TH

HE following account of the sufferings of an individual by famine is worthy of record, if only to show how long abstinence is endurable, and what are the principle symptoms felt under its fearful infliction.

The siege of Manheim by the French took place early in the last war, and the relator of the circumstances was lately alive at Frankfort, in which city he had been for many years a resident. The narrative is given, as nearly as possible, in his own words. He was an agreeable lively man, fond of anecdote; and he diverted his friends with many interesting circumstances which occurred during the investment and after the capture of his native place. He told us that the boy Ernest, mentioned in the narrative, possessed the faculty of seeing the shells in the air after their projection from the French batteries, and that he was accustomed to call out, that people in the streets might take care of their descent; this warning, however, was useless, as until a missile had reached the ground, no one knew which way to run to avoid it. There were several individuals who were equally acute in vision among the besieged at the same time. But to the subject.

The siege had commenced, and the firing had begun to wax warm, so that the inhabitants were glad to avail themselves of any adequate shelter from its terrible effects. The batteries en recochet enfiladed every street, and the cellars of the houses became the only secure places of refuge. Thither most persons betook themselves, with what stock of provisions they could muster. These cellars were strongly arched over, and it was a rare circumstance that a bomb, after forcing through the roof and strong floors of a house in succession, had power enough left to penetrate the arches which covered them.

An unfortunate accident prevented my affording any aid to the

garrison in the defence, having broken my leg by a fall from the ramparts a day or two after the city was invested. I lived in a tolerably broad street, but much exposed to the enemy's shot, which frequently plunged along its whole range from end to end. Now and then a shell had fallen within a few yards of my door, and it became evident that it was no longer safe to remain above ground. I therefore caused a mattress or two to be removed into my cellars, together with a small quantity of food, some candles, necessaries, and a few books, and took up my abode there.

There were two cellars, each situated at the end of a vaulted passage. The second was occupied by my two female domestics; a lad named Ernest, about fourteen years of age, lived in one or the other, and ran backwards or forwards as circumstances or his own inclinations disposed him. About the centre of the arched passage, on the right hand side, was a flight of stone stairs, which led to the kitchen above. The boy Ernest was of a lively fearless disposition, and would frequently get weary of our subterranean residence, and run up to look out at the street-door, and sometimes venture towards the ramparts, whence he would contrive to bring us news of the state of affairs and mention what houses were ruined by the firing.

Matters had proceeded in the foregoing manner for a week or two after we had lived in our subterraneous apartments, when one morning the firing seemed to rage with redoubled violence, both within and without the defences. The earth around and above me shook with the explosions from the batteries, and I concluded some decisive attack was about to take place. My helpless situation, stretched upon my mattress or sitting up and supported with pillows, became doubly painful. At such a moment to be powerless and inert,

was peculiarly afflicting; and my reflections were not of the most agree able character. Ernest came to the door of the cellar about ten o'clock in the morning, for the last time, and told me he should go up and learn what the terrible loudness of the firing indicated. He left me and mounted to the kitchen above, which I could scarcely imagine he had crossed, before a noise and crash, loud as the loudest thunder, involved me at once in dust and darkness. I was at the corner of the cellar farthest from the entrance, and a load of rubbish choked up the doorway, extending some feet within the entrance of my abode. I immediately conjectured the cause; namely, that a shell had fallen upon the house and exploded on or broken through the arched passage at the entrance of the cellar, making me a prisoner.

When I had recovered a little from my surprise, I found the entrance hermetically sealed against ingress or égress; and what was, in my circumstances, equally dreadful, a tinderbox, candles, and a little store of provisions, which were just without the cellar-door in an excavation in the wall of the passage, were lost to me. I might have crawled thither from my mattress and secured them, but the masses of stone piled on each other forbade the most distant prospect of hope from any exertion of my own. I threw myself back in an agony of despair. In the confusion which reigned without, I must remain forgotten! All the horror of my situation came upon me at once, and my heart died within me. To add to my misfortune my candle was nearly burnt out;—with what feelings did I watch its glimmering in the socket! Its last flash was like the arrow of death passing through my heart. I now wept like a woman amid the darkness of my unseen abode, that was, as far as I could judge, to be my charnel-vault. Death from hunger was before me, with all its keenness of suffering. The dull and as it were remote sound of the guns from without, so different in in

tensity from what it had lately been, told me that the mass interposed between myself and the upper world must be very considerable. I felt my heart shrink up at the discovery of my situation. The hours lingered into ages; but it was long before the feeling of hunger affected me-so much was my mind occupied with apprehensions for the future, and filled with hopes and fears in continued ebb and flow. In groping around me I found two stale crusts of bread, and some water yet remained in a vessel by the side of my mattress. Both I used avariciously, yet at every mouthful my apprehension for the future increased, and a hundred times did I in vain feel around carefully for some other relic of food; I had, I then thought, no alternative but to die. Why should I fear to do so?— hundreds, perhaps thousands, were at the same moment dying above, but a short distance from me, in the violence of angry passions, and with horrible lacerations. I should go

out from life like a taper; and most probably the pains of such a death had been greatly exaggerated. Such were my self-comforts-refuges from despair.

