With these words he fell into a deep swoon. Care was taken to convey him to his wife, and one may conceive the fright and joy of Catherine when she saw her long lost husband return. She received him in her widow's weeds, which she put off immediately, but only to resume them in a few weeks, and this time with sufficient occasion, for Mr. Sebaldus Beerlein departed this life, as he had foretold, with pious resignation; but before he died he communicated to the clergyman who attended him the extraordinary circumstances of his absence, and this document is still preserved by the family. It is attested and signed by several witnesses living at the time, who were well acquainted with the senator before his disappearance, and who saw him return, and the seal of the city authorities was affixed to it. This narrative was, in substance, as follows:

On Trinity Sunday, in the year 1749, relates the senator, between eight and nine in the evening, I was sitting quietly, and occupied with the most pleasing thoughts about my family, which was collected around me, when I distinctly heard a rap at the door. I took no notice of it, concluding that Ahlevert, my servant, who was close to the door, would see who was there, or that the person who had knocked would come in, when he found his signal disregarded. Instead of that, however, the knocking was thrice repeated, and very loud. I was surprised that not a creature in the room seemed to hear it all quietly kept their seats. All at once it was as if a voice said to me, Rise, take

thy hat and cane and go."

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I strove to silence this extraordinary inward injunction, but was seized with such an anxiety, oppression, and faintness of heart, as if I had been ever so ill. This painful sensation became at last so unbearable, that I was forced to take up my hat and stick and to go to the door.

When I was in the passage, I there found a man who eyed me with steadfast look, and again the words sounded in my ears, "Come, follow me."

I knew not the man, neither did I know what he wanted with me; but I felt that from the moment I had crossed the threshold of my room he had power over me, and I followed him.

We descended the back-stairs and went through a passage in the next house, of the existence of which I had never before been aware. It was vaulted, and as far as I can recollect, casks and empty chests were piled against its dark walls. It became lower and lower, so that at last I was obliged to advance stooping after my guide, who went just before me. We came to a dark water, which I took to be a covered canal: the water looked black and unnatural. A couple of crazy planks, which served for a bridge, swayed much as I was passing over them; but my guide moved light as a feather and without the slightest noise, over this dangerous crossing.

We got at last into the open air, and I saw the starry firmament above us. The evening red still glowed in the west, and I recollect that, on looking back, I distinctly saw the steeple of our principal church; everything else seemed to be enveloped, as it were, in mist. We now came to a plain, extending farther than the eye could reach,

and which appeared absolutely strange to me. Not a tree, not a hut, not a road was to be seen. The ground was covered with dried or singed grass, as if a vast fire had lately raged there.

I made this remark to my guide, asking at the same time whither he was leading me. Without answering, he signified by a silent gesture, that we must proceed. Accordingly, without exchanging a word, we pursued our course together over the dead level of the heath. The last tinge of the evening red disappeared; a fog shrouded the face of heaven, so that earth and sky seemed to be covered with one uniform lead-coloured veil. I cannot describe to you the awful and souldepressing effect of this solitude. How grateful to my ear would have been the slightest sound of life! we heard not even own our footfalls on the soft ground. From time to time a cool breeze blue over the plain, but it refreshed me not, for it wafted with it an intolerable smell of mould.

Having proceeded in this manner for about half an hour, I perceived a house standing quite alone upon the plain, and the windows of which were brilliantly lighted up. It was in that sort of style in which palaces are built; pillars supported the roof, and the edifice was decorated with magnificent flights of steps, rich coats of arms, and gilt statues. My companion beckoned me to enter. I represented to him that I knew not either the house or its owner.

"Thou wilt learn to know him," he replied; "but beware of putting a single question either to him or to those about him concerning what thou shalt there see. Silent as thou camest must thou go again, and impress upon thy memory what thou seest."

