At night, the commissary-general of police calm dignity, saying: "I am the Duchess de once more quitted the house, leaving a detach- Berri. You are Frenchmen and soldiers, and ment of soldiers in occupation of the ground-I rely on your honor."

police.

floor, and police-officers in all the other The gendarmes, who had both formerly apartments. The two gendarmes, whose served in Napoleon's Imperial Guard, respectplaces had been supplied by other watchers fully kissed the duchess' hand, and showed during the day, now resumed their post in the her every possible attention. Some of the garret. Again they lighted a fire in the soldiers who were stationed in the lower part cheminée; again the plaque became red-hot; of the house, mounted to the garret on hearand again were the exhausted occupants of ing an unusual noise; and the news rapidly the cachette forced to shift about, to relieve spread that the Duchess de Berri had been each other from the intense heat. Once the captured. The general commanding at Nantes, duchess' dress touched the red-hot iron and and other superior military officers, soon caught fire; but it was crushed together by arrived, as well as the prefect of the dethe hands in a moment, and no further mis-partment, and the commissary-general of chief happened in that way. Doubtless, the high-spirited duchess and her faithful com- All the duchess asked for, after having been panions would still have held out, in the hope so long in the frightful state we have dethat their pursuers would ere long retire after scribed, was a glass of water; she then took so many defeats, had it not been that what, in the arm of General d'Hermancourt and prothe early morning, was a safety-valve, became ceeded to the castle, at a very short distance the source of imminent peril at night; for from Mesdames Duguiny's house. Breakfast the cleft in the brick, which had admitted was soon served for the duchess and her faiththe refreshing air, now afforded a passage ful companions by order of the colonel comfor the pungent smoke arising from the roar- manding the artillery at the castle; and every ing wood-fire. They were suffocating, and delicate attention was paid to the princess. must either abandon the cachette at once On the 9th of November she went in a or perish. steam-vessel down the Loire as far as St. Nizaire, where she embarked in the Capricieux frigate early on the morning of the 11th for Blaye-arrived there on the same day, and was lodged in the castle, where, under the guardianship of the late General Bugeaud, she was detained for some months as a prisoner, but was eventually released, and allowed to return to Italy.

In this extremity, the duchess desired that the plaque might be opened forthwith; but the iron had become dilated by the excessive heat, and the spring would not act. It was a case of life or death-moments were now ages. The Count de Mesnard and M. Guibourg kicked with all their might against the plaque, red-hot as it was, whilst the smoke poured in more and more through the cracked brick. No sound was heard from without, however; and they must all have perished in a few minutes, had not the plaque at last given way to the desperate force brought against it by the two gentlemen. The gendarmes were panic-stricken at the bursting open of the plaque, scattering the fire over their legs and into the room, and at hearing vehement human voices issuing from the cavernous aperture.

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Qui va là?"-Who goes there?-they cried, in military phrase.

"Your prisoners, who surrender: extinguish the fire!" replied female voices. The gendarmes rapidly obeyed; and after the plaque and the hearth had become sufficiently cooled, the captives crawled out, the two gendarmes gallantly assisting the ladies. As soon as the duchess could rise. she did so with

THE second volume of the new edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica;" opening with a curious paper on the letter " A," and proceeding in its travels through the alphabet as far as "Anatomy." The most elaborate intermediate articles are Agriculture" and "Agricultural Chemistry"-timely essays just now; "Aëronautics," or sailing through the air-in plain

The traitor Deutz affected to be stung with remorse when he was told that the duchess had been captured. He paced the room with frantic gestures, violently striking his head against the wall, as though he wished to destroy himself. He was not in earnest, however, for he lived to pocket the reward of his perfidy; and was sent off to Paris that very night in a post-chaise in charge of a policeofficer, in order, no doubt, that he might give further information to the government as to the political projects of the Duchess de Berri and

her adherents.

It is not necessary to speak of the_aftercareer of so degraded a being as Deutz, further than to state that he was deservedly repulsed, wherever he was known, by respectable people of all political opinions and of every religious persuasion.

From Eliza Cook's Journal. WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY, THE NATURALIST.

