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of different months to be put in
It must be singular ill for-
tune,' thought I, if, among this
number, one does not flower.'
On leaving the gardener, I went
to my bookseller's, purchased some
works on flowers, and returned home
full of hope.

I intended to accompany my rosetree with a fine letter, in which I should request to be permitted to visit Madame de Belmont, in order to teach her daughter the art of having roses in winter; the agreeable lesson, and the charming scholar, were to me much pleasanter themes than those of my philosophical lectures. I built on all this the prettiest romance possible; my milk pail had not yet got on so far as Perrette's; she held it on her head; and my rose was not yet transplanted into its vase; but I saw it all in blow.

In the meantime, I was happy only in imagination: I no longer saw Amelia; they ceased to invite me to the dowager parties, and she was not allowed to mix in those of young people. I must then be restricted, until my introducer was in a state of presentation, to seeing her every evening pass by with her mother, as they went to their parties. Happily for me, Madame de Belmont was such a coward in a carriage, that she preferred walking when it was possible. I knew the hour at which they were in the habit of leaving home; I learned to distinguish the sound of the bell of their gate from that of all the others of the quarter; my window on the ground floor was always open; atthe moment I heard their gate unclose, I snatched up some volume, which was often turned upside down,-stationed myself at the window, as if profoundly occupied with my study, and thus almost every day saw for an instant the lovely girl, and this instant was sufficient to attach me to her still

more deeply. The elegant simplicity of her dress; her rich dark hair wreathed round her head, and falling in ringlets on her forehead! her slight and graceful figure-her step at once light and commanding-the fairy foot that the care of guarding the snowy robe rendered visible, inflamed my admiration; while her dignified and composed manner, her attention to her mother and the affability with which she saluted her inferiors, touched my heart yet more. I began too to fancy, that, limited as were my opportunities of attracting her notice, I was not entirely indifferent to her. For example, on leaving home, she usually crossed to the opposite side of the street; for had she passed close to my windows, she guessed that, intently occupied as I chose to appear, I could not well raise my eyes from my book; then as she came near my house, there was always something to say, in rather a louder tone, as Take care, mamma; lean heavier on me; do you feel cold?' I then raised my eyes, looked at her, saluted her, and generally encountered the transient glance of my divinity, who, with a blush, lowered her eyes, and returned my salute. The mother, all enveloped in cloaks and hoods, saw nothing. I saw every thing-and surrendered my heart. A slight circumstance augmented my hopes. I had published An Abridgement of Practical Philosophy.' It was an extract from my course of lectures-was successful, and the edition was sold. My bookseller, aware that I had some copies remaining, came to beg one for a customer of his, who was extremely anxious to get it, and he named Mademoiselle Amelia Belmont. I actually blushed with pleasure; to conceal my embarrassment, I laughingly inquired, what could a girl of her age want with so serious a work?

To

read it, sir, doubtless;' replied the bookseller ; 'Mademoiselle Amelia does not resemble the generality of young ladies, she prefers useful to amusing books.' He then mentioned the names of several that he had lately sent to her; and they gave me a high opinion of her taste.

(To be continued in our next.)

because, in all these moral extravagancies of his (so distressing to the feelings of the sincere rascal), he thought proper to be very satirical, and had his heart so full of odd caprices, tricks, and snares, suspicious scoundrels, that (as they all said) no man, who was but raw in the art of virtue, could deal with him, or place any reliance upon his intentions. Indeed the covert laugh

for un

Beauties of the Magazines. ter which played about his temples,

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

THE HOUSE OF WEEPING. Since the day when the town of Haslau first became the seat of a court, no man could remember that any one event in its annals (always excepting the birth of the hereditary prince) had been looked for with so anxious a curiosity as the opening of the last will and testament left by Van der Kabel.

This Van der Kabel might be styled the Haslau Croesus; and his whole life might be termed, according to the pleasure of the wits, one long festival of God-sends, or a daily washing of golden sands, nightly impregnated by golden showers of Danæ.

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Seven distant surviving relatives of seven distant relatives deceased of the said Van der Kabel, entertained some little hopes of a place amongst his legatees, grounded upon an assurance which he had made, that, upon his oath, he would not fail to remember them in his will.' These hopes, how ever, were but faint and weakly; for they could not repose any extraordinary confidence in his good faith-not only because, in all cases, he conducted his affairs in a disinterested spirit, and with a perverse obstinacy of moral principle, whereas his seven relatives were mere novices, and young beginners in the trade of morality, but also

and the falsetto tones of his sneering voice, somewhat weakened the advantageous impression which was made by the noble composition of his face, and by a pair of large hands, from which were daily dropping favours little and great, benefit-nights, Christmas-boxes, and new-year's gifts; for this reason it was that, by the whole flock of birds who sought shelter in his boughs, and who fed and built their nests on him, as on any wild service-tree, he was, notwithstanding, reputed a secret magazine of springes; and they were scarce able to find eyes for the visible berries which fed them, in their serutiny after the supposed gossamer

snares.

