of keys to open them. When I entered the garret, I soon perceived what it was that rendered my philtres of no avail. I saw a handsome cock, chained by the neck, the wings, and the legs. The cock had on both his eyes leather shades, which entirely prevented him from seeing. I laughed with contempt. I seized the cock, and contented myself with taking off the shades. Quite satisfied that all my wishes would be fulfilled, I then returned home. In fact, the moment that the cock ceased to be blind, the husband of the young princess ceased to be so with respect to the singer. He saw her as she really was, ugly, old, wicked, and perfidious; and seeing also that his wife was young, faithful, and charming, he became more enamoured of her than ever.

The cure which we now have to perform is far more difficult. You cannot point out any particular woman who has your husband's affections. Several share it, and my enchantments, thus divided, would assuredly lose their strength. Let us, however, not despair. I am the mistress of a terrible secret; and if I could obtain the locks, cut by yourself, from the head of a criminal who died on the gibbet, I should be sure of making you loved, for your whole life, by him whom you adore."

The duchess shuddered at these words, and dismissed the sorceress; but she had no sooner quitted the room than Laura hastened to recal her. Driven to desperation, Rosalba, after having exhausted her offers, and intreaties to her to find other means, and conquered at last by the pertinacity of the Jewess, who persisted in repeating that this means alone was certain, Rosalba ended by enquiring how these terrible locks were to be procured.

"Listen to me," said the sorceress. "Half a league from Palermo, on the road to Corlione, is a small chapel, surrounded by a deep ditch. A wooden bridge leads to this chapel, and round the chapel runs a ledge of stone, about six inches wide. Above this ledge, are suspended from the walls, the bodies of the criminals who are executed at Palermo. They continue there, as a warning to others, till they fall into the ditch, which serves as a sepulchre for their remains. If you have courage enough, or rather love enough, to go to this

chapel alone, and to cut off with your left hand the locks of the first corpse that you meet with, I will answer for the rest. But no one must accompany you. It is necessary that you should go alone, and that it should be at the hour of midnight."

Rosalba reflected for a few moments; then, seizing and strongly pressing the hand of the old Jewess, she replied, "I will go.'

"

The clock struck eleven. Rosalba determined to make the attempt immediately. She called for her veil, and Laura trembling gave it to her. She furnished herself with a dark lantern, a pair of scissars, and a dagger; ordered the sorceress to wait for her; forbade Laura to follow her; and quitted the palace by the garden gate. She then hastened out of the city, took the road of Corlione, and was soon in the country, entirely by herself, amidst the darkness of the night, walking forward with a rapid and firm step, her mind solely occupied with the idea of her husband.

She arrived; she saw the chapel-a trembling came over her; but, without stopping, she sought with her lantern the entrance to the wooden bridge. She crossed it, and pressed forward; and, when she came to the ledge of stone, she paused to examine it by the feeble light of her lantern. This ledge was barely half a foot in width, and was cut sloping towards the ditch. The duchess turned the light to it, and looked down the precipice; she could distinguish whitened bones about forty yards below her.

Almost ready to faint, Rosalba rallied her spirits, made an effort, and placed one foot on the narrow ledge. At the second step she tottered. Her first impulse naturally was to stretch out her hand, to support herself by the wall. Her hand met the leg of one of the suspended corpses. She seized and held it fast, passed her lantern from her left hand to that which held the leg, took out her scissars, and stretching out her insecurely fixed feet, to raise herself on tiptoe, she endeavoured to reach the head of the corpse, that she might obtain the locks which she wanted.

While she was in the midst of this horrible occupation, a chariot with six horses passed along the high road. In this chariot was a young man, who was con

ducting two opera singers to his country-house. By the twinkling of the pale light, he distinguished from the road a female, who seemed to be trying to take down the body of one of the wretched criminals. Struck with horror and affright, the young man took the female for a sorceress, who was preparing to perform some magical operation. He stopped the horses, rushed from his carriage, hurried forward, and, superstitious even though debauched, he exclaimed, with a thundering voice," Infamous wretch! leave the dead in peace, or fear the living. Tremble lest I instantly drag you from your horrible prey, and deliver you into the hands of the inquisition.'

What were the feelings of the duchess on hearing these words! It was the voice of her husband! In her surprise and terror, she dropped the lantern, which rolled down, went out, and left the unhappy Rosalba in utter darkness, suspended to the corpse, trembling, scarcely breathing, and aware that her strength was rapidly deserting her.