I soon found a sensation of emptiness come over me, bordering upon faintness, similar to what many people feel who delay a meal to a very late hour. It appeared to me that my eyes were weak, and I fancied if I had had light near me that still I could have seen nothing distinctly. This sensation was accompanied by a tremor of the eyelids and a swimming in the head. I tried to relieve myself by giving way to sleep, the inclination for which came at times very strongly over me, but I could not gain more refreshment than a restless doze imparts, and this was always cut short by some horrible vision that prevented its affording me the least benefit. Now I thought I was seated at a splendid feast, where all that could attract the palate and delight the senses was before me. I was touching the richest viands-nay, actually lifting the envied morsel till

it touched my mouth, and its flavour was in my nostrils, when I was awoke by some hideous phantom snatching the untasted morsel from my shrivelled lips and dashing it away. Sometimes I found myself in a delicious island, where the finest fruits grew in nature's utmost prodigality; but, on tasting them, they were nauseous and sickening, mere soot and ashes; and if I sought to relieve my thirst from the pure limpid streams that ran in crystal among the luxurious scenery, I found them changed into bitter blood. Everything seemed to combine to mock my sufferings and edge my tortures. I was much afflicted by spasms and twitching sensations internally, as if the viscera were drawn together and expanded too suddenly. Hollow, aching, gnawing pains, as if my vitals were torn with pincers, frequently assailed me, but seemed to diminish in force from repetition. I strove with all my might to bear up with patience and resignation; and at times I subdued my bodily pain with my mind's energy; but alas! such periods were only of momentary duration. Drowsiness generally accompanied the cessation of pain, but it was only to make me start from hideous visions and tantalizing dreams. It seemed as if no recollections of my past life-no images but such as would distress me to the utmost, at such a moment, were ever recalled; such as they were, they appeared horribly vivid and true, torturing me like fiends, and rendering my mind an instrument of pain horrible as that where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

That absolute weakness which is the fruit of inanition in general, did not come over me for some days. It is true I had no opportunity of trying my strength; and I knew not what effect my recent accident might have had on my frame, in rendering it less or more capable of resistance to the approach of hunger. My mind seemed to me first susceptible of the advance of suffering, for my memory was very quickly impaired. All my

recollections seemed in disconnected links, or united with what had not the remotest affinity to each or either, as is often the case in a fevered dream. Almost intolerable restlessness of spirit at first accompanied my bodily torment, ending in deep depression of mind, and sighing, I poured forth my prayers to God incessantly; but they seemed to give little or no consolation. Instead of being followed by resignation (I am speaking of the early part of my suffering), I felt inclined to murmur the more at my destiny, and to task the justice of the Almighty in predestinating me to such a doom. Then my feelings would be converted into keen regret, or rather torment, for my murmuring. The prospect of death added weight to my mental anguish, and suddenly summoned before me, enlarging darkly in bulk, the sins of my past life, until they arose to be inaccessible barriers to the hope of eternal glory when my miserable existence on earth should have closed. I always rate the mental torment I endured on this occasion as equal to the bodily, during the time the body preserved the consistency of its functions. Afterwards the mind sunk down with it into a species of apathy no apprehension could rouse. In that dreadful state I demanded of heaven if my terrible sufferings would not propitiate my sins-whether heaven, that had so permitted agony to be heaped upon my head, would not balance it against my offences towards its majesty! Thus I prayed or murmured. Reason seldom aided me. I was the victim of suffering's impulses, and was cast upon wild fancies, enjoying no repose.

This stage of my trial soon had its end: I had no mode of computing time, for the hands of my watch were invisible from the darkness; I knew that it concluded just after I had finished the last drop of my water. The absence of this beverage, though I had made it last me as long as I could, produced a rapid change in my sensations; this I well recollect.

My

I began to feel fainter and more weak, and my limbs grew painfully cold. Shiverings now and then came over me; and my mind, contrary to what had happened before, seemed to have by far the advantage of the body. I was conscious of delirium at times, and of demoniacal dreams, but at intervals I was more composed, and suffered little pain, but inexorable debility. The viscera seemed to me diminished, and all energy in them extinct, feeling like a dead mass, and as if those of a dead disembowelled animal had been placed within me instead of my own. giddiness of head increased, together with the spasms and faintness. I am certain, too, that about this time I became totally blind, at least such is my firm impression. I found, too, that in my paroxysms of delirium I had attempted to gnaw my arms, but the laceration was not deep, simply from the want of physical power to penetrate the muscle with my relaxed jaws. When, O God, will my agonies end?" was my frequent sigh, for I was too weak for an articulate ejaculation. I seemed to have forgotten words, even to myself, as I found when I tried to pray: I could not connect what I would say, I can well remember. At length a repose, which seemed the forerunner of speedy death, came upon me, though still sensible, but powerless as a corpse. I looked for my deliverance by death with unconcern. impression that, while lying in this state, I heard the sound of artillery, but I cannot be certain, any more

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than I can tell how long it was before I became wholly insensible.

