with Wyckhamme. Physical courage he had plenty of, but of moral bravery he had nonę. The king looked fixedly at him-his limbs trembled—he caught hold of the oaken table for support, and gasped as if for breath. There was an awful pause. "Mercy! mercy!" faltered Wyckhamme. "I will confess!" "Traitor and coward!" shouted Father Francis, we are lost." His pale lip curled into a smile of triumph-then his face became livid and changed its expression-the eye glared-foam appeared at the mouth, and the monk, still wearing that grim smile of defiance and contempt, fell heavily forward on the floor. When they raised Father Francis he was dead. The monk knew the secret of many strong poisons. "Then thy accusation was false?" said the king. "Pardon, sire, it was; but the priest - the priest "Seize that priest," said the king, with a voice like a set me on-pardon," faltered the wretched Wycktrumpet. hamme, who had sunk in a quivering heap upon the ground. Father Francis made a quick motion of one of his hands towards his face, and then dashing aside with a convulsive effort the brawny arms laid upon him, he exclaimed "Away! I am beyond your reach." - "Take him away," said Henry-" to death! Huntley shall assume his rank; and now," he took Mabel's hand and placed it in that of her lover, "my faithful sentinel, receive thy bride." one whose spirit has been broken by misfortune, and Among those who have frequently got a penny or two at my counting-house, was an interesting boy about eight years of age. He could give little account of himself, except that his father was dead, and his mother was sick, almost always sick, and unable to work; and she had no one in the world but him, and all he could do was to beg for her. There was nothing to distinguish this squalid, ragged child from the common herd of young beggars, except that he did not whine or cry; he told his story with a certain frankness and manly confidence, that made one almost sure it was true. I gave him some small change whenever he called, and often wished it were in my power to rescue him from this vagrant life, almost certain to lead sooner or later to vice and infamy. But having nothing further in my power, I did not feel at liberty even to make stricter inquiry into the case. I did indeed mention the child to some of my more opulent and influen I AM in the position of a man who has fallen behind | fulness are open to the enterprising and hopeful; but to his age. I was reckoned to have some talent for business, as business was conducted in my young days, but I have never caught the go-ahead spirit of these times straining, pushing, jostling, manoeuvring, over-reaching -by which it has happened, that many who set out with me in the voyage of life, have far outstripped me, and perhaps as many more have foundered and sunk never to rise again. Thirty years ago, I was a committee man in most of the religious and benevolent societies of my native town; now, these societies are ten for one; and the same spirit that has changed the face of mercantile business, has found its way into the pursuits of charity, so that the modes of raising the wind for these purposes have seemed to me to become nearly as complicated and difficult, and removed from the simplicity of more Christian benevolence, as the methods of acquiring private wealth are from the simple rules of industry and frugality which I once believed sufficient and infallible. My business has become a very humble jog-trot affair; my name has disappeared from one committee after another; finally, an increasing family, with diminishing means, has forced me to withdraw even my subscriptions; and the only way in which the floodgates of benevolence have been kept open for some years, has been by giving an occasional penny to a certain set of mendicants, who statedly visit my little counting-house. I never argue with those who tell me it is wrong to relieve beggars;|tial neighbors, but they could see no way of benefiting I don't care to grapple with the general principle; him, except getting him into an orphan hospital, which it suffices for me that this humble and slender charity would have separated him from his mother, and this I gratifies the desire of alleviating human misery; it could not believe to be right. I durst not attempt keeps me in constant contact with those who are worse any plan the burden of which would probably fall upon off than myself, and prevents me from being wholly myself. I had to think of eight motherless little chilabsorbed in my own selfish sorrows; the sight of dren of my own, whom I was barely able to support, so much misery that I cannot relieve, makes me regret and whom my death might some day leave utterly desmy poverty more for the sake of others than for titute. So I continued just to give little George the myself, and leads me to bless the All-wise Disposer for usual dole of alms, encouraging him to hope that he what I have, instead of dwelling replningly on what I would soon be able to work for his mother; and advishave not. I rejoice that more auspicious paths of use-ing him meanwhile to avoid bad company, to refrain his hands from stealing, and to keep a sharp look-out for any honest way of earning a penny now and then, rather than begging one. One day a lady who kept a boarding-house told me that her inmates were in the habit of leaving bits of good meat and vegetables on their plates, besides crusts of bread and other matters, which could not be cooked up again, and yet were too good for the waste pail, and she asked if I knew any poor creature that would think it worth while to call for such scraps. I gratefully accepted the offer, and promised to send little George, while secretly I hoped and prayed that she might interest herself further, and that this might prove one step to his deliverance