of the lagoon is no fitting death-bed for a Christian girl like you."

"Why not?" she answered me, with much excitement. The water knows me well; I have lived amongst it, and will die in it. It draws me gently towards it, that I may be cradled in its bosom!

"Come, child," I answered, 'do not be so foolish. Do not let a little sorrow drive you to such an act of insanity. Life was not given to us to be always easy, and happy, and prosperous. Evil is its necessary companion; but for an all-wise and all-merciful end. And whence comes your despair? Is it caused by the infidelity of your lover? If so, you love him still, although unfaithful, and why not pardon him? Marco repents of his fault, and has received a lesson which I am sure he will profit by. Let me have the happiness of bringing him to your feet."

Never!" responded the Pagota firmly "they are only Venetian intriguantes, and worthless ones, who pardon such unfaithfulness. I am of Pago, and cannot act as they do. Tell the traitor that he will never see

me more."

With this the Pagota turned round rapidly, and fled, and, as I was so bewildered that I knew not what it was best to do, I could not decide to follow her till it was too late. I therefore returned to the place of St. Mark, and recounted the whole story to the ensaid what I called despair was only the sullen gineer. He laughed at my disquietude, and humour of a child. He declared, however, that he could see that he was himself the only person who could put the finishing hand to the affair, and asserted that, if Digia could be brought before him, he would undertake that in less than a quarter of an hour she should be happy and willing to espouse her nicolitto.

I spent nearly the whole first half of the next day in endeavouring to find her, and towards noon I had the pleasure of succeeding, and of also obtaining her consent to be conducted to signor Francais, who had rescued her from the toils of Francois Knapen. Accordingly I conducted her to the office of the salt-works, and on entering it drew out my watch, and reminded him that he must have but a quarter

of an hour.

married? for your bringing yourself to commit the crime of self-destruction is out of the question, in a sensible and Christian girl like you. You will, by so doing, compromise both your reputation and mine; for they will natu rally imagine that you are leading an evil life, and that I have been a party to an intrigue."

"It is not my fault, your excellency," responded Digia, "that Marco has deceived me, and I can no longer love him. Lay it not to my charge!"

"Well, if you love him no longer, think no in that case, I shall have to look out for another more about him," said the engineer. "But, husband for you, for it is absolutely necessary that you should be married. Now, there is my youngest gondolier, Ambrosio, a goodlooking and industrious young man, who earns eighty livres per month. He has seen you, that you accept him, unless you can find some and is pleased with you, and it is necessary one who will please you better within a day this will be a marriage of convenience. Amor two. In the place of a marriage of love, brosio will love you, will always act in an upright manner towards you, and you will be happy. As for your attempt at suicide, I will not speak of it any further. You do not wish, I know, to repay me for all the trouble I have been at for you by such an evil turn as that. It would not only compromise my tude would be incredible, and I shall only honor, but would afflict me with a grief which would empoison all my days. Such ingrati

offend

you by saying more on the point." "You are very good," cried the Pagota, with emotion, "and I will not so afflict you, rest assured. But, still, what you propose is quite impossible; I cannot marry Ambrosio."

"It is because," replied the engineer, "you have only as yet looked upon him with indif ference. To-day you will see in his features those of a future husband, and he will appear charming. I did not like to mention the matter to him, without mentioning it to you first; but now, as he is in the courtyard, I can call him through this window."

"In the name of heaven, signor,' cried the Pagota, catching hold of his coat to hold him back, "wait a moment, for-for-;" and her embarrassment was so great, that she was obliged to stop suddenly and lower her eyes.

"Seat yourself, ma mignonne," he said to Digia, "and be attentive. I have learned that, in an excess of grief, you have had some 'Why, perhaps," said the engineer to her, thoughts of destroying yourself, and that is "it may be, after all, that your aversion to far from right. When I saved you from the Marco was in reality only wounded love. We effects of the machinations of the Croat, I must try and find that out clearly. Interrocontracted towards your family a great resgate your heart a little, and make yourself ponsibility. They permitted you to come sure of your own sentiments. But, above with me, on condition of my seeing you mar- all, have no false delicacy or false shame. ried in Venice; that was the sole end of my Consider me as a father, and do not let any fetching you, and of their allowing you to thing of pride drown or hide a sentiment What will they think of my interven- which I now think that even yet you may tion, and of your absence, if you remain un-entertain, and which would draw us so easily

come.

out of our embarrassment, and add so much to the happiness of all parties."

