bunch of keys. Have patience only two minutes! I shall be back in a trice." With these words she flew up the stairs, and before two minutes were elapsed, the sound of her footsteps was already heard from the court yard. On coming near the cellar door, she exclaimed, with pretended joy, though out of breath, "I have it! I have found it! and in the same moment bounded suddenly against the sentinel at the entrance, throwing him headlong down the cellar stairs. The trap-door was bolted with the quickness of lightning, and the whole band were encaged in the cellar. All this was the work of one moment. In the next she flew over the court-yard, setting fire to a solitary stable full of straw and hay and the flames blazed instantaneously aloft. The watchmen in the adjacent village observed the blaze, and rung the alarm bell. In a few moments the castle-yard was crowded with peasants. The baroness ordered some of them to extinguish the flames, while she conducted the rest to the baron's armory, and having distributed swords and fire-arms amongst them, desired them to surround the cellar. Her orders were obeyed, and not one of the band escaped his well-merited fate.

THE AMERICAN DUELLISTS.

THE following relation, which is derived from the best authorities, is thus detailed in a New York publication. Previous to the American Revolution, two young men, Charles Mercer and Richard Reynolds, were students together at one of our most respectable colleges. They were in the same class and intimate friends. Charles Mercer was the son of a mechanic, who labored hard and suffered many deprivations that he might give his son a good education. Charles was superior to most young men in personal appearance, and was remarkable for his strength and agility in athletic exercise. His disposition was noble and generous. At the expiration of two years in college he was informed by his father that he could no longer support him there, from the unfortunate failure of a friend for whom he had become responsible, without de

priving the younger portion of his family of their necessary supplies. Mercer prepared to leave college with a heart lightened by the reflection that he should no longer be a burden but an assistant in his father's family. At this period, Reynolds, with a generosity that is seldom found, informed Mercer's father by letter that he would from his own abundant means, support his friend until he should be able by his own exertions to repay him. He informed Mercer's father, at the same time, of the growth of their mutual love and esteem. All the obligations which young Mercer could urge against this arrangement, were overruled by his parents, and he consented to stay. Richard Reynolds was born of the most respectable parents in the town of B. He was an only son, heir to great wealth, and possessed an abundant share of spirits and vivacity. He was esteemed as one of the best scholars in the class, but rather averse to mathematical demonstrations. By his classmates he was deemed a wild, but not a vicious fellow. He scorned to do a mean action, but too easily suffered himself to indulge in those vices which eventually lead to crime. Mercer now no longer a faithful adviser, at the solicitation and by the example of Reynolds, became his companion in many imprudent excesses. One evening, the two friends, with two of their classmates, assembled to drink wine, and have what is generally termed a social meeting. Presently cards were introduced, and they sat down to gamble. In choosing partners at the commencement of the game, Reynolds and Mercer were opposed to one another. Heated with wine, Reynolds betted extravagantly, and lost seven games in succession. At the end of the sixth, he declared that the opposite party had cheated.

This gave rise to some dispute, but saying that he would try them again, he doubled the bet, and lost the seventh. Irritated beyond measure, and always violent in his passions, which were then much heated by wine, he rose up, threw down his cards, and struck Mercer in the face, at the same time accusing him of cheating. A short contest ensued, when Mercer by his great personal strength, seized both the hands of his antagonist, and held him perfectly at his mercy. The two other young men were ineffectually appealed to, and refusing to interfere in the quarrel,

left the room. Reynolds, enraged to be thus in the power of one so much his debtor, called Mercer a coward, a fawning hypocrite, told him he dared not fight him like a gentleman with swords, and charged him with the benefits conferred on him by himself. "You have dissolved every tie," answered Mercer; "I will not be called a coward or hypocrite by any man. Your past favors-would to God I had never received them-your future favors I disdain. I will meet you this moment, at any place you appoint." They immediately sallied forth as the morning dawned, to a retired spot, and drew their swords upon each other. Mercer had learnt the art of fencing of an uncle who was a good swordsman, and he knew that he was superior to Reynolds. He therefore contented himself with parrying the violent thrusts of his adversary, and at the same time gave him some slight wounds to show that he was completely in his power. Reynolds was only rendered by this conduct more furious, and even foamed at his mouth with violent rage. Extreme anger seems to drive away every other passion from the human heart but cunning. Cunning is ever the faithful ally and necessary companion of revenge. Reynolds suddenly dropping the point of his sword, thrust it into the ground, and held out his hand. "Give me your hand, you are still the best of friends-I am in the wrong." Mercer replied, "I am rejoiced to see you return to your right mind. I hope our friendship will become the stronger from this unhappy interruption, but I for ever decline your further pecuniary assistance." At the commencement of the contest, they pulled off their coats. Mercer turned round to put his on, and while he was swinging it over his head, Reynolds drew his sword from the ground and stabbed him to the heart. No sooner was the deed done than his reason, which had been clouded by passion, returned. He raised the bleeding body of his friend who had fallen on his face; beheld his ghastly countenance just fixed in death; vainly attempted to staunch the blood which gushed from the wound, and fell back in a swoon of agony and distress. So soon does punishment follow in the footsteps of crime. By the assistance of his still fond father, he escaped to France in a merchantman. For a long time he wandered through different parts of Europe, till by the in

