hould my
head!--oh!--ubh!--I'm poisoned!--ach!"

"It was them plaguy pasthries," says his Riv'rence. "Hould his head
hard," says he, "and clap a wet cloth over his timples. If you could
only thry another dhraw o' the pipe, your Holiness, it 'ud set you to
rights in no time."

"Carry me to bed," says the Pope, "and never let me see that wild Irish
priest again. I'm poisoned by his manes--ubplsch!--ach!--ach!--He dined
wid Cardinal Wayld yestherday," says he, "and he's bribed him to take me
off. Send for a confissor," says he, "for my latther end's approaching.
My head's like to split--so it is!--Oh my! oh my!--ubplsch!--ach!"

Well, his Riv'rence never thought it worth his while to make him an
answer; but, when he seen how ungratefully he was used, afther all his
throuble in making the evening agreeable to the ould man, he called
Spring, and put the but-end ov the second bottle into his pocket, and
left the house widout once wishing "Good-night, an' plaisant dhrames to
you;" and, in troth, not one of _them_ axed him to lave them a lock ov
his hair.

That's the story as I heard it tould; but myself doesn't b'lieve over
one-half of it. Howandiver, when all's done, it's a shame, so it is,
that he's not a bishop this blessed day and hour: for, next to the
goiant of St Jarlath's, he's out and out the cleverest fellow ov the
whole jing-bang.

LA PETITE MADELAINE.

BY MRS SOUTHEY.

[_MAGA._ AUGUST 1831.]

I was surprised the other day by a visit from a strange old lady,
brought hither to be introduced to me, at her own request, by some
friends of mine with whom she was staying in this neighbourhood. Having
been, I was informed, intimately acquainted, in her early years, with a
branch of my mother's family, to which she was distantly related, she
had conceived a desire to see one of its latest descendants, and I was
in consequence honoured with her visit. But if the honour done me was
unquestionable, the motive to which I was indebted for it was not to be
easily divined; for, truth to speak, little indication of good-will
towards me, or of kindly feeling, was discernible in the salutation
of my visitor, in her stiff and stately curtsy, her cold ceremonious
expressions, and in the sharp and severe scrutiny of the keen grey eyes,
with which she leisurely took note of me from head to foot.

Mrs Ormond's appearance was that of a person far advanced in years;
older than my mother would have been if still living;