on his forehead, from a heavy fall he had in the fourth | and separation, and as one which had been preserved in year of his age. Have you that!" the hearts like a pre-ordained union. A rapid glow passed over the countenance of the victim; he drew, with trembling hand, the dark lock of hair from the upper part of his forehead, and the scar appeared. "Just heaven, it is he he is my son!" exclaimed the count, with heart-piercing accents; raised both his hands before his face, and, with violent emotion, turned away from his now discovered son. My father! oh, my father!" exclaimed Victorin; he stretched out his arms, and pale, with faltering steps, retired, as he saw his repugnant gesture. Father Augustin went up to him to support him; but, at that moment, Luitgarde, who, at the last words, unobserved, had approached nearer, sprang forwards. She embraced him with both her arms, and exclaimed, "And if your father rejects you, if all the world abandons you, I do not abandon you! I am yours-unalterably yours!" The unhappy man gazed at her with looks of deepest tenderness, and sunk powerless in her and Father Augustin's arms; they placed him on his bed of straw, they exerted themselves to arouse his still living spirit. The old count sternly turned towards the group; he saw the death-pale youth who bore his features, who was his only son, as one dying in strangers' arms. The father's heart was deeply affected; he ran towards him, embraced him in tears, and exclaimed, "He is still my son! my only, my beloved child! Awake, awake, my Victorin, my son !" The count leant forward to raise him up, and pressed him in his arms, to his paternal heart. Luitgarde and Father Augustin remained stationary, weeping and praying in silence; but after some time the storm of excited feelings was allayed, and they were able to converse together upon their position. Victorin related calmly and frankly his history. When he came to the period of his robber life, he implored his father to permit him to pass it over; and he ardently protested that, since he saw Luitgarde the first time, his hand had shed no blood, and a resolution to separate himself from his associates, to renounce the life of a bandit, and to render himself worthy of the object of his affections, had grown up powerfully in his breast. His father, deeply moved, listened attentively to the recital; the thought, whether it might not be possible to save the only child, in whom a noble and now repentant heart was mirrored, awoke in him with greater force, and increased with every evidence of the altered mind of the prisoner. He would go to Vienna, throw himself at the feet of Ferdinand, and implore from him the pardon of the victim. Victorin, however, rejected this proposal-he had no wish, he said, to live; the recollections of his breast were too painful; he looked on death as but the just award of God's offended justice, and of outraged social duties. But he implored his father to avail himself of his rank and connexions to procure for him a more speedy and less opprobrious death, without torture, and by the sword of the executioner of justice. Thus did he yield to Count Lansky's representations; he himself spoke to Frederick, and represented to him as decided what he had already on his journey here thought it right to prepare him for. Meanwhile, Victorin's sentence was passed; and it was announced to him that he was to die on the third morning. Luitgarde was informed of it with discretion. At this moment her long-supported strength gave way; she recovered late from a deep swoon, but she became acquainted with the short time she had to enjoy with her friend on earth: she exerted all her strength, and implored from her uncle only the permission to pass the last days with the beloved of her infancy, with the man to whom her blessed mother destined her, in the society of Father Augustin. Count Martinitz shook his head. Victorin heard of this project with ecstatic gratitude. His father, in tears, embraced Luitgarde, and Count Martinitz allowed himself to be persuaded to accompany his niece, and at the same time make the acquaintance of the unhappy son of his friend, who had caused in the world, and in his house, so much disturbance. He entered the chamber of the prisoner with a predetermined constraint. Victorin was now, since his condemnation, better and more kindly treated, according to his usual habits, and dressed, according to his wish, simply but suitably to his birth and station, in which the humility of the repentant sinner was mixed with the sense of noble rank. The quiet deportment, the bearing of the contrite and unhappy man, touched even him; he embraced the once-hated person with a hearty warmth, and assured him of his full pardon. Luitgarde, Count Lansky, and Father Augustin passed this and the following day entirely with Victorin. Luitgarde held up with all her strength, although internally she felt too well the influence of the long and harassing excitement, and foresaw what would happen when the decisive moment should arrive. On the second evening-it was that before the day of execution-after she and Count Lansky had taken the last farewell, and Victorin, like a dying man, dismissed her, calm, pious, and resigned, she sank down in the passage, before his door. She was carried, without consciousness, to her i home, to her bed, and did not recover during the whole frightful night from her swoon. Next morning Father Augustin, with deep sorrow and holy tenderness, accompanied his converted