was again engaged in answering fresh ques- lousy. On the morrow Carlo Stozzi was betions from the judges. In the meantime I headed!

observed the officer just referred to, approach But the sequel of this story is the strangest the little table beside which the prisoner of all. Being in the quarter of the town a stood, and without attracting his attention, short time afterward where the crime was deposit something upon it as he passed. committed, I paused before the house, and When he had left the table I saw laying seeing a young girl there, I reverted to the there a bright stiletto, or dagger, which had sad murder that had been committed there not been there before! The judges continued so lately. their questions for some moments longer, when there was a momentary pause, and the prisoner turning from them noticed the weapon upon the table, and apparently all unconscious of what he did, placed it in his bosom, in the usual place where the Italians wear the dagger.

The singularity of permitting the prisoner thus to arm himself, struck me for a moment, and I even turned to a friend hard by, and referred to the circumstance; but a certain sinister expression of the judge's face, who had thus far acted as the spokesman of the rest, caused me to pause and watch for some denouement, that I half realised was about to follow the act of the prisoner's possessing himself of the weapon, that the officer had so lately placed upon the table. My friend had already divined the course of the whole business, and bid me be silent, for the judge was about to address the accused.

"Why have you placed that stiletto in your bosom?" asked the judge.

"Because it is the usual place where carry it," was the unconscious answer. "Then the weapon is your own?" asked the judge.

"Whose else could it be?"

"Murder?” she said, inquiringly.

"Yes, of Surette, by one Carlo Stozzi." "It was nearly a murder," she repeated. "Nearly ?"

"Yes; have you not heard that Surette breathed again some hours after they thought her dead, and finally that she moved?" "No."

She had been educated as a dancer from infancy. She had been on the stage all her life-had literally grown up behind the scenes of a theatre. Her parents were reI spectable, though it is difficult to define their position in the social scale. At the time I knew her, her mother was paralytic and bed-ridden. Her father was enfeebled by age, and could only earn a pittance by copy

"You acknowledge that it is your sti- ing law papers. Georgiana, the ballet girl, letto ?"

"I do!" replied the half hesitating prisoner, now seeing his own danger, and realizing the fearful power of this silent witness! "Take the prisoner hence," said the judge, "he dies to-morrow!"

their only child, by her energetic exertions, supplied the whole wants of the family.— And what were those exertions? The mind of the most imaginative reader could hardly picture what I know to be a reality.

Georgiana's parents kept no servants; she Such was the brief, summary, but just trial discharged all the duties of the householdof a culprit, a murderer. The dagger, though cooking, washing, sewing, everything. From it bore no evidence of being his, was yet iden-daylight till midnight not a moment of her tified as his property, by placing it thus time was unemployed. She must be at within his reach. It had been found that rehearsal every morning at ten o'clock, and morning in the room of the murdered girl, she had two miles and a half to walk to the where this Carlo Stozzi had dropped it after theatre. Before that hour she had the mornmurdering Surette, actuated by a fit of jea-ing meal for her parents to prepare, her VOL. V.-N.

marketing to accomplish, her household ar- That had always a look of busy serenity rangements for the day to make; if early in off the stage, a softly animated expression the week, her ironing; if at the close, her when occupied before an audience in the sewing, for she made all her own and her duties of her profession. She had a ready mother's dresses. At what hour in the morn- smile when addressed-a meek reply when ing must she have risen?

rudely chided by the churlish ballet master, or despotic stage manager. Many a time I have seen the tears dropping upon her work; but if they were noticed, she would brush them away, and say she was a fool and cried for nothing.

