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Portland
') gy Gounp & ELWELE,
Office 80 Middle, near Corner ot Exchange St.
TEEBMS: $150 PER YEAR.
One Dollar for Eight Months.
eo > AN INDEPENDENT FAWILY JOURWAL OF LITERATUR, NEWS, Be.
“VOLUME AVI.
POETRY.
A PROPHECY.
.— :
THOMAS WADE.
There is a mighty dawning on the earth
Of human glory; dreams unknown befor
Fill the mind's boundless world, and wondrous birth
Is given to great thought; and the deep-drawn lore,
But late a hidden fount, at which a few
Quaffed and were glad, is now a floating river,
-Which the parcked nations may approach and view,
Kneel down and drink, or float in fe forever.
“The bonds of epirit are asunder broken,
‘And matter makes a very sport of distance
On every side appenrs a silent token
Of what will be hereafter, when existence
Shall even become a pure and equal thing,
And earth sweep high as heaven on solemn wing.
SELECT. TALE.
’ From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal
A NIGUT. ADVENT UR BE.
I wrtx tell you about an affair—important as it
proved to me; bat you must not hurry me, I have
never been in a hurry since then, and never will.—
Up till that time inclasive, I was always in a hur-
ry; my actions always preceded my thonghts ; ex-
perience was of no use; and any one would have
supposed me destined to carry a young head upon
old shoulders to the grave. However, I was bro’t
up at last “with a round turn.” , Iwas: allowed a
certain space for reflection, and plenty of materials ;
and if it did not do me good, it’s a pity !
My father and mother both died when I was still
“a great awkward boy; and I, being the only thing
they had to bequeath, became the property of a dis-
tant relation. Ido not know how, it. happened,
but I had no near relations. I was a kind of . waif
upon the world from the beginning ; and I suppose
it was owing to my having. no family . anchorage
that I acquired the habit of swaying to and fro, an
drifting hither and thither, at the pleasure of wind
and tide. Not that my guardiaa was inattentive
or unkind—quire the reversé; bat he was indolent
and careless contenting himself with providing
abundantly for my schooling and my pocket, and
leaving everything else to chance. He would have | ;
done the same thing to his son if he had had one,
and he did the same thing to his daughter. -But
girls somehow cling, wherever they, are. cast—any-
thing is an. anchorage for them; and as Laura
grew ap, she gave the care she had never found,
and was the little mother of the whole house... As
for the titular mother, she had not an atom of char-
acter of any kind. She might have been a picture
or a vase. or anything else that is useless except to | *
the taste or aifuctions. But mamma was indispen-
sable. . Ic is a vulgar error to suppose that people
who have nothing in them are nobody in a honse.
Our mamma was the very center and point of our
home feelings ; and it was strange to observe the
devout care we took off personage, who had not
two ideas in her
Iris no wonder hat I was always i ina hurry, for
I must have had an instinctive idea that I had‘ my
fortune to look for. The governor, as I called my
adopted father, had nothing more than a genteel
independence, and this would be a good deal less-
ened after his death by the lapse of an annuity—
But sister Lavra was thus provided for well enough,
while I had not a shilling in actual money, althongh
plenty of hypothetical thousands and sundry cas.
tles in the air. It was the consciousness of the lat-
ter kind of property, no doubt, that gave me so
free-and casy an air, arid made me so completely the
master ef my own actions. , How I did worry that
blessed old woman ! bow Lanra lectured and scold-
ed! how the governor stormed! and how I was
forgiven the next minute, and we were all as_hap-
py again as the day was long! But at length the
time of separation came. I had grown a great
hulking fellow, strong enough to make my bread
as a porter if that had been needed ;.and sv a situ-
tion was found for me ina counting-house at Bar
celona, and after a lecture and a hearty ery from
sister Laura, a blessing and a kiss’ from mamma,
and a great sob kept down by a hurricano laugh
from the governor, I went adri
Four years passed rapidly away. Thad attained
my full beight, and more than my just share of in-
ches, ‘I already enjoyed a fair modicum of whisk.,|
PORTLA
ker, and had even made rome progress in the ulti
vation of a pair of moustaches, when suddenly the
house I was connected with failed. What to do?
