In

which was hung round their necks. This stone was usually in the shape of a bottle. At Hamburg, libellers and slanderers were compelled to stand on a block, and strike themselves three times on the mouth as a sign of repentance. This custom still existed thirty or forty years ago. some towns the "shameful stone was in the shape of a loaf, whence the German saying, "a heavy bit of bread" (ein schwerer bissen brod). At Lübeck it was in the shape of an oval dish; and in other places in that of a woman putting out her tongue. Such stones were usually very heavy according to the law of Dortmund and Halberstadt (1348), they were to weigh a hundred weight. Those who were wealthy, could purchase exemption from this punishment with a bag full of hops tied with a red ribbon.

THE most likely successor to the present pope is, says the Gazzetta d'Italia of Florence, Cardinal Antonio Maria Panebianco, of the order of St. Francis. He was born at Terranuova, in Sicily, on the 14th of August, 1808, and was made cardinal by Pius IX. in the consistory of the 27th of September, 1861. He has always professed great admiration for Pope Sixtus V., whose life was his favorite study, and in whose cell he lived. One day, while in a reverie, he suddenly heard a knock at his door, and a voice told him that he would be a cardinal. This announcement did not surprise him: he merely replied, "Lo sapevo ;" and he will, says the Gazzetta, doubtless say the same when he learns that he has been elected pope. Cardinal Panebianco once swore before Canova's monument to Clement XIV., that he would restore the order of the Jesuits to its former greatness; and this is said to be the great object of his life. He is the intimate friend of Father Beckx, the general of the order, but, like his model, Sixtus V., he is excessively reserved, carefully concealing from every one his intentions for the future. He praises the syllabus, and defends the principle of infallibility with extraordinary skill and theofogical knowledge. As for Pius IX., he has thoroughly believed in the cardinal since a young Italian girl prophesied, some twenty years ago, that the next pope would be a monk of the order of St. Francis. Mystical," concludes the Gazzetta, "as Savonarola, Panebianco is the slave of a mediæval Utopia, which moves him to revive the church of the thirteenth century; and the society of Jesus, which does not believe in mysticism, regards him with anxiety, not quite knowing whether he is a friend or an enemy."

66

ance.

66

This

THE guide book to Trouville gives a description of the villa which M. Thiers has chosen for his residence. severe and elegant structure," half-way up the heights of Hennequeville, and near the road to Honfleur, occupies a fascinating situation, from which, indeed, the village of dancing and bathing presents its most charming appearFrom the outside the villa of M. Cordier is a treasure of architecture, a harmonious combination of brick, carved wood, perrons, and balconies, to which the manor house of Louis XIII.'s time, the Italian palace, the Swiss châlet, have contributed their beauties. The interior is the mansion of a nobleman, the sanctuary of an artist. Through the windows you pass into the grounds, and admire the mighty panorama which includes the ocean, the bay of Havre, the hillsides of Ingouville, La Héve, the verdure and winding river of the vale of Touques, and between the mountains, the sites of Cabourg, Dives, and the littoral of Caen. The interior of the Chalet Cordier, luxuriously but tastefully decorated in the style of the Renaissance, is rich in pictures, and in a collection of objects of art. Especially to be noticed are a Florentine cabinet of the sixteenth century, in the entrance-hall, and, in the library, modern vases and ancient bronzes, together with relics of the Roman era from Lisieux. There are Byzantine crosses, works of art by Fragonard, Chardin, Ribera, a Magdalene by Benedetto, and ancient Gothic panelling emblazoned, with the arms of the Norman barons who followed Robert Short-hose to the crusades. In the fine English garden which surrounds the châlet grows the rare plant, Vicia Bithynica, discovered in 1850 by M. Durand-Duquesney. It may be added that, by a singular coincidence, M. Cremieux, the predecessor of M.

Thiers in the first place of the Republic, usually passes the summer in a house belonging to him at the foot of the hill on which M. Thiers resides.

