, that he did it not on account of
his power, but to put down what might prove noisome if not settled, much
as a Dutch burgomaster might hunt a rat, not for its value, but because
by its boring it might cause the water to break through his dikes, and
thus flood his native land.

Robert Browning, in one of his poems, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," has
powerfully described an incursion of rats. A few lines may be quoted:--

"Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin, was a pity.
"Rats!
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in their cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats,
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

* * * * *

"And ere three shrill notes the pipes had uttered,
You heard as if an army muttered;
And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling--
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats;
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Cocking tails, and pricking whiskers,
Families by tens and dozens,
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--
Followed the Piper for their lives.
From street to street he piped, advancing,
And step for step they followed dancing,
Until they came to the river Weser
Wherein all plunged and perished,
Save one."

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND THE MUSK-RAT.

Mr Taylor, in his notes to the artist Haydon's Autobiography, tells us
that a favourite expression of the Duke of Wellington, when people tried
to coax him to do what he had resolved not to do, was, "The rat has got
into the bottle." This not very intelligible expression may refer to an
anecdote I have heard of the Duke's once telling, in his later days, how
the musk-rats in India got into bottles, which ever after retained the
odour of musk. "Either the rats must be very small," said a lady who
heard him, "or the bottles very large." "On the contrary, madam," was
the Duke's reply, "very small bottles and very large rats." "That is the
style of log