THIS country has as yet produced no naturalist so distinguished as Audubon in his particular department of science. Wilson, the Paisley weaver, published an admirable work on the birds of America, and, having settled in that country, he came to be regarded as an American rather than as a British writer. The subject of this memoir, who died only a few months ago, certainly stands at the head of all our native writers on British birds. His history is similar to that of many other ardent devotees of science and art. His life was a long and arduous struggle with difficulties, poverty and neglect; and it was only towards the close of his career, when he had completed the last volume of his admirable work, that he saw the clouds which had obscured his early fortunes clearing away and showing him the bright sky and sunshine beyond; but, alas! the success came too late; his constitution had given way in the ardor of the pursuit, and the self-devoted man of science sank lamented into a too early grave. William Macgillivray was born at Aberdeen, the son of comparatively poor parents, who nevertheless found the means of sending him to the university of his native town, in which he took the degree of inaster of arts. It was his intention to have taken out a medical degree, and he served an apprenticeship to a physician with this view, but his means were too limited, and his love of natural history too ardent, to allow him to follow the profession as a means of support. He accordingly sought for a situation which should at the same time enable him to subsist and to pursue his favorite pursuit.

latter capacity that he wrote the three first volumes of his elaborate work on British birds. His spare time was also occupied in the preparation of numerous other works on natural history, some of them of standard excellence, by which he was enabled to eke out the means of comfortable subsistence.

Mr. Macgillivray was a man of indefatigable industry, of singular order and method in his habits, a strict economist of time, every moment of which he turned to useful account. Although he studied and wrote upon many subjects — zoology, geology, botany, mollusca, physiology, agriculture, the feeding of - ornithology was cattle, soils and subsoils always his favorite pursuit. He accompanied Audubon in most of his ornithological rambles in Scotland, and doubtless imbibed some portion of the ardent enthusiasm with which the American literally burned. Mr. Macgillivray wrote the descriptions of the species, and of the alimentary and respiratory organs, His own British for Audubon's great work. Birds reminds us in many parts of the enthusiasm of Audubon, and of the graces of that writer's style. Like him Macgillivray used to watch the birds of which he was in search by night and day. Wrapped in his plaid, he would lie down upon the open moor, or on the hill-side, waiting the approach of morning to see the feathered tribes start up and meet the sun, to dart after their prey, or to feed their impatient brood. We remember one such night spent by him on the side of the Lammermoor hills, described in one of his early works, which is full of descriptive beauty as well as of sound information upon the subject in hand. There is another similar description of a night spent by him among the He had been in mountains of Braemar. search of the gray ptarmigan, whose haunts Such a situation presented itself in 1823, and habits he was engaged in studying at the when he accepted the appointment of assistant time, and had traced the river Dee far up to and secretary to the regius professor of natural its sources among the hills, when all traces history, and keeper of the Museum of the of the stream became lost; clouds began to Edinburgh University. The collection of gather about the summits of the mountains, natural history at that place is one of peculiar still he pressed on towards the hill-top, until excellence, and he was enabled to pursue his he found himself on the summit of a magnifistudies with increased zest and profit-not, cent precipice, several hundred feet high, and "The scene," however, as regarded his purse, for the office at least half a mile in length. "that now presented itself to my was by no means lucrative; but, having the he says, charge of this fine collection, he was enabled view was the most splendid that I had then All around rose mountains beyond to devote his time exclusively to the study of seen. scientific ornithology during the winter, mountains, whose granite ridges, rugged and while during the summer vacation he made tempest-beaten, furrowed by deep ravines long excursions in the country in order to in-worn by the torrents, gradually became vestigate and record the habits of British dimmer as they receded, until at length on the birds. He was afterwards appointed con- verge of the horizon they were blended with servator to the Museum of the Royal College the clouds or stood abrupt against the clear of Surgeons at Edinburgh, where we have often seen him diligently poring over, dissecting, and preparing the specimens which, from time to time, were added to that fine collection. It was while officiating in the

sky. A solemn stillness pervaded all nature; no living creature was to be seen; the dusky wreaths of vapor rolled majestically over the dark valleys, and clung to the craggy summits A melancholy, of the everlasting hills.

pleasing, incomprehensible feeling creeps over the soul when the lone wanderer contemplates the vast, the solemn, the solitary scene, over which savage grandeur and sterility preside.

