nets about Venuses and Cupids, love-sick shepherds, and cruel nymphs? And was there no poetry, true idyllic poetry, as of Longfellow's "Evangeline" itself, in that thought? Did not the glowing sunset, and the reed-beds which it transfigured before him into sheets of golden flame, seem tokens that the glory of God was going before him in his path? Did not the sweet clamour of the wild-trip round the old farm next morning; when fowl, gathering for one rich pæan ere they sank into rest, seem to him as God's bells chiming him home in triumph, with peals sweeter and bolder than those of Lincoln or Peterborough steeple-house? Did not the very lapwing, as she tumbled softly wailing before his path, as she did years ago, seem to welcome the wanderer home in the name of Heaven? Fair Patience, too, though she was a Puritan, yet did not her cheek flush, her eye grow dim, like any other girl's, as she saw far off the redcoat, like a sliding spark of fire, coming slowly along the strait fen-bank, and fled upstairs into her chamber to pray, half that it might be, half that it might not be he? Was there no happy storm of human tears and human laughter when he entered the courtyard gate? Did not the old dog lick his Puritan hand as lovingly as if it had been a Cavalier's? Did not lads and lasses run out shouting? Did not the old yeoman father hug him, weep over him, hold him at arm's length, and hug him again as heartily as any other John Bull, even though the next moment he called all to kneel down and thank Him who had sent his boy home again, after bestowing on him the grace to bind kings in chains and nobles with links of iron, and contend to death for the faith delivered to the saints? And did not Zeal-forTruth look about as wistfully for Patience as any other man would have done, longing to see her, yet not daring even to ask for her? And when she came down at last, was she the less lovely in his eyes because she came, not flaunting with bare bosom, in tawdry finery and paint, but shrouded close in coif and pinner, hiding from all the world beauty which was there still, but was meant for one alone, and that only if God willed, in God's good time? And was there no faltering of their voices, no light in their eyes, no trembling pressure of their hands, which said more, and was more, ay, and more beautiful in the sight of Him who made them, than all Herrick's Dianemes, Waller's Saccharissas, flames, darts, posies, love-knots, anagrams, and the rest of the insincere cant of the court? What if Zeal-forTruth had never strung two rhymes together in his life? Did not his heart go for inspiration to a loftier Helicon, when it whispered to itself, "My love, my dove, my undefiled, is but one," than if he had filled pages with son Zeal-for-Truth, after looking over every heifer, and peeping into every sty, would needs canter down by his father's side to the horse-fen, with his arm in a sling; while the partridges whirred up before them, and the lurchers flashed like gray snakes after the hare, and the colts came whinnying round, with staring eyes and streaming manes, and the two chatted on in the same sober business-like English tone, alternately of The Lord's great dealings" by General Cromwell, the pride of all honest fermen, and the price of troop-horses at the next Horncastle fair? Poetry in those old Puritans? Why not? They were men of like passions with ourselves They loved, they married, they brought up children; they feared, they sinned, they sorrowed, they fought-they conquered. There was poetry enough in them, be sure, though they acted it like men, instead of singing it like birds. - -Miscellanies. THERE'S MAGIC IN THAT LITTLE BY REV. J. M'GEORGE. Its simple liquid melody And make grief's phantoms fly. But sing that little song. When fortune hides her fickle face, When sunshine friends turn cold away, I will not curse my lot, if thou There's magic in that little song; It soothes each stormy passion down,— I am a child again when thou GRAVE DOINGS. [Samuel Warren, D.C.L., Q.C., born in Denbigh shire, 1807. Educated at the Edinburgh University, at first with a view to the medical profession, but subsequently entered the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1837. He became Recorder of Hull, 1852, and M.P. for Midhurst in 1856, re-elected in the following year, and resigned his seat in 1859, upon being appointed one of the two Masters in Lunacy. He has published a number of legal works, and contributed many miscellaneous articles to Blackwood's Magazine. His principal works in fiction are: The Diary of a Late Physician (from which we quote); Ten Thousand a Year; Now and Then; and The Lily and the Bee, an apologue of the Crystal Palace in unrhymed verse. Sir Archibald Alison, in his History of Europe, says: "Mr. Warren has taken a lasting place among the imaginative writers."] My gentle reader-start not at learning that I have been, in my time, a RESURRECTIONIST. Let not this appalling word, this humiliating confession, conjure up in your fancy a throng of vampire-like images and associations, or earn your "Physician's" dismissal from your hearts and hearths. It is your own groundless fears, my fair trembler!