"And shall I bestow it on a beggar?" "Oh shame, shame!" exclaimed the countess : "hear not, Vincentio, our degradation; hear not the wretched man, who for the vile dross of earth would barter even heaven.-Agatha, listen to a mother-"

“Say rather to a father," interrupted the count, 66 since a mother so far forgets her duty.-Agatha, my curse, a father's deadly curse, be on you-no knees to

me

"Forbear, Gheranzi!” cried the countess wildly," for the love of heaven, forbear! Behold me, thy wife, the daughter of a princely house; behold thy weeping child, and him whom thy unhallowed words have stricken to the soul; behold us at thy feet, and breathe thy horrid imprecations if thou canst!"

"If I can!" cried the infuriated count. "May, then, the curse of heaven

"No, no, Gheranzi! it will but recoil on your own head.-Oh, for the sake of her whom thy passion will destroy"-for Agatha now lay fainting at his feet-" for his sake whose noble forbearance in this hour of trial might shame thy unholy wrath-how? speak you not?—are all my adjurations vain?-Nay, go not, Gheranzi!-if we part thus, we part for

ever.

"Then be it so!" exclaimed the count. The countess looked wildly at him for a moment, pressed her hands on her forehead, and fell to the earth insensible. They hastened to raise her-alas! in vain. In the violence of her emotion, the very strings of life had loosened; a vessel had burst on the brain, and the noble, the generous countess was a corpse.

The events of some succeeding weeks must be passed lightly over. The count was for a time inconsolable, and the emotions of Agatha were such as to endanger her life; during this period, the agony of Vincentio was almost beyond endurance. The remains of the countess were borne to the family tomb with princely pomp and magnificence, which seemed intended as a feeble atonement to the dead for injustice to the living. Vain as is that last subterfuge of intruding conscience it contributed to lull the remorse of the count, whose ruling avarice once more arose, as the better feelings of his nature grew less vivid, and rendered him as averse as before from the fulfilment of his engagements. The fading cheek, the dim eye, and the pleading looks of Agatha, had less power over his will than the reviving desire of an alliance with the prince of Castel-Monti, whom the knowledge of the altered fortunes of Petroni had emboldened to renew his pretensions.

Vincentio, on the recovery of his mistress, had suddenly quitted Mantua, and was not yet returned. The count, re-assured by his absence, had urged the addresses of Castel-Monti on Agatha with an earnestness, which, in her enfeebled state of mind and body, the memory of her oath could alone have enabled her to resist.

"These continued refusals," said he, one day when the prince, again repulsed, had left the palace with some indication of resentment; "these repeated refusals, my child, are unkind and undutiful. Petroni, it is clear, has wisely and justly abandoned his pretensions, and you are now therefore free." A faint shriek from Agatha interrupted his counsels-Vincentio stood before them.

For some time no one found utterance for feelings which were bitter enough in all.

"I stand before you, count," at length Vincentio said, "poor, but stainless. I durst not risk temptation, even for Agatha. My father's manes are appeased-his debts are no more!"

"And the wealth of Petroni is also no more ?"

"It is nearly so, count." "You know my determination—ask me not to repeat it.'

"Will nothing then change it? has the past spoken in vain ?"

"We thought you had relinquished this fruitless passion," cried the count, evading the question; "and the prince of Castel-Monti-'

"How, Agatha! have you too, forgotten your vow?"

A vow, Agatha !-what folly is this?" exclaimed the count.

"Vincentio!" cried the maiden, "I have sworn to you-I swear to you again, in the presence of my only parent, never to wed another. Oh, my father! you must, you will forgive your poor Agatha, for her sake who is now no more, and in whose blessed name I also vow never to wed even my own, my best-beloved Vincentio, till your consent shall hallow our union!"

"You have been unwise in this," cried the count.

66

Agatha!" exclaimed Vincentio, though by this vow you have perhaps blighted my hopes for ever, I honour, I revere, the feeling from which it springs; and oh, if it be possible, I love thee more dearly than ever! Say not, count, that we must part. Can I, ought I, to relinquish that hope which, come weal or woe, shall shine my beacon, my guiding-star through all!"

"I will not be urged," replied the count, in great embarrassment; "let me

About five miles above the Cataract, the river expands to the dimensions of a lake, after which it gradually narrows. The Rapids commence at the upper extremity of Goat Island, which is half a mile in length, and divides the river at the point of precipitation into two unequal parts; the larger is distinguished by the several names of the Horseshoe, Crescent, and British Fall, from its semicircular form and contiguity to the Canadian shore. The smaller is named the American Fall. A portion of this Fall is divided by a rock from Goat Island, and though here insignificant in appearance, would rank high among European cascades.

The height of the British Fall is one hundred and seventy-five feet, and its breadth in one unbroken cascade, is seven hundred yards. The extremity of Goat Island, which separates the Cataracts, is three hundred and twenty yards in breadth; the American Fall extends beyond that, three hundred and seventy yards broad and one hundred and sixty feet in height, making a total breadth of nearly fourteen hundred yards. I must not omit to mention, that though the bed of the river sinks to so great a depth, the level of the circumjacent land continues the same below as above the Falls.