stones, grass, and a little short heath; unloosed my pack, covered one of my extremities with a nightcap, and thrust a pair of dry stockings on the other, ate a portion of my scanty store, drank two or three glasses of "The summits of the loftier mountains; water from a neighboring rill, placed myself Cairngorm on the one hand, Ben-na-muic-dui, in an easy posture, and fell asleep. About and Benvrotan on the other, and Loch-na-gar sunrise I awoke, fresh, but feeble; ascended on the south, were covered with mist; but the the glen, passed through a magnificent corry, clouds had rolled westward from Ben-na- composed of vast rocks of granite; ascended buird, on which I stood, leaving its summit the steep with great difficulty, and at length entirely free. The beams of the setting sun gained the summit of the mountain, which burst in masses of light here and there was covered with light gray mist that rolled through the openings in the clouds, which rapidly along the ridges. As the clouds exhibited a hundred varying shades. There, cleared away at intervals, and the sun shone over the ridges of yon brown and torrent- upon the scene, I obtained a view of the glen worn mountain, hangs a vast mass of livid in which I had passed the night, the corry, vapor, gorgeously glowing with deep crimson the opposite hills, and a blue lake before me. along all its lower-fringed margin. Here, the The stream which I had followed I traced to white shroud that clings to the peaked sum-two large fountains from each of which I took mits assumes on its western side a delicate a glassful, which I quaffed to the health of hue like that of the petals of the pale-red my best friend. rose. Far away to the north glooms a murky cloud, in which the spirits of the storm are mustering their strength, and preparing the forked lightnings, which at midnight they will fling over the valley of the Spey.'

i

"Descending from this summit, I wandered over a high moor, came upon the brink of rocks that bounded a deep valley, in which was a black lake; proceeded over the unknown region of alternate bogs and crags; raised several flocks of gray ptarmigans, and at length, by following a ravine, entered one of the valleys of the Spey, near the mouth of which I saw a water ouzel. It was not until noon that I reached a hut, in which I procured some milk. In the evening, at Kingussie, I examined the ample store of plants that I had collected in crossing the Grampians, and refreshed myself with a long sleep in a more comfortable bed than one of granite slabs, with a little grass and heather spread over them."

Macgillivray's description of the golden eagle of the highlands, in its eloquence, reminds one of the splendid descriptions of his friend Audubon. We can only give a few brief extracts.

The traveller, seeing night coming on, struck into a corry, down which a small mountain streamlet rushed; and having reached the bottom of the slope, began to run, starting the ptarmigans from their seats and the does from their lair. It became quite dark still he went on walking for two hours, but all traces of path became lost, and he groped his way amid blocks of granite, ten iniles at least from any human habitation, and “with no better cheer in my wallet," he says, "than a quarter of a cake of barley and a few crumbs of cheese, which a shepherd had given me. Before I resolved to halt for the night, I had, unfortunately, proceeded so far up the glen that I had left behind me the region of heath, so that I could not procure enough for a bed. Pulling some grass and "The golden eagle is not seen to advantage moss, however, I spread it in a sheltered in the menagerie of a Zoological Society, nor place, and after some time succeeded in when fettered on the smooth lawn of an arisfalling into a sort of slumber. About mid- tocratic mansion, or perched on the rockwork night I looked up on the moon and stars that of a nursery-garden; nor can his habits be were at times covered by the masses of vapor well described by a cockney ornithologist, that rolled along the summits of the moun- whose proper province it is to concoct systems, tains, which, with their tremendous precipices, work out' analogies, and give names to completely surrounded the hollow in which I skins that have come from foreign lands cowered, like a ptarmigan in the hill-corry. carefully packed in boxes lined with tin. Behind me, in the west, and at the head of the Far away among the brown hills of Albyn, is glen, was a lofty mass enveloped in clouds; thy dwelling-place, chief of the rocky glen! on the right a pyramidal rock, and beside it a On the crumbling crag of red granitepeak of less elevation; on the left a ridge tower of the fissured precipices of Loch-na-gar from the great mountain, terminating below thou hast reposed in safety. The croak of in a dark conical prominence; and straight the raven has broken thy slumbers, and thou before me in the east, at the distance appar-gatherest up thy huge wings, smoothest thy ently of a mile, another vast mass. Finding feathers on thy sides, and preparest to launch myself cold, although the weather was mild, into the aerial ocean. Bird of the desert, I got up and made me a couch of larger solitary though thou art, and hateful to the CCCCLXXXVII. LIVING AGE. VOL. II. 48

6

that

among the gray lichen, squeezes it to death, raises his head exultingly, emits a clear, shrill cry, and springing from the ground pursues his journey.

eight of many of thy fellow-creatures, thine | poor, terrified ptarmigan that sits cowering must be a happy life! No lord hast thou to bend thy stubborn soul to his will, no cares corrode thy heart; seldom does fear chill thy free spirit, for the windy tempest and the thick sleet cannot injure thee, and the lightnings may flash around thee and the thunders shake the everlasting hills, without rousing thee from thy dreamy repose.

