compel all those people, many of whom were of the first description, (in case she should be accused of crime,) to come forward and defend her, because their own safety would depend upon her acquittal. Notwithstanding, this method availed her nothing, and caused others to be involved in her ruin.

Poor Madame Talon was exceedingly alarmed when told by her husband that her name was on the fatal list. Although her intentions had not been criminal, yet she was agitated, and in great fear, when the following advenure transpired. She was informed by one of her domestics, that a man was below, and wished to see her. "Go and inquire his name," said she. How much surprised she was when the servant returned, saying, "that he had directed him to tell Madame Talon it was Grecs who was waiting." There was a person of that name, a well-known policeofficer, the terror of all evil doers, and of the poor Hugonots.

Madame Talon, on hearing the name of Grecs pronounced, gave herself up for lost. She directed the avenues of the apartments to be blockaded, and ran weeping to the study of her husband, crying, "Save me, save me!" Then throwing herself upon her knees, she added, "True it is I went once, and only once, to Voisin's house, but that was to consult her on a thing wholly confined to myself." She afterwards endeavored to throw herself from a window, but was prevented. When it was ascertained who the man was below, it occasioned considerable merriment, he being an upholsterer named Grecs, to whom she had sent a few days before, but who was not then at home. In a comedy called Madam Jobin, or the Fortune Teller, there is a scene representing the above fact; and in the play a good idea is given of the manner in which Voisin duped people with her diabolical arts.

It has been my lot to be acquainted with some who were at this woman's house, and as she pretended to know many hidden things, several persons visited her without any criminal intention-at least so far as that can be done by one who has recourse to either magical arts or what is believed to be so. When any one consulted Voisin upon these hidden matters, and wished to explain something respecting them, she would say, "Be silent, I am not anxious to know

your affairs; it is to the spirit that you must relate them; for the spirit is jealous and will not suffer any body to know his secrets. It is my duty to request you to obey him." After this, she would produce writing-paper, which she represented as being charmed, upon which she wrote the names, titles, and qualities of the spirit; and then she commenced a letter, which the person seeking her aid had to finish, by asking questions respecting what was wanted. During this time she mentioned a variety of reasons for this process.

When all the questions were committed to writing, Voisin brought a vessel full of burning charcoal in one of her hands, and a piece of bees' wax in the other; she then directed the wax to be enclosed and folded up in the letter, and said they would both be destroyed by the fire, for the spirit already knew what had been written, and would give his reply in three days. When this was over, she took the paper from the person, and threw it-or rather one like it, into the fire, where it was immediately consumed. She always contrived to have a piece of wax at hand of the same size, folded in a similar piece of paper to the one written upon, and the only difficulty was, to substitute, without being perceived, the fictitious packet, and throw the other into the fire. The questions then written to the spirit became known to her, and during the three days given for the answers she gathered all the particulars of the temper and affairs of the individual she could. The intrigues she had formed often made her reply-which was done, in the spirit's name, correct. By these tricks she obtained the name of a sorceress from the simple; but skillful people considered her as an impostor. The late Marquis de Luxumbourg, put to terrible fear the devil-or rather, the person whom she employed to represent him, when in her presence, notwithstanding her assumed powers; and if things of this nature were always thoroughly examined, their falsehood would certainly be ascertained. It is very extraordinary to nie, why any one should be so ambitious to acquire reputation of so disgraceful a nature. Since the time of Madame de Brainvillier, France has not contained so skillful a woman in administering poison as Voisin. She left several scholars in Paris, but through the

vigilance of our Sovereign, they were soon extirminated,— a thing deserving the praises of his people. The day that Voisin was condemned, that famous painter, M. le Brun obtained permission to take her likeness, a short time before she was conducted to the scaffold, for the purpose of observing the impressions which the certainty of immediate death produces in a guilty mind. This picture is now placed in the Gallery of the Louvre, called "The Horrors of Death," and is considered the finest of all M. le Brun's portraits. (From Madame du Noyer's Letters.)

PROVIDENTIAL DETECTION OF MURDER.

