dont elle vivait avec elle." So speaking, she threw herself into bed and commanded that the curtains should be drawn and no more be said. To Mlle. de Hautefort, this came as a thunderbolt. Falling on her knees, she called God to witness her innocence and the sincerity of her intentions, protesting that she had never failed in her duty. Receiving no reply, she retired to her room in the deepest distress, and next day the queen sent an order requiring her to leave the palace and to take with her Mlle. d'Escars, her sister. Her departure, says Mme. de Motteville, was regrettée de tout le monde; and the queen, or rather Mazarin, commanded that no one should make intercession in her favor. Surely she would recall, then, those too prophetic words of the king, vous servez une ingrate! Mlle. de Hautefort retired to the convent of the Filles-Sainte-Marie, with the firm intention of taking the veil. But fate decreed otherwise. She had lost some of her court friends, it is true; but there were others of her adorers who almost rejoiced to see her poor and persecuted, so that they might lay at her feet their fortunes and their hearts. Hitherto I have made no mention of her lovers because she repulsed them all; but now, emboldened by her misfortunes, they came forward, some even seeking her in her holy retreat. At length the beautiful recluse received an offer to which she was not insensible. Without returning to court, she reap peared in the world, and the news spread rapidly that Mlle. de Hautefort was about to become the maréchale duchesse of Schomberg. Every honest heart, without distinction of party, applauded this well-assorted union. The only one who disapproved was the Duchesse de Liancour, the sister of the maréchal. She had suspected her husband of having formerly entertained a passion for Mlle. de Hautefort, and, fearing the rekindling of the flame, determined to prevent the marriage. To this end, she went to see Mlle. de Hautefort, and in the greatest confidence told her that M. de Schomberg had been very extravagant in the army, that his fortune was all gone, and a rich marriage alone could save himself and his house from ruin. She implored her listener to avert such a misfortune. One may imagine the feelings of Mlle. de Hautefort on receiving this intelligence. She was asked to sacrifice her last hope! Why had not M. de Schomberg thought of this earlier? How slight must have been his love that he should allow her to be apprised of this now — and in such a manner. Her natural generosity prevailed; she could not bear that harm should come to him through her, and she promised that the marriage should not take place. But the sacrifice cost her much; it threw her into a state of afflic tion bordering on despair. In this state M. Villars, the intimate friend of M. de Schomberg, found her a few days later, and she accounted for it to him by speaking of the necessity that had arisen for breaking off the marriage. Without replying, he handed her a letter from the maréchal of which he was the bearer. It was full of protestations of the most ardent love. Mlle. de Hautefort knew not what to think. At that moment arrived Mme. de Liancour. Ashamed of her weakness, repenting her conduct, of which she confessed the true motive, she implored pardon, and asked to be accepted as a sister. Thus ends the romantic part of the life of Mlle. de Hautefort. From The Gentleman's Magazine. WEIGHING THE STARS. SOME very interesting results have recently been obtained with reference to the weight of certain stars. It may be asked what is meant by weighing a star? How is it possible to calculate the weight of those far-off suns, the distance of which from the earth is so great that only in a few cases can it be measured with any approach to accuracy? In the case of a single star, that is, a star unaccompanied by a physically connected companion, the calculation is impossible. Even if we knew the star's distance to a single mile, this knowledge would not help us to calculate its size and weight. The reason of this is that the fixed stars have no appar- quently be displaced towards the blue end ent dimensions. Even when examined of the spectrum, while those of the second with the highest powers of our largest will be equally shifted towards the red telescopes they still appear as mere points end-if the masses of the components of light-minute discs of no measurable are equal. Each line will therefore apdiameter. Hence their real diameter re- pear double, and from the observed dismains unknown. Even their relative bril-tance between them we can easily compute liancy does not help us in the matter. For the velocity. When the motion becomes the stellar distances hitherto determined perpendicular to the line of sight the moshow that the brightest stars are not tion to and from the eye ceases, and the always the nearest to the earth. The near- lines again become single. We have then est of them all-Alpha Centauri is merely to determine the times at which the certainly one of the brightest; but, on the lines appear single and double. As the other hand, Arcturus, a star of about the lines will evidently double twice during same brilliancy as Alpha Centauri, is if each revolution, we must double the obthe measures of its distance are reliable served interval to obtain the period of at a distance