with the hue of apprehension. If it really was an optical delusion, it was the most fixed and pertinacious one he ever heard of! The best part of valor is discretion, says Shakspeare; and in all things; so, observing a stage passing by at that moment, to put an end to the matter, Mr. D, with a little trepidation in his tone, ordered it to stop; there was just room for one inside; and in stepped Mr. D, chuckling at the cunning fashion after which he had succeeded in jockeying his strange attendant. Not feeling inclined to talk with the fat woman who sat next him, squeezing him most unmercifully against the side of the coach, nor with the elderly grazier-looking man fronting him, whose large dirty top-boots seriously incommoded him, he shut his eyes, that he might pursue his thoughts undisturbed. After about five minutes' riding, he suddenly opened his eyes -and the first thing that met them was the figure of the blue dog, lying stretched in some unaccountable manner at his feet, half under the seat ! "I-I-hope THE DOG does not annoy you, sir?" inquired Mr. D, a little flustered, of the man opposite, hoping to discern whether the dog chose to be visible to any one else. "Sir!" exclaimed the person he addressed, starting from a kind of doze, and staring about in the bottom of the coach. "Lord, sir!" echoed the woman beside him. "A DOG sir, did you say?" inquired several, in a breath. "Oh-nothing-nothing, I assure you. 'Tis a little mistake," replied Mr. D, with a faint smile; "I-I thought-in short, I find I've been dreaming; and I'm sure I beg pardon for disturbing you." Every one in the coach laughed except Mr. D, whose eyes continued riveted on the dim blue outline of the dog lying motionless at his feet. He was now certain that he was suffering from an optical illusion of some sort or other, and endeavored to prevent his thoughts from running into an alarmed channel, by striving to engage his faculties with the philosophy of the thing. He could make nothing out, however; and the Q. E.D. of his thinkings startled him not a little, when it came in the shape of the large blue dog, leaping at his heels out of the coach, when he alighted. Arrived at home, he lost sight of the phantom during the time of supper and the family devotions. As soon as he had extinguished his bedroom candle, and got into bed, he was nearly leaping out again, on feeling a sensation as if a large dog had jumped on that part of the bed where his feet lay. He felt its pressure! He said he was inclined to rise, and make it a subject of special prayer to the Deity. Mrs. D-asked him what was the matter with him? for he became very cold, and shivered a little. He easily quieted her with saying he felt a little chilled; and as soon as she was fairly asleep, he got quietly out of bed, and walked up and down the room. Wherever he moved, he beheld, by the moonlight through the window, the dim dusky outline of the dog, following wherever he went! Mr. D opened the windows, he did not exactly know why, and mounted the dressing-table for that purpose. On looking down before he leaped on the floor, there was the dog waiting for him, squatting composedly on his haunches! There was no standing this any longer, thought Mr. D -, delusion or no delusion; so he ran to the bed-plunged beneath the clothes, and, thoroughly frightened, dropt at length asleep, his head under cover all night! On waking in the morning, he thought it must have been all a dream about the dog, for it had totally disappeared with the daylight. When an hour's glancing in all directions had convinced him that the phantom was really no longer visi ble, he told the whole to Mrs. D—, and made very merry with her fears-for she would have it, it was something supernatural," and, good lady, "Mr. D-might depend upon it, the thing had its errand!" Four times subsequently to this did Mr. D see the spectral visitant-in nowise altered either in its manner, form, or color. It was always late in the evenings when he observed it, and generally when he was alone.-He was a man extensively acquainted with physiology; but felt utterly at a loss to what derangement, of what part of the animal economy to refer it. So, indeed, was I-for he came to consult me about it. He was with me once during the presence of the phantom. I examined his eyes with a candle, to see whether the interrupted motions of the irides indicated any sudden alteration of the functions of the optic nerve; but the pupils contracted and dilated with perfect regularity. One thing, however, was certain-his stomach had been lately a little out of order, and everybody knows the intimate connexion between its functions and the nervous system. But why he should see spectrawhy they should assume and retain the figure of a dog, and of such an uncanine color too- and why it should so pertinaciously attach itself to him, and be seen precisely the same, at the various intervals after which it made its appearance and why he should hear, or imagine he heard it utter sounds,—all these questions I am as unable to answer as Mr. D- -was, or as the reader will be. He may account for it in whatever way his ingenuity may enable him.