have the business ended, and they have reason, rical acquaintances, some of whom his wife did because the sickness puts all out of order, and they cannot safely stay where they are." The day of the very marriage comes the 31st of July. Pepys is " up and very betimes at Deptford, and there finds Sir G. Carteret and my lady ready to go." Pepys is in his glory, "Being," he says, " in my new colored silk vest and coat, trimmed with gold buttons, and gold broad lace round my hands, very rich and fine." There is unluckily, however, some blundering about the ferry and the coach that is to meet them -wind and tide will not wait, or vary their courses to gratify impatient people, and the canonical hours will be soon over. What is Pepys to do? There is great danger that the young people will be married before he can come, and that they will not see his new coat-he, too, will not see their dresses. Pepys' party have the license and the wedding-ring-it is sent on-they at last have crossed the ferry, and drive hard with six horses; they are, however, only in time to meet the bridal party returning from church, "which troubled us, but however that trouble was soon over, hearing it was well done, they both being in their old clothes, my Lord Crewe giving her, there being three coachfuls of them." "In their old clothes!" What an incident for the son of the old tailor to record! "In their old clothes!" We are tempted to lay down the record. The fact is, Pepys himself was the only one of the company worth looking at. "The young lady mighty sad, which troubled me; but yet I think it was her gravity in a little greater degree than usual." not altogether approve of, we must find or make other opportunities of introducing our readers. We must see him at his excellent dinners-we must assist at his philosophical soirées-we must go with him to his office, and witness him, in spite of all his frivolities, the best man of business of his time. The period that followed the Commonwealth, and preceded the Revolution, is that of all English history which is best worth studying; and the "Diary" of the annalist whose work we have been examining, does more to explain the second fall of the Stuarts than all the state documents of the period put together. A dissolute and dishonest government England will not long endure. THE Detroit Commercial Bulletin gives ves a a description of an invention by Mr. A. A. Wilder, for ascertaining the leeway of a vessel as correctly as the variations of the wind are at present ascertained by a vain and a dial on shore. It consists of a tube four inches in diameter, running down from the binnacle of a vessel to the keel, through which passes a rod, and to which is attached, immediately under the keel, a vane, about eight inches deep and two feet long. This being in dense water, is sure to be operated upon by any leeway the vessel may make; indicated by the needle at the top of the rod, placed upon a plate on which the degrees are marked, situated between the two compasses in the binnacle. THE following is an act of submission addressed by the Pére Ventura to the Archbishop of Paris ; it relates to a letter of the good father which was published in the Living Age. All saluted her, but I did not till my Lady Sandwich did ask me whether I had saluted her or no. So to dinner, and very merry we were; but in such a sober way as never almost anything was in so I, the undersigned, having learned to-day only, great families; but it was much better. After din- by the Giornal Romano, that my "Discours pour ner company divided, some to cards, others to talk. My Lady Sandwich and I up to settle accounts, and pay her some money. And mighty kind she is to me, and would fain have had me gone down for company with her to Hinchinbroke; but for my life I cannot. At night to supper, and so to talk; and which, methought, was the most extraordinary thing, all of us to prayers as usual, and the young bride and bridegroom too. And so after prayers, soberly to bed; only I got into the bridegroom's chamber while he undressed himself, and there was very merry, till he was called to the bride's chamber, and into bed they went. I kissed the bride in bed, and so the curtaines drawne with the greatest gravity that could be, and so good night. But the modesty and gravity of this business was so decent, that it was to me indeed ten times more delightful than if it had been twenty times more merry and jovial. Thus I ended this month with the greatest joy that ever I did any in my life, because I have Spent the greatest part of it with abundance of joy, and honor, and pleasant journeys, and brave entertainments, and without cost of money; and at last live to see the business ended with great content on all sides. But we must lay down this pleasant book-the very pleasantest almost that we have ever taken up. To Pepys himself, to his wife, to his theat les Morte de Vienne," pronounced and printed at Rome at the end of November, 1848, has been placed among the number of prohibited works; knowing what the church has a right to expect from an obedient child in such a case, particularly if he is an ecclesiastic; deeming myself obliged to give an example of perfect obedience to the judgment of the Apostolic See; having always declared that I desired to subject all my writings to the sovereign pontiff, and being anxious to prove the truth of such