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Wednesday, December 8.

Conception of our Lady.-High Water 52m after 7 Morn-22m after 8 Afternoon. December 8, 1752.-Born Dr. Vicessimus Knox, the distinguished writer on subjects of education and Belles Lettres. His Essays obtained for him great reputation by the eloquence of the language and style; his Winter Evening's Lucubrations are also a very agreeable collection of papers on literary topics. He also formed those popular compilations, the Elegant Extracts, Prose, Verse, and Epistles. As a writer on religious subjects and divinity, he has not published much; but his productions in this line have been highly commended by those two eminent prelates, Horsley and Porteus. The learned Doctor closed his mortal career in his 70th year, on Sept. 6, 1822.

Thursday, December 9.

The Seven Martyrs at Samosata, A.D. 297.-Sun rises 3m after 8-sets 57m after 3. December 9, 1565.-Expired Pius IV., Æt. 67, after having sat five years. The attention of this Pope was more directed to the aggrandizing of Rome, than to the Council. He appears to have had scarcely any other end in view but that of perpetuating his name by the erection of magnificent structures, for he commanded the ancient monuments to be preserved, and the streets restored at his sole cost; he also caused the aqueducts which conveyed the water from the suburbs to the city, to be again repaired, and it was he that rebuilt and converted the baths of Dioclesian into a church and monastery, which he personally consecrated, and called Sancta Maria Angelorum.

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Friday, December 10.

St. Eulalia, Virgin Martyr.-High Water 13m after 10 Morn-45m after 10 After. December 10, 1809-On this day Gerona, a small but strong town in the province of CataloDia, in Spain, capitulated, after an heroic defence made by the gallant Alvarez, to the French under Marshal St. Cyr. At various periods this town has been fated to be the seat of war. was taken by the forces of the Archduke Charles in 1705, and again by the French under the Duke of Noailles, in 1711.

Saturday, December 11.

It

St. Damascus, Pope, A.D 394.-Sun rises 5m after 8-sets 55m after 3. December 11, 1283-Slain Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, whilst retreating before the victorious army of Edward I., by a warrior named Adam Franckton. The Welshmen, upon the death of their leader, were dispersed, and the country reduced, after baving preserved its liberty for 800 years against the efforts of the English monarchy. The head of the ill-fated Llewellyn, with that of his brother David, (who was taken in arms) were placed, crowned with ivy, on the Tower of London, as a gloomy example for the future exposure of traitors.

Sunday, December 12.

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER ADVENT.

Lessons for the Day-25 chapter Isaiah, morning-£6 chapter Isaiah, Even. December 12, 1804.-Expired, ET. 86, Alderman John Boydell, who distinguished himself as a liberal encourager of the arts of painting and engraving. He collected at a vast expense the paintings which composed the well-known" Shakespeare Gallery," which, in the spring of 1904 was disposed of by lottery, and he had the satisfaction to see every ticket sold, but died before the decision of the wheel. The worthy alderman was born at Dorrington, in Shropshire.

Monday, December 13.

St. Lucy, Virgin Martyr, 1.D. 304.-High Water Oh 34m Morn-0h 56m After. December 13, 1818.-Died Lord Ellenborough, late Lord Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench. The merits of his lordship consisted in long and painful study; a vigorous and manly address; a strong discriminating judgment; an utter contempt of fear; and a bold and nervous eloquence, that scorned to stoop to embellishments. These qualities enabled him, in the race for iame, honours, and wealth, to outstrip all his competitors.

The Letters of Hugh Delmore, Esq., delayed by the indisposition of our kind contributor, will be resumed in our next number.

With No. 163, will be published our second SUPPLEMENT, containing the Cream of those Annuals published since our last.

A note is left at the Olio Office for W. Cole.

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Ellustrated article.

THE DEAD AND THE LIVING HUSBAND. By the Author of "Letters from the East."

Ir is said, that there are realities in life more sad and wild than the boldest inventions of fancy; and when they occur at the gate almost of the calm dwelling, and near the happy fire-side, they startle us far more than if met with in wilder scenes, on the stormy wave, or on the desert shore. Yet the wave and the bold shore were not wanting in the strange scene of the following tale, which is perfectly authentic and occurred in the year 1812, in a mining district of the west of Cornwall.

