the troops Henry the Eighth, sent at different times into France, were of that description. Bluff Harry was himself a famous archer. In Elizabeth's letter to the Sheriff of Lancashire for the levy of troops to be sent to Ireland, the proportion of bows is equal to the harquebuses, as the heavy muskets of that time were called; and the comparative merits of those two weapons was long a subject of dispute among warriors; and, but for the superior powers of heavy artillery, the bowman might still have ranked among our troops. The archers also served, as marines do now, on shipboard, fifty bows to a first-rate man of war, and smaller ships in proportion; and both in France and England archers were employed in civil matters in aid of the magistrates, whenever an armed police was required. 1643, during the civil wars, the Earl of Essex endeavoured to raise a company of archers. But the last mention we have of bowmen in modern times is in 1660, when the Marquess of Montrose employed them with success against the Scotch.

In

Florence. Do you remember the bow we saw at Naples, which was brought from Herculaneum, Gerald? You said it was made of a goat's horn.

Gerald. Yes, like the bow of Pandarus, in the fourth book of the Iliad :

""Twas form'd of horn, and smooth'd with artful toil,

A mountain goat resign'd the shining spoil;
The workman join'd, and shaped the bended horns,
And beaten gold each taper point adorns."

Mr. Austin. Well remembered, Gerald. I doubt not your memory would furnish us with many instances of belomancy or divination by arrows from the classics.

Gerald. Herodotus mentions the Scythian mode of divination by arrows, but I don't recollect that it was customary amongst the Greeks and Romans. It was much practised by the eastern kings, when they were at war. The names of four or five cities were written on different arrows, which were put into a quiver, and whichever was taken out first decided the city they first laid siege to.

Mrs. Austin. That explains a passage in Ezekiel, which Florence and I were reading this morning :-"The King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.

At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem."

Mr. Austin. The more extended our knowledge of antiquity the more we become aware of the extraordinary truth and accuracy of the Holy Scriptures. The Arabs practise something similar in our own times :-they put three arrows in a quiver, one is blank, one inscribed "God willing," one "God not willing." If the former comes out first, their troops disperse if either of the others, the legend decides for or against the enterprise in agitation. The Laplanders now use magical arrows in the silly incantations they are so much addicted to, and the charmed bullets of Der Freischutz remind me of the charmed arrows of our English archers of yore. In the time of Mary, of popish memory, a poor fellow was severely punished for shooting at a mark with arrows which, his accusers said, were enchanted, by which he earned two or three shillings a day.

Charlotte, who, during this conversation, had been weighing the comparative merits of the different anecdotes her limited knowledge of history furnished her with, now exclaimed in delight, "I know a beautiful story of archery.

The French book I am reading is William Tell: you shall hear all about his shooting the apple off his son's head."

This story was of course familiar to the whole party; but Edward, who was not old enough to dislike hearing the same thing twice, applauded her choice.

Florence.

You are greatly changed since this morning, Edward, when you told Charlotte you could not bear Tell-tales.

"Well, I don't like tell-tales," said the little boy, quite unconscious of her meaning.

"Florence, you are incorrigible,” said Gerald ; "that is the third forfeit you owe me to-day for punning. We don't mind these stupid little stories; but really Miss Lumley, (turning to Amy), it would be too bad to inflict William Tell on you: a tale of Robin Hood there might be some poetry in."

Mrs. Austin. You must not be so formal, Gerald, though you have entered Oriel; and though you have not seen your old playfellow Amy these three years, you must not call her Miss Lumley she will think she is not at home if you do.

:

"I hope she will never feel more at home than

at Austin Hall," said Gerald, with that mixture of natural kindness and artificial politeness which were peculiar to his manner, and which showed that, though he thought much of others, he thought more of himself.

Amy, like most indolent people, was acute in her perceptions of the ridiculous in others; and, though she felt obliged, her countenance betrayed that she was amused at Gerald's pompous manner of doing the honors of his father's house. He caught the expression of her eye, and could not help laughing at himself. Throwing off the fine gentleman, he held out his hand with boyish frankness to his pretty cousin, and said, "You shall be Amy again."

"And you shall be my own dear Gerald again,' she replied, adding, in a low voice, "I did not much like the dandy Mr. Austin, junior."

Gerald. Well, then, Amy, we must make a new treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive.— As your story is, I am sorry to hear, to be but short, help me to persuade the higher powers to put those two parrots, Edward and Charlotte, in their cages, or at least to forbid them to speak.

Charlotte. You need not put us up in our