from mendicancy. A few days afterwards, George made his appearance at my office, but so metamorphosed, that at first I did not know him. He was so well dressed from head to foot, his face and hands perfectly clean, and his hair neatly cut and brushed—a remarkable pretty boy I now for the first time perceived him to be. 66 by my likeness to him; and he asked me about my mother and all, and went to see her. And, sir, he bought me all these clothes; and he washed me, and did my hair with his own hands, and still he looked me in the face and said, 'You're the image of your father, my boy, that's the way I knew you.' And, sir, he is to bring his car to-morrow, to take us home to live with him; and he says my mother will be quite well again when she is rightly taken care of; and he says he'll send me to school, and bring me up respectable. You would wonder, sir, how tender-hearted he is, to be a big, stout man; I thought nothing of my mother crying when they talked about my father; but it was queer to see my uncle crying, as if he had been nothing for all the world but a woman itself." Thus did the little fellow run on, nor did I care to interrupt him. To tell the truth, I was afraid that, if I spoke, I might betray such weakness as was, in George's estimation, "like nothing but a woman itself." A moment he paused, and seeming not to แ Why, child, what has happened to you?" I exclaim-understand my silence, he added, “ And, sir, I thought ed, as soon as I recognized him. "That's just what I came to tell you, sir, for I thought you would like to know. You see, sir, as I was walking easily along, last Wednesday, I saw a gentleman looking very hard at me. And then he came straight up, and he changed color, and asked me my name; and I told him it. And he said, 'Then I'm your uncle.' And, sir, he looked very white, and seemed as if he could scarcely get out the words; but he told me he was a well-to-do farmer in the country, and that he was a bachelor without a family, and that my father was his only brother, and that he knew me I might come and tell you, and bid you good-by; for, perhaps, if you had seen me not coming back, you might have thought I had taken to some bad ways against your advice. So I thought I had better come and tell you." Of course, I congratulated my little protégé on this happy turn in his destiny; I made him promise not to neglect going to a Sunday-school; and with some further words of advice, I parted with him, blessing Providence for one bright beam on my cheerless path, and fondly cherishing the hope that I might meet George again at some future stage of life's journey. A TALE. BY THE AUTHOR OF "WALTER MARCH; OR, SHOEPAC RECOLLECTIONS,' CHAPTER V.-Continued. BREAKING IN. NOTHING heeding, Philip reached his place, and was told off with a squad for drill. And now began a combination of physical with moral torture. They straightened his arms and stiffened his kneesthey twisted the palms of his hands around to the front-they pinned his little finger to the seams of his pants-distorted his eyes right and left-made a windmill of him-clamped his heels together-stuck out his toes to an unaccustomed angle-punched his belly up into his breast, till he swelled up like a frog-cocked his head back-bobbed in his chin for him-drew one hip! 64 AND FACA, AN ARMY MEMOER." up, drew the other hip down-and, finally, with the lower part of his waist as a pivot, they set him a-swinging to and fro, spinning this way and that, and gyrating, generally, till he fancied himself the pendulum of an eight-day clock, destined never to run down. Then came the newest hobby of the newest commandant of cadets-the balance step. Shades of Tristram Shandy! we shall not undertake to ride our reader upon every hobby-horse that galloped through the academy in the time of Smitth. But of all footings in the grand account of human experience, the balance step would come limping in at the last. To stand, with the eyes at such a distance to the front, the body with such an inclination to the rear, the fingers fixed, so, the head equally immovable, a heel planted towards South Barracks, its toe pointing towards the sutler shop; the whole frame, or human machine, spiked, as it were, through the heel and toe aforesaid into the ground, while the other foot promenades to and fro, halts, chassees, and plays round-like Bunsby's one eye fixed with the other rolling-this civil peruse (thank your civil stars) conveys some faint notion of the balance step. Then followed, in Master Philip's military career, the mysteries of change step, and the oblique step. The former may not be without its uses in the career of civil heroes, if he would keep pace with these shifting times. The latter wards India. Yet, truly, it is an unnecessary and torturesome step, and should be eschewed as well by soldiers as civilians. Philip has often told us, he considered it a sign of rust.* That was a brave sight on West Point plain (so carpeted with its crisp, green grass), to see the squads of youths dotted about here and here, marched hither and thither, wheeled, intermingled, folded and twisted, and straightened out at will by those smart youngsters strutting singly, and not too unconscious of their own importance either, in trim grey coats, with such bright bell buttons. The provoking ease of them, their cool airs of superiority, their haughty powers of reproof, their lordly dignity of approval, the cutting sarcasm, told afterwards in the cockloft as such a rare joke, though rankling long, long over in South Barracks' with heart-burning, and told with tears in a letter home; the quick, sharp, startling command, given perhaps to one never used to ungentle orders before; yes, a brave sight it all was, unquestionably, but the stings of some of those young tyrants in bright buttons