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life; he married Fanny Spenser, a daughter of Admiral Spenser."

"Good God!"

Why are you surprised?" asked he gravely. "Why, General, I must be candid with you; truth and honour compel me to a disclosure, which, I am sure will, as a friend of the family, cause you exceeding pain." The General was now surprised in his turn.

"Good heavens!" he ejaculated, "Nothing has happened to Mrs. Murray or the child, I hope." "I don't know who you mean by Mrs. Murray," I replied, with great seriousness. "It is of Lady St. Leger and her sister that I am about to speak." And I then told him every circumstance of guilt, with their corroborating proofs, to which I had been so unwilling a witness; I told him all without disguise; to all of which he listened, as I thought, very calmly, apathetically indeed, considering he was a friend of the family; but on the conclusion of my recitak to my great dismay he arose, put on his hat, and looking at me sternly, said, "Sir, the lady whom you have thus honoured by so great a share of your attention is not the intriguante you suppose, is not the paramour of Sir Charles St. Leger, but is no other than his wife and my god-daughter.—I wish you, Sir, a good morning."

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He had reached the door; I was in an agony; my hair stood on end;-" One word more, the Viscount?" "Is Captain Murray's elder brother. And before 1 take my leave, permit me to wish you a better occupation than clandestinely watching the actions of others, of misinterpreting the actions of an amiable and virtuous lady, and traducing the character of an estimable man, whose refinement of feeling you have neither mind to understand nor appreciate. Sir, I wish you again a good morning.'

What would I not have given at that moment of shame to have been on my travels down the bottomless pit. Anywhere rather than on the first floor at Brook-street. I was positively at my wits end.

I hung my head, completely abashed, discomfited-I had nothing to say, absolutely not a word -and was thoroughly ashamed of myself and my ingenuity. Had I possessed a tail, I should have slunk off with it hanging down between my legs, in the manner I have seen a discomfited dog do: but I had no such expressive appendage, and I could only ejaculate to myself at intervals during the whole of the next three days

"God bless my soul! what a false scent I have been on! And for a bachelor gentleman too, not at all given to invention! Yet how was I to guess that a wife could be in love with her husband? There is some excuse for me after all. God bless my soul!"

P. S. The St. Legers are returned-Captain Murray is with them-French blinds are putting up all over the house, "Othello's occupation's gone," can't stand it-off to the continent.

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STANZA TO MY HORSE.

BY E. BULWER, ESQ. M. P.

COME forth, my brave steed! the sun shines on the vale
And the morning is bearing its balm on the gale-
Come forth my brave steed, and brush off as we pass,
With the hoofs of thy speed, the bright dew from the grass.

Let the lover go warble his strains to the fair

I regard not his rapture, and heed not his care;

But now, as we bound o'er the mountain and lea,

I will weave, my brave steed, a wild measure for thee.

Away and away-I exult in the glow

Which is breathing its pride to my cheek, as we go;
And blithely my spirit springs forth as the air
Which is waving the mane of thy dark flowing hair,

Hail, thou gladness of heart, and thou freshness of soul!
Which have never come o'er me in pleasure's control-
Which the dance and the revel, the bowl and the board,
Though they flush'd, and they fever'd, could never afford.

In the splendour of solitude speed we along,
Through the silence, but broke by the wild linnet's song
Not a sigh to the eye-not a sound to the ear-
To tell us that sin and that sorrow are near.

Away-and away-and away then we pass,

- The blind mole shall not hear thy light hoof on the grass ; And the time which is flying, whilst I am with thee, Seems as swift as thyself—as we bound o'er the lea.

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THE WOODPECKER.