son upon the last sad journey. Victorin was preparedoccupied with God and the momentous event now near at hand, he advanced tranquilly and steadily through the staring multitude, who, by words and tears, showed their sympathy for him, on account of his beauty, his youth, and his evident repentance. At the place of execution he gave to his spiritual father the last holy kiss for his father and for his beloved, his eyes were bound, and in a few minutes his soul stood before God, who penetrates the acts and intentions, circumstances and rela tions of mortal man, more clearly than weak human beings can, and for His Son's sake judges them in mercy. At the same moment Luitgarde recovered from her swoon. "It is passed!" she exclaimed: "O, Victorin, let me come to thee!" When Count Lansky and Luitgarde came to the house, the uncle and his son had also arrived. Martinitz met the early friend of his youth with joy and surprise. Explanations took place. The unhappy circumstance of Luitgarde's position between Frederick and Victorin the destruction of hopes, which were long-but, in a few weeks, sorrow had slowly snapped all the and ardently nourished-sympathy with his son's unfortunate position, at first produced discontent in the heart of Martinitz. But his better judgment gradually gained the ascendancy. He recognised the influence of a higher destiny, which mocks at the plans and hopes of men; he had nothing to object to the validity of Luitgarde's first engagement, which was the ardent desire of his dying sister; he could not condemn the force of a passion which showed itself true and steady from the first moment of recognition, among dangers, suspicion, Her heart was broken; she lingered some time longer threads of a blooming, youthful life. About two months after Victorin's death, and about the same hour of the morning in which he died, she gently and serenely expired, the pious father having administered to her the last consolations of the Church, and having strengthened and supported her to the last with his holy counsels. 1 THE ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU, ONE OF THE BERNESE ALPS. former obliquely into the mass of snow, so that one of its walls was thinner than the other, and ran beneath it, a circumstance which rendered the passage more difficult. A new danger here met them, which is thus described. "As Agassiz, Jacob, Jann, and I, had gone a little in advance, while our companions were still engaged in climbfor them, that we might at least get the rope. ing the first ascent, I proposed that we should wait Jacob thought we could pass it well enough without this precaution. In fact, he found a place where the fissure was sufficiently narrow to allow him to stride over it; after having done so, he stretched out his hand, and assisted us to do the same. While three of us were standing on the heard a dull crackling noise beneath us; at the edge of the northern lip of the fissure, we suddenly same time the mass of snow on which we stood sunk about a foot. The guide Jann was at this moment on the other side, and upon seeing what had happened, he was so alarmed that he cried out to us- For heaven's sake, return quickly!' Jacob, on the contrary, far from allowing himself to be disconcerted, told him instantly to hold his tongue, and making a sign to us to follow him, he continued the ascent at a quickened pace, repeating in his Haslian dialect-It's nothing at all; always go forward!' THE party left at The Repose the greater part of their provisions, and carried with them only a little bread and wine, some meteorological instruments, and articles of different kinds; amongst others, a ladder, a hatchet and a cord. At 10 o'clock they set foot on the first plateau of snow, and were disappointed to find that it was neither sufficiently compact, nor covered with a crust thick enough, to bear walking on, so that they sunk very deep, in some places up to the knee. The fissures were frequent where the declivities were steep. Some of them were nearly a hundred feet wide, but not very continuous, so that our travellers were able to go round them; or they were concealed beneath the snow, in which case the greatest caution was required to avoid danger. On this account they advanced slowly, and, in spite of all precautions, some of the party sank down, but without sustaining any injury. In this way they scaled many terraces, and always directing their course westward, arrived at a vast expanse, commanded on all sides by mighty peaks, the highest of which was the Jungfrau. "Here," M. Desor Although we had great experience in glaciers, remarks, "we saw nothing but insurmountable and were familiarized with the dangers they predifficulties on all sides; on the right, vertical pre-sent, I must, however, confess that at this moment cipices; on the left, masses of ice which threatened I felt my heart beat quicker than usual; but such to crush us by their fall; and in front the great was our confidence in our guide, that we hesifissure, to all appearance impassable, so widely did tated not an instant in following him." Jacob it yawn. I could not avoid asking Jacob in what afterwards explained the cause of their alarm to be direction. we were to ascend; but he refused to nothing more than a layer of fresh snow sinking answer my question, contenting himself with say- down upon an older layer, and mentioned more ing, that we had only to follow him with all confi- than one example of his having found the surface dence, and that, for himself, he