On the Canadian side, are situated two inns, and some few cottages are scattered at intervals over the country, which, in point of cultivation, resembles a garden. On the American shore, a liitle above the Fall, is built the manufacturing village of Manchester. Here are to be found excellent hotels, one of which is kept by a General of Militia, who served with distinction in the last war.

The quantity of water which passes the Cataract is thus computed by an American traveller. The river at the ferry, below the Falls, is seven furlongs wide, and, on an average, twenty five feet deep. The current runs about six miles an hour; but supposing it to be only five miles, the quantity which passes the Falls in an hour, is more than eighty-five millions of tuns avoirdupois: if we suppose it to be six, it will be more than 102 millions; and in a day would exceed 2400 millions

of tuns.

My object being to approach as close to the Cataract as possible; I descended a bank by a steep winding path to the narrow marshy slip which forms the immediate margin of the river; along this I advanced about one hundred yards, till I arrived at the very verge of precipitation. A person may at this point, place himself within an inch of the Cataract, and dip his hand into the water. Proceeding a little farther in the direction of the stream,

I came to the cottage of the guide, near which is a circular kind of corkscrew ladder, constructed round a mast, to enable travellers to descend to a path which winds along the upper part of the debris, formed by the occasional crumbling of the precipice. By means of this path you gain the lower part of the Cataract, and have a fine view upwards.

The falls when viewed from above, may be compared to a volume of steam rising from some monstrous cauldron.

In the evening I again visited the Cataract, to behold it by moonlight, taking my seat on a projecting rock, at a little distance from the brink of the Fall, I gazed till my senses were almost absorbed in contemplation.

Although the shades of night increased the sublimity of the prospect, and

"Deepened the murmur of the falling flood," the moon in placid beauty shed her soft influence upon the mind, and mitigated the horrors of the scene. The thunders which bellowed from the abyss, and the loveliness of the falling element, which glittered like molten silver in the moonlight, seemed to complete in absolute perfection the rare union of the beautiful with the sublime.

As an old horse that starts when sounds
The horn along the field;
He startles at the drum-beat's rounds
And marks time with his heels.

He holds a rimless hat before.

Which takes his daily pay, Sometimes he scarce can count it o'er It is so small each day.

His wife conducts his footsteps right.
With infant in her armis,
He feels its beauty by the light,

And glories in its charms

That infant strokes his hiud hair white
And fondles on his face;
Unconscious that the parent sight,
Is absent from its place.

A clergyman, of the name of Gastrill, had made a purchase of certain property of lands and tenements, in, and near the town of Stratford, the most valuable part and parcel of which, in the estimation of all but this reckless priest, was the house, called New Place, which Shakspeare built, and in which he resided until his death. To this house was a garden, and in that garden stood a tree, which had been planted and cherished by the poet that mulberry tree so congenially commemorated by Garrick and Arne. This ungracious son of the church occupied the house for his own dwelling, and although fully aware that this tree was held sacred by the whole town and neighbourhood, callous to all good neighbourly feeling, finding that it overshadowed a part of his house, one evil night, he ordered it to be cut down.

The first emotion excited by the discovery of this profanation was general astonishment ;-this was succeeded by a general fury against the perpetrator, and the enraged populace surrounded the premises, and vowed vengeance against Gastrill and his family. He absconded in terror, and it was said, such was the resentment of the townspeople, that they resolved, not only to banish him, but that no one of his name should henceforth be allowed to dwell among them.

It is an ill wind that blows good to no one. This was verified in the future fortune of a carpenter in the town, who purchased the tree, divided it into parts of various dimensions, and had numberless articles of turnery and carving made out of them, and obtained considerable wealth by his trade in these universally sought relics, which were held by many almost sacred. It is asserted that there are ten or a dozen sculls at least, of the same holy saint to be seen at different convents in various parts of Spain, and it is supposed that as many mulberry trees, within the

last half century, have been converted into inkstands, tobacco-stoppers, and various turnery ware, ali as veritably relics of this identical stump. One genuine fragment, however is in the possession of Mr. Kean, which was presented to the elder Angelo by Garrick, and given by his son to this living tragedian. It was purchased at Stratford at the time of the jubilee. Garrick had a chair, curiously carved, of the same wood, which was disposed of at the auction of Mrs. Garrick's effects.

