with the hatred I bore towards himself; and I exulted in the thought, that I should perhaps be able to gratify, at one and the same moment, two of the fiercest passions of my nature— lust and revenge!

"I SUCCEEDED!

"In these two words let me shroud a tale of horror. Harriet was my victim! Ask not how. I triumphed! She fell! An angel might have fallen as she did, and lost no purity. But her stainless heart was too proud in virtue to palter and equivocate with circumstances. She never rose from what she deemed her bridal bed. And ere twenty summers had fanned her cheek, the grave-worm banqueted upon its loveliness.

"This was my first crime. The recollection of it is engraven upon my memory by an awful catastrophe. The night wind that sung her funeral dirge, howled with dismal fury through the burning ruins of my paternal mansion. Yes! that very night, as if it were in mercy to them, my father and my mother both perished in the flames which reduced the house itself to cinders. They were seen at the windows of their bedchamber, shrieking for aid; but before any could be procured, the flooring gave way, and they sunk at once into the yawning furnace that roared beneath. Their remains, when afterwards dug out, were a few shovelsfull of blackened ashes; except my father's right hand, which was found clasped in that of my mother, and both unconsumed. I followed these sad relics to the sepulchre. But with the tears I shed, there was blended a feeble consolation at the thought they had died before they knew the fate of Harriet ; and a frightful joy, that another pang was added to the wretchedness of my uncle.

"I can well remember what a feeling of loneliness and desolation now took possession of me. A few days, a few hours almost, had snapped asunder the only links by which I seemed to be held to this world. Froward as my youth had been-headlong as I had followed the impulse of my passions— my heart was not so seared, the springs of social virtue were not so dried up within me-my nature was not so bleak and barren-but that I often sighed, in bitterness of soul, over the wreck of things that had been. There were moments, too, when I would

gladly have paid the price of all my future life to redeem and cancel the past; for I already shrunk, with prophetic fears, from what was to come. Nor could the intoxicating anticipations of that ample wealth which awaited me, when another year should elapse, make me forget that I was doomed to enjoy it alone. I felt, too, that I should enter upon my inheri tance with a tainted name; a feeling which the falsehoods and fawnings of the parasites who surrounded me could not obliterate.

"Time, however, rolled on; and I grew callous, if not reconciled. I could not disguise from myself that the more select circles of society were closed against me; or, if I found my way into them, some blushing whisper was quickly circulated, which created a solitude around me. For several years I strove to bear down this ostracism of fashion, as I considered it, rather than of morals, by the imposing influence of money. There was no equipage-no establishment in the capital which surpassed my own; there was no patron of the arts, of literature, or of science, so munificent; there was no benefactor to public charities so liberal; there was no dispenser of private benevolence, whose alms were so ostentatiously blazoned forth. My name was on every tongue; my movements, and my actions, were the daily theme of the newspapers; I lived in the general eye; but I could not level the barrier which excluded me from the region I sought.

"It was during this period, and while I was thus squandering thousands to achieve the conquest of shadows, that I succeeded in fixing an intimacy with a family equal to my own in station, and superior to it in fortune. The eldest daughter was an heiress of large expectations, and my proposals of marriage were favourably received. I might almost say that Matilda was mine; when one day I received a letter from her father, peremptorily forbidding my visits. I was thunderstruck. I hastened to the house, and demanded an explanation. It was given in few words. I was referred to my uncle for any information I required.

"This blow struck me down. I had run through my patrimonial estate; but hoped, by my marriage with Matilda, to repair my shattered for

tune. Three weeks after it was known that the match was broken off, I was a prisoner for debt in the King's Bench! I breathed no curses upon the cause of this sudden reverse of fortune, but -I swore revenge, in silence; and I kept my oath. I languished away six months, a captive debtor; and then, taking the benefit of the act, I walk ed forth a beggar, to prey upon the world at large! I had studied, during that time, in an admirable school, where I found professors in every art by which fools are gulled, and knaves foiled with their own weapons. I was an apt scholar, and returned to the bosom of society, an adept in the science of polished depredation. Translate this into the language of the Old Bailey, and I became a swindler by profession. Like the eagle, however, I was a bird of prey that soared into the higher regions, and rarely stooped to strike the meaner tribes of my species. I had not lost, with the trappings of my birth, the manners and address of the sphere in which I had moved; and these were now my stock in trade for carrying on my new vo

cation.