The Pagota remained mute, but her breast heaved with emotion.

"Choose," the engineer continued, after a pause, "between these three plans. Pardon Marco, throw a veil over his faults, and marry him; or agree to receive the homage of Ambrosio, and let me call him through this window, and tell him what a nice little wife I have found for him; or else return immediately to Pago, and fall again into the clutches of the Croat. One of the three things you must do, or my own honor or yours will be lost. For my own part, I think the first plan would be imcomparably the best. What say you-for you must decide at once-first, second, or third ?"

"The first," murmured Digia, blushing up to the temples, and her whole frame agitated by a strong emotion; "the first I

"The fifteen minutes are gone," I interrupted her by saying, for I could see that she would be glad of some interruption.

"Yes," replied the engineer, "and now I think you may bring forward the pardoned

criminal."

Accordingly I opened the door of the antechamber, in which Marco was waiting, by my orders, the end of the conference. I led him to the feet of the Pagota, saying to him, Your cause is gained, you rascal; and you are acquitted, upon condition of your making the amende honorable, and kissing the hand of your fort charmante mistress."

Thereupon the nicolitto fell upon his knees, and commenced a half-serious and half-comic discourse, in which he gave to Digia the title of messer grande, and also that of thrice excellent and thrice just signor. Messer grande was the magistrate who, in the days of the old republic, held jurisdiction over the nicolitti, and took cognizance of their crimes and their offences. The poor Pagota was obliged to laugh at his witty discourse, and, in consequence of it, after having given one more sigh, to become entirely herself again.

to taste peaceably the happiness which the patrician thus declared was of his working. On the morning of his return, he presented me, on the part of his wife, with a branch of a creeping rose tree, upon which were sixty roses, to say nothing of the buds. The engineer received a similarly graceful present.

Digia, after her marriage, having become by it a Venetian, forsook the costume of Pago, and took in its stead that of her new countrywomen. She made her husband the very best of wives, and so arranged matters, that there was not a happier family than hers-for the nicolitti in due time clustered round her hearth-nor a more delighted or happy head of one in Venice.

As for the famous magnifique signor doge, francs was due, he came to the engineer to when his first monthly instalment of three explain, with flowers of eloquence of the most possible for him to pay it this month, but how elevated order, how it was absolutely imhe would surely pay a double instalment next. flowers of rhetoric and the same story. In The next month came, and with it the same this way, by one excuse or another, he manatowards his loan. As for the dogaressa with ged to let a year pass without paying anything the broad shoulders, she abused her lodger's complaisance to so unconscionable an extent, that, about the end of the time just named, the engineer decamped one fine bright morning, without waiting for the payment of his loan, glad to get out of the hands of his rathe magnifique signor, when he met him in pacious landlady at any price. the street, did not condescend even to acknowledge his existence. Other creditors, and his genius. other expedients, required all the resources of The man whom the doge had nothing to hope fron was, as far as he was concerned, blotted out of existence as entirely as though the Canal Orfano had engulfed

him.

Henceforth

To know a man, observe how he wins his object rather than how he loses it; for when we fail our pride supports us, when we succeed it betrays us

Tears are as dew which moistens the earth, and renews its vigour. Remorse has none; it is a volcano, vomiting forth lava which burns and destroys.

Three weeks afterwards the marriage was celebrated in the church of the good Saint Nicolo, at the bottom of the Canareggio. We conducted the bridegroom to church in an open gondola, and Marco then, for the first time in his life, travelled by water without himself touching an oar. During the cere- The most exuberant encomiast turns easily into mony, I observed that the magnifique signor the most invererate censor. was amongst the lookers-on. As the party left the church, he approached his former gondolier, and admirably forgetting his position as an insolvent debtor, whispered to him, "It is just as I predicted, Marco; I knew that my protections and my bounties would make your fortune. Your happiness is my work, and I rejoice at it."

A leave of absence of eight days, which I cheerfully granted him, enabled the nicolitto

Reason is the flower of the spirit, and its fragrance is Liberty and Knowledge.