about twenty-five times revolution of one component round the greater than that of 61 Cygni, a star of other. The velocity and period thus only the fifth magnitude! This latter found enable us at once to compute the star is actually a little nearer to us than actual dimensions of the system in miles, the brilliant Sirius, "the monarch of the and its mass with reference to that of the skies." - The components of a double star may, however, be so close that they cannot be separated by the highest powers of our largest telescopes. We cannot, therefore, in these cases, measure the distance between the components. To all intents and purposes they are to the telescopic observers single stars, and the fact of their duplicity would remain undetected. sun. 66 In the case of a binary, or revolving In the course of spectroscopic redouble, star, however, the case is different. searches on stellar spectra, undertaken at Although we cannot measure the actual the Harvard Observatory for the Henry diameter of the discs of the component Draper Memorial, Professor Pickering stars, we can measure the distance be-found that the calcium line K. in the spectween them, and then if their distance trum of the star Zeta, in Ursa Major, more from the earth can be determined. we popularly known as Mizar - -the middle are enabled to calculate by Kepler's third star in the "tail" of the Great Bear or law of orbital motion the sum of the handle of the Plough - appeared at masses of the components in terms of the times double, while on other occasions it sun's mass. was seen single and well defined. Other lines of the spectrum showed a similar variation. This doubling of the spectral lines was found to recur at regular inter vals of about fifty-two days, thus indi cating that the star was in reality a close double, with the components so close that no telescope yet constructed has hitherto been able to reveal its duplicity. Photo. graphs of the spectrum of Mizar, taken on But here a new method of research, seventy nights in 1887-1889, show that the discovered in recent years, comes to our relative orbital velocity is about one hunaid. By means of the spectroscope we dred miles per second, and the period of can determine the rate in miles per sec- revolution of one component round the ond at which a star is approaching or re- other about one hundred and four days. ceding from the earth. If, then, a star, From the observed dates on which the apparently single in the telescope, consists spectral lines appeared double, Professor in reality of two close components revolv- Pickering predicted that they would be ing round each other in a short period, we again double on or about December 9, can find in some cases the velocity of the 1889. This prediction was duly fulfilled components in miles per second, although on December 8, thus proving the reality we know nothing of the star's distance of the discovery. Assuming that the orbit from the earth. For, suppose the plane of is circular, with its plane passing through the stellar orbit to pass through the earth, the earth, or nearly so, he finds that the or nearly so. Then, when the line joining distance between the components is about the components is at right angles to the one hundred and forty-three millions of line of sight, one of the stars will be rap- miles, or about the distance of Mars from idly approaching the eye, and the other the sun, and their combined mass_about receding from it. All the dark lines in forty times the mass of the sun. Considthe spectrum of the first star will conse-ering the brightness of the star, and its de probably vast distance from the earth, this | tions in its light, and it may possibly be a great mass is not very surprising. Mizar variable of the type of Algol. Professor has long been known as a wide double Vogel finds a similar motion in the bright star, the companion being of about the star Spica- the leading brilliant of the fourth magnitude, and visible with a small constellation Virgo, or the Virgin with telescope. Its duplicity was discovered a period of about four days. Here, howIte by Riccioli in 1650, and it was measured ever, the lines are merely shifted, not 15 by Bradley in 1755. It was the first pair doubled, or at least not distinctly so, as in photographed by the American astronomer Mizar and Beta Auriga. This indicates Bond. It must now be looked upon as that one of the components is so faint that a triple star. Close to it is a fifth-mag- its spectrum is not seen, or only seen with nitude star, known as Alcor, which is difficulty, and that the observed motion is visible to the naked eye, and was consid- chiefly that of the brighter component. ered by the ancients as a test of keen From the observed velocity-about fiftyvision. It is now, however, plain enough three miles a second- Vogel computes to good eyesight, and is sometimes spoken that, for components of equal mass, the of as a 66 naked-eye double." Mizar is total mass of the system would be about therefore a most interesting star; double two and one-half times the mass of the to the naked eye, a closer double with a sun.