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filled up, pavements to be repaired and relaid, and sewers to be examined. Furniture, beds, and thousands of different household utensils which had not been saved, were now brought from their watery graves and exposed to the influence of the sun. At the close of this day the ark in my garden happily became useless, and once more I stood on solid ground. The rooms were also free of water, and in a condition to undergo the neces sary cleanings and dryings. By order of the magistracy, no persons were allowed to re-occupy their flooded rooms, until inspection had been made by proper authority It certainly was not by accident that, for nearly a for night following the inundation, the finest sunshine prevailed, and powerfully assisted in obliterating the tra of the calamity, while it also dispersed the foul and damp exhalations necessarily arising from the state f the town.

bridge, only the top and railing of the middle now stood above the water. Most of the arches on the Neustadt side were stopped up; and, even at the Aldstadt side, where the arches were highest, the water could only with difficulty force its way through. The inundation was now higher than it had been for the last four centuries. The very formidable rising of 1784 was twenty inches lower. At the middle and highest pier of the bridge stood a crucifix, mounted on a pedestal of rock. This pier projected farther into the water than any of the others, and it was here that a crack began to extend itself. No sooner had the sad discovery run through the crowd of spectators, and drawn their eyes to the endangered spot, than the pier, as far as it stood out into the flood, was seen to give way. For one moment the golden image of the Saviour was observed to rock to and fro, the next it sank backwards and vanished beneath the flood, which rushed and foamed as it closed On the night of the first of April a strong frost set in. over its booty. For a minute the hum of the thousands which covered still water with a coat of ice, while i of spectators was completely silenced. They remained contributed to send the river back to its proper chantel staring on the empty spot, as if unable to trust their The next morning the water had sunk six ellen, and thi eyes. But then a general cry of grief burst from their higher objects along the shores reappeared. Reports lips; women and children began to weep bitterly, and were now received from the villages adjoining the ri even the men turned pale. Precisely on this fatal pier, of the imminent danger thousands of persons had b up to this moment, a sentinel had faithfully kept his in, and the damage which had been sustained in the post; and it was not a little remarkable that, although fields and meadows. In a village near Dresden the ma the sentry-box had sunk down at his side, he valuable horses and cattle on a gentleman's estate Fu?? escaped. The passage over the bridge was now pro- actually dragged up to the first story of his house, a hibited and every one expected that the complete accommodated in a suite of apartments appropriated destruction of the bridge would follow; but, strange to the summer use of the owner. A little farther up say, with the sinking of the crucifix the angry demon of river a wooden cottage, which had been carried arar the waves seemed to be appeased; for, from that mo- from the valley where it was built, was washed ashm ment, the water did not rise another inch. The sinking very little injured, and firmly settled in a garden of that particular pier was doubtless occasioned by its pro-longing to the royal demesnes, where it is left standing jection beyond the others, which caused it to be exposed to a terrible body of back-water, and also by a cavity or vault which existed in its upper part, just underneath the pedestal of the crucifix. It must also be remarked, that the bridge was not wholly of stone, but had its internal cavities filled up with sand. This led one of the oldest citizens of Dresden (the bookseller, Arnold) to foretell, only a few months before, the fate which had now befallen the bridge. In spite of this very natural explanation of the circumstance, superstition, and rising party-strife between Roman and German Catholics, caused numbers to avail themselves of the falling of the crucifix, and make the best of it for their particular views. The Roman Catholics declared that the crucifix was overthrown because Christ would no longer suffer his holy image to remain in the midst of an unbelieving population; the German Catholics affirmed that the image was destroyed in order to show the Divine displeasure against idolatry. This latter opinion became very prevalent, even in the minds of persons who had nothing to do with party-strife; and it now appears unlikely that the emblem will ever be set up again in that situation.

a monument of the ever-memorable event.