‘The governor insisted upon my return to England,
where his mterest among the mercantile class was
considerable ; Laura hinted mysteriously that my
presence in the house would soon be a matter of
great importance to her father; and mamma let
out the secret, by writing to me that Laura was go-
ing to “change her condition.” I was glad to hear
this, for I knew he would be a model of a fellow
who was Laara’s husband; and, gulping down my
pride, which would fuin have persuaded me that it
was unmanly to go back again like the ill sixpence,
I set out on my return home.
‘The family, I knew, had moved to another house ;
but being well acquainted with the town, I had no
difficulty in finding the place. It was range of
handsome buildings which had sprang up in the
fashionable ontskirts during my absence; and al-
though it was far on in the evening, my accustomed
eyes soon descried through the gloom the governor's
old-fashioned door-plate. I was just about to
knock; really agitated with delight and straggling
memories, when a temptation came in my way.—
« One of the area-windows was open, gaping as if
for my reception., A quantity of plate lay upon a
table close by. Why should I not enter, and ap-
pear unannounced in the drawing-room,‘a sunburnt
phantom of five fect eleven? Why. should I not
present the precise and careful Laura with a hand-
ful of her own spoons and forks, left so convenient-
y at the ‘service of any area-sneak who might
chance to pass by? - Why? That is only a figure
of speech. I asked no question about the matter;
the idea was hardly well across my brain when my
legs were across the rails. In another moment, I
had crept in by the window ; and chuckling at my
own cleverness, and the great moral lesson I was
late.
While thus engaged, the opening of a door in the
hall above alarmed me; and afraid of the failure
of my plan, I stepped lightly up the stair, which
was partially lighted by the halllamp. _ As I was
about to emerge at the top, a serving-girl was com-
ing out of a room on the opposite side. She in-
stantly retreated, shut the door with a bang, and I
could hear a half-sappressed hysterical ery. I
bounded on, sprang up the drawing-room stair, and
entered the first door at a venture. All was dark,
and I stopped for a moment to listen. Lights were
hurrying across the hall; and I heard the rough
voice of a man as if scolding and taunting some~
person. « The girl had doabtless given’ the alarm,
although her infyrmation must have been very in-
distifiet;' for when she saw me I was in the ‘shad-
ow of the stair, and she could haye had little more
than a vague impression that she beheld a human
figure. ‘However this may be, the man’s voice ap-
peared to descend the stair to the area-room, and
presently I heard a crashing noise, not as if he was
counting the plate, but rather thrusting it aside en
masse, Then I heard the windows closed, the shat-
ters bolted, and an alarm-bell hung upon them, and
the man reascended the ‘stair, half scolding, half
laughing at the girl’s saperstition.. He took care,
notwithstanding, to examine the fastenings ‘of the
street-door, and even to lock it, and put the key in
his pocket. He then retired into a room and all
was silence.
I began to feel pretty considerably queer. The
governor kept no male servant that I knew of, and,
had never done so. It was impossible he could
have “introduced this change into his household
without my being informed of it by sister Laura,
whose letters were an exact chronicle of everything,
down to the health of the cat. Tiis was puzzling.
And now that I had time to think, the house was
much too large for a family requiring only three
sleeping-rooms even when I was at home, . It was
what is called a double house, with rooms on both
sides of the hall; and the apartment on the thresh--
hold of which I was still lingering appeared, from
the dim light of the windows to be of very consid-
erable size. I now recollected that the quantity of
plate I had seen—a portion of which at’ this mo-
ment felt preternaturally heavy i in my pockets
mast have been three times greater than hoy the
governor ever possessed, and that various ‘pieces
*
ND, .SATURDA Y.
NOVEMBER 27, 1852.
were of ati size and massiveness I had never “before
seen in the establishment, Ip vain I bethought my-
self that I had seen and recognised the well-known
door-plate, and that the area from which I entered
was immediately under; in vain I argned that
since Laura was to be married, the exira cuantity
of plate might be intended to forma part of her
trosseau: I could not convince myself. But the
course of my thoughts suggested an idea, and pull-
ing hastily from my pocket a table spoon, I felt,
for I could notysee, the legend which contained my
fate. But my fingers were tremnlous: they seemed
to have lost sensation—only I fancied that I did
feel something more than the governor's plain in-
itials. There was still a light in the hall. If I
could but bring that spoon within its illumination !
