doubts of the ultimate result, began to fear seriously that, when the issue should come at last, but few of his friends could hope to be there to see it.

They had now come to a narrow valley enclosed by two stony banks, and scarcely allowing space for more than half a dozen horsemen to pass abreast. It was in a wild and retired district, entirely unknown even to the experienced fox hunters; and the rich green sod which covered it, was welcomed by the sportsmen as a grateful release from the heavy ploughed lands, or stony pasture fields, over which the latter part of their course had lain. The garrison men were in the utmost glee, and pressed hard in a body upon the heels of their still unbroken pack.

"Pooh, nonsense!" cried the Fagha Ballaghs, with one voice, "We are only killing ourselves for nothing. Old Nick himself could not stop these harebrained madcaps!"

"Let them alone," quietly answered Leader, whose hopes had been revived by certain secret indications.

Away they went pell mell along the little valley; spread out over the entire breadth, and casting an occasional look back at their defeated antagonists, who followed at an humble distance. But in the midst of their triumph, on a sudden they came, one and all, to a perfect stand still, and in a minute were discovered plunged up to the saddle-flaps in a deep quagmire, which a minute before, had appeared as though a troop of artillery might have crossed it unharmed!

"Hurra! the poule na coppal* for ever!" shouted Leader, as, with a whoop, he dashed on to witness their discomfiture. THEY WERE

FAIRLY ANCHORED!

"May be your honours 'ud like to get the brish?" cried the trusty Ned M'Cabe, who now made his appearance on the further side of the morass. Musha, don't let it go so asy wid the Fagha Ballagh boys alanna!" reiterated he, as the latter began to assemble around and enjoy their confusion.

May be you'd like it, Misther Nugent, to help on your musteches?" pursued the varlet, addressing himself to a red haired beardless cornet, who sighed in vain for this evidence of manhood "Never fear, it's just the right match, your honour-it's red enough any how, I'll go bail. "

The urchin held up, with an indescribable ludicrous air of waggery, the red herring which, with other unknown compounds, had been the basis of the drag!

The "Garrison Hunt," never appeared again in our country, and the Fagha Ballaghs are still as popular and as happy as ever.

*The Horses Hole.

TROUT FISHING IN THE ALPS;

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS.

VILLE-NEUVE, called Peniculus by the Romans, is situated at the eastern extremity of Lake Leman. The Rhone, descending from Furca, whence it takes its rise, passes at the distance of a half hour's ride from this little town, and marks the southermost limit of the Canton de Vaux. Advancing thence five leagues, it forms a point, and separates the Canton de Vaux from the Vallais. A célérifère, that awaits the arrival of the steam-boat passengers, conducts them, the same evening, to Bex, where they usually sleep. The hour's start that I had gained by coming over-land, gave me time to run to the spot where the Rhone, dividing into two branches, throws itself, grey and sandy, into the lake, depositing therein its slime, and coming out again, pure and blue, at Geneva, after having traversed the lake throughout its whole extent.

When I returned to Ville-neuve, the coach was ready to start,every one had taken his seat; and, as I had been absent at the distribution, the one that was considered the worst, was carefully reserved for me. Fortunately, it was the very one I should have chosen. It was in the cabriolet, by the side of the conducteur;, where, indeed, there was nothing to screen me from the evening air, but where, at the same time, there was nothing to obstruct my view of the surrounding country.

The valley we were to traverse, presented a beautiful view through the blueish horizon of the Alps. It opened here two leagues broad upon the lake, whence, gradually narrowing until it reaches St. Maurice, a single gate suffices to enclose it, so straightened is it between the mountain and the Rhone. At short intervals, on either side of the river, some pretty little Vaudoise or Vallasian villagegreeted my eyes; but our motion was so rapid, that I could distinguish nothing but the boldness of their situation on the side of the mountain: some apparently ready to slide down a steep declivity scaled by vines; others, resting on a platform surrounded by dark fir-trees, like birds' nests hidden among the branches; some, overhanging a precipice, the road or means of access to which the eye sought vainly to discover. Finally, bounding the landscape and towering above all intervening objects, the Dent de Morcles on the left, red as a brick just glowing from the furnace, rose seven thousand six hundred feet above our heads; and on the right, its sister, the Dent du Midi, lifted its snow-white head eight thousand five hundred feet into the clouds, both variously coloured by the last rays of the setting sun, and standing boldly out from a sky of azure blue. All this I beheld as a punishment for my tardy arrival; whilst my fellow travellers, with closed curtains, were felicitating themselves on their escape from the chill of the atmosphere.

We reached Bex at nightfall. The coach drew up before one of those

pretty inns found only in Switzerland, and in front of a church, the foundations of which, like those of almost all the religious edifices in the Vallais, seem, from their Roman style, to have been the work of the primitive Christians. Dinner was waiting for us when we arrived, and one of its entrées, the fish, was so delicate, that we begged to have some for breakfast on the ensuing morning.

This desire was no sooner made known, than our hostess called loudly to a lad of some eighteen or twenty years old, who united in his proper person, the several functions of porter, scullion, and boots. He obeyed the summons, and notwithstanding a very expressive yawn, the only kind of opposition he ventured to exhibit to the commands of his mistress, -was ordered to procure some trout for the gentleman's breakfast. Maurice (for such was the fisherman's name), turned towards me with so lazy an air, and a look so full of inexpressible reproach, that I was moved to compassion in the fellow's behalf.

"It is of no consequence," said I, and Maurice's face brightened up as my words expressed a meaning so conformable to his wishes; "it is of no consequence, if the affair is disagreeable to the lad."

