The beautiful culprit mounted the Scaffold, in an elegant undress. She was surrounded by the executioners, on whom she gazed with astonishment, and seemed to doubt that she was the object of such cruel preparations. One of the executioners pulled off a cloak which covered her bosom, at which her modesty took alarm; she started back, turned pale, and burst into tears. Her clothes were soon stripped off, and she was naked to the waist, before the eager eyes of an immense concourse of people, profoundly silent. Two of the executioners then took her by both hands, and turning her half round, raised her on their backs, inclining forwards lifting her a little from the ground; upon which another executioner adjusted her on the backs of his coadjutors, and placed her in the most proper posture for receiving the punishment. He then retreated a few steps, measuring the proper distance with a steady eye, and leaping back wards, gave a stroke with the knout, so as to carry away a piece of skin, from the neck to the bottom of her back; then striking his feet against the ground, he made a second blow, parallel to the former, and in a few minutes, all the skin of the back was cut away in small slips, most of which remained hanging pendant: her tongue was cut out immediately after, and she was banished to Siberia. In the time of the early Czars, the performers of this horrid task were regarded with so much respect, that they were admitted into the best society. Nay, it is even said, that in those days, merchants, thinking it honourable thus to pass into ranks above them, paid large sums of money to be allowed to fulfil the murderous duty. When their ambitions were satisfied, they then re-sold the vocation at an enormous profit. So expert are the executioners of the present day, that they can handle the knout with much more readiness than our coachmen their whips: as a proof of their dexterity, a wager was laid by two Russian noblemen relative to the professional talents of two of them, and an eye-witness relates the following to be the result: The person who won the bet, gained it by the following feat; he placed his companion at arm's length from him, and undertook to strike two hundred times with his knout, yet though he should not touch, nor injure his person, at each blow he promised to bring away a narrow strip of his friend's shirt, which he actually performed, without inflicting even the merest scratch on his body. By way of expressing his gratitude for the patience his companion had elicited, when he had finished the specified number of blows, he lifted up his weapon, and in a playful manner, appeared to give a slight fillip towards the man on whom his skill had been exhibited, he hardly seemed to touch the body, but on inspection, a wound at least a foot and a half in length was perceived, bearing an exact resemblance to one which might have been given by a razor, or any other sharp instrument. The one who had received the blow, seemed to take it in good part, and as a joke; coolly remarking, that he should not be longin embracing an opportunity of returning an equivalent to the favour received. The two men positively asserted, that they could without any remarkable effort on their parts, kill the strongest man, with only three blows of this simple, though dreadful instrument, the knout. ESSAYS ON MEN AND MANNERS. NOT AT HOME. "Not at Home" said her Ladyship's footman, with the usual nonchalance, which says "You know I am lyingbut never mind." "Not at home," I repeated to myself as I sauntered from the door, in a careless fit of abstractedness. "Not at home," how useful, how universally practised is this falsehood. Of what various, and what powerful import. Is there any one in the fashionable world, who has not been preserved from annoyance, by its adoption? Is there any one who has not rejoiced, or grieved, or smiled, or sighed at the sound of 66 Not at home?" No! every body (that is, every body who has pretensions to the title of Somebody,) acknowledges the utility and advantage of these three little words. To them the Lady of Ton is indebted for the undisturbed enjoyment of her Vapours the philosopher for the preservation of solitude and study; the spendthrift, for the repulse of the importunate dun. tion. Upon looking, I perceived an interesting youth listening with evident mortification to the "Not at Home" of the Porter. "Not at Home," he muttered to himself, as he retired, "What am I to think, she has denied herself these three days!" and, with a lover again, what an invaluable talisman was found in "Not at Home." \ The idol of his affections was perhaps at that moment receiving the incense of adoration from another, possibly a more favoured votary: perhaps she was balancing in the solitude of her boudoir between the Vicar's band and the Captain's epaulettes; or weighing the merits of gout with a plum, on the one side, against love with but a moderate income, on the other. Or possibly she was sitting unprepared for conquest, unadorned by cosmetic aid, wrapt up in dreams of tonight's assembly; where her face will owe the evening's unsuspected triumphs to the assistance of the morning's "Not at home.' Another knock! another "Not at Home!" A fat tradesman, with all the terrors of authorised impertinence, was combating with pertinacious resolution, the denial of a valet. The Captain's not at Home,' servant; "I saw him at the window," said the It is true, that the constant use of this