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and the kidnapping manoeuvres his recruiters had resort to, all over Europe, to gratify this inordinate greed. "For example, in the town of Jülich there lived and worked a tall young carpenter: one day a welldressed positive-looking gentleman ('Baron von Hompesch,' the records call him) enters the shop; wants a stout chest, with lock on it, for household purposes; must be of such and such dimensions, six feet six in length especially, and that is an indispensable point,-in fact it will be longer than yourself, I think, Herr Zimmermann: what is the cost; when can it be ready?' Cost, time, and the rest are settled. A right stout chest, then; and see you don't forget the size; if too short, it will be of no use to me: mind!'- -Ja wohl! Gewiss! And the positivelooking, well-clad gentleman goes his ways. At the appointed day he reappears; the chest is ready;-we hope, an unexceptionable article? Too short, as I dreaded!' says the positive gentleman. Nay, your Honour,' says the carpenter, I am certain it is six feet six!' and takes out his foot-rule.-Pshaw, it was to be longer than yourself.' 'Well, it is.'-'No, it isn't!' The carpenter, to end the matter, gets into his chest; and will convince any and all mortals. No sooner is he in, rightly flat, than the positive gentleman, a Prussian recruiting-officer in disguise, slams down the lid upon him; locks it; whistles in three stout fellows, who pick-up the chest, gravely walk through the streets with it ; open it in a safe place; and find-horrible to relate the poor carpenter dead; choked by want of air in this frightful middle-passage of his. Name of the Town is given, Jülich as above; date not. And if the thing had been only a popular myth, is it not a significant one? But it is too true; the tall carpenter lay dead, and Hompesch got ‘imprisoned for life' by the business."*

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Other stories follow on the same subject: how Bürgermeisters of small towns were carried off-in one case, 66 a rich merchant in Magdeburg," whom it cost a large sum to get free again. "But the highest stretch of their art was probably that done on the Austrian Ambassador,-tall Herr von Bentenrieder; tallest of Diplomatists; whom Fassmann, till the Fair of St. Germain, had considered the tallest of men. Bentenrieder was on his road as Kaiser's Ambassador to George I., in those Congress of Cambria times; serenely journeying on; when, near by Halberstadt, his carriage broke. Carriage takes some time in mending; the tall Diplomatic Herr walks on, will stretch his long legs, catch a glimpse of the town withal, till they get it ready again. And now, at some Guardhouse of the place, a Prussian Officer inquires, not too reverently of a nobleman without carriage, 'Who are you?' 'Well,' answered he, smiling, I am Botschafter (Message-bearer) from his Imperial Majesty. And who may you be that ask?''To the Guardhouse with us!' Whither he is marched accordingly. Kaiser's messenger, why not?' Being a most tall handsome man, this Kaiser's Botschafter, striding along on foot here, the Guardhouse Officials have decided to keep him, to teach him Prussian drill-exercise; and are thrown into a singular quandary, when his valets and suite come up, full of alarm dissolving into joy, and call him Excellenz!' "" And his Excellency accepted, we are told, the prostrate apology of his captors, but naturally spoke of the matter to

* I. 585 sq.

George I., who had long been annoyed by similar liberties taken with Hanoverian subjects, and now made a determined stand against the system.

We could have wished to dwell awhile on what has ever been a noble trait in Mr. Carlyle's writings,-his solemn recognition of the Mysteries of life and death, of the awful environments wherewith man is surrounded, of the transcendental law of Duty, and the supremacy of its demands. We could have wished to quote passages which exhibit the earnestness of one who is, in no common sense,

A being breathing thoughtful breath,

A traveller between life and death

passages descriptive of character as tested by circumstance, affliction, sickness, and the last struggle of all. The last days and last hours of Frederick William are made very present to us: we read with a mist before our eyes, and hushed expectancy, and bated breath. What other Historian would if he could, could if he would, thus touch and subdue and solemnise us beside the death-bed of so cross-grained a prince?

We

One word, ere parting, of an "extrinsic" but important nature. cannot be too grateful for the aids and accompaniments which enrich these volumes (so admirably got up, too, in all respects), in the shape of numerous Maps, that serve us at every turn of the road, and an Index that directs us to everything and everybody with whom we have to do.

A NIGHT WITH THE GHOSTS.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "ASHLEY."