-I have seen and known other cases of spectra, not unlike the one above related; and great alarm and horror have they excited in the breasts of persons blessed with less firmness and good sense than Mr. D displayed. THE VILLAGE QUEEN. THE nuts hang ripe upon the chesnut boughs, And the rich stars send forth their clear blue light, O'er glistening leaves, and flowers that, fond as love, Perfume the very dew that bows their heads, And lays their sweet and quiet beauty low, And dream-like voices float upon the ear, With mingling harmony of birds and trees, And gushing waters! Beautiful is Night And beautiful the thoughts she calls to birth, The hopes which make themselves immortal wings; The memories, that slow and sadly steal, Like moonlight music, o'er the watching heart: Yet, with a tone thus light, stirring the mind To themes beyond a trumpet's breath to CHARLES X. was served [during the journey to Cherbourg] by his "officers of the mouth," who waited upon him in full dress, with bags, silk stockings, and swords by their sides. A rich proprietor, who resided in a château near L'Aigle, made an offer of his mansion for a resting-place on the march. This hospitable invitation was accepted, and Monsieur C. hastened home to make preparations for his majesty's reception the next day. The best apartments in the house,, consisting of a saloon, bed-chamber, and a large closet, in general occupied by the proprietor's mother, was destined for the King. Separate chambers for the ladies, &c. disposed of the rest of the house, all but one small room, which the worthy man retained for himself and family; while his son-in-law and his wife were consigned to an outhouse. Having with great trouble made all ready, at seven in the morning a waggon arrived, loaded with plate and furniture, attended by many cooks and other servants. That important personage the maître d'hôtel, M. Hocquart, then made his appearance. Upon surveying the apartments he declared that it would not be possible for his majesty to sleep there without new arrangements. He stated that no King of France could possibly pass the night without a chamber attached to his own sufficiently large for his personal attendants, and that he must have a different suite of rooms. As this was impossible, matters were accommodated by removing the bed into the saloon. In the kitchen, the royal cooks took possession of every oven and culinary utensil. M. Hocquart complained bitterly that, out of twenty cooks who had left Rambouillet, nine had deserted, leaving only eleven to dress the dinners for the royal party and their attendants. He requested that twenty-five women, to assist in the kitchen, might be sent for to L'Aigle, which was accordingly done. Before dinner the royal party arrived. Two tables were ordered, one of eight covers for the ex-king and family, and one of twenty-five for the suite. Previously to the serving up of the repast, the maître d'hôtel entered to see that all was in order, but was dreadfully shocked on finding that the eight covers were laid on a round table. He asked Mons. C. if he were really so ignorant as not to know that no King of France had dined at a round table for the last three centuries, and said that it must be immediately altered. The worthy host replied that he had no his attention, was relapsing into his meditative mood, when, in a few moments, the noise was repeated, apparently from his right-hand side; and he gave something like a start from the path-side into the road, on feeling the calf of his leg brushed past as he described it-by the shaggy coat of his invisible attendant. He looked suddenly down, and, to his very great alarm and astonishment, beheld the dim, outline of a large Newfoundland dog-of a blue color! He moved from the spot where he was standing-the phantom followed him-he rubbed his eyes with his hands, shook his head, and again looked; but there He had been officiating on Sunday evening for an invalid friend, at the latter's church, a few miles' distance from London, and was walking homewards enjoying the tranquillity of the night, and enlivened by the cheerful beams of the full moon. When at about three miles distant from town, he suddenly heard, or fancied he heard, immediately behind him, the sound of gasping and panting, as of a dog following at his heels, breathless with running. He looked round, on both sides; but seeing no dog, thought he must have been deceived, and resumed his walk and meditations. The sound was presently repeated. Again he looked it still was, large as a young calf, round, but with no better success than before. After a little pause, thinking there was something rather odd about it, it suddenly struck him, that what he had heard was nothing more than the noise of his own hard breathing, occasioned by the insensibly accelerated pace at which he was walking, intent upon some subject which then particularly occupied his thoughts. He had not walked more than ten paces further, when he again heard precisely similar sounds! but with a running accompaniment-if I may be allowed a pun-of the pit-pit-pattering of a dog's feet, following close behind his left side. [to which he himself compared it,] and had assumed a more distinct and definite form. The color, however, continued the same-faint blue. He observed, too, its eyes - like dim-decaying fire-coals, as it looked