declaration, without being constrained or counselled by any one, but yielding solely to the sentiments which are suited to every true Catholic, I here freely, and of my own movement, declare that I fully except the said decree of condemnation against the writing mentioned above, without restriction or reservation. Furthermore, I regret and condemn all and every of the doctrines, maxims, expressions, and words that in that writing, or in any other of mine, have been found, or may be found, in contradiction to the tenets of the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church. Finally, I declare that I hope, with the aid of divine grace, to die in that holy church in which I was born, and in which I have lived, ready for that object to endure everything and make every sacrifice. JIOACCHINO VENTURA. Of the order of the regular Theatin clerks. Montpellier, Sept. 8. SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE. SCENE I.-Blisworth Station. The north train Station-Master (pulling her back.) No, ma'am. Lincoln. What luggage, ma'am ? Unprotected Female. Two boxes-two casesfour parcels and two little-Oh! That's my carriage, I'm certain. [Rushes to a carriage, and plunges under seat. Commercial Traveller does the same their heads come into violent contact. Commercial Traveller. Confound Unprotected Female. No, it is n't-and two little in several places at once, and bells ringing at inter- boys a leather one and a carpet one. vals. Unprotected Female (descends hastily from north down train. To Elderly Gentleman.) Do we change carriages here? Elderly Gentleman (distractedly.) Two portmanteaus, black leather bag, hat-case. Hollo! that 's mine! [Darts after Young Gentleman carrying bag. Unprotected Female (to Elderly Gent.) Are you a guard? Elderly Gent. Go to the dev (turns and recognizes Female.) No-my trunk-my trunk! [Rushes wildly in two directions after two parties. Struggle. Unprotected Female. Oh! somebody-(Train begins to move. Screams.) Stop! I'm going on! (Is about to tumble under wheels, is stopped by Porter.) Oh-do we change? Porter (to Elderly Gent.) Yon 's your trainThere, ma'am. (Points to Lincoln train. Old Gent. rushes towards it.) No-not yourn, sir :this here lady's: that's yourn. (To Elderly Gent., pointing to Peterborough train. Unprotected Female rushes towards it.) No, no, ma'am. T' other side for you. Unprotected Female. There's my bag in the carriage. Oh, dear! dear! Porter. Which carriage? Stout Clergyman. This quick! Porter (ringing bell.) Now then. London-Lon Unprotected Female. Oh, where, where? Unprotected Female. London, sir? Porter. Peterborough Line, or Lincoln Line, or Birmingham Line, na'am? Euston Square or Shoreditch? Now, look sharp! Unprotected Female (gradually going distracted.) Oh, I don't know! Elderly Gent. (from train in motion, stretching wildly from carriage.) Hollo! That's my bag on the platform. Stop! Guard (shutting door violently.) All right! Unprotected Female (wildly.) My luggage-Oh, dear! my little boys!-Oh-do-somebody! Station-Master. Lost little boys? Here, quick -lots of little lost boys here [Rushes into lost luggage department, followed by Unprotected Female. Here you are! [Produces several little boys. Unprotected Female. Oh, no-I'm not. Oh, Johnny! Oh, Billy! and my boxes! [Bell outside, and voice, “Now then, Peterborough train south." Unprotected Female (passionately adjuring Station-Master.) Oh, do-sir-put me in some where! Station-Master. This way-not a minute to spare -forward the babies-here-(Shoves Unprotectca Female into carriage.) York train!-all right! [Shuts door violently. Unprotected Female (screaming fron window.) But I'm going to London! Guard. All right. [Train moves on-general confusion Tableau-Scene closes. From Bentley's Miscellany. BY MRS. ROMER. "Thereby hangs a tale." It is scarcely possible for any race of people to be more strongly imbued with superstition than the Egyptian Mohammedans. Their belief in supernatural influences is unlimited; and not to mention the inexplicable witchcraft of the Evil Eye, the different descriptions of spirits supposed by them to be allowed to wander upon earth, and interfere with the actions of mankind, exceed in variety the category of kelpies, wraiths, and bogles, which the Scottish peasantry formerly pinned their faith upon. Besides the legions of viewless ginn (or genii) for whose propitiation all manner of deferential ohservances are in use, and the ghools which are believed to haunt cemeteries, and feed upon the ghastly tenants of the grave, there are efreets, a term equally applied to malicious demons, and to the ghosts of murdered persons, which latter are religiously believed by the Egyptians to "revisit the glimpses of the moon," and wander restlessly round the scene but which, for several years before he became its proprietor, had remained uninhabited. Notwithstanding the advantages of its position, it had been completely deserted, for popular belief had marked it out as a place accursed-a spot haunted by an efreet and among a people so credulously superstitious as the Mohammedans, no one was to be found either sufficiently esprit fort to laugh at the story, or sufficiently courageous to tempt the demon by disputing the locality with it. The tenement would soon have fallen to ruins, had not Mr. Walne, wisely disregarding the public rumor, ventured upon becoming its tenant, and