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the sea-looked to the deserted cottage, and then to the new mansion, and said: My son, I have a counsel to give thee -treasure it in thy heart, and practise it in thy life-the daughters of him of Gyrape-ha' are fair, and have an eye that would wile away the wits of the wisest their father has wealth-I say nought of the way he came by it-they will have golden portions doubtless.But I would rather lay thy head aneath the gowans in Caerlaverock kirk-yard, and son have I none beside thee, than see thee Jay it on the bridal pillow with the begotten of that man, though she had Nithsdale for her dowry. Let not my words be as seed sown on the ocean I may not now tell thee why this warning is given. Before that fatal shipwreck, I would have said Prudence Gyrape, in her kirtle, was a better bride than some who have golden dowers. I have long thought some one would see a sight-and often, while holding my balve-net in the midnight tide, have I looked for something to appear for where blood is shed there doth the spirit haunt for a time, and give warning to man. May I be strengthened to endure the sight!' I answered not-being accustomed to regard my father's counsel as a matter not to be debated-as a solemn command: we heard something like the rustling of wings on the water-accompanied by a slight curling motion of the tide. God haud his right-hand about us!' said my father, breathing thick with emotion and awe, and looking on the sea with a gaze so intense that his eyes seemed to dilate, and the hair of his forehead to project forward, and bristle into life.-I looked, but observed nothing, save a long line of thin and quivering light, dancing along the surface of the sea: it ascended the bank, on which it seemed to linger for a moment, and then entering the fisherman's cottage, made roof and rafter gleam with a sudden illumination.— 'I'll tell thee what, Gibbie Gyrape,' said my father, I wouldna be the owner of thy heart, and proprietor of thy righthand, for all the treasures in the earth and ocean.-A loud and piercing scream from the cottage made us thrill

fear, and in a moment the figures

of three human beings rushed into the open air, and ran towards us with a swiftness which supernatural dread alone could inspire. We instantly knew them to be three noted smugglers, who infested the country; and rallying when they found my father maintain his ground, they thus mingled their fears and the secrets of their trade -for terror fairly overpowered their habitual caution. I vow by the nighttide, and the crooked timber,' said Willie Weethause, I never saw sic a light as yon since our distillation pipe took fire, and made a burnt, instead of a drink-offering of our spirits-I'll uphold it comes for nae good-a warning may be-sae ye may gang on, Wattie Bouseaway, wi' yere wickedness-as for me, I'se gae hame and repent.'— Saulless bodie!' said his companion, whose natural hardiness was considerably supported by his communion with the brandy cup- Saulless bodie, for a flaff o' fire and a maiden's shadow would ye forswear the gallant trade.— Saul to gude! but auld Miller Morison shall turn yere thraffie into a drain-pipe to wyse the waste water from his mill, if ye turn back now, and help us nae through with as strong an importation as ever cheered the throat and cheeped on the crapin. Confound the fizzenless bodie! he glowers as if this fine star-light were something frae the warst side of the world, and thae staring e'en o' his are busy shaping heaven's sweetest and balmiest air into the figures of wraiths and goblins. Robin Telfer,' said my father, addressing the third smuggler,' tell me nought of the secrets of your perilous craft-but tell me what you have seen, and why ye uttered that fearful scream, that made the wood-doves start from Caerlaverock pines.'I'll tell ye what, goodman,' said the mariner, I have seen the fires o' heaven running as thick along the sky, and on the ocean, as ye ever saw the blaze on a bowl o' punch at a merry making, and neither quaked nor screamed; but ye'll mind the light that came to that cottage tonight was one for some fearful purport, which let the wise expound; sae it lessened nae one's courage to quail for sic an apparition. Od! if thought

