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How massively doth awful Nature pile The living rock, like some cathedral aisle Sacred to silence and the solemn sea! 'How that clear pool lies sleeping tranquilly! And under its glassed surface seems to smile,

With many hues, a mimic grove the while, Of foliage submarine, shrub, flower and tree. Beautiful scene, and fitted to allure

The printless footsteps, of some sea-born maid,

Who here, with her green tresses disarrayed,

'Mid the clear bath, unfearing and secure, May sport at noontide in the caverned shade, Cold as the shadow, as the waters pure.

THOMAS DOUBLEDAY.

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THERE

JEALOUSY.

HERE is another devil that haunts
marriage

(None fondly loves but knows it), jealousy,
That wedlock's yellow sickness,
That whispers separation every minute,
And thus the curse takes his effect or prog-

ress.

The most of men, in their first sudden furies,
Rail at the narrow bounds of marriage,
And call 't a prison; then it is most just
That the disease of the prison, jealousy,
Should thus affect 'em, but-oh, here I'm
fixed!-

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Alas! what winds can happy prove
That bear me far from what I love?
Alas! what dangers on the main
Can equal those that I sustain
From slighted vows and cold disdain?
Be gentle, and in pity choose
To wish the wildest tempest loose,
That, thrown again upon the coast
Where first my shipwrecked heart was
lost,

To make sale of a wife! Monstrous and I may once more repeat my pain,
foul!

An act abhorred in nature, cold in soul!

Once more in dying notes complain
Of slighted vows and cold disdain.

THOMAS MIDDLETON.

MATTHEW PRIOR.

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THE PURLOINED LETTER.

T Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18-, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum in company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin in his little back library, or book closet, au troisième, No. 33 Rue Dunôt, Faubourg St. Germain. For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence, while each, to any casual observer, might have seemed intently and exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for conversation between us at an earlier period of the evening: I mean the affair of the Rue Morgue and the mystery attending the murder of Marie Rogêt. I looked upon it, therefore, as something of a coincidence when the door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old acquaintance, Monsieur G, the prefect of the Parisian police. We gave him a hearty welcome, for there was nearly half as much of the entertaining as of the contemptible about the man, and we had not seen him for several years.

We had been sitting in the dark, and Dupin now arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again, without

doing so, upon G- 's saying that he had called to consult us, or rather to ask the opinion of my friend, about some official business which had occasioned a great deal of trouble.

"If it is any point requiring reflection," observed Dupin, as he forbore to enkindle the wick, "we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark."

"That is another of your odd notions," said the prefect, who had a fashion of calling everything "odd" that was beyond his comprehension, and thus lived amid an absolute legion of "oddities."

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"What nonsense you do talk!" replied the prefect, laughing heartily.

"Be a little more explicit," I said. 'Well, I may venture so far as to say

Perhaps the mystery is a little too plain," that the paper gives its holder a certain in a certain quarter where such

power in a

said Dupin. "Oh, good heavens! who ever heard of power is immensely valuable.” The presuch an idea?"

"A little too self-evident."

"Ha! ha ha! Ha! ha! ha! Ho! ho! ho!" roared our visitor, profoundly amused. "Oh, Dupin, you will be the death of me yet.'

fect was fond of the cant of diplomacy. "Still I do not quite understand," said Dupin.

"No? Well, the disclosure of the document to a third person, who shall be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a

"And what, after all, is the matter on personage of most exalted station, and this hand?" I asked.

fact gives the holder of the document an aspre-cendancy over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are so jeopardized.'

Why, I will tell you," replied the fect as he gave a long, steady and contemplative puff and settled himself in his chair -"I will tell you in a few words; but before I begin let me caution you that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I should most probably lose the position I now hold were it known that I confided it to any one. "Proceed," said I.

"Or not," said Dupin.

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Well, then, I have received personal information from a very high quarter that a certain document of the last importance has been purloined from the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it is knownthis beyond a doubt: he was seen to take it. It is known, also, that it still remains in his possession."

"How is this known?" asked Dupin.

"It is clearly inferred," replied the prefect, "from the nature of the document and from the non-appearance of certain results which would at once arise from its passing out of the robber's possession-that is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to employ it."

"But this ascendancy," I interposed, "would depend upon the robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber. Who would dare-"

man.

