"Professor I cannot stand this pitiable narrative. is some money for you. You must indeed excuse me. able to restrain my tears.' Madam, there I shall not be "No, sir, stay, I command you, I insist. Woman, what do you want? in the name of virtue, what do you want?' The widow commenced her piteous appeal again, when, quite overcome, I rushed from the room, followed by the voice of the ruined professor, who feared that his reputation was for ever gone. Woman, in the name of Jehovah, what do you want?" " Poor Frank Death's dark garniture hath clothed his piercing eye; friendship and sorrow no more thrill his heart, and the noisome worm revels in the home of high and noble daring. He died! not on the sick-bed, with mourning friends gathered around, but on the battle-field, fighting for his country, on the victor soldier's bed-the body of his foe. And of all the warm hearts that were stilled, of all the true spirits that floated up to God, from thy glorious but bloody field, Buena Vista! silence fell not on a nobler breast- not a truer soul went up than rose from thy bosom, Frank-true friend of my early manhood! THE CURIOUS WIDOW. DURING my first course of lectures I became a boarder at the house of a widow lady, the happy mother of a brace and a half of daughters, the quartette possessing so much of the distinguishing characteristics of the softer sex, that I often caught myself wondering in what nook or corner of their diminutive skulls they kept the rest of the faculties. Occupying the same room that I did, were two other students from the same section of country as myself, and possessing pretty much the same tastes and peculiarities. One thing certain we agreed in, and that was a detestation of all curiosity-stricken women; for never were poor devils worse bothered by researches than we were. Not a pocket of any garment left in our rooms could remain unexamined, not a letter remain on our table unread, nor scarcely a word of conversation pass without a soft, subdued breathing at the key-hole telling us we were eaves-dropped. Matters came at length to such a pass, and so thorough became the annoyance, that nothing but the difficulty of obtaining suitable accommodation elsewhere, prevented us from bidding a tender adieu to the widow, and promising to pay her our board bill as soon as our remittances arrived. As the evil had to be endured for a while, at least, we soon invented and arranged a plan for breaking her of her insatiable curiosity, and making her, what she was in other respects, a good landlady. The boarding-house was a large two-story frame, with a flight of steps on one side, extending from the street to the second story, so as to give admittance to the boarders without the necessity of opening the front door or disturbing the family when we came in late at night. It was very cold weather, and our mess were busily engaged every night until a late hour at the dissecting-rooms, and it was during this necessary absence that the widow made her researches and investigations. The subject that we were engaged upon was one of the most hideous specimens of humanity that ever horrified the sight. The wretch had saved his life from the hangman by dying the eve before the day of execution, and we, by some process or other, became the possessors of his body. Just emaciated sufficiently to remove the fatty tissue, and leave the muscles and blood-vessels finely developed, still he was so hideous that nothing but my devotion to anatomy, and the fineness of the subject, could reconcile me to the dissection; and even after working a week upon him, I never caught a glimpse of his countenance but what I had the nightmare in consequence. He was one of that peculiar class called Albinoes, or white negroes. Every feature was deformed and unnatural; a horrible hare-lip, the cleft extending half way up his nose externally, and pair of tushes projecting from his upper jaw, completed his bill of horrors. It was with him, or rather his face, that we determined to cure our landlady of her prying propensities. It was the work of a few minutes to slice the face from the skull, and arrange it so that from any point of view it would look horrible. Having procured a yard of oil-cloth, we sewed it to the face, and then rolled it carefully up; tying this securely, we next enveloped it in a number of wrappers, fastening each separately, so that her curiosity would be excited to the utmost degree before the package could be completely opened. At the usual hour we returned home, carrying our extra face along; not, however, without many a shudder. Upon entering our room, we saw that the spoiler had been there, although she had endeavoured to leave things as near the condition she found them in as possible. With a hearty malediction upon all curious women, we ate our cold snack, which the kind-hearted widow-for, despite of her being a widow, she was really kind-hearted-always had awaiting our return, and retired to rest, determined that the morrow's night should bring all things even. I endeavoured to sleep; but that hideous face, which we had locked securely in a trunk, kept