and rattan canes, though silently endured, was not soon forgotten. Oh, the stings of tender boyhood! though blown to the winds, like nettles, manhood and the world remain filled with them. The drum beats recall from drill, and each young squad-marcher faces his squad towards South Barracks, where they are dismissed till supper time. Then, behind the corps of cadets, they are trampoosed over to the mess hall in a body. The poor plebes follow that easy martial array, on pins and needles. Philip's finger-joints ache beneath their nails, with constraint. His belly so bamboozled up into his breast, his hams extended, his knees stiffened and bolted, his heels trodden upon by some one in rear, still more awkward than he. Like convicts, they file in at the door. They take seats at the word of command. A squad-marcher presides in state over each table. And eyes are on, and around our friend; not tender eyes, but sharp, eager, mocking, mischievousthey seemed to Philip like so many barbed arrows. The amount of importance attached to trifles, was fast overwhelming Master Philip. How timidly he asked for that second cup of tea! "A plebe two cups of tea!" cried the squad-marcher. The cry was caught at another table, and echoed abroad, and "A plebe two It is a literal fact, that while in the dragoon drill this abominable step is abolished, it continues to stain our infantry tactics. cups of tea!" sounded above the chattering of voices, and the rattle of knives and forks. The plebe's impudence must be corrected; he shall have no sugar nor milk this time. Phil sent his cup back to the squad-marcher. "A plebe who wants sugar and milk, must put his spoon in his saucer," said the squad-marcher, authoritatively. Admonished thus publicly of his manners, our friend crimsoned to the ears for shame, but said nothing. It was with great relief, Phil heard the order given by the captain of the plebes: his whole day's cheer. However, it is a traditionary | There was to be no lying down to rest their weary fact, that a plebe soon comes to his appetite, and devours his "bull beef," and "hash," with great relish. The sunset and twilight hours were spent in such recreation as new cadets might find, while yet ignorant of "the ropes "—though not of the ropings, as we may see in due time. Call to quarters found our three roommates together again, in their seven by nine. One of the young gentlemen complained of the toothache. He asked Philip to find out Mayberry-he lived in North Barracks-was a fellow statesman; and ask Mayberry to send Redesdale a pipe, in which he proposed to smoke some pepper as an anodyne. Phil went. At the door of North Barracks, he found a group of cadets, one of whom was a tall, slashing fellow, begirt with a huge cavalry sabre. "Can you tell me, sir," inquired Phil, of the tall knight," what room Mr. Mayberry lives in ?" "What do you want to know for, plebe?" "To get a pipe for Redesdale." "A pipe!" echoed the tall knight, looming up like a giant in the thickening twilight. "Contrary to regulations, plebe." Phil did not feel conscious of any crime. limbs, before tattoo. Like the unused traveller of the West, undergoing the operation of a Turkish bath, their limbs had been twisted and tortured till every joint cracked again; but unlike the traveller, there remained not the repose and golden vision to follow. Even when taps brought the hour of retirement, the plebe's rest was not particularly enhanced by his blanket on the floor, and such shapes as his imagination bodied forth over the approaching examination. * As yet the young men, notwithstanding their warrants, signed at Washington, were probationers, not Cadets; but, as their mischievous seniors often reminded them, mere "things," or as the lawyers would say, choses in action. But the ordeal towards which their wistful eyes were fixed, was paved beforehand by daily lessons and recitations, held by the chief scholars of the preceding class-fellows who are just molting their own plebe feathers. Philip and his room-mates were yawning over the morrow's lesson, when Redesdale pushed away slate and pencil, and drew from his trunk a little volume of poems, "the gift," said he, "of one of my sisters,” and there were, between the leaves, to attest the fact, a book marker daintily embroidered. Philip's eyes were de "I did not know that. I asked you a civil question, lighted. Rude as were his conceptions of art, he knew sir." very well that Nan could never do anything equal to that. "Do you, sir, know to whom you are talking? I am officer of the guard, sir. Go to your quarters under arrest!" Abashed and yet indignant, our hero returned to his room, scarcely knowing how he got there; his heart so oppressed and bewildered. In-doors he conscientiously remained, not dreaming what might be his fate-but afraid to venture out again, for fear, of violating his arrest; a dim, confused, sublime sense of honor already dawned upon him. In an hour or so, came a young gentleman in grey, tapping at the door quite ceremoniously. He had a musket and belts, and announced himself as corporal of the guard. With a compassion, that might have been touching were it not simply ludicrous, this gentleman released our friend from arrest. He then addressed to him a little fatherly advice on the regulations, and the deference due officers of the guard and other old cadets, and astonished the room by winding up with a grand flourish of-pipes! After all, he had come with pipes for Redesdale, to smoke away his toothache. Then he made them a grandiloquent speech, in which patriotism and pipes, chivalry and the regulations, officers of the guard and tobacco, were tossed about in a jumble, and left, then, with a formal bow. It was Redesdale's friend, Mayberry. for admission were plunged in Davies' Arithmetic. advantage. |