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quantity of thin air to clothe itself in, reduced it in their description to a very unpoetic shadow, or a kind of better sort of will-o'-the-wisp, that could for its own amusement counterfeit the human shape. There were many who, like my father, beheld the singular illumination appear at midnight on the coast; saw also something sailing along with it in the form of a lady in bright garments, her hair long and wet, and shining in diamonds-and heard a struggle, and the shriek as of a creature drowning. The belief of the peasantry did not long confine the apparition to the sea coast-it was seen sometimes late at night far inland, and following Gilbert the fisherman,-like a human shadow-like a pure light-like a white garment-and often in the shape, and with the attributes, in which it disturbed the carousal of the smugglers. I heard douce Thomas Haining,—a Godfearing man, and an elder of the Burgher congregation, and on whose word I could well lippen, when drink was kept from his head,-1 heard him say that as he rode home late from the Roodfair of Dumfries-the night was dark, there lay a dusting of snow on the ground, and no one appeared on the road but himself, he was lilting and singing the cannie of the auld sang, "There's a cuttie stool in our Kirk,"

living soul would ever make the start I gied an upcast to me, I'd drill his breast-bane wi' my dirk like a turnip lanthorn.' My father mollified the wrath of this maritime desperado, by assuring him he beheld the light go from the sea to the cottage, and that he shook with terror, for it seemed no common light. Ou, God! then,' said hopeful Robin, since it was one o' our ain cannie sea-apparitions I care less about it-I took it for some landward spright! and now I think on't, where were my een? did it no stand amang its own light, with its long hanks of hair dripping, and drenched; with a casket of gold in ae hand, and the other guarding its throat. I'll be bound it's the ghost o' some sonsie lass that has had her neck nipped for her gold-and had she stayed till I emptied the bicker o' brandy, I would have ask'd a cannie question or twae.' Willie Weethause had now fairly overcome his consternation, and began to feel all his love for the gallant trade, as his comrade called it, return. 'The tide serves, lads! the tide serves-let us slip our drap o' brandy into the bit bonnie boat, and tottle away among the sweet starlight as far as the Kingholm or the town quarry-ye ken we have to meet Bailie Gardevine, and laird Soukaway o' Ladlemouth. They returned, not without hesitation and fear, to the old cot--which was made on some foolish tage; carried their brandy to the boat; and as my father and I went home, we heard the dipping of their oars in the Nith, along the banks of which they sold their liquor, and told their tale of fear, magnifying its horror at every step, and introducing abundance of variations.

"The story of the Ghost with the Golden Casket, flew over the country side with all its variations, and with many comments: some said they saw her, and some thought they saw her appear again—and those who had the hardihood to keep watch on the beach at midnight, had their tales to tell of terrible lights and strange visions. With one who delighted in the marvellous, the spectre was decked in attributes that made the circle of auditors tighten round the hearth; while others, who allowed to a ghost only a certain

quean's misfortune, when he heard the sound of horses' feet behind him at full gallop, and ere he could look round, who should flee past, urging his horse with whip and spur, but Gilbert the Fisherman! Little wonder that he galloped,' said the elder, for a fearful form hovered around him, making many a clutch at him and with every clutch uttering a shriek most piercing to hear.' But why should I make a long story of a common tale? The curse of spilt blood fell on him, and on his children, and on all he possessed-his sons and daughters died-his flocks perished-his grain grew, but never filled the ear; and fire came from heaven, or rose from hell, and consumed his house, and all that was therein. He is now a man of ninety years-a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth— without a house to put his white head

in-with the unexpiated curse still clinging to him."

While my companion was making this summary of human wretchedness, I observed the figure of a man, stooping to the earth with extreme age, gliding through among the bushes of the ruined cottage, and approaching the advancing tide. He wore a loose great coat, patched to the ground, and fastened round his waist by a belt and buckle, the remains of stockings and shoes were on his feet-a kind of fisherman's cap surmounted some remaining white hairs, while a long peeled stick supported him as he went. My companion gave an involuntary shudder when he saw him-" Lo, and behold, now, here comes Gilbert the fishermanonce every twenty-four hours doth he come, let the wind and the rain be as they will, to the nightly tide, to work o'er again, in imagination, his auld tragedy of unrighteousness. See how he waves his hand, as if he welcomed some one from sea-he raises his voice too, as if something in the water required his counsel-and see how he dashes up to the middle, and grapples with the water as if he clutched a human being." I looked on the old man, and heard him call in a hollow and broken voice; "O hoy! the ship, O hoy, turn your boat's head ashoreand my bonnie lady, keep haud o' yere casket-Hech bet! that wave would

have sunk a three decker, let be a slender boat-see-see an' she binna sailing aboon the water like a white swan;"