Her ten o'clock rehearsal lasted from two to four hours-more frequently the latter. But watch her at the theatre, and you never found her hands idle. When she was not on the stage you were sure of discovering her in some quiet corner-knitting lace, cutting Her answer to a sympathizing "How grate aprons out of tissue paper, making ar- weary you must be at night," "Yes; but I tificial flowers, or embroidering articles of am so thankful I have health to go through fancy work, by the sale of which she relieved so much. What would become of my poor her mother's wants. After dinner she re- mother, or of my father, if I felt ill?" How ceived a class of children, to whom she taught many are there who could render an account dancing for a trifling sum. If she had half of their stewardship as this poor girl may do an hour to spare, she assisted her father in in the hereafter? How many can say with copying law papers. Then tea must be preher, that life has been pared, and her mother arranged comfortably "One perpetual growth of heavenward enterprise." for the night. Her long walks to the theatre And this flower blossomed within the must be accomplished at least half an hour walls of a theatre; was the indigenious before the curtain rose-barely time to make growth of that theatre-a wall flower, if you her toilet. If she was belated by her home like-but still sending up the rich fragrance avocations, she was compelled to run the of gratitude to Him by whose hand it was whole distance. I have known this to occur. fashioned. To the eye of the phariseeNot to be ready for the stage would have who denounces all dramatic representations, subjected her to a forfeit. Between the acts, while with self-applauding righteousness he or when she was not on the stage, there she sat in the snug corner of the green room, dressed as a fairy, or a maid of honour, or a peasant, or a page, with a bit of work in her hands, only laying down the needle, which Her devotion to her parents was the her fingers made fly, when she was summon- strongest impulse of her nature. In her ed by the call boy, or required to change her early youth she had been engaged to a young costume by the necessities of the play.-man, a musician belonging to the orchestra. Sometimes she was at liberty at ten o'clock, They had been betrothed for several years. but oftener not until half past eleven, and Some fairer face-though he could scarcely then there was the long walk home before have found a sweeter-had rendered him faithless. She bore her deep sorrow with Her mother generally awoke at the hour that lovely submission which elevates and when Georgiana was expected, and a fresh purifies the spirit, but gave her heart away round of filial duties was to be performed.-no more. The breath of slander had never Had not the wearied limbs which that poor shadowed her name. Gayer girls in the ballet girl had laid upon her couch earned theatre used to designate her as the "old her repose? Are there many whose refresh- maid;" but this was the hardest word any ment is so deserved?-whose rising up and one ever applied to Georgiana. Was not lying down are surrounded by a circle so such a heart as hers what Elizabeth Barrett holy? No one ever heard her murmur.— Browning has described as Her fragile form spoke of strength overtasked; it was more careworn than her face.

her.

boldly approaches the throne of mercy—this ballet girl, like the poor publican, stood "afar off." To the eyes of the great Judge, which stood the nearer?

"A fair still home well kept, Which humble thoughts had swept, And holy prayers made clean.

THE CANKERED ROSE OF TIVOLI.

?

from his hand. mi
but the miser stoppas

pcelain was broken,

gather up the gold.

ALLANDALE and other places are in this Smoke covered him, and he did not ris country celebrated for their roses. Who agai. Heed for the gold lips of his vase, has not heard of a rose with violet eyes or as your Gentlemen a frequently said to lily breast, or teeth of pearl, or even tor have died for ru lips on vessels of more fingers? In musical botany such flowers are precious clay. frequently described; there is no dobt That I may not begin my tale too soon, let about them. I speak here of a rose belonging me add that Philip Roos of Tivoli had not to a sister art, a rose belonging to thotany only a father, but also a brother, and that he of painters. This flower is a sickly odour too was a remarkably odd man. He was not strongly impregnated with the fumes of wine, miserly, he was not cheery, but he was is of a dark brown colour, tall, and has a magnificent. His name was Nicolas, and Coarse bold handsomness of feature. It is he too was a painter. He lived at Franknot a lovely woman, but an ugly man: at fort in an enormous house, though he was least a man morally ugly-Philip Roos-as poor as any church mouse that inhabits a who, being a German or a Dutchman, settled cathedral. He had an immense train of at Tivoli, and, naturalised, among the people miserable servants—a set of ragged creatures of the sunny south, had his name converted-who moved to and fro like a large colony of into soft Italian, and was and is commonly ghosts by whom the edifice was garrisoned. known as the Rose of Tivoli. A century or That was the state of Nicolas; he had grand two ago he was a cheery fellow, and he still furniture well as a great mansion; the only lives in his pictures. vexation w that and his people generally The Dutchmen claim him, and may have wanted victuals. When he had sold a picture him if they like: so at least I should say if I for a good price, and received the money, he were a German; for it is so much a worse would come home snuffing the air. His hunthing to be a bad man than it is a good thing gry servants knew then by the height of his to be a good animal painter, that I should like ne how much he had with him, and there better to repudiate than claim a share in the is inst gunning to and fro with the Roos blood. If he were Dutch by race, he was noste reparation for festivity. Fire was a German by birth, for he was born at Frank-kid on the cold hearths, lamps were lightfort-on-Maine in the year fifteen hundred ed, the artist's wife wore sumptuous attire, and sixty-five. Because his life is a story I and Nicolas enjoyed the luxury of princely propose to tell it, without departure by a pomp until the money was all gone. hair's breadth from the truth. Should this tablishment then starved or lived upon their meet the eye of any person who has a er lit, and the ghostly garrison of lacqueys humiliating consciousness that he could never he d the fortress against all assaults from the paint a cow fit for posterity to look at, let besieging duns. If the siege became too such a person be at ease and sit contented in hot the painter worked with zeal and finished "The poor creature," says his easy-chair uncared-for by Europe. For a new picture. his large contentment let him read this story Weyerman, "took up and put down his brush of the Rose of Tivoli.' as often as a suitor puts his hat off and on in the antechamber of a prince." Sometimes when matters went so very ill with him the distracted magnifico ordered all doors to he shut, and immured himself and his men alive in the house as in a mausoleum.

