threw at a blow her mighty plans of empire, and secured to the sons of English republicans the immense region from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans,-from the north pole to the tableland of Mexico-a region destined for the propagation of innumerable free states, bound together by the same institutions, the same languages, the same interests and a religious freedom, as dear as all-which rejects the dogmas of any usurping hierarchy."

As the young man spoke, his tone had become elevated, his cheeks were flushed, his eyes sparkled, and Cooke, who had raised himself in his bed, could scarcely believe that it was the low comedian who talked of states and empires in terms so lofty, and so little suited to his usual style. Spiffard observed the veteran's surprise, and said, "I have ever been an enthusiastic admirer of the institutions of my country, Mr. Cooke, and feel the attachment of a grateful heart to your native land, from which they are partly derived. I am proud that my forefathers sprung from England, that I can claim part with Englishmen in the glories of Shakspeare and Milton, Locke, Bacon, Newton, Hampden, Sydney, Pym, and Vane, and hundreds more, whose minds have enlighted the world, and continue, to this day, to roll off the clouds with which tyranny and superstition would envelope us. I am proud that my ancestors were among the puritans of New-England, who abandoned their lovely country, that they might be free to live as republicans, and worship their Creator as their consciences dictated; and I am happy that my grandfather served with Shirley at Louisburg, and bled with Wolfe on the plains of Abraham, by the side of gallant Englishmen, in opposition to those powers who then, and now, would enslave the souls and bodies of mankind."

"I see you are a thorough Yankee; and I suppose as you travel this way from Quebec, you will treat me to a dissertation on Saratoga and Bunker hill."

"No. The sympathetic chord that made Englishmen and Americans one, was severed before the seventeenth of June, seventeen hundred and seventy-five; and you are an Englishman."

Cooke looked up with his peculiar side-long glance, and said, "Thank you, thank you! Do you know that I have been thinking, while you were speaking, that if your head, by any chance, had been raised twelve inches higher, it might have been a head of eminence, and looked down on little men with the frown, or the condescension, of a hero-a leader of senates or armies at least on the stage."

This touched a string in our hero's composition, which totally changed, not alone the current of his ideas, but the very nature of them.

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Yes, sir," he replied, (with that simplicity which rendered him so remarkable, and so obnoxious to be played upon by those of inferior intellect or acquirement.) "Yes, sir, I have thought that my face might, with the aid of histrionic art, represent a mimic hero, however unfit I may be to lead real senates or armies. My features are as boldly marked as John Kembles; my nose as prominent; my eye as capable of expressing passion. I have as great power over my countenance. I have studied the dramatic authors as assiduously, though not for so longa time as he has. But because, according to certain arbitrary rules, it is found that my face is too long for the height of my person, it is concluded that I cannot rise to the pitch of tragic dignity required for the stage, or give effect to the precepts or pathos of the poet."

"Did you ever try?"

"Yes."

"What was the result; how did the audience receive you ?” "The fools laughed."

"Well, well, never mind; punish them as you have done ever since, by making them laugh whenever you show your tra→ gic phiz on the stage; leave strutting, roaring, and scowling to me and black Jack."

So saying, the old man laid his head on his pillow with a good-humoured laugh, in which Spiffard could not but join, though at his own expense."

I had got no further in the story of my homeward travel—” Spiffard recommenced, and might probably have given a tolerably correct picture of Canadian manners, customs, costumes, rivalries, jealousies, and contrasts; and the conflicting interests of a conquered province, where ignorance and superstition is cherished as the precious reserved rights of the conquered; but at this moment his rival traveller and actor, Trustworthy Davenport, ushered Dr. Hosack into the apartment.

After the first salutations, the physician inquired if Cadwal lader, McLean, or Francis, his coadjutors in the task of repairing the injuries nature had received, had visited the patient, and then remarked that he looked better.

"I always feel better, Doctor, when this tea-sot, this waterdrinker, is with me; but I am puzzled to know what he can find attractive in the bed-side conversation of an old worn-out winebibber like me."

"His admiration of your talents as an actor, is sufficient to account for Mr. Spiffard preferring your company to that of men of less experience and knowledge." “No, no, that's not it. He has seen Sarah, and Black Jack, and all the rest of them. No, I will tell you what I suspect. He is studying the effect of wine on the human constitution; and when he sees me snug under the sod, he will give lectures on temperance, making old Cooke the foundation on which to establish his theory, and build his fortune. But I'll cheat the water-drinker by out-living him. I'll play Shylock at ninety, as Macklin did."