—your own superstitious prejudices—that have driven me, and will drive many others of my brethren, to such dreadful doings as those hereafter detailed. Come, come-let us have one word of reason between us on the abstract questionand then for my tale. You expect us to cure you of disease, and yet deny us the only means of learning how! You would have us bring you the ore of skill and experience, yet forbid us to break the soil or sink a shaft! Is this fair, fair reader? Is this reasonable? and soon as her friends were apprised of her situ- "Well-we'll troy that, measter," replied the elder, while his Herculean fist oscillated somewhat significantly before my eyes. The poor girl was removed accordingly to her father's house, which was at a certain village about five miles from London, and survived her arrival scarcely ten minutes! We soon contrived to receive intelligence of the event; and as I and Sir's two dressers had taken great interest in the case throughout, and felt intense curiosity about the real nature of the disease, we met together and entered into a solemn compact, that, come what might, we would have her body out of the ground. A trusty spy informed us of the time and exact place of the girl's burial; and on expressing to Sir —— our determination about the matter, he patted me on the back, saying, “Ah, my fine fellow-IF you have SPIRIT enough— dangerous," &c. &c. Was it not skilfully said? The baronet further told us, he felt himself so curious about the matter that if fifty pounds would be of use to us in furthering our purpose, they were at our service. It needed not this, nor a glance at the éclat with which the successful issue of the affair would be attended among our fellow-students, to spur our resolves. The notable scheme was finally adjusted at my rooms in the Borough. M- and ESir's dressers, and myself, with an ex What I am now going to describe was my first and last exploit in the way of body-stealing. It was a grotesque if not a ludicrous scene, and occurred during the period of my "walking the hospitals," as it is called, which occupied the two seasons immediately after my leaving Cambridge. A young and rather interesting female was admitted a patient at the hospital I attended; her case baffled all our skill, and her symptoms even defied diag-perienced "grab"-that is to say, a pronosis. Now, it seemed an enlargement of the heart-now, an ossification-then this, that, and the other; and at last it was plain we knew nothing at all about the matter-no, not even whether her disorder was organic or functional, primary or symptomatic or whether it was really the heart that was at fault. She received no benefit at all under the fluctuating schemes of treatment we pursued, and at length fell into dying circumstances. As fessional resurrectionist-were to set off from the Borough about nine o'clock the next evening-which would be the third day after the burial-in a glass coach provided with all "appliances and means to boot." During the day, however, our friend the grab suffered so severely from an overnight's excess as to disappoint us of his invaluable assistance. This unexpected contretemps nearly put an end to our project; for the few other grabs we knew mony with us. And then the manual difficulties! E was the only one of us that had ever assisted at the exhumation of a body and the rest of us were likely to prove but bungling workmen. However, we had gone too far to think of retreating. We none of us spoke our suspicions, but the silence that reigned within the coach was tolerably signi ficant. In contemplation, however, of some were absent on professional tours! Luckily, however, I bethought me of a poor Irish porter a sort of "ne'er-do-weel" hanger-on at the hospital-whom I had several times hired to go on errands. This man I sent for to my rooms, and, in the presence of my two coadjutors, persuaded, threatened, and bothered into acquiescence, promising him half-a-guinea for his evening's work-and as much whisky as he could drink prudently. such contingency, we had put a bottle of As Mr. Tip-that was the name he went by--brandy in the