His es

The old Rose, Henry Philip's father, was a painter who had lived at Frankfort and been very careful of his gains. Miserly fathers commonly make spendthrift sons. Old Roos one night being burnt out of his house rushed back into the flames to save The brother of this Nicolas was Philip some of his treasures. He collected what Roos-the Rose of Tivoli. In his youth he he could, and took especial care to secure a had been encouraged and protected by a licostly gold-lipped vase of porcelain. On his beral and kindly patron, the landgrave of way out he stumbled. The vase dropped Hesse Cassel, who attached him to his court,

encouraged him, and developed rapidly his a courteous bow,

She was surprised; but, talent. Further to assist in his development as she saw that it was a handsome young he placed in the young painter's hands a man who bowed, she smiled as she shut the considerable sum of money, and bade him window and departed. From that point the go and become perfect in his art by studying Rose proceeded in due time to conversations in Italy. and to the winning of the lady's heart. She

One day when Philip, then aged about had agreed to marry him. A cruel father thirty, was in the Campagna of Rome, sketch- then discovered these proceedings, forbade ing from nature, there drove by an elegant Philip admission to his house, and shut up carriage in which was a prosperous old gentle- his daughter in a nunnery. In his anger he man, with white hairs, a painter, who enjoyed repeated twenty times a day that "she was great fame and a thriving business, Hyacinth not reared for a painter of beasts." Brandi. The old gentleman stopped his Philip Roos was a German and a Proteshorses and alighted to examine Philip's can- tant, but as he was not at all particular about vass. That was the first meeting of the his religion, it occurred to him that he could Hyacinth with the Rose. Great masters of do nothing better than renounce his errors, painting in those days in Rome and Florence and throwing himself on the bosom of the habitually spoke to the pupils whom Church, Miss Brandi's mother, ask of the they found sketching about the country, as- mother what the father had denied him—the sumed a sociable paternal tone, corrected young lady's hand in marriage. He went errors, gave advice, even made alterations therefore one morning to the house of the on the canvass, and sometimes presented aid cardinal-vicar, and represented himself as a in money to such students as were poor. man awakened to a sense of his own heresy; Italy was a studio in which the painters lived the prelate was charmed, and, claiming him together upon terms that became men who for his own convert, gave him instruction were of one liberal profession, members as it and enjoyed the honour of presenting him as were of the same household. Hyacinth his own gift to the holy Church. Brandi liked Roos's goats so much, and was painter told the cardinal the story of his so much surprised at his rapidity of touch, love, and asked for help. On the day followthat as he wanted somebody to paint good ing, the cardinal called on the Pope, the Pope animals into some pictures of his own, he asked who was the father of the young lady. hospitably bade the young man to his house "Brandi the painter." Philip went willingly. Brandi had commissions by the dozen on his hands, and he had also a charming daughter. Of the charming daughter, and Italian beauty, Philip had a passing glimpse on his first was no matter to the Pope whether Roos visit, and for her sake when he went up painted men or beasts or stones, the young to Brandi's painting room he recklessly convert deserved his reward, and Brandi, praised everything that he saw so as to obtain compelled to restrain his pride, gave up his at once free invitation to the old man's inti- daughter.