ALBOIN'S FEAST.

A BALLAD.

"NINE times last midnight I heard the hoarse raven ;
Thrice the wind-spirits, methought, called me craven;
Three times three nights have I dreamed of him, dreamed of
him:

Burnt in with fire all my memories seemed of him.
'Beautiful daughter!' he whispered: 'nay, rather
Queen of the Longobards, smile on thy father!
For, lo! I see looming thy tyrant's last hour;
And thou hast a will, and thou shalt have a power.""
'Ay! but,' I said, 'he is stronger than I.'
Grant me, great Odin! revenge ere I die;
For Kunimund's blood crieth,

'Rosamund! Rosamund!"’

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WHITE'S SPECIALTY FOR DYSPEPSIA will effect a cure if tried faithfully.

the gardener, whom she saw in the distance wheeling away a great load of dead leaves, which he had collected into a heap, and pressed into his barrow. She was about to call the man to her, and compliment him on the state of his garden, at the same time taking advantage of the opportunity of asking a few questions about his employer, when a little girl, with long, fair hair streaming down her back, ran out of the shrubbery, in chase of an india-rubber ball which bounded before her.

Pauline drew back for an instant, but the child did not notice her, so engrossed was she by her game. In a few minutes, however, the ball bounded over the hedge, and fell at Pauline's feet.

The child looked round for aid, which was generally available in the person of the gardener; but the gardener had wheeled his barrow out of sight by this time; and all that the child could do, therefore, was to put her finger to her lip, and burst into tears.

"Don't cry, my child," said Pauline, softly, speaking to her.

The child looked up; but on catching sight of Pauline hid her face in her hands, and cried more copiously than before.

"Don't cry, my child," repeated Pauline. "Don't be afraid. See: here is your ball," holding it up. "Shall I throw it to you?"

"Ess," said the child, looking up shyly through her fingers: "trow it down at wonst, pease."

"No: me mamma's at home; been teaching me my 'cripture 'istory." "What a kind, good mamma!" said Pauline, with curling lip. "And what is your mamma's name, dear?"

"Misse C'axton, 'Ose Tottage, 'Endon, Mid'sex," said the child, all in a breath: the sentence being evidently the result of much practice.

Mrs. Claxton: the wife of the man at whose request Mr. Calverley had given the two thousand pounds to Tom Durham! Ah! how Pauline's heart bounded, and how the color flushed into her swarthy cheeks. at hearing those words! She had been right, then: the instinct that so seldom deserted her had served her truly in this instance. She had felt all along that the secret business on which Martin Gurwood had been engaged had some reference to her affairs; and now she had proved it!

Out of her great blue eyes the child stared in silence for some moments; then, coming closer to the hedge, she said, still staring earnestly, "Are you a Hinjin?"

Pauline was completely puzzled. "A what, child?" she asked. "A Hinjin," repeated the child. "Do you tum from Hinjia? "Gr—r. rand Dieu!" cried Pauline, surprised into one of the exclamations of her old life. 66 No, child: what makes you think that?" "Tos you have dot a brack face, and you speak so funny," said the child.

Pauline smiled. "A black face!" she said to herself. "I am swarthy enough, I know; but if this child thinks me black, she must needs have lived with very fair people. She seems sufficiently intelligent, and may probably be able to give me some information. What is your name, my dear?" she said to the child.

66

Bell," said the child promptly. "Bell," repeated Pauline: "what a pretty name,- blonde et belle. What is your other name, my dear?"

The child thought for a moment, and then said gravely "Lickle Bell."

interview on business matters with the wife of her dead husband's partner? Stay though! with the partner, yes; but the child had said that Mr. Claxton was away travelling on business. Pauline knew of her own knowledge that Mrs. Calverley had never seen Mr. Claxton, much less his wife; and recognized at once that, had business been the object of the interview, it was Mr. Jeffreys who would have been despatched to seek an interview with the partner, and not Mr. Gurwood to see the wife. The mystery still remained in fullest force, and had yet to be elucidated by her.