staring at me through its many envelopesand when the cold winter's sun shone in at the casement, it found me still awake. Nervous and irritated, I descended to breakfast; and nothing but the contemplation of my coming revenge prevented me from treating the widow with positive impoliteness. Bless her notdespairing-of-marrying-again spirit! who could keep angry with her? Such a sweet smile of ineffable goodness and spiritual innocence rested on her countenance, that I almost relented of my purpose; but my love-letters read, my duns made evident, my poetry criticized by eyes to which Love would not lend his blindness to make perfect; and then-she was a widow! My heart, at this last reflection, became immediately barred to the softening influences of forgiveness, and I determined in all hostility to face her. The lectures that day, as far as we were concerned, fell upon listless ears, for we were thinking too much of what the night was to bring forth, to pay much attention to them. The day at last came to a close. It had been snowing all the evening, and at supper we complained bitterly how disagreeable it would be walking to the college, and working that night, and wished that we were not dissecting, so that we might stay at home and answer the letters we had received from home that day. "Business could not be neglected for the weather," was our conclusion expressed to the widow; so after supper we donned our dissecting clothes, and putting the package for the widow in a coat pocket, hung it up in a prominent place, so it could be found readily. Telling the family we would not be back until late, and making as much noise as possible with our feet, so as to assure her we were going, we left the house as if for the college. We went no further, however, than to the nearest coffee-house, where, by the time we had smoked a cigar, we judged sufficient time had elapsed for the widow to commence researches. Returning to the boarding-house, we pulled off our boots and noiselessly ascended the outside steps, the door at the head of which we had left open, There was a short passage leading from it to the door of our room, which we had left closed, but now perceived to be ajar. Silently, as a doctor speaking of the patients he has lost, we approached it, and, on peeping in, to our great gratification found everything working as we had desired. The widow had got the package out, and was occupied in viewing it attentively from all sides, and studying the character of the knots of the ligatures embracing it, so she could restore everything to its original condition, when her curiosity was satisfied as to its contents. Having impressed its shape, and the peculiarity of tie, well upon her mind, she proceeded to take off the first cover, which was soon done, when a similar envelope met her eye; this, after undergoing the same scrutiny, was removed, when yet another met her gaze; this detached, and still the kernel was unreached; some six or eight were taken off, and at length she came to the last, the oil-skin. Poor old lady! she has long been where the curiosity of life never penetrates, and the grandest and most awful mystery of our nature is revealed; yet, I see her now, as the last envelope of the mysterious package was reached, and when a gleam of satisfaction shot like an erysipelatous blush over her anxious face, as she saw the consummation of her long expectancy approaching. There she stood, with spectacles buried so deeply 'neath her brows as almost to appear a portion of her visage; neck-not of apoplectic proportions-elongated to its utmost capacity; lips-from which the ruby of youth had departed,-wide disclosed, showing what our swamp lands are famous for-big gums and old snags; in fact, the embodiment of woman in her hour of curiosity. Holding the package in one hand and the end of the oilcloth in the other, she commenced unrolling it slowly, for fear some peculiarity of its arrangement might escape her; her back was towards the door, which we had nearly opened awide, and anxiously awaiting the dénouement; it came at last,-and never shall I forget the expression of that old woman's face as the last roll left the hellish countenance, and it lay in all its awful hideousness upon her extended palm, the fiendish tushes protruding from the parted lips,-still wearing the agony of the death-second, and the eyes enclosed in their circle of red, gazing up into hers with their dull vacant stare. Ay, but she was a firm-nerved woman. If metempsychosis be a true doctrine, her spirit must have once animated, in the chivalrous times, a steel-clad knight of the doughtiest mould. She did not faint VOL. XXX. Y -did not vent a scream-but gazed upon its awfulness in silence, as if her eyes were riveted to it for ever. We felt completely mortified to think that our well-laid scheme had failed-that we had failed to terrify her; when, to perfect our chagrin, she broke into a low laugh. We strode into the room, determined to express in words what our deeds had evidently failed to convey; when, ere she had become fully aware of our presence, we noticed her laughter was becoming