The downfal of this tree was for a long time the common topic of conversation at the public dinners and club meetings at Stratford. The corporation having obtained a part of the trunk, it occurred to one of the members of the civic body, to have some device made thereof, as an offering to Garrick. A motion being made to that effect, it was unanimously carried, and the following letter was written to him by the steward, and a member was appointed to wait upon him accordingly :

"SIR,

"The Corporation of Stratford, ever desirous of expressing their gratitude to all who do honour and justice to the memory of Shakspeare, and highly sensible that no person, in any age, has excelled you therein, would think themselves much honoured, if you would become one of their body. Though this body do not now send members to parliament, perhaps the inhabitants may not be less virtuous; and to render the freedom of this place the more acceptable to you, the corporation propose to send it in a box made out of that very mulberry tree planted by Shakspeare's own hand. The story of that tree is too long to be here inserted : but the gentleman who is so obliging as to convey this to you, will acquaint you therewith. As, also, the corporation would be happy in receiving from your hands, some statue, bust, or picture of Shakspeare, to be placed within their new town-hall. They would be equally pleased to have some picture of yourself, that the memory of both may be perpetuated together, in that place which gave him birth, and where he still lives in the mind of every inhabitant."

This complimentary epistle, from the townsmen of the great dramatic poet, went to the player's heart. He accepted the freedom with warmth, and the box which contained it with rapture; and, in return presented them with his whole length picture, painted by Mr. Robert Wilson, the father of the present member for Southwark, which was placed in the Town Hall, as was subsequently a statue of Shakspeare presented also by Garrick.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HISTORY.

PAPER AND BOOKS

For the Olio.

HAVING detailed some account of printing in our last, we this week follow with the attendants of that art, Paper and Books. And in endeavouring to give as correct an idea as possible of the origin of these highly essential articles in Europe, we find that the Romans used for their writings, the Papyrus of Egypt, a kind of rush attaining in its growth, the height of ten cubits, which from its cheapness was an article of general utility. But before the Greeks and Romans adopted this substitute for paper, they wrote upon plain wooden boards, called schedæ, or schedule and on such schedule was written in Hebrew, the Gospel of St. Matthew, which according to Baronius was found in the tomb of Barnabas, sometimes the written wood was overlaid with wax,bearing the name pugillares cerei, this mode being resorted to as a medium for the carrying on a secret correspondence. According to Pliny the custom of writing on boards may be looked on as coeval with the Trojan war. The ancient jurists gave to their writings the appellations, tabulis, ceris, and pugillaribus, the first of which implied a carefully written work, whilst the other terms denoted a careless manuscript or copy. The Romans for ordinary communication used tablets of wood covered with wax, if more than one, they were strung together at the corners, and conveyed to the person for whom they were intended by messengers.

The richest of the Romans used as paper, thin pieces of ivory called Libri Elephantini; and Ulpian states that the principal transactions of great princes, were usually written with a black colour on ivory. These tablets, from their being so expensive, were wholly confined to the opulent. After the invention of the Egyptian paper, the Greeks and Romans continued still to use their tablets and wax, though they were provided with a material far more convenient in the papyrus, and considerably cheaper, until time mastered their prejudices. But when the Saracens conquered Egypt in the seventh century, the communication between that country, and the people settled in Italy, or in other parts of Europe, was entirely broken off, thereby putting a fatal stop to their procuring the Egyptian writing material. In their necessity for a substitute for the article that they was deprived of by the Saracenic war, they resorted to the use of skins to write on, and from this circumstance we may date the invention of parchment, the price of which when it

came into general use, rose so extremely high that manuscripts written thereon were of the greatest value. This material was in use until the eleventh century, when the art of making paper from rags was discovered, nearly three centuries previous to the establishing of paper mills, which is said to have taken place in the fourteenth century, and soon after this, France, Genoa, and Holland, had almost the exclusive manufacture, and by these countries, it was imported into other Kingdoms and States. The first paper mill in England is said to have been established by a German of the name of Spiellman, at Dartford, in the year 1588, but till the year 1690, scarcely any good paper was made in this country, it having been previously imported from the countries of Europe above stated, many attempts have been tried to fabricate paper from other materials in the stead of rags, but as none have come into general use, it must be presumed that the old mode claims the precedence.

The

Having said thus much of paper we turn to books, the word book being applied as a general name to any literary composition, or that which forms a volume. The derivation of the name comes from the use of the finest part of the inner bark of trees, called liber, and from which originated the word Book, these barks when coiled up into a roll, were termed volumen, a volume. term book is also applied to the division of a volume, signifying a part of the whole. The most ancient known book in the world is the Pentateuch of Moses, and in profane literature the poems of Homer, though some place Hesiod's works before those of the father of Greek poetry. The works of Homer were painted in golden characters on the skins of animals. Many manuscripts of the eighth, ninth, and following centuries in existence on the continent are written on parchment, with part of the former manuscript erased, to make way for some new composition, to be substituted merely from the scarcity of writing materials in those days. And it is probable that this mode of procedure occasioned the destruction of several works of the ancients, a book of Livy, or Tacitus being erased to make room for the Legendary tale of a saint, or the superstitious prayer of a missal. Montfaucon affirins that the greater part of the manuscripts on parchment seen by him, had some former book erased. The number of manuscripts were small, previous to the eleventh century, when the means of increasing them were supplied. Many circumstances prove the scarcity of books during these ages.