year brought about changes which we little dreamt of. I, for my part, had severe duty, from two in the morning, when we rode out on horseback, until ten at night, besides the frequently occurring salute with the heavy flag, which was, for my young strength, a small foretaste of the toilsome days awaiting me.

When the passage of the French was at an end, we returned back to our old garrison and our old idleness, which I heartily longed to change for a freer, more active life, as is the case too at present with our young officers. I therefore heard, with lively joy, that our regiment was to march into Hanan to levy contributions.

Here was at least a change of scene; the march pleased me wondrously, as well as the exchange of our everyday life for what appeared to me so new and busy. Our place of abode, too, offered many pleasures; it was in the so-named free jurisdiction of Hanan, and was invested by the Elector with a force for levying contribution, because the youth of the district had refused entering the service of the sovereign under whose government this jurisdiction had only lately been placed. Our treatment was excellent; every non-commissioned officer received tenpence a day, and every private fivepence; the officers were on free quarters, and allowed considerable table-money besides. These reprisals soon overcame all opposition; so that after the expiration of some weeks we left the neighbourhood, not for our garrison, but, conform ably to the circumstances of the times, through Hanan for GellenhauHere extraordinarily good quarters were allotted to me in a water-mill, adjacent to the town, whose zealous catholic owners had for a long time afforded hospitality to a French emigrant priest, as to a highly honoured guest. This gentleman was very glad that I could converse with him in his mother-tongue, and the partiality which he on that account evinced for me, imparted itself in such a degree to his hosts, that they let me want for nothing.

sen.

The comfortable bed, however, which I obtained through this attention, held me prisoner sometimes beyond my appointed time, and I omitted oftener than was right to go my rounds. Notwithstanding I made my report each time to the Adjutant at the accustomed hour, that " nothing new had occurred in my quarters." For a time all went on well, but the Adjutant-I know not how-became aware of my negligence; and when I again, with a bold forehead, came to bear witness to the health and good behaviour of my subordinates, he observed, shaking his head, "That surprises me; you certainly have not properly visited them: Sergeant Richter is lying sick in his quarters" -they were in a distant part of the town;-"make haste to the surgeon, and send him off to the invalid.”

Conscience-stricken, I ventured not the smallest observation, but thought only to repair my fault by making the greatest possible haste, resting not until I had found the surgeon and seen him on his road to the sick man ; whereupon I returned to my quarters. Here, seated in my great arm-chair, I was complacently surveying a row of little pictures of angels which I had strung upon a pack-thread, exactly over the stove, and which danced about with the motion of the mill machinery, when all at once in rushed the surgeon, who, red with choler and a hot walk, threw himself upon a chair opposite, and thus in a rage addressed me, "I would you were in heaven, young sir, with your sergeants, to send me in this boiling heat to the other end of the suburbs; and when I reach the quarter there sits the fellow in heart's content

over a portion of brandy and sausage enough to make even as healthy a man as himself sick. What the deuce put such thing into your head?" I soon perceived that the Adjutant had set a trap for me, into which I had blindly fallen; but to have dragged the poor surgeon in with me gave me great concern. I ruefully stated my case to him, and prepared myself to be well reprimanded-as fell out in the sequel-by the Adjutant, as well as by the captain of my company. In future I was more careful.

THE CONSUMPTIVE.

MOTHER! Sweet mother! my poor heart is breaking,
To see thee thus mourning so sadly for me,
And sooner I shall my last slumber be taking,--
I fain would delay, to be longer with thee.

Thy greeting is now in the language of sorrow,
That once would delight me with accents of love;

And the smiles that at times thy worn features will borrow,
But the pain of awaking them bitterly prove!

Oh, why art thou changed? Is thy child less endearing,
That thus she is chiding the tears from thine eyes?
Or canst thou mistrust the fond looks she is wearing,
To tell thee what thoughts in her bosom arise ?

Forgive me, sweet mother,-I would not distress thee,
Or doubt an affection so true as thine own;
And long may the spirit in yonder land bless thee,

When the bird thou hast cherish'd hath thitherward flown.

I know that my days on this fair earth are closing,
That the glow on my cheek but betokens decay,
Like the flower that seemingly fair is reposing,
Though slowly within it is wearing away.

I feel my strength fail me; but light is the burden
That Fate could impose, were it only on me;
But, mother, though glory itself is the guerdon,
I turn from the thought, and cling closer to thee!

My dreams are of heaven,-its beauties unveiling,
Invite me to wander and taste of their bliss ;
But sudden I see thee, and love then assailing,
O'ershadows yon region while thou art in this!

