in the usual way, and the ring was about to be placed on her finger, when she suddenly uttered a loud cry, and as she fell to the ground, blood was seen to stream over her garments from a deep wound in her side. She was conveyed to the palace, and since that day, she has lain as one entranced, without giving any sign of life." "Then she is dead?" exclaimed Giovanni. her brow still encircled by the bridalwreath! At her side stood the Doge, her father, her confessor, and her female attendants; scarcely, however, had Giovanni approached a single step towards the couch on which she lay, when, to the astonishment of all present, Julia opened her eyes slowly, very slowly, as if still in sleep; she rose from her couch and stood before them in her long white robes like a ghost "No," he resumed, "she is not dead, returned from the other world. Then though she is to all appearance a corpse, Giovanni, no longer able to suppress his and all the efforts of the most celebrated feelings, fell upon his knees before her, physicians have failed to rouse her from while hot tears coursed one another down her strange sleep, if so it may be called." his cheeks. "Julia! Julia!" he exclaimed, These last words were lost to Giovanni, "do not flee from me." And it was as if who had already mounted his horse, and a god had spoken, so great a change putting him to his utmost speed, he pur- passed over her, as she heard these words; sued his journey with redoubled energy. she pressed her hand tightly to her heart, Onwards he passed over hill and plain, as and exclaiming, "My deliverer and my swift as the shadow of a summer cloud-lord," she fell at his feet. until at length the marble palaces and glittering domes of Venice once more greeted his longing eyes. The sun was already sinking to rest as he approached the canal, and after bidding the drowsy gondoliers ply their oars stoutly, he stood up in the foremost part of the boat, in order the sooner to catch sight of the palace, which contained all that he loved or cared for on earth. The servants in the palace were not a little astonished to see the painter, whom they believed far away, ascending the marble steps, and hastening towards the apartments of the princess at nightfall, in his travelling dress, which was still covered with dust from his long ride; but no one ventured to arrest his steps. He paused for a moment on the threshold of Julia's apartment, and raised his hands, as if in prayer to Heaven, then gently opened the door and entered. The beautiful girl lay on her couch, clothed in a long robe of spotless white, But he raised her up and drew her to his bosom. The Doge gazed upon this strange scene in amazement, and before a word could be uttered, soft music fell upon the ear, which seemed to be coming gradu ally nearer and nearer, until at length it swelled out into such a flood of harmony as never was produced by mortal art. At this moment a soft and yet powerful light filled the apartment, and the same figure which had appeared to Donna Julia on that fearful night, the living picture, the creation of Giovanni, appeared in the air above them, with arms outstretched as if to bless their union. A moment after and the vision had disappeared. Then the Doge, after a few moments' pause, ap proached the lovers, and placing his daughter's hand in that of Giovanni he said: "Let the will of him be done who has worked such wonders." Thus did Donna Julia, the proud daughter of the great Doge of Venice, become the loving and happy wife of the painter Giovanni. From the New Monthly Magazine. FAIR, AS WE SAW IT. LEIPSIC BOOK FAIR, AS WHEN We visited Leipsic it was not approached by railways. Ours were the days of travelling-carriages and posthouses, of Schwager and of Schmeergeld. We travelled slowly and pleasantly; and crossing the bridge over the Elster the narrow passage by which the French were forced to make their disastrous retreat-we had soon evidence of the influx of strangers who had preceded us. Though Leipsic is amply provided with inns of all kinds, they were so full that the walks and open spaces which had replaced its fortifications were covered with carriages and wagons and with the men who were stationed to watch them; and here and there a dark and turbaned group, seated thoughtfully upon the ground, reminded one of the outskirts of an Eastern camp. Had it not been that apartments in the best hotel had been secured for us by a friendly publisher, we should scarcely have found a resting-place. The upper floors of the houses—some of them magnificent specimens of domestic architecture, rich with scrolls and mouldings and cornices-were gay with the temporary signs of wholesale traders, which, like banners hung out in honor of a fete, projected from the walls in all the varieties of attractive coloring. In some places were exhibited lines of carriages, of every description and price; in one street nothing but earthenware; in another, an armory of brass and copper kitchen utensils; here