was first by shooting and wounding him, and then to let a couple of hounds pull the animal down; but modern park-keepers generally take aim with such certainty as to bring the buck to the ground without the assistance of the canine race; and this they are anxious to do, in order to prevent the hounds from tearing him, which spoils the beauty of the venison. When a deer has been wounded, and not killed, he immediately makes for his companions of the herd; but they, like faithless friends in human life, take every method of avoiding him. poor. The young student no sooner beheld this amiable lady, than he became enamoured, and had the good fortune to inspire her with an equal passion. So rapid was the progress of their mutual flame, that in a few weeks he made her an offer of marriage, and in the transports of his af fection, gave her a promise in his hand-writing. It was in one of these transporting intervals that the poor young lady forgot her prudence; thus love, in an instant, supersedes that which is the work of years, and the fruits of incessant cultivation. The effects of this amour could not long be concealed, and the unhappy girl was obliged to tell the sad tale to her mother, who disclosed it to her father. It was now past the season for reproaches; all that was left them, was to lay their heads together, to discover the best remedy which the case admitted. After a reasonable consultation, it was agreed that the parents should feign a design of going into the country that same evening, while the daughter, on this pretext, was to give an interview to her lover at their own house, so that they may be surprised together. The contrivance succeeded entirely; the lover was surprised, and, in the first emotions of his fear, confessed himself ready to enter into any engagement that would be deemed most satisfactory. Not to lose this opportunity, they pressed him upon his word, and forced him to sign a contract of marriage. This business was scarcely transacted in the regular form by a notary, before the young gentleman felt his passion unac-` countably chilled; and a sense of compulsion gave the engagement into which he had entered, the colour of an odious obligation. He quitted his mistress in' two or three days after this trans action with very little ceremony, and repaired to his father, to whom he related his story from beginning to end. This father was, as fathers often are, a stranger to the true interests of his child, and determined against any match for his son, that was not brilliant in point of fortune and connexion. In this difficulty, the only means of escaping was by entering immediately into holy orders, a proposition to which the son readily agreed. Renee Corbeau received the intelligence of this cruel transaction with such grief and indignation as was natural in her situation. Her parents determined to avenge her infamy, and entered into a prosecution of the perjured seducer. The affair was referred to Commissioners from the Parliament of Paris, of which Mons. de Villeray was President. Here the whole proceeding being traced and laid open, its iniquity appeared so flagrant in the eyes of the Judges, that the culprit was condemned to lose his head, unless he chose to fulfil his engagement; and as this was rendered impossible by his entrance into holy orders, it was decreed that the sentence of decapitation should be executed. He had only a few hours given him to prepare himself, with the aid of his confessor, for his approaching dissolution. me In the mean time the heart of Renee Corbeau was cruelly torn when she considered what a la mentable end her excessive love was on the point of bringing upon its object. She was unable to support this idea; and, in a distracted; state of mind, rushed into the hall where the Judges were yet assembled. Here, with such eloquence as grief inspired, she thus addressed them :"Gentlemen, I come to present before you a lover, the most wretched that the cruelties of fortune have ever afflicted. In condemning to death that dear person, you pronounce the same sentence upon me-upon whom you have judged more unfortunate than culpable. Nay, the very infamy of his death will rebound to me; and I shall die, alas! as dishonoured as I have lived. You have done this to repair the wound my honour has received; but in doing it you have doubled my disgrace, and have made me an object of detestation to the world. How can you reconcile such a conduct with the justice you profess? You were men before you judges, and have some of you what lovers feel: yes, you have felt enough to paint to your imaginations the torment which one who dearly loves must feel, when she can reproach herself with being the cause of death--of a were felt 1 miserable death, to the object of her passion. Tell me, if ye are men, and sympathise like men, is there in the compass of your decrees a punishment equal to this terrible idea? Death is a blessing in comparison. I am now going, Sirs, to open your eyes, I have hitherto concealed ، my crime, that your decision might be favorable to me; but, urged by remorse, I can no longer dissemble my guilt. It was I that loved the first : I commanicated the flame which was cont suming me; I was the seducer; I was the instrument of my own dishonour. Spare an innocent person-spare my love; and let your punishments fall upon the. real offender. He has, indeed, engaged in holy orders, to avoid the necessity of fulfilling his contract. But this is not his own action ;git is the action of a bar barous father, whom he had no power to resist. Is it right in you, who are fathers, to post pone the duties of a child, to the duties of a lover? But how can you retract your first decree ? You condemned my lover to death, unless he performed his promise to me; and then, by your second award, you precluded that option which your first had allowed. You permit him a mockery of choice, and then choose for him what his own heart would of course have rejected. That he may yet marry me, in spite of the profession he has embraced, who can doubt? Although, in truth, I am nothing but an ignorant girl, my love prompts my tongue upon this