itants. The present ruler is Sir John Hind- | north-east, stands the Upper Town, with about marsh, necessarily a captain in the navy, to three hundred and twenty houses, and a church preside over this extraordinary marine bit of dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron of fisherterritory. While the continental blockade men and babies (whether pickled or fresh). lasted, Heligoland was of inestimable value to From this point the rock still rises, till it attains England as a convenient warehouse for smuggling. the Alpine elevation of a hundred and ninety feet above the level of the sea. Not far off This molecule in the midst of the waters (nothing is far off here) stands the light-house, is two thousand two hundred paces long, six erected by the English with no other materihundred and fifty broad at the widest part, als than stone, iron, and copper. Its rays comand some five thousand yards, or thereabouts, mand an extensive horizon, notifying distinctly in circumference. It will be supposed that to the wave-tossed traveller: "This is I!railroads are things uncalled for; nay; even Heligoland, who shine so bright. Pursue your that coaches-and-eix, tandems, dog-carts, and way, by the help of my luminous finger-post." high-mettled racers, are not in high request. But a beacon is an old establishment in HeligoThe island may contain a sedan-chair, or vinai- land. In 1673, the Hamburgians built a phagrette, for fashionable ladies; but the actual ros on the eminence called the Backeberg, existence of such a vehicle the deponent had wherein they kept up a cheerful coal-fire, rather not affirm on oath. A hop-skip-and- sometimes burning, during winter nights, as jump tour of her Majesty's tight little island, much as four hundred pounds of coal. is not an impossibility; and an intellectual flea, or a literary gnat, may one day give to the impatient world a nice little volume, with map and woodcuts, entitled, "Travels in Heligoland." On approaching the island from Hamburg, it looks like a triangular rock surrounded by the sea on every side. The colors it presents have been transferred to the flag it has had the modesty to set up; which is red, white, and green; and Heligoland has not only a national flag, but a national minstrelsy. Here is a refrain apropos to both: Roth ist der Strand, Das sind die Farben von Helgoland. which, translated, may be rendered: Red is the strand, Those are the colors of Heligoland. Do not suppose that the continent of Heligoland is so poor as to be without its dependent islet- a faithful satellite who never deserts it. Rather better than half-a-mile from Heligoland, on the south-east side, is Sandy Island, which is of the greatest consequence to the tight little mother-country, because on that are taken the sea-baths, which put a considerable revenue into Heligoland's pockets. And why should not your marine six weeks be spent just as well at Heligoland as at Abergavenny, Brighton, Boulogne, or Etrebat? For lodgings, you have plenty of houses built of brick; so that you need not be afraid of finding room. The natives are hospitable, polite, sober, and hard-working, and are as well worth study as the rock on which they dwell. The men are active on the sea, and exercise no other calling than that of pilots or fishermen ; the women attend to the housekeeping and gardening, for there is no Royal Heligoland Agricultural Society. You may lodge either in the upper or the lower town, though the former is preferred for its more extensive seascape and its unlimited supply of breezes, genTo the south-east, only a little morsel of uine and fresh as imported. There are neither level ground is perceptible-a tiny tongue of taxes, duties, nor custom-house officers. For land, which is dignified by the title of The Un- anti-ichthyophagous persons, who cannot eat terland or Lowlands, and which rises gradually fish from morning till night, the steamers from to the foot of the rock, to about five-and-twenty Hamburg bring plenty of meat, besides fruit feet above the level of the sea. On this stands and first-class vegetables. The terrestrial fauna the lower town, composed of something like of Heligoland is limited, and would not require eighty houses. In a gorge of the rock is a new the zeal of a Cuvier to describe it. It contains staircase, which connects it with the Oberland cocks and hens, domestic rabbits, pigs, dogs, or Highlands. This staircase, decorated with a cats, sheep, mice, fleas, flies, gnats, earthworms, smart iron railing, is ten feet wide, is com- beetles, sparrows, and a few other well-known posed of one hundred and seventy-three wood-species, of equal interest to the scientific world. en steps, divided into three revolutions, at the It generally has one cow; but only during the bottom of each of which are seats to rest upon, fashionable season; for, at the approach of and oil-lamps to show light on winter nights. winter, it is made into beef, and a new one imAfter this, do not boast of the luxury of Lon-ported next year. But its oceanic treasures are numberless. If you wish for a good fieldOn the summit of the rock, towards the day amongst the real game of Heligoland, put don and Paris! 