see the motion of their hands; ten minutes, a quarter of an hour elapsed, and no sign. I was beginning to feel faint from heat and bad air, when bang went one and another on the roof, and two stones fell before me, one narrowly grazing my

nose.

I dismissed the children, who evinced great fear, and recommenced sobbing and shivering, and rushed out of the case, cannoning in my flight against the coachman, who was waiting at some distance to hear the result of my courageous exploit.

"Have you ever heard of this sort of thing before?" I mustered up sufficient Creole to say.

"Si fait, ma'amselle; si fait!" he replied; and told me forthwith some ghastly tales, ending most indignantly with "And they say, some of them, that I am at the bottom of it."

convinced that certain persons possess the book, though I never could see a copy of it, nor ascertain if it really existed."

Had I known the fact at the time, my interest would have been doubled, as Mr. Hamerton's testimony shows that a book of divination, or demonology, called “Le Petit Albert," does exist in other countries, though whence it derives its rather peculiar and somewhat modern name I have never found out.

Next day, Manuel, his wife and chil dren, took French leave, and went off for the day without our having any clue to their whereabouts. The place was quiet during the day, but while we were at dinner, between eight and nine o'clock, a servant came to say that Manuel had returned, and sent in a message to "tell massa he was drunk." Dark though it was, the instant he and his family turned from the highroad into the avenue the stones rattled round them in the path.

Next morning, as I sat in the store. room, giving out rice, flour, curry — all the articles necessary for the day's consumption, I began to Manuel thus, —

"Cook, I am very sorry indeed to think that, after being a trusted servant here for nine years, you should come home in such a state as you were in last night. I can assure you that, if it ever happens again, your master will not pass it over, but you will have to go."

Manuel, who, like most Madrassees, spoke a little broken English, replied, "What me do, missy? Me no eat; me

"Nonsense!" I said again, this time quite sharply; for, though I had a vague idea in my own mind that perhaps le diable was at the bottom of it somehow, my honor and self-respect required me to keep up an appearance of courage I was far from feeling before these timid In-children, wife, mis'rable; they no eat, no dians, who all looked to me as a rock of sleep, no noting. There is nothing to do defence an infallible authority as well but get drunk." as a most welcome outlet to their feelings as an audience.

To their mistress they did not attempt to speak, for she was too frightened by the whole proceeding, to listen even to my experiences.

"Si, ma'amselle, si; there is a little book," continued Djuman, "they consult, and it is some one in the house who is doing it, and the little book is called the 'Petit Albert,' and there is only one copy in the island."

I was much interested in this relation, and noted the fact, and the reader can judge my surprise when, long after, in reading a book of P. Hamerton's called "Round my House," I came upon the following passage: "In one part of France the peasants have the fullest belief in sorcery. They believe that the secrets of sorcery are contained in a mysterious volume called an Albert,' and they are

I remember that I read him a moral lecture, and said by adding the effects of drink to his present misery he was not doing much to improve his condition; but all the time I felt deeply for the poor

man.

Slightly infected with my brother's reiterated suspicions of his two children, who bore a name for mischief, I asked him earnestly if he thought they had really anything to do with it, and seeing the success of their tricks in the general terror and mystification, were induced to keep it up. I did not add that G― insisted that I was very much to blame in the matter, as my evincing so much interest encouraged them to continue.

Was it likely, said Manuel in reply, that children of eight and ten would go on doing a thing, even if it were possible for them to do it so closely watched, which was making their parents miserable, in

volving themselves in punishment, and | which would ultimately deprive them of house and home?

"No, missy; it will go worse, you see; we will be pinch blue and black. Needles will go through our tongues when we sleep, and in two months we die, if no one find out and stop." Then, shutting the storeroom door mysteriously, he approached me, and said in a low whisper: "Missy, some one in dis house want to get rid me. I not know who. I tink; but I not sure. If missy will give me - lend twenty rupees, go see woman in town who will go sleep, and write names paper, and I show missy in storeroom to-morrow morning."

on

"No, no, cook," I said; "don't do any thing so silly as waste money on a clairvoyante. She can't tell. And don't suspect any of the servants here. It is merely a mischievous trick. I am very sorry for you meanwhile, but we will find it out by and-by. I could not lend you money for such a purpose, and you must not waste your own."

The other servants, who knew or guessed the mission on which Manuel had gone into Port Louis, and suspected that he had told me the result, scanned my face carefully, and questioned me as to my hav ing found any elucidation of the matter. But I studiously concealed my knowledge, and gave the paper back to Manuel, telling him not to put too much faith in informa tion obtained in such a manner; though if I had any suspicions in the matter, they certainly pointed in the same direction. Manuel's, I may say, had till now gone wide of the mark.

The molestation, after this, ceased for some time, or occurred at rare intervals, but the poor man had become so unnerved from terror that he neglected his work, and finally got his dismissal.

I had returned to Europe before this happened, but on leaving, begged my sister to keep me informed about the super. natural affairs I left behind, and she wrote and told me that his persecutor followed him to his next situation, harassed him for some time, and then disappeared.

But the poor wretch was too miserable In talking over the matter with an Ento heed my remonstrances. The day fol-glishwoman who had spent nearly the lowing we had to trust our cooking to one of the boys, who were all becoming quite demoralized in the unusually exciting atmosphere in which we lived, for Manuel had again taken French leave, and was absent all day.

whole of a long life in the island, she said: "It is a most extraordinary thing but worse cases than this have come under my own notice. A young girl whom I knew came out from England here as a dressmaker. A Creole youth fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. She rejected him, and mad with rage he resolved to compass her death. Whether by herself or watched by careful friends, this poor young thing woke in the morn. ings, her arms and body pinched, the blue marks visible on her tender flesh, her hair No tell no- cut off close to her head, her food snatched from her; needles passed through her eyelids and tongue, and she pined and died under the ceaseless and mysterious powers ranged against her."