coach pocket; and before we had some personal acquaintance with the sick drew up, had all four of us drunk pretty grab, he succeeded in borrowing his chief deeply of it. At length the coach turned tools; with which, in a sack large enough to down a by-lane to the left, which led directly contain our expected prize, he repaired to my to the churchyard wall; and after moving a rooms about nine o'clock, while the coach was few steps down it, in order to shelter our standing at the door. Our Jehu had received vehicle from the observation of highway pasa quiet douceur in addition to the hire of him-sengers, the coach stopped, and the driver self and coach. As soon as we had exhibited | opened the door. sundry doses of Irish cordial to our friend Tip -under the effects of which he became quite "bouncible," and ranted about the feat he was to take a prominent part in-and equipped ourselves in our worst clothes, and white topcoats, we entered the vehicle-four in number -and drove off. The weather had been exceedingly capricious all the evening-moonlight, rain, thunder, and lightning, fitfully alternating. The only thing we were anxious about was the darkness, to shield us from all possible observation. I must own that, in analyzing the feelings that prompted me to undertake and go through with this affair, the mere love of adventure operated quite as powerfully as the wish to benefit the cause of anatomical science. A midnight expedition to the tombs!-It took our fancy amazingly; and then Sir's cunning hint about the "danger"-and our "spirit!" The garrulous Tip supplied us with amusement all the way down-rattle, rattle, rattle, incessantly; but as soon as we had arrived at that part of the road where we were to stop, and caught sight of - church, with its hoary steeple glistening in the fading moonlight, as though it were standing sentinel over the graves around it, one of which we were going so rudely to violate-Tip's spirits began to falter a little. He said little-and that at intervals. To be very candid with the reader, none of us felt over much at our ease. expedition began to wear a somewhat hairbrained aspect, and to be environed with formidable contingencies which we had not taken sufficiently into our calculations. What, for instance, if the two stout fellows, the brothers, should be out watching their sister's grave? They were not likely to stand on much cere Our 1 1 "Come, Tip," said I, "out with you." "Get out, did you say, sir? To be sure I will-Och! to be sure I will." But there was small show of alacrity in his movements as he descended the steps; for, while I was speaking I was interrupted by the solemn clangour of the church clock announcing the hour of midnight. The sounds seemed to warn us against what we were going to do. "Tis a cowld night, yer honours," said Tip, in an under tone, as we successively alighted, and stood together, looking up and down the dark lane, to see if anything was stirring but ourselves. "Tis a cowld night-and-andand," he stammered. "Why, you cowardly old scoundrel," grumbled M, "are you frightened already? What's the matter, eh? Hoist up the bag on your shoulders directly, and lead the way down the lane." "Och, but yer honours-och! by the mother that bore me, but 'tis a murtherous cruel thing, I'm thinking, to wake the poor cratur from her last sleep." He said this so querulously, that I began to entertain serious apprehensions, after all, of his defection; so I insisted on his taking a little more brandy, by way of bringing him up to par. It was of no use, however. His reluctance increased every moment-and it even dispirited us. I verily believe the turning of a straw would have decided us all on jumping into the coach again, and returning home without accomplishing our errand Too many of the students, however, were ap prised of our expedition, for us to think of terminating it so ridiculously. As it were by mutual consent, we stood and paused a few moments, about half-way down the lane. M whistled with infinite spirit and dis tinctness; E remarked to me that he always thought a churchyard at midnight was the gloomiest object imaginable;" and I talked about business—"soon be over"-"shallow grave"-&c. &c. "Confound it what if those two brothers of hers SHOULD be there?" said Mabruptly, making a dead stop, and folding his arms on his breast. "Powerful fellows, both of them!" muttered E. We resumed our march-when Tip, our advanced guard-a title he earned by anticipating our steps about three inchessuddenly stood still, let down the bag from his shoulders, elevated both hands in a listening attitude, and exclaimed, "Whisht!whisht!