I.

THE foundation boys, they numbered forty, were assembled in the large schoolroom attached to the cathedral of Riverton. They wore their white surplices, and were ranged before the deans and some of the canons, who were also robed. Some two months previously, the dean had announced his intention of holding an examination of the boys, to the exceeding consternation of the masters, who were conscious their pupils were not in the state of preparation they might be, and that no two months" could make them so. In days gone by-it is of those we are writing the foundation schools, attached to some of our cathedrals, were not anxiously cared for by the clergy who were the masters, or by their masters, the Dean and Chapter.

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The Reverend Mr. Wilberforce, head-master of Riverton school, held a perplexed conference with the under-master, the Reverend Gregory Roberts. Both were minor canons of the cathedral. "What on earth can have put such a move into the dean's mind?” cried he. "We

have never been pounced upon, like this, since I became the school's head."

"It must be that old Ferraday's doings, not the dean's," returned Mr. Roberts. "He is always interfering, and bringing up new crotchets."

"The boys can't stand an examination: a pretty figure they'll cut; and we shall get the blame. Certainly there's one thing: if we have been somewhat careless, on our sides, the Dean and Chapter have, on theirs they cannot say much, or they will reflect at home."

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Very true," cried the Reverend Gregory; "it would be the pot calling the kettle black."

"All we can do, now, is to drill them late and early."

So the boys were drilled until this, the appointed day, one in November, when they were standing round the dean. It had transpired that the dean would give a prize to the most deserving, and the whole school assumed that that would be Lewis, the fourth senior, a clever boy but not a popular one. In Riverton collegiate school, a boy was not senior according to his merits as a scholar, but according to priority of entrance. The examination proceeded smoothly enough, for the dean was complaisant, questioning the boys in the books and at the places put into his hands by the masters, and he winked at the promptings administered, when the classes came to a full stop, or a stammer. The masters recovered confidence, and were congratulating themselves inwardly at the dreaded event being well over, when, to their unspeakable dismay, the dean disbanded the classes, and, desiring the forty boys to stand indiscriminately before him, began to question them.

This was the real examination: some of the questions were simple, some difficult, embracing various subjects. But, simple or difficult, it was all one, for, taken by surprise, ill-educated, ill-grounded, the boys could not answer. One of them alone, and he did not look much more than fifteen, proved himself equal to the emergency; though he owed no thanks for being so to the college school, but to long-continued, systematic private instruction. He was a remarkably gifted boy, both in person and intellect, his name Henry Arkell. He resided in the town, but his friends were now absent from it, and he was staying temporarily at the head-master's, who accommodated a small number of the boys with board in his house. A favourite with the dean and with the clergy in general, and deservedly so, Henry Arkell was disliked and envied by the ill-natured in the school. Not at a single question that the dean and canons put to him, did he hesitate; till at length the dean told him, with a smile, not to answer, until the questions had gone the round of the school. Of all branches of education, save their rote of Latin and Greek, the boys were entirely ignorant, though some of the dean's questions were ludicrously simple.

"Can you make the square of a cube?"

Nobody answered, save by a prodigious deal of coughing, and Henry Arkell had once more to be appealed to.

"What is the difference between a right angle and an acute one ?" More coughing, and then a dead silence. The dean happened to be looking hard at one of the senior boys, or the boy fancied so, and his ears became as red as the head-master's. "If you please, Mr. Dean, our class is not in algebra."

"Who was Caligula ?" continued the dean.

King of France in the ninth century," was the prompt answer from one who thought he was in luck.

It was now the dean's turn to cough, as he replaced the question by another: "Can you tell me anything about Charles the Second ?"

"He invented black lap-dogs with long ears."-" And was beheaded," added a different and more timid voice.

"Can you say anything about Charles

"Was he," retorted the dean. the First, and the events of his reign?"

"Yes, sir. He found out the Gunpowder Plot, and was succeeded by Oliver Cromwell."

"Where are the Bahama Isles?" asked the dean, in despair.

"In the Mediterranean," cried a tall boy." And they are very fertile," added another.

The dean paused, a hopeless pause. 66 Can you spell 'Dutch ?'” "D-u-c-h." "D-u-t-s-h." "D-u-s-h-t," escaped from various tongues, drowning other novel phases of the word.

