knife-grinder listening to the conspirators. We heard our persecutor's unsympathising demand for the "wherewithal" repeated over and over again, with the most stoical indifference. I looked into her potato face as into a dark void—and my Grecian brother did the eaves' dropper, over his pallette, with the most commendable assiduity. The cold-hearted jade stood astounded-she evidently could make nothing of us; 6 for, as Coleridge says in his Ancient Mariner." "I held her with my glittering eye" "My stolid face, too, began to alarm her, and my companion's occupation did not tend in any way to lessen her apprehension, for, as she afterwards told her mistress in confidence, "the young man was scouring a bit of a stick, as if his life depended upon it." I think she would have bolted precipitately from our mysterious propinquity, had not a loud double knocking at the hall door suddenly disenchanted the knife grinder; at least, to all appearance, it seemed to have that effect: for he sprang upon his feet, flung up the window, and after one sharp glance down into the street, exclaimed with an air of supernatural exultation, "A letter by a livery servant of Gorman's-you dog! with a seal on it as big as a pewter dish in the Old-Man's-Hospital." Then turning savagely upon the more and more alarmed dumpling servitor, he commanded, "Off to the door, Harpy! and bring us up the letter from the intelligent young lad knocking for admittance." She fled. It was all right. We ate our dinners that day right heartily, and improvisatrised the mum-scene of the morning over and over again to our heart's most innate glee and satisfaction; but the dumpy servant always regarded us ever after with the genuine and evident symptoms of wary suspicion. The breaking morning found me thus dreaming away fantastically, and I awoke only to recall with bitter anticipations the odious work before me. I could not rest, and think of it; so up I started, and dressing myself hurriedly, snatched up a small deal box containing a few artistic implements, in case of success (and here I chuckled maliciously at myself) and set forth with dogged resolution to encounter the besmeared corpse in the porch of the ruined old church. The rude starting stones hurt me sorely as I heedlessly strode along the narrow bohreen, and the grass and the lank weeds wetted me to the skin, as I tramped across the hemlocked paddock to the place of my destination. I now loathed the unnatural desecration of the dead--and in proportion as my worldly aggrandisement faded away into uncertainty, the consciousness of the unchristianlike nature of my undertaking took forcible possession of my convictions. But there was no mode of retrogression-my task must be accomplished, or, I must be laughed at-lose my engagement and its perquisites-and give up all future hopes of patronage from the same quarter--and then to leave the business half done. why this must at once appear to be the result of fear, squeamishness, or incapacity-for, of course, I thought nobody would give me credit for abandoning it through a scruple of conscience; although I am sure a poor man has a right to get tick, at least, for that same very attainable commodity, before either a rich man or a sceptic. Well, I tapped the corded coffin at my feet with my wet boot-the sound was as dull as lead—there was no fear of any one stealing away the body in the night— Oh no!-Ah! how gingerly I handled the half-rotted ropes, and how cold and flabby they felt, and how my heart sickened in anticipation of the rank effluvia that the opening of the lid would eliminate. But this mode of proceeding would never answer. The winds began to moan through the rents of the old building, and there was an earthy smell upon the air, which, with the raw coldness of the morning, and the dampness of my clothes, began to drive me into so abject a state of mind, that I was ready to cry with chagrin and utter discomfort. It required a smart dash of resolution to put an end to this state of things, so, with a contemptuous "pshaw!" at my own debasement, I flung open the coffin, and with trembling fingers proceeded to try the consistence of the cursed cranky plaister of Paris. I wore a smile of selfderision as I made the experiment, for I confidently anticipated the result. But judge of my joyful disappointment, when I found it as hard as marble, and as dry as a board. I flung myself on my knees, not to pray-for, somehow, young men rarely or never think of being thankful to God for anything—but to find outwas fortune equally propitious to me in affording a facility of removing the composition, and of fully disengaging it from the decomposing features of the dead. I placed my hand firmly upon the scalp, and then essayed to make a lateral movement of the whole solidified mass: it came with me; but came so freely that I feared it was bringing the cadaverous flesh along with it. I turned round to get a small vial of oil that stood near me, and actually cried out aloud and involuntarily, as a big, apoplectic, broad, grinning face almost came in contact with my own; the worthy serjeant had stolen march upon me, and as I joined, or tried to join, in his uproarious merriment (a miserable failure by the way.)-I saw that the old church was actually beset by spectators. Five or six white faces, surmounted by turf-bronzed straw hats peered, goggle-eyed, through a dilapidated arched window above usothers were twisted serpent-wise about the ancient doorway, their shock-haired heads protruding extensively inwards, and others bestrode a detached portion of the dismantled walls, to which they clung with an evidently muscular tenacity, through apprehension, of course, that the horrors about to be revealed below by the rifler of the dead might be such as to overcome their powers of preserving their just equilibrium. I now felt that I was called upon to act heroically, or if need should be, to cover my defeat with the assured glorification of success— s—with the generalship of a Gregg-with the brazen audacity of a Gavazzi-so, I flung off my coat, crumpled back my shirt sleeves, and gave a splash of the cement to my bare arms; added to this, I threw my hat upon the ground, and tossed my hair rakishly off my forehead, at once transforming myself into a sort of artist-brigand, much to the consternation and dire expectation of all my rustic spectators. I was resolved that they, at least, should know nothing of my discomfiture, if such there should be. The serjeant clapped me on the back, and so I went