-By my soul, what was that?" We all paused in silence, looking palely at one another but could hear nothing except the drowsy flutter of a bat wheeling away from us a little overhead. "Fait-an' wasn't it somebody spaking on the far side o' the hedge, I heard?" whispered Tip. "do you mane to give the poor cratur Christian burial, when ye've done wid her? An' will you put her back again as ye found her? 'Case, if you won't, blood an' oons" "Hark ye now, Tip," said I sternly, taking out one of a brace of empty pistols I had put into my greatcoat pocket, and presenting it to his head, "we have hired you on this business, for the want of a better, you wretched fellow! and if you give us any more of your nonsense, by I'll send a bullet through your brain! Do you hear me, Tip?" "Och, aisy, aisy wid ye! don't murther me! Bad-luck to me that I ever cam wid ye! Och, and if iver I live to die, won't I see and bury my ould body out o' the rache of all the docthers in the world? If I don't, divel burn me!" We all laughed aloud at Tip's truly Hibernian expostulation." "the compunctious visitings of remorse"which the circumstances called forth in my own breast, and which, I had no doubt, were shared by my companions. "Come, sir, mount! over with you!" said we, helping to push him upwards. "Now, drop this bag on the other side," we continued, giving him the sack that contained our implements. We all three of us then followed, and "Poh-stuff, you idiot!" I exclaimed, losing alighted safely in the churchyard. It poured my temper. "Come, M- and E- it's with rain; and, to enhance the dreariness and high time we had done with all this cowardly horrors of the time and place, flashes of lightnonsense; and if we mean really to do any- ning followed in quick succession, shedding a thing, we must make haste. 'Tis past twelve transient awful glare over the scene, revealing -day breaks about four-and it is coming on the white tombstones, the ivy-grown venerable wet, you see. "Several large drops of rain, pat-church, and our own figures, a shivering group, tering heavily among the leaves and branches, come on an unhallowed errand! I perfectly corroborated my words, by announcing a com- well recollect the lively feelings of apprehension ing shower, and the air was sultry enough to warrant the expectation of a thunder-storm. We therefore buttoned up our greatcoats to the chin, and hurried on to the churchyard wall, which ran across the bottom of the lane. This wall we had to climb over to get into the churchyard, and it was not a very high one. Here Tip annoyed us again. I told him to lay down his bag, mount the wall, and look over into the yard, to see whether all was clear before us; and, as far as the light would enable him, to look about for a new-made grave. Very reluctantly he complied, and contrived to scramble to the top of the wall. He had hardly time, however, to peer over into the churchyard, when a fluttering streak of lightning flashed over us, followed, in a second or two, by a loud burst of thunder! Tip fell in an instant to the ground, like a cockchafer shaken from an elm-tree, and lay crossing himself, and muttering Paternosters. We could scarcely help laughing at the manner in which he tumbled down, simultaneously with the flash of lightning. "Now, look ye, gintlemen," said he, still squatting on the ground, As no time, however, was to be lost, I left the group, for an instant, under the wall, to search out the grave. The accurate instructions I had received enabled me to pitch on the spot with little difficulty; and I returned to my companions, who immediately followed me to the scene of operations. We had no umbrellas, and our greatcoats were saturated with wet; but the brandy we had recently taken did us good service, by exhilarating our spirits, and especially those of Tip. He untied the sack in a twinkling, and shook out the hoes and spades, &c.; and taking one of the latter himself, he commenced digging with such energy, that we had hardly prepared ourselves for work, before he had cleared away nearly the whole of the mound. The rain soon abated, and the lightning ceased for a considerable interval, though thunder was heard occasionally grumbling sullenly in the distance, as if expressing anger at our unholy doings at least I felt it so. The pitchy darkness continued, so that we could scarcely see one another's figures. We worked on in silence, as fast as our spades could be got into the ground; taking it in turns, two by two, as the grave would not admit of more. Onon-on we worked till we had hollowed out about three feet of earth. Tip then hastily joined together a long iron screw or borer, which he thrust into