a whole street of pipes and pipe-sticks; and, a little further on, an avenue of leather breeches, filled and floated by the passing wind. In one of the suburbs was a line of stalls, devoted entirely to the sale of ribbons-showy as a bed of tulips-and their occupants as solicitous for custom as the ancient trader of Moorfields; substituting his perpetual cry of "What do you lack?" with "Kommen sie, mein guter Herr, kaufen sie etwas; schr billig; blos neun Groschen," which was insinThe streets were in all the bustle and uatingly rung in our ears at every step. activity of arrival and departure; the ac- Amongst the buyers and sellers were cumulated purchases of the week were Russians, Poles, Poles, Armenians, Turks, being piled by busy porters on the wag- Greeks, Persians, and the peasantry for ons that were to carry them to their va- leagues around, mingling from time to rious destinations, or were lying in heaps time, and giving, by the variety of their upon the pavement. This was near the costumes, a novelty and interest to the entrance. As we proceeded, we found scene. One of the most remarkable that not the Bruehl merely-itself a wide dresses, and most peculiar in its effect, was and rather long street-but all the streets that of the female peasantry of Altenberg. and squares, either parallel to or leading Their thick single petticoat, which is out of it, were filled with stalls and tightly drawn across them behind, scarcebooths covered with every variety of mer-ly reaches as low as the garter, and shows chandise-tulle from Nottingham; yarns from Manchester; bijouterie from Paris and from Carlsruhe; glass, more clear than crystal of the rock, from Bohemia; the shawls and printed muslins of Austria; marinirt eels from the island of Rügen, in the Baltic; cotton goods from Eupen and from Haarlem; furs from Siberia: Dutch slippers and toys; Saxon cloths; Turkish pipes; and watches from Chaudefontaine. off a white cotton stocking, and a somewhat stalwart leg, to great advantage. The signs, too, were in languages as various as the costumes, and the Kaλóv of Plato was applied to the wares of a Parisian bijoutier. It is with its books, however, that the fair at Leipsic is most generally associated. "Come, my good sir, buy something cheap; only nine groschen." very I had expected that the whole place would have been redolent of the press-that the very breathing of such an atmosphere would have made me learned-and it will scarcely be thought credible that a stranger may pass through its streets a hundred times without being aware of the existence of a publisher, except from an occasional sign-board, or a title-page in the window of some retail shopkeeper. As a part of the open fair, books are its least important article. The publishers are like stars, and dwell apart. Their Boersen Halle, which had very lately been completed at a cost of 30,000 thalers, was as jealously closed against intruders as the Babel of Bartholomew-lane; and it was only through the introduction of a publisher from Carlsruhe that I had the privilege of admission. It is a plain, handsome building, of which the lower story was appropriated to the booksellers of the place-who settled their accounts once a week-and the upper floor was used for those half-yearly meetings which bring to a single point the whole book trade of Germany. The place where they chiefly assemble is a well-proportioned room, between eighty and a hundred feet long, with a gallery at each end, supported by handsome columns, and reached by a spiral staircase, very gracefully constructed in iron. The number of members was then between three and four hundred; and about a hundred writingtables, each large enough to accommodate two persons, were placed for their use. When the books, which were to be paid for, had been ordered, a ticket had been delivered to the publisher or his agent who had supplied them, and this served as the voucher for the accounts that were now reciprocally produced. 66 For their settlement, each man had entered the room with his ledger and his gold sack," paying to one and receiving from another in actual cash; a process so clumsy and so primitive, so little removed from a state of mere barter, that-even intruder as I felt myself I could not help suggesting the adoption of something similar to the mode of settlement so long in practice at the "clearing-house" of the London bankers. My companion readily admitted its advantages, but seemed to think that there were insurmountable obstacles to its introduction. As it was, they sat at their tables like the moneychangers in the temple. The payment of accounts, however, is not the only business of the meetings. Improvements are suggested in the regulations of the trade, works that require cooperation are discussed and decided upon, and the sale of those lately published, or in progress, is extended. If the particulars I obtained were correct-and they were, at any rate, collected upon the spot from persons of competent