Of what more use could the child be to her?-the child, who, seeing her newly-found friend immersed in her own thoughts, had again turned to her ball. There might be still some more information to be obtained; and Pauline would try and gain it.

"And so your papa is not at home?" she commenced.

"Tavelling on 'ail'oad," said the child, making the ball bound again.

"And your mamma is all alone?" "Not all alone now: gemply tum. Mamma thought it was papa, and me got off 'cripture 'istory. Me saw it was strange gemply, and run off wif my ball.'

fore?"

"Me never saw him before: me wish he would always tum at lesson-time."

"And how long has your papa been away from home?"

"Two, free weeks: two, free months. Me frow my ball to you, and you frow me back again."

As she spoke, the ball came bounding across the hedge. Pauline took it up, and threw it back to the child.

"Do you know Mr. Calverley, dear?" she asked, as Bell stood with the ball in her hand, ready to launch it at her again.

"Misse Calverley?" repeated the child. "Me not know him: me know Dr. Broadbent, what brings nassie powders in his pocket."

"You don't know Mr. Calverley?" "No: me not know Misse Calverley. Me go and get George to play at ball," she added, after a moment's pause, finding that there was no more amusement to be had from her newly-found friend, and running away after the gardener.

Pauline watched the child disappear in the shrubbery: then, folding her arms across her breast, fell into her old habit of walking to and fro to think out the emotions under which she was laboring.

Perhaps she had deceived herself, after all: perhaps her fertile br in had been conjuring up, and given life and name to, a set of phantoms. There w s no evidence to connect this Mrs. Cl xton with the pale-faced woman whom she had seen at Southampton; who might have been a mere emissary of Tom's, employed by him to get the money, and bring it to him there. It seemed impossible that the wife of such a man as Mr. Claxton, who was on all sides represented to be a partner in the house of Calverley & Co., could descend to such a position; it seemed impossible that She stopped in her walk, motionless and transfixed.

She had been looking at the house; and at one of the lower windows, a large French window opening on to the grounds, she suddenly saw the figure of a woman. She recognized it in an instant: recognized it as the pale-faced woman whom she had seen walking to and fro on the rai way platform at Southampton with Tom Durham, and of whom he had taken such an affectionate farewell; pale-faced still, and tearful; with bent head, and wringing hands. She stands for a moment alone: the next instant she is joined by Martin Gurwood, who seems by his actions to be exhorting her to confidence and courage. It is, of course, by their actions alone that Pauline can judge what they are doing; but her southern nature leads her to translate their pantomime, feeble though it may be, more readily than could any one less accustomed to gesture and action. See her bent head, her shrinking figure, her hands outspread before her! Then notice his look turned upward, the growing uprightness of his stately figure, his elevated hand. Evidently, she is giving way under the weight of some

distress, while he is consoling her, and, as Pauline judges from his actions, pointing out to her the course of duty. The reverend's consolation has but little effect, Pauline thinks, as the palefaced woman, giving way to her grief, sinks upon the ground, and lays prostrate at her companion's feet.

Now to see what is the exact state of the relations between them! Now to see whether the secret which from the first she has believed Martin Gurwood to be concealing in his breast, has reference to a woman! whether this misogynist, as his friends think him, and as he strives to prove himself, is but as other men are, frail and feeble: liable to be diverted from his path of duty, and to be turned hither and thither by a woman's influence.

