The little child's words were so sweet, as dew must feel when the ground is parched and dry. I stooped down and kissed her, and burst into a passion of tears. I had not cried before since the day I had been to the Convent.

the sky, in the frosty tracery of the leaves, on the snow at my feet; and then we stopped at the little shrine, the priest gave us a discourse, and there were more prayers and chaunts and a benediction: but I heard little and heeded less. The old well was a We walked slowly along the path, crunch- pretty sight beneath the overhanging bank ing the hard snow with our feet, shading of snow-covered grass, where sharp-pointed the candles with our hands from any sud-rocks forced their way through, wet with den breath of air that threatened to extin- the little rills that ran down their crevices guish them, and chanting the psalms in what fashion we best could; but as one end of the procession was a good way ahead of the other in the matter of time and union, much could not be said for the harmony: though there was at least a great deal of noise. And when we halted, as we did very often, and the old cannon was lowered from the men's shoulders and fired once, twice, thrice! it was really very imposing; and who knows but it may have pleased the good saints?

At a sudden turn in the road we met a number of peasants from another village waiting to join us, who quickly fell into rank. There was one figure bending over a psalter that I should have known amongst a thousand; it came like a sudden discord across the prayers that filled the air. I turned my head away; but in a moment a hand touched mine, and Marie's voice said,

Elspet, will you not speak to me? I was so glad to think I might meet you: I have not seen you for so long, not since the day you promised to love me."

I shook myself free as though from a serpent. "Do not touch me, do not speak to me; you are false, and I know all!"

But she would not leave me. As I spoke, I felt a sudden quivering in the fingers that touched my arm.

"For the sake of all you love," she cried in a whisper, "do not betray me."

"It is you who betray, Marie, you who deceive; you have stolen my love from me. Ah! it is you who betray!"

She made me look at her, at her flushed face, at her bright indignant eyes.

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Elspet, by the soul of my mother! you wrong me and yourself. Only trust me, only have patience, only love Gustav always; he is true and sure."

and brightened their colours and the curious veinings of their stone, and where a fringe of brown ferns and long grasses and trailing ivy, sparkling and encrusted with diamonds, hung down towards the well. The spring of fresh, clear, delicious water bubbled up from the depths of the soft earth, which was rich with the damp masses of fallen leaves and green moss and pinesheaths, and where in summer wood-flowers love to grow. Now there were only frostflowers, beautiful stars, and fairy trumpets, and rings and spears that glittered in the light. The children shouted with glee, and played with the little wheels they had made of straws, and which turned round in the water, where, a few feet below its source, it fell over rough stones and pebbles large enough to make it foam and dance against such sudden obstacle.

The candles were all burnt out but every one had brought a cup or a glass with them to drink at the well; some a bottle to take the water home with them for an ailing child, or a sick cow. I knelt down when my turn came, and put my lips to the cool stream and drank a long draught. I felt somehow as though it would wash my heart, and cleanse and heal it; the sky looked bluer, the sun shone brighter. I thought, as I rose again, of the old words Treu und fest, and dipped my ring into the water and kissed it when I thought no one was looking.

The short winter day was almost at an end when we started in the waggon for home, and the cold had become intense. Father sat on the side-rail now, but he made the rest of us nestle down into the hay, and covered us with sheepskins. Little Roserl fell asleep in my arms; Caterina sang; mother and the Frau Apothecary nodded towards each other and groaned in their She had turned away to her own place dreams when we came to a very bad bit of amongst the long line of women. Only road; Fritz lay on his face and kicked the trust!" I repeated; and my eyes sought back of the cart to keep himself warm, and the broad silver ring of betrothal Guztav tapped with his fingers on the soles of Anhad given me, and the old Saxon words nerl's feet, and pretended to be mice, till engraven on it, Treu und fest." I dared she woke with a shriek and declared that not think, but yet the words were there; six big rats had run away with the best of the voices seemed singing them, the air was the cheeses. Father held my hand; I restfull of their sweet promise. I saw them ined my head against his knee, and we were

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both very quiet. Another waggon came sparks would fall out upon the hearth; behind us with ten or a dozen of the forest lads laughing and singing.

