WHEN Oliver Cromwell wished to form an alliance between the Commonwealth of England and the Republic of Holland, he sent over an envoy of the name of Dorislaus, a doctor in civil law, who was born at Delft, and educated at Leyden, but had lived long in London. Dr. Dorislaus was one of the Professors of Gresham College, and had from the commencement of the civil war exercised the office of judge advocate in the Earl of Essex's army. When Dr.Dorislaus arrived at the Hague, he took a temporary lodging until better accommodation could be provided for him. While he was at supper on the evening

on which he arrived at the Hague, in company with many others, who lodged at the same house or hotel, six gentlemen entered the room with their swords drawn, and requested all those who were at table not to stir, for that "there was no harm intended to any one but the agent who came from the rebels in England, who had newly murdered their king." One of the assassins, who knew Dorislaus, pulled him from the table, and killed him at his feet; upon which they all put up their swords and walked leisurely out of the house, no attempt being made to arrest any of them. Clarendon says, the assassins

were Scotchmen, and most of them servants or dependents on the Marquis of Montrose.

THE ABBE OF CALVADOS.

IN a village of Calvados, in the month of October, 1820, was buried an old man, who had retired from business, and owned some national property. Before his death, he was desirous of receiving the sacrament, and the priest gave him absolution, on condition that he would restore some acres to the church, which he promised to do; but death came before the notary. His property, therefore wholly descended to his son, a simple youth. On the night after his father's funeral, the young man was awakened by a violent noise, accompanied with a vivid light, which in a moment disappeared. Being no stranger to fear, he shook as he lay in his bed, and tried to call out for help; but a cold and moist hand closed his lips, and completed his amazement. He fancied that he beheld a spectre, covered with a long white mantle, pass before him, and a sepulchral voice uttered these words: " Badly obtained The soul of P-must go into torments, if his son makes not restitution." Another voice, weak and failing, continued, "My son, restore the ill-gotten property, or else" -the sepulchral voice added "I shall come night after night to drag you by your feet." These words were followed by total silence; the youth slept no more; and the next morning he went to relate to the priest and his family the vision of the night.

The priest and some of the neighbours advised him to give up his property; but a young kinsman, just come from school, maintained that the dead do not come back again, and that the possessors of

national property are no more likely to have their feet dragged by ghosts than their neighbours. Then taking the young heir aside, he offered to lie in the bed in his place, if he would keep it a secret, and would promise to wait one day more before he gave up the property. This proposal was accepted, and the young kinsman took possession of the other youth's bed for that night. Between twelve and one o'clock, he heard some person gently open the window, and at the same time he beheld a phantom enter, who came up as if to speak to him with a threatening gesture. "So far so good;" said he mentally, "as he mistakes me for another person, spirits are not omniscient." He then slipped out of bed as quietly as he could, seized the phantom with both his hands, and threw him in a moment into a little dark closet, which he shut and locked very carefully. The spectre finding himself a prisoner, began to cry out for mercy; but the youth went to call in his neighbours, who soon recognised, in the semblance of a ghost, a young abbé, who although as yet only in deacon's orders, had been desirous to give a proof of his zeal for the church of Rome.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN,

A LARGE luminous body, of a circular form, called the Flying Dutchman, gliding along the surface of the sea, in lat. 364, lon. 75, at seven o'clock P. M., drew the attention and curiosity of the passengers on board the schooner Angenora, on her passage from Charleston. The seamen state that it appears seldom, but is the certain indication of a storm (as was afterwards proved, being followed by one on the 4th inst.) It is supposed to be a species between the Starfish and Sea Nettle.

CHILTON THE SOMNAMBULIST.

THE following singular account of a most remarkable somnambulist, is copied from a scarce tract by Dr. William Oliver, Fellow of the Royal Society and of the College of Physicians, published in 1707, and entitled " A Relation of a very extraordinary Sleeper, at Tinsbury, near Bath." We give

the narrative in the author's own words.-EDIT.

May the 13th, 1694, one Samuel Chilton, of Tinsbury, near Bath, a labourer, about twenty-five years of age, of a robust habit of body, not fat, but fleshy, and dark brown hair, happened, without any visible cause, or evident sign, to fall into a very profound sleep, out of which no art used by those that were near him, could rouse him, till after a month's time; then rose of himself, put on his clothes, and went about his business of husbandry as usual; slept, could eat and drink as before, but spake not one word till about a month after. All the time he slept victuals stood by him; his mother fearing he would be starved, in that sullen humour, as she thought it, put bread and cheese, and small beer before him, which was spent every day, and it is supposed by him, though no one ever saw him eat or drink all that time.

"From this time he remained free of any drowsiness or sleepiness till about the 9th of April, 1696, and then fell into a sleeping fit just as he did before. After some days they were prevailed upon to try what effect medicines might have on him, and accordingly one Mr. Gibs, a very able apothecary of Bath, went to him, bled, blistered, cupped and scarified him, and used ail the external irritating medicines he could think

of, but all to no purpose, nothing of all these making any manner of impression on him; and after the first fortnight he was never observed to open his eyes. Victuals stood by him as before, which he eat of now and then, and sometimes they have found him fast asleep with his mouth full of meat. In this manner he lay for about ten weeks, and then could eat nothing at all,for his jaws seemed to be set, and his teeth clenched so close, that with all the art they had with their instruments they could not open his mouth, to put any thing into it to support him. At last, observing a hole made in his teeth, by holding his pipe in his mouth, as most great smokers usually have, they, through a quill, poured some tent into his throat now and then; and this was all he took for six weeks and four days, and of that not above three pints or two quarts, some of which was spilt too.