The duke redoubled his threats. He was already crossing the bridge. Compelled at length to speak, the nearly dying Rosalba said to him, "Stop, stop! God and my heart bear me witness that I meditate no crime. Do not revile an unfortunate being, who deserves only pity; but, above all, do not come near me, unless you wish me instantly to throw myself into this gulph.'

At these words, at that voice, the duke knew his wife. He screamed, hurried towards her, uttering her name, and imploring her to wait for him, and to take courage; he even lavished expressions of tenderness, which were forced from him by the danger of Rosalha. At length he reached her, seized her in his arms, carried her senseless to the chariot, from which he turned out those who occupied it; and flying back to the city, frozen with surprise and horror, he reached his palace before the duchess recovered from the swoon into which she had fallen.

Laura, when she saw her mistress lifeless in the arms of the duke, filled the air with cries of grief. She assisted, and restored her to life; while the duke, almost beside himself, could not believe what he had

seen, strove in vain to comprehend it, and requested an explanation. The Jewess, then, with an awful gravity, addressed him in these words:

Insensible and cruel man! fall on your knees before your wife, and adore that model of affectionate and constant hearts. Never did lover, never did husband, receive a warmer, greater, stronger proof of love, than that which you have now received. Learn, ingrate! learn what your Rosalba has done for you; Blush for having reduced her to it; and employ your whole future life in paying the debt which you have thus contracted in a single moment.

The Jewess then recounted her conversation with the duchess, and the terrible proof which she had required from her. The duke did not wait till the old woman had finished her story; he threw himself at the feet of the duchess, and shed tears of admiration, tenderness, and repentance; he vowed to atone, by an eternal constancy, for that misconduct which he now abhorred; he entreated her pardon, and confessed that he was not worthy of it. The tender Rosalba raised him up with a melancholy smile, pressed him to her bosom, bathed his face with tears of rapture; and, both at once pouring out their grateful acknowledgments, they mutually thanked each other for the happiness which they were henceforth to enjoy.

From this moment the young Castellamare, abandoning the false friends who had not been able entirely to corrupt him, happy in a felicity which he had not yet known, that which is given by virtue, pure love, and a heart at peace with itself, Castellamare, daily more attached to and more loved by Rosalba, passed his days serenely with his faithful wife, their children, and the good old Scanzano. The Jewess, enriched by the gifts which the duchess lavished on her, followed her advice, and relinquished her dangerous profession. She has since confessed that, when she proposed to Rosalba to visit the chapel, she knew that the duke always passed by it about midnight. She, perhaps, reckoned upon this meeting; but that circumstance does not diminish the glory of her success, nor ought it in the least to lessen the faith which is due to the wonderful power of magicians. R.*.*.

No. 10.---THE OESTRUS EQUI.

THE mode pursued by the parent fly to obtain for its young a situation in the stomach of the horse, is truly singular, and is effected in the following manner :When the female has been impregnated, and the eggs are sufficiently matured, she seeks among the horses a subject for her purpose, and approaching it on the wing, she holds her body nearly upright in the air, and her tail, which is lengthened for the purpose, curved inwards and upwards. In this way she approaches the part where she designs to deposit the egg; and suspending herself for a few seconds before it, suddenly darts upon it, and leaves the egg adhering to the hair. She hardly appears to settle, but merely touches the hair with the egg held out on the projected point of the abdomen. The egg is made to adhere by means of a glutinous liquor secreted with it. She then leaves the horse at a small distance, and prepares a second egg, and, poising herself before the part, deposits it in the same way. The liquor dries, and the egg becomes firmly glued to the hair. This is repeated by various Hies, till four or five hundred eggs are sometimes placed on one horse.

The horses, when they become used to this fly, and find it does them no injury, as the Tabani and Conopes, by sucking their blood, hardly regard it, and do not appear at all aware of its insidious object.

The skin of the horse is always thrown into a tremulous motion on the touch of this insect, which merely arises from the very great irritability of the skin and cutaneous muscles at this season of the year, occasioned by the continual teasing of the flies, till at length these muscles act involuntarily on the slightest touch of any body whatever.

The inside of the knee is the part on which these flies are most fond of depositing their eggs, and next to this on the side and back part of the shoulder, and less frequently on the extreme ends of the hairs of the mane. But it is a fact worthy of attention, that the