"Among the children of misfortune with whom I associated in prison, was Charles Fitzroy; a bankrupt in every thing but exhaustless invention, and unconquerable perseverance. Give him the free use of his limbs, and with matchless dexterity he would make the contributions of the morning furnish out the riotous expenses of the evening. It was his boast, that he would breakfast with an empty pocket, and dine with a purse that should defray the carouse of a dozen friends. And I have known him fulfil his boast, with a heart as light, too, as became a man who thus made the credulous fools of the world his bankers. "I was needy, desperate, and an outcast; and I linked my destiny with Fitzroy's. He had my confidence; such confidence as confederates in knavery can bestow. When he obtained his liberty, which he did shortly after my own was accomplished, he introduced me to his companions; men who, like himself, lived by plundering the unwary, and who looked up to him as their Magnus Apollo. I was soon initiated in all their mysteries; and played my part to admiration at the gaming-table, on the race course, and in the ring.

"Fitzroy was master of the secret that festered near my heart; the increased and increasing hatred towards my uncle. I regarded him as my evil genius; for not only had he thwarted me in two of the dearest objects of my life; but his prediction of my boyhood had clung to me like a poisoned garment. I could not shake it off; and now, more than ever, it seemed accomplishing itself with rapid strides. It made me mad when I reflected upon the polluted channels through which my precarious means flowed, and thought of the luxurious enjoyments which his opulence commanded. It was true, I had dashed his cup with bitterness; but it was no less true, that it still flowed with sweets, while mine was brimming with gall. Fitzroy would often talk to me upon this subject, and devise schemes for a successful inroad upon his purse. At length a plan was matured between us, in which I could not appear, but which Fitzroy, and a picked few of our associates, undertook to execute.

"My uncle had always been pas sionately fond of the course, and prided himself upon his stud of racers. He betted largely, and was generally fortunate, probably because he selected his men with a wary eye. The race course, then, was the arena chosen for the enterprise; but admirable as were the projected plans, and skilfully as they were executed, such was his luck, or so profound were his calculations, that they failed five succes sive seasons. Fitzroy, however, was one of those men who, when satisfied that what they engage in ought to succeed, according to the means employed, only derive fresh vigour from every fresh defeat. He played his game a sixth time, and won. The same day that saw my uncle rise with thousands, saw him seek his pillow at night, a frantic beggar! He was too proud a man, too honourable, I will add, not to throw down his last guinea, in satisfaction of such demands. He never suspected villainy in the business. He paid his losses, therefore; and in less than a week afterwards, an inquest sat upon his body, which was found at the bottom of his own fish pond.

"I had my share of this infernal plunder; but so ravenous had been my appetite for revenge, that not one pang of remorse disturbed the riotous

enjoyments in which it was lavished. On the contrary, the very consciousness that it was my uncle's money I squandered, gave a zest to every excess, and seemed to appease the gnaw ing passions which had so long tormented me. In two or three years, however, boundless extravagance, and the gaming-table, stripped me of my last shilling. It was in one of the frenzied moments of this profligate reverse of fortune, that I committed the crime for which, if to-morrow dawned upon me, I should be publicly arraigned.

"Fitzroy had been fortunate the whole night. I had thrown with constant bad luck. He had pocketed some hundreds; I had lost more than I could pay. I asked him for a temporary loan of fifty pounds, to make good what I owed, and stake the small remaining sum for the chance of retrieving all. He refused me. It was the first time he had ever done so. But he not only refused me, he taunted me with sarcastic reproofs for my folly, and muttered something about the uselessness of assisting a man who, if he had thousands, would scatter them like dust. He should have chosen a fitter moment to exhort me, than when I was galled by my losses, and by his denial of my request. I was heated with wine too; and half mad with despair, half mad with drink, I sprung upon him, tore him to the earth, and before the bystanders could interfere to separate us, I had buried a knife, which I snatched from a table near me, up to the handle in his heart! He screamed -convulsively grappled me by the throat-and expired! His deathgripe was so fierce and powerful, that I believe had we been alone, his murderer would have been found strangled by his side. It was with difficulty that the horror-struck witnesses of this bloody scene could force open his clenched hands time enough to let me breathe.