With these words he opened the door of a large magnificent saloon, along the sides of which I saw by the light of a thousand tapers, a large company sitting in full dress. When I entered, every eye was turned upon me. The company consisted of gentlemen of quality, and ladies. of extraordinary beauty; but I knew none of them. They were faces which I had never seen in all my life. My companion, who stopped in a respectful attitude at the door, motioned me to approach the company. I did so, though I felt abashed, and they replied to my salutation with a formal but not unfriendly obeisance; for every one seemed to be wholly occupied with himself or his neighbour, and to take no further notice of me. I had time for observation, and I soon remarked that all these beautiful women had red cords round their necks, which were white as alabaster, and that the gentlemen wore the same mark over their cravats. Finding that I was permitted to walk about where I pleased, I went up to a card-table at the window, about which four grave gentlemen were assembled. They looked cold and indifferent; sleep seemed to weigh down their eyes: their clothes were most splendidly embroidered with gold, and broad ribbons of orders crossed their bosoms. They, too, had the distinctive red band round the neck; but what startled me more was, to see that the cards with which they were playing were stained with blood.

I turned shuddering away, and went into an adjoining apartment. It was fitted up still more superbly than the saloon, and hung with red velvet. On a sofa I saw a man who was taking a nap; his head drooped upon his bosom; but he, too, had the red band round his neck.

Casting my eyes upon the floor, I perceived with horror a track of blood, which led to the next room. I followed it, and found a second apartment, but not a creature in it. The lights burned dimly, and a number of musical instruments huddled together in one corner, indicated that they had been, or were to be used to play to dancing. But not a musician was to be seen, and the profoundest silence prevailed. A door of immense magnitude occupied the further side of this apartment. It was shut and surrounded with costly gilding. The traces of blood led to this door; but, in spite of all my efforts to open it, I could not stir the lock. Apprehensive lest the noise which I made might bring the company to me, I desisted from further attempts. Over the door was inscribed in large black figures "1789." This number has deeply impressed itself upon my mind, as well as the track of blood which led to the mysterious apartment.

I know that I fell into a reverie about these things, and a kind of stupor came over me, and made me sit down in a chair in a corner of the saloon. How long I might have sat there I cannot tell when I woke up' from my musing, I heard a clock strike one, and at the same time a great bustle in the saloon. I rose immediately and hastened through the apartments to look for my guide. He was still standing there waiting for me. We quitted the saloon and the house forthwith. I was again upon the solitary heath, and my companion walking mutely by my side. In this manner we arrived at the skirts of the city, where he took leave of me with a silent bow. I felt faint and ready to die. I had scarcely strength to reach the city, and I rejoiced to find myself again in the well known streets. When I once more heard the noise usual in them, and human voices, my heart seemed to revive. The recollection of the ghostlike company, with its fearful mark, gradually became less vivid, but that prophetic number was constantly before my eyes, and will continue to haunt them as long as I live; for it is but too certain that the Lord hath caused me to see a wonderful vision.

Need we say that the import of this vision, or whatever it may be called, was fully explained by the French revolution which broke out just forty years afterwards? About that time appeared a tract in German, with this title, "Wonderful and True History of the lost Senator of Bremen-how by the special permission of God he foresaw future Times and their Doings." Upon that publication the above tradition is founded.

JOSHUA TALLBOY AND HIS FRIENDS.

BY GEORGE RAYMOND, ESQ.

"HE that resolves not to go to bed till the world is pleased, shall be troubled with the headache." Such is the instruction we collect from the admirable Esopic story of "The Old Man, the Boy, and the Ass," to the truth of which we were again led to pledge our conscience on turning to the file of "Provincial Annals."

One of the half-dozen quality-looking tenements in the small town of Y, Gloucestershire, had been entered on about harvest of the year 1750, by a Londoner, rejoicing in the name of Tallboy. His age was probably three score-a being of exceeding mental and bodily vivacity every look and gesture animation, as though he had fed upon living birds. A short man was he; that is, on a small scheme, for his body was of nice proportion, with the exception of the os frontis, which being wide of the scale, and nearly globular, gave him somewhat of a Chinese appearance. It was a skull to tempt the fate of Æschylus, on which any eagle with great discrimination might have precipitated a tortoise. He had also a Gibbon set of features, and like Gibbon, was pursuing his earthly pilgrimage in singleness.