bysterical. We spoke to her -shook her by the shoulder-but still she laughed on, increasing in vehemence and intensity. It began to excite attention in the lower apartments, and even in the street; and soon loud knocks and wondering exclamations began to alarm us for the consequences of our participation. We strove to take the fearful object from her, but she clung to it with the tenacity of madness, or a young doctor to his first scientific opinion. "She is gone demented!" we exclaimed; "we had better be leaving "-when a rush up the steps and through the passage, cut off our retreat, and told us the daughters and crowd were coming; but still the old lady laughed on, fiercer, faster, shriller than before. In rushed the crowd-a full charge for the room, impelled by the ramrod of curiosity-but ere they had time to discover the cause of the commotion, or make a demonstration, the widow ceased her laughter, and, putting on an expression of the most supreme contempt, coolly remarked:-" Excuse me, gentlemen, if I have caused you any inconvenience by my unusual conduct. I was just smiling aloud to think what fools these students made of themselves when they tried to scare me with a dead nigger's face, when I had slept with a drunken husband for twenty years!" The crowd mizzled ; and we, too, I reckon, between that time and the next up-heaving of the sun. BEAUTY AND THE DAW N. (From the German of Arndt.) I SAID unto the Dawn-" Why art thou bright I said unto a Maid-as morning fair "Why wreathe with smiles thy lip-with flowers thy hair? Soon fade your tints, and flit your smiles away! Therefore adorn not!" "I deck myself," the Dawn replied, "in light, In those rich hues rejoice to be arrayed, Nor ask, nor know, when Fate shall bid them fade; "I deck myself," replied the beauteous Maid, In Him I trust-and mourn not!" ETA. THE MARQUIS DE FAVRAS. THOUGH SO many memoirs of persons who took a prominent part in the great French revolution have been given to the world, no detailed account of the Marquis de Favras' life has ever yet been published; his contemporaries seem to have been little acquainted with him; and all that is recorded of his memory is enveloped in mystery and uncertainty, owing to the stormy days which visited France at the time of his execution. The Marquis de Favras, however, made himself conspicuous in the eyes of Europe; and scarcely sixty years have elapsed since those events occurred which were the cause of his condemnation. There are men still alive, too, who knew him personally; his trial was public, and yet it is a most extraordinary thing that, up to the present time, nobody has formed a decided opinion of his character. He was abandoned by the court party, in whose cause he died; was treated by M. de Lafayette as a perfect "hero of fidelity and courage;" was arrested by him, and delivered into the hands of justice, and was declared guilty of lèse-nation by the Tribunal du Châtelet; the lawyers accused the judges of great weakness and cowardice for passing this sentence; in short, the Marquis de Favras experienced the rare fate in revolutionary times, of meeting with only lukewarmness from those to whom he sacrificed his life, and with admiration from those persons who only sought his death. He has bequeathed many doubts to the minds of both parties, and to several, alas! great remorse. Was the Marquis de Favras as innocent as he was said to be? or was he as guilty as some have declared? These are the questions which I have endeavoured to solve by searching all the unpublished documents which serve to throw any new light on the subject. My difficult task was undertaken without any party spirit, though not without many scruples; for it is a delicate operation in these times to stir up recollections which have branded an indelible mark-to rake up those jealousies and heart-burnings which are yet scarcely extinguished, and to revive so many bitter discussions. The years 1851 and 1790 resemble each other, alas! in more than one point of view, and the history of M. de Favras may easily find its companion in our days. Thomas de Mahy, Marquis de Favras, was born at Blois on the 26th of March, 1744; he came of a noble and tolerably old family-the Mahys had borne the title of esquire since the fourteenth century, and had occupied the most important posts of the municipality and magistracy of Blois, and, in August, 1747, the estate of Corméré, which belonged to them, was converted by letters patent into a barony. The Marquis de Favras, therefore, though not of very illustrious origin, was one of those well-born provincial gentlemen who had more titles than pence, and who at that period quitted the paternal roof at a very early age to seek their fortune at court. He entered the corps of Mousquetaires in 1755. Childhood in those days was not of long duration, and at an age when our friends now tremble at the idea of sending us to college, he, like his fellows, embraced the military profession, and set forth on his career with that gaiety and frankness of heart and belief in his future success, with which an honourable name, a handsome person, |