1 on your diving-dress, your bull's-eyed helmet, | the lowermost deep, is seen as distinctly and your leaden-soled shoes; enter the waves; as if the keel could touch it. Your boat make your serving-men follow you overhead to stops gently, for it has run its prow into ply the forcing air-pump with brawny arms; the soft, glistening edge of Sandy Island. and you shall see, if you do not perform, Take care! That end of the beach is reserved exclusively for the ladies. The gentlemen's bathing machines are at the opposite extremity. wonders. Yes; come to Heligoland, for a change in the beaten routine of watering-places. I shall probably be strolling on the Unterland when You have had your plunge, and now for you land. If I like not your looks, I will ob- breakfast. What? Here? Certainly. You stinately speak nothing but German in your must have your breakfast on the spot, and it presence. And in this I shall be justified by will be unparalleled. I defy you to know the the authorities; for, although the natives have true definition of that ill understood word, una tongue of their own - - which has some anal- til you have breakfasted after a sea-bath on ogy with that of the North Frieslanders Sandy Island. That pavilion, with windows German is the only language employed in the all around within, and the thick belt of seats schools and for divine service. If I like your and tables without, opposite to the place where looks, I will introduce myself as the writer of you land, and at an equal distance from the this contribution, and will proceed at once to bathing-machines of the ladies and gentlemen, initiate you at once into life in Heligoland. I is the refectory. What will you have to eat? shall knock you up very early in the morning Some gorgeous scarlet lobster, of which a at an hour, in short, only known at home Heligoland appetite seems able to eat any to your housemaid and milkman. You spring quantity with impunity; the most slippery of out of bed. You need not be a minute dress- slippery oysters; eggs in all forms, from the ing; and it will not matter even if you dress in domestic boiled, or the smooth-faced poached, your sleep; for the delicious, the unrivalled to the luscious rumbled. What will you drink? air, will waken you the instant you get into it. The bottles of porter and beer, the cups of Your lodging will be on the Oberland, and tea, coffee, chocolate, despatched in and around you make at once for the High street of Heli- this busy pavilion, are not to be counted any goland-the Stairs. As the native flirtations more than the golden sands that lie before take place chiefly on the landings, we shall you. Everything is excellent, and the servdoubtless disturb, as we pass down, a pretty little scene of tenderness between a sea-andsun-browned youth, and a pretty little fairhaired Heligolandess. On the strand we find one of the pilot-boats ready to take us over to Sandy Island. As to the passage you need not be under the slightest apprehension. It is performed in large sloops or yawls, capable of carrying thirty passengers at least, and which are placed under the entire superintendence of select pilots, and which are no other than the famous Heligoland salvage-boats, well-known throughout the North Sea, for rendering assistance to trading vessels in distress, even in the midst of the most violent storms, and which can be rowed when a sail dare not show itself. An officer of the company of Pilots is always present, both at the embarcation and disembarcation; he receives the passage-money, which is fixed at four schillings (four pence) each per son. ing-girls are quick and clever, with now and After breakfast comes the slow meditativo saunter along the downs. You may find a tempting sunny hole in these downs, where In fine weather we are over in ten mi- you may lie down and take a siesta, sung to nutes; in rough, it may take four times ten; sleep by the listless and monotonous "Raus but it is only late in the season that such long chen" of the waves on the shore. Rauschen transits take place. Of course it shall be a is the word which conveys the sound so exfine day when we go; and, looking over the actly, that I cannot prevail on myself to use gunwale as it cuts the water into streaming any other; and besides, I suppose the waves ripples along the sides of the boat, you feel have a right to express themselves in German that there is no word to express the wondrous on our tight little island, although the Union clearnesss of that transparent sea. Every Jack does spread its colors above it. After rock, every pebble, every zoophite, every your sandy lounge, you take a ramble on the waving sea-plant, down, down, down, in side of the downs, among pavilions and bath ers; and here, instead of yellow sands, you those delicious amateur fish caught on your own find pebbles of every hue and shape; some ex- hook in the North Sea. What a supper they ceedingly beautiful, and worthy of adorning make, with the invariable Heligoland accompa the fairest wrist, after a little cutting and pol-niment of a smoking pyramid of potatoes! the ishing. Walk to the extreme end of this lit- native island