As the officers and turnkeys often entered the apartment in the day time, without any previous notice, they were obliged not only to secrete their tools, bui the smallest chips and rubbish that were made, the least appearance of which would have betrayed them. To answer this purpose the more effectually, they gave each of them a private name, and when any body was coming in, he who was next the door gave the cant term to the other, that he might conceal them as expeditiously as possible. When their ropes were all ready, their measure was four hundred feet; they had still to make two hundred steps for their ladders, which, when accomplished, they covered with the lin ing of their bed-gowns and under-waistcoats, to pre vent their rustling against the walls as they de scended.

These preparations cost them eighteen months work, night and day, and they now waited for a dark stormy night to favour their escape. At length, after a great number of difficulties, and many narrow escapes from being detected by the officers, the happy moment they had been so long expecting arrived, and de la Tude was the first to mount the chimney. Here he was almost smothered with the soot, and the blood streamed from his hands, elbows, and knees, down to his legs. After some time, however, he got to the top, and by means of a string drew up his companion, and all their implements, to the top of the building, from which they lowered their baggage, by fastening a rope to the chimney; and, in this way, they descended both at once on the platform, serving as a counterpoise to each other.

Here they fastened their rope-ladder to a piece of cannon, and let themselves and their baggage down into the trench, an operation which was attended with the utmost difficulty; for out of a thousand spectators who should have seen them by daylight, vibrating backwards and forwards in the air, not one of them, says Mr. de la Tude, but would have given us over for lost. They arrived, however, at length, safely in the trench, and felicitated themselves upon the success of this part of their enterprize, having been extremely apprehensive of detection; as the sentinel was all the

time walking on the corridor, at not more than thirty feet distance.

From this place they proceeded to the wall which parted the trench of the Bastile from that of Saint Anthony's-gate, where there was a ditch six feet wide, and deep enough to wet them to the arm-pits. When they had crossed this, they had got to work their way through the stone wall of the governor's garden, which was more than four feet thick and all the time they were employed in this business, the major's round passed them with a great lanthorn every half hour, at about ten or twelve feet over their heads; during which times they were always obliged to retreat into the ditch, and to stand up to their chins in water, in order to avoid being seen.

Before midnight, by means of the iron bars which had been taken out of the chimney, they had displaced two or three wheel-barrows of stones, and in a few hours more a breach was made in the wall, sufficiently large for them to get through it. They were now in the trench of Saint Anthony's-gate, and thought themselves entirely out of danger, when they both suddenly fell into an aqueduct, with at least six feet of water over their heads. In this dangerous situation de la Tude caught hold of the bank, and plunging his arm into the water, drew his companion to him by the hair of his head, and thus happily escaped the danger which threatened them.

"Here," says Mr. de la Tude, "ended the horrors of that dreadful night; and here we embraced each other, and fell upon our knees to thank God for the great mercy he had bestowed upon us, in thus restoring us to liberty. They now mounted the slope of the ditch as it struck four o'clock, and after calling upon a friend who was not at home, flew for refuge to the abbey of St. Germain-des-prez."

Soon after this almost miraculous escape, they both set out, by different routes, for Brussels, agreeing to meet at the same inn; but when de la Tude, who had to encounter with a number of perils on his journey, arrived at the placé appointed, he found that his friend had been discovered, and conducted back to prison. Shocked at this intelligence he set out immediately for

Amsterdam, where he had not long been before he was demanded of the States by the French ambassador, in the name of the king, and carried back to his old quarters in the Bastile, fettered hands and feet, and only allowed a bed of straw, without covering, to repose on.

In this wretched situation he remained forty months, and during this confinement was one day indulged with the barbarous privilege of being permitted to see his friend D'Alégre, whom he found raving mad in the hospital for lunatics at Charenton. The poor creature had no remembrance of him, and made him no other answer, when he reminded him of their escape from the Bastile, than by telling him that he was God. Some time after this shocking interview he observed, from the tower of the Bastile, a large piece of paper at the window of a chamber in St. Anthony's-street, on which was written these words, "Yesterday died the Marchioness of Pompadour." This had been placed there by some young ladies, who were acquainted with his story, and he was now persuaded that he should be released from his confinement; but M. de Sartine had expressly forbidden all the officers of the Bastile to inform the prisoners of her decease. When de la Tude therefore wrote to him, intreating his deliverance, he came to the prison, and insisted upon knowing his author.