already saw the sink many feet under him. road we should take." At two o'clock the party arrived at the Col de It was nearly mid-day when the route was reRott-thal, a wild, disrupted valley, covered with sumed. The heat was excessive, and the guides, mists, which prevented them from noticing its in order to refresh themselves, placed handfuls of features, celebrated as it is over the country as the snow on the napes of their necks. Many of the abode of turbulent spirits, known under the name of party did the same, and found benefit from it, not- Seigneurs du Rott-thal. The party rested for awhile withstanding the apparent danger; but in these before they encountered the last peak, which elevated regions the body is much more independ- seemed likely to be the most difficult of ascent. ent of hurtful influences than in the plain. The From the Col where they stood, its height was reflection of the light from the snow was so intense estimated at from 800 to 1,000 feet. The ground as to be almost insupportable without wearing a was covered with compact ice, in which the guides veil; but this renders the footsteps less secure, were obliged to cut very deep steps, so that the and increases the heat of the face. The party progress was slow, sometimes not amounting reached the great fissure above referred to, after to more than fifteen steps in a quarter of an hour. surmounting a fourth terrace. It is a gulf of un-The cold was here very severely felt, and in the known depth, opening upon the declivity of the most difficult part of the ascent they were suddenly last terrace but one, and penetrating somewhat enveloped in a thick mist. The precipices were obliquely into the snow; its breadth is nowhere frightful, and the path was well calculated to alarm less than ten feet, so that a ladder is required for every one who had not full confidence in his head | crossing it. Immediately above the great fissure and legs; for the uppermost ridge is nearly in the the terrace was fearfully steep for a space of about form of the section of a cone, with vertical walls. thirty feet; and the snow which had hitherto been They ascended in a straight line without making very loose, now became so hard that the guides any zig-zag, so that if by mischance one had slipwere obliged to cut steps. Jacob and Jann as- ped down, it would not have been impossible for cended first, and then let down a rope to the rest the others to draw him up. They walked on the of the party to assist them in mounting this peril- edge of the ridge, because the ice in that place was ous path. In this way they all arrived safely at less hard; but by this arrangement they had the the upper terrace, where they were able to walk precipice constantly under their eyes, being sepawith comparative ease. rated from it only by a slanting roof of snow, the breadth of which varied from one to three feet. The poles of the travellers often penetrated through this snow roof, and they were thus enabled, every They had not advanced far before another fissure opposed their progress. It penetrated like the (1) Concluded from page 36. to time the fog dispersed for a moment, to look down | habits which society makes us contract, that, at through the hole made by the pole into the bottom twelve thousand feet, there was still a regard to of the great circus at their feet. Far from dissuad- etiquette. Messrs. Forbes and du Châtelier visited ing them from this, the guides encouraged all to do the summit in their turn, and I have reason it who were free from giddiness, as an excellent know that they were not less touched than we. means of giving them confidence. All at once the Indeed, he who could remain indifferent at such a veil of clouds which concealed the mountain rose, spectacle would be unworthy of contemplating it.” as if touched by the perseverance of the party, and "Amid yon mountains far descried, the Jungfrau displayed itself to their admiring eyes With ice eternal crown'd, in all the beauty of its wild and majestic forms. 'Mid glaciers spreading far and wide "Mid floods that from unfathom'd caves Th' o'erbeetling avalanche bursts, and rocks beneath it reel. "Mid these, that spake Jehovah's might, Where nature felt her God, My spirit wing'd a loftier flight, My foot devoutlier trod, After ascending for some time in the same direction, the party suddenly turned to the left, traversing the inclined surface of a semi-cone until they arrived at a place where the naked rock was exposed, and where they saw, as if by enchantment, at the distance of a few paces, the summit of the mountain, which hitherto seemed to recede in proportion as it was approached. Of the thirteen who formed the party on leaving the cottages of Maril, eight reached the top of the mountain. These were Messrs. Agassiz, Forbes, Du Châtelier, Earth's stateliest temple crown'd, and pois'd in air the dome.”1 and Desor, accompanied by four of the guides. About ten feet below the highest peak is a small From the summit of the Jungfrau the outlines elbow, and on reaching this they saw, with some of the distant mountains were by no means accualarm, that the space which separated them from rately defined; but, had they been so, they would the real summit was a sharp ridge, in some places probably not long have engaged the attention of ten, in others eight, or six, inches broad, by a our travellers, so fascinated were they by the length of about twenty feet, while the declivities spectacle presented in the immediate neighbouron the right and left