"Bah!" exclaimed the landlady; "it is only an hour's work, and the river is close at hand. Get along, you lazy fellow! take your lantern and bill," continued she to Maurice, who had relapsed into the resigned apathy that is habitual to those born to obey; "get along, and make haste."

"Your lantern and bill, for fishing!" thought I. From this moment Maurice was a doomed man: for the irresistible desire that I now felt to see a fishing, the preparation for which was the same as for making a fire, effectually prevented my further intercession in his behalf.

Maurice heaved a sigh, for he perceived that there was now no hope; and he had so often been in a similar situation without being extricated, that he dared not expect a miracle to be wrought for his escape in the present instance.

With an energy therefore, bordering on despair, he took down from among some kitchen utensils a pruning-knife and a lantern-the latter of so singular a construction that it must be described before I go on. It was a hollow ball, or globe, of horn, to which was affixed a steel tube, three feet long, and an inch and a half in diameter. The junction between the tube and the globe being hermetically sealed, the oiled wick within the latter, after having been lighted, received air only from the top of the tube, so that the flame could not be extinguished by wind or rain.

"Are you coming, too?" said Maurice, having made his preparations and seeing me ready to follow.

"Certainly," said I; "for your manner of fishing seems to me very original."

"Oh, yes!" muttered he; "it is very original to see a poor fellow dabbling in the water up to his middle instead of being asleep up to his ears in hay. Will you have a knife and a light? you can fish, too, and that will be still more original!"

"A'n't you off yet?" issuing loudly from the adjoining room, saved me the trouble of refusing Maurice's offer. The landlady's footsteps were heard approaching, and the muttering tones of her voice augured no good to the loiterer. He was so convinced of this that he opened the door, rushed out, and shut it again without waiting for me-such was his haste to put two inches of oak between his laziness and the wrath of our obliging landlady.

"It was I," said I, opening the door, and following with my eyes the lantern that was already forty paces before me; "it was I that detained the poor fellow by asking him questions about his way of fishing; so, don't scold him." And I set off at full speed after the light that had almost appeared in the distance.

As my eyes were fixed in a horizontal line, for fear of losing sight of the lantern, I had scarcely taken ten steps before my feet caught in the hanging chains of our célérifère and I tumbled into the middle of the road, at the end of which twinkled my polar star.

The sound of my fall reached Maurice's ears; but instead of arresting, it seemed only to give a fresh impulse to his velocity, for he now felt that he had two wraths to dread instead of one. The inauspicious lantern seemed a perfect will-o'-the-wisp, so rapidly did it flit away, and so merrily did it bound. I had lost nearly a minute in falling, picking myself up, and feeling for broken bones; and during this time Maurice had gained ground. I began to lose all hope of overtaking him, as I was under the necessity of going more slowly if I wished to avoid another fall. Under this pressure of circumstances I momentarily forgot myself. I stopped short in the road, stamped my foot in a rage, and shouted

"Confound you, Maurice, wait for me?"

Apparently, despair gave to this short but energetic injunction an omnipotent efficacy, for Maurice halted at once; and the lantern passed from a state of agitation to one of repose-giving it the semblance of a fixed planet.

Really," said I, approaching him, and feeling before me with my hands and feet, "you are a very singular sort of body. You heard me fall hard enough to break your village pavement, and yet you ran off faster than ever with the light. Look!" continued I, pointing to my torn pantaloons and swelled cheek, "I am in a very pretty plight truly!"

Maurice looked at my wounds and listened to my complaints very composedly; and when I had finished shaking the dirt from off my

clothes, and picking out some dozen of pebbles that were encrusted, in mosaic, in the palms of my hands, he replied:

"This is what comes of going for fish at nine o'clock at night:" and he phlegmatically resumed his course.

There was so much truth at the bottom of this selfish reply, that I thought it advisable not to continue the argument. We therefore both walked on without exchanging a syllable for nearly ten minutes, in the tremendous circle of light projected around us by the ill-starred lamp. At the end of this time Maurice stopped.

"Here we are," said he.

I now heard the noise of a little stream that descended from the western side of the Cheville mouutain, and crossed the road under a bridge we had just reached; whence, I began to perceive, it threw itself into the Rhone, which was scarcely two hundred yards distant from us.

Whilst I was making these observations, Maurice was making his preparations.

These consisted in pulling off his gaiters, shoes, and pantaloons, and fastening his shirt with pins to his roundabout. This half dress gave him the appearance of a full length portrait in the style of Holbein or Albert Durer. He turned to me as I was observing him.

"Will you do the same?" inquired he.

"Do you intend to go into the water?"

"How do you expect to have trout for breakfast unless I get them for you

?"

"I have no desire to fish."

"But you came to see me fish, didn't you?”

"Certainly."

"Then take off your pantaloons, unless you prefer going into the water with them on: you can do as you choose: there is no disputing about taste."

So saying he began to descend into the precipitous ravine where the torrent brawled, and where this marvellous fishing was to take place.

I followed him with unsteady steps over the pebbles that rolled from beneath my feet, clinging to Maurice, who was as upright and firm as a forest oak. We had nearly thirty feet to descend over the steep and moveable road; and my guide saw how difficult it would be for me to proceed without his assistance.

"Take the lantern," said he, quietly.

I complied at once. When, with his disengaged hand, he grasped me under the shoulder with a strength that I could not have conceived his lank body to possess-the strength of a mountaineer, that I have since discovered, under similar circumstances, in children of ten years

NO. XVI.-VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

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