I hear the glad hymns from the side of still waters,
That angels are tuning to welcome the blest;
And, though I would join God's worshipping daughters,
While thou wert all lonely, could I be at rest?

Ah, mother! how happy 'twould be, if together
We journey'd away from this valley of tears,
And blending our hearts in communion for ever,
We knew not a grief, with no cause for our fears!

But should it be will'd that I enter before thee
The portals of darkness that leads us on high,
My spirit, unfetter'd, will then hover o'er thee,
And thou wilt be conscious thy child is still nigh!

VOL. XVII.

N N

MR. YELLOWLY'S DOINGS.

BY CHARLES WHITEHEAD.

In his elbow chair, by the side of the fire, with the newspaper in one hand and the bell-rope in the other, sat Mr. Yellowly, a gentleman just so far advanced in life as to make the suspicion reasonable that the remainder of the journey was not likely to prove so pleasant as that which he had gone through; and who, accordingly, if such a thing might have been, would willingly have walked back two or three stages.

And yet, neither the aspect, speech, nor manners of Mr. Yellowly were such as to lead one to the conclusion that he had been particularly well-treated on the road. On the contrary, to judge from these, it might have been supposed that wherever he had put up he had been put up," and that he had not so much been taken in to bait as taken in to be baited. He was very morose, impatient, and crusty: laughing, however, a good deal, (if a short, dry, husky chuckle may be called a laugh,) but ever at wrong times and seasons; as though the man were bound by a covenant to laugh during his lifetime as much as his neighbours; with a special proviso in his own favour, or rather for his own satisfaction, that he might make up his allotted quantity of laughter on occasions upon which none of his neighbours would have dreamt of moving a muscle.

A word concerning his person. He was very tall; but an ugly stoop of the shoulders lessened his height. He was exceedingly thin — so thin, that he must have inherited the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to in right of his bones, which even now were large and strong enough to maintain any right belonging to him. He was terri bly pitted with the small-pox, and was of an adust complexion; and he had large ears, which no audible sound could escape, and small eyes, from which no visible object was hidden.

The newspaper did not seem to yield him much satisfaction. "Pish!" "Stuff!" "Absurd!" fell from him at intervals. "Here's a fellow broke his leg down a fire-escape! Ha! ha! ha! Insured, too. He should send in the surgeon's bill to the office. The Phoenix must pay him who nicks the fees. Ha! ha! Well done X 97! Always use your baton across the head of an Irishman before you take him into custody. It reminds him of home."

Mr. Yellowly threw down the paper, and rang the bell violently. The landlady obeyed the summons on the instant.

"At it again, old Yellowly!" said she, wiping her hands upon her apron as she ascended the stairs: "what a man it is!-always on the foot for him up and down-up and down - up and down, all the blessed day long."

-

She opened the door. "Good morning, sir!" with a curtsey invariably accorded to "furnished" lodgers.

"Come in, marm," said Mr. Yellowly testily; "don't stand in the passage. I can't bellow to make myself heard out there. Now, marın; you were telling me of the people on the second floor-the young man and woman, and brat-"

"A sweet child!" cried Mrs. Lettsom.

"

"How do you know? have you ever bitten a piece out of him? cried Yellowly with a sneer. "Ha! ha! a sweet child-sweet! Pah!" with an explosion that made the landlady start. "Well, I ask you, marm (the marm very broad), whether you think they're honest?'

"Honest! why you haven't missed nothing, sir?" cried Mrs. Lettsom. "La! sir! you've given me such a turn!"

"Yes, you spun round terribly. Such a turn!-pish!" exclaimed Yellowly. "No, I've missed nothing yet. What d'ye think of 'em? Do they owe you much?"

"Well-they're back in their rent nine weeks come Monday," answered Mrs. Lettsom; "but I can't but say, I think they'll pay me as soon as they can."

"Ha! ha! Why?"

Why, sir, because I like the looks of both of 'em, and the sweet -leastways, the little baby, too."

"Ho! ho! ho!" said Mr. Yellowly with emphatic regularity of cadence, and after casting up his hands and eyes, he enjoyed a hearty private chuckle over against the bell-rope.

During this piece of self-indulgence on the part of Mr. Yellowly, Mrs. Lettsom, who had no small faith in her oratorical powers, was seriously arranging her withered flowers of rhetoric.