had an inclination of from hood. Before them lay extended the Swiss plain, sixty to seventy degrees. Nearly all the party and at their feet the anterior chains were piled up except Jacob were of opinion that the actual sum-in stages, and seemed, by their apparent uniformity, mit could not be reached, but, laying aside the articles he was carrying, Jacob began to advance, passing the pole over the ridge, so as to have the latter under his right arm, and walked along the west side, where he endeavoured to make solid steps by treading down the snow as much as possible with his feet. A few minutes were sufficient to enable him to gain the summit. So much assurance and coolness gave courage to the party, and, when the guide returned, no one any longer thought of staying behind. Jacob took M. Agassiz by the hand, and conducted him without difficulty to the summit. It is a kind of triangle, about two feet long by a foot-and-a-half broad, which has its base turned towards the Swiss plain. M. Desor thus describes the feelings of the party on actually attaining the summit : "As there was room for only one person at a time, we went by turns. Agassiz remained upon it for nearly five minutes, and when he rejoined us, I saw that he was greatly agitated; in fact, he confessed to me that he had never experienced so much emotion. It was now my turn: I found no difficulty in the transit; but when I was on the summit I could not prevent myself, any more than Agassiz, from giving way to great emotion at a spectacle of such overpowering grandeur. I remained only a few minutes; long enough, however, to remove any fear that the panorama of the Jungfrau will ever be effaced from my memory: After examining attentively the most prominent points of this unique picture, I hastened to rejoin Agassiz, for I feared lest an impression so powerful should deprive me of my usual confidence. I had need of grasping the hand of a friend, and I venture to say that I never felt so happy in my life as when I had seated myself by his side on the snow. I believe that both of us would have wept had we dared; but a man's tears ought to be modest, and we were not alone; and such is the strength of the still further to increase the size of the mighty peaks which rose almost to the level on which the observers now stood. At the same time the valleys of the Oberland, which shortly before were shrouded in thin mists, could be descried in many places, and thus, to a certain extent, the lower world could be contemplated through the openings. On the right the valley of Grindenwald, with its glaciers, could be distinguished; on the left, in the depth, an immense crevice, and at the bottom of the latter, a shining threadwhich followed its windings; this was the valley of Lauterbrunnen, with the Lutschinnen. But, above all, the Eiger and Mönch attracted attention. It was difficult to form an idea as to what these summits were, which seemed nearer heaven than earth, when seen from the plain. Here the observers looked down upon them from above, and from no very considerable distance. Opposite, colossal but more beautiful; its sides, entirely on the western side, rose another peak, less covered with snow, obtained for it the name of Silberhorn, or Silverpeak. In the same direction were observed many other peaks, alike crowned with snow. These summits, many of which have as yet obtained no name, form, as it were, the immediate attendants upon the Jungfrau, which rises like a queen in the midst of them. In an eastern direction were mountain-masses of great extent, and more savage character, one of highest mountain in Switzerland, and the only one which, the Finsteraarhorn, (13,428 feet,) is the which rose above the level of the Jungfrau (12,870 feet). On the southern side the view was intercepted by the clouds, which had been collected for some hours on the chain of Mount Rosa. But this disappointment was more than compensated by a very extraordinary phenomenon, thus described:"We were beginning to fear that the mists would (1) Sotheby. envelope us a second time, when they suddenly I have, perhaps, allowed their imagination to deceive stopped at some feet from us, no doubt from the them, like those medical students who fancy themeffect of a current of air from the plain, which pre-selves every day to be affected with the malady vented them from extending further in this direc- their professor has been describing. tion. Thanks to this circumstance, we found ourselves suddenly in the presence of a vertical wall of mist, the height of which was estimated at 12,000 feet at least, for it penetrated to the bottom of the valley of Lauterbrunnen, and rose many thousand feet above our heads. As the temperature was below the freezing point, the minute drops of mist were transformed into crystals of ice, which reflected in the sun all the colours of the rainbow; one would have said that it was a mist of gold sparkling around us. It was a spectacle at once terrible and attractive." On returning to the elbow or projecting angle already noticed, Jacob poured out a glass of wine for each one of the party, and they drank with great feeling "to the welfare of Switzerland." The party then reposed for a short time on the snow in order to contemplate, as naturalists, the surrounding spectacle. The Jungfrau, apparently so compact when viewed from Berne and Interlacken, does not form a continuous mass, but is composed of a series of ridges drawn up one behind another, and separated by deep cuts or valleys. These