Through the wide extent where the flatness of shores had permitted the river to spread, fields, mead gardens, and roads, were greatly injured, both by deposit of pebbles and sand left by the receding fe and by large fissures which were rent in the carth. T shores, far and near, were strewed with timber at various fragments, but happily no human bodies ve seen among them. The most ghastly scene was b ever, presented by one of the churchyards lying in te direct line of the most formidable torrent bran from the main river. Not only were the efis the vaults heaved up, and floated about within walls of the churchyard, but even dead bodies, pa ticularly from new-made graves, washed out and bare. The sight is described as having been re horrid, and far more frightful than that of a battlef One man told me, with faltering voice, that, wh ventured to climb up and peep over the wall inte cemetery, the first object that arrested his eyes struck him with horror, was the grim visage of 32 coachman whom he had known very well, and whi only buried a few days before. Repenting his curios he at once jumped down from the wall, and made but he could not so easily forget the horrible specia which haunted him wherever he went. By the activi of the authorities, all these sad traces of the cala were speedily removed; and, in a comparatively sa space of time, the progress of vegetation restored to c fields and gardens also much of their wonted appo ance. The heavy losses sustained by numbers wer partly made up to them by the assistance of gever seemed to vie with each other on this occasion in of kindness. Thus the tribulation in this, as in may other cases, was the means of bringing forth and ripens the wholesome and heavenly fruit of Christian love.

The gradual decrease of the waters could now be plainly discerned, and all faces brightened with hope and thankfulness. There was no longer an Elbmesser to consult, for it had been swept away with the falling pier; but the happy fact was sufficiently evident without it At four o'clock in the afternoon the passage over the bridge was again opened, under proper precautions, for pedes trians only. The next morning, being that of the first of April, the sun rose serenely over the sinking floods; and that day, otherwise a day of deceptions, became at this time one of fulfilled hopes. Nevertheless, the very bright-ment, and partly by private benevolence; for p ness revealed more clearly the extent of the devastation which had taken place. The sinking of the flood had been three ellen, and the water had, in consequence, receded from the royal castle, the theatre, and many other public places. Wherever the water drew back from houses, streets, and squares, persons were busily engaged removing the mud, sand, and rubbish, which was by no means an easy task, as it frequently lay an elle deep, and extended over the space of many acres. There were also deep holes rent by the torrent to be

One of the most striking monuments of the ficod was for a long period, the bridge of Dresden. Two of other piers sunk, after a few days had passed, at the all communication by it was forbidden. A bridge boats, during the whole summer, supplied its place a its restoration could be effected.

FRANK FAIRLEGH;1 OR, OLD COMPANIONS IN NEW SCENES.

CHAP. II.

MR. FRAMPTON'S INTRODUCTION TO A ROYAL TIGER.

"I HOPE you feel no ill effects from your adventure, Sir: you resisted the fellow's attack most spiritedly, and would have beaten him off, I believe, if you had possessed a more serviceable weapon than an umbrella," observed I to Mr. Frampton, as we drew our chairs to

the fire after dinner.

"Umph! all right, Sir, all right: a little stiff or so across the back, but not so bad as the tiger at Bundleapoor. I'm not so young as I used to be, and there's a difference between young men and old ones. Young men are all whalebone and whipcord, and it's nothing but hopping, skipping, and jumping with them all day long; when you're turned of sixty-five, Sir, the whalebone gets stiff, the whipcord wears out, the skip and jump take their departure, and the hop becomes an involuntary accompaniment to the rheumatism,--confound it! Umph!"

"You have been in India, I presume: I think I heard you refer to some adventure with a tiger," returned I.

"I've been everywhere, Sir-north, south, east, and west. I ran away from school at twelve years old, because the master chose to believe one of the ushers rather than me, and flogged me for lying when I had spoken the truth. I ran away, Sir, and got aboard a ship that was bound for the East Indies, and for five and forty years I never saw the white cliffs of old England; and, when I did return, I might as well have left alone, for all who knew and cared for me were dead and gone-all dead and gone, dead and gone!" he repeated, in a tone of sorrowful earnestness. Then came an aside: "Umph! wonder what I told him that for; something for him to go and make fun of with the other young scapegraces, instead of minding their books-just like me!"