tervention of his father's powerful friends in England, he obtained the pardon of the king. Return, my son," said his father, "and close my eyes in peace, for my life is drawing to a close." He embarked in a vessel bound to America, but before he arrived his parents had both died, leaving an immense fortune at his disposal. But destitute of friends, of relations, shunned by the virtuous, pitied by few, life was a burden. He presented himself at the bar of justice, and tearing the king's pardon in pieces before the eyes of the judges, he demanded the punishment due to his crime. "I wish for death-may my execution be a warning example to those who come after me." The judges refused to pronounce his doom, declaring that the king's pardon had been given, and though the certificate had been destroyed, it still remained in force. Reynolds returned home, but his peace of mind was for ever lost. In his reveries, in the midst of the crowded circle, he would start and shriek, declaring with great vehemence of gesture, that he saw the bloody body of Mercer. Nothing could soothe the irritability of his mind; the hideous spectacle met him in every path, and was the subject of his nightly dreams. The human frame is incapable of enduring for any length of time such distress. He grew emaciated, mortality quitted her moorings, and he died in all the agonies of despair.

DANGEROUS AERIAL VOYAGE OF THE DUKE DE CHARTRES,

On the 15th of July, 1784, the duke de Chartres, the two brothers Roberts, and another person, ascended with an inflammable air balloon, from the park of St. Cloud, at 52 minutes past seven in the morning. This balloon was of an oblong form, its dimensions being 55 feet by 34. It ascended with its greatest extension nearly horizontal; and after remaining in the atmosphere about 45 minutes, it de scended at a small distance from its place of ascension. But the incidents that occurred during this aerial excur sion, deserve particular notice, as nothing like it has hap pened before to any other aerial travellers. This machine contained an inferior small balloon, filled with common air;

by which means it was supposed that they might regulate. the ascent and the descent of the machine, without any loss of the hydrogen gas, or of ballast. The boat was furnished with a helm and oars, that were intended to guide the machine, but which were in this, as well as in every other similar attempt, found to be quite useless.

On the level of the sea, the mercury in the barometer stood at 30.25 inches, and at the place of ascension it stood at 30.12. Three minutes after its ascension, the balloon was lost in the clouds, and the aerial voyagers lost sight of the earth, being involved in a dense vapor. Here an unusual agitation of the air, somewhat like a whirlwind, in a moment turned the machine three times from the right to the left. The violent shocks which the adventurers suf fered prevented their using any of the means prepared for the direction of the machine; and they even tore away the silk stuff of which the helm was made. Never, said they, a more dreadful situation presented itself to any eye, than that in which they were involved. An unbounded ocean of shapeless clouds rolled beneath, and seemed to forbid their return to the earth, which was still invisible. The agitation of the balloon became greater every moment. They cut the cords which held the anterior balloon, which consequently fell on the bottom of the external balloon, just upon the aperture of the tube that went down to the boat, and stopped that communication. At this time the thermometer was a little above 44°. A gust of wind from below drove the balloon upwards, to the extremity of the vapor, where the appearance of the sun showed them the existence of nature: but now, both the heat of the sun, and the diminished density of the atmosphere, occasioned such a dilatation of the gas that the bursting of the balloon was aprehended; to avoid which, they introduced a stick through the tube, and endeavored to remove the inner balloon, which stopped the aperture within the external balloon; but the dilatation of the gas pressed the inner balloon so forcibly against that aperture, as to render every attempt ineffectual. During this time they continually ascended, until the mercury in the barometer stood not higher than 24.36 inches; which showed their height above the surface of the earth to be about 5100 feet. Under