he promised. "For then," said he, "the love philtre will be at the highest power."

Let us now at once pass to the time when Gaston, having returned home, met his father, and kissed him, and told him that his wife was returning, and would soon be with him. You may be sure that the Count was right glåd; and when he had embraced his son, he turned to his knights, and promised to give a right royal banquet in honour and in rejoicing of his son's success. And a right royal banquet it was. Wines of Cyprus bubbled in golden cups; rare fruits, rare meats, rare cates and dainties; and the Count led Gaston forward, and placed him at his right hand, in the seat of honour. The boy had his powder ready, and when the Count rose to pledge him, he dropped it on his meat. But an old knight saw him; and although his heart nigh broke, he told the Count what Gaston had done, and said it was POISON! All started at the word, and Gaston turned pale. The thought flashed on him that it was. But the Count rose up, and looking fixedly at his son, shouted to his best hound, "What, ho! my bull-slayer." The mastiff bounded into the hall, and caught the meat from the hand of the Count. Scarcely had he swallowed it, when his eyes fixed, his mouth foamed, he writhed and howled faintly, and fell dead.

"Take away that carcass," said the Count, sternly," and this wretch to prison. To-morrow he dies. You all see for what."

Gaston was led away mute, his eyes fixed, not knowing what to think. When the dungeon door closed over him, he sat down, motionless, stupid, senseless. Great Heavens! Accused of poisoning his father, who would believe his innocence? The old Count, meanwhile, in his chamber's retirement, for the whole night and day paced up and down. He slept not; he was well nigh mad, Such a wife, and such a son, at least, might have been spared him. At last, a thought struck him. He would hear from Gaston's own lips the cause and truth. "What, oh! a light there." They undo the prison door; the light strikes on the damp walls. There sits Gaston, motionless. He has not stirred; his hair dishevelled, his face pale, his eyes fixed. "Leave me," said the father to the attendants. "I will see him alone. Gaston," he cried. The boy's eye for a moment brightened. "He is dying!" shouted the father, and flung himself on the ground, and put his arm round his neck. It was so. Gaston knew it was his father; but it was too late. He whispered to him all, kissed his old face, blessed him, and begged his blessing, and then died.

The Count fell motionless, too. But his stern nature was strong; his heart broke not. But when he came away from his dead son, he never smiled again.

Literature.

Notes and Narratives of a Six Years' Mission, Principally among the Dens of London.-The most repulsive feature of the English social system is the mental poverty of the lower classes. What the children of this generation are, the men of this generation were; and the fruits of the neglect of their education is apparent in an amount of heathenism perfectly frightful. There is plenty of work for missionaries of any kind or creed, who preach temperance instead of drunkenness, and patience instead of violence; and it would be hard, indeed, if points of theology should start up in Cow-cross. The following is from the annual report to the City

Mission:

"The Cow Cross district appears ever to have been regarded as one of the very worst class of districts visited by the City Mission. Indeed, the state and character of the inhabitants on various portions of the district, almost baffle description. But the other day a woman was heard, whilst washing her child, teaching the child to utter abominable expressions, and threatening the infant with chastisement if it disobeyed. Such a circumstance is far from uncommon. Extreme ignorance and extreme drunkenness prevail on the district. Bred in vice and ignorance, as above fearfully described, the children hear oaths and execrations around them continually. They grow up hardened and vicious. Half-starved and half-naked, the boys crowd in shoals, meditating plunder: and Mr. Serjeant Adams, at the Sessions House, abutting on the district, remarked lately on the vast numbers of juvenile delinquents brought from the vicinity. shopkeepers complain loudly to your missionary of the continued losses they sustain, by the abstraction of goods from their shops.

The

"Fifty shops are open on the district for trade on the Sabbathday.

66

Fights are very common on the district, amongst women as well as men. On one occasion four women fought one, and, in common phraseology, nearly beat her to death. She was represented as a mass of bruises from head to foot.

residing in

"A mere child, named Sonly eleven years of age, is now in the House of Correction. The charge was theft, and threatening to stab the prosecutor. The police are abused and defied by some of the inhabitants from their windows; and on a recent occasion, whilst conveying a party to the station-house, charged with committing a desperate assault on the superintendent of our Ragged School on the Sabbath, were stoned and pelted by the partizans of the delinquent in a most savage manner. One woman, the other day, kicked another violently in the bowels, only the day previous to her confinement. But we must pause; suffice it to add, that, speaking with the utmost caution, two out of three adults in the district appear to be drunkards, and it is well known how peculiarly

mischievous this vice is, in extinguishing right feelings, and even natural affection, and lifting up in the soul the rampant influences of the flesh and the devil."

Again

"On visiting one family in Frying-pan Valley, I found the husband, who had long been out of work, gnawing something black, and inquired what it was; he appeared reluctant to explain, but upon pressing the inquiry, said it was a bone he had picked off a dunghill, and charred in the fire, and was gnawing. What little fire they had consisted of cinders picked off a dustheap on his way to the chemical works at Mile End, in search of employment, where he had worked for many years, and was discharged on a reduction of hands taking place. I am not sure my eyes did not fill with tears. These people were actually starving; they had been without food for two days. I immediately gave them some money for food, which was instantly procured, and on eating it, the wind in both parents occasioned so much hysteric that I was really alarmed.

6

"Another poor man known to me to be in extreme distress, was describing the effects of fasting for three days. The fust day,' said he, taint so werry bad if you has a bit of 'bacca; the second it's horrid, it is, sich gnawing; the third day it aint so bad again, you feels sickish like, and werry faintish.' This man is extremely industrious, and very sober. He is a gipsy.