Next to the lightest heart, the heaviest is apt to be the most cheerful.

There are times when none of us would be found at home by any friend, if it were not for the fear of being found out.

The happiest of pillows is not that which Love first presses; it is that which Death has frowned on and passed over.

BRING BACK MY FLOWERS.

"Bring back my Flowers!" said a rosy child,
As she played by the streamlet's side,
And cast down wreaths of the flowerets wild,
On the ever-hurrying tide.

BLANK BABIES IN PARIS.

THE Foundlings of Paris are an ancient commanity. For upwards of four hundred years, they have been the object of legislative enactments. Their earliest protectors were the clergy; and it was to the Bishop of Paris and

But the stream flowed on, ard her treasures bore the Chapter of Notre Dame that they were To the far-off sparkling sea,

To return to the place of their birth no more,
Though she cried "Come back to me,
Ye fairest gems of these forest bowers;
Oh,stream! bright stream! bring back my flowers."

"Bring back my flowers!" said a noble youth,
As he mournfully stood alone,

And sadly thought on the bros en truth

Of a heart that was once his own,-
Of a light that shone on his life's young day,
As brilliant as man e'er knew,—

Of a love that his reason had led astray,

And to him was no longer true.
"Return," he cried, "life's brightest hours;-
Oh, stream of Time! bring back my flowers."

"Bring back my Flowers!" a mother sighed,
O'er the grave where her infant slept;
And where in her stubbornness and pride,
She her tearful vigils kept.

"Oh, why does the cruel hand of Death

Seek victims so fair as she?

Oh, why are the loved ones of others left,

While mine is thus snatched from me?
Who gave to thee, Death, such cruel powers?
Oh, grave! dark grave! bring back my flowers:"

"Bring back my Flowers!" said a grey-haired man,
For the friends of his youth were fled;
And those he had loved and cherished most

Were slumbering with the dead.
But a faith in his God still cheered him on,

Though the present was dark and drear,
For he knew that in Heaven he'd meet again
The friends upon earth so dear.

indebted for their first asylum. As an hospital for their reception a building was assigned them at the port l'Evèque, which was called Maison de la Creche; the word creche originally signifying crib or manger only, but now employed to designate the general reception-room in the present hospital.That the newly-born children who were deserted by their parents might not perish from exposure in the public streets, a large cradle was established within the Cathedral of Notre Dame, accessible at all hours of the day or night, in which infants were placed, there to attract the attention of the pious.This cradle was in existence as early as fourteen hundred and thirty one, for in that year died Isabella of Bavaria, the queen of Charles the Sixth of France-one of the most unnatural mothers and one of the worst of wiveswho bequeathed to the Foundlings the enor mous legacy of eight francs.

Besides being the recipients of casual charity the Foundlings of Paris had a claim upon the High Justiciaries of the capital, all of them ecclesiastics; who, according to old usage, were bound to contribute towards their maintenance. These spiritual nobles were, however, too much under the influence of earthly considerations to perform their duties faithfully; and, gradually stinting their donations, finally withheld them altogether. This was the occasion of much litigation; which was finally compromised by annual payments being compounded for by the making over two houses on the Port Saint Landry, within a stone's throw of the Cathedral.

Poorly paid, and having no sympathy for their charge, the servants of the es.ablishment of the Port Saint Landry turned the miserable little orphans to their own profit. Street beggars wanting a new-born child wherewith to move the sensibility of the public, procured one at the Port Saint Landry. If a nurse required a child to replace one that through her negligence might have died, the substitute was ready at the Port Saint Landry. If a witch needed an infant for sacrifice, she obtained one at the Port Saint Landry. The price of a child in that establishment was just twenty sous!