With egritude or the spleen he was not on the slightest acquaintance, and the biliary account had been so unerringly balanced, that he was verily one of the most welcome of human beings. A feeble assault of gout had once been made on his left foot, and when obliged to swathe it in horizontal repose for a day or two, he wore a boot and spur about the right, to manifest the spirit was still willing. His calling in early life had been that of a silk-weaver in Spitalfields, and having realised a remunerating estate thereby, had fixed on his present small domain, for tilting the cask which yet contained much of the wine of life.

Mr. Joshua Tallboy had some peculiarities. He was a scrupulous observer of all remarkable days-scarcely any chronicle, civil, foreign or domestic, escaped his solemnization-whether of weal or woe, wis dom or folly, the glories of Marlborough and Eugene, or the imposture of Mary Toffts, the rabbit-breeder-all were to be found in his rubric, and underwent an annual registration of a bowl of punch. And as now the sun is sufficiently of an age to have rendered himself distinguished on almost every occasion he rises, Mr. Tallboy had pretty nearly three hundred and sixty-five "fasti" in his calendar, though as each trod on the other's heels, he was pleased to say, ""Tis only once a year!" In fact, his twelvemonth was covered with stars thickly as the vestment of a great general, each intended as a distinction, but like the private theatricals, composed of "nothing but kings," of course, there was no distinction at all. His moral path was one continued milky way-a stream of light compounded of distinct luminous bodies, of which, each day as it rose, was his "bright particular star."

Mr. Tallboy, though a bachelor, was no misogamist, neither was he selfish in his pleasures, by no means resembling that eccentric toper we

have heard of, who over his solitary tankard, was wont to address himself at each replenish, with "Now, gentlemen, we'll take another glass all round."

'Tis true, that hitherto he had had but few adherents, but as he never failed to enlist some devotee in his pomeridian sacrifices, it must be confessed he took the readiest means to multiply them, so that in a very short time after his arrival here, he could always calculate on a quorum of priests.

But the peculiarities of Joshua Tallboy went a little further, and with the sweetest disposition in the world, he was not altogether at peace. He was one of those minions of the moon, who through life had engaged in that dreamy pursuit, the only thing perhaps which has ever yet completely baffled human cunning. To count the grains of sand on the sea-shore, or of how many drops the ocean is composed, is a work which really only demands a certain time, and the undertaking is a straightforward piece of business; but little Tallboy had been essaying a chase in the very fields of ether, wherein the weaver already had had a run of sixty years, and the game not yet in sight, namely, to please everybody! A kind of opifer per orbem, whose career was never ending, still beginning." He was the old man, and the boy and the ass, and the wayside stranger too, in his own personal vignette; for not unfrequently was he displeased with himself, when visited by any misgiving of having slighted an opportunity of pleasing others.

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Mr. Tallboy had a maiden sister, somewhat younger than himself, who for the last thirty years had formed part of his small establishment, a person of retiring manners, and who would doubtless be considered by many as unworthy any particular notice in this history, being known only for her virtues and real benevolence of heart.

The habitation in Y- had been nearly complete when Joshua took possession; some trifling matters of embellishment only yet undetermined, amongst which was the painting of the glazed door to the outer court. Its first complexion had been green, but the prurient daughter of a hard-featured midwife in the next street, telling him such was a hue of the forsaken, it was forthwith grained in oak, whereon the elder of the two named ladies observing, nature had never yet given birth to anything like it, the oak gave place to yellow. But here the districtdoctor waggishly protesting Mr. Tallboy's door, "looked vastly as though it had got the jaundice," it was again changed to white. This appearance provoking a dispute between the usher of a school and the town-clerk, whether white was really any colour at all, or the omnipresence of the prismatic tints (a controversy which was carried on with much learning on both sides), Mr. Tallboy, with a view of unanimity, once more changed the complexion of his door to buff, but this alarming the vernal delicacy of the autumnal Miss Watercourse, it was instantaneously invested with a blushing red, whereat the letter-carrier (who had really knocked at a good many doors in his time), observing, "Who in his days ever saw a red street-door?" Mr. Tallboy directed the panels to be coated in as many colours as there were compartments, until the laugh emphatically raised at his expense, resounded through the whole parish," Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis."

There was, however, one particular in which our zealous friend did