"You must have seen many strange things, and met with various adventures worthy of note, in the course of your wanderings," remarked I.

"I must have been a fool, if I hadn't," was the "Prhaps you think I was-umph! Young folks always think old ones fools, they say."

answer.

"Finish the adage, Sir, that old folks know young ones to be so, and then agree with me that it is a saying founded on prejudice, and at variance with

truth."

"Umph! strong words, young Gentleman, strong words. I will agree with you so far, that there are old fools as well as young ones-old fools, who, in their worldly wisdom, stigmatise the generous impulses and disinterested affections of youth as folly, who may yet live to regret the warm feelings they have crushed, and the affections they have alienated, and find out that the things which they deemed folly, may prove in the end the truest wisdom." Then came the soliloquy: "There go again-just like me! something else for him to laugh at: don't think he will, though-seems a good lad-wish t'other boy may be like him-umph!" He paused for a minute, and then observed abruptly, Umph! about the tiger at Bundleapoor. You call tonight's an adventure, Sir: wonder what you'd have said if you'd been there!"

I

"As I was not, would it be asking too great a favour, if I request you to relate the anecdote?"

(1) Continued from p. 106.

Aye, boy, boy, I see you know how to come round an old traveller: set him gossiping about all the fine things he has seen and done in his younger days, and you win his heart at once. Well, fill your glass, Sir, and we'll see about it," was the reply.

I obeyed, Mr. Frampton followed my example, and clear his throat, began the following recital :after sipping his wine, and grunting several times to

:

"Umph! ha! let me recollect. When I was a young shaver, having lived in the world some twenty years or so, I was engaged as a sort of supernumerary clerk in the house of Wilson and Brown at Calcutta; and, having no one else who could be so easily spared, they determined to despatch me on a business negotiation to one of the native princes, about eight hundred miles up the country. I travelled with a party of the dragoons, commanded by a Captain Slingsby, a man about five years older than myself, and as good a fellow as ever lived. Well, somehow or other, he took a great fancy to me, and nothing would do but that I should accompany him in all his sporting expeditions,-for I I believe, entertained some strange notion that he should tell you that he was a thorough sportsman, and,

should be able to make one of me. One unfortunate morning, he came into my tent, and woke me out of a sound sleep which I had fallen into, after being kept awake half the night by the most diabolical howls and screams that ever were heard out of Bedlam, expecting every minute to see some of the performers step in to sup, not with, but upon me.

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Come, Frampton, wake up, man,' cried Slingsby, here's glorious news.'

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What is it?' said I,-have they found another hamper of ale among the baggage?

"Ale! nonsense,' was the reply. 'Ashikkaree (native hunter) has just come into camp to say, that a half eaten in the jungle about a mile from this place; young bullock was carried off yesterday, and is lying so at last, my boy, I shall have the pleasure of introducing you to a real live tiger.'

"Thank ye,' said I, 'you're very kind; but if it's at all inconvenient to you this morning, you can put it off: another day will do quite as well for me--I'm not in the least hurry.'

"It was of no use, however; all I got for my pains was a poke in the ribs, and an injunction to lose no time in getting ready.

"Before we had done breakfast, the great man of the neighbourhood, Rajah somebody or other, made his appearance on his elephant, attended by a train of tawnies, who were to undertake the agreeable duty of myself-a melancholy fact of which I was only too beating. Not being considered fit to take care of occupy the same howdah. Accordingly, at the time conscious-it was decreed that Slingsby and I should appointed, we mounted our elephant; and having a formidable array of guns handed up to us, we started.

concerned in the matter, evidently considered it com"As my companion, and indeed every one else pletely as a party of pleasure, and seemed prepared to enjoy themselves to the utmost, I endeavoured to persuade myself that I did so too; and, consoled by the reflection that if the tiger had positively eaten half a bullock yesterday afternoon, it never could be worth his while to scale our elephant, and run the risk of being

shot, for the sake of devouring me, I felt rather bold than otherwise. After proceeding for some distance through the jungle, and rousing, as it seemed to me, every beast that had come out of Noah's Ark, except a tiger, our elephant, who had hitherto conducted himself in a very quiet and gentlemanly manner, suddenly raised his trunk, and trumpeted several times,--a sure sign, as the mahout informed us, that a tiger was some

where close at hand.