His behaviour, upon this occasion, proving offensive to M. de Sartine, he was removed from prison to the governor's house, loaded with chains from head to foot, and afterwards sent to the castle of Vincennes, to be confined in the black-hole. Here, however, the lieutenant-governor, being a humane man, suffered him to walk two hours a day in the fosse, guarded by two fusileers and a serjeant, who stood at the gate with another sentinel. While he was walking here one evening, it happened to be a prodigiously thick fog, which he thought was a circumstance by no means to be neglected: he therefore struck down the two sentinels with his elbows, and pushing boldly by the others, flew as fast as his legs would carry him. A great cry of stop thief ensued, in which he joined, and by that means made his escape to Paris.

After this adventure a number of exempts and setters were sent out upon the search after him, and a thousand crowns were offered as a reward for discovering him. Finding, therefore, that it would be impossible to elude the vigilance of scouts and informers, he wrote a letter to the minister of the war-department, acquainting him that he would not fail to be with him such a day, and begging he would have the goodness to suspend the orders for arresting him till he had been indulged with a moment's audience. Going, according to his promise, to the apartment of the minister, he was immediately secured, without being permitted to utter a syllable, and put into one of the most gloomy dungeons of the castle of Vin

cennes.

At length Cardinal de Rohan, president of the commission, discovered him at the bottom of his dungeon in the Bicetre, to which he had been transferred; and, being moved with his extreme wretchedness, promised him his liberty, provided he could give proper security for his good behaviour. This last kind office was undertaken by a charitable lady of the name of Le Gros; who, on being accidentally informed of his misfortunes, resolved to dedicate her whole time and attention towards procuring his enlargement. The difficulties she had to encounter, together with the narrowness of her own circumstances, rendered the accomplishment of this project almost impossible; but, by incessant and persevering diligence, she at last obtained the object of her wishes; and, after having set him free from all restraints, helped to support him by the small earnings of her own and her husband's industry.

LINNAEUS AND BUFFON COMPARED. LINNÆUS, in the extent of his enquiries, submitted to no boundary but that which nature had assigned to herself. As nature is inimitable in her productions, so Buffon is inimitable in his descriptions of her works. Both of them received from her, activity of mind, strength of talent, promptitude to observe, and the imagination to invent; and both possessed, in an

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eminent degree, a craving solicitude to inform their own minds, and a surprising aptitude to disclose to others the information which they acquired. Both of them have immortalized their names by writings of the highest excellence, and have enlarged the dominion of science. Both have done honour to the countries of which they were natives, and have acquired private distinction and public fame.

So far they coincide; but they have distinguishing characteristics, which the man of taste will readily discover.

Linnæus is remarkable for precision of style; Buffon, for richness and luxuriance. The one has poured forth the treasures of nature; the other has urged onward an irresistible torrent of eloquence. The conciseness and simplicity of Linnæus admit of translation into every language; but the abundant garden of Buffon cannot be transplanted to other countries. The one confines himself to accurate theory, and to objects near and decisive; the other darts, with the rapidity of a comet, beneath the glowing canopy of science. The one appeals to reason and intellect; the other, to the heart and the imagination. The Pliny of Sweden taught us to understand, the Pliny of France to veM. R. nerate, the works of nature.

For the Pocket Magazine.

BURNING OF A WIDOW IN NEPAUL.

"Valley of Nepaul, Nov. 20, 1815. "I HAVE just returned from witnessing a sight, that has made such an impression on my memory, as will not readily be effaced; and in the hope that it will be acceptable, I take up my pen to endeavour to paint to you the picture. My mind is in a right frame for it; but oh, Yorick! that I had thy imagination to trace the fact, with the imagery it requires, that I might convey an adequate idea of the scene to those who did not behold it!

"You will have heard, ere this, of the havoc the small-pox has been making for these three months past, among the inhabitants of this delightful and in