vegetable. Potatoes and the tle promontory, where the waves curl round sheep are the great institutions on Heligoland; you on every side. Do not look behind, and the latter performing the duties usually peryou will imagine yourself standing alone in formed by the cow in other countries. Indeed, the ocean, where no land is to be seen, no- one of the most amusing features in your eve thing but the green sheet spread out on all ning promenade along Kartoffel Allée is the sides, with here and there shifting dots of white- large number of red petticoats with yellow crested waves. hems, employed in milking the patient little sheep; which afterwards gets its reward of cabbages and other green stuff. But it is time to return to the rock, where we change our toilet, and amuse ourselves till dinner, at three o'clock. The best table Every profession is represented (except, we d'hôte is the Stadt London, on the Oberland; are happy to believe, the law), in Heligoland: and here we are sure to meet our mermaid Music by a German band and the mermaids, friends, all nicely dried and combed, who make many of whom are syrens also; and painting dinner a most cheerful affair. After dinner, by Herr Gaetke-of course, a marine-painter. we go to a pavilion on the Unterland for a cup He came to Heligoland about eighteen years of coffee, and after that comes the promenade ago, determined to win the secrets from the sea, along Kartoffel or Potato Walk to the end of where it was, as it were, at home, and without the rock, where everybody sits till sunset. the restraint of a coast. He went to spend a sum This is the grand sight of our little island, and mer, and he did not leave the island for more worth walking a mile or two to see, if we could than sixteen years. His pictures of Heligo walk that distance in Heligoland. But do not land in all kinds of weathers, his ships in dis imagine that we go to bed with the sun. We tress, and his wrecks ashore, breathe life. no sooner see him safely tucked up in his gor- Look round his atelier on the Falm or Esplan geous sheet of sea, than we bethink ourselves of ade, and you see that Gaetke is no common the pleasant Conversations-haus down below in painter, a good ornithologist, and a capital a sheltered nook, where balls take place sev- shot. All those birds on his shelves, constitut eral times a-week: the native girls, with scar- ing every variety of feathered biped that takes let petticoats broadly edged with yellow, danc- its wing across the island, were shot, and stuffing among the ladies. On the nights when ed by himself. He therefore gives to his there are no balls, there is conversation. adopted little country a museum, to complete There are also a billiard-room and a rouge-et- its claim to art and science. Try to make his noir table. Here all the visitors meet every acquaintance: you will find him an agreeable evening, and here they find the newspapers, companion, and the best cicerone on the islwhich arrive in the afternoon with the Ham- and. burg steamboat. Plans are discussed for the Finally if you have a mind to feast on amusement of the visitors, because you must fish; to breathe pure air, at least once in your know there is a Pleasure Committee on our life; to drink un-taxed brandy, wine, and gin; solitary little isle. This committee is composed to smoke un-ac-customed tobacco; to get of gentlemen. There is a treasurer, who re- on with your German; to realize, though not ceives subscriptions from all who wish to join, completely, Johnson's definition of a ship, a and then the committee discuss how they can prison, without the chance of being drowned; best lay out the money. to form an attachment which shall last for Sometimes, in the dark nights, when there life, or an aversion which shall grow bitterer is no moon, the whole company set off in boats and bitterer until you and its object can only for a tour round the island; each person torch quit the island in different steamers; to get in hand, to explore the dark, mysterious cav- a fierce, shark-like appetite; to rise with the erns, in some of which the waves roar like lark (if there were one); to go to bed with thunder, or like wild beasts getting at their the hens; and, above all, to behold me, the prey. This torchlight tour has a magical ef- gifted scribe, in bodily presence remember fect; and, if you have once made it, you are that the Heligoland season begins in June and not likely ever to forget it. Fishing parties ends in September; make hay, or way, while are also formed-lobster-fishing being in espe- the sun shines, and swell our list of fashionable cial vogue. The finest turbot you could buy arrivals! Or, if you long for a uniform, the for money, could never pretend to taste like books of the Foreign Legion are not closed. t From Household Words. Hus own; she was so warm a friend that she was a friend unto death, and one attached soul after another breathed their last in her arms. THERE are few subjects that present to band after husband departed, and still her hand the psychologist more curious traits, and more was sought, and still it practised its cunning. subtle enigmas than lady poisoners. The At length, in