Outwardly indifferent, it was with a thrill of expectation I repaired to the storeroom next morning, when Manuel immediately closed the door, and glancing fearfully all round, and out at the square grated windows, pushed a paper into my hand, saying in quick, low voice,

66

Missy read that in room.

body."

"Have you seen the clairvoyante?" I asked breathless from astonishment, and with a momentary terror of perhaps seeing my own name written on the paper.

"Yes, missy. She go sleep; she ask how many servant; then she tink long time; then she say massa go to England soon-six months; two boys here want cook leave dis house; they try frighten him away. Missy see?"

I ran across to my room, and there read the name of Sammy and another servant (the two who subsequently were retained by G's partner as head-servants).

To say the least of it, the woman had not made a bad guess, and how she contrived to know my brother's intention of leaving Mauritius I don't know. It was, in any case, a most curious coincidence.

I neither affirm nor deny the tale. I merely tell it as it was told to me by an Englishwoman whose veracity I never had any occasion to doubt. Another person told me that on the island there resided a very evil man, a Mozambique, who possessed some power supposed to be allied to sorcery or witchcraft, whose aid was frequently invoked to bring dis aster or death on their enemies by revengeful persons.

The stone throwing may have been — I suppose must have been sleight of-hand performed by some one, but it was very extraordinary that the discovery of the perpetrator, or the means by which he accom.

plished his deeds, should have eluded the careful watch of my brother, his cousins, myself a most interested spectator three policemen, and many other persons.

From Temple Bar.

LORD MELBOURNE.

propriety of trying to ingratiate himself been overcome. As soon, however, as the princess had become queen, he entered upon his duties.

Immediately after the queen had retired from her first council, a very singu lar scene occurred amongst its members. Her Majesty's speech contained the fol lowing passage: "I esteem it a peculiar advantage that I succeed to a sovereign whose constant regard for the rights and liberties of his subjects, and whose desire to promote the amelioration of the laws and institutions of the country, have rendered his name the object of general attachment and veneration." According to Greville, the speech was admired by all except Brougham, who was in a state of considerable excitement. He said to Peel, whom he was standing near, and with whom he was not in the habit of communicating, "Amelioration,' that is not English; you might perhaps say 'melioration,' but improvement' is the proper word."

"Oh!" said Peel, "I see no harm in the word; it is generally used." "You object," said Brougham, "to the sentiment; I object to the grammar."

ON the morning of the 20th of June, 1837, the tolling of the great bell of St. Paul's announced to the citizens of London, that "it had pleased Almighty God to call to his mercy our late sovereign lord, King William IV., of blessed and glorious memory." The event had long been anticipated, and can hardly be said to have produced any great amount of national grief, and all eyes were turned to the rising sun the princess Victoria, then a girl of eighteen. With an interest only second to that with which they looked on the occupant of the throne, public attention was turned to those who were to act as her advisers. It was felt that a change of ministry upon the demise of the crown was out of the question. All through the king's illness the Duke of Wellington had expressed a decided opin- Whether the queen would have pledged ion that the prime minister ought to be herself to the Whigs at the beginning of in communication with the heiress to the her reign, if she had quite appreciated throne, and this view was known to be their position, may be questioned. The shared by his colleagues of the opposi- party had been carried into power by the tion. Peel especially, if Charles Greville success of the Reform Bill, but by the may be trusted, was of opinion that "the middle of 1834 it had become discredited most probable as well as the most expe- and disorganized. An Irish coercion bill dient course she (the queen) could adopt of extreme severity gave the coup de grâce, would be to rely entirely upon the advice and Lords Grey and Althorp resigned. of Melbourne, and she might with great Lord Melbourne undertook the reconpropriety say that she had thought it instruction of the administration, and in cumbent on her to follow the example set by her two uncies, William IV. having retained in office the ministers of his brother, and George IV., although his political predilections were known to lean another way, having also declined to dismiss the government of his father."

three months' time the king seized upon the changes rendered necessary by the promotion of Lord Althorp to the Upper House as a pretext for getting rid of the Whig Cabinet altogether. The Duke of Wellington was sent for first, but he declined to do more than take office tempoIt does not appear that Lord Melbourne rarily, and recommended the king to send had had much previous communication for Peel, who was then on the Continent. with his future sovereign. His biogra- The Tory Cabinet lived a very short time. pher, indeed, asserts as a matter of fact The two wings of the Liberal party that the princess had never conversed patched up a truce, and entered into an with him upon any subject of importance alliance with O'Connell. By these arbefore the king's death, and it was a mat-rangements, Peel found himself already ter for regret that she had to learn every in a minority when he met the new Parthing after, instead of before her acces sion. That she succeeded in fulfilling her part admirably is admitted on all hands, but much inconvenience might have been saved in the first days of her reign had Lord Melbourne's scruples as to the im LIVING AGE. VOL. LIII 2750

This incident was evidently a matter of common conversation. It serves to explain the dialogue in Coningsby" And now for our cry,' said Mr. Taper. 'Ancient institutions and modern improve better word; ameliorations. Nobody knows exactly suppose, Mr. Tadpole' what it means.' (Coningsby, book ii, chap. vi.)

ments, I

Ameliorations is the