MORAL. If we apply this fable to men of the present age, we shall perceive a very just similitude. By these three days the fable denotes the three ages of man:-First, youth, in which we are too feeble in every respect to look into the works of the Creator-all that season is given up to idleness, luxury, and pastime :-Secondly, manhood, in which men are employed in settling, marrying, educating children, providing fortunes for them, and raising a family:-Thirdly, old age, in which, after having made their fortunes, they are overwhelmed with law-suits, and proceedings relating to their estates. Thus it frequently happens, that men never consider to what end they were designed, and why they were brought into the world. Original Poetry. ELLEN.. Here,-lay me here'-fair Ellen sigh'd, Tell William that his Ellen died Tell William, that my dying gaze My dying thoughts were on those days Where he was wreck'd in fearful storm- The lovely maiden ceas'd, and sighed, It near'd the shore-the boat was fill'd The eager youth his Ellen saw, I'LL WEEP FOR THEE NO MORE. I'll weep for thee no more, For thou sleepest calm and soft 'Neath the wild flowers which have sunk before My burning tears so oft. And why should wailings flow For the happy and care-free, Who have burst the bonds of life and woe, My buried love, like thee? They shall flow for thee no more— Those streams of selfish tears- I'll weep for thee no more— Then wherefore should I weep, Since thou'rt for ever blest? JEALOUSY, Like an o'erflowing river floods its banks, And scatters desolation o'er the land. PRINTED AND published BY J. DUNCOMBE, 19 LITTLE queen strEET HOLBORN: Where all Communications (post-paid) for the Editor, are requested to be addressed; also by Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper, Paternoster-row; Mac Phun, Glasgow, Sutherland, Edinburgh; and of all other Booksellers and Newsmen. OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION, IN History, Science, Literature, the Fine Arts, &c. Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes.- -RICHARD III. IT was evening, towards the latter end of autumn, when the warmth of the midday sun reminds us of the summer just gone, and the coolness of the evening assures us that winter is fast approaching; that I was proceeding homewards on horseback, and fortified by a strong great coat against the weather without, and refreshed with a glass of eau-de-vie, that I might feel equally secure within. My road lay for some time along an extensive plain, at the extremity of which there rose a small and thickly overspreading wood, which the road skirted for some distance; and, on a slight eminence, at an angle where the last No. 111.-N. S. rays of the setting sun threw their gleam across the path, were suspended the remains of a malefactor in chains. They had been hanging there at least ten years; the whole of the flesh was consumed; and here and there, where the coarse dark cloth in which the figure had been wrapped had decayed, the bones, bleached by the weather, protruded. I confess I am rather superstitious, and certainly did push on, in order that, if possible, I might pass the place before the sun should have set; to accomplish which, I put my horse upon a fast trot, which I afterwards increased into a hand-gallop. The sun, however, had set, and the twilight was fast changing into darkness as I rode up. I could not keep my eyes off the spot, for the figure swung slowly backwards and forwards, accompanied by the low harsh creaking of the irons, as it moved to the breeze. What with exertion, and I may add fear, or something very like it, the perspiration fell in large drops from my forehead, and nearly blinded me, so that I could not refrain from imagining that the white bony arm (hand it had none) of the figure, relieved against the dark wood behind, was beckoning to me, as it waved in the wind. On pass iug it, I put my horse to full speed, and did not once check his pace, or look around, until I had left the German Gibbet (for so it was called) a good mile behind. It was now a fine clear moonlight night, and I had not gone far when I heard the sound of horses feet at a little distance behind, and about the same time began to feel myself unusually cold. I buttoned up my coat, but that did not make any difference; I took a large comforter from my pocket, and put it round my neck. I felt still colder and urging my horse forward, I hoped that exercise would warm me; but no, I was still cold. However fast I galloped, I still heard the sound of horses feet behind, at apparently just the same distance, and though I looked around me several times, I could not see a living soul! The sound got faster and faster, nearer and nearer, till at last a small grey pony trotted up, on which sat a tall thin melancholy looking man, with a long pointed nose, and dull heavy eyelids, which hung so low, that at first he appeared to be asleep. His countenance, which was extremely pale and cadaverous, was overshadowed by a quantity of long thin white hair, which hung down to his shoulders. He was dressed in a thin white jacket, which he wore open, white fustian trowsers, a white hat, his shirt collar open, and no cravat round his neck. We rode for some time side by side, the stranger never once turning round, or lifting up his eyes to look at me; I could not help regarding him intently, until my eyes ached with the cold. I was obliged every now and then to let go the reins to blow my fingers, which I thought would drop off; and, on touching my horse, I found he was as cold as myself! Yet the stranger looked not the least affected by it, for his cloak remained strapped to the saddle behind him, and, indeed, his jacket was flying open, and his shirt-collar unbuttoned as before. This looked very strange! there was something mysterious about him: so I resolved to be quit of him as soon as possible-but the faster I rode the faster rode he; and though my horse appeared as powerful again as the one on which he was riding, yet I found that when it came to the push, his pony could have passed me easily. But that was not his intention-for when I slackened my pace, he slackened — and on my pulling up, he pulled up also: still he never looked at me and there we remained, side by side, and nearly frozen to death with the cold. 6 Every thing around us was perfectly quiet-and I felt this silence becoming quite appalling; at length I exclaimed, Sir! you seem determined we shall not part company, however it may be the wish of one of us.' The stranger, after making a slight inclination of his head, expressed, in the most gentlemanly manner, his sorrow that it should be thought he had intruded himself upon me, and his earnest desire that we might proceed together (seeing that our course was the same) on better terms. This was said with