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Spell Cane," frowned the dean, though he was laughing inwardly. "K-a-n-e," was the eager reply.

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Perhaps you can spell birch," roared Dr. Ferraday, an irascible prebend.

They could: "B-u-r-c-h."

"What was the social condition of the Ancient Britons when their country was invaded by Julius Cæsar ?" choked the dean.

"They always went about naked, and never shaved, and their clothes were made of the skins of beasts."

"This is frightful," interrupted Dr. Ferraday: "the school reflects the greatest discredit upon you, gentlemen," glaring through his spectacles at the purple and scarlet faces of the masters. "There's only one boy who is not a living monument of ignorance. He-what's your name, boy ?"

"Arkell, sir."

"True; Arkell," assented Dr. Ferraday, who knew who he was perfectly well, but he was the proudest man of all the canons, and would not condescend to show that he remembered. "Sir, for your age you are a brilliant scholar."

"How is it ?" puzzled Mr. Meddler, another of the prebendaries: "has Arkell superior abilities, and have all the rest none? Answer for yourself, Arkell."

The boy had an exceedingly beautiful face, its features sensitive and refined, with a clear, bright complexion: both in mind and manners he was far superior to the general run of schoolboys. He hesitated. "How is it, boy; do you hear?" repeated Dr. Ferraday.

"I have had great advantages at home, sir," was the answer, delivered in a low tone, for it was painful to his retiring nature to be thus put forward before his schoolfellows.

"Wilberforce," roughly spoke up Dr. Ferraday, "how is it this boy is not senior?"

"That post is attained by priority of entrance, sir," replied the master. "Arkell can only become senior boy when those above him leave." "He ought to be senior now."

"We cannot act against the chart of the school, Dr. Ferraday," repeated the master. "Arkell is top of the head class, but he cannot be senior of the school, out of his turn.”

"Stand forward, Arkell," said the dean.

Henry Arkell stood forward, a hot flush on his glowing face, and the dean threw round his neck a broad blue ribbon, attached to which was a medal of gold. "I have much pleasure in bestowing this upon you; reward was never more justly merited. And," he concluded, raising his voice high, "I am bound publicly to declare that Henry Arkell is an honour to Riverton Collegiate School."

"As all the rest of you are a disgrace to it," stormed Dr. Ferraday, on the discomfited lot behind.*

The boys were dismissed. They took off their surplices in the cloisters, not presuming to unrobe in the presence of the cathedral dignitaries, who prolonged their stay in the school, to "blow off at Wilberforce and Roberts," as the senior boy, Jocelyn, irreverently expressed it. Throwing their surplices over their arms, they made their way out of the cloisters, in a far more slow and desultory way than usual. In passing the deanery, the dean's daughter, Miss Beauclerc, met and accosted them. She was a careless, good-natured girl, very much like the dean in freedom of manner and disposition; dignity she never would acquire; and she was fond of making herself familiar with the college boys, and thought it little condescension; while the senior boys, on their parts, sometimes forgot to observe the reserve and ceremony due to the dean's daughter. "Well, boys," she began, "who has gained the prize ?"

"A sneaking young beggar, Miss Beauclerc," answered Lewis, before the rest could speak.

"Then you have not got it, Lewis," laughed the young lady. "I heard you made certain sure of it, and had ordered a glass case to keep

it in."

Lewis nearly boiled over with rage.

"Arkell has gained it, Miss Beauclerc," observed the senior boy. Miss Beauclerc clasped her hands in glee. "I knew he would! I told him so, from the first. He is worth you all put together." "Worth us in what, pray, Miss Beauclerc ?" demanded Lewis. "In everything," she answered.

"A bright eye and a girl's face," contemptuously ejaculated Lewis, "these are what we must covet now, to curry favour with the Dean and Chapter."

"Lewis, you forget yourself," reproved Miss Beauclerc: "and I'll inform against you if you talk treason of the dean," she laughingly added.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Beauclerc," was the sullen apology of Lewis.

"Arkell's merits alone have gained the prize," proceeded the young lady; "and they would have gained it had he been as ugly as you, Lewis."

"I am much obliged to you, Miss Beauclerc," foamed Lewis, with as much resentment as he dared show to the dean's daughter.

* The account of the examination and the boys' answers are taken from fact.

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