This

the

"In passing a tall cliff that overhangs a small lake, he is assailed by a fierce peregrine falcon, which darts and plunges at him as if determined to deprive him of his booty, or drive him headlong to the ground. proves a more dangerous foe than the raven, and the eagle screams, yelps, and throws himself into postures of defiance; but at length the hawk, seeing the tyrant is not bent on plundering his nest, leaves him to pursue his course unmolested. Over woods and green fields, and scattered hamlets, speeds eagle; and now he enters the long valley of the Dee, near the upper end of which is dimly seen through the thin gray mist the rock of his nest. About a mile from it he meets his mate, who has been abroad on a similar errand, and is returning with a white hare in her talons. They congratulate each other with loud yelping cries, which rouse the drowsy shepherd on the strath below, who, mindful of the lambs carried off in spring time, sends after them his malediction. Now they reach their nest, and are greeted by their young with loud clamor."

"See how the sunshine brightens the yellow tint of his head and neck, until it shines almost like gold! There he stands, nearly erect, with his tail depressed, his large wings half raised by his side, his neck stretched out, and his eye glistening as he glances around. Like other robbers of the desert, he has a noble aspect, an imperative mien, a look of proud defiance; but his nobility has a dash of churlishness, and his falconship a vulturine tinge. Still he is a noble bird, powerful, independent, proud, and ferocious; regardless of the weal or woe of others, and intent solely on the gratification of his own appetite; without generosity, without honor; "bold against the defenceless, but ever ready to sneak from danger. Such is his nobility, about which men have so raved. Suddenly he raises his wings, for he has heard the whistle of the shepherd in the corry; and, bending forward, he springs into the air. O that this pencil of mine were His descriptions of the haunts of the wild a musket charged with buckshot! Hardly birds of the north are full of picturesque do those vigorous flaps serve at first to pre-beauty. Those of the grouse, the ptarmigan, vent his descent; but now, curving upwards, the merlin, are full of memorable pictures, he glides majestically along. As he passes and here is a brief sketch of the haunts of the the corner of that buttressed and battlemented common snipe, which recalls many delightful crag, forth rush two ravens from their nest, associations:- "Beautiful are those green croaking fiercely. While one flies above him woods that hang upon the craggy sides of the the other steals beneath, and they essay to fern-clad hills, where the heath-fowl threads strike him, but dare not, for they have an its way among the tufts of brown heath, and instinctive knowledge of the power of his the cuckoo sings his ever-pleasing notes as he grasp; and after following him a little way balances himself on the gray stone, vibrating they return to their home, vainly exulting in his fan-like tail. Now I listen to the simple the thought of having driven him from their song of the mountain blackbird, warbled by neighborhood. Bent on a far journey, he ad- the quiet lake that spreads its glittering vances in a direct course, flapping his great bosom to the sun, winding far away among wings at regular intervals, then shooting the mountains, amid whose rocky glens wander along without seeming to move them. the wild deer, tossing their antlered heads on high as they snuff the breeze tainted with the odor of the slow-paced shepherd and his faithful dog. In that recess formed by two mossclad slabs of mica-slate, the lively wren jerks up its little tail, and chits its merry note, as it recalls its straggling young ones that have wandered among the bushes. From the sedgy slope, sprinkled with white cotton-grass, comes the shrill cry of the solitary curlew; and there, high over the heath, wings his meandering way the joyous snipe, giddy with excess of unalloyed happiness.

"Over the moors he sweeps, at the height of two or three hundred feet, bending his course to either side, his wings wide spread, his neck and feet retracted, now beating the air, and again sailing smoothly along. Suddenly he stops, poises himself for a moment, stoops, but recovers himself without reaching the ground. The object of his regards, a golden plover, which he had espied on her nest, has eluded him, and he cares not to pursue it. Now he ascends a little, wheels in short curves presently rushes down headlong-assumes the horizontal positionwhen close to the ground, prevents his being dashed against it by expanding his wings and tail-thrusts forth his talons, and grasping a

