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At length being loosed from those hateful and insufferable bonds, she pretended to dissemble her sorrow, and so far prevailed on her attendants, as to be permitted to visit her dead husband in his tomb.

It was an old burying-place belonging to her family, and there some poor surviving citizen had carried the body of Baptista, all covered over with wounds. Upon entering this gloomy mansion, with a lamp in her hand, she quickly saw the dead body, and hanging over it for some time in silent agony, at length she broke forth into the most passionate exclamations, calling out upon the corpse that was stretched before her, to lend some pity, to look upon her forlorn situation, and to regard the most miserable wretch that ever enjoyed the light; in this manner she continued for some time, when, hearing the trampling of her attendants' feet coming to take her away, with all the force she possessed, she pulled the ponderous tomb stone down upon her, which, falling, crushed her to death in an instant; and thus she found a common grave with the dear object of all her affections. The same stone still continues to cover this brave and constant couple, and was shown to travellers, previous to the invasion of the French, as a melancholy and conspicuous object of curiosity.

POLUS, THE ACTOR.

When this famous tragedian was to play such a part as required to be represented with remarkable passion, he privily brought in the urn and bones of his dead son, whereby he so excited his own passion, and was moved to deliver himself with that efficacy both in words and gesture, that he filled the whole theatre with unfeigned lamentations and tears.

EXEMPLARY PROBITY IN SAVAGE LIFE.

The Ostiacks, a people of that part of Siberia which borders upon Samoieda, bear the common appellation given to the natives of those countries -that of Savages: yet are these savages distinguished by uncorrupted morals: theft and perjury are unknown to them; and they keep inviolable their engagements. Of this singular probity, a Swedish officer relates the following remarkable instances. "In 1792, I set out from Cransnojarsk, on the river Jenisa, accompanied only by a Swedish servant, about 15 years old. Deserted by the Russian guide whom the commandant had given me, I found myself obliged to traverse alone, with this lad, those vast countries inhabited by Pagans only. I lodged in their huts, and they gave me every accommodation in their power. The small stock of furs I had remained in an open tent, inhabited by a numerous family; and I did not lose the most trifling article. I shall mention another instance of the great integrity of these people. A Russian merchant, travelling from Tobolski to Borisow, took up his quarters for the night in an Ostiack hut. The next day he lost, at some distance from his lodging, a purse containing 100 roubles. The very son of the man from whom he had received such hospitable treatment, returning one day from hunting, happened to pass by the spot on which the purse had fallen; but he saw it, without attempting to take it up. When he returned to his hut, he only observed, that on his way home, he had seen a purse full of silver, and that he had left it there. His father instantly sent him back to the place, and ordered him to cover the purse with earth, and

some branches of trees, to secret it from the eyes of travellers, that the owner might find his property on the same spot, if ever he came back to inquire for it. The purse remained in that place for three months. The Russian, on his return from Borisow, lodged again in the hut of the same hospitable Ostiack, and informed him of the misfortune he had met with in losing his the purse very day that he had left him. Ah!' answered the Ostiack, it is you then that have lost a purse! Well, make yourself easy; my son shall conduct you to the place where it is, and you may pick it up yourself.' The merchant went accordingly, and found his purse on the very spot where he had dropped it."

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INTREPID CONDUCT OF ADMIRAL DOUGLAS.

During the last disgraceful mutiny in the navy, this admiral commanded the Stately, of 64 guns; he was on shore, dining with Governor Brook, at St. Helena, when his first officer told him, that a ship had arrived from England, and informed the Stately of the mutiny, in consequence of which his men had come and demanded the command of the ship. The admiral received the intelligence very coolly, and as the ship was under the guns of the forts, and the sails unbent, he said to the governor, "I will go immediately on board, and if in fifteen minutes after I am in the ship they do not return to their duty, you will fire on her; for better that I go down with the ship than the men command her." This spirited determination he made known to the men, and added, if the ringleaders were not given up unconditionally, they knew what they were to expect. The fifteen minutes expired, and the fort began to fire; and thus ended the mutiny in those seas, by the intrepid conduct of one man. The ringleaders were given up, and two or three of them hanged.

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DREADFUL ACCOUNT OF CANNIBALISM.

Van Dieman's Land.

On July the 6th, 1824, Alexander Pierce, from his depraved and wicked conduct, was found guilty, before a Bench of Magistrates held at the Courthouse in Hobart Town, and transported to the penal settlement of Macquarie Harbour.