"Now then, Frampton,' cried my companion, cocking his double-barrel, look out!'

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"For squalls,' returned I, finishing the sentence for him. Pray is there any particular part they like to be shot in? whereabouts shall I aim?'

"Wherever you can,' replied Slingsby, be ready; there he is, by Jupiter!' and, as he spoke, the long grass about a hundred yards in front of us was gently agitated, and I caught a glimpse of what appeared a yellow and black streak, moving swiftly away in an opposite direction- Tally ho!' shouted Slingsby, saluting the tiger with both barrels. An angry roar proved that the shots had taken effect, and in another moment, a large tiger, lashing his sides with his tail, and his eyes glaring with rage, came bounding towards

us.

"Now, what's to be done?' exclaimed I,- if you had but left him alone, he was going away as quietly as possible.'

"Slingsby's only reply was a smile, and, seizing another gun, he fired again. On receiving this shot, the tiger stopped for a moment, and then, with a tremendous bound, sprang towards us, alighting at the foot of a small tree, not a yard from the elephant's head.

"Umph! did I-aye, so I did-you see, Mr. Lee, there's a young fellow at Trinity, about your age, I should fancy, whom I used to know as a boy,-and-be was a very good boy-and-and-his mother's a widow; poor thing—a very nice boy, I may say, he was—and as I feel a sort of interest about him, I thought that you might, perhaps, give one an idea of how he's going on just a notion-you understand-umph!"

Exactly, Sir," returned I, "and what may be the name of your friend?"

"Frank Fairlegh," was the answer.

"You could not have applied to a better person," replied I. "Frank Fairlegh!-why, he was one of my most intimate friends."

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"You may put that interpretation upon it, certainly,” replied I, but mind, I don't say it's the true one. I consider it would not be right in me to tell tales out of school;-besides there's nothing to tell-everybody knows Frank Fairlegh's a good fellow-ask Lawless - ak Curtis."

"That last shot crippled him,' said my companion, or we should have had the pleasure of his nearer acquaintance-now for the coup de grace, fire away!' and as he spoke he leaned forward to take a deliberate aim, when suddenly the front of the howdah gave way, and "Umph! Lawless? what? that wild young scamp who to my horror, Slingsby was precipitated over the ele- goes tearing about the country in a tandem, as if a gig phant's head, into, as it seemed to me, the very jaws of with one horse wasn't dangerous enough, without putthe tiger. A fierce growl, and a suppressed cry of ting on a second to make the thing positively terrise agony, proved that the monster had seized his prey, he must be badly of for something to do, if he can find and I had completely given my friend up for lost, when no better amusement than trying how nearly he can the elephant, although greatly alarmed, being urged on break a fool's neck, without doing it quite;—umpa. by the mahout, took a step forward, and twisting his Curtis-why, that's the name of the young gentlemantrunk round the top of the young tree, bent it down very gentle-who, the landlord tells me, has just been across the loins of the tiger, thus forcing the tortured rusticated for insulting Dr. Doublechin, and fastening a animal to quit its hold, and affording Slingsby an op- muzzle and chain on one of the men they call 'be." portunity of crawling beyond the reach of its teeth and dogs,' saying, forsooth, that it wasn't safe to let su claws. Forgetting my own fears in the imminence of ferocious animals go about loose-nice acquaintance my friend's danger, I only waited till I could get a shot Mr. Frank Fairlegh seems to choose, and you know the at the tiger, without running the risk of hurting Slingsby, quotation, Noscitur a sociis."" and then fired both barrels at its head, and was lucky enough to wound it mortally. The other sportsmen coming up at the moment, the brute received his quietus, but poor Slingsby's arm was broken where the tiger had seized it with his teeth, and his shoulders and chest were severely lacerated by its claws, nor did he entirely recover the shock for many months. And this was my first introduction to a royal tiger, Sir. I saw many of 'em afterwards, during the time I spent in India, but I can't say I ever had much liking for their societyumph!"