WOODPECKERS are found in various parts of the world: they live on insects; in search of which they are generally seen climbing up and down trees. They are admirably calculated for their mode of life: the foot of the Woodpecker is scansorial; its tongue is long and slender; its point is sharp and barbed; it is furnished with a powerful set of muscles, affixed to two long, slender and elastic processes of the os hyoides, or bones of the tongue, which, passing backward close to the articulation of the lower mandible, encircle the back part of the head, and terminate on the frontal bone. By means of this curious apparatus, the bird has the power of darting its tongue into clefts and crevices of great depth, where it transfixes the insects on which it feeds. It is also capable, by means of its bill, which is sharp, strong, and pointed, of boring holes in trees. The tail is composed of ten rémarkably stiff and sharp-pointed feathers; these are bent inwards, and the bird supports itself upon them when climbing, or clinging to the trunks of trees. Nearly all the Woodpeckers lay their eggs in holes, formed by the birds' bills, except those of Guinea and Brazil, which suspend their curious habitations from slender boughs," where neither the mischievous monkies, nor the numerous snakes, which, in vain, wreathe their terrific forms round the trunks below, can possibly reach them." It is worthy of observation, that the Woodpeckers in other parts of the world do not even line the holes, in which they lay their eggs, with feathers, wool, or any material whatever.

There are many varieties of this genus. Buffon, in his account of the Yellow Woodpecker of Cayenne, says that the natives call it the Yellow Carpenter. There is also a three-toed Woodpecker, having two toes before and one behind: both of these birds, like most of the genus, have fine plumage. The Green Woodpecker is a well-known English species: it is called, in several parts, the Laugher, · from its making a noise very much like laughing, "particularly before the welcome showers of spring." The Carolina Woodpecker is rather less than the Green Woodpecker: the top of its head and neck are of a beautiful scarlet colour; the breast is olive, the belly reddish, and the back, wings and tail black, with markings of light brown and white. The smallest of the genus is a native of South America, and about the size of a Wren.

THE PEACOCK.

THIS bird, now so common in this country, is of eastern origin, and has been the admiration of all ages from that of King Solomon* to the present. Found in a wild state in many parts of Africa and Asia, but are no where so large as in India in the neighbourhood of the Ganges, from whence by degrees they have spread into all parts, increasing in a wild state in the warm climes, but wanting some care in the colder regions. They seem to prefer the most elevated places to roost on of nights, such as high trees, tops of houses, and the like. Their cry is loud and inharmonious, a perfect contrast to their external beauty.

The life of this bird is reckoned by some at about 25 years, by others 100. They average about three feet eight inches in length.

* Every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold and silver, ivory, asses and peacocks. 2 Chron. ix. 21.

SINGULAR EFFECT OF IMAGINATION.

ONE of the most singular cases of the effect of the imagination upon weak and credulous minds, stated in Darwin's Zoonomia, is that of a gentleman in England, who, walking over his grounds, found a poor old woman upon his premises, gathering sticks. He ordered her to lay them down, and go off his lands. She obeyed the command; but after she had laid down the faggots, she cast her wan eye upon him, and lifting her nerveless arm to heaven, exclaimed in a plaintive tone, “Mayest thou never know the blessing to be warm!" The man was struck with her suppliant imprecation; he returned to his house, retired to his chamber, complained of cold, and notwithstanding the application of woollens, and heat from fires, he continued to labour under this disease of the imagination for a few weeks, when he died! His offence was comparatively small; he performed a lawful act, and that in a comparatively lenient manner; but her imprecation upon him was too powerful for his nerves to sustain.

SHAKSPEARE'S CHAMBER.

SUCH is the idolatry manifested for the chamber wherein Shakspeare first inhaled the breath of life, that its walls are literally covered throughout with the names of visitors, traced in pencil by their own hands. The surface of the apartment is merely whitewashed, laid on about twenty years back, during which time, the ceiling, sides, projecting chimney, in short, every portion of the surface, has been written over, so that a list of signatures would at once exhibit all the character and genius of the age, and prove, of itself, a singular curiosity. Among the names thus registered, are those of Moore and Scott, the poets, with the distinguished tragedians, Kemble and Kean; and in honour of the bard, is also the signatures of his late majesty, then Regent, as well as that of his royal brother, the Duke of Clarence, to which may be added those of at least half the two houses of Parliament, and numerous foreigners of the highest distinction, particularly autographs of Lucien Bonaparte and the Austrian Princes.

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