"I never saw them home on a festival as early as this," said mother. "Caterina's bright eyes will have to answer for it! It's a good thing anyhow; and those who stop feasting betimes will have to fast less on the morrow."

But it couldn't have been Caterina, for when we came to the four cross-roads we lost sight of them.

VI.

AFTER such a day every one was glad to eat a hearty supper and go early to bed, only first Annerl and Fritz carefully hung the little water-wheel on a hook over the pigs' house. We used to make them when we were children on St. Catherine's day, and bring them home carefully; they would cure warts, and keep the weasels and other vermin away, folks thought. I don't think father believed in them much; but mother used to say it was best to err on the safe side, and it cost nothing to keep them.

Annerl and I had given up our room to the Frau Apothecary and her children, and we and Caterina wrapped ourselves in warm rugs and skins, but she liked best to be with me. A strange excitement kept me wide-awake: if I closed my eyes, I only heard Marie speaking; life didn't seem over any more, there were great wonderful possibilities in it. I did not think of them as joyful ones, indeed, I could not think at all; I only knew that something had broken up the terrible numbing frost, that I was young, and warm, and living, and that I was glad to be so."

sometimes it would blaze up for a moment, throwing quivering rays into the dark corners of the room, till the rows of wooden toys on the higher shelves seemed to spring into sudden vitality, each having a strange character of its own: there were the six horses I had watched father carve in the long autumn evenings, and the big cocks and hens, and Noah, and a great many of his animals. Noah's wooden face had a new expression on it-a grim smile, as though he had begun to see dry land somewhere. I thought of him and the birds and beasts, and wove them into a strange story that was half in dreamland. I sat up and rested my head upon my hands, and watched them with quiet sleepy eyes.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the sharp report of a gun. I sprang to my feet and roused Caternia. There was a cry, shouts, angry voices, wild screams, and oaths, and sudden shots. Father flung on some clothes, and ran to the door; but the sounds had come from the back of the house, and Caterina and I, rushing into my room, threw open the shutter, and strained our eyes into the darkness. We could see nothing, only there was a sound of hurrying feet, of a fierce hand-to-hand struggle, of blows, outcries, and then a low moaning and shouts for help.

"Let us go, Caterina, it is horrible to stand here; let us do something."

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'Elspet! " said a voice out of the darkness; Elspet, are you there ?"

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Maxie!" I was dumb with a new fear.

'Elspet, listen; I am going away with my lover, my brave gipsy, back to my own people. There was a villain of a Zigeuner Everything in our home was very quiet; who wished to be my husband, and who the fire smouldered in the stove, there was bought me of my father-my own father, a smell of burnt chips, and a little heap of who dared to sell his child! I had to fly grey ashes on its top, where the kettle had and to hide myself, for Miskah was away, been hung to boil; the big table had been and your Gustav helped me. I had tended pushed aside, and Caterina and I had curled him when he was with our tribe and his ourselves up close to the hearth. Annerl arm had been broken, and he was grateful. lay flat on her back on the long shelf that You were kind to me once, but you would went round two sides of the room; you all have hunted the poor heathen girl if I might have sat down upon her without find-had told you the truth. I have waited for ing out that she was anything more than a Miskah till my heart was sore, but your hard cushion, except by her snoring, which was very melancholy-the saddest, dismallest sound, as though she were telling her sorrows to the ghosts, and mightn't put them into words. Caterina's pretty head rested on her arm, and the light from the bars of the fire shone on her face, her little delicate pink ear, and the long brown lashes, and lit up her bright hair. Now and then the wood gave a faint crackle, and a few

Gustav told him of my shelter, and in return we were able to warn him of the coming danger. The Zigeuners are crafty and sure: if your horses had been stolen, Gustav would have been ruined. I have betrayed my people; but my heart was full of revenge and of gratitude, and it made me speak, — still, I am sad at heart, Elspet, because of that. Wish me good fortune; kiss me once again for the sake of

"Mother was right when she said the | Him. The bells will ring as sweetly to us world hasn't grown old or changed. We when we are old and grey.' two, my little wife, my own dear little heart, will go through it bravely hand in hand, and God will talk to us, and we will try to serve

Ah! I am so sure of that now. The bells rang far away in the wood, and in my heart!

trenched camps. As to Coblentz, Herr von Widdern says that it would require a force six times as large as the garrison to besiege it with any prospect of success. An enemy would probably begin the attack by opening fire on Fort Alexander from the hill known as the Kuhkopf, where his troops would be sheltered by the woods. The author also describes the fortifications of Cologne and Wessel, but adds nothing to what is already known on the subject.