By Martin's actions, the reply is patent to her at once. Had he been this woman's lover, had he been striving to become her lover, he would have cast himself down on his knees beside her, and striven to have raised her, bidding her repose herself and her grief on him. As it was, he stood there looking at her, as Pauline could distinguish, with eyes full of sorrowful regard, with head bent, and hands that involuntarily sought to raise her, and were then restrained, and folded across his breast. No further action, no movement of his lips, so far as she could see. "It is in his capacity as priest," she said to her self, "that he is here: there is no question of his being this woman's lover. Evidently, she is suffering from some great trouble, and he has come to announce it to her. They are not as our priests, these Protestants; and he is an Englishman besides. He has told his story in their usual cold, matter-of-fact, unimpassioned way, and awaits now quietly until she shall arise from the swoon into which the receipt of the intelligence has thrown her. So far, I have been wrong. That he had a secret, I still believe; but that it is not in the least connected with this woman, I am sure. What it may be, I have still to learn; and I will learn it, that it may give me power over him, and, through him, over his mother, whom I intend to minister to my comforts, and to be my principal source of support, for years to come. This pale-faced woman, too!" She had thought that she had brought down both the birds with one stone; but now each mystery was still a sealed book to her.

How was she to get at them? It would have been useless to inquire of the tradespeople in the village now, who would simply tell her what she knew already: the name of the occupant of Rose Cottage, of his station in life, of his position as Mr. Calverley's part

ner.

fronting the rage which he would undoubtedly feel at finding he had been followed; the other, in enabling her to see through any deception which he might try to practise upon her.

See! they move. The pale-faced woman rises from the floor. Ah! with what dignity, Pauline acknowledges to herself, keeping her eyes straight upon the window. She stands upright now before her companion, and is evidently speaking with simple, unexaggerated action. He is striving to refute what she is saying, if he can be judged by the bending of his shoulders, by the moving of his hand. He fails, though: Pauline sees that. Then he bows, in taking his leave, and disappears.

But to you, in what capacity am I to explain it ?"

In my capacity as Mrs. Calver'ey's friend and agent," said Pauline, making a bold stroke. "I am here in her interests: it is by her that I am authorized to do what I have done."

The shot had told: she saw its effect at once in his blanched cheek, and his hesitating manner.

You have come here as my mother's agent?" he asked.

"I have," she replied, looking him straight in the face.

"Then," he said, after a moment's pause, "if you are really and truly her friend, I must ask you, in her interests, to conceal from her all you have seen, to tell her a story in no way bearing upon the truth; to divert her thoughts and suspicions- for she must needs suspect, if she has employed you, as you say, to watch me in what I do- into some totally different channel."

What she has to do must be done at once. She is to meet and confront him, and brazen it out before him. She had noticed that the cab in which he had come, after setting him down, had rolled off in the direction of the village. To get to the village, he must Pauline smiled grimly. "I thought pass the end of the path in which she so!" she exclaimed. "It will not suit then stood. If she could get there be- the Rev. Martin Gurwood, rigid morfore him, she would be in time. In an-alist, the most holy of men, to have it other instant she had gathered her known, even by his mother, that he has skirt around her, and set off into a been to visit a pretty woman, and that swift and steady run. She reached the his conversation with her has been of end of the path as Martin Gurwood such effect that she has cast herself at emerged through the garden-gate, and his feet, during her husband's absence, remained still, awaiting his approach. and that he has been enabled to give her consolation in her deepest sorrow."

He came on steadily, his eyes fixed upon the ground, until he was within a short distance of her. Then he looked up, and wavered in his walk for an instant, seeing her planted directly in his path. For an instant: the next, he continued his advance, continued it even when she threw back her veil, and when, as she saw by a quick, upward glance at him, he recognized her features. It was best, she thought, that she should speak first.

"If your taunt fell upon me, and upon me alone," said Martin, drawing himself up, and looking straight at her, "it would be harmless enough; but Í have others to think of, and others to shield. If you knew who the lady is of whom you are speaking in this thoughtless manner, you would"

"I know well enough," said Pauline, with a sneer. "This woman, this friend of yours, is the wife of Mr. Claxton, the "Good-morning, Mr. Gurwood," she partner of your mother's husband, whom said, in a light and pleasant tone. you have just buried." "You are surprised to see me here?" "You think so!" cried Martin. His face was stern and rigid, as he" She thinks so herself; but it is for replied, "Had it been any one else, I me to undeceive you, though I have might have been surprised: in Madame Du Tertre such conduct appears to me perfectly natural, and what I always imagined her perfectly capable of being guilty of."

