nto a depth of
twenty feet. But the contriver was not satisfied with his attempt to
break the bones of the unfortunate person whom he thus entrapped. He
managed to have a small chamber filled with some combustible in the side
of the pit, which was to be set on fire, and, on the return of the
platform to its place, suffocate his _detenu_ with smoke. Whether he had
performed any previous atrocities in this way, or whether the present
instance was the commencement of his profession of homicide, is not
told. By some means or other, having inveigled a stout countrywoman,
coming with her eggs and apples to market, into his den, she no sooner
trod upon the frame, than the string was pulled, it turned, and we may
conceive with what astonishment and terror she must have felt herself
plunged into a grave with the light of day shut out above. Fortunately
for her, the match which was to light the combustibles failed, and she
thus escaped suffocation. Her cries, however, were so loud, that they
attracted some of the passers-by, and the villain attempted to take to
flight. He was, however, seized, and given into the hands of justice.

* * * * *

An action was lately brought by an old lady against a dealer in
curiosities, for cheating her in the matter of antiques. Her taste was
not limited to the oddities of the present day, and, in the dealer, she
found a person perfectly inclined to gratify her with wonders. He had
sold her a model of the Alexandrian library, a specimen of the original
type invented by Memnon the Egyptian, and a manuscript of the first play
acted by Thespis. These had not exhausted the stock of the dealer: he
possessed the skin of a giraffe killed in the Roman amphitheatre; the
head of King Arthur's spear; and the breech of the first cannon fired at
the siege of Constantinople. The jury, however, thought that the
virtuoso having ordered those curiosities, ought to pay for them, and
brought in a verdict for the dealer.

* * * * *

The French consul has been no sooner installed, than he has begun to
give the world provocatives to war. His legion of honour is a military
noblesse, expressly intended to make all public distinction originate in
the army; for the few men of science decorated with its star are not to
be compared with the list of soldiers, and even they are chiefly
connected with the department of war as medical men, practical chemists,
or en