prodigy, has read various books of science, is well acquainted with history and music, and is so versed in geography, for which he has a particular turn, that he has lately, without any assistance, made a map of Venice for Mrs. Lemaistre, which I mean to keep as a curiosity.

"I begged him yesterday to tell me how I should return to England without touching on the Hanoverian, French, or Dutch territories, and he instantly traced on the globe the only remaining road. He sits on a carpet, surrounded with his books; and when the gravest and most acute remarks fall from the lips of this little person, a spirit seems to speak rather than a child, and the fine expression which sparkles in his countenance tends to increase the idea.

"Among other singularities, he has taught himself to write; but as his models were printed books, he prints his letters, and begins from the right hand instead of the left. He was born at Vienna; but having been attended from his earliest infancy by a nurse from Aberdeen, he usually speaks English, or rather Scotch, his accent being completely northern. He also understands the German and French languages, the latter of which he acquired with inconceivable facility. He is a phenomenon; and should he live and continue to make equal progress in knowledge, he will rival the fame of Sir Isaac Newton.'

Captain Hall thus proceeds :

'He did live for some years afterwards—indeed, till the age of nineteen-and made astonishing progress in knowledge, especially in mathematics; so much so as to excite the admiration of his learned connexion, Dugald Stewart, into whose hands some of the boy's papers had been sent by his mother after her son's death. Mr. Stewart writes in the following terms:

""I can no longer delay expressing to you my admiration of the truly astonishing powers displayed in these manuscripts. I have certainly never seen anything which, at so early an age, afforded so splendid a promise of mathematical genius; and yet I am not sure if they convey to me a higher idea of the young writer's philosophical turn of thinking than some of his speculations, which have been several years in my possession, on the metaphysical principles of the modern calcul.

"When I combine all this," continues the learned Professor, " with the specimens of poetical talent which I have seen from the same hand, and with what I have learned, through various channels, of his many other accomplishments-above all, when I reflect on the few and short intervals of health he enjoyed during his little span of life-I cannot help considering him as the most extraordinary prodigy of intellectual endowments that has ever fallen under my knowledge.

"If I were addressing any one else," concludes the Countess's affectionate brother-in-law, "I would say much more. But how can I dwell longer on this subject in writing to the mother--and such a mother! of such a son!"-pp. 137-141.

In affectionate commemoration of this extraordinary youth and of his father (whom he survived but six years), the Countess had caused a work to be printed in German, with the metaphorical

title of Denkmahl,' or Monument;' and by their side, in the ancient family vault of the Purgstalls, it was now her supreme anxiety that her body might repose; and we are convinced, strange as it may seem, that, anticipating from the bigotry of the neighbouring priests some posthumous, or rather post mortem difficulties in the accomplishing this latter object, she had, early in her acquaintance with Captain Hall, fixed upon him as a person who, if she could persuade him to remain with her to her death, would take care to see her wishes executed. This idea we suspect to have been the principal motive of all the good lady's conduct to her English guests, and she seems to have pursued the object with great art and perseverance, and perhaps we might add, no small degree of selfishness :

On returning through the lower range of Riegersburg [the ancient feudal castle of the Purgstalls, now a ruin], where a picturesque little village has been built under the shadow of the fort, we took a look, by the Countess's desire, at the church, within which she told us she had erected a chapel. As she had never changed from the Protestantism in which she was brought up at Edinburgh, and had acquired anything but love or respect for the Catholicism of Austria, this proceeding appeared very odd. We examined the chapel, however, which was done up with the simple taste that characterised everything she undertook. In the centre she had placed a neat, though rather showy altar; and on one side a handsome granite monument to her husband and son. Over all blazed a glorious Saint Wenceslaus, the patron of the Purgstall family, not quite in keeping with the quiet elegance of the rest; and the whole affair puzzled us not a little.