"Well, sir," she began; "I am free to confess―"

"Free to confess-free to confess!-Bah!" interrupted Yellowly. (Let us add, and no wonder. Since Mrs. Lettsom has taken the phrase into favour, let us hope we shall never again hear the wretched slang in the House of Commons.)

"Free to confess," pursued Mrs. Lettsom, who was not so easily to be bullied out of so genteel a mode of speech-" when Mrs. Barrett first took my rooms, I did expect they'd have brought a deal more goods along with 'em-nothing but a bed and bedstead, a few chairs and an old table, and a pictur' or two of Mr. Barrett's own painting. Lud! how the bits o' things did jump about the great big van they'd hired, as it came trundling down the street."

"The fresh air had given 'em spirits, marm," said Yellowly.

"He! he he! I suppose So. Well, sir, Mrs. Barrett and the baby came first, before the goods, and she told me a long pedigreehow they'd been once all right and comfortable; but Mr. Barrett had accepted bills for a friend, and had had to pay two or three, and they were hunted to death about the rest; but I should be sure of my rent, and-"

Mr. Yellowly had been paying little attention to this speech. His eyes were directed towards something at the door, and having slily divested his foot of one slipper, just as Mrs. Lettsom had arrived at the point at which we paused, he launched it with malicious energy towards the object which had attracted his attention. A loud yelp and a scouring along the passage attested the triumph of his skill.

The landlady would have resented this unprovoked assault upon her highly-favoured and ill-favoured canine domestic, only that in all cases of "Lettsom v. Yellowly," she held a three-guinea weekly brief against the plaintiff, and was by no means disposed to throw it up. She could not, however, conceal a tinge of displeasure, with an “O sir! how could you?"

"What the devil, marm, do you mean by always bringing your dog

with you," cried Yellowly, "as though you took me for a rat or a badger?"

"I never knew a dumb animal more harmless and unoffensive than him," said Mrs. Lettsom demurely.

"A dumb animal! I wish he were mute.

He makes a devil of a noise. I'll have him in a noose or the water-butt before long. I hate the pudgy, dapper beast. He's out-grown his jacket-curse him! and has got a patent perpetual-motion appendix."

"Lud! what's that, sir?" said the landlady, laughing.

"A tail always wagging," replied the other fiercely. "Go up-stairs to Mr. Barrett, and ask him if he'll breakfast with me. No first go down-stairs, and boil three or four what-should-have-been-long-beforethis, old cocks and hens,—the new-laid eggs. Tell Barrett not to keep me waiting."

Mrs. Lettsom departed to fulfil her mission, muttering, "An old badger! and so you are; and an old bear, too. I won't boil the eggs first-old fool!"

Mr. Barrett himself answered the knock at his door, and received the message. It seemed to cause him considerable surprise. First, he passed his hand across his chin, intimating that he was not shavedthen cast his eye upon the sleeve of his old coat with a shake of the head, significantly expressive of his knowledge that it was old, and then turned towards his wife, as though he took it for granted (as was indeed the case) that these signs had been understood.

Mrs. Lettsom also was not unaware of their import. "O! bless you; don't mind him," said she; "he won't care how you looknot he."

"Think not?" said Barrett, with a dubious brow.

"Not a bit-not a bit. I'll tell him you're coming."

"With my compliments," said Barrett, calling after her, and putting himself forthwith under his wife's transforming hand, who presently brushed his old coat, stuck up his hair, arranged the folds of his stock, sewed on a button to his waistcoat, and dismissed him with tolerable confidence in his exterior.

Mr. Yellowly saluted his visitor, as he entered the room, with a kind of grunt. "If I were to say, Barrett, I'm happy to see you, I should tell a lie, which I don't mean to do," said he, with a mock bow and a wry face. "I'm not sorry you're come, though; for I want my breakfast. Sit down-no; just pick up that slipper,-that's it-thank'ee. I caught Master Pincher at last-hang him! I'd long had my eye upon him."

At this moment Mrs. Lettsom appeared with the toast and eggs. "Now, Barrett," said his host, "fall to. I want to speak to you; but not now. Mum's the word at munching time, eh? What the devil are you laughing at?"

Nothing, sir," said Barrett hastily.

"You're like the rest of the world, sir," observed Yellowly; “to laugh at nothing is to lay a trap for the tooth-ache."

"A strange old blade, this," thought Barrett, taking an egg. When breakfast was at length dispatched, and the tea-things removed, Mr. Yellowly took two or three turns about the room, listened at the door, and then came and sat down directly opposite his visitor, staring him full in the face, for a space of some moments.

"Mr. Barrett, I have something to say to you. But, stay-first