testing in his own person the truth of the strange stories that were circulated concerning its supernatural occupant. He caused the forsaken mansion to be thoroughly repaired and comfortably fitted up; and from the moment of his installing himself there, he has continued to divide his time equally between it and his official residence in Cairo. I had the pleasure of visiting him at Minieh, and heard from his own lips the circumstances that had attached so unenviable a reputation to his pretty retirement. Certainly nothing could look less like the idea I had formed to myself of that witnessed the destruction of their earthly a haunted house than that cheerful, commodious part. Woe to the luckless mortal who should habitation, with its cool, airy chambers, and its come in contact with an efreet during its nocturnal elegant deewan, (or reception room,) adorned with perambulations, for one touch of that shadowy faisceaux of valuable Memlook arms, and blending form would turn him into a demoniac! Such, at least, is the faith of the ignorant Egyptians; and that being the case, it is not to be wondered at that they invariably fly with terror from any habitation that has acquired the unenviable reputation of being possessed by a haunting spirit. Mrs. Poole, in her "Englishwoman in Egypt," has given an interesting account of her sojourn, during the commencement of her residence in Cairo, in a house where a murder had been committed, and which was reputed to be haunted-of the vexations to which she was subjected by the strange noises that were nightly heard, and the consequent terrors of her servants of the curious methods that were resorted to in order to lay the ghost-and of the impenetrable mystery that involved its final disappearance. When I was in Egypt, Mrs. Poole had removed to another habitation, therefore I had no opportunity of seeing the haunt of her unearthly visitant; but it was my lot to visit in a house in the environs of Cairo, similarly circumstanced, where, although I did not see the ghost, I heard all about it. It is of that house that I am now about to treat. the evidences of oriental usages with European comfort. I looked in vain for any of those gloomy features which are supposed to characterize localities identified with tales of horror: everything was serenely bright; and the haunting spirit of the place, I should have pronounced to be-the spirit of courteous hospitality! Mr. Walne told me, although he had so far prevailed over the terrors of his Egyptian servants as to have succeeded in inducing them to live in the house, yet that no earthly consideration would tempt any one of them to set foot after dark in that portion of it which composed what had formerly been the women's apartment, or hareem. It was in the hareem that a fearful crime had been perpetrated by the last Mosłem possessor; and it is in the hareem that the spirit of the victim is said nightly to wander and bemoan itself. That strange noises were heard there, he admitted to be the case, for his own ears had repeatedly testified to the truth of the assertion; but he accounted for those nocturnal sounds in so rational a manner, that perhaps, in the interest of my story, I ought to keep back the natural causes he assigned for the so-called supernatural visitation. As, however, I honor truth more than I admire romance, I shall hint that his firm conviction was, that the restless ghost was neither more nor less than a legion of rats and mice which had accumulated to an extraordinary extent during the years that the house had been shut up; and that, when it once more became inhabited, they had retreated to the apartments not occupied by his household, (the hareem,) where their nightly gam About three miles from Cairo, and not more than a quarter of a mile from the vice-regal residence of Shoubra, at a place called Minieh, (which, however, must not be confounded with the distant town of Minieh, known to all travellers going up the Nile,) situated in the midst of verdant fields, and just near enough to Mohammed Ali's rus in urbe to benefit by the superior cultivation, and the shady avenues that surround that luxurious retreat, there is a pretty country-house, at present in the possession of the English vice-consul, bols produced noises which were religiously confidence and apathy the most offensive. There- beyond them, placed in the desert itself, rise those profound ignorance of the ancient glories of their His hands were much whiter than those of her believed by his servants to emanate from the awful world of shadows. The story which gave rise to that belief is as follows, and is curiously characteristic of the manners of the people among whom it occurred : Among the superior officers attached to the staff of Ibrahim Pasha, when he commanded the Egyptian army in Syria, was a Bey named Masloum, holding the rank of Bimbashi, or colonel, a man of distinguished bravery, and a personal favorite of the Prince Generalissimo, whose confidence he possessed, and over whose mind he exercised great influence. Masloum Bey was still young, and had been married only a few months previous to the opening of the Syrian campaign; but although passionately attached to his youthful wife, he did not deem it advisable to take her with him to the seat of warfare. With the jealous vigilance of a Mohammedan husband, he left her in charge of his mother when