the ground, for the purpose of ascertaining the depth at which the coffin yet lay from us. To our vexation, we found a distance of three feet remained to be got through. "Sure, and by the soul of St. Patrick, but we'll not be done by the morning!" said Tip, as he threw down the instrument and resumed his spade. We were all discouraged. Oh, how earnestly I wished myself at home, in my snug little bed in the Borough! How I cursed the Quixotism that had led me into such an undertaking! I had no time, however, for reflection, as it was my turn to relieve one of the diggers; so into the grave I jumped, and worked away as lustily as before. While I was thus engaged, a sudden noise, close to our ears, so startled me, that I protest I thought I should have dropped down dead in the grave I was robbing. I and my fellow-digger let fall our spades, and all four stood still for a second or two in an ecstasy of fearful apprehension. We could not see more than a few inches around us, but heard the grass trodden by approaching feet! They proved to be those of an Ass, that was turned at night into the churchyard, and had gone on eating his way towards us; and, while we were standing in mute expectation of what was to come next, opened on us with an astounding hee-haw! hee-haw! hee-haw! Even after we had discovered the ludicrous nature of the interruption, we were too agitated to laugh. The brute was actually close upon us, and had given tongue from under poor Tip's elbow, having approached him from behind, as he stood leaning on his spade. Tip started suddenly backward against the animal's head, and fell down. Away sprang the jackass, as much confounded as Tip, kicking and scampering like a mad creature among the tombstones, and hee-hawing incessantly, as if a hundred devils had got into it for the purpose of discomfiting us. I felt so much fury and fear lest the noise should lead to our discovery I could have killed the brute if it had been within my reach, while Tip stammered, in an affrightened whisper-“Och, the baste! Och, the baste! The big black divel of a baste! The murtherous, thundering "— and a great many epithets of the same sort. We gradually recovered from the agitation which this provoking interruption had occasioned; and Tip, under the promise of two bottles of whisky as soon as we arrived safe at home with our prize, renewed his exertions, and dug with such energy that we soon cleared away the remainder of the superincumbent earth, and stood upon the bare lid of the coffin. The grapplers, with ropes attached to them, were then fixed in the sides and extremities, and we were in the act of raising the coffin, when the sound of a human voice, accompanied with footsteps, fell on our startled ears. We heard both distinctly, and crouched down close over the brink of the grave, awaiting in breathless suspense a corroboration of our fears. After a pause of two or three minutes, however, finding that the sounds were not renewed, we began to breathe freer, persuaded that our ears must have deceived us. Once more we resumed our work, succeeded in hoisting up the coffin-not without a slip, however, which nearly precipitated it down again to the bottom, with all four of us upon it and depositing it on the graveside. Before proceeding to use our screws or wrenchers, we once more looked and listened, and listened and looked; but neither seeing nor hearing anything we set to work, prized off the lid in a twinkling, and a transient glimpse of moonlight disclosed to us the shrouded inmate-all white and damp. I removed the face-cloth, and unpinned the cap. while M- loosed the sleeves from the wrists. Thus were we engaged, when E——, who had hold of the feet, ready to lift them out, suddenly let them go-gasped, "Oh, my God! there they are!" and placed his hand on my He shook like an aspen leaf. I looked towards the quarter whither his eyes were directed, and, sure enough, saw the figure of a man-if not two-moving stealthily toward us. "Well, we're discovered, that's clear," I whispered as calmly as I could. "We shall be murdered!" groaned E- "Lend me one of the pistols you have with you," said M- resolutely; "by I'll have a shot for my life, however!" As for poor Tip, who had heard every syllable of this startling colloquy, and himself seen the approaching figures, he looked at me in silence, the image of blank horror! I could have laughed even then, to see his staring black eyes-his little cocked ruby-tinted nose-his chattering teeth. "Hush-hush!" said I, cocking my pistol, while M—— did the same; for none but myself knew that they were unloaded. To add to our consternation, the malignant moon with arm. |