August the 7th, which was seventeen weeks from the 9th of April, (when he began to sleep) he awoke, put on his clothes, and walked about the room, not knowing he had slept above a night, nor could he be persuaded he had lain so long, till going out into the fields he found every body busy in getting in their harvest, and he remembered very well when he fell asleep they were sowing of barley and oats, which he then saw ripe and fit to be cut down.

"There was one thing observable, that though his flesh was somewhat wasted with so long lying in bed, and fasting for above six weeks, yet a worthy gentleman, his neighbour, assured him, when he saw him, which was the first day of his coming abroad, he looked brisker than ever he

saw him in his life before; and asking him whether the bed had not made him sore, he assured him and every body, that he neither found that, nor any other inconveniency at all; and that he had not the least remembrance of any thing that past or was done to him all that while. So he fell again to his husbandry as he used to do, and remained well from that time till August the 17th, 1697, when in the morning he complained of a shivering and coldness in his back, vomited once or twice, and that same day fell into his sleeping fit again.

"Being then at Bath, and hearing of it, I took horse on the 23d, to inform myself of a matter of fact I thought so strange. When I came to the house, I was by the neighbours (for there was no body at home at that time besides this man) brought to his bedside, where I found him asleep, as I had been told before, with a cup of beer, and a piece of bread and cheese, upon a stool by his bed, within his reach: I took him by the hand, felt his pulse, which was at that time very regular; I put my hand on his breast, and found his heart beat very regular too, and his breathing was easy and free; and all the fault I found was, that I thought his pulse beat a little too strong: he was in a breathing sweat, and had an agreeable warmth all over his body. I then put my mouth to his ear, and, as loud as I could, called him by his name several times, pulled him by the shoulders, pinched his nose, stopt his mouth and nose together, as long as I durst, for fear of choking him, but all to no purpose, for in all this time he gave me not the least signal of his being sensible. I lifted up his eyelids, and found his eye

balls drawn up under his eyebrows, and fixed without any motion at all. Being baffled with all these trials, I was resolved to see what effects spirit of sal ammoniac would have, which I had brought with me, to discover the cheat, if it had been one; so I held my vial under one nostril a considerable time, which being drawn from quicklime, was a very piercing spirit, and so strong I could not bear it under my own nose a moment without making my eyes water; but he felt it not at all. Then I threw it several times up the same nostril, it made his nose run and gleet, and his eye-lids shiver and tremble a very little, and this was all the effect I found, though I poured up into one nostril about a half ounce bottle of this fiery spirit, which was as strong almost as fire itself. Finding no success with this neither, I crammed that nostril with powder of white hellebore, which I had by me, in order to make my farther trials, and I can hardly think any impostor could ever be insensible of what I did. I tarried some time afterwards in the room, to see what their effects altogether might be upon him; but he never gave any token that he felt what I had done, or discovered any manner of uneasiness, by moving or stirring any one part of his body, that I could observe. Having made these my experiments I left him, being pretty well satisfied he was really asleep, and no sullen counterfeit, as some people thought him.

"Upon my return to Bath, and relating what I had observed, and what proofs this fellow had given me of his sleeping, a great many gentlemen went to see him, as I had done, to satify their curiosity in a rarity of that nature,

who found him in the same condition I had left him in the day before; only his nose was inflamed and swelled very much, and his lips and the inside of his right nostril blistered and scabby with my spirit and hellebore, which I had plentifully dosed him with the day before. His mother upon this for some time after would suffer nobody to come near him, for fear of more experiments upon her son. About ten days after I had been with him, Mr. Woolmer, an experienced apothecary at Bath, called at the house, being near Tinsbury, went up into the room, finding his pulse pretty high, as I had done, takes out his lancet, lets him blood about fourteen ounces in the arm, ties his arm up again, nobody being in the house, and leaves him as he found him; and he assured me he never made the least motion in the world when he pricked him, nor all the while his arm was bleeding.

"Several other experiments were made by those that went to see him every day from Bath, but all to no purpose, as they told me on their return: I saw him myself again the latter end of September, and found him just in the same posture, lying in his bed, but removed from the house where he was before about a furlong or more; and they told me, when they removed him, by accident, carrying him down stairs, which were somewhat narrow, they struck his head against a stone, and gave him a severe knock, which broke his head, but he never moved any more at it than a dead man would. I found now his pulse was not quite so strong, nor had he any sweats, as when I saw him before. I tried Lim again the second time, by stopping his nose and mouth, but

to no purpose; and a gentleman then with me ran a large pin into his arm to the very bone, unknown to me, but he gave us no manner of token of his being sensible of any thing we did to him. In all this time they assured me nobody had seen him either eat or drink, though they endeavoured it all they could, but it always stood by him, and they observed sometimes once a day, sometimes once in two days, all was gone. It is farther observable, he never fouled his bed, but did his necessary occasions always in the pot.

"In this manner he lay till the 19th of November, when his mother hearing him make a noise, ran immediately up to him and found him eating; she asked him how he did? He said, very well, thank God. She asked him again, which he liked best, bread and butter, or bread and cheese? He answered, bread and cheese; Upon this, the poor woman overjoyed, left him to acquaint his brother with it, and they came straight up into the chamber to discourse with him, but found him as fast asleep again as ever, and all the art they had could not awake him. From this time to the end of January, or the beginning of February, (for I could not learn from any body the very day) he slept not so profoundly as before, for when they called him by his name he seemed to hear them, and be somewhat sensible, though he could not make them any answer. His eyes were not now shut so close, and he had frequently great tremblings of his eyelids, upon which they expected every day he would awake, which happened not till about the time just now mentioned, and then he awoke perfectly well, not remembering any thing that happened all this while.