Pall Mall Gazette.

TEA and coffee, though often found in juxtaposition on the breakfast table, are not by

nature allied to one another. Dr. Gardner has

A MILITARY Work on the Rhine fortresses, by Herr von Widdern, is much talked of just now at Berlin. The author says that the Rhine from Bale to the Murg is not fortified at all, and that the only defence of South Germany and Austria against a French attack in that direction is the strong fortress of Ulm, occupied since 1866 by a mixed force of Bavarians and Wurtembergers, amounting to 10,000 men. This force could in case of war be augmented to 25,000 men, and 25,000 more could be stationed in an entrenched camp within the walls of the fortress. Rastadt, which, it is expected, will present a formidable obstacle to the French advance, lies in a valiey through which runs the river Murg. The defences of the town consist of three large forts, which command the surrounding country, and are united by walls. The southern and western therefore made a curious discovery in having forts, called Leopold " and "Frederick," are ascertained that the leaves of the one plant may on the left bank of the Murg; the northern fort, be substituted for those of the other without any called " Louis," on the right bank, where there considerable loss of the peculiar properties is also an entrenched camp capable of holding belonging to the tea plant. Twenty years ago 25,000 men. Rastadt is four miles from the Dr. Gardner made the result of his experiments Rhine, and the intervening country is covered known to the public, and succeeded in attractwith woods, so that the fortress could not pre-ing the notice of many merchants and chemists vent an army from crossing at that point. The to the matter; but the coffee planters, fearing next fortress is Landau, which formerly con- that the price of the berry would be lowered by sisted of three forts-one to the south, one to the employment of the leaves, contrived to the east, and one to the north-west, separated divert from it all general attention. "But," from the town by marshes on the banks of the little river Queich. The southern and eastern says the doctor, "the other day on passing a forts have been recently abandoned, and the grocer's shop where a large variety of teas were only one kept in a state of defence is now the that one chest, labelled Assam tea,' had a somewhat ostentatiously displayed, I noticed north-western. The most important and the best situated fortress in this district is Germer- and found it to be prepared coffee leaves. The very unusual appearance. I purchased some, sheim, on the banks of the Rhine. It com- leaves are in small fragments, not rolled, being too harsh and brittle for that operation, but convenient for measuring with a spoon, and yielding a strong, pleasant infusion," acceptable to the poor because of its comparative cheapness. Without disputing Dr. Gardner's taste, transaction. Chicory may be palatable enough, we must still condemn the dishonesty of the but the same law which forbids it from being sold under the name of coffee should defend the customer from buying coffee when he wants tea.

mands a considerable stretch of the river on

both sides, and practically closes it to an enemy as far as Mayence and Coblentz. It would greatly facilitate the advance of troops into the Rhine palatinate, as two or three bridges might be thrown across the river, besides the floating bridge which already exists there, under cover of its guns. It would also form a basis of operations for the left wing of an army posted on the line of the River Queich. Mayence, one of the most important of the Rhine fortresses, is commanded by some of the adjoining hills; this has rendered it necessary to multiply the fortifications in the town, and there is, in consequence, hardly room enough for a large garrison. The whole of the country between Mayence and Bingen is now strongly fortified, and between it and the mouth of the Main (on the opposite bank of the Rhine) there are three large en

Pall Mall Gazette.

A GERMAN translation of "In Memoriam " has appeared, under the title of "FreundesKlage." This is the first attempt to render Mr. Tennyson's poem into a foreign language.

From The Gentleman's Magazine.
THE EDINBURGH REVIEWERS.