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May you live to ninety, and I live to see it! But what says the doctor to the question of wine or water?"

"Pooh, pooh, what signifies what he says. Look at his face, and then turn to the mirror and look at your own pale visage. There's a complexion where madeira-always meaning in moderation-sparkles-"

"Let me see your tongue."

"That's by way of stopping its motion. As much as to say, 'hold your tongue.' But a tongue is not a member to be looked at, but listened to."

"Yet to the physician, even its appearance can tell tales. There, that will do. Mr. Spiffard, I must prohibit my patient from further exertion, or even attention to the conversation of his friends to-day. His tongue speaks of fever. Let me feel your pulse, sir. That will do. Let me place my hand-so, sir. Are your ankles swelled?"

The doctor proceeded with his examination. Cooke was silent, but appeared less concerned than either Spiffard or Davenport; for the last-mentioned of our actors stood anxiously listening and looking on, evidently taking great interest in the fate of the patient.

"The symptoms are decided. There is water in the abdo

men."

Cooke turned his head away, and cast a look from the corners of his eyes on the physician, at the same time holding his face close to the pillow, and repeated the word "water,” in a tone of surprise.

"Yes, sir," said the doctor, and was going on seriously to prescribe certain remedies, when all gravity was set at defiance by the patient exclaiming-" How should water find its way there? No, no, doctor, never risk your reputation by telling the world that you found water in the stomach of George Frederick Cooke! What say you, you long-visaged, lank-sided

yankee philosopher? Did ever water approach these premises since they were in your keeping?"

Davenport, thus addressed, and finding the eyes of the company turned upon him, answered with a drawling tone, and great deliberation-"If I might venture to propound an opinion upon sich a deep and profound subject-"

"As my stomach! Both deep and profound, ha? I have sometimes thought it had a double profundity. Well, Mr. wise man of the east, go on-your opinion?"

"I have a notion, (without pretending to give an opinion ;) I have a notion that that critter man, is a compound of the elements of arth, air, fire, and water; and that, for one thing, makes him sich a contrarious animal; and for another thing, it makes it necessary for his bodily health, that all these elements should be replenished as fast as they evaporate, or are exhausted. Now, if I may be permitted-"

"Go on-propound-thou learned Theban."

"If a man denies admittance to water through the proper and natural door, by which it brings health and strength, it will find another inlet, and then it causes diseases and weakness: and in Mr. Cooke's case, it being always refused entrance above, it has taken advantage of the warm bath ordered for his feet, and has crept up through his toes."

"He has hit it, Doctor. The philosopher has found the cause. The disease has outwitted the physician. Most learned Doctor Davenport, see who knocks."

"I prohibit any more company this day. Mr. Cooke is not well enough to see any of his friends until to-morrow." Spiffard followed Trustworthy; and the doctor enjoining quiet for his excited patient, soon after left him to the care of the faithful, eccentric philosopher.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A little mystery, and an old acquaintance.

"Of what incalculable influence, then, for good, or for evil, upon the dearest interests of society, Inust be the estimate entertained for the character of this great body of teachers, and the consequent respectability of the individuals who compose it."-Verplanck.

"You have often begun to tell me what I am, but stop'd,

And left me to a bootless inquisition."

"Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,

That sees into the bottom of my grief."

"It is the show and seal of nature's truth,

Where love's strong passion is impressed in youth.”—Shakspeare.

"Whose power hath a true consent,

With planet, or with element.-Milton.

truth shall nurse her,

Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her."

my mother you wot well,

My hazards still have been your solace."

"If that thy father live, let him repent."

"Lepidus is high-coloured. They have made him drink."

"Faster than spring-time showers, comes thought on thought."

Shakspeare.

I WILL introduce my reader to another sick chamber of a very different aspect from the last. Indeed, a greater contrast to the commodious apartments and assiduous attendants which surrounded and administered to George Frederick Cooke, could not well be imagined, than the mean and scantily furnished hovel-like house of Mrs. Johnson, and the feeble assistance which could be rendered to her, (suffering and sick as she was,) by her only permanent attendant, a poor little negress. True, she had the occasional consolation of her son's presence, and that of Emma Portland: the consolation of duteous affection, sympathy, charity, and love. When those occupations which enabled him to procure the scanty sum necessary for his mother's support, would permit, she had the