My next recollection of myself is a painful one. I was I could not guess where. Strange voices were around me, and I could not see the speakers, from utter want of vision. The horrible debility I felt in body, combined with the activity of my mind dur ing my resuscitation, was unspeakably painful-so much so that the recollection almost overpowers me at times even now. It appeared that Ernest had escaped the effects of a thirteen-inch shell, which burst over the passage to the cellar and broke in the arch. The siege grew warmer, and the city was taken. When matters were a little quiet, the faithful lad did not fail to implore all be met in my behalf. A humane French officer ordered a search to be made, and I was found, apparently lifeless, stretched on my mattress. To the care of a French surgeon I also owe my recovery and the power of now relating my sufferings. That recovery was slow. I had endured a fasting of nine entire days. I am six feet high and proportionally stout; when found, a boy could have carried me on his back, and I seemed shrunk to the lowest stature, a mere cage of bone and skin. Nothing of inconvenience remains to me now from this my severe trial, save now and then, a dream of horrible vividness, which comes upon me whenever I suffer from feverishness or indigestion, and fearfully recalls the past.

their taste and fragrance. Many of them seem to follow the course of the sun; and it is remarkable, that plants which are usually kept in the house, appear, as it were, solicitous to get at the light. Those, again, which are placed entirely in the shade, are pale and colourless, and hence some gardeners avail them

selves of this fact to render vegetables white and tender. The more plants are exposed to the light, the more brilliant their colours. From this cause, we find that hot climates are the native countries of perfumes, odoriferous fruits, aromatic spices, &c. The action of light upon the organs of vegetables, causes them to throw out streams of pure air, while they are exposed to the sun; but when, on the contrary, they have been long in the shade, air of a noxious quality is emitted.

Animals who are deprived of light for a long period, generally droop, become sickly, lose the brightness of colour which their coats had previously possessed, and ultimately die. Nor can it be questioned that light is of the utmost importance to the health of human beings. Birds that inhabit the southern, or tropical climates, have a much greater brilliancy of plumage than those of the northern; and the same is equally true with regard to insects.

Another strong proof that light conduces much towards the colours of substances, may be seen in fishes; for we find that those parts of fish which are exposed to the light, such as the back, fins, &c. are invariably coloured; whereas the belly, which is deprived of light, is white in all of them.

All metallic oxydes, but especially those of mercury, bismuth, lead, silver, and gold, acquire a deeper colour by exposure to the rays of the sun; some of them become perfectly revived, others only partially. The yellow oxyde of tungsten, if exposed to the light, loses in weight, and turns blue. Again, the green precipitate of iron, when exposed to the solar light, becomes also blue.

Light has likewise a very considerable influence upon the crystalli sation of salts. Indeed, some of them will not crystallise at all, except they be exposed to the light. Camphor, kept in glass bottles, usually crystallises in symmetrical fig. ures, upon that side of the phial which has been so exposed.

There are certain bodies which, after exposure to the light, appear to combine therewith, and afterwards to emit it when put in the dark. Several substances of this nature have been prepared by chemists, as the phosphorus of Canton, Baldwin, Homberg, and the Bolognian phosphorus.

Various animals and vegetables appear to have this phosphoric property; among others, the glow-worm is a remarkable instance. Dead fish, rotten sea-weeds, putrid bodies, and a vast number of insects, appear also to possess this property in greater or less degrees.

THE HE morning mists had disappeared, and the sun had burst forth with unusual brilliancy, its bright rays reflected in the beautiful stream that meanders through Elmwood Park, as I paused at an open window to bid a long adieu to the scenery around, and to the home which I loved. It was, in truth, a beautiful prospect; and I remained gazing intently upon it, until, aroused by hearing the gentle accents of a female voice in an adjacent room, I recollected that I was about to of fer my congratulations to my cousin,

Adelaide Manvers, on her bridal morning, and to bid her a long and perhaps an eternal farewell. My heart beat tumultuously as I entered her apartment; but a strong effort enabled me to subdue my agitation. I approached Adelaide, and, placing a diadem of pearls beside her, I expressed, in a few words, my sincere wishes for her happiness. "But, why will you leave us, Horace ?" said the sweet girl; surely you can remain with us one day longer ?" and she looked earnestly at me, while a deep blush spread itself over