and, wading deeper in the tide as he spoke, he seemed to clutch at something with both hands, and struggle with it in the water-" Na! na! dinna haud your white hands to me-ye wear owre mickle gowd in your hair, and o'er many diamonds on your bosom, to 'scape drowning. There's as mickle gowd in this casket as would have sunk thee seventy fathoms deep." And he continued to hold his hands under the water-muttering all the while." She's half gone now-and I'll be a braw laird, and build a bonnie house, and gang crousely to kirk and market-now I may let the waves work their will-my work will be ta'en for theirs."-He turned to wade to the shore, but a large and heavy wave came dash on him, and bore him off his feet, and ere any assistance reached him, all human aid was too late-for nature was so exhausted with the fullness of years, and with his exertions, that a spoonful of water would have drowned him.— The body of this miserable old man was interred, after some opposition from the peasantry, beneath the wall of the kirk-yard; and from that time, the Ghost with the Golden Casket was seen no more, and only continued to haunt the evening tale of the hind and the farmer.

SONG OF THE MERMAIDS IN THE PIRATE.

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When the huge whale & sword-fish duel, Or tolling shroudless seamen's knell, When the winds and waves are cruel ; Children of wild Thule, we Have plough'd such furrows on the sea, As the steer draws on the lea, And hither we come to share your glee. III.

MERMAIDS AND MERMEN.

We heard you in our twilight caves,
A hundred fathom deep below,
For notes of joy can pierce the waves,
That drown each sound of war and woe.
Those who dwell beneath the sea

Love the sons of Thule well;
Thus to aid your mirth, bring we

Dance, and song, and sounding shell.
Children of dark Thule, know,
Those who dwell by haaf and voe,
Where your daring shallops row,
Come to share the festal show.

MADAME DE STAEL'S TEN YEARS' EXILE.*

This production consists of fragments of Memoirs, which M. de Stael had intended to complete at her leisure, and which would probably have undergone alterations, if a longer life had been allowed her to revise and finish them. The narrative begins in 1800, two years previous to her first exile, and stops at 1804, after the in 1810, and breaks off abruptly at her arrival in Sweden, in the autumn of 1812. Many of the circumstances, though trifling, are too curious to be neglected, at

death of M. Necker. It recommences,

the same time M. de Staël was an intriguing politician and wrote as a parti zan with womanish feeling.]

CAUSES OF BONAPARTE'S ANIMOSITY

AGAINST ME.

THE Emperor Napoleon, whose character exhibits itself entire in every action of his life, has persecuted me with a minute anxiety, with an ever-increasing activity, with an inflexible rudeness; and my connections with him contributed to make him known to me, long before Europe had discovered the key of the enigma.

Shortly after the 18th Brumaire, Bonaparte had heard that I had been speaking strongly in my own parties, against that dawning oppression, whose progress I foresaw as clearly as if the future had been revealed to me. Joseph Bonaparte, whose understanding and conversation I liked very much, came to see me, and told me, "My brother complains of you. Why, said he to me yesterday, why does not Madame de Staël attach herself to my government? what is it she wants? the payment of the deposit of her father? I will give orders for it: a residence in Paris? I will allow it her. In short, what is it she wishes ?" "Good God!" replied I, "it is not what I wish, but what I think, that is in question." I know not if this answer was reported to him, but if it was, I am certain that he attached no meaning to it; for he believes in the sincerity of no one's opinions; he considers every kind of morality as nothing more than a form,

to which no more meaning is attached than to the conclusion of a letter; and as the having assured any one that you are his most humble servant would not entitle him to ask any thing of you, so if any one says that he is a lover of liberty,that he believes in God, -that he prefers his conscience to his interest, Bonaparte considers such professions only as an adherence to custom, or as the regular means of forwarding ambitious views or selfish calculations.

HER BANISHMENT.