her four-and-fiftieth year she character is so opposed to all our ideas of was detected, and arrested. In prison, she feminine feeling and affection, that, except walked amid the apparitions of all her viounder circumstances of extreme excitement, tims, wept tears of tenderness over their me resentment of slighted attachment, blind jeal-mory, and finished by desiring that her life ousy, or revenge of injured honor, its exist- might be written; so that, having lost everyence would seem hardly possible. If we search thing else, she might yet enjoy her fame. for motives, we find them to be generally of All women of this class have had an extrathe most selfish and grovelling kind. They ordinary degree of vanity, and, what is are, commonly, to put out of the way some more, they have had a perfect passion for or all of the people around who have money their art. The Marchioness de Brinvilliers to leave. Other base passions come into play, was an enthusiast in the composition of the but Mammon, the basest spirit that fell, is rarest poisons, of which her accomplice, Saintegenerally at the bottom of their career. It is Croix, was so eminent a compounder. The amazing the variety and amiability of charac-admiration of her beauty, the distinctions of ter that is worn for years, to cover the foul her rank, afforded her but a feeble satisfacfiend within. For long periods these female tion in comparison with that of watching the vampyres live in the heart of a family circle, operation of some subtly lethal essence. She wearing the most life-like marks of goodness certainly was not the mere marchioness, but and kindness, of personal attraction and spi- the princess of poisoners; and yet it remained ritual gifts; caressed, fêted, honored as the for Madame Ursinus to give additional touchvery pride of their sex, while they are all the es of perfection to this peculiar character. time calculating on the lives and the purses She was at once a lady of fashion, a pietist, a of those nearest, and who should be dearest, writer of useful tracts, a poetess and a poisonto them. er. Through all the dangers of these various Some of these modern Medeas have played careers, she lived to the good old age of 76, the part of the fashionable, or the aesthetic; and died-lamented! Brinvilliers, Zwansome, of the domestically amiable; some, of ziger and Gottfried confessed that they were the devoted attendant on the sick and the conquered by their crimes; but Madame Ursuffering. Heaven defend us from such devo- sinus, branded in public opinion, continued to tion! May no such tigress smooth our pil- defy it, and conquered even that; and to the low; smile blandly on us in our pains which very last gasp persisted in playing the heroine. she cannot take away, though she has the Nay more, without confession, remorse, or pesatisfaction of knowing that they will take us nitence, she strove in her own way and with no away; and mix with taper fingers the opiate trifling success, to achieve the reputation of a of our repose! Amid the most stealthy-footed saint. Surely it is worth while to dig up from and domestically benign of this feline race, the rubbish-heap of the Prussian criminal court, were the Widow Zwanziger, and Mrs. Gott- a few fragments of the history of such a woman. fried, of Germany. They were amongst the The widow of Privy-councillor Ursinus lived most successful, though not the most distin-honored and courted in the highest circles of guished, in this art of poisoning. They went Berlin. Her rank, and the reputation of her on their way, slaying all around them, for husband, whom she had lost but a few years, years upon years, and yet were too good and agreeable to be suspected, though death was but another name for their shadows. Funerals followed these fatal sisters as certainly as thunder follows lightning, and undertakers were the only men who flourished in their path. her handsome fortune, her noble figure and impressive features, together with her spiritand her accomplishments, made her a centre of attraction in the society of the time. She lived in a splendid house, and her establishment, in all its appointments was perfect. We may imagine the sensation created by the news of her arrest. The Widow Zwanziger was an admirable cook and nurse. Her soups and coffee had a Madame Ursinus was seated in the midst of peculiar strength; her watchful care by the a brilliant company on the evening of the fifth sick bed was in all hearts; she kissed the of March, 1803, at the card-table, when a serchild she meant to kill, and pillowed the ach- vant, with all the signs of terror in his face, ing head with such soothing address that it entered, and informed her that the hall and never ached again. Mrs. Gottfried was so at- ante-room were occupied by police, who intractive a person that her ministration was sisted on seeing her. Madame Ursinus betraysought by people of much higher rank than her ed no surprise or emotion. She put down ད her cards, begged the party with whom she soul, who had laid her grand plans well, and was engaged at play to excuse the interrup- had allowed no witnesses, and feared no detec tion, observing that it was