This anecdote brought others in its train-minutes flew by apace, the wine grew low in the decanters, and it became apparent to me that if I would not lose the whole evening, and go home with my brains muddled beyond all possibility of reading, I must take my departure. Accordingly, pulling out my watch, I reminded Mr. Frampton of my previous stipulation to be allowed to run away as soon as dinner was concluded, adding that I had already stayed longer than was altogether prudent. The reply to this announcement was, "Umph! sit still, Sir, sit still; I'm going ring for another bottle of port."

Finding, however, that I was determined, he gave up the point, adding,—“ Umph! well, if you must go, you must, I suppose though you might refuse a worse offer; -but, if you really are anxious about your studies, and wish to distinguish yourself, I won't be the man to hinder you-it's few enough of 'em are like you here, I expect," then, sotto voce, "wish t'other young monkey might be."

"You hinted before dinner at some information I might be able to give you?" said I, interrogatively.

"Oh," replied I, "but he has others; I have seen him in company with Mr. Wilford."

"Wilford? the noted duellist, that scoundrel who has lately shot the son of Sir John Oaklands, as fine a young man as ever I set eyes upon ?--for I have often seen ha when I was down at Helmstone; if I thought, Sir, that Fairlegh was a friend of that man-I'd—I'd—well, Sir. he exclaimed, seeing my eyes fixed upon him with a degree of interest I could not conceal, "it's nothing to you, I suppose, what I may intend to do by Mr. Frank Fairlegh! I may be his grandfather for any thing yo can tell to the contrary; and I may choose to cut him off with a shilling, I imagine, without its affecting you in any way-umph?"

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Scarcely so, Mr Frampton," replied I, turning away to hide an irrepressible smile, "if it is in consequent of what I have told you, that you are angry with poor Frank."

Angry, Sir, angry,"-was the answer,-"I'm never angry-there's nothing worth being angry about in this world. Do you take snuff, Sir? I've some that came from-Umph! eh!" he continued, fumbling in all his pockets hope I haven't lost my box-given me by the Begum of Cuddleakee-splendid woman-only com plexion too strong of the tawny-Umph! left it the other room I suppose-back in a moment, SirUmph! Umph!" and suiting the action to the word, he went out, slamming the door behind him.

As the reader may suppose, I was equally surprised and pleased to find, that my old friend not only remembered our former intimacy, but felt so warm an interess in my welfare, as to have put himself quite in a rage on hearing of my supposed delinquencies. Although it had been the means of eliciting such strong indications of his continued regard for me, I felt half sorry for the

The main facts of the foregoing anecdote are taken from Capt. deception I had practised upon him—the only thing

Mundy's very interesting "Pen and Pencil Sketches."

that could be done now, however, was to make myself known to him without delay, and his absence from the room enabled me to put in practice a plan for doing so, which I had had in my mind all along. Accordingly, going up to the chimney-glass, I shook my hair forward, so that it fell in waving curls about my face and forehead-took the stiffener out of my neckcloth, and, knotting the latter loosely round my throat, turned down my shirt collars, so as to resemble as nearly as possible the Byron-tie of my boyhood-then unbuttoning and throwing open my coat, I resumed my seat, arranging the candles so as to throw their light full upon my face as I did so. I had scarcely completed my arrangements, when I heard Mr. Frampton's footstep in the passage, and in another moment he entered the room. "All right, Mr. Lee, all right, Sir; I found the box in my other coatpocket; I was afraid the thieves might have forestalled me; but Umph!-ch! why who?" Catching sight of me as he spoke, he stopped short, and shading his eyes with his hand, gazed earnestly at me, with a look half-bewildered, half-incredulous. Taking advantage of his silence, I inquired in my natural tone and manner, whether he had seen Dr. Mildman lately. "Umph! Eh! Dr. Mildman?" was the reply-"why it can't be and yet it is-the boy Frank Fairlegh himself! Oh! you young villain!" and completely overcome by the sudden and unexpected nature of the surprise, he sank back into a chair, looking the picture of

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astonishment.

