"I am not Doctor Carlton."

'But, sir, you look like a clergyman."

"I am. But I am a stranger to Mrs. Williams."

"She's dying, sir."

"She may not wish to see a stranger."

"But, sir, are you of the church of England?"

Ellen was one of those who had been taught that there was but one way to heaven, and that the key of the gate was intrusted to but one description of men.

"I am an episcopal clergyman," the stranger replied, “and, I hope, of the church of God."

"That's what I mean, sir; but I am a stranger in America, and do not know your modes of speech."

"I will attend you, and see Mrs. Williams. If she will permit me to join with her in the prayers of the church, or of the heart, I will attend and assist, as far as in my power, to reconcile her to her Maker."

"She will, sir; and Miss Atherton, her sister, will be happy to join, sir, for she is as good a church-woman as ever lived." And Ellen Graves led the way to the bed-side of the dying woman, after having received her mistress's permission.

The clergyman was a tall, thin man, of a pale complexion; in fact, his face was destitute of any warm tint-it was white, and contrasted strongly with his jet-black eyes and hair. His features were all strongly marked, but well formed; and his countenance far from austere. His eyes were brilliant; his hair, in large dark masses, caused the whiteness of his forehead and cheeks to appear like alabaster. The intense darkness of the colour of his eyes, and their prying fixedness, would have been overpowering, but for the serenity of his brow, and the expression of benevolence which seemed native to his wellformed but colourless lips.

Mrs. Williams was tranquil. Ellen brought a prayer-book, and presented to the priest. He kneeled by the bed-side. Eliza Atherton kneeled at the foot of the bed. Her faithful servant kneeled a little behind, in habitual deference, even in what she felt the more immediate presence of Him, before whom all are equal, The clergyman looked at the sick woman, and her opening eyes met his. He commenced, "Let us pray

"I cannot pray!" was uttered in a voice, harsh, broken, unearthly. "I cannot die! O, save me !"

Miss Atherton rose, and gently approached her sister; raised her in her arms, and supported her."

"Let us join in prayer to him who can save," said the stranger.

"I cannot! I am dying without hope! I murdered my father and mother! I have caused my own death! Murder and suicide !"

"You are repentant.”

"Dear sister! our parents lived to an advanced age; your mother-your father, died blessing and forgiving you. You have suffered from and repented the errors of youth; and although those sufferings misled you to further error, you are penitent, and heaven is merciful!"

"Your earthly father," added the priest, "forgave you; how infinitely greater is the forgiving love of your Father who is in heaven. To doubt his mercy is sin; and that sin must be eschewed, otherwise you cannot die in peace, or feel the love of the Father, who is all love. I will read to you the words of him who is all truth; and of whose love there is no end."

• Having requested of my friend, Dr. J. W. Francis, to give me, as a meeal man, some notices of the effects of stimulants upon the unhappy persons who have been induced to have recourse to them from various causes, he has favoured me with a very interesting letter on the subject, a part of which I will here introduce, and reserve other portions for subsequent pages.

NEW-YORK, MARCH 31, 1836.

DEAR SIR-Your interrogatories are distinctly within my recollection, and I would be happy to give them the fullest answers, were the subject susceptible of illustration within the compass of an ordinary letter. Your desire to embody some of the more prominent facts connected with the phenomena of intemperance, so far as they are-associated with morbid changes in the physical structure, occurring in persons who have long indulged in spirituous potations, is such, however, as induces me, though with little time at command, hastily to put together a few leading facts, from which you and other general readers, may, perhaps, derive the strongest arguments which can be adduced, on medical grounds, against the practice of using ardent spirits. It is for the divine, the moralist, and the economist, to attack the pernicious habit on other principles equally potent. All that I aim at on this occasion, is to group together, for your special use, a number of the most striking occurrences which we encounter, when professionally called upon to prescribe for the intemperate, or to perform more unpleasant service, which occasionally presents itself as a duty; I mean the drawing up a report of the disordered changes wrought by alcohol in the corporeal system of the inebriate, when dead.

The malade imaginaire affords a pretty good proof that Moliere drew some of his leading illustrations from cases of what are now denominated delirium tremens, or mania a potu. The disturbed, unequal, and often exhausted state of the faculties of the minds of persons who have long indulged in spirituous

Such was the effect of the reading of this gentleman, which was like a pure full stream, issuing from the heart, that the unhappy, conscience-stricken woman was restored to a quiet resignation to the will of her Maker, before Doctor Cadwallader arrived. He saluted the clergyman as Mr. Littlejohn.

