INTERESTING PARTY.

11

freeborn spirits were not to be restrained by either bolt or bar.

The "busy hum of cities" was fast dying away, and succeeded by silence that twinsister of darkness and midnight-when, cautiously raising the lattice, we, with unshod feet, allowed ourselves to drop on the parapet below. As we cautiously crept along, our attention was attracted by the faint rays of a glimmering light issuing from the apartment contiguous to our own, and in the same range of buildings. This tenement, occupied by a motley group, had long excited our interest and curiosity, from the strange appearance of its inmatesmen, women, and children— Greeks, Maltese, and Calabrians-whose unintelligible and multifarious jargon was well matched by the bronzed bandit look of the men, and the dark, shrivelled, witch-like countenances of the females composing this interesting party.

Cautiously advancing in single file along the narrow parapet towards the light, our footsteps guided by the faint uncertain rays

12

A HORRID MYSTERY.

of a waning moon thickly enshrouded in clouds, the foremost of the party at last gained the casement; a pause ensued, but curiosity prevailed; the leader of the band, carefully balancing and supporting himself, was preparing to pry into mysteries till then concealed from view; his extended hand was stretched forth to grasp the projecting cornice, when suddenly it came in contact with something cold, clammy, and death-like. At this instant the moon, till now nearly obscured, shone faintly through her vapoury veil, and dimly disclosed the ensanguined folds of a white drapery deeply stained with

gouts o' blood," and partly concealing some object, which, by the dim-wavering light, had much the appearance of a human head severed from the trunk, and still reeking with clotted gore!

Horror-stricken, the "leader" paused, and with difficulty repressed an exclamation of surprise, which would have betrayed his presence to the supposed throat-cutting gang

within; but, as has been said, the party were old campaigners, and it was not the first time that each had been placed in unforeseen dilemmas. A retreat was first sounded, and a council of war held, when it was resolved to obtain possession of the mysterious object in question.

This was soon effected. We regained, with some little difficulty, our stronghold; the mysterious and blood-stained mass was placed on the table, the crimson folds removed, and to our astonished gaze, presented—what thinkest thou, reader?-a fine fresh round of beef!

As we stood gaping at each other in mute surprise, it is difficult to say whether disappointment or pleasure predominated in our breasts-disappointment, at having a mystery crushed in the very bud; pleasure, as in anticipation we broiled, and grilled, and devilled our prey in every possible manner that culinary torture could devise; for, strange to say, the savoury fumes of a good supper were the first visions which presented themselves to

our heated imaginations, after they had been disappointed in their feast of horrors, raw heads, and bloody bones.

As to the lawfulness of such a proceeding, our military consciences were perfectly easy on that score: the beef was plunder, and plunder it had always been deemed legal to appropriate, by the captors, for the most useful purposes.

We had lots of liquor, and it was therefore voted nem. con. that we should have a glorious "blow out." But, as if to prove the fragile nature of the thread on which hang all human resolutions, our magnanimous resolve was extinguished in its very birth by "want of fuel." In vain did we ransack every corner; not a particle of wood or charcoal could we find: our very bedsteads were of iron, or I verily believe they would have been sacrificed at the shrine of this new Apis.

However, there being no rimedio, as we say in Spain-although the whole trio of us had been great travellers-still, not having included Abyssinia in our wanderings, nor studied the gastronomie of Bruce, and there

MEDICAL WANTS.

15

fore not relishing raw beef, we held a fresh consultation as to how, under the present state of things, we should dispose of spoils thus thrown into our hands by the fortune of war.

My companions had both passed many years in that sunny clime, from which, if a man does escape, he generally bears with him long enduring marks in the shape of a mahogany face and dried liver, with sundry other happy concomitants. Now, these mahogany-faced and dry-livered gentlemen are generally provided with an inseparable companion, called a medicine-chest, well stored with pills, powders, draughts, and other devilry; and my friends, voting all these ingredients to be no longer of any use on their approaching return to Old England, and having moreover observed the extremely bilious appearance of the party in general to whom had appertained the round of beef, were of opinion, that, could all the contents of the said medicine-chest be,-through the medium of the said round of beef,-conveyed into the stomachs of the aforesaid bilious looking personages, such a pill would, in addition