In the interval between two apoplectic fits, he had drawn up his will, and had deposited it with the magistrate. When he was just at the point of death he transferred to the seven presumptive heirs the certificate of this deposit; and even then said, in his old tone-how far it was from his expectation, that by any such anticipation of his approaching decease, he could at all depress the spirits of men whom, for his own part, he would much rather regard in the light of laughing than of weeping heirs: to which remark one only of the whole number, namely, Mr. Harprecht, inspector of police, replied as a cool ironist to a bitter one-that the

THE PORTFOLIO.

total amount of concern and of interest, which might severally belong to them in such a loss, was not (they were sincerely sorry it was not) in their power to determine,'

At length the time is come when the seven heirs have made their appearance at the town-hall, with their certificate of deposit; videlicet, the ecclesiastical councillor, Glantz; Harprecht, the inspector of police; Neupeter, the court agent; the court fiscal, Knoll; Pasvogel, the bookseller; the reader of the morning lecture, Flacks; and Monsieur Flitte, from Alsace. Solemnly, and in due form, they demanded of the magistrate the schedule of effects consigned to him by the late Kabel, and the opening of his will.

The principal executor of the will was Mr. Mayor himself; the sub-executors were the rest of the town-council. Thereupon, without delay, the schedule and the will were fetched from the registeroffice of the council, to the councilchamber; both were exhibited in rotation to the members of the council and the heirs, in order that they might see the privy seal of the town impressed upon them: the registry of consignment, indorsed upon the schedule, was read aloud to the seven heirs by the townclerk; and by that registry it was notified to them, that the deceased had actually consigned the schedule to the magistrate, and entrusted it to the corporation-chest; and that on the day of consignment he was still of sound mind;-finally, the seven seals, which he had himself affixed to the instrument, were found unbroken. These preliminaries gone through, it was now (but not until a brief registry of all these forms had been drawn up by the town-clerk) lawful in God's name, that the will should be open

265

ed and read aloud by Mr. Mayor, word for word as follows :—

I, Van der Kabel, on this 7th of May, 179-, being in my house at Haslau, situate in Dog-street, deliver and make known this for my last will; and without many millions of words, notwithstanding I have been both a German notary, and a Dutch schoolmaster. Howsoever I may disgrace my old professions by this parsimony of words, I believe myself to be so far at home in the art and calling of a notary, that I am competent to act for myself as a testator in due form, and as a regular devisor of property.

It is a custom with testators to premise the moving clauses of their wills. These, in my case, as in most others, are regard for my happy departure, and for the disposal of the succession to my propertywhich, by the way, is the object of a tender passion in various quarters. To say any thing about my funeral, and all that-would be absurd and stupid. This, and what shape my remains shall take, let the eternal sun settle above, not in any gloomy winter, but in some of his most verdant springs.

As to those charitable foundations, and memorial institutions of benevolence, about which notaries are so much occupied, in my case I appoint as follows: to three thousand of my poor townsmen, of every class, I assign just the same number of florins, which sum I will that, on the anniversary of my death, they shall spend jovially in feasting, on the town common, where they are previously to pitch their camp, unless the military camp of his Serene Highness be already pitched there, in preparation for the reviews; and when the gala is ended, I would have them cut up the tents into clothes.

Item, to all the school-masters in

our principality, I bequeath one golden Augustus.

Item, to the Jews of this place I bequeath my pew in the high church.

As I would wish that my will should be divided into clauses, this is to be considered the first.

CLAUSE II.

Amongst the important offices of a will, it is universally agreed to be one, that from among the presumptive and presumptuous expectants, it should name those who are, and those who are not, to succeed to the inheritance; that it should create heirs, and should destroy them.