This pious and tried man, now possessing health of body and mind, was no other than the son of the benevolent merchant with whom the reader is acquainted, restored to the world, and to his father. He had likewise been attending the concert of sacred music, but had left it earlier than the rector of the church, Doctor Carlton.

drinks, is familiarly known; and the same condition of the functions of the body has as often been observed. Hypocondriacism, or other species of mental aberration, are noticed in one class of patients, and functional derangement in another, but oftener both in the same individual; and hence, too, we see alcoholic insanity conspicuous among the numerous forms of deranged manifestations of mind in many of our public institutions, appropraited to the treatment of lunacy. In our mixed population, (I mean of foreigners and natives,) we find this type of disease more abundant than in any other of the disorders which are classed under the denomination of insanity. Gloomy as this picture may seem, it has this cheering feature, that inasmuch as the mania of intemperance is more medicable than several other forms of the complaint, we may, in cases of this origin, promise a success in our means of cure, when capable of carrying our remedial measures into full effect, that might be altogether unwarrantable in some cases arising from a different source."-See the chapter entitled" Lunatic Asylum," Vol. I.

177

CHAPTER XXII.

The hoax concluded.

Thus ended the scene, plotted and conducted by these ingenious gentlemen ; but not thus ended the consequences which resulted from it."

Godwin.

"Thus we play the fool with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us."

"Whose nature is so far from doing harms,

That he suspects none.'

"I do not like this fooling."

"Go to your bosom

Knock there-and ask your heart what it doth know
That's like your brother's fault."-Shakspeare.

WHEN the sportive, unintentional tormentors of Spiffard again met, (which was while he was at Cooke's lodgings,) they, after receiving Allen's report, again debated whether the affair was to be dropped or continued; and if continued, how.

The credulity of their victim had been so great, that Allen, who was flattered by the success of his own skill, (like the sportsman who is reconciled to the torture inflicted on the harmless bird, by the self-applause which the proof of his unerring aim produces,) could not yet give up what appeared to him such a capital joke. He therefore proposed "getting up" a plausible apology for the failure of Captain Smith.

"It was not his fault. He and his second had been on the ground, and left it. We were too late by reason of our watches being half an hour too slow. Thus Spiffard had not been at the appointed place in time; and, in consequence, Captain Smith, and his second, Mr. Beaglehole, had just cause to be offended. Therefore, an apology or explanation must take place, and if they require another meeting, which they must

do, it must be given. In the mean time, Captain Smith must go to Baltimore, and, of course, the meeting be deferred. This will give time to keep up the joke capitally. Spiff must be made to practise with the pistol. We will take him out-load both my hair-triggers-and I will bet two to one, that I make him believe that he can snuff a candle at twenty paces."

"I don't believe he ever fired a pistol in his life," said Cooper. "He can't hit a barn-door at ten paces."

66

"If that was the case before Captain Smith's birth," said Simpson, now that you have wasted Spiffard to a skeleton, he will not be able to hit a barn."

"I'll give him a few lessons with the pistol," said the little colonel. "I trained Jack Oglovy of Magra's Pennsylvania Regiment, so perfectly, that in three weeks practice, I had the pleasure, as his second, to see him wing Bob Tenterton, of Sheldon's Dragoons, and make him spin like a humming-top." "It will never do," said Cooper. "Drop it."

"And they fought with Tenterton's horse-pistols; no hairtriggers then "

66

The thing has gone far enough."

But Allen persisted. "Only let him try at a mark, the size of a dollar, and I'll convince him that he has hit it, though he shoots ever so wide."

66

By dint of argument profound."

"No. I'll stand behind him and fire over his head. My ball will pierce the centre; and it will be no difficult matter— especially if we all say so-to persuade him that my shot-hole was made by his bullet-the result of his steady aim."

"Allen, you must have a very high opinion of your persuasive powers."

"Why, a man who can be persuaded that the blackguard he bullied in the Shakspeare box, was a gentleman, may be persuaded to any thing.'

66

By those in whose words he has confidence," slily remarked Simpson.

"Your plan is impracticable. He will see into the trick, and that will open his eyes to the whole affair. Besides, I don't believe Spiff ever intended to shoot, or be shot.".

66

Surely," said Allen," he would not have gone to meet the man, otherwise.'

"I don't know that," was Cooper's reply. "Spiff thinks that truth is as powerful as lead; and that a frank explanation, and cool reasoning, will settle any difference."

"That may be the case now, but it was not so with us," said