ridges are arranged according to their height, so that the first, or that nearest the plain, is the least elevated, | and the last the highest. A number of observations were made respecting the forms and other characters of the neighbouring mountains. The thermometer indicated 26° Fahr. in the shade, but so engrossed were the observers with their subject, that they did not feel the cold.' The sky above was perfectly clear, and of so deep ablue that it approached to black; they endeavoured to discover the stars which at great heights are said to be visible during the day, but they did not succeed. They were much surprised to discover on the surface of the exposed rock, as well as on the fragments detached from it, many lichens in a very fresh state, some of which occupied a surface of many inches in diameter. A hawk was seen hovering in the air above the heads of the party, whose presence apparently excited its curiosity, for it described many circles around them. 66 Many discordant accounts have been given respecting the influence of the air, in elevated situations, on the human frame. M. Desor says:During the whole time we were on the summit, and also during the ascent, we experienced none of those occurrences, such as nausea, bleeding at the nose, ringing of the ears, acceleration of the pulse, and so many inconveniences which those who have ascended Mont Blanc tell us they were subject to. Must we ascribe this to the difference of 1,500 feet which there is between the height of Mont Blanc and that of the Jungfrau? Or, rather, should we not seek the cause in the habit we had contracted while living for many weeks at the height of nearly 8,000 feet? But it ought to be remarked, that M. du Châtelier, who had been among the mountains for only a few days, was not more affected than we." M. Desor is inclined to believe that there is some degree of exaggeration in all that has been said on the subject; and that some travellers (1) The party were forced to set out without taking that most essential instrument, the barometer. During their abode on the glacier of the Aar they had broken three barometers; the fourth was imperfect, and they had no means of getting them repaired. "We could not quit the summit of the Jungfrau without leaving some traces of our visit; and, as we had not brought a flag with us, it was determined that we should employ M. Agassiz's pole for this purpose, as it happened to be the longest. For my part, I was willing to sacrifice my cravat, and was about to attach it to the end of the pole; but one of the guides, lamenting the fate of the cravat, which he doubtless thought too pretty to be delivered up to the fury of the tempests, asked leave to substitute his pocket-handkerchief for it. We thus managed, by means of a travelling-pole of fir and a purple-coloured rag, to manufacture a flag, which Jacob fixed on the summit we had just left. He drove the pole nearly two feet into the hard snow, so that it rose only two feet and a half above the surface." At four o'clock the party were ready to descend. The ascent had been sufficiently painful, and it was feared the descent would be still more so. The slope was too great to admit of walking in the usual manner, and the party were forced to descend backwards. "I confess," says M. Desor, "that the first few steps gave me some uneasiness; for, as Agassiz and I had no guides before us to direct our feet, we were obliged to look constantly between our legs to find the steps, which made the steepness appear much more giddy. But in a few moments we recovered ourselves: and such was the regularity of the steps, that, after a few hundred paces, we knew them by the touch of our legs, and had no need of looking at the place where we set our feet. The slope, however, was always nearly the same, varying between 40° and 45°, according to Mr. Forbes's repeated measurements; that is to say, nearly equal to that of the roofs of our Gothic cathedrals.' In spite of this excessive steepness, the party reached the Col de Rott-thal in about an hour. They crossed in safety the crevice near which the sinking of the surface took place during the ascent, and also the great fissure. They had only some platforms of snow to descend in order to rejoin the rest of the party at The Repose. They had now gained so much assurance in the descent that they ran rather than walked; no longer paying any regard to fissures, although they were perhaps more treacherous than in the morning, for the sun had softened the snow during the day. Jacob did not cease to recommend caution, repeating, "Gently, gently," with the same calmness as when he ascended. They reached The Repose at six o'clock, having accomplished in two hours a distance which it had occupied six to ascend. They all sat down on the snow with a vigorous appetite, to refresh themselves with some meat and wine. The first glass was offered by Agassiz to Jacob, the captain of the party; his health was drunk by every one in turn with much heartiness, for it was obvious to all that without him they would never have reached the summit. Six leagues were still between them and the cottages, and that part of the glacier most abounding in fissures had to be crossed after nightfall; but no one seemed to be annoyed at this; and besides, the moon was about to rise, and the clouds had almost entirely disappeared from the horizon. They traversed with accelerated pace the three leagues of névé which succeed the plateaux of snow, for the surface was smooth and regular. Scarcely had night fallen when the moon rose opposite to them, directly in the axis of the glacier, so that the whole of this great river of ice was uniformly illuminated, and reflected a light so much the more pleasant after the painful light of the sun by day. On entering the region of fissures, the party formed into a file by means of the rope, for, although the moonshine was very clear, the light was not sufficient to enable them to distinguish with certainty the old snow from that recently falien. At each step one or other of the party was obliged to retire from a crevice, and, after a few slight accidents, they succeeded in getting over this unpleasant part of the course. POPULAR YEAR BOOK. November 25.