Springing to his side, and pressing his hand warmly between my own, I exclaimed, "Forgive me for the trick I have played you. I knew you the moment I heard your voice, when I was helping you up to-night, and, finding you did not recognise me, I could not resist the temptation of preserving my incognito a little longer, and introducing myself to you as a stranger." "Oh! you young scapegrace," was the rejoinder, "if ever I forgive you, I'll-Umph !-that I will"-then changing his tone to one of much feeling, he continued, So you hadn't forgotten the old man then, Frank good boy, good boy."

I had seated myself on a stool at his feet, and, as he spoke, he patted my head with his hand, as if I had been a favourite dog.

"And all the things you said against yourself were so many lies, I suppose? Umph! you are no friend to the homicide Wilford !"

"True to the ear, but false to the sense, Sir," replied I. "Harry Oaklands is the dearest friend I have on earth; we love each other as brothers,-between the man whose hand was so lately raised to shed that brother's blood and myself, there can be little friendship-if I do not positively hate him, it is only because I would not willingly hate any one. Lawless was an old fellow-pupil of mine, and, though he has many follies about him, is at bottom more kind-hearted and well-disposed than people give him credit for; we still continue friends, therefore, but our habits and pursuits being essentially different, I see very little of him-with Curtis I never exchanged half a dozen words in my life."

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Umph! I understand, I understand; and how is Harry Oaklands? better again, eh?"

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SKETCH OF THE TRADITIONS OF GERMANY.1 beliefs: it only invested them with a sort of religious CHRISTIANITY did not annihilate all the old popular veil. However zealous the new converts might be, they could not at once renounce the traditions of their convert with them all the beings whom they had fathers. When converted themselves, they wished to formerly venerated. Like the pope, they placed the image of the saint on the heathen column; and, like the Anglo-Saxons, changed their pagan temples into celestial spirits or fallen angels; of their heroes, christian churches. They made of their gods either martyrs; and retained in the rites of their new worship many of their ancient superstitions. Their teachers tolerated, by a kind of tacit assent, what they could not prevent; but, while doing this, introduced amongst the people a set of new legends, legends of patriarchs, the devil, which present themselves in so many and of apostles, of saints, of miracles, and those legends of such varied forms in the middle ages. Grouped around the devil are the magicians who, like Faust, for a little members of the nightly meeting. They assemble every knowledge sell their souls to him; and the witches, Saturday on the Blocksberg, and sit on each side of the relate their diabolical achievements, while the younger demon goat; the oldest amongst them triumphantly ball; each witch gives her arm to some horned demon, ones listen in hope of instruction. Then comes the and the music begins. Melodious doubtless it must be, The joyous rites over, all the witches prostrate themthe violin being a horse's head, and the bow a cat's tail. selves before Satan, and return home on their broom

sticks.

which tradition attributes to the devil. Near AltenIn many countries of Germany, there exist monuments burgh is a rock, which the united efforts of five hundred men could not move, the devil put it on his head for a hat, and carried it in triumph through the fields. In the church of Gorlar, there is a hole in the centre of the wall, which can never be filled up. The Abbot of Isulda and the Bishop of Hildisheim were disputing about precedence, and so great was their pride, that they came to blows in the church. The devil entered by this hole in order to prevent any reconciliation, and keep alive the rage of the combatants. Many similar traditions Ireland has its Devil's Bit, its Devil's Punch-bowl, &c. current in other countries, at once present themselves;

singular feature of the human mind;--the way in which it can caricature an object of fear, render it absurd and grotesque, without at the same time trembling one degree the less before its own ludicrous creation. The bargaining for a soul as a farmer for an acre of land, devil of the middle ages is a being tricked, played upon, and, strangely enough, always keeping faith, always strictly adhering to his part of the compact, while monk and peasant make it their boast to overreach and outwit him. The malice attributed to him is in little keeping with the simplicity which makes him lose in almost every transaction his gold and his pains. Like some mighty crag, around which the clouds group and shape

