after coming to a right understanding with us, became very civil, would have lodged with us, and made us presents; but on our refusal, on account of the distance of the way, the chief person of the town, with the other principal in

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