'These anomalies were explained by the Countess on our return to Hainfeld. She asked us little or nothing about the decaying grandeur of the ancient seat of her family in their prosperous days; and as it had passed from her hands to those of people who neglected it, and cared for none of its renowned associations, we refrained from alluding to it. But she was eloquent on the subject of the chapel, where, in fact, owing to the peculiar cast of her temperament, nearly all her interests lay buried with her husband and son: and we soon found that her sole wish on earth, or at least the wish which was always uppermost in her mind, was to be laid beside them. As difficulties might arise, however, on the score of her being a Protestant, or from the castle being no longer in the possession of her family, she thought it prudent to take every precaution beforehand to insure the grand object of her anxiety. The priests accordingly were propitiated by this magnificent embellishment of the church; and the congregation felt themselves obliged to the Countess for placing before their wondering eyes a picture done in Vienna, and so much beyond their provincial conceptions of the power of art. It was generally understood also, that the Countess had left in her will certain sums of money to be distributed to the poor after her body should be quietly interred in the family vault of the Purgstalls; and the clergy of the spot had an idea, whether true or not, that in the same event, the poor in spirit were not forgotten in her ladyship's will. 'All

All these things she told us, not only with the utmost unconcern as to her death, but I may say with that sort of lively interest with which a person speaks of an agreeable visit to be made in the spring of the ensuing year. It was difficult at first to know exactly how to take all this-whether to be grave or gay-since it did not seem quite civil to be discussing, as a pleasant affair and in her presence, the details of our worthy hostess's funeral. So I thought it best merely to ask her whether, as in England, there might not be some difficulty as to interment in a vault within the church except in a leaden coffin. I suggested to her, that as in Austria people are buried very quickly after their death, there might be no time, especially in a remote country place, to make the requisite preparations.

"" And do you think," retorted the old lady, with a curious sort of smile," do you think I was going to risk the success of the prime object of my thoughts upon such a contingency as that? No! no! you shall see," and ringing the bell, she summoned Joseph.

""Get the keys," she exclaimed," and show Captain Hall my coffin." And turning to us, she added, "When you see it, I think you will admit that it is not likely to be refused admittance to the church on the score of want of strength, or, for that matter, for want of beauty."

'I confess I was not a little curious to discover how either strength or beauty could be given to a leaden coffin; I found, however, it was not made of lead but of iron, and so tastefully contrived, that it looked more like one of those ornamental pieces of sculpture which surmount some of the old monuments in Westminster Abbey, than a coffin intended for real use. Having removed three huge fantastically-shaped padlocks, we folded back the lid, and I was surprised to see two large bundles, neatly sewed up in white linen, lying in the coffin, one at each end. On stooping down and touching them, I discovered they were papers, and could read, in the Countess's handwriting, the following words-" Our Letters.-J. A. Purgstall."-pp. 156-60.

But the time now approached when Captain Hall—who had no kind of idea of taking a lease, as it were, for the lady's life, of his apartments in Schloss Hainfeld-thought his visit had lasted long enough.

We made our arrangements accordingly for setting off on the 10th of November, thinking that a visit of nearly six weeks, with such a party as ours, was quite as long as we could decently propose to make. But in this estimate we reckoned without our hostess; for when, on the first of the month, I ventured to mention the subject to her, and said, that in ten days or so, we meant to set off for Vienna, I thought the good old lady would have expired on the spot. Indeed, so earnest were her entreaties for us to stay, and so touching the appeals which she made to us not so soon to desert her, just as she was becoming acquainted with ourselves and the children, that, having really no particular motive for going away, we agreed to remain a little longer.

After a good deal of deliberation, therefore, we finally compromised matters by naming the 1st of December as the day of our departure, instead of the 10th of November.'-pp. 111-113.

But

But even this extension was evidently so little satisfactory to the Countess, that Captain Hall seems to have been afraid to announce it in person, and therefore did so by a note, to which the Countess made an amicable but by no means assentient reply; and the result was, that-after a series of notices to quit on the part of Captain Hall, and of entreaties, devices, stratagems, and even convulsions on that of the Countess to retain him-the spring found Captain Hall still a kind of semi-captive in the enchanted castle of the old fairy. In the beginning of March she had an attack of illness, which oppressed her at night though it left no traces by day. At this time Captain Hall ventured on

one occasion

'to say that I wondered to hear her talking of death, when, to all appearance, she seemed as well as we had ever seen her. "I think," said she, "I must be allowed to be the best judge of my own condition. And under the conviction," she continued, "that I shall speedily depart, I have written a few lines to you on a subject which hangs heavily on my mind. Take it to your room, read it, and think upon its contents, and afterwards we can talk the matter over."