In the month of August, one of the chief directors of the mine of Poldice, by name Capt. William Nicholas, went under ground in his accustomed duty, to see how the work advanced, and view the several pitches or tracts of earth that were then being excavated. He had been to the bottom levels, and was on his way up, when he called at one of VOL. VI.

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the pitches that was worked by two men: it was the last he had to enter, and was at the depth of about twenty-three fathoms from the surface.

There is generally in a mine, as in a ship's crew, one man, at last, more noted for his wit and intelligence than his comrades, and a kind of oracle among them. Pascoe, one of the two, was an old man, and celebrated for his almost inexhaustible fund of stories, and jokes, and conversation. His earlier life had been passed at sea, and he had wandered to many parts of the world, and his memory retained most that he had seen. Their habits of life, that often place these miners in lonely groups in the bowels of the earth during the whole day or night, of necessity make them social and communicative. Pascoe was a treasure to these men, and glad was the party who could get him among them.

The battle of Salamanca had just been fought, and Captain Nicholas was very desirous, ere he ascended, to have some talk with the old man, for he had been in Spain. Fate does not leave its vic

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tim sometimes without kindly whisperings, that if obeyed would save. More than once he felt a strange reluctance to stop, and again mounted the ladder to go to his home, where his wife, whom he tenderly loved, was expecting him. But curiosity prevailed, and he turned aside towards the spot, which he soon after entered, where the two miners were now eating their repast and conversing; he stuck his candle against the wall and sat down beside the old man. He bade the other go above ground; he was a young man, the son of Pascoe: and he said afterwards, that as he was leaving the spot at his captain's bidding, Nicholas turned to him with a singular smile, and observed, he did not know what it was come over him, but believed that his dream the night before had brought a gloom upon his mind; that he thought he was buried in a vast tomb in the middle of the earth, and the waves were rushing all around him, and his lonely candle that he held in his hand never went out. The miners are a very superstitious people, and often have omens and warnings of their fatal mischances. He had been married but one year to a young and handsome woman, and was himself in the prime of life, being much esteemed for the gentleness and kindness of his manners, and his skill in the conduct of the mine. His dwelling was on the side of the hill that fell abruptly into this wide valley in spite of the sea-winds and the soil, he had raised a sweet little garden in front, and from his windows could overlook every part of the busy scene beneath. Here she was often seated, watching for his coming for the moment when he rose out of the shaft, with his candle flickering in his hand at the sudden gleam of day, his large flannel garments dripping with water, and the face pallid with the damps of the region below.

came.

Their attachment was of many years' duration, and was hopeless till he received this appointment; and then they repaired joyful to their lonely dwelling, to which the stranger's foot seldom A chance relative, or a friend, at long intervals, would call and taste of their hospitality, and look wistfully on the waste scene around: he did not envy them. The vale had few exciting sights or sounds, save that, in the dead of winter-for it was a dangerous shore -the signal-gun was fired, and the alarm-lights hoisted, of some vessel driving on the cliffs; and they could hear the shrieks of despair, and see the

wreck drifting, not far from their walls. But for the excitement of his profession, and its strong contrasts, the mind of Nicholas might have wearied also of the scene; but no Arab of the desert felt keener joy, as the lonely palm and the fountain met his eye afar off, than Nicholas did, in the midst of his gloomy toils, as the hour of his ascent to his loved home approached. And when he sat there beside the fire, and his wife was nigh, and bent over him with warm kisses and endearing words, and evening was closing on the bleak cliffs, and on the restless deep, that fell with a hollow sound on the beach—he felt that he was happy, inexpressibly happy.Such a moment was never more to come to the doomed man!