An important advantage which attends the establishment at Macquarie Harbour, as a place of secondary transportation, is the certainty that the persons sent thither cannot, with any possibility, escape by land, so completely shut in is it by the surrounding rugged, closely wooded, and altogether impracticable country. Notwithstanding those difficulties, in November, Alexander Pierce, and several misguided men, eight in number, attempted to escape; but two returned (named Brown and Dalton,) to the settlement, after an absence of sixteen days, and an ineffectual effort to pass the mountains, so far exhausted for want of food, that they died in the hospital a few days after. These men stated, that previous to their leaving the others, a man named Cornelius, had been killed to afford sustenance to the rest. It has turned out, that Alexander Pierce was the only survivor that reached the Eastern settlements, and gave out that his unfortunate companions had died, and that some were drowned in crossing the stream. He was punished, and again sent to the penal settlement, from whence he attempted a second escape

with Thomas Cox, whom he murdered. Upon being apprehended, he acknowledged he had subsisted, during his first departure and absence, upon the remaining unfortunate men before alluded to, and which dreadful circumstance is more fully explained in the following confession made by him in the gaol, to Mr. Birder, the Keeper, the evening before his execution.

"I was born in the County of Fermanagh, in the North of Ireland. In the 26th year of my age, I was convicted of stealing six pair of shoes, and received sentence to be transported for seven years; I arrived in Van Dieman's Land, on board the ship Castle Forbes, from Sidney; was assigned as a servant to John Bellinger, with whom I remained about nine months; was then from misconduct, returned to the Government Superintendent. A few months after, I was assigned to a man named Cane, a constable, and staid with him only sixteen weeks, when an occasion obliged him to take me before the Magistrates, who ordered that I should receive fifty lashes, in the usual way, and again be returned to Crown labour. Afterwards I was placed to serve a Mr. Scattergood, of New Norfolk, from whom I absconded into the woods, and joined Langton, Saunders, Latten, and Atkinson, who were then at large; staid with them three months, and surrendered myself by a proclamation, issued by the Lieut. Governor; and was pardoned. Shortly afterwards I forged several orders, upon which I obtained property. On hearing the fraud was discovered, I was again induced to take to the woods. But, after three or four months, I was taken by a party of the 48th regiment, brought to Hobart Town, tried for the forgeries, found guilty, and sent to the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour for the remainder of my sentence. I was not there more than a month, before I made my escape with seven others, namely, Dalton, Traverse, Badman, Mathews, Greenhill, Brown, and Cornelius. We kept together for ten days, during which time we had no food but our kangaroo skin jackets, which we ate, being nearly exhausted with hunger and fatigue. On the eleventh night, we began to consult what was best to be done for our preservation, and made up our minds to a dreadful result.

"In the morning we missed three of our companions, Dalton, Cornelius, and Brown, whom we concluded had left us with the intention of going back if possible. We then drew cuts which of us five should die; it fell to Badman's lot; I went with one of the others to collect dry wood, to make a fire, during which time Traverse had succeeded in killing Badman, and had begun to cut him up. We dressed part of the flesh immediately, and continued to use it as long as it lasted. We then drew cuts again, and it fell to the fate of Mathews; Traverse and Greenhill killed him with an axe, cut the flesh from his bones, carried it on, and lived upon it as long as it lasted. By the time it was all eat, Traverse through fatigue fell lame in his knee, so much so that he could not proceed; Greenhill proposed that I should kill him, which I agreed to. We then made the best of our way, carrying the flesh of Traverse between us, in the hope of reaching the Eastern settlements while it lasted. We did not, however, succeed, and I perceived Greenhill always carried the axe, and thought he watched an opportunity to kill me. I was always on my guard, and succeeded, when he fell asleep, to get the axe, with which I immediately despatched him, made a meal, and carried the remaining flesh with me to feed upon. To my great disappointment, I was afterwards many days without food, and subsisted solely upon grass and nettle-tops, which I boiled in a tin pot that I brought with me from the settlement. At length I fell in with some natives' huts, which, from appearance, the inmates