information-the Book-fair Catalogue is not to be taken as an index either of the amount or nature of the books disposed of or produced. It is merely the undistinguishing record of every work that has been published throughout Germany from Michaelmas to Easter, comprising sometimes upwards of 3700; and, with the number published from Easter to Michaelmas, we should have an annual total of rather less than 7000 for a population of 35,000,000 persons. The Germans have an honorable pride in referring to it as an evidence of their mental superiority. They reminded me that in England the average of the preceding twenty years was something more than 1000 works for a population of 24,000,000; and in France, even recently, very little more than 4500 for a population nearly equal to that of Germany, to say nothing of the extensive colonies of the one, or the universal language of the other. "We leave," exclaimed a German critic, "to the French their glory, and to the English their bags of gold, and rest upon our books." But the distinction they claim is made doubtful by the nature of the data upon which their comparisons are founded. Of the works contained in one of the halfyearly catalogues what portion attain-I will not say a permanent rank, for that is the lot of very few in any country-but what portion become even part of the current literature of the day? I do not know what the practice may be in France; but in England no work, I believe, appears in the London Catalogue below the dignity of a volume, small or large, and very few that are not of respectable pretensions, whatever may be their success. In Germany, on the contrary, the catalogue is increased to its present extent by inserting the title of * The number in one of the half-yearly catalogues for 1855 was 3879. every separate sheet that issues from every | markable, either as politicians, painters, press in every city, town or village of the sculptors, or men of letters. David-as Confederation. Works without value of great a lover of his art as Michael Angelo any kind, whose circulation must be con- himself-might be seen, standing by his fined to the tap-room or the kitchen (Die own bust of Lafayette, in conversation sieben Bitten der Ehefrauen an ihre Män- with Béranger; Constant and Sismondi ner pr. 2 Groschen; Zehn Gebote der were encircled by admiring groups; and Eheherren aller Orten an ihre Frauen, pr. the most notable members of the opposi2 Groschen), pamphlets on the most tri- tion were in earnest though often whisperfling matters of local interest, school-books ed discussion upon measures which were and children's books, maps, and single then preparing the elements of a revolusheets of music, are all brought in to swell tion. At Leipsic, on the contrary, it was the triumph of the German catalogue, and a level, though not a barren, surface.* raise its people as a nation of writers above those of France and England. Yet in the class of literature which, then, in every country was engrossing too large a portion of talent and attention, what were the names with which the booksellers' shops were placarded even in Germany itself? Those of Spindler, and Tieck, and Pückler Muskau were laid aside; while Bulwer and Marryat, and Cooper and Scott shone forth in emblazoned capitals in every town from Berlin to Munich, and even in many of the villages. Of the "Pilgrims of the Rhine" there were five different translations. And in the graver departments, what were the world-known works of the day which raised the total of that Easter catalogue to nearly 3200? This I was unable to ascertain. After visiting the Börsen Halle I was invited to one of the soirées given during the fair, by the publisher and proprietor of the celebrated Conversations-Lexicon. The scene of his hospitalities was a suite of eight or nine well-lighted rooms, ornamented with pictures and casts. Cardtables, portfolios of engravings, and an abundance of light refreshments were provided for the guests, and our host received us with the easy tone of a person accustomed to good society. The company consisted of publishers, men of letters, professors, civic authorities, government officers, a few strangers, and the élite of Leipsic; and during the evening-about five hundred persons must have presented themselves. In its crowded rooms, in the absence of female society (a few ladies of the family only being present), and in the universal buzz of conversation, it reminded me of the soirées of Lafayette at Paris; but at Leipsic, though there were several men of talent, there was no world-distinguished celebrity," while at the house of Lafayette there were few that were not re 66 The house of our entertainer was connected with his place of business, which I visited the following day. There is something noble in the operations of an extensive printing-office. They remind one of the myriads of human beings whom every pressure of its dingy machinery is supplying with amusement or information. The sheets