sentence, savours somewhat of a false French taste, which I hope never to see engrafted upon our true English feeling. But in this particular, who will not excuse this imitation of our refined neigh-like sigh, he passed on his way. Here bours? Who will so far give up the enviable privilege of making his house, his Castle, as, to throw open the gates upon the first summons of inquisitive or fashionable intrusion? The "morning call" of the Dun and the Dandy, the Belle and the Bailiff, the Poet and the Petitioner, appear to us a species of hostility, carried on against our comfort and tranquillity; and as all stratagems are fair in war, we find no fault with the ingenious device which fortifies us against these insidious attacks. In the present state of society the use of this sentence is indispensable. While I was engaged in this mental soliloquy a carriage drove up to Lady Mortimer's door, and a footman, in a most appallingly splendid livery roused me from my reverie by a thundering knock.: "Not at home" was the result of the application. Half a dozen cards were thrust out of the window, and after due inquires after her Ladyship's cold, and her Ladyship's husband's cold, and her Ladyship's lap-dog's cold, the carriage resumed its way, and so did I, following up the train of my former cogitations. What would have been the visitor's perplexity if this brief formule was not in use? She must have got out of her carriage, an exertion which would ill accord with the vis inertia of a lady; or she must have given up her intention of leaving her card at a dozen houses, to which she is now hastening, or she must have gone to dinner, even later than what fashionable punctuality requires! Equally annoying would the visit have proved to the Lady of the House. She might have been in terrupted in an agreeable tete a tete or she might have been obliged to throw "St. Ronan's Well" into the drawer. Is she taciturn? She might have been compelled to talk; Is she talkative? she might have been obliged to hold her tongue; or in all probability she sees her friends to night, and it would be hard indeed if she were not allowed to be "Not at Home" till ten at night, when from that time she must be At Home" till three in the morning. A knock at a door which I was pass ing, again recalled me from my abstrac cried the other. "I can't help that," resumed the laced Ceberus, "He's not at Home." The foe was not easily repulsed, and seemed disposed to storm. I was in some fear for the security of the Castle, but the siege was finally raised. The enemy retreated, sending forth from his half-closed teeth, many threats, intermingled with frequent mention of a powerful ally in the person of Lawyer Shark. 66 Here," said I, resuming my meditations, "here is another instance of the utility of my theme. Without it, the noble spirit of this son of Mars would have been torn away from reflections on twenty pounders by a demand for twenty pounds; perhaps he is at this moment entranced in dreams of charges of horse and foot. He might have been roused by charges for boots and shoes. In faney, he is disposing of crowns! Horrible thought, he might have been awakened to the recollection that he has not half-a-crown in the world! I had now reached the door of a friend ---I knocked and in spite of my former ideas, I was a little nettled at the "not at C2 .home" of my old friend; and "endeavoured, for some time, to divine what was his occupation which then made him inaccessible, and at last soothed myself with the idea that he really might not have been at home. As is usual with persons like myself, who are accustomed to speculate upon trifles, from which no fixed principle can be deduced, I negatived the theory of one moment by the practice of the next. For, having returned from my perambulations, I seated myself in my study, with pen, ink, and a sheet of foolscap before me, and finding myself once more "at home," I enjoined my servant to remember that I was "not at home" for the rest of the day. IMAGINARY HORRORS, A TALE. "Fit pugil, et medicum urget."---HOR' "Now is the very witching time of night When churchyards yawn, and graves give up their ghosts.' SIR,---I will not preface the detail, which I am about to transmit to you, by any long introduction. It is sufficient to inform you that I am one of those who are afflicted by a romantic imagination, which, however it may inspire or enchant us in our moments of poetical inspiration is, as we all know, troublesome beyond measure in the ordinary affairs of life. The circumstances which I am going to relate are an exemplification of this trite but true observation. It was on a beautiful autumn evening that I stole out unperceived, from a party engaged in discussing the merits of some of my father's oldest claret, and left him eloquently and feelingly declaiming in its praise, to take a solitary ramble through the extent of grounds that had so often witnessed my infant gambols, or seen me, at a more advanced age, performing the voyage of Eneas by means of a horse-pond and washing-tub; ---or imitating my favourite Hector in the destruction of the Grecian Navy, to the imminent peril of farmer Ashfield's neighbouring hay-rick. It was an evening, to delineate whose beauteous grandear would require a heart teeming with all the inspiration of the Muses---a pen dipped in the brightest colours of imagination. A soft mellow silence pervaded the whole expanse of air and earth; the sun, just sinking