66

Then the

'Very well," he said, "then they are both painters. There is no disparity of condition; I can see no obstacle." Hyacinth was sent for to the Vatican; it

macy. He took pains to find out in the course On the day after the wedding, Philip Roos of a few days that Hyacinth's daughter in- sent back to the old man all the girl's habited a wing of the house abutting on an clothes, even to her shoes and stockings inner garden. One day, therefore, calling when saying that a painter of beasts wanted none Hyacinth was busy, he said that he would of his frippery, and that her beauty was his wait his leisure in the garden; and having wife's sufficient ornament. Brandi, who marched thither, lay under a tree to look out was a very rich man, thereupon disinherited for the windows of the lady. When he had his daughter, and left her entirely to her found out where they were, he stationed husband's care.

himself under them, and as soon as Miss He had taken her to a strange dwelling Brandi appeared at her casement made her near Tivoli, at some distance from Rome.

The house was formed out of the ruins of an General Roos, a Swede, famous for duelling ancient monument, and was situated in a propensities, once disputed on the subject of sort of zoological garden that was full of the speed of hand that characterized Philip birds, and beasts instead of flowers. Inside Roos the painter. The Count betted a and outside it was peopled by pet rats and number of gold pieces that Philip would mice, dogs and cats, oxen and asses, goats, begin and complete a picture while they vultures, owls, and other such company. played a certain game of cards, that usually These were the painter's models that he occupied about thirty minutes; as we might kept about him, and it was no pleasant dis- now say, while they played a rubber. The covery for the poor wife to make during her bet was taken, and the painter readily enough honeymoon, when it appeared that her hus- submitted to the the trial. Easel and band was not a whit less brutal than his brushes were brought into the drawing room oxen and his goats. He never stayed long and a canvass of the size usually employed with her, for he was a cheery fellow who or the sketching of a head—a tela di testa— had both his business and his tavern friends was laid upon the easel to be filled. The at Rome. The beautiful young lady soon gentlemen sat down to their cards, and Roos found herself left by the week together in began to paint. Before the game was over the old ruin which was more picturseque he informed them that his work was done. than comfortable, bewildered by the incessant He had covered the canvass with a shepherd concert made out of the crowing of cocks, and two or three sheep and goats placed in clucking of hens, grunting of pigs, barking the middle of a landscape. The general of dogs, miauing of cats, bleating of goats, paid his lost bet, of which some of the gold screeching of owls, lowing of oxen, all oc- pieces went into the hands of the artist, casionally enriched by the finer tenor notes who, within a few hours, managed to transof the ass who had the best voice in the fer them to the pocket of a tavern-keeper. company; Weyerman says that any travel- The same painter once having aspired to ler coming upon the young Roman girl, execute a grand piece, took a canvass forty living there all alone with such com- feet square. In sixteen days he filled it, panions, might have taken her for a Circe having put upon it in that time six hundred surrounded by the victims of her enchant- figures of animals. In the foreground were ment. The creatures seemed to be all horses and oxen of the size of life; others besieging her with cries for restoration to were in the distance, and they were all so their pristine shapes. Poor girl, the only well designed and grouped, and placed in so victim to her charms was herself. complete a landscape, that nothing but the Roos and his servants used to quit her, united testimony of many people would inand set out for Rome, where the master duce belief that he had not spent many spent rolicking days in taverns, and when months in the production of the piece; for, money failed dashed off a picture which the notwithstanding his rapidity, his work was man sold to the first purchaser who would good of course his best pictures were those give for it enough to keep the merry game that he had composed with care and much His pictures were in this way made deliberation, but in his most rapid painting so cheap that they lost all respectability and he was always accurate in outline, harmoformed but a poor source of subsistence to nious in colour, and above all remarkable their author. Yet his genius had no rival for skill in grouping, and for the variety of then upon the spot, and he might easily have effect that he had at his command. His become a wealthy man. backgrounds were all different. The society of painters from the Nether- repeated himself, and he drew animals of lands at Rome-a society that called itself any kind, not being addicted specially to the Bent-styled Roos, Mercury, for his dogs or cows or goats or sheep..

alive.

:

He never

rapidity, a quality in which he was equalled These were the talents that he wasted. by no other artist of his time. Count They scarcely paid his tavern bills and ill Martenitz, an Austrian ambassador, and maintained his wife. That ill-fated woman