In the mean time he was still seated far beneath, by the side of Pascoe, conversing earnestly, when they suddenly heard a rumbling noise, as if the ground was giving way near them. There was an instant pause in the old man's talk— they looked wildly round for a moment on the gloomy sides of the cavern that enclosed them, and then on each other. The noise was like distant thunder, or the moan of the rising tempest; it lasted but a few moments, and then died utterly away. "It is only the men working on the opposite side of the shaft," said the old man, after listening intensely: his companion seemed of the same opinion, and they resumed their discourse with the same arlour. The mine, in the centre of which they were seated, is one of the oldest in Cornwall, and was worked some hundred years since. It happened that the noise they heard, instead of arising from the men working opposite, was occasioned by the ground beginning to run in at a level about ten fathoms under them; there was an ancient shaft of the former mine, unknown to any one, that yawned like a gulf to receive them. The sound now rose suddenly again, with a quick trembling of the earth on which they were seated: strongly alarmed, they sprang to their feet, but all too late. The noise was now incessant and awful: they saw the roof and sides of the cavern tremble on every side, as if by an earthquake. In all the horror which men feel for the last few moments which precede inevitable death, they ran to and fro, calling wildly for aid: no human power could save them in that hour. The earth that had given way slowly on every side beneath now sank at once, and the whole extent, of ten fathoms deep, between the

mouth of the ancient shaft and the spot where they had sat, glided down with the swiftness of an avalanche, bearing the unhappy men with it, while their candles, stuck in the wall above, still gave their light, as if in mockery. The abyss into which they fell was fifty fathoms deep, and half full of water: there was a faint struggle for life, a dying cry the old man's voice rose louder than that of his companion-and then all was silent.

The son of the former, who was bade to go above ground, by his captain, lingered in the ascent; it was by his means the event was first known: he was at the moment of his parent's engulfment climbing slowly, and turning aside from time to time in search of discoveries, about fifty feet above the place where he had left his father and Nicholas seated. After the noise, the cause of which he could not divine, had subsi*ded, he called out loudly to know if all was right; but was rather offended that he could not get them to answer him: he could see their candles sticking fast to the walls underneath, and thought that his father and Williams were still seated beside them. He continued to pass over the brink of a tremendous precipice, not aware at first of his danger; but still receiving no answer to his calls, he scrambled nearer, and the dim horror of the scene was then opened to him; the two solitary lights cast their glare on that sudden grave: he could see but a small part of its depth; all below was the "blackness of darkness" up which came at intervals a sudden splash, caused by the falling of fragments of rock or stones into the water. Once he thought he heard a voice calling for mercy, and that it was his father's: he stayed not long to look there, but as cended fast to the summit, and shouted for succour.

The wife of captain Nicholas was anxiously waiting his coming: the dinner-hour, a very early one in these scenes, was past: she thought some unexpected occurrence or discovery detained him; but as the time passed on, she stood at the window, whence every object in the mine was distinctly visible: suddenly she saw a man appear at the mouth of the shaft, with gestures of despair, and he cried with a loud and bitter cry; then there was a great rushing of the people to the spot. And she, too, rushed from her dwelling, and descended the hill without a pause, and mingled with the crowd: their looks were all turned upon her, and she saw there

was anguish in them, but no one told her the cause of it; on the contrary, they said a part of the ground had merely fallen in, and obstructed the ascent of her husband, and that they would quickly extricate him. It is easy to command our words, but untutored men cannot shroud the strong emotions of the heart; and in the gloomy and pitying eyes of the stern miners around her, the widow saw that all was over.

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My father-my father!" said the young man, wildly, "will you not save him?-you loved him in life-will you not rescue the old man ?"

Then a wild shriek passed over the crowd, and the words of the youth were hushed, and the men, and even the children turned from him to the wife, for all felt that the love of woman was more commanding than that of a son. She bent over the fatal gulf and shuddered: "My husband!-is that your grave?" then a sudden movement rose among the people, and they said one to another that all should be done that men could do for their captain; and seizing their heavy tools, they hastened under ground, by different ways, to the scene of death. As she stood at the mouth listening: each sound of the heavy pike as it struck, and then the rolling away of the earth and stones, came up the gulf faintly, yet horribly.

"O harm him not!" she said; "for God's sake, do not let the stones fall upon him!-Can you see him-can he move his hand?-take the black earth from his face that he may breathe."

It had been mercy had they found the body; but this last consolation was denied: they tried all that day, and the following days, but the unhappy men might as well have sunk in the heart of the ocean; it was not that the earth closed over and entombed them; but the water into which they fell was believed to have consumed them quickly, even like fire; such was the strong property of the mineral with which it was impregnated; the mundic water they called it. For experiment, they tied a piece of meat to a string, and throwing it down into the water, it was in a few days totally eaten away; then they were persuaded that the bodies also were consumed.