beneath the horizon, still retained influence sufficient to leave a bright tinge of red upon the western sky, and to deepen the verdure of the aged oaks, which, wreathing their huge gigantic branches into a thousand fantastic forms, overshadowed my path, and scarcely deigned to wave beneath the passing zephyr that agitated their foliage for a moment, and in the next had left all as still and solemnly silent as the grave. It was such an evening as would be peculiarly fitted to conjure up all the fantasies of a warm imagination; which might easily have pictured to itself Queen Mab, and her fairy attendants, tripping nimbly over the herbage, or holding their sportive gambols far from the sight of intruding mortals, beneath the shade of some favourite beech. "On such a night as this," I wandered unconsciously along, forgetful almost of my own existence, totally absorbed in contemplation, and forming in idea the most unearthly and romantic images. Long had I thus roamed, indifferent to every thing around me, and in a kind of delicious forgetfulness of the world and its unpleasant accompaniments. Already had the darkness of the night succeeded to the shades of evening, but so gradually had its sombre light given way to the gentle brightness of the moon, that I was far from perceiving the change, and still pursued my way, unconscious of the dews that began to fall around me, till a sudden cloud obscuring the rays of the bright luminary above, and a sharp air that died away in threatening forebodings through the grove below, recalled my scattered senses, and, arousing me to the knowledge of myself and my situation, brought to my recollection the deserted party, and the supposition that, in all probability, the family would be alarmed at my absence. I was next reminded of a still more unpleasant circumstance; that, having no small distance to return, I should, most probably, be caught in the storm which I now, for the first time, perceived had been accumulating all its horrors from every point of the heavens, and was just ready to burst forth with terrifying violence. As all this passed in quick revolution through my brain, I had already turned my face homewards, and, with buttoned-up coat, was on the point of starting with as great rapidity as the increasing darkness and the devious path would admit, when my purpose was suddenly checked by the rain of which I had been so lately forewarned. It fell in torrents so violent, that to proceed was impossible. I took refuge under a spreading tree, and had much What could I do? escape was impossible! the least noise was death to me! Silently and anxiously I listened to the conversation of my foes; and my terror was not abated, when I overheard these dark and terrible expressions :-- "Upon the word of a gentleman !" said the first, "I have not touched a single guinea since I came into this part of the country!" "Business is in truth very dull!" said the other. "I have practised here for twenty years, and never was there a time when people have been so shy of putting themselves in my hands as they are at present!" No wonder ! thought I. "I am afraid," resumed the first, there is a strong prejudice gone abroad against our profession!" PreJudice! thought I. 'You are right!" replied the other; "not one blockhead can die within ten miles round, but a hundred other blockheads cry out that I illed him!" My blood ran cold; but it this moment the violence of the tembest increased, and for some minutes I eard no more of the discussion. 66 By degrees the tumult of the elements bated, and I again caught a few words. Your system, brother! is too violent; have always employed milder mehods." (Blessings on you, thought I.) I disapprove of your indiscriminate use f steel in all cases." “Steel, Sir!" ied the other, "steel!---Nothing is to e done in our way without steel."--hey began to move towards me! I felt my brow grow clammy---my ár stand on end---my tongue cleave to e roof of my mouth. They approach!---nearer !---nearer! Despair gave courage. I seized a large branch ich had been rent from its parent tree the wind, and dashed it, with all the y of hopelessness, "Full on the footpad's forehead! down he sank Without a groan expiring." I heard my name vociferated as I fled; but I stood not for this. With inconceivable rapidity I fled from the place of combat, and, after traversing a space of many miles, perceived, to my great satisfaction, that I was not pursued. I was endeavouring, though without much chance of accomplishing this desirable object, to discover the road I ought to take, when my ear was suddenly startled by a sound which very much resembled a groan. At first I treated it as a fanciful sound, though I confess my eyes were turned, with not the most comfortable feelings, upon the rugged branches and broken stumps that might have, to a terrified mind, borne the appearance of Satan and his sable attendants. A second, more loudly repeated, convinced me of its reality, and immediately looking in the direction whence it seemed to proceed, I espied something white lying upon an open tuft of grass; but I was unfortunately short-sighted, and this, added to the natural darkness, rendered me incapable of distinguishing the nature of the mysterious appearance. A third and deeper groan vibrated on my ear; imagination immediately resumed its sway, and concluding it to be a woman, and fancying I could distinguish her garments. "Alas, unhappy one!" thought I to