so much politeness, that I really could not refuse: being moreover convinced, that if I had, it was totally out of my power to enforce my refusal-so we trotted on together. The stranger immediately began talking most fluently, but continually shifted the subject, and at length coming to a full stop, he suddenly asked me what was my opinion of all this? I, who had been dreadfully afflicted by the cold, so as to have been disabled from giving any attention, felt quite at a loss what to say-at length, as well as I was able, (for my teeth chattered so much I could scarcely speak plain) I stammered out, whether he did not think it was very cold?' Immediately his dull eyes lighted up, and I shall never forget their fiery and unnatural light, as, turning suddenly round, he stared me full in the face, saying, in the most joyous, mild, and melodious tone of voice, Perhaps you will accept of my cloak?' and adding, with peculiar emphasis, he was sure I should be warm enough then,' instantly began to unstrap it from behind him. In vain I declared I could not think of accepting it, especially as he was more thinly clad than myself: he began to inform me, with the same peculiar expression, that he never felt cold' and that he would be most happy if I would do him the honour to put it on. I kept refusing, and he persisting, till at last he became so importunate, that I rudely pushed it from me, saying, 'that I would not accept of it.' O! if you could have seen the change in his manner and appearance!-instead of the mild placid look he had hitherto worn, his face was contracted by the strongest feelings of rage and disappointment ;-- his eyes flashed fire from his heavy knit brows-his mouth was curled with a kind of Sardonic grin-and, hastily adjusting the cloak about him, he said with the most sinister expression, Perhaps I would do him the honour another time?' Then dashing the spurs into his beast, he was out of sight in a moment. I felt much relieved by his departure: he was no sooner gone, than I got by degrees warmer and warmer; even my horse appeared to feel a difference, for he pranced and neighed as if freed from some restraint, and in a very little time was as warm as myself. I began to think there was something--there was really something horridly unnatural about the stranger; his hollow voice, pale complexion, and heavy eye-above all, the strange coldness that came over me! I felt rejoiced that I was thus rid of him; and that I had not accepted his offer of the cloak; (as then, in all probability, we should not have parted so soon) and now, so little did I need it, that I was compelled to unbutton my coat, and take my thick lambs'-wool comforter from my neck. Who could the stranger be? I remembered to have heard, that the German who was hung in chains, and whose gibbet I had passed, had suffered the sentence of the law, for having burnt a house, and murdered, in the most cruel and shocking manuer, a person, whom he strangled with his cloak. Now, it was also currently reported, (but only believed by the idle and superstitious) that this man did not then die:-for it was said, that the devil, whom, after his condemnation, he had sold himself, had, while he was suspended, in some way or other, supported him- and had afterwards fed him on the gibbet, in the form of a raven, until the fastenings decayed, so that he could release himself, when he substituted the body of a person whom he murdered for the purpose. There were many persons now alive who had sworn to having seen the raven there, morning, noon, and to have heard its croaking even at midnight. Many accounted for this, by saying it came there to feed on the body; but one of the villagers, who was known to be a stout fellow, having occasion to go by the gibbet one twilight, declared that he heard the man talking with the raven, but in a language he could not understand; that at first he supposed he was deceived by his own fancy, or the creaking of the iron fastenings, but on approaching nearer, he distinctly saw the eyes of the man looking intently at him; and he verily believed had he stopped he would have spoken to him, but that he was so alarmed he took to his heels, and never once looked behind or stopped to take breath, until he reached the end of the plain, a distance of above five miles. And it was further said, the German, when released from the gibbet, was obliged, in fulfilment of his vow, to do the devil's will on earth-that he was most dreadfully pale, owing to the blood never having flowed into his face since his strangulation, for the devil, it is said, had only just kept his wordthat the German, as he was called, had since often been seen riding up and down the road, and that he entered very freely into conversation, and endeavoured to entrap the unwary, to put them in the power of his master. Could it be possible that this was the German ?-Tut! an idle thought; and yet I remember, there was something foreign in his accent; then the paleness of his face, the strange circumstances that accompanied his presence- the pressing and extraordinary manner in which he offered his cloak, which might have been some device to get me within his power,-the extreme cold with which I was afflicted,the ominous beckoning, too, of the figure on the gibbet; each circumstance came forcibly before me ;and were he the German or not, I more than ever rejoiced that I had thus easily got rid of him. I now rode briskly on to a small inn, that was situated about halfway between the commencement and end of my journey, and arrived there about half-past eight o'clock. On alighting, the host, a fat, jolly fellow, with a perpetual smile on his face, came out and welcomed me. Shew me into a private room,' said I, and bring me some refreshment.' The landlord replied he was very sorry his only room was at present occupied by a gentleman who had been there about ten minutes, but he was sure he would have no objection to my company. He departed to obtain his permission, and returned with the gentleman's compliments, and that he would be most happy in my company. So I followed mine host to the room; but what was my confusion, when, on opening the door, I discovered seated the mysterious strauger, whose presence had before caused me such annoyance! A sort of chillness instantly came over me, and I would have retired, when the stranger got up, and bowing politely, said, 'he was exceedingly happy to accede to my request of allowing me to occupy the same room,' and at the same time handed me a chair. It was impossible for me now to refuse; so, thanking him for his offer, I seated myself, and, as I before said, being rather chilly, asked him if he had any objection to a fire? I immediately perceived a strong alteration in his features, but it was only momentary. (To be concluded in our next.) |