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There another has sprung from among the yellow flowered marigolds that profusely cover the marsh. Upwards slantingly, on rapidly vibrating wings, he shoots, uttering

the while his shrill, two-noted cry. Tissick, | sea-creek, on the most northern coast of Scottissick, quoth the snipe as he leaves the bogs. land, and, that too, in the very midst of winter; Now in silence he wends his way, until at but the heron courts not society, and seems to length having reached the height of perhaps care as little as any one for the cold. Were a thousand feet, he zigzags along, emitting a you to betake yourself to the other extremity louder and shriller cry of zoo-zee, zoo-zee, zoo- of the island, where the scenery is of a very zee; which over, varying his action, he de- different character, and the inlands swarm scends on quivering pinions, curving towards with ducks and gulls, there, too, you would the earth with surprising speed, while from find the heron, unaltered in manners, slow in the rapid beats of his wing the tremulous air his movements, careful and patient, ever hungives to the ear what at first seems the voice gry and ever lean-for, even when in best of distant thunder. This noise some have condition, he never attains the plumpness likened to the bleating of a goat at a distance that gives you the idea of a comfortable exon the hill-side, and thus have named our istence." bird the Air-goat and Air-bleater."

In his later volumes, the naturalist gives many admirable descriptions of the haunts of sea-birds along the rock-bound shores of his native Highlands. He loves to paint the coasts of the lonely Hebrides, where he often resorted in the summer months to watch and study the divers and plungers of the sea. Here, for instance, is a picture of the gray heron on a Highland coast :

We should like also to give his descriptions of the haunts and habits of the "Great Northern Diver," and the "Great Blackbacked Gull," which are most vigorously painted; but we must forbear, referring the reader to the fifth volume of the work itself, which is throughout a most able one. At present, we shall conclude our brief sketch of the naturalist's too brief life.

In 1841, Mr. Macgillivray was appointed by "The cold blasts of the north sweep along the Crown to the Professorship of Natural the ruffled surface of the lake, over whose History in Marischal College, Aberdeen, solely deep waters frown the rugged crags of rusty on account of his acknowledged merit, for he gneiss, having their crevices sprinkled with had no interest whatever; and the zeal, ability, tufts of withered herbage, and their summits and success, with which he discharged his covered with stunted birches and alders. The duties, amply justified the nomination. He desolate hills around are partially covered was an admirable lecturer-clear, simple, with snow, the pastures are drenched with and methodical, laboring to lay securely the the rains, the brown torrents scum the heathy foundations of knowledge in the minds of his slopes, and the little birds have long ceased pupils. He imbued them with the love of to enliven those deserted thickets with their science, and communicated to them as every gentle songs. Margining the waters, extends successful lecturer will do. -a portion of his a long muddy beach, over which are scattered own enthusiasm. blocks of stone, partially clothed with dusky In the autumn of 1850, he made an excurand olivaceous weeds. Here and there a gull | sion to Braemar, with the intention of writing floats buoyantly in the shallows; some oyster- an account of the Natural History of Balmoral catchers repose on a gravel bank, their bills (which was ready for publication at the time buried among their plumage; and there, on of his death); and he afterwards extended that low shelf, is perched a solitary heron, his excursion to the central region of the like a monument of listless indolence -a Grampians, in pursuit of the materials for bird petrified in its slumber. At another another work. The fatigue and exposure time, when the tide has retired, you may find it wandering, with slow and careful tread, among the little pools, and by the sides of the rocks, in search of small fishes and crabs; but, unless you are bent on watching it, you will find more amusement in observing the lively tringas and turnstones, ever in rapid motion; for the heron is a dull and lazy bird, or at least he seems to be such; and even if you draw near, he rises in so listless a manner, that you think it a hard task for him to unfold his large wings and heavily beat the air, until he has fairly raised himself. But now he floats away, lightly, though with slow flapping, screams his harsh cry, and tries to soar to some distant place, where he may remain unmolested by the prying naturalist. 'Perhaps you may wonder at finding him in so cold and desolate a place as this dull

which he underwent on this occasion seriously affected his health; and he removed to Torquay, in Devon, in hopes of renewed vigor. But he never rallied. A severe calamity befell him while in Devon, through the sudden death of his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached. Nevertheless, he went on steadily with his work, which even his seriously impaired health did not allow him to interrupt. We can conceive him in such a state to have written the following passage, which appears in the preface to his last work, published in the week of his death:

"As the wounded bird seeks some quiet retreat, where, freed from the persecution of the pitiless fowler, it may pass the time of its anguish in forgetfulness of the outer world, so have I, assailed by disease, betaken myself to a sheltered nook, where, unannoyed by