up composedly in his face. He poked about his walking-stick, and moved it repeatedly through and through the form of the phantom; but there it continued-indivisible impalpable—in short as much a dog as ever, and yet the stick traversing its form in every direction from the tail to the tip of the nose! Mr. D- hurried on a few steps, and again looked ;there was the dog! Now the reader should be informed that Mr. D was a remarkably temperate man, and had, that evening, contented himself with a solitary glass of port by the bed-side of his sick brother; so that there was no room for supposing his perceptions to have been disturbed with liquor. "God bless me!" exclaimed Mr. D aloud, stopping for the third time, and looking round in all directions, far and near; "why, really, that's very odd-very! Surely I could not have been mistaken again?" He continued standing still, wiped his forehead, replaced his hat on his head, and, "Whan can it be?" thought he, with a little trepidation, resumed his while his heart knocked rather walk, striking his stout black walk- harder than usual against the bars of ing-stick on the ground with a cer- its prison" oh, it must be an optitain energy and resoluteness, which cal delusion-oh, 'tis clearly so! sufficed in re-assuring his own flur- nothing in the word worse! that's ried spirits. The next thirty or all. How odd!"--and he smiled, forty paces of his walk Mr. Dhe thought very unconcernedly ;passed over "erectis auribus," and but another glimpse of the phantom hearing nothing similar to the standing by him in blue indistinctsounds which had thrice attracted ness instantly darkened his features it really was an optical delusion, it was the most fixed and pertinacious one he ever heard of! The best part of valor is discretion, says Shakspeare; and in all things; so, observing a stage passing by at that moment, to put an end to the matter, Mr. D, with a little trepidation in his tone, ordered it to stop; there was just room for one inside; and in stepped Mr. Dchuckling at the cunning fashion after which he had succeeded in jockeying his strange attendant. Not feeling inclined to talk with the fat woman who sat next him, squeezing him most unmercifully against the side of the coach, nor with the elderly grazier-looking man fronting him, whose large dirty top-boots seriously incommoded him, he shut his eyes, that he might pursue his thoughts undisturbed. After about five minutes' riding, he suddenly opened his eyes -and the first thing that met them was the figure of the blue dog, lying stretched in some unaccountable manner at his feet, half under the seat ! with the hue of apprehension. If certain that he was suffering from an optical illusion of some sort or other, and endeavored to prevent his thoughts from running into an alarmed channel, by striving to engage his faculties with the philosophy of the thing. He could make nothing out, however; and the Q. E.D. of his thinkings startled him not a little, when it came in the shape of the large blue dog, leaping at his heels out of the coach, when he alighted. Arrived at home, he lost sight of the phantom during the time of supper and the family devotions. As soon as he had extinguished his bedroom candle, and got into bed, he was nearly leaping out again, on feeling a sensation as if a large dog had jumped on that part of the bed where his feet lay. He felt its pressure! He said he was inclined to rise, and make it a subject of special prayer to the Deity. Mrs. D-asked him what was the matter with him? for he became very cold, and shivered a little. He easily quieted her with saying he felt a little chilled; and as soon as she was fairly asleep, he got quietly out of bed, and walked up and down the room. Wherever he moved, he beheld, by the moonlight through the window, the dim dusky outline of the dog, following wherever he went! Mr. D opened the windows, he did not exactly know why, and mounted the dressing-table for that purpose. On looking down before he leaped on the floor, there was the dog waiting for him, squatting composedly on his haunches! There was no standing this any longer, thought Mr. D "I-I-hope THE DOG does not annoy you, sir?" inquired Mr. D, a little flustered, of the man opposite, hoping to discern whether the dog chose to be visible to any one else. "Sir!" exclaimed the person he addressed, starting from a kind of doze, and staring about in the bottom of the coach. "Lord, sir!" echoed the woman beside him. "A DOG sir, did you say?" inquired several, in a breath. "Oh-nothing-nothing, I assure you. 'Tis a little mistake," replied Mr. D, with a faint smile; "I-I thought-in short, I find I've been dreaming; and I'm sure I beg pardon for disturbing you. Every one in the coach laughed except Mr. D, whose eyes continued riveted on the dim blue outline of the dog lying motionless at his feet. He was now delusion or no delusion; so he ran to the bed-plunged beneath the clothes, and, thoroughly frightened, dropt at length asleep, his head under cover all night! On waking in the morning, he thought it must have been all a dream about the dog, for it had totally disappeared with the daylight. When an hour's glancing in all directions had convinced him that the phantom was really no longer visi |