Such conduct!" Guilty of!'" she repeated. "This is harsh language Monsieur Martin. Of what conduct,

pray, have I been guilty?" "Of following me, and spying upon my actions, madame: of that there can be little doubt!"

kept the truth from her. This woman is one whom Mr. Calverley most basely deceived! Under a false name, the name which you have mentioned, he wooed and won her; and she at this moment believes herself to be his widow !"

ACCORDING to a Berlin letter, addressed to the Cologne Gazete, the firm of Mitler and Son, intrusted with the publication of the "Staff History of the Campaign in France," is quite unable to execute the orders addressed to it. The presses are kept working night and day; but not a tenth part of the copies written for have yet been supplied. Besides the long-announced English translation, a complete Itali in translation is promised; and a French translation of the first volume (all that has hitherto appeared in German) is advertised for immediate publication. It is expected that the entire work will be out before the end of next year.

DONNA OLIMPIA MALDACHINI.

ON a summer morning, in the year of grace 1654, the citizens of Rome, as they assembled in the churches and other public places, were entertained by the distribution of biglietti containing a proclamation, which had been also inscribed, during the night, upon the monuments and palaces of the city" Olimpia, Pontifex non maximus." So dexterously had the transformation been effected, that even from the Lateran itself the name and titles of Innocent X. had been supplanted by the new inscription; and with only so much indignation as the jest was humorous enough to pacify, the Romans laughed over the publication of their shame.

About the same time, there was exhibited in London, in the presence, as it is reported, of Cromwell himself, a comedy entitled "The Marriage of the Pope." A lady is represented receiving with reluctance the proposals of an old man, who holds in his hands a pair of keys, and, with the offer of one of them, endeavors to overcome her scruples. The lady inquires whether it will open the gate of heaven or of hell. "The key of paradise alone is fit for your acceptance," the suitor gallantly replies. "Then give me the other!" cries the lady; "for I will not leave in your hands the power of sending me to the Devil when you have done with me." The nuptials are celebrated; and the piece concludes with a ballet of priests and nuns, who revel in the auspicious prospect of a release from the restraints of celibacy.

The lady who furnished occasion for these tricks of Pasquino, and exposed the holy father to ridicule, was Olimpia Maldachini. During the reign of Innocent X., the whole administration of civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the See of Rome was, to the great scandal of the Christian world, submitted to her control. If she abstained from actually seating herself in Peter's chair, it was from no hesitation of modesty, since her exploits gained for her the title of Olimpia Pontifex; and, in view of them, the story of Pope Joan, recently revived by Dr. Döllinger, for the purpose of remitting it finally to the list of "Fables Concerning the Popes," is cleared at least from the discredit of impossibility. The author of the French poem, who celebrated in good faith the deeds of that papessa, and expressed his astonishment at the apathy of Providence in permitting such things, if he had lived two centuries later, would have been still more perplexed to see how much, not only Heaven will permit, but how much men will patiently endure.

"Comment endura Dieu, comment,
Que femme ribaulde et prestresse
Eut l'église en gouvernement?"

He would not, however, have been able to account for it, in the latter instance, on the consideration which he urges on behalf of Joan,- that she was a clergesse lettrée, and had composed many a holy preface to the sacred office.