AT Riga, in 1716, Mr. Bruce saw twelve men broke alive upon the wheel; their crime was as follows:- -a man who kept a tavern, or inn, without one of the gates of the city, and had also a windmill on his ground, having detected one of his men servants in several frauds, turned him away, and retained his wages for some little indemnification; the fellow, at his going away, threatened his master he would make him repent detaining his wages; whereupon he went and associated himself with eleven more as bad as himself. Soon after this they went to the house in the middle of the night, and meeting one of the maid servants going for water, they murdered her, and put her body under the ice; they then entered the house and stables, and murdered three other women, and five men servants; at last they entered the landlord's apartments, and murdered his wife and three of his children before his face; the fourth, a boy of five years old, had hid himself in the confusion, below a bed, unperceived; they then forced the landlord to open all his chests and drawers, and carried away what was portable and valuable out of the house; they then tied the landlord neck and heels to the foot of a large table, at which they set down and regaled themselves with the best things the house afforded here they concluded, putting hay and straw in all the apartments, and then set the house on fire, that the villain of a landlord, as they called him, might be burnt alive, and which would also consume the murdered bodies,

and prevent any possibility of discovery; and to make all sure, they brought the maid servant's body from under the ice, and laid it down by her living master: after this well laid plot, they set the house on fire, and fled with their booty. The little boy, who was hid under the bed, was forced from thence by the smoke, and the father perceiving the child, called to him, and desired him to take a knife out of his pocket, and cut the cord from off his hands, which the child did. The father being thus cleared, took his little son in his arms, and made his way through the flames, and immediately retired into the covered way of the town, for fear of being discovered by any of the villains who might be still lurking near the place. The house and out-houses being all in flames, the governor ordered the gates to be opened, and sent out a party of men to try to save what they could from the fire; but before they could get to the place all was burnt to the ground; so that the plot of those villains was so well laid, that if it had not been owing to the miraculous preservation of the child and his father, it might have remained a secret to this day. The landlord discovering himself to the officer that was at the head of the detachment, entreated that he might be privately carried to the governor, to whom he discovered the whole of this dreadful scene, who gave orders to secure and examine all persons who should enter the town that morning; by which caution, the villains, apprehending themselves secure from every possibility of discovery, as all evidence had perished in the fire, were, on their entering the town, every one taken.

DISCOVERY OF MURDER BY THE SAGACITY OF A DOG.

A FAVORITE dog, belonging to an English nobleman, had fallen into disgrace, from an incorrigible habit of annoying the flocks of the neighboring farmers. One of these having in vain driven the depredator from his premises, came at length to the offender's master, with a dead lamb under his arm, the victim of last night's plunder. The nobleman being extremely angry at the dog's trans

gression, rang the bell for his servant, and ordered him to De immediately hanged, or some other way disposed of, so that, on his return from a journey he was about to undertake, he might never see him again. He then left the apartment, and the fate of the dog was for a few hours suspended. The interval, though short, was not thrown away. The condemned animal was sufficiently an adept in the tones of his master's voice, to believe there was any hope left for a reversion of his sentence. He therefore adopted the only alternative between life and death, by making his escape. In the course of the evening, while the same servant was waiting at table, his lordship demanded if his order had been obeyed respecting the dog. "After an hour's search he is no where to be found, my lord," replied the servant. The rest of the domestics were questioned, and their answers similar. The general conclusion for some days was, that the dog, conscious of being in disgrace, had hid himself in the house of a tenant, or some other person who knew him. A month, however, passed without any thing being heard respecting him, it was therefore thought he had fallen into the hands of his late accuser, the farmer, and hanged for his transgressions.

About a year after, while his lordship was journeying into Scotland, attended only by one servant, a severe storm forced him to take shelter under a hovel belonging to a public house, situated at some distance from the road, upon a heath. The tempest continuing, threatening rather to increase than abate, the night coming on, and no house suitable to the accommodation of such a guest, his lordship was at length induced to dismount, and go into the little inn adjoining the the shed. On his entrance, an air of surprise and consternation marked the features and conduct of both the inn-holder and his wife. Confused and incoherent answers were made to common questions; and soon after a whispering took place between the two forementioned persons. At length, however, the guest was shown into a small parlor, a faggot was thrown on the fire, and such refreshments as the house afforded, were preparing, there being no appear ance whatever of more favorable weather allowing them to depart.

As the servant maid was spreading the cloth, a visible