to work with a will, and most valorously into the bargain. I tried the composition again, and lifted it half off the poor human subject. My heart beat violently against my ribs, I looked beneath the plaister, all right; the cheek had not even been abraded, but, as I thought to liberate it altogether, it held fast about the nose. I was stifling with fear and disgust-I could. stop to manœuvre it no longer-but plucked it away. I saw with a glance that merely the nasal tip had been separated-so, twisting the winding sheet rapidly over the body, I snatched a large napkin from my deal box, folded up the cast in a twinkling, slammed down the coffin-lid, and seizing upon my coat and hat, strode, with the white box under my arm, in the most necromantic looking manner possible, out of the theatre of my daring diablerie. A groan of wild horror followed my retreat, to the effect of which the serjeant added fearfully, by discharging a large horse-pistol. The poor peasants, dropping from their perches at all parts of the old building, fled like maniacs across the country; indeed, the retreat from Corunna was but a fly-crawl, compared to the fugitive powers of the bewildered inhabitants of the vicinity of Lancluff, who never before had witnessed any Christian-looking man invading the habitations of the dead, and in the double capacity, too, of a mountebank and a plunderer. Little did they dream, and never would they believe, that the principal performer in the scene they had just witnessed, was, at that moment, inwardly protesting that, "not for Damer's estate" would he ever be induced to act primo buffo any more on any so discreditable an occasion. Arrived at my little inn, I flung off my wet garments, indulged in a luxurious shave, and after a copious and most refreshing ablution, stepped down stairs to breakfast, and in the highest spirits. The serjeant was waiting for me, and with the agreeable information, too, that he had a loan of a jingle from a friend, on which he undertook to drive me into the town of C, whence I was to take coach for Dublin. The said jingle had nigh dislocated every bone in my body, but that apprehension was not half so painful as the fear of its cruel convulsions breaking my plaistercast, and rendering all my dreadful pilgrimage nugatory. This fear haunted me whilst I bid farewell to the good-natured serjeant, and accompanied me into my lodgings in Dublin-not the serjeant but the fear. When I was safely ensconced within my quarters, I opened my deal box with many a dismal foreboding; but every card I now held appeared to be trumps; everything was safe and sound. The hollow shell of cement exhibited a perfect model of the dead man's features, except where a small portion of the nose adhered; but this I knew I could easily remove with a sponge and a little warm water. Up to this time I had been nearly an hour locked up at my mysterious employment, and lo! very contrary to usage, a death-like stillness pervaded the whole house; the cause of which I afterwards ascertained to be, that my landlady suspected I had failed in my mission, on account of the taciturnity with which I received her interested welcomings (home?); and knowing the constitution of my purse previously to my departure, a lively apprehension seized her skilful mind, that the atrophy of my means might prove contagious, and cause an endemic disease within her well-beloved treasury. But when I found that (as Richard said to Richmond) "the chance was mine," I lugged at the bell-pull in the most furious manner, and gave such a minatory order for warm water and a basin, as set all untoward suspicions of my solvency at rest, at least for the present. So I cleaned out my cast, well and thoroughly, oiled it elegantly, and poured into it a skilfully prepared emulsion of composition, undulated it, skilfully and artistically, until it smoothened to a beautiful surface; and, after a short time, had the rapturous felicity of producing a most perfect mask, which, after minute and most satisfactory examination, as well as a series of mental comments and muttered apostrophes, I duly deposited in a secure little cupboard, there to await the arrival of its owner on the following morning; for which purpose I sent him a note, apprising him of my arrival and of my success. Then I tumbled out the contents of my purse upon the table-counted it out—amount fifteen shillings; twelve of which, in the blandest and most killing manner possible, I handed to my rapacious old landlady, not knowing how soon I might want to draw upon her patience again, and merely remarking to her at the time, that possibly she might want money, and that I had so much to spare. Then, after listening impatiently to the acrid old vixen's repeated assurances of her never-faltering confidence in my honour and integrity, with the air of an injured nobleman, I glided into the street; the hall-door paused, in the depth of its respect to me, and I had turned the sharp angle of the pathway before it ventured to close, very humbly and very obsequiously, upon my honoured heels. Away I went to seek the domiciles of a few of my most intimate confederates, and to regale their ears with my most notorious adventures. On the next day my patron paid me a visit, and being highly pleased with the excellence of the mask, gave me a cheque for twenty pounds, on David La Touche and Company, under the influence of which I sat down and wrote, without once pulling up, this rude sketch of " An Incident in the Life of an Irish Artist." AFTER THE STORM. "The noblest death a man can die, THE fearful hurricane is past, The sun shines on the quiet wave; A fierce wave dashed across their boat, And hurled them in the foaming spray, Ere looming like a wall of white, For three long days the tempest raged, Beneath its strength the tall trees fell, And rushing mountain torrents waged Fierce war, in many a quiet dell. Three days the stranger vessel lay A helpless victim in the bay. And though the waves were widely flung The storm is past, and o'er the wave, Three corpses rest upon the shore, Gone in the prime of manhood's years, The good, the generous, and the strong; Give him the tribute of our tears Who sleeps the ocean spoils among, And while the deep sea billows roll Often he dared the fearful strife At duty's call of storm and sea, Defying it with sailor pride, Emblazoned on the roll of fame The soldier's warlike deeds are shown, And shall not he man's honour claim For others' life who gives his own? The traces of the storm are gone, |