SYDNEY SMITH.

of Railway Reform; to talk about putting round men in square holes, and square men in round holes; or to tell a poet or novelist, in a slashing criticism upon his first work, to run his pen through every second word in his MS., in order to add to the vigour of his style; suppose the Rochefoucaulds of the Saturday Review interdicted talking of benevolence as one of the instincts of the human heart, with the alphabetical illustration of A no sooner seeing B in distress than he thinks C ought to do something for him; suppose the Lord Chancellor to issue an order under the Great Seal against any of the officials of the Circumlocution Office vindicating the use of red tape as one of the grammars cf life, or that the Lord Chamberlain were to request the comic papers to forego for, say, the summer months, the exquisite gratification of sneering at the wut of Mr. Duncan Maclaren and his kilted colleagues, and of the necessity of a surgical operation to get their own jokes well into a Scotch understanding;

WHAT Would the world be without its wits? Perhaps we might dispense with an epic poet or two. I should not die of a broken heart if all the works upon metaphysics and political economy were to disappear to-morrow. A few of us might possibly survive the extinction of the whole race of three-vol. novelists; and I, for one, should not be quite inappeasable in my grief, if the Times of to-morrow were to announce that by some mysterious and inexplicable accident on the part of the Librarian of the British Museum, the mass of second-hand literature which now rears it front of brass against gods, men, and columns, had shared the fate of the MSS. Library at Alexandria. But Sheridan and Colman, Charles Lamb and Douglas Jerrold, Curran and Sydney Smith—what would life be without these? Abolish all their epigrams, all their bon mots, all the relics of their wit, make it penal to quote a suppose Sydney Smith and his jokes, and single sentence from any of them, compel all his wild nonsense, in short, put in an every man to manufacture his own jeux Index, what a sense of intellectual dearth d'esprit, and what would life be worth? and barrenness would pervade all of us! How should we contrive to get through a You might as well take the ozone out of the single dinner party? Who would have the sea breezes, or the hydrogen out of the atcourage to look at a single newspaper arti-mosphere. Shut up Mr. Bates and Mr. cle? How would the House of Commons Odger in Pentonville, or compel them, if get through a debate upon Law Reform, they must divert themselves with a species Irish Land Tenure, Life Peerages, or Primogeniture and Entail?

of amateur conspiracy, to enter into a conspiracy of silence; set down an epicure To take an illustration or two. Suppose to a dinner of herbs; refuse the Book of it a penal offence to quote, or to adapt, Nehemiah to an Orthodox Dissenter; take Sydney Smith's epigrams on Lord Russell, away the chasuble and the stole from a Dr. Whewell, and Macauley, to talk of a Ritualist; commit any outrage of this deman of superabundant self-confidence as a scription, and the victims may submit man ready at a moment's notice to take the with the spirit of martyrs. But abolish command of the Channel fleet, or to cut for Punch by Act of Parliament, disinherit John the stone; to tell Professor Huxley, for in- Bull of his Joe Miller, of the stock of wit stance, that his forte is cutting up monkeys, and humour that has been handed down to and his foible cutting up men; to compare him from generation to generation, with the librarian at Lambeth Palace to a book Magna Charta and the writ of Habeas Corin breeches, or to talk of Mr. Gladstone's pus, and all England would be in arms toflashes of silence. Suppose every parson morrow. The thought of tyranny of this under an interdict never to apologise for refined and inhuman description is too teran inappropriate text by citing the author-rible to contemplate. Even the millennium ity of the Canon of St. Paul's for the use of without Voltaire and Rabelais, Tom Jones "Cappadocia, Pamphilia, Phrygia, and all and Don Juan, would be to most of us what the regions round about," so long as the the hunting grounds across the Styx would sermon was sensible; or to sneer at Dis- be to a Blackfoot Indian without his horse senters as people who never keep a car- and his dogs, or Paradise without its houris riage in the second generation. Suppose to a Turk. Perhaps we might contrive to the editor of the Times bound over in exist as turtles do after Mr. Lewes has 10,000l. never again to throw out a sugges- scooped their brains out for microscopical tion about locking up two or three Bishops analysis. But what an existence! in a railway carriage, and squeezing them mon pauvre maitre," exlaimed Guizot's to death in a tunnel, in order to encourage cook, when he heard that his master was the House of Lords to take up the question dining at the Athenæum, “je ne le rever

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Ab,