In conformity to this notion, I give and bequeath to Mr. Glantz, the councillor for ecclesiastical affairs; as also to Mr. Knoll, the exchequer officer; likewise to Mr. Peter Neupeter, the court agent; item, to Mr. Harprecht, director of police; furthermore to Mr. Flacks, the morning lecturer; in like manner to the court bookseller, Mr. Pasvogel; and finally, to Monsieur Flitte, nothing: not so much because they have no just claims on me-standing as they do, in the remotest possible degree of consanguinity; nor again, because they are, for the most part, themselves rich enough to leave handsome inheritances; as because I am assured, indeed, I have it from their own lips, that they entertain a far stronger regard for my insignificant person than for my splendid property; my body, therefore, or as large a share of it as they can get, I bequeath to them.'

At this point, seven faces, like those of the seven sleepers, gradually elongated into preternatural extent. The ecclesiastical councillor, a young man, but already famous throughout Germany for his sermons printed or preached, was especially aggrieved by such offen

sive personality; Monsieur Flitte rapped out a curse that rattled even in the ears of magistracy: the chin of Flacks, the morning lecturer, gravitated downwards into the dimensions of a patriarchal beard; and the town-council could distinguish an assortment of audible reproaches to the memory of Mr. Kabel, such as prig, rascal, profane wretch, &c. But the Mayor motioned with his hand; and immediately the fiscal and the bookseller, recomposed their features and set their faces like so many traps, with springs and triggers, all at full cock, that they might catch every syllable; and then, with a gravity that cost him some efforts, his worship read as follows:

CLAUSE III.

Excepting always, and be it excepted, my present house in Dogstreet; which house, by virtue of this third clause, is to descend and pass in full property, just as it now stands, to that one of my seven relatives above-mentioned, who shall, within the space of one half hour (to be computed from the reciting of this clause) shed, to the memory of me his departed kinsman, sooner than the other six competitors, one, or if possible, a couple of tears, in the presence of a respectable magistrate, who is to make a protocol thereof. Should, therefore, all remain dry, in that case, the house must lapse to the heir generalwhom I shall proceed to name.

Here Mr. Mayor closed the will: doubtless, he observed, the condition annexed to the bequest was an unusual one, but yet in no respect contrary to law: to him that wept the first the court was bound to adjudge the house. Placing his watch on the table, he sat down, that he might witness who should be the first to produce the requisite tear on behalf of the testator.

(To be continued in our next.)

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PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE METROPOLIS.
No. VI.

THE Charter House, or ChartereuseSchool, has reared some of the most eminent men known to our annals, and among its most distinguished modern pupils, were the late amiable and learned Drs. Berdmore and Raine, who raised its reputation equal to that of any school in Great Britain, and it is at this moment deemed inferior to none.

The site on which it stands was originally a burial ground for persons who died of a plague in the reign of Edward III. It was, in the latter part of the same reign, converted into a priory for twenty-four monks of the strict order of the Carthusians; but, at the dissolution of monasteries by Henry the Eighth, it was granted by the crown to private persons, and afterwards sold to the Duke of Norfolk, who erected the chief part of the present buildings.

In 1611, it was purchased by Mr. Thomas Sutton, a famous and wealthy merchant of London, who gave 13,000l. for it, and converted it into a magnificent college and hospital, for the classical education of forty-four boys, and the respectable maintenance of eighty decayed merchants and gentlemen. The expense of fitting up cost him other 7,000 7. and he afterwards endowed it with fifteen manors and other estates, worth in those days, when money was five times its present nominal value, 4,500l. per annum. Twenty-nine of the boys have exhibitions at the Universities, and some of them are provided with livings which are in the gift of the Governors.

The number of boys educated, including those of the foundation, is about two hundred.

Blossoms of Literature.

GINEVRA.

If ever you should come to Modena,
Stop at a palace near the Reggio-gate,
Dwelt in of old by one of the Donati.
Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace,
And rich in fountains, statues, cypresses,
Will long detain you-but, before you go,
Enter the house-forget it not, I pray

you

And look awhile upon a picture there.

'Tis of a Lady in her earliest youth,
The last of that illustrious family;
He who observes it-ere he passes on,
Gazes his fill, and comes and comes again,
That he may call it up when far away.

6

She sits, inclining forward as to speak,
Her lips half open, and her tinger up,
As tho' she said, Beware!' her vest of
Broidered with flowers and clasped from
gold
head to foot,

An emerald stone in every golden clasp ;
And on her brow fairer than alabaster,
A coronet of pearls.

But then her face,

So lovely, yet so arch, so full of mirth,
The overflowings of an innocent heart-
It haunts me still, tho' many a year has
fled,

Like some wild melody!

Along it hangs Over a mouldering heir-loom, its companion,

An oaken-chest, half-eaten by the worm,

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