Soon after this, the working of the lower parts of the mine was suspended; a partial decay fell on the concern; many of the people sought other scenes of toil and speculation. The aspect of the valley was no longer the same. The sun rose as sublimely, and the sweep of

Ocean beyond was as glorious; but fortune dwelt no longer there.

The widow lived alone for some time in the desolate dwelling, the only good one in the region; the others were only cottages of the miners or fishermen. Beneath the bold precipices, the boats were moored during the day, and at eve they pushed to sea with the wind offshore. The widow, still young and handsome, refused to forsake her husband's home. The garden went to decay, like the once busy scene beneath, It was observed that she always shunned to walk near the fatal place, but chose the summits of the cliffs; and would sit there for hours, looking at the vessels in full sail, or at the fishermen on the sands beneath, pursuing their toil. It so happened that, after five years, this state of life grew irksome. There came a man, in the prime of life, and of some property, who sought her love; and she married him; and they continued in the same dwelling on the hill-side. Whether she was happy there, was doubtful. A melancholy look settled on her countenance as well as her heart; and the tenderness of this second husband, who was strongly attached to her, could not dispel it.

Ten or eleven years after the fatal occurrence, it was determined to again work the mine to its full extent. Many of the old miners came eagerly back to the vale; for the red stream, the decay ed heaps, the sea-beat cliffs, were dear to their eye. With great and prolonged efforts the water of the deep shaft was drawn away, for they sought to pursue their discoveries in that direction. The body of the old man was found first, and at last, standing in an upright posture, even as it fell, that of the unfortunate Nicholas was discovered. But, instead of being dissolved, it was in a perfect state of preservation; the hand of corruption was not on it; the strange property of the water had congealed and preserved it. The limbs, the features, the clothes-all were there. The attitude was not that of a man who had died in horror. They looked on it in astonishment for some time, and then bore it to the surface. The men gather ed strangely round the form of their ancient captain, and, after consulting briefly, resolved to bear it to his widow's dwelling. When they drew nigh, the people came in such numbers around, that it was difficult to pass through them.

The second husband and his wife were seated in their parlour, when a

confused clamour, that grew louder every moment, approached their door, and at last they heard the voices of many people, in pity, in wonder and fear. But ere they could know the cause, the door opened, and the miners entered, and laid the dead husband at the feet of the living one. The wife looked wildly for a moment into the face of the latter, and then knelt beside the body. Those who witnessed it said it was an awful thing to see her dabbling with the hair and fingers, and kissing the cheek and lips of the dead, who had been the prey of the grave for twelve years. The love of woman has been called, by a great writer, "a fearful thing;" here it was a glorious and indelible thing, that could thus laugh the king of terrors to scorn, and gain the victory over him. The living husband did not think so; he sat in gloomy silence; he dared not speak, his feelings, that second husband: but he could not bear this outpouring of tenderness-this bursting forth anew of affection, that he had thought buried in the tomb. Perhaps no man could support unmoved the sight of his wife's kisses lavished on the former husband of her bosom, and her tears falling in torrents on his cheeks, and her moans coming from a heart, tried almost more than it could bear, for he had been the love of her youth-a handsome, a gentle, a generous being; such was not the present partner of her life.

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"William, my own William," she said, clasping his nerveless hand almost in frenzy in her own, sent to me back again, thus! God has sent you back-in mercy! Oh! in mercy!"

Concluded in Supplement, p. 440

THE POSTHUMOUS LETTERS OF HUGH DELMORE, ESQ.

For the Olio.

LETTER VI.-THE MUTINY. Continued from P 267.

THE boatswain, though strongly attached to the captain, had, in common with most merchant seamen, an utter dislike to any appearance of what, in forecastle parlance, is designated 'manof-war law;' and he looked wistfully in his face, hoping, perchance, to discover some appearance of relenting: but the ominous cloud still lingering there, he seized in his herculean grasp (he was a huge, loosely-built Shetlander, with sinews of iron) the nearest fellow, and, assisted by the petty officers, in two minutes consigned the trio to "du

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