-St. Catharine's Bay. St. Catharine is commemorated on this day in the Calendar of the Church of England. She was born at Alexandria, and "of so wonderful a capacity," that having, soon after her conversion to Christianity in 305, disputed with fifty heathen philosophers, she not only vanquished them by the strength of her reasoning, For this offence, the Tyrant Maxentius caused her to but also persuaded them to embrace the true faith. be cast into prison, where the Empress and one of the principal generals, who visited out of curiosity, were likewise converted by her eloquence and learning. This was deemed so great an aggravation of her crime, that the Emperor not only condemned the Virgin Saint to a cruel death, but caused the fifty philosophers to be burnt alive. According to Alban Butler, St. Catharine was beheaded. He adds-"She is said first to have At about nine o'clock they suddenly heard the been put upon an engine made of four wheels joined cry of a shepherd. "Bravo! it is our Valaisan!" together, and stuck with sharp-pointed spikes, that exclaimed they. This man had been ordered, on when the wheels were moved her body might be torn leaving the cottages, to start at six o'clock with to pieces. The Acts add, that at the first stirring of the terrible engine, the cords with which the martyr provisions to meet the party. After having exchanged with him some of those shrill and piercing of an angel, and the engine falling to pieces by the was tied, were broke asunder by the invisible power sounds which the mountaineers can make to pene-wheels being separated from one another, she was trate to the distance of leagues, the party perceived delivered from that death. Hence the name of St. that he was on the left side, so that before they Catharine's Wheel." could join him they had to cross a considerable part of the glacier. The brave fellow was laden like a mule; for, in addition to the provisions which he was told to carry, he had brought a quantity of excellent new milk, still warm. "This was unquestionably the most delightful refreshment that he could have offered to us, and almost every one left the wine for the milk. We seated ourselves in a circle round our Amphitryon, taking draughts in turns from his immense vessel, till it was nearly empty. This was the most picturesque repast, and at the same time one of the most grateful, I have ever enjoyed." Nearly three leagues remained to complete the journey; but, with the exception of some fissures, the road was easy, and the party at length arrived on the banks of Lake Mæril. Here they made their last halt, in order to admire a singular spectacle. The blocks of floating ice which swam on the surface had a most alluring effect when seen by the beautiful light of the moon. At the same time the section of the glacier in the back-ground appeared like an immense wall of crystal; and what further added to the beauty of this spectacle was, that the observers arrived just at the moment when the moon was passing behind the mountain-mass which overlooks the lake, and they saw in a quarter of an hour the most varied effects of light, and the most striking and interesting contrasts. It was a finale worthy of such a day. At half-past eleven o'clock they re-entered the hospitable roof of the Valaisan shepherds, after a journey of upwards of eighteen hours. "As for fatigue, we did not feel it even now, so pre-occupied were our minds with all the things that had passed under our eyes and moved our hearts during the day." Next day they descended to Viesch, where the guides left them. The two days which the guides occupied in their return home were a continual triumph to them, for there was not a hut in the valley of Conches, from Viesch to Obergesteln, which they did not enter and proclaim their success. OLD AND POPULAR CUSTOMS. The author of the "Popish Kingdom" says, Or else the superstitious joys that masters exercise.” November 29.-Advent Sunday.—(1846.) The term Advent denotes the coming of the SAVIOUR. In ecclesiastical language it is the denomination of the four weeks preceding the Feast of the Nativity. This season is set apart by the Church to the duties of devotion and penitence: anciently it was kept as a rigorous fast. Advent-Sunday, or the first Sunday in Advent, depends upon the Festival of St. Andrew, and is always the Sunday nearest to the feast of that Saint, whether preceding it, on the day itself, or on that following it. November 30.-Feast of St. Andrew.-(1846.) St. Andrew, the patron of Scotland, is one of the in the year 69, at Patras, in Achaia. The cross upon twelve Apostles. He suffered martyrdom by crucifixion, which St. Andrew suffered was different in form to that of the Passion, having been made of two pieces of timber driven into the ground, in the shape of the |