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he had not heard from for more than a year. Upon his arrival at the house, he was received by the son of his friend, who told him that his father had been dead about a year. Though he was struck with the news which was so unexpected, it did not prevent him from going in. He conversed with the son upon the state of his affairs, and frequently interrupted the conversation to regret the loss of his old friend. At night he was conducted to his apartment, which he found to be the same as the deceased had occupied. This circumstance contributed not a little to keep alive his sorrow, and to prevent him from sleeping. He continued awake till two o'clock in the morning, when he heard the door of his chamber open; and by the feeble glimmering of a night lamp, and of the fire, which was still burning, he perceived the figure of an old man, pale, wan, and excessively thin, with a long and dirty beard, who, shivering with cold, was walking on slowly towards the chimney. When he was near the fire, he seemed to warm himself, eagerly saying, "Ah! it is a long time since I saw the fire!" In his voice, figure, and manner, M. Bertin, who was seized with terror, thought he recognized his old friend, the master of the house. He was neither able to speak to him, nor to leave the bed; when the old man, turning towards the bed and sighing, said, "Ah! How many nights have I passed without going to bed!" and as he said it, he came forward, in order to throw himself upon it. The terror which M. Bertin felt, made him leap out precipitately, crying, "Who are you? What do you

want?" On hearing his voice, the old man looked at him with astonishment, and immediately knew him. "What do I see?" cried he, " M. Bertin ! my friend M. Bertin !". ---" And who, then, are you?" cried M. Bertin. The old man mentioned his name ; and the other, recovering gradually from his fright, learned with horror, that his friend had been confined a year in one of the vaults of the castle by his son, (assisted by a servant that daily brought him food); who had given it out that his father was dead, in order that he might get possession of his property.› On that very day, as he afterwards learned, the arrival of M. Bertin, who was not expected, having thrown the house into confusion, the servant who carried provisions to the unfortunate old man, had not properly fastened the door of the cell when he went away; and the latter perceiving it, waited till all was quiet in the castle, and under cover of the night endeavoured to escape: but not finding the keys in the outer door, he naturally took the way to his apartment, which, though in the dark, he easily found. M. Bertin called up his servant without loss of time; said he wished to set off immediately without waking the master of the castle; and took the old man with him to Périgeux, where they arrived at day-break. Proper officers were directly, dispatched to arrest the unnatural son; who suffered what his crime deserved, by being shut up, during the remainder of his life, in the same cell in which he had confined his father,

LUDICROUS ECLAIRCISSEMENT !

SCUDERY, returning from his government of Nôtre Dame, with his sister, stopped one night at Point Saint Esprit, and slept in a two-bedded room. Before they went to sleep, Scudery conversed with his sister about the romance of Cyrus, which they were composing jointly. "What shall we do," says the brother, "with Prince Mazare ?" "I think we must poison him," replied the sister. "No," rejoined the brother, "I think we must keep the prince alive longer, as we have some business in hand for him; and it will be in our power to kill him when we like." During this conversation between the brother and sister about the fate of prince Mazare, a merchant, who slept in another room adjoining to them, and divided only by a thin partition, had been long listening to this discourse; and assured that the parties were plotting the assassination of some prince, arose from his bed, and went immediately to a magistrate, to unfold this dark scheme. Scudery and his sister were arrested, and carried prisoners to Paris, and summoned before the court; who hearing the account of the embryo romance given by the authors, dismissed the cause with a very hearty laugh:

HANDEL'S MUSIC.

O, art divine! exalted blessing!
Each celestial charm expressing !

CUNNINGHAM.

WHEN Handel's "Messiah" was first performed, the audience were exceedingly struck and affected by the music in general; but when that chorus struck up, "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," they were so transported, that they all, together with the king, (who happened to be present,) started up, and remained standing till the chorus ended: and hence it became the fashion in England for the audience to stand while that part of the music is performing. Some days after the first exhibition of the same divine oratorio, Mr. Handel came to pay his respects to Lord Kinnoul, with whom he was particularly acquainted. His lordship, as was natural, paid him some compliments on the noble entertainment he had lately given the town. "My Lord," said Handel, "I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better." These two anecdotes I had from Lord Kinnoul himself. You will agree with me, that the first does great honour to Handel, to music, and to the English nation; the second tends to confirm my theory, and Sir John Hawkins' testimony, that Handel, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, must have been a pious man.

ON THE CUSTOM OF SALUTING A PERSON WHO SNEEZES.

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SIR Thomas Brown, in his Vulgar Errors, proves the custom of saluting a person who sneezes, to be of the remotest origin, from Apuleius, in his story of the fuller's wife; from Pliny, in that problem of his, "Cur sternantes salutantur." (Why are persons, sneezing, saluted?) There are reports that Tiberius, the emperor, otherwise a very sour man, would perform this rite most punctually unto others, and expect the same from others unto himself. Cœlios Rhodoginus has an example of its antiquity among the Greeks in the time of Cyrus the younger : when consulted about their retreat, it chanced that one of them sneezed; at the noise whereof the rest of the soldiery called upon Jupiter Soter. He thus gives the epigram in English:

"Proclus with his hand his nose can never wipe,
His hand too little is his nose to gripe:

He sneezing calls not Jove; for why? he hears
Himself not sneeze, the sound's so far from's ears."

Now the ground of this ancient custom, says Brown, was probably the opinion the ancients held of sternutation, which they generally conceived to be a good sign or a bad; and so upon this motive, accordingly used a salve, or Ze woor, as a gratulation for the one, and a deprecation for the other. Of sneezing, Aristotle sayeth, they honour it as somewhat sacred.

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