"A very large amount of temporal distress is attributable to indiscretion, and to sin. The following is an instance :-A young woman, named was about eighteen years of age at the period referred to, and far from vulgar in appearance or demeanour. When first I visited her, she had an infant about six months old, and was endeavouring to support herself and child by shirt-work and shoe-binding. The poor creature was worn to the bone by hard work, starvation, and trouble. Only by extreme toil could she pay the partial rent of a room, and obtain a couple of scanty meals a day-commonly a little bread and tea. She was in respectable service at the period she fell into temptation. I saw the father of the child on one occasion; he allowed her nothing for months, and appeared heartless and vain. She was called to the door, and the poor person with whom she resided informed me by whom. I could hear the few words that passed, which led me to form the above opinion concerning him. She could not bear the shame, she said, of going before a magistrate respecting him. Her child was exceedingly fractious, and would not sleep in the day, and so hindered her in her work, that she was almost starved. She wept on several occasions, and appeared wretched. Into what awful circumstances of temptation may one false step lead us! Illustrative of this, she told me on one occasion she had been dreadfully tempted. The child was so cross she was prevented from working much in the day, and had to sit up in the night, hungry and cold, to stitch shirts and bind shoes, or she could not get a bit of bread at all;'' and when I looked at that little thing,'

she said, and thought how miserable and starved I was on account of it, and if I hadn't it I might be well fed in a comfortable place as I was before, I felt horribly tempted to destroy it, and it seemed,' said the poor young creature, passing her hand over her forehead, 'it seemed to come so strong upon me, I was almost doing it; when one night I dreamed I had done it, and the baby was lying dead in a little coffin. I felt dreadful, and I heard a voice sayit seemed like God-"Thou shalt do no murder." Well,' said she, 'when I woke up and found the child was not dead, and that I had not killed it, oh! how thankful I was! and I didn't have those horrid thoughts afterwards.' The tears ran down the poor creature's wan cheeks, and she pressed the unconscious infant to her with anything but the embrace of a murderess; but she had, I doubt not, been fearfully tempted.

"A dream is often vanity, yet there are occasions when God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then he openeth the cars of men, and sealeth their instruction that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.'-Job xxxiii. 14—18.

'Some dreams are useless, moved by turbid course

Of animal disorder; not so all.

Deep moral lessons some impress, that nought

Can afterwards efface: and oft in dreams

The master passion of the soul displays

His huge deformity,

# *

Warning the sleeper to beware, awake.'

Six

"The parish would not receive her unless she affiliated her child; this she refused to do, and after enduring these manifold afflictions, for a time, became dangerously afflicted with typhus fever. persons, three in one room, were afflicted in this small house with fever of a very malignant type. The malaria was so strong, I was not ridden of it from my nostrils for some time after my repeated visits. One person was removed to the Fever Hospital and died. The others appeared to have much groundless dread of being removed to that excellent institution.

"Whilst delirious, it was very affecting to see this poor girl's child crawling and playing over her. It was an ideal of helplessness and misery. When recovered, she commenced attendance on public worship, and I have some hope respecting her condition of mind. "It is an axiom that impurity and misery are sooner or later unfailing in companionship. Blessed would it have been for this poor child of woe, if she had borne the yoke of obedience to Christ in her youth; she would not have walked in the ways of much vanity, and her voice would not have been heard in fellowship with sinners.-(Lam. iii.)

"Blessed, thrice blessed is that religion which rises in the soul in

life's moruing! My young reader, this case may have a message from God to thee; want of religion in youth may precipitate into many remediless errors besides impurity:

'Oh! smile not; nor think it a worthless thing,
If it be with instruction fraught;

That which will closest and longest cling,

Is alone worth a serious thought!

Should aught be unlovely, with power to shed
Grace on the living, and hope on the dead?

Now in thy youth beseech of Ilim,

Who giveth, upbraiding not;

For light in thy heart, that shall never grow dim,
And love, that Christ be not forgot.

And through life and in death thy God will be
Honour, and glory, and strength to thee.

"I could fill a volume with details of extreme want and starvation. The excessive penury of numbers arises from intemperance, but this is very far from always being the case."

Paris Fashions, for August 1853.

(From our own Correspondent.) Rue de Richelieu, à Paris, Juillet 27. You will perceive that scarf mantilles are very much en vogue; those of full size are mostly in accordance with the present style, that is, short and square at the ends.

Chapeaux.-Fancy straw chapeaur increase in favour for the public promenade; this is, perhaps, owing to their extreme lightness, and the great variety of their trimmings. There are, also, several chapeaux with taffeta or poult de soie crowns, and brims composed of alternate bands of crin and gauze, of the colour of the crown, cut bias, and lightly bouillonnée, exceedingly beautiful. Different shades of green and yellow are in favour for the silks employed for these chapeaux: some have the exterior trimmed with ribbon only, and the interiors decorated with a rose on each side; a small cluster of buds descends from each: the roses are either of a full or

a very pale shade of red. There are, also, some of these chapeaux with brims composed of paille d'Italie and blonde. Fancy straw is much used both for bonnets and trimmings. Rosettes of narrowpattern straw are mixed with ribbons both for outside and inside ornaments of these light and graceful bonnets.

Capotes are often composed of a mixture of straw and taffetas or tulle.

Hats are still worn far back on the head, and a superabundance of trimmings.