had just left, where I collected some entrails and bits of kangaroo, which afforded me a meal. Two days afterwards, when nearly exhausted, I came in sight of a hut, which proved to be M'Guire's, near the High Plains. I staid there a fortnight, and made up my mind to surrender myself to Captain Wood, a magistrate on the river Clyde, but on my way thither I met Davis and Churton, who were then desperadoes, and living at the Shannon hut. They wished me to join them, to which I agreed. In a few weeks we were all taken near Jericho by a party of the 48th regiment, and brought into Hobart Town Gaol: Churton and Davis were tried, found guilty of capital offences, and suffered death. It was my fate to be returned to the penal settlement. I again made my escape with Thomas Cox, who eagerly pressed my departure. I had irons on at the time; when we had proceeded some distance, Cox knocked them off with an axe he had brought with him, and we made the best of our way through a thick scrub, which was very wet. At night we tried to make a fire, but could not. We travelled on several days without food, except the tops of trees and shrubs, until we came to King's River: I asked Cox if he could swim; he replied he could not; I remarked that had I been aware of it he should not have been my companion; we were enabled to make a fire; the arrangement for crossing the river created words, and I killed Cox with the axe; I ate part of him that night, and cut the greatest part of his flesh up, in order to take on with me. I swam the river with the intention of keeping the coast round to Port Dalrymple, my heart failed me, and I resolved to return and give myself up to the Commandant. I threw most of the flesh away, but one piece, which I carried in my pocket to shew the Commandant that Cox was dead. I confessed that I killed him, and accompanied a party in a boat to bring up his remains, which was done. I was then sent up to Hobart Town, confined in the prison to take my trial in the Criminal Court; the result is now universally known here.-Gaol, 20th June, 1824."

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

In the year 1771, a young man fell from the upper gallery of Covent Garden Theatre into the pit; his fall was broken by a large chandelier, valued at fifty pounds, which was dashed in pieces, and he reached the ground without a fractured limb, or any other injury of consequence.

REMARKABLE SUICIDE.

Madame Auguié having been personally attached to the late Queen of France, expected to suffer under the execrable tyranny of Robespierre. She often declared to her sister, Madame Campan, that she never would wait the execution of the order of arrest, and that she was determined to die rather than fall into the hands of the executioner. Madame Campan endeavoured, by the principles of morality and philosophy, to persuade her sister to abandon this desperate resolution; and in her last visit, as if she had foreseen the fate of this unfortunate woman, she added, "Wait the future with resignation, some fortunate occurrence may turn aside the fate you fear, even at the moment you may believe the danger to be greatest." Soon afterwards the guards appeared before the house where Madame Auguié resided, to take

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TERRIFIC REGISTER.

her to prison. Firm in her resolution to avoid the ignominy of execution, she ran to the top of the house, threw herself from the balcony, and was taken up dead. As they were carrying her corpse to the grave, the attendants were obliged to turn aside to let pass-the cart which conveyed Robespierre to the scaffold!

FATAL MISFORTUNE, AND SINGULAR INSTANCE OF AFFECTION
IN A HORSE.

"A short time ago, Mr. Ellar, of Oswaldkirk, and Mr. R. Marshall, son of Mr. Marshall, of East Newton, near Helmsley, being on a visit to Mr. Hessletine, of Hambleton, and having spent a pleasant day, the latter intimated his intention of returning home that night, having promised to do so on account of his mother's indisposition. Fearless of danger, and little thinking it would be for the last time, he bade them good night and rode off. On the afternoon of the next day, Mr. Ellar returned, and called at Mr. Marshall's to enquire how his friend got home and how he was after his journey. Young Marshall's absence beyond the time fixed for his return had created some little uneasiness; but the effect of these enquiries of his friend and the companion of his visit, can scarcely be conceived; it was natural to indulge alarm; and alas! their Persons were dispatched in every forebodings were more than realized. direction in search of him, but the family were kept in suspence another night. Intelligence of his being missed had reached Hambleton House; from whence, early on Tuesday morning, a party set out to examine every possible place of danger, and before they had proceeded a quarter of a mile, they discovered his horse standing over him, at the bottom of a precipice from twenty to thirty yards in height, over which they had fallen. The force with which he had come to the ground had made an impression upon it, and from it was thought he had never moved after his fall, but had the appearances, died instantly. One circumstance deserves remark: the party who found him attempted to lead the horse from the place in a direction the most easy of ascent; from its unwillingness or inability they could not succeed, but on their ascending the steep with its master, who had been placed in a sheepIt was at first surmised that this box for that purpose, it immediately followed him, and on reaching the summit dropped down dead beside him. melancholy accident had been occasioned by intemperance, but it appeared clearly in evidence before the Coroner, that the report was unfounded, and that the accident had been altogether owing to the extreme darkness of the very intricate and unprotected nature of the roads across those night, and the dreary heights."-York Courant.

FRENCH GRATITUDE.

A wine merchant, residing in the Dom-Platx, at Saltzburg, infected with revolutionary principles, and wishing to ingratiate himself into favour with the French, gave them a hearty welcome, and on their arrival presented them with several hogsheads of wine, for which he would receive no recompence. This act of liberality was appreciated as it deserved. When the enemy were compelled to quit the town, they returned the kindness of the wine merchant by staving several hogsheads of wine and overflowing the streets with their

contents.

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