myself, "thou wast once perhaps lovely in the bloom of youth, and surrounded by all the blessings of peace and innocence, but now, by the arts of some infamous seducer, art become a fugitive vagabond, cast upon the wide world, houseless and helpless, with no one to pity, no one to succour thee! Yes, by Heaven! there is one, I exclaimed, rushing forward with the most fervent feelings of humanity and pity, "there is one shall help thee, poor victim, and shelter thee from the furious storm; there is one,' I continued with all the ardour of a mind inspired with the most generous benevolence, that shall recruit thy weary frame, and, if possible, restore thee to happiness ;" and, approaching still closer, I bent down, and was preparing to modulate my voice in the softest accents of pity, when up it started, Mr. Editor, not in the shape of either Chloe or Lucinda, but in that of one of my father's favourite Dorsetshire sheep, which, while enjoying the slumbers Í had disturbed, uttered those hard breath ings which to my ear sounded as groans. "Damn humanity!" I exclaimed, as the animal retreated with frightened rapidity through an opening in the trees. "Damn humanity! I exclaimed, as I hurried back on my way in no very placid temper, and in the next instant found myself at the bottom of a ditch, the existence of which I had entirely forgotten, Luckily it was a dry one, but unluckily of such depth, and defended by such steep banks, that, notwithstanding I received no injury by the fall, I was soon aware that the retreat would be a labour of much greater difficulty than the entrance had been; and, to add to my troubles, the rain again began to fall in torrents. Thrice I attempted the steep ascent, and thrice, with nails begrimed with dirt, and muddy knees, met with a repulse. My labours might have continued much longer, had not a large Newfoundland dog, accompanied by the butler, sent in search for me, smelt out my retreat. With the joint assistance of Hector and John, I was soon rescued, and in a short time found myself at the hall-door, surrounded by all the servants, who had been on the look-out, and who, while listening to John's account, passed not a few jokes on young gentlemen studying the stars in a ditch. Heedless of these, and their stiffed laughter, and having relieved my fa her's fears, I had the gratitude to recal my oath, and thank Humanity for my safe return; and when I found myself established by the blaze of a good fire to dry my moistened garments,-- 66 Bless humanity!" I exclaimed, "for had she not directed Hector, I might still be exposed to yon rumbling thunder, and all the fury of the tempest, with a ditch for my bed, and in no better plight than---the unfortunate victim of seduction.' This suggested an intrusive thought Pshaw!" I cried. It will be a warning to all warm and poetical imaginations not to stray too far, allured by the beauties of an autumn evening, until, after mistaking a Dorsetshire wether for a frail one repenting of a faux pas, they shall slip, by a faux pas, into 66 a ditch, after the manner of THEODORE AVELING. P.S.I forgot to mention that the next morning the apothecary's lad brought a complaint against Master Theodore, for "breaking Mr. Gargle's head in the storm last night.' MAD---QUITE MAD! Great wits are sure to madness near allied. It has frequently been observed that Genius and Madness are nearly allied; that very great talents are seldom found unaccompanied by a touch of insanity, and that there are few bedlamites who will not, upon a close examination, display symptoms of a powerful, though ruined, intellect. According to this hypothesis, the flowers of Parnassus must be blended with the dregs of Anticyra; and the man who feels himself to be in possession of very brilliant wits may conclude that he is within an ace of running out of them. Whether this be true or false, we are not at present disposed to contradict the assertion. What we wish to notice is, the pains which many young men take to qualify themselves for Bedlam, by hiding a good, sober, and gentlemanlike understanding beneath an assumption of thoughtlessness and whim. It is the received opinion among many that a man's talents and abilities are to be rated by the quantity of nonsense he utters per diem, and the number of follies he runs into per annum. Against this idea we must enter our protest; if we concede that every real genius is more or less a madman, we must not be supposed to allow that every sham madman is more or less a genius. 66 an In the days of our ancestors, the hotblooded youth who threw away his fortune at twenty-one, his character at twenty-two, and his life at twenty-three, was termed "a good fellow," 66 honest fellow," nobody's enemy but his own.". In our time the name isaltered; and the fashionable who squanders his father's estate, or murders his best friend,---who breaks his wife's heart at the gaming-table, and his own neck at a steeple chase,---escapes the sentence which Morality would pass upon him, by the plea of lunacy. "He was a rascal," says Common Sense. "True," says the World, "but he was mad, you know, quite mad.". We were lately in company with a knot of young men who were discussing the character and fortunes of one of their own body, who was, it seems, distinguished for his proficiency in the Art of Madness. Harry," said a young sprig of nobility, "have you heard that Charles is in the King's Bench?". "I heard it this morning," drawled the ex 66 |