"I have done! I remember, as if it were but yesterday, the silent response which my heart made, when my uncle pronounced that withering sentence on me. 'No!' was my indignant exclamation; I may deserve a hundred public deaths; but if I know myself, I would never undergo one!-NOR WILL I. When that which I have written shall be read-other

hopes and fears-other punishments, perchance, than man can awaken or inflict-will await me. My first crime -my first revenge, and my last, I have recorded; my last crime others must tell, when they speak of the murderer and SUICIDE,

"JAMES MORLEY."

"I have little doubt," said Captain Shackerly, laying down the manuscript, "that scarcely a moment intervened between his writing his name, and placing the pistol to his heart; for when he was discovered, the pen was lying on the paper, as if it had been laid down only for an instant."

"It is a singular narrative," observed Seymour," and in many passages betrays great symptoms of a highly excited morbid feeling."

"I cannot understand why he wrote it," said I, “unless he was afraid the world would not know the exact qualities of his very amiable character."

"Paradoxical as it may sound," replied Captain Shackerly, " I have no hesitation in affirming, that had Morley been trained the right way, he would have displayed some of the loftiest virtues that belong to us. But he was the mere creature of his passions, from the cradle to the grave; reason and self-discipline never directed or controlled a single action of his life."

We protracted our discourse upon this and various other subjects, till the moon lighted us on our path back to London, and the deep bell of St Sepulchre sounded the last half-hour before midnight, as Captain Shackerly knocked at the door of Newgate to fulfil his promise of returning the manuscript that night. Some men were digging Morley's grave. We approached the spot. There were about twenty other persons, mere passers by, casually assembled. The body was brought in a cart, which, being backed close to the edge of the hole, it was tilted up, and out rolled the corpse of the wretched man in his clothes as he died. I gave one look at him as he lay, doubled up, in his unblessed grave, and shuddered to think the dingy mass had been, within eight and forty hours, a living being like myself!

M.

WE were all-Julia, her aunt, and myself, seated at a comfortable fire on a December evening. The night was dark, starless, and rainy, while the drops pattered upon the windows, and the wind howled at intervals along the house-tops. In a word, it was as gloomy a night as one would wish to see in this, the most dismal season of the year. Strictly speaking, I should have been at home, for it was Sunday; and my own habitation was at too great a distance to justify a visit of mere ceremony on so sacred a day, and amid such stormy weather. The truth is, I sallied out to see Julia.

I verily believe I could write a whole volume about her. She came from the north country, and was at this time on a visit to her aunt, in whose house she resided; and in whose diningroom, at the period of my story, we were all seated round a comfortable fire. Though a prodigious admirer of beauty, I am a bad hand at describing it. To do Julia justice, however, I must make the attempt. She was ra ther under the middle size, (not much,) blue-eyed, auburn-haired, fair-complexioned, and her shape was of uncommon elegance and proportion. Neck, bosom, waist, ankles, feet, hands, &c. all were perfect, while her nose was beautifully Grecian, her mouth sweetness itself, and her teeth as white and sparkling as pearls. In a word, I don't believe that wide Scotland could boast of a prettier girl-to say nothing of merry England and the Isle of Saints.

It was at this time about eight o'clock: tea had just been over, the tray removed, and the table put to rights. The star of my attraction was seated at one side of the fire, myself at the opposite, the lady of the house in the centre. We were all in excellent humour, and Julia and I eyed each other in the most persevering style imaginable. Her aunt indeed rallied us upon the occasion; and I thought Julia never appeared half so beautiful as now.

"But pleasures are like poppies spread : You seize the flower, its bloom is shed."

So saith Robert Burns; and, truth to speak, his distich was never more effectually verified than at this interesting moment. A servant bouncing

by accident into a room where a gallant is on his knees before his mistress, and in the act of "popping the question," is vexatious. An ass thrusting its head through the broken window of a country church, and braying aloud while the congregation are busily chanting "Old Hundred," or some other equally devout melody, is vexatious. An elderly gentleman losing his hat and wig on a windy day, is vexatious. A young gentleman attempting to spring over a stile by way of showing his agility to a bevy of approaching ladies, and coming plump down upon the broadest part of his body, is vexatious. All these things are plagues and annoyances sufficient to render life a perfect nuisance, and fill the world with innumerable heartbreakings and felo-de-sees. But bad as they are, they are nothing to the intolerable vexation experienced by me, (and I believe by Julia too,) on hearing a slow, loud, solemn stroke of the knocker upon the outer door. It was repeated once-twice-thrice. We heard it simultaneously-we ceased speaking simultaneously-we (to wit, Julia and I) ceased ogling each other simultaneously. The whole of us suspended our conversation in a moment