* moderate telescope, and yet again double to the eye of the spectroscope. Between it has long been suspected that the deMizar and Alcor is an eighth-magnitude star, discovered by Einmart in 1691. he Professor Pickering thinks that the A similar spectroscopic result has been With reference to the Algol variables, The crease in their light at minimum might Assuming the correctness of this hypothesis, and taking into consideration the observed diminution of light at minimum, Mr. Maxwell Hall computed that the density of Algol is only one-fourth that of water. From spectroscopic observations made by Professor Vogel at Pots. dam in 1888 and 1889, he concludes that the decrease of light is really due to an Mr. Fowler has quite recently found that the bright star Vega is also a close double, with a period of only twenty-four hours forty-one.minutes, and a mass about twenty-two and a half times that of the sun. same density. But if this be so, we have the curious case of two bodies not differing largely in volume, of which one is intensely hot, and the other nearly a dark body. Vogel does not, however, consider it necessary to assume that the satellite is absolutely dark. It may be still in a very heated condition, but to agree with the observed variation the light of the companion cannot be greater than oneeightieth of that of Algol itself. As the spectrum of Algol is of the first type, we may conclude, I think, that the intensity of its light is greater than that of our sun. The light emitted by the satellite may therefore possibly be equal to several without interfering with the hypothesis. Professor Vogel refers to the parallel case of Sirius and its comparatively dark com panion. eclipsing satellite. He found that before components of the Algol system have the the minimum of light the star is receding from the earth at the rate of twenty-four and one-half miles a second, and, after the minimum, approaching with a velocity of twenty-eight and a half miles. The observations also show a motion of translation of the system in space at the rate of about two and a third miles per second, towards the earth. Assuming the orbit to be circular with its plane passing through the earth, Professor Vogel computes the diameter of Algol at one million sixty-one thousand miles, and that of the dark companion eight hundred and thirty miles, with a distance between them of three million two hundred and thirty thousand miles. He makes the mass of Algol four-thousand times the light of the full moon ninths of the sun's mass, and that of the companion two-ninths, or a combined mass equal to two-thirds of the mass of the sun. Taking the sun's density as 144 and its diameter eight hundred and sixtysix thousand miles, I find that the above dimensions give a mean density for the components of Algol of about one-third of that of water, not differing much from Maxwell Hall's result, and showing the correctness of his conclusion that, "in the case of the components of Algol, as Mr. Lockyer argues in the case of the sun, we are undoubtedly dealing with masses of gas." The spectrum of Algol is of the first or Sirian type, all the spectral lines being faint except those of hydrogen, a type of spectrum which indicates that the star is very hot, and therefore probably in the gaseous state. This confirms the conclusion as to its density derived from the spectroscopic evidence of its orbital motion, and proves the correctness of the hypothesis that the variation in its light is due to a dark eclipsing satellite. Professor Vogel assumes that both the The brightness of Algol and its comparatively small mass might be taken to indicate a relative proximity to the earth; but if its parallax were even one second of arc (a highly improbable value), the greatest distance between the components would amount to only one twenty-ninth of a second, a distance quite beyond the dividing power of even the largest telescopes. It is to be hoped that the spectroscopic method may be applied to other stars of the Algol type, but some of these are so faint that a very large telescope would be required for the purpose. The following are, however, sufficiently bright to repay examination_with_telescopes of modern power: Lambda Tauri, magnitude three and one-half, and Delta Libræ, of the fifth magnitude. The others we must leave to the great Lick telescope or Mr. Common's five-feet reflector. J. E. GORE. Ar a recent meeting of the Royal Botanic Society, a gift of seeds of the Para rubber-tree suggested to Mr. Sowerby, the secretary, some interesting remarks on india-rubber and guttapercha. In the society's museum was a specimen of the first sample of gutta-percha imported to Europe - viz., in 1842-and it was shortly after that date that it was used to insulate the first submarine telegraph cables. No substitute had been found to take its place. From some papers lately published in the Electrical Review, he gleaned that from the "wholesale cutting down of adult trees and the "reckless clearing and burning of the forests" the trees furnishing the most valuable kinds of gutta-percha had become exceedingly scarce, and in most localities utterly extirpated. This was also rapidly becoming the case with the trees which supply the many varieties of india-rubber, and, sooner or later, all natural vegetable products used by man would have to be artificially cultivated, as the natural supply never kept pace with the artificial demand. Some few attempts had been made to cultivate india-rubber, but as yet not very successfully. Nature. |