some mistake, and tion. True, if she had poisoned her husband that she would be back in a moment. She went, but did not return. After waiting some time, her partners inquired after her, and learned, to their consternation, that she was arrested and carried off to prison, on a charge of poisoning. and her aunt, witness of the poison itself might be forthcoming; but the chemical tests for poisons were not then so well known as they are now. The bodies were disinterred and examined, and no trace of poison was found. The state of the stomach and intestines were most suspicious; but the doctors disagreed as to the cause, as doctors will; and so far Ma dame Ursinus was safe. A confidential servant, Benjamin Klein, had complained in the preceding month of February of indisposition. She gave him a basin of becf-tea, and some days afterwards some medi- But, there was no getting over the fact that cine in raisins. This, so far from removing his the prunes intended for the cautious Benjamin complaint, increased it; and when his mistress, Klein had arsenic in them; and the Ura few days afterwards, offered him some boiled sinus was too shrewd to attempt to deny it. rice, he said he could not eat it, and was much On this point she did confess, promptly, frankstruck by observing that she carefully put it ly, and fully. But then, she meant no harm, away where no one else could get it. This at least against him. She had no intention of excited in his mind strong suspicions that there murdering the man. What good could that was something in the food which was detrimental to health, and associated with his condition. He resolved secretly to examine his mistress's room and cabinet, and in- the latter he found a small parcel, with the ominous label -Arsenic. dó her?-he had no money to leave. No; her motive was very different. In early life her affections had been thwarted through the obstinacy of parents; she had married a man whom she highly esteemed, but did not love; another friend, whom she did love, had died The next day his attentive mistress brought of consumption; and she was disgusted with him some stewed prunes, which she recom- life. The splendor and gayety which surroundmended as likely to do him good; and this ed her were a hollow splendor, a wearisome time he accepted them with apparent thank- gayety. She had been prosperous, but that fulness, but took care that none of them should prosperity had only accelerated her present enter his mouth. He communicated his sus- mood. She had outlived the relish of exist picions to the lady's maid, in whom he had ence, and had resolved to die. Ignorant, howconfidence; and she quickly carried off the ever, poor innocent soul! of the force of this prunes to her brother, who was the apprentice poison, she wanted to learn how much would of a celebrated apothecary. The apprentice be sufficient for its object; and therefore she communicated the prunes and the suspicion to had done as young doctors are said to do in his master, who tested them, and found them hospitals-made a few experiments on her pawell seasoned with arsenic. The apothecary tient, the unfortunate Benjamin Klein. She very soon conveyed the discovery to the magis- had given him the very minutest quantity, so trate, and the magistrate, after hearing the as to be quite safe, and had cautiously increas statement of the servant and the lady's maid, ed the successive doses-not with the least inarrested the great lady. tention to do him any permanent harm, but to People, of course, now began to look back ascertain the effectual dose for herself. She on the life of this distinguished woman; and would not for her life have hurt the man. it was remembered, that her husband and an society she had been noted for her sensibility aunt, to whose last days she had paid assidu--for the almost morbid delicacy of her nerves ous attention, and whose wealth had fallen to and the acuteness of her sympathies. That her, had gone off suddenly. Madame Ursi- was all. As to the charges of having adminnus was at once set down as a second Brinvil-istered poison to her nearest connections, she liers, and wonderful revelations were expected. treated the calumny with the utmost indignaThe general appetite for the marvellous be- tion. The judges were puzzled; the Ursinus came ravenous and insatiable. There ap- was resolute in the protestation of her innopeared almost immediately-it is wonder- cence; and the public were at a disagreeable ful how quickly such things are done a nonplus. book, by M. Frederic Buchholz, entitled the "Confessions of a Female Poisoner written by herself," which was rapidly bought up and devoured, as the veritable confession of the Ursinus. But, alas for the hungering and thirsting public, Madame Ursinus was not a lady of the confessing sort! She was a clever, far-seeing In And what really had been the life and character of the Ursinus? Sophia Charlotte Elizabeth Weingarten was the daughter of a so-called Baron Weingarten-who, as secreta ry of legation in Austria, had, under a charge of high treason, crossed to Prussia, and assum ed the name of Weiss. Fräulein Weingar ten, or Von Weiss, was born 1760. While re |