hands; so the captain, to make some amends, and also, for he was not quite right, made us run for a small island, much as this where we are-and we erected a tent-and Ben Dollar, the carpenter, set to and made a coffin for the young Spaniard. When the coffining came about, the captain he was grogged-and stands swinging upon his legs not well knowing what we were after;-so the body was raised to be put in-and the coffin was too short;-there was a puzzler! And how d'ye think we managed then? Why, I seized hold of an axe that was on the ground, and giving a wide swing to make way, I chipped the head clean off, like an onion, and told the lubbers to chuck it under her shoulder. The young Don grew turk by this, and was running at me, when Zeb, not knowing right what the matter was, because he had a glass in, seizes the axe from me, and smashes the young fellow's brains out.-That was an ugly job-and it was paid for; as we all saw when the shark took Zeb down, as he was a-bathing."

By the time the doctor had finished this last of many horrible stories, we saw some of the boats beginning to move out in the grey dawn; and we immediately got on board, having the advantage of being at the nearest point to the fishing station as it happened. One boat was a little in advance of us, making for a place where the sea-fowl were congregated—a sure sign of fish-and we followed it. Superstition has connected the greatest ultimate success with the person or party catching the first fish ; this fell to our lot, and we had excellent sport for many hours. It blew very hard at last, and we observed some of the boats putting aboutone of these we followed, and as we were now far from land we had a difficult pull through the swell. On nearing the Holy Island I was surprised to see our guide-boat rowing directly, as it seemed, against the precipitous rocks of the shore. At length she vanished through an almost imperceptible opening; we followed, and found ourselves in a snug little harbour, where we were gradually joined by the rest of the petty fleet. It now rained heavily, and we were driven for shelter to the roofless ruins of the Holy Island, which, I might have before stated, has no inhabitants upon it. As night drew on, by means of juniper branches, pulled in our necessity from trees that appeared centuries old, we illuminated the grey walls and monuments of the Culdee Chapel, where we sat eating saltless fish till the proper state of the tide would enable us to pass the smaller Corryvrechan. Nothing remarkable occurred on the voyage home; and a confused multitude of dreams, in which figured monks, flambeaux, whirlpools, and the shocking pirate doctor, followed a night and a day on the Holy Island.

B.

THE DELUGE.

MORN come: but that broad light which hung so long
In heaven forsook the showering firmament.
The clouds went floating on their fatal way.
Rivers had grown to seas: the great sea, swollen
Too mighty for his bound, broke on the land,
Roaring and rushing, and each flat and plain
Devoured.-Upon the mountains now were seen
Gaunt men and women hungering with their babes,
Eyeing each other, or with marble looks,
Measuring the space beneath swift lessening.
At times a swimmer, from some distant rock,
Less high, came struggling with the waves, but sank
Back from the slippery soil. Pale mothers then
Wept without hope, and aged heads struck cold
By agues, trembled like autumnal leaves;

And infants moaned, and young boys shrieked with fear.
Stout men grew white with famine. Beautiful girls,
Whom once the day languished to look on, lay
On the wet earth, and wrung their drenched hair;
And fathers saw them there, dying, and stole
Their scanty fare, and while they perished, thrived.
Then Terror died, and Grief, and proud Despair,
Rage, and Remorse, infinite Agony,
Love in its thousand shapes, weak and sublime,
Birth-strangled; and strong Passion perished.
The young,
the old, weak, wise, the bad, the good.
Fell on their faces, struck,-whilst over them
Washed the wild waters in their clamorous march-
Great Ossa stood

Still fell the flooding rains.

Lone, like a peering Alp, when vapours shroud

Its sides, unshaken in the restless waves:
But from the weltering deeps Pelion arose
And shook his piny forehead at the clouds,
Moaning; and crowned Olympus all his snows
Lost from his hundred heads, and shrank aghast.
Day, Eve, Night, Morning came and passed away.
No sun was known to rise and none to set :
'Stead of its glorious beams a sickly light
Paled the broad East what time the day is born:
At others a thick mass, vaporous and black,
And form like solid marble, roofed the sky,
Yet gave no shelter.-Still the ravenous wolf
Howled, and wild foxes, and the household dog,
Grown wild, upon the mountains fought and fed
Each on the other. The great eagle still

In his home brooded, inaccessible;

Or, when the gloomy morning seemed to break,
Floated in silence o'er the shoreless seas.

Still the quick snake unclasp'd its glittering eyes,
Or shivering hung about the roots of pines;
And still all round the vultures flew, and watched
The tumbling waters thick with bird and beast;
Or dashing in the midst their ravenous beaks,
Plundered the screaming billows of their dead.
Beneath the headlong torrents, towns and towers
Fell down, temples all stone, and brazen shrines :
And piles of marble, palace, and pyramid

(Kings' homes or towering graves) in a breath were swept
Crumbling away. Masses of ground and trees
Uptorn and floating, hollow rocks brute-crammed,
Vast herds and bleating flocks, reptiles, and beasts
Bellowing, and vainly with the choking waves
Struggling, were hurried out,-but none returned:
All on the altar of the giant Sea

Offered, like twice ten thousand hecatombs.-

Still fell the flooding rains. Still the Earth shrank;
And Ruin held his strait terrific way.