Madame Recamier, so celebrated for her beauty, and whose character is even expressed in her beauty, proposed to me to come and live at her country seat at St. Brice, at two leagues from Paris. I accepted her offer, for I had no idea that I could thereby injure a person so much a stranger to political affairs; I believed her protected against every thing, notwithstanding the generosity of her character. I found collected there a most delightful society, and there I enjoyed for the last time, all that I was about to quit. It was during this stormy period of my existence, that I received the speech of Mr. Mackintosh; there I read those pages, where he gives us the portrait of a jacobin, who had made himself an object of terror during the revolution to children, women and old men, and who is now bending himself double under the rod of the Corsican, who ravishes from him, even to the last atom of that liberty, for which he pretended to have taken arms. This morceau of the finest eloquence touched me to my very soul; it is the privilege of superior writers sometimes, unwittingly, to solace the unfortunate in all countries, and all times. France was in a state of such complete silence around me, that this voice, which suddenly responded to my soul, seemed to me to come down from heaven; it came from a land of liberty. After having passed a few days with Madame Recamier, without hearing

Ten Years' Exile; or, Memoirs of that interesting period of the Life of the Baroness de Stael Holstein, written by herself. And now first published from the original Mann. script, by her Son.

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Madame de Stael's Visit to the Convent of La Trappe.

my banishment at all spoken of, I persuaded myself that Bonaparte had renounced it. Nothing is more common than to tranquillize ourselves against a threatened danger, when we see no symptoms of it around us. I felt so little disposition to enter into any hostile plan of action against this man, that I thought it impossible for him not to leave me in peace; and after some days longer, I returned to my own country seat, satisfied that he had adjourned his resolution against me, and was contented with having frightened In truth I had been sufficiently so, not to make me change my opinion, or oblige me to deny it, but to repress completely that remnant of republican habit which had led me the year before, to speak with too much openness.

me.

I was at table with three of my friends, in a room which commanded a view of the high road, and the entrance gate; it was now the end of September. At four o'clock, a man in a brown coat, on horseback, stops at the gate and rings: I was then certain of my fate. He asked for me, and I went to receive him in the garden. In walking towards him, the perfume of the flowers, and the beauty of the sun particularly struck me. How different are the sensations which affect us from the combinations of society, from those of nature! This man informed me, that he was the commandant of the gendarmerie of Versailles, but that his orders were to go out of uniform, that he might not alarm me; he shewed me a letter signed by Bonaparte, which contained the order to banish me to forty leagues distance from Paris, with an injunction to make me depart within four and twenty hours; at the same time to treat me with all the respect due to a lady of distinction. He pretended to consider me as a foreigner, and as such subject to the police: this respect for individual liberty did not last long, as very soon afterwards, other Frenchmen and Frenchwomen were banished without any form of trial. I told the gendarme officer, that to depart within twentyfour hours, might be convenient to conscripts, but not to a woman and children, and in consequence, I proposed

[VOL. 10

to him to accompany me to Paris, where I had occasion to pass three days to make the necessary arrangements for my journey. I got into my carriage with my children and this officer, who had been selected for this occasion, as the most literary of the gendarmes. In truth, he began complimenting me upon my writings. "You see," said I to him, "the consequences of being a woman of intellect, and I would recommend you, if there is occasion, to dissuade any females of your family from attempting it." I endeavoured to keep up my spirits by boldness, but I felt the barb in my heart.

JOSEPH BONAPARTE.

On the eve of the last day which was granted me, Joseph Bonaparte made one more effort in my favour; and his wife, who is a lady of the most perfect sweetness and simplicity, had the kindness to come and propose to me to pass a few days at her country seat at Morfontaine. I accepted her invitation most gratefully, for I could not but feel sensibly affected at the goodness of Joseph, who received me in his own house, at the very time I was the object of his brother's persecution. I passed three days there, and notwithstanding the perfect politeness of the master and mistress of the house, felt my situation very painfully. I saw only men connected with the government, and breathed only the air of that authority which had declared itself my enemy; and yet the simplest rules of politeness and gratitude forbid me from shewing what I felt. I had only my eldest son with me, who was then too young for me to converse with him on such subjects. I passed whole hours in examining the gardens of Morfontaine, among the finest that could be seen in France, and the possessor of which, then tranquil, appeared to me really an object of envy. He has been since exiled upon thrones, where I am sure he has often regretted his beautiful retreat.

FEMALE TRAPPIST.

We reached the convent in the midst of a severe shower, after having been obliged to come nearly a mile on foot. As we were flattering ourselves with being admitted, the Procureur of la Trappe, who has the direction of the

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