occasion. Ah! what science could not such love as mine inspire me with, if its interests required it! Yes, I know-and you, Sirs, cannot be ignorant, that an ecclesiastic may marry with a dispensation from the pope. The legate from his holiness is expected soon to arrive, and he has all the plenitude of the papal power. I will ask myself-on my knees will I beg this dispensation, and I know I shall obtain it. My love is a match for all abstacles. Oh ! deign, then, to suspend the execution of your decree, till the legate arrives, Though you still persist in thinking the crime of my lover enormous, alı! consider, in your clemency, what crime is not all the apparatus and show of death, that has already moved before bis eyes, sufficient to expiate? Are you still inflexible? Then refuse me not the consolation of dying under the same axe with my lover. The judges were melted, and suspended the decree; but the legate was so struck with the iniquity of the young man's conduct, that he would grant the dispensation to no instances or tears. Distracted with the disappointment, Renee Corbeau rushed into the presence of the king, and threw herself at his feet. It was Henry the Fourth, and afflicted beauty was imploring his assistance ;-little more need be said. The kind monarch himself became her advocate, and easily obtained the dispensation. The marriage was immediately celebrated, and became the happiest in all France. THE PORTER OUTWITTED. THE Marquis Della Scalas, an Italian nobleman, having invited the neighbouring gentry to a grand entertainment, the majordomo entering the drawing-room hastily, told the marquis there, On was a wonderful fisherman below, who had brought one of the finest fish in all Italy; for which, however, he demanded a most extravagant price," Regard not his price," cried the marquis; "pay him the money directly." "So I would, please your highness, but he refuses to take any money." "What, then, would the fellow have?" "An hundred strokes of the strappado on his bare shoulders, my lord; he says, he will not bate a single blow." this the whole company ran down stairs to see so singular a man, "A fine fish!" cried the marquis, "What is your demand, my friend?" Not a quatrini, my lord," answered the fisherman; "I will not take money. If your lordship wishes to have the fish, you must order me a hundred lashes of the strappado on my naked back; otherwise I shall apply elsewhere." "Rather than lose the fish," said the marquis, 64 we must e'en let this fellow have his humour. Here!" cried he, to one of his grooms, "discharge this honest man's demands, but don't lay on too hard; don't hurt the poor devil very much!" The fisherman then stripped, and the groom prepared to execute his lordship's orders. "Now, my friend," said the fisherman, "keep an exact account, I beseech you; for I don't desire a single stroke more than my due." The whole company were astonished at the amazing fortitude with which the mian submitted to the operation, till he had received the fiftieth lash; when, addressing himself to the servant, Hold, my friend," cried the fisherman; "I have now had my full share of the price." "Your share!" exclaimed the marquis; "what is the meaningof all this?"? My lord," re 66 66 turned the fisherman, “I have a partner, to whom my honour is engaged, that he shall have his full half of whatever I receive for the fish; and your lordship, I dare venture to say, will byand-by own that it would be a thousand pities to defraud him of a single stroke.” “And pray, honest friend," said the marquis, "who is this partner?" "Your porter, my lord,” answered the fisherman, "who keeps the outer gate, and refused to admit me, unless I would promise him half what I should obtain for the fish." "Ho! Ho!" exclaimed the marquis, laughing very heartily, “by the blessing of heaven, he shall have double his demand in full tale!" The porter was accordingly sent for; and, being stripped to the skin, two grooms directed to lay on with all their might till he had fairly received what he was so well entitled to. The marquis then ordered his steward to pay the fisherman twenty sequins; desiring him to call annually for the like sum, as a recompense for the friendly service he had rendered him.、 were EXTRAORDINARY DUEL. The following letters and account are extracted from a manuscript found in the library of Mr. Goodwin, author of the life of Henry V., at the latter end of whose reign the affair is supposed to have happened, His Grace the Duke of B- MY LORD, The affront which you gave me at the Imperial minister's ball last night, would argue me a person very unworthy the character I bear, to let it pass unregarded. To prove me that adventurous knight, which your evasive expression would have given the noble lady to understand, may, perhaps, be the most acceptable means to reconcile your spleen; convince me then that you are more of a gentleman than I have reason to believe, by meeting me near the first tree behind the Lodge at Hyde Park, precisely at halfpast five to-morrow morning; and, that there may be no pretensions to delay, I have sent by the bearer of this two swords, of which I give you the privilege to make a choice, and shall approve of whatever terms of fighting you will be pleased to propose. In the interim I wish your lordship a good rest. B Whitehall, 9 o'clock. Lord B-'s answer to the above. I received your grace's message, and accept the contents. It would give me a sensible concern to be obliged to give up the pretensions which your grace is doubtful of. It was an oversight, I presume, that your grace gave me the privilege to choose my sword, except your grace has been so little used to this sort of ceremony as to have forgot that it is the challenger's choice. This, however, is but a trifle, (if any thing;) the terms I leave to our seconds, and will not fail to appear at the time appointed; and in the interim, I wish your grace a very good night. B Cavendish-square, 11 o'clock. After my Lord B. had answered his grace's letter, he visited several of his friends, and was observed to be remarkably jocose when at Lady Nottingham's. He told the messenger that carried |