This revolting traffic became a crying scandal, even in the city of cut-purse nobles and cut-throat citizens; and it attracted the attention of the celebrated philanthropist Vincent de Paul. His first attempt to provide the Foundlings with a better home consisted in his procuring for them a new hospital near the

gate of Saint Victor. This was in the year sixteen hundred and thirty eight. He placed the new establishment under the care of the Sisters of Char ty; who, moved by an appeal which he made to them, lent themselves to the good work; not very effectually however, at first; for the funds for the maintenance of the children-whose numbers fast increased-proving wholly insufficient, the administrators had recourse to a detestable expedient; they chose by lot the children that were to be provided for, and the re-idue were allowed to die for want of food! When Vincent de Paul learned this, he assembled the ladies who had placed themselves at the head of the establishment, and earnestly besought them to consider the poor Foundlings in the light of their own children. His eloquent pleading prevailed. But he did not stop here; he addressed himself to the King; and eventually, the Parliament of Paris issued a decree, by which the High Justiciaries were compelled to pay an annual sum of fitteen thousan francs toward the mainter ance of the Foundlings; and a house in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, with a large quantity of ground attached to it, was bought to serve as a permanent place of asylum for the unfortunate children.

ral stringent laws were enacted. One of these, dated the thirtieth Ventose, year five (March twenty-second, seventeen hundred and ninety-seven) contained amongst other articles a decree obliging all nurses who had the care of Foundlings to appear every three months before the agent of their commune, and certify that the children confided to them had been treated with humanity. Those who succeeded in bringing up Foundlings till they reached the age of twelve years were rewarded with a present of fifty francs.

Amongst the sights of Paris at the present day, the Found ing Hospital is not the least attractive. But to look or the building where we last left it, in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, would be lost labor; neither does a subsidiary asylum which was established at the corner of the square (called the Parvis) of the cathedral of Notre Dame still existBoth, in fact, were combined into one, and their inmates transferred in the year eighteen hundred to the premises in the Rue d'Enfer, originally occupied by the Oratory where the priests of that congregation performed their noviciate. This Street of the Infernal Regions" owes its present designation to this simple cause; the street of Saint Jaques, which runs parallel to it and occupies higher ground, was formerly called the Via Superior (upper road), and the Rue d'Enfer, its lower neighbor, Via Inferior; a poetical imagination soon made the corruption.

We are not at all indebted, for our knowledge of the preceeding facts, to the very excellent Sister of Charity who accompanied us over the Hospice des Enfans Trouvês when last we paid a visit to that establishment; but what she did relate may serve in some measure to show what is its present condition. When the moment comes we shall let her speak for herself; but our own impressions must first of all be recorded.

Be ore this last settlement was made, Vincent de Paul died. But the impulse which he had originated never afterwards flagged. In the midst of his magnificence, Louis the Fourteenth issued an edict, dated June, sixteen hundred and seventy, in which was recognised the truth that "there is no duty more natural nor more conformable to Christian piety, than to take care of poor children who are abandoned, and whose weakness and misfortune alike render them worthy of compassion;" and six years later, Maria Theresa of Austria, the wife of the magnificent monarch, laid the first stone of a new and spacious edifice for the Foundlings in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, to which a church was attached. This exam- Before we reached the Hospital we had ple having been set, there was no lack, in passed the previous half-hour in the gardens that courtly age, of noble imitators, and large of the Luxembourg; and, although the flowers endowments were made by chancellors and are not so fine nor the company so gay, as are presidents, and others high in authority. It to be seen in the rival parterres and avenues was quite time; for, in a ratio that far of the Tuileries, both were brilliant enough exceeded the increase of population of Paris, to form a striking contrast to the dull, deserted the number of enfants trouvès was augmented. flowerless street which bears the redoubtable When Vincent de Paul first took up their name already mentioned. It lay before us, cause in sixteen hundred and thirty-eight, the grey, blank, and dreary, with nothing to reFoundlings numbered three hundred and lieve the monotony of its general aspect but twelve; but, at the close of the seventeenth an inscription over the gateway of a building century, they had multipled to the extent of on the right hand side, informing us that there seventeen hundred and thirty eight. Mon-stood the "Hospice de Enfans Trouvès." If sieur Delaure took considerable pains to show the site had been selected expressly for the (in his well known History of Paris) that purpose of being out of the way, where no during anarchical periods, the Foundling Ho-witnesses might see the trembling mother pital received the greatest number of in-deposit her new-born child, it could not have mates.

During the Republic, in consequence of the vast disproportion between the children who were deposited and those who survived, seve

been managed better. As we drew near the entrance a further indication of the purposes of the building was visible in the words "Panier des Enfans," very legibly inscribed