But these legends of the devil seem to offer to view a

into many a grotesque form; the fearful adversary of The reply to this query led to my being obliged to man, seen through the legends of the middle ages, give Mr. Frampton a succinct account of the duel, and appears no longer, as in the awful colouring of Scripit was not till I explained my intention of trying for ture, a being whose mysterious power is only surpassed honours, and made him comprehend the necessity of that the term Old Nick, applied in derision to Satan, by his soul destroying malignity. Who would imagine my being fully prepared for the ensuing examination, that he would hear of my departure; and, when at last had in its first origin a far different meaning, borrowed he did allow me to go, he insisted on accompanying me as it is from the title of an evil genius amongst the to the gate of Trinity, and made me promise to let him by the ancient Germans and Danes under the name of ancient Danes? Keysler mentions a demon worshipped see me as often as I was able during his stay in Cam-Nocca or Necken, styled in the Edda, Nikur, which he bridge, where he informed me he proposed remaining till after the degrees were conferred.

derives from the German nugen, answering to the Latin necure, to slay, kill, or hurt.

Countless are the legends in which Satan is repre

(1) Continued from p. 104.

derous hands, kneeling, calling upon heaven, and sadly regretting her own sweet land of Hungary, and her good mother the queen Blanchefleur. If we climb the nountain, it is no longer to seek the giants which inhabit its rocky cavities, nor the dwarfs fabricating metals into thousand implements; but to call up to fancy's eye the lofty battlements whence resounds the war cry, the grey turret from which lady love wares the last fond salute to her departing knight. If we de scend to the valley, we no longer behold winged sylphs floating around, but the cell of the hermit tells us its miracles, and the abbey opens to us its book of chro nicles.

All these German historic traditions, are not, however, quite destitute of the marvellous, but they have at least a certain basis of truth, they rest upon a fact. The people, giving free scope to imagination, have adorned and embellished them, surrounded them with poetic imagery, but have not altered their primitive character, the name they celebrate, or the event they verify.