Olimpias there have been many, of famous memory, and infamous; from her who, in classic lore, yielded to the seductions of Jove himself, down to the heroine of our story, whose cupidity was satisfied with the person and fortune of a pope. The Maldachini justified her Olimpian designation in two respects: her mercurial propensities surpassed all ordinary passion of acquisitiveness; while her personal attractions, and the use she made of them, were worthy of the Cyprian divinity. Yet, notwithstanding the prominent part she played so long and with so great notoriety in the Roman world, doubts have been entertained as to the truth of her remarkable history so that, among the many extraordinary characters that figure in the annals of the papacy, Olimpia has been suffered to fall from her high estate, and has been banished to the company of myths. We had thus been accustomed to regard her story, not, indeed, as Ranke calls it, as a mere romance, for the intrigues of an ambitious and avaricious woman leave little room for the play of softer passions essential to a fiction of that character, but rather as an invention of the enemy, for the purpose of adding another

distorted line to the historical draft of the papal features, already sufficiently disfigured.

It was while engaged in pursuit of another Olimpia of a very different reputation, that the Maldachini crossed our path; and apparently in so authentic a form that, forsaking the original quest, it seemed worth while to follow the curious track accidentally opened. The biographer of Olimpia Morata, in his opening address, invites attention to the Maldachini by disclaiming any connection with her. "I write," says Nolten, "the life of Olimpia, but not of her who promoted Innocent X. to the popedom, and Whether through him governed the Roman Church.' Nolten had other means of information, or only the "Life of Olimpia Maldachini," printed five and twenty years before his time as the work of the Abbate Gualdi, it is evident that he was acquainted with the same story, and accepted it as true. It must have been fresh in the memory of that generation who were Nolten's contemporaries, and who may have witnessed the election of In

nocent.

The account given in the printer's preface to the edition of 1667 appears too circumstantial for a mere fiction, and not worth the trouble of inventing for such a purpose. He says that copies had come into his possession of a "Life of Olimpia" in print, and that he had sent one of them to Cesare Gualdi, a brother of the reputed author: he was informed in reply that the life must have been surreptitiously taken from a MS. which the Abbate Gualdi had composed for private circulation among his friends. At the same time, a MS. was enclosed for the printer's use, containing a more complete and revised history by the hand of the abbate. This it is which the printer publishes from his press, not more than eleven years after Olimpia's death, and while her relatives were still notorious in Rome.

While the writer of this paper was weighing the value of this testimony, and collecting such scanty information as general histories, since the Tridentine period, afford of the Roman court, by a curious coincidence, and mere accident, a friend placed in his hands (without any knowle ge of the inquiry, or of the subject of the document) a manuscript which had by chance been given to him when he was recently in Rome. It proved to be this very Life of D. Olimpia Maldachini, deita l'amfili; who governed the Holy Church during the Pontificate of Innocent X., from the year 1644 to 1655, as curious as it is political and amusing. It bears the mark of the Pamfili library: the handwriting is in the clear, bold character of a scribe, - a fair transcript; and it appears, on collation with the printed edition of 1667, to answer the description given in the above-mentioned letter of the first imperfect MS. prepared by the author for private circulation. The whole matter of the MS. is contained in the printed copy, together with large additions and many verbal corrections. It is no doubt the author's original production, written within a few years of the events he relates; and so far it appears to confirm the printer's account of the occasion of his edition, and the means by which it came into his hands. Upon the publication of the corrected and enlarged copy, the original MS. was of course superseded; and by degrees the story fell into neglect. It was no one's interest to sustain it: the Romanist was not concerned to vindicate an unedifying tale; while the Protestants were content to have drawn from it subject for ridicule, without concerning themselves about its authorship or its truth.

When, therefore, it came to be ascribed to Gregorio Leti, a well-known criticiser of papal nepotism, no one particularly cared to investigate what seemed to be very probable, or to clear it from the suspicion which might attach to it under the patronage of Leti. Biographers are apt to follow the same lead, and, with rare exceptions, have accepted Leti as the acknowledged author. We might have left him in possession, satisfied with a corroboration of the principal matter from other reliable sources; but, since the reputation of Leti tends to the discredit of a work which rests on his authority, it is worth while to notice a few circumstances inconsistent with that supposition. When Leti began to publish, he had joined the Protestant Communion at Gen