looked to the door of the roombreathed hard, and wondered what it could be. The reader will perhaps marvel how such an impression could be produced by so very trivial a circumstance; but if he himself had heard the sound, he would cease to wonder at the strangeness of our feelings. The knocks were the most extraordinary ever heard. They were not those petty, sharp, brisk, soda-water knocks given by little, bustling, commonplace men. On the contrary, they were slow, sonorous, and determinate. What was still more remarkable, they were three in number, neither more nor less. There was something aweinspiring in this recondite number; and the strokes themselves were sufficiently striking and solemn to excite attention, had they been even more or less numerous than they were. should think that between each there must have been a pause of at least seven seconds and a half; and they were given with a firmness which be tokened no ordinary strength of hand.

I

The knocker, besides, I knew to be extremely stiff, so much so that on my entrance I could not make it move on its hinges, and was obliged to make my presence known by striking the door with my knuckles. All circumstances considered, I think we were justified in being a good deal fluttered by the majestic KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK, occurring as it did on a Sunday evening-a time when all good people are, or ought to be, at their devotions, instead of strolling out, as was my case, to the great scandal of religion, and danger of their own souls.

Scarcely had our surprise time to subside, than we heard the outer door opened by the servant-then it closed then heavy footsteps, one, two, and three, were audible in the lobby-then the dining-room door was opened; and a form which filled the whole of its ample aperture, from top to bottom, from right to left, made its appearance. It was the figure of a man, but language would sink under his immensity. Never in heaven, or earth, or air, or ocean, was such a man seen. He was hugeness itself-bulk perso nified-the beau ideal of amplitude. When the dining-room door was first opened, the glare of the well-lighted lobby gleamed in upon us, illumina ting our whole apartment with increase of lustre ; but no sooner did he set his foot upon the threshold, than the lobby light behind him was shut out. He filled the whole gorge of the door like an enormous shade. The door itself seemed to stand aghast at such a stupendous substitute, and its yawning aperture shrunk with apprehension lest its jaws should be torn asunder by the entrance of so great a mass of animated materials.

Onward, clothed in black, came the moving mountain, and a very pleasing monster he was. A neck like that of a rhinoceros sat piled between his "Atlantean shoulders," and bore upon its tower-like and sturdy stem, a countenance prepossessing from its good-humour, and amazing for its plumpness and rubicundity. His cheeks were swollen out into billows of fat-his eyes overhung with turgid and most majestic lids, and his chin double, triple, ay quadruple. As for his mouth

"It was enough to win a lady's heart With its bewitching smile."

"Glad to see you, Mr Tims," said her aunt.

"Mr Tims!" Gracious heavens, and was this the name of the mighty entrant? Tims! Tims! Tims!-the thing was impossible. A man with such a name should be able to go into a nut-shell; and here was one that the womb of a mountain could scarcely contain! Had he been called Sir Bullion O'Dunder, Sir Theodosius M'Turk, Sir Rugantino Magnificus, Sir Blunderbuss Blarney, or some other high-sounding name, I should have been perfectly satisfied. But to be called Tims! Upon my honour, I was shocked to hear it. The very first principles of unity were outraged, and the most atrocious discord substituted in their place.

Mr Tims sat him down upon the great elbow-chair, for he was a friend, it seems, of the family-a weighty one assuredly; but one whose acquaintanceship they were all glad to court. The ladies, in truth, seemed much taken with his society. They put fifty questions to him about the play-the assembly-the sermon-marriagesdeaths-christenings, and what not; the whole of which he answered with surprising volubility. His tongue was the only active part about him, going as glibly as if he were ten stones, instead of thirty, and as if he were a Tims in person as well as in name. In a short time I found myself totally neglected. Julia ceased to eye me, her aunt to address me, so completely were their thoughts occupied with the Man-Mountain.

In about half an hour I began to feel confoundedly uncomfortable. I was a mere cipher in the room; and what with the appalling bulk of Mr Tims, the attention the ladies bestowed upon him, and the neglect with which they treated me, I sunk