sented as cheated and foiled by some clumsy artifice. | its iron prow, upon which the bold pirate ploughs the wave When the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle was building, in search of booty. If we wander in the forest, it is no money was wanting, and the burgomaster was obliged longer to listen for the horn of Oberon or the whistle of to suspend the work, to the great dismay of the citizens, Ariel; but to see Genevieve the fair, the hapless, weep who took pride in the rising church. The devil cameing at the foot of a tree, or Bertha escaped from murto their assistance; he proposed to finish at his own expense the building, on condition that the first living creature that entered it should be his. The bargain is struck, the work begins, the devil's money builds the church, and soon it is completed; not a pane of glass, not a gilded cornice left unfinished. Now comes the point, Who is to pay the devil?-nobody seemed particularly anxious to be the man. The bells were rung, a great holiday given out; all in vain, not a soul would go near the church; the priests themselves kept at a respectful distance, and those who had mortal sin on their conscience would not go within sight of it. At length, a senator of the town, a man of sense, and ever since venerated as a saint, devised a mode of outwitting the devil. He had a wolf caught in the forest, and brought on Sunday morning to the door of the church; the bells were rung, the great door was thrown open, and two men let loose the wolf into the body of the church, where the devil, who was lying in wait, seized upon him; but suddenly perceiving that he had got nothing but a wretched wolf, he shook the brazen gate Every convent of Germany, every castle, every fortress, of the temple with such fury that he broke it. The has its legend. In our day, when the first stone of an next day the priests entered the church in full pro- edifice is laid, a medal or coin is placed under it. For cession, and the people quietly flocked in to prayer.1 merly a new monument was dedicated by a legend. The We meet another story, as creditable to the devil's monument falls into ruin, the legend remains. In or simplicity of character. A peasant of Hesse was day, when we build for ourselves a dwelling, one thin in great want of a barn, but could not afford to go alone occupies us, and that is to ascertain what it will to the expense of erecting it. One day, while walk-cost, and whether it will be comfortable enough. In th ing in the fields, and turning in his mind how he middle ages, some thought of love, of heroism, of re could accomplish his object, he saw an old man ligion, was associated with every edifice as with every coming towards him, who said, "I know what is upon enterprise. A knight-errant returns weary of adventur thy mind, and I undertake to build the barn between and repentant for his sins. He sells his domains, dis this and to-morrow morning at cock-crow, if thou, on thy tributes part of the price to the poor, and with the res part, wilt give me a treasure which is thine, though as builds a monastery. A noble during his crusade falls yet thou knowest not of it; if the cock crow before the into the power of the Saracens, prays to the Virgin : barn is finished, I shall have no claim upon thee." The deliver him, and on his return erects a chapel to her peasant, who knew very well all his possessions, thought A Bavarian baron finds one day at the foot of a rock the he had made a very good bargain, and ran in delight to bleeding body of his beloved, and, on the spot where she tell it to his wife; but his wife said to him, "Unhappy breathed her last, he raises a monument of pious grief one! What hast thou done? I am pregnant! This is A queen of Germany, seated in her balcony, lets fal the treasure the devil spoke of, and thou hast given up her veil, goes to seek for it in the forest, and, as if it ha our child to him." Meanwhile the devil has set to work; been brought thither by the breath of God, builds an thousands of labourers hew the stones and saw the beams. abbey near the bush upon which it had caught. Man In a few hours the foundation of the barn is laid, and the an edifice has been projected in a vision of love, and walls built. Already the doors turn on their hinges, built in mourning, and the votive chapels from many a the shutters are put up and the roof covered in. Only hill-top, from the shores of many a lake, tell by the pla one or two tiles remained to be added, and it was still they occupy, by the inscriptions they contain, to w night. The peasant's wife, who had anxiously watched grief they have served as a refuge, to what memory they the progress of the work, ran into the poultry yard and are dedicated. imitated so well the crowing of a cock, that instantly every cock awoke and began to crow. The devil fled in a rage, and never could the tile wanting be put on; placed there in the day, it was taken away at night by some invisible hand.

Such are the fairy traditions, the superstitious legends of Germany. But along with this varied and endless cycle, which goes back to the pagan poetry of the East, and comes down to the most mysterious symbols of Christianity, there is another not less vast, not less striking, that of historical traditions. We are now to pass from the fabulous creation to the real being, from conventional nature to actual nature. If we turn to the winding river, to the trackless ocean, it is no longer to behold the fair haired nixa dwelling in palaces of crystal beneath the waves, or the water sprite entrapping the souls of the drowned. It is to gaze upon the little bark of the fisherman who in the storm commends himself to the Virgin, the boat conveying the pilgrim to the shrine or the knight to the crusade, and the vessel with

(1) The figure of the unfortunate animal in bronze is still to be scen on the top of a pillar at "the Gate of the Wolf," so named in commemoration.

In Germany as well as in France the monasteries were th receptacles of all the religious legends,—all the lega of saints, of miracles, of penances; and the legends of the Jews, that wondrous race in itself a miracle, that race se cruelly persecuted by the middle ages. In both countries are found the same prejudices, the same opinions, addues from different facts, and clothed in different forms. It was firmly believed in Germany that the Jews practise sorcery, that they carried on horrible wickedness in their own houses, and that, to work their magic spelk they disinterred dead bodies and massacred little che dren. One day a poor country woman was working the fields; she was alone, she had left her husband and child at home. Suddenly a dreadful foreboding seed upon her, and three drops of blood fell upon her hand She rushes home and asks for her child; her hus tells her that he has sold him to the Jews, who had just killed him, and he shows her the gold pieces he had received; which, on the instant, were changed into so many leaves. The unhappy mother dies, the hus and goes mad, and the Jews are burned. But it would be too difficult a task, to select from the monkish legends, so almost infinite is the number.

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