I was astonished to find that she had strength to write at all; but the handwriting, though a little tremulous, was quite distinct. The note was as follows:

6.66

'My dear Sir,-There is a circumstance that will require all your skill to rectify, if you have the kindness, as I trust in God you will have, to place my poor shattered head in the grave, where it can alone find repose.

6.66

Advantage was taken of the absence of the family to place the bodies of strangers in our vault-(I say our, for it is personal property). The bailiff, out of negligence, or still worse motive, did not cause so much as one of them to be removed. Think of my anguish when, at the last awful funeral,* I saw no place was left for my coffin! I am assured that a family now extinct had a vault opposite to ours. Now, I conjure you, let a coffin be removed to the place where it ought to be, and let us three be, as we were, and I trust shall be eternally, mingling our ashes together.

"Do not spare money; all will be repaid to you. It will take a day, I believe, to arrange this business. I do not think you will understand what I write; but I shall try to explain the thing to you. I am sure Heaven will bless dear Mrs. Hall, and your darlings, and you, for all your respectable goodness to me."'-pp. 293-295.

Captain Hall confesses-with a candour of which few men would be capable-that he began to wish for his liberation, even at the only price at which it seemed possible to obtain

it:

I took the earliest opportunity of her being visible to assure her that all that was requisite should be done; but I again said I could not see

*That of her son in 1817.

any

any reason for her thinking of such matters just now. shook her head, and said, "You'll see-you'll see."

She only smiled,

'It may seem a little shocking, but scarcely can be thought strange, that we should have felt a hope at that moment that the good old lady's words would come true. Yet there surely was nothing but the truest friendship in the wish. She was all alone in the world, helpless and hopeless. In mind, so far as this life offered relief, she was without consolation; while her body was torn by almost constant racking pains, not only without a shadow of any expectation of amendment, but with the daily experience of things becoming less and less tolerable. It was clear, then, that whenever we went from her-as go from her it was evident we must, sooner or later-the poor Countess would once more be left without a friend to close her eyes-altogether adrift and deserted, like a dismasted wreck on the dismal ocean of life. Under such a painful combination of circumstances, it was surely not uncharitable to wish that the awful moment should come to pass before our other and more imperative duties should carry us far from her bed-side, and beyond the possibility of rendering her any assistance.'-pp. 295, 296.

But this indisposition passed away, and the end of the drama by the usual tragical dénouement seemed as distant as ever, for, on the 14th March, the Countess was as well as, according to the report of the people about her, she had been for many years. On that day, however, just as Captain Hall was forming a fresh project of escape, the old lady brought matters to an issue by a direct entreaty that he would engage to stay at Hainfeld till she should die: -

'The request to stay by her-(who, for aught we saw or heard from her doctor and her attendants, might live for years)-till she died, was a little startling; for if such an engagement were entered into, it was impossible to say how it could be fulfilled, without much more serious inconvenience than it was either our desire or our duty to incur. As the Countess spoke in a cheerful and almost playful tone, I replied in the same tone "Pray, ma'am, when do you mean to die, for something will depend upon that?" The old lady laughed at my taking the matter up in this way, and exclaimed, "You are quite right, you cannot be expected to stay here for an indefinite period; and you would be as wrong to promise it, as I should be unreasonable to exact it. But," added she, in a more serious tone, and after pausing a minute or two, "I shall not keep you long. You know well how fatal to my happiness this period of the year has often proved. The 22nd of March is the most unfortunate day in my life. My husband expired on that day, four-and-twenty years ago, and on that day I think I may safely say to you that I shall die!”

'I looked, of course, not a little surprised. I cannot say I was shocked; for I could scarcely believe the Countess in earnest. Before I could muster any words to express what was proper on the occasion, she went on

"Oblige me by staying over the equinox. It will come in a few days. Will you promise me that?" Surely,"