"The thief," said G, "is the minister D- who dares all things-those unbecoming as well as those becoming a The method of the theft was not less ingenious than bold. The document in question-a letter, to be frank-had been received by the personage robbed while alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal she was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the other exalted personage from whom especially it was her wish to conceal it. After a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it in a drawer, she was forced to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The address, however, was uppermost, and, the contents thus unexposed, the letter escaped notice. At this juncture enters the minister D. His lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the address, observes the confusion of the personage ad

After

dressed and fathoms her secret. some business transactions, hurried through in his ordinary manner, he produces a letter somewhat similar to the one in question, opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it in close juxtaposition to the other. Again he converses for some fifteen minutes upon the public affairs. At length, in taking leave, he takes also from the table the letter to which he had no claim. Its rightful owner saw, but, of course, dared not call attention to, the act, in the presence of the third personage, who stood at her elbow. The minister decamped, leaving his own letter-one of no importance-upon the table."

Here, then," said Dupin to me, "you have precisely what you demand to make the ascendancy complete - the robber's knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber."

"Yes," replied the prefect; "and the power thus attained has for some months past been wielded for political purposes to a very dangerous extent. The personage robbed is more thoroughly convinced every day of the necessity of reclaiming her letter, but this, of course, cannot be done openly. In fine, driven to despair, she has committed the matter to me.'

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"Than whom," said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, "no more sagacious agent could, I suppose, be desired, or even imagined."

"You flatter me," replied the prefect; "but it is possible that some such opinion may have been entertained."

"It is clear," said I, "as you observe, that the letter is still in the possession of the minister, since it is this possession, and not any employment of the letter, which

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But," said I, "you are quite au fait in these investigations. The Parisian police. have done this thing often before."

"Oh yes, and for this reason I did not despair. The habits of the minister gave me, too, a great advantage. He is frequently absent from home all night. His servants are by no means numerous. They sleep at a distance from their master's apartment, and, being chiefly Neapolitans, are readily made drunk. I have keys, as you know, with which I can open any chamber or cabinet in Paris. For three months a night has not passed during the greater part of which I have not been engaged personally in ransacking the D-hôtel. My honor is interested, and, to mention a great secret, the reward is enormous; so I did not abandon the search until I had become fully satisfied that the thief is a more astute man than myself. I fancy that I have investigated every nook and corner of the premises in which it is possible that the paper can be concealed."

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"The present peculiar condition of affairs at court, and especially of those intrigues in which D is known to be involved, would render the instant availability of the document-its susceptibility of being produced at a moment's notice-a point of nearly equal importance with its posses

sion.'

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ment. We opened every possible drawer, and I presume you know that to a properly-trained police-agent such a thing as as secret drawer is impossible. Any man is a dolt who permits a 'secret' drawer to escape him in a search of this kind. The thing is so plain. There is a certain amount of bulk -of space to be accounted for in every

"Its susceptibility of being produced?" cabinet. Then we have accurate rules. said I.

The fiftieth part of a line could not es

"That is to say, of being destroyed," said cape us. After the cabinets we took the Dupin. chairs. The cushions we probed with the fine long needles you have seen me employ. From the tables we removed the tops."

"True," I observed; "the paper is clearly, then, upon the premises. As for its being upon the person of the minister, we may consider that as out of the question."

"Entirely," said the prefect. "He had been twice waylaid as if by footpads, and his person rigorously searched under my own inspection."

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"Sometimes the top of a table or other similarly arranged piece of furniture is removed by the person wishing to conceal an article; then the leg is excavated, the article "You might have spared yourself this deposited within the cavity and the top retrouble," said Dupin. “D—, I presume, placed. I presume, placed. The bottoms and tops of bed-posts is not altogether a fool, and, if not, must are employed in the same way." have anticipated these waylayings as a matter of course."

"Not altogether a fool," said G-," but then he's a poet, which I take to be only one remove from a fool."

"True," said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his meerschaum, "although I have been guilty of certain doggerel myself."

"But could not the cavity, be detected by sounding?" I asked.

By no means, if, when the article is deposited, a sufficient wadding of cotton be placed around it. Besides, in our case, we were obliged to proceed without noise."

"But you could not have removed—you could not have taken to pieces-all articles of furniture in which it would have been

Suppose you detail," said I, "the par- possible to make a deposit in the manner ticulars of your search."

Why, the fact is we took our time, and we searched everywhere. I have had long experience in these affairs. I took the entire building room by room, devoting the nights of a whole week to each. We examined first the furniture of each apart

you mention. A letter may be compressed into a thin spiral roll not differing much in shape or bulk from a large knitting-needle, and in this form it might be inserted into the rung of a chair, for example. You did not take to pieces all the chairs?"

"Certainly not, but we did better: we

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