that were then being thrown off would be circulated through the greater part of Europe, and would be read also by thousands who had exchanged their Vaterland for the wilds of another hemisphere. It was the Penny Magazine of Germany. I was shown forty-two presses, three of them steam and seven Columbia; the rest were of various degrees of improvement. The largest steam-press delivered six thousand double impressions per diem. About 220 men were, in one way or other, employed; and the gas for lighting the premises was manufactured upon the spot; which was at that time considered a symptom of advance. It might altogether be regarded as one of the first establishments of its kind in Europe; and its spirited proprietor was said to have latterly made 20,000 thalers (about 30007.) by each edition of the Conversations-Lexicon alone: a work that even Köllman's Pfennig Encyklopaedie had not been able to displace, As my visit to Leipsic had chiefly reference to books, we went from the printing office to the Public Library, containing about 40,000 volumest and 2000 MSS. * Since the date of my visit, I have been asked by one of our most popular living writers, “Did you friend Bernhard Tauchnitz, the prince of publishers, chance, during your stay at Leipsic, to meet my and a most hospitable and agreeable fellow? He is a great friend of our mutual friend G. P, R, James." After such a description it is annoying to say that I did not. The Handbook says 80,000; but at this distance of time I am not quite certain that it is the Univer sity Library to which my own note refers, So, at least, I was informed by the libra- | blade" of Marmion, threatening destrucrian, or his representative; but he did tion to the clothes of all around them. not seem a very intelligent person, for he And the performances were worthy of such at the same time said that there was no- an audience. thing amongst them particularly curious. Yet I was told by the Hofrath - at Dresden that the Leipsic collection included a specimen of printing dated in 1454, and two copies (one on vellum and one on paper) of Guttenberg's Bible in double columns of thirty-two lines each, known amongst collectors as the Mazarine. In the evening we visited the theatre. We did not find it so brilliant as the court theatre where we had spent so many pleasant hours, at Carlsruhe; and the tone of the audience may be estimated by the fact that, although we were in the most expensive part of the house-which Englishmen generally manage to find-the children of a family who were seated near us were supplied with massive slices of bread and butter, which (after satisfying the inquiry, Mutter! ist's mit Butter geschmiert?) they waved above their heads like "the I need not say that there are other associations besides those of literature connected with Leipsic. Grim-visaged war has left its impress at almost every step. On the banks of the Elster we passed the spot where Poniatowsky, mortally wounded, was carried by his charger into the dark and narrow river. It is not what one would wish to be shown as the scene of a hero's death. The banks are flat and without beauty of any kind, and the stream, which is about twelve feet deep, is more like that of a stagnant canal than of a river. But glory, alas! has often very undignified accessories. A plain. stone, which its inscription tells us was "erected by his companions-in-arms and moistened by their tears," was placed to mark the spot, and it was the last object of interest that we saw during our stay at Leipsic. From Dickens's Household Words. TWO HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD. "If I were to tell you all, sir, they can- | not drag me from my death-bed here and hang me, can they?... Besides, I am innocent.... But what does that matter? More innocent men than I have been hung for less crimes than murder before this. I will not tell you." "Murder?" said I, with unfeigned astonishment. "Murder, Charlton?" For this man I was attending in my capacity as house-surgeon of the Henborough workhouse. I had known him for years, and of all my present patients he had seemed the simplest and least violent; his anxious eyes-which closed so lightly even in sleep -his averted looks when spoken to, his nervous timidity at the sight of any strange face, I had set down as the outward signs of a broken spirit and a waning brain; for he had had enough of sorrows to shake a stronger mind than his. I could remember him with wife and children about him, in a respectable, if not an extensive way of business; and why it suddenly fell off and was given up, and what misfortune had changed the couple who had been before so blithe, I had often wondered. Their son, Robert, was now in the Crimea, a serjeant; their daughter, Clara, a milliner's apprentice in the north; Mrs. Charlton had died a few months after the failure of their trade, of a lingering and somewhat strange disease; her husband was indeed, as he had said, upon his death-bed. I had offer |