he could no longer watch over her himself, first having removed his hareem to a country house at Minieh, and strictly enjoining that there it should remain in complete seclusion during the whole period of his absence. So far from feeling wounded at the distrust evinced by these precautions, the fair Nefeeseh gloried in the jealousy from which they proceeded; for, in common with Mohammedan wives, she would have conceived herself slighted by her husband, had he treated her with that holy confidence which it is the pride of a Christian matron to obtain and to deserve; and such is the moral debasement consequent upon the system of female education pursued in the East-she would have been wholly unable to distinguish between such a But young and experienced creature was left to her own guidance, and to rely upon herself alone. At first, the natural sorrow she felt for the loss of one whom she had both loved and revered as a mother, absorbed her too completely to leave her a thought for aught else but grief dwells not long with the young; and in a few weeks Nefeeseh began to think that there would be no harm in extending her rides, and that there were other motives for going out besides praying at the mosque of the holy Zeyneb, or carrying palmbranches to the great cemetery that skirts the Desert, to adorn her mother-in-law's grave. timid and ignorant, she knew not how to make use of the liberty she had acquired, or to extend the sphere of her enjoyments; and although each day she sallied forth with her negress slave and her Saises, under the superintendence of old Hussein, the one-eyed eunuch of Mebroukeh, determined to ride through the gay bazaars and thoroughfares of Cairo, and to visit the hareems of her friends, the tyrannizing force of habit restrained her, and involuntarily, as it were, she stopped short at the cemetery, and, dismounting from her donkey, took her accustomed station by the tomb of Mebroukeh. It is a strange, solemn place, that great city of the dead, so thickly peopled, yet so silent: the throng, the hum, the thrift of busy Cairo on one side, the awful stillness of the barren desert on the other-fit emblems of life and eternity, with the inevitable grave between! Turbaned headstones and white rounded cupolas rise over the thousand tombs that stretch in dreary confusion along the skirts of the desert, each day adding some new habitation to that vast Necropolis; and fore, when Mebroukeh, her mother-in-law, exclaimed, "Oh, well hast thou been named Nefeeseh, my soul! for thou art more precious in the sight of thy husband than every other earthly good; and, like the miser who buries his treasure that none else may see it, he would fain hide thee even from the light of the sun!" Nefeeseh, with a feeling of exultation at being thus valued, submitted with cheerful alacrity to the restrictions imposed upon her, which limited her recreations to rides upon the homar alee (or high ass) in the secluded environs of Minieh, and occasionally a visit to Cairo to lay a votive offering upon the shrine of the Seyyideh Zeyneb,† and to supplicate for the intercessions of the Saint with the Most High for safety and protection to Masloum Bey. But scarcely had Nefeeseh had time to weary of the monotonous dulness of her existence, ere Mebroukeh sickened of a fever and died, and the * Nefeesch is the Arabic for precious. + The Seyyideh Zeyneb (our Lady Zeyneb) was the daughter of Ali, and the grand-daughter of the Prophet, and is the object of as much reverential devotion to Mohammedans as the Madonna is to Catholic Christians. The mosque containing the tomb of the saint is resorted to on Wednesdays, when the male votaries place sprigs of myrtle upon the shrine, and the women's offerings consist of roses, jasmine, and the fragrant blossoms of the henna tree, graceful monuments of Arabian splendor, the tombs of the Memlook sultans, their fretted domes and delicate arches, and tall minarets clustering in airy pomp over the dust of the foreign mercenaries whose ambition grasped at, and appropriated, the inheritance of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies. The very names of the Circassian rulers of Egypt are now almost forgotten in the land they made their own, even as their mausolea are fast crumbling into decay. In another century, dome, and arch, and minaret, will have mingled with the desert sands and be swept into oblivion; and the traveller will ride over the lonely spot, heedless of the "fiery dust," once instinct with life, that slumbers beneath, and never dreaming that under those heaps of rubbish rest a whole dynasty-a warlike and voluptuous race, who burst the bonds of slavery, and made themselves kings of the antique territory where Joseph governed and Moses legislated! Little thought Nefceseh of those brilliant despots, as her eyes wandered listlessly over the picturesque outlines of their tombs; still less did she think, or know, of that race of intellectual Titans who had founded the Great Pyramids that loomed in the distance. One of the painful peculiarities of the actual race of Egyptians is their country; one of the humiliating characteristics of Mohammedan women in general, is their absolute want of all such mental culture as would arouse them to investigation and inquiry on subjects which interest the intellectual portions of the civilized world. To them the past is a blankthe