purposed somewhat to have spoken; but no matter wherewith his grace should have cause to be offended. Howbeit, whatever I intended I shall obey his highness's command." He afterwards discussed the arrangements for his fu5 neral, at which he begged that his family might be present, and, when all was settled, Pope rose to leave him. He was an old friend. He took More's hand and wrung it, and, quite overcome, burst into 10 tears. "Quiet yourself, Mr. Pope," More said, "and be not discomfited; for I trust we shall soon see each other full merrily, 15 when we shall live and love together in eternal bliss." As soon as he was alone, he dressed in his most elaborate James Anthony Froude. costume. It was for the benefit, he said, of the execu20 tioner, who was to do him so great a service. Sir William Kingston remonstrated, and with some difficulty induced him to put on a plainer suit; but, that his intended liberality should not fail, he sent the man a gold angel in compensation, "as a token that he maliced him nothing, 25 but rather loved him extremely." "So about nine of the clock he was brought by the lieutenant out of the Tower, his beard being long, which fashion he had never before used, his face pale and lean, carrying in his hands a red cross, casting his eyes often 30 towards heaven." He had been unpopular as a judge, and one or two persons in the crowd were insolent to him; but the distance was short and soon over, as all else was nearly over now. The scaffold had been awkwardly erected, and shook as he placed his foot upon the ladder. "See me safe up,” 5 he said to Kingston. "For my coming down I can shift for myself." He began to speak to the people, but the sheriff begged him not to proceed, and he contented himself with asking for their prayers, and desiring them to bear witness for him that he died a faithful servant of 10 God and the king. He then repeated the Miserere prayer on his knees; and when he had ended and had risen, the executioner, with an emotion that promised ill for the manner in which his part in the tragedy would be accomplished, begged his forgiveness. 15 More kissed him. "Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive," he said. "Pluck up thy spirit, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed therefore that thou strike not awry, for saving of thy honesty." The executioner offered 20 to tie his eyes. "I will cover them myself," he said, and, binding them in a cloth which he had brought with him, he knelt and laid his head upon the block. The fatal stroke was about to fall, when he signed for a moment's delay while he laid aside his beard. "Pity 25 that should be cut," he murmured; "that has not committed treason." With such strange words, the strangest perhaps ever uttered at such a time, the lips most famous through Europe for eloquence and wisdom closed for ever. - From "A History of England," by James Anthony Froude. A BOARDING-SCHOOL INCIDENT. I have not yet alluded to the visits of Mr. Brocklehurst; and indeed that gentleman was from home during the greater part of the first month after my arrival; perhaps prolonging his stay with his friend 5 the archdeacon: his absence was a re- One afternoon (I had then 10 been three weeks at Lowood) as I was sitting with a slate in my hand, puzzling over a sum in long division, my eyes, raised in abstraction to the 15 window, caught sight of a figure just passing: I recognized almost instinctively the Charlotte Bronte. gaunt outline; and when, two minutes after, all the school, teachers included, rose, en masse, it was not 20 necessary for me to look up in order to ascertain whose entrance they thus greeted. A long stride measured the schoolroom, and presently beside Miss Temple, who herself had risen, stood the same black column which had frowned on me so ominously from the hearth rug of Gates25 head. I now glanced sideways at this piece of architecture. Yes, I was right: it was Mr. Brocklehurst, buttoned up in a surtout, and looking longer, narrower, and more rigid than ever. I had my own reasons for being dismayed at this apparition: too well I remembered the perfidious hints given by Mrs. Reed about my disposition, etc.; the promise pledged by Mr. Brocklehurst to apprise Miss Temple and All along I had been 5 the teachers of my vicious nature. dreading the fulfillment of this promise, I had been looking out daily for the "Coming Man," whose information respecting my past life and conversation was to brand me as a bad child forever: now there he was. He stood at Miss Temple's side; he was speaking low in 10 her ear: I did not doubt he was making disclosures of my villainy; and I watched her eye with painful anxiety, I listened too; expecting every moment to see its dark orb turn on me a glance of repugnance and contempt. and as I happened to be seated quite at the top of the 15 room, I caught most of what he said: its import relieved me from immediate apprehension. "I suppose, Miss Temple, the thread I bought at Lowton will do; it struck me it would be just the quality for the calico chemises, and I sorted the needles to match. 20 You may tell Miss Smith that I forgot to make a memorandum of the darning needles, but she shall have some papers sent in next week; and she is not, on any account, to give out more than one at a time to each pupil: if they have more, they are apt to be careless and lose 25 them. And, O ma'am! I wish the woolen stockings - when I was here last, I went were better looked to! into the kitchen garden, and examined the clothes drying on the line; there was a quantity of black hose in a very bad state of repair: from the size of the holes in 30 . them I was sure they had not been well mended from time to time." He paused. "Your directions shall be attended to, sir," said Miss 5 Temple. "And, ma'am," he continued, "the laundress tells me some of the girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the rule limits them to one." "I think I can explain that circumstance, sir. Agnes 10 and Catherine Johnstone were invited to take tea with some friends at Lowton last Thursday, and I gave them leave to put on clean tuckers for the occasion." Mr. Brocklehurst nodded. “Well, for once it may pass; but please not to let the 15 circumstance occur too often. And there is another thing which surprised me: I find, in settling accounts with the housekeeper, that a lunch, consisting of bread and cheese, has twice been served out to the girls during the past fortnight. How is this? I look over the regu20 lations, and I find no such meal as lunch mentioned. Who introduced this innovation? and by what authority?" "I must be responsible for the circumstance, sir,” replied Miss Temple. "The breakfast was so ill prepared that the pupils could not possibly eat it; and I dared not 25 allow them to remain fasting till dinner time." "Madam, allow me an instant. You are aware that my plan in bringing up these girls is, not to accustom them to habits of luxury and indulgence, but to render them hardy, patient, self-denying. Should any little 30 accidental disappointment of the appetite occur, such as |