Fierce lightnings burnt the sky, and the loud thunder
(Beast of the fiery air) howled from his cloud,
Exulting towards the storm-eclipsed moon.
Below, the Ocean rose boiling and black,
And flung its monstrous billows far and wide,
Crumbling the mountain-joints and summit hills:
Then its dark throat it bared, and rocky tusks,
Where with enormous waves on their broad backs,
The demons of the deep were raging loud;
And the sea-lion and the whale were swung
Like atoms round and round.-Mankind was dead :
And birds whose active wings once cut the air,
And beasts that spurned the waters, all were dead:
And every reptile of the woods had died,
Which crawled or stung, and every curling worm
The untamed tiger in his den, the mole

In his dark home-were choked: the darting ounce,
And the blind adder, and the stork fell down
Dead, and the stifled mammoth, a vast bulk,
Was washed far out amongst the populous foam :
And there the serpent, which few hours ago,
Could crack the panther in his scaly arms,
Lay lifeless, like a weed, beside his prey,
And now,
all o'er the deeps corses were strewn,
Wide floating millions, like the rubbish flung
Forth when a plague prevails; the rest down-sucked,
Sank buried in the world-destroying seas.

BARRY CORNWALL

THE HAUNTED HEAD.

It was yet early in May morning, in the year 1540, when two travellers alighted at the little caberet, known by the sign of "Les quatre fils d'Aymon," at the entrance of the forest of Fontainbleau. They rode two very sorry horses, and each of them carried a package behind his saddle. These were the famous Benvenuto Cellini, as mad a man of genius as the sun of Italy, which has long been used to mad geniuses, ever looked on, and his handsome pupil Ascanio, who were carrying some works of art to the King of France at Fontainbleau. For particular reasons, Cellini set out by himself, leaving Ascanio; and he, getting tired towards evening, proposed to walk in the forest; but, before setting out, was specially warned to take care, in the first place, that the Gardes de Chasse did not shoot him instead of a buck; and, in the next, that he did not stray too near a large house, which he would see at about a quarter of an hour's walk distant to the right of the path. This house, the host told him, belonged to the Chancellor Poyet, who said he did not choose to be disturbed in the meditations to which he devoted himself for the good of the state, by idle stragglers. To enforce his orders, too, he had an ugly raw-boned Swiss for a porter, who threatened to cudgel every one who walked too near his garden wall. There was also a hint of a poor young lady being shut up in this guarded mansion. A long garden, inclosed by a high wall, and thickly planted on both sides with trees, which entirely concealed its interior from view, was at the back; and it was this which Ascanio first approached.

He heard a low voice, which he thought was that of a woman in distress, and, listening more intently, and approaching nearer, he was satisfied that his first impression was correct. He distinctly heard sobs, and such expressions of sorrow, as convinced him that the person from whom they proceeded was indulging her grief alone. A large birch tree grew against the garden wall near the place where he stood; he paused for a moment to deliberate whether he could justify the curiosity he felt, when the hint of the hostess that a lady was imprisoned there, came across his mind, and, without farther hesitation, he ascended the tree. Ascanio looked from the height he had gained, and saw a young female sitting on a low garden seat immediately below the bough on which he stood. She was weeping. At length, raising her head, she dried her eyes, and taking up a guitar which lay beside her, she struck some of the chords, and played the symphony to a

plaintive air which was then well known. Ascanio gazed in breathless anxiety, and wondered that one so fair should have cause for so deep a sorrow as she was evidently suffering under. In a colloquy which ensued, she exhorted him to fly; told him she was an orphan whom Poyet wanted to force into marriage; and finally, agreed to elope with her young lover.

Ascanio clasped the maiden in his arms, and once kissed her fair forehead, by way of binding the compact. He looked up to the wall to consider the best means of enabling the lady to scale it, when he saw above it a man's head looking at them. Ascanio at first thought they were betrayed, but the expression of the face, which he continued to look at, removed his alarm on this head. It was a very fine countenance, highly intelligent, and uncommonly good-humoured. It seemed, as well as Ascanio could guess, by the thick beard and mustachios, to belong to a man of middle age, He had a long, pointed nose, bright eyes, and very white teeth; a small cap just stuck on the left side of his head, gave a knowing sort of look to his appearance, and added to the arch expression of his visage, as he put his finger on his lip to enjoin silence, when Ascanio looked up at him. "Hush," he said, "it is a very reasonable bargain on both sides, very disinterested, and strongly sworn to. And now, my children, as I have been a witness to it, although unintentionally, I feel bound to help your escape." Ascanio hardly knew what answer to make; but, as he saw it was perfectly indifferent to the stranger, who knew the whole of his secret, whether he should trust him or not, he resolved to accept his offer, and they immediately set about getting the lady over the wall.

While employed on this, three fellows were seen stealing round the walls with their swords drawn. 66 By St Denis, we have been reckoning without our host," cried the stranger; "they don't mean to let us part thus. Come, my spark," he said to Ascanio, "you will have some service for that sword you wear, and which, pray Heaven, you know how to use. Do you stand on the other side of the tree, madam," he added, putting the lady, whose name was Beatrice, on his horse, "and, if the worst should betide, gallop down the path, keeping the high road till you come to Paris; inquire for the Nunnery of St Genevieve, and give this ring to the abbess, who is a relation of mine; she will insure your protection." The lady received the ring, and, half dead with horror, awaited the issue of the contest. The assailants came on with great fury; and, as they were three to two, the odds were rather in their favour. They consisted of a Gascon, Captain Sangfeu, the porter, and a servant, who seemed to be in no great hurry to begin the fight: they appeared astonished at finding two opponents, having seen only