future, nothing the present, a narrow circle of puerile occupations, in which the tastes and requirements of mere animal existence predominate. To them the Region of Intellect is a Terra Incognita which they never dream of exploring. To read and write a very little-to embroider to compound those delicate violetsherbets and rose-conserves, which the inmates of the most distinguished hareems in Cairo reserve for their own peculiar care-to dance with the wanton allurements of a Ghawazee and to excel in those feminine arts of personal adornment, by which a husband's sensual preference is to be propitiated-such are the attainments that constitute a thoroughly accomplished Mohammedan woman. But of that higher moral education which exalts the mind, purifies the heart, and spiritualizes the affections, they are as ignorant as the beasts of the field. * Nefeeseh was not in advance of the generality of her countrywomen in the development of intellectual resource; and while seated in that solemn place, surrounded by so many incentives to reflection, she languidly fanned away the flies with a green palm-branch, her thoughts took no bolder flight than wondering whether Masloum Bey would return home before the Moolid-en-Nebbi, or whether he would remain absent another year; whether her new shintyani (trousers) should be composed of Aleppo satin or of the Caireen silk called Devil's-skin; mixed up with reflections half-tender, half-indignant, upon the protracted duration of her temporary widowhood, and the inutility of ordering new clothes when there was no husband near to admire her-no Fantasíat to go to, or to give. How long was she thus to be debarred the pleasures of her age and station? In the midst of these cogitations her attention was attracted towards a young man seated at some little distance, whose eyes were evidently riveted on her person. He wore the elegant dress of an Effendi, but his observation of her appeared to be connected with an occupation which she had never yet seen exercised by an Egyptian Effendi, or even a scribe. With a portable desk before him, upon which rested a large open book, and an apparatus in no way resembling the reed-pen and inkhorn of an eastern scribe, (it was a palette and a box of colors,) he appeared, when he withdrew his eyes from the place she occupied, to be intent upon noting down something, every now and then looking up from the page to her form, and then resuming his task. * The great annual festival in honor of the birth of the Prophet. † 'The Arabs denominate every entertainment given in the hareem a fantasia. countrymen, and his complexion many degrees fairer-so fair, as to have appeared almost effeminate, had not a well-formed light brown moustachio imparted a certain degree of manliness to his youthful countenance. Nefeeseh's curiosity was aroused, and she felt that before she quitted the cemetery she must ascertain the nature of the stranger's employment. Looking round first, to be certain that no observer was within ken, she directed her negress, Naïmé, to approach near enough to the Effendi to peep over his shoulder and glance at the contents of his book. The girl immediately obeyed; but, with that address peculiar to the sex in all parts of the world, instead of at once advancing towards the point of attraction, she moved off in a contrary direction with an air of the most unconscious carelessness, and after describing a considerable circumbendibus, stole softly upon him from behind, and cast her eyes furtively over his open book. A shrill cry, smothered in a moment, caused the young man to start and look round, and as his eyes met those of the intruder, the ejaculation of "Bismillah!" (In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate) burst from Naïmé's lips, and throwing a handful of salt into his face--the common method of neutralizing the effect of the Evil Eye-she scampered away with all the speed of terror. "Fly, oh my mistress!" she exclaimed, as she regained the side of Nefeeseh; "truly, the Effendi is not a man, but a sorcerer--he is casting a spell over us! When I looked over his shoulder, I beheld, oh, wonderful! no writing in his book, but you, my mistress you yourself there, and your slave, Naïmé, by your side!" "Wonderful!" repeated her mistress; "God is great! Can I be there, and here too?'' "And when I looked in his face, it was strange and beautiful to behold-the blueness of his eyes dazzled me! the fire that darted from them scorched me up!" continued Naïmé. At these words, Nefeeseh arose and advanced a few paces toward the stranger; but Naïmé, grasping her dress, exclaimed, in affright, "Whither are you going, oh, my mistress?" Look not upon those eyes, as you love your soul!" "I must see what thou hast seen, ya Naïmé! The man is doubtless a magician. I will ask him to show me Masloum, my husband." And heedless of the danger she was incurring had any one beheld her accosting a man, Nefeeseh was quickly at the side of the stranger. Luckily, there was no one in sight, and her imprudence produced no fatal results. She cast her eyes with a strange mixture of eagerness and terror over the page which had thrown her slave into such a tremor, but prepared in some measure by Naïmé's declaration for what she was to see, her senses stood the shock of beholding a very striking and spirited drawing, representing herself and her negress seated among |