All was silent; and I ventured to descend step af-
ter step—not as I hounded up, but with the stealthy
pace of a thicf, and the plate growing heavier and
heavier in my pocket. At length I was near
enough to see in spite of a dimness that had gath-
ered over my eyes; and, with @ sensation of abso-
lute faintness, I beheld upon the spoon an engraved
erest—the red right hand of a baronet!
T crept back again, holding by the banisters, fan.
eying every now and then that I heard a door open
behind me, and yet my feet no more consenting to
quicken their motion than if I had been pursued by
a murderer in the nightmare. J at length got into
the room, groped for a chair, and sat down, No
more hurry now. Ono! There was plenty of
time; and plenty to do in it, for [had to wipe away
about to teach. I was stuffiag my pockets with the |
the perspiration that ran down my face in streams.
What was to bedone? What had I done? Oh, a
trifle, a mere trifle. I had only sneaked into a yen-
tleman’s house by the area-window, and pocketed
his table-spoons ; and here I was,tocked and Larred
and belled in, sitting very comfortably, in the dark
and alone, in his drawing-room, . Very, particular-
ly comfortable. What a capital fellow, to be sure
What an amusing personage! Wouldn't the bar-
onet laugh in the morning ?, Wouldn’t he ask me
to stay to breakfast? And wouldn't I eat heartily
out of the spoons I had stolen? But what name
is that? Who calls me a housebreaker?, Who
gives me in charge? Who lugs me off by the
neck? I will not stand it, “I am innocent, except
of breaking into a baronet’s house. Iam a gentle-
man, with another gentleman’s spoons in my pock-
et. I claim the protection of the law. Police !—
police!
My brain was wandering. I pressed my hand
upon my wet forehead, to keep down the thick-
coming fancies, and determined, for the first time
in my life, to hold a deliberate consultation with
myself. I was in an awkward predicament—it was
impossible to deny the fact; gut was there anything
really serious in the case? I had unquestionably
descended into the wrong area, the right hand-one
instead of the left-hand one; but was I not as un-
questionably the relation—the di-tant relation—the
very distant relation—of the next-door neighbor ?
Thad been four years absent from his house, and
was there anything more natural than that I should
desire to pay.my next visit through a subterranean
window? I had appropriated, it is true, a quanti-
ty of silver-plate I had found ; bat with what other
intention could I have done this than to present it
to my very distant relation’s daughter, and reproach
her with her carelessness in leaving it next door ?
Finally, I was snared, caged, trapped—door and
window had been bolted upon me without any re-
monstrance on my part—and I was now some con-
siderable time in the house, unsuspected, yet a pris-
oner. The position was serious; but come, sup-
pose the worst, that I was actually Jaid hold of, as
a malefactor, and commanded to give an account
of myself, Well: I was, as aforesaid, a distant re-
lation to the individual next door. I belonged , to
nobody in the world, if not to him; I bore but. an
indifferent reputation in regard to steadiness; and
after four years’ residence in a foreign country, I
had returned, idle, penniless, and obdjectless—just
in time to find an area-window open in the dask ot
the evening, und a heap of plate lying behind it,
within view of the street.
This self-examination was not encouraging ; the
ease was decidedly queer; and as I sat thus pon-
“NUMBER 33.
| conta have envied my reflections. In fact the ‘evi-
dence was so dead against me, that I began to -
doubt my own innocence. What was I here for if
my intentions had been really honest? Why
should I desire to come into any individual's’ area-
window instead of thedoor? And how came it
that all this silver-plate had found its way into my
pockets? I was angry as well as terrified: I was
judge and criminal in one; but the instincts of na-
tare got the better of my sense of justice, and I
rose suddenly up to ascertain whether it was not
possible to get from the window into the street.
As I moved, however, the horrible booty, I had
in my pockets moved likewise, appearing to me to
shriek, like a score of fiends, “Police? poiice ! Y
and the next instant I heard a quick footstep ai.
cending the stair.’ Now was the ‘fatal moment
come! Iwas on my fect; my eyes glared on the’
door ; my hands were clenched; the perspiration
had dried suddenly upon my skin; my tongue
clave to the roof of | my month. But the footstep
accompanied by a gleam of light, passed—passed ;
and from very weakness I sat down again, with a
dreadful indifference to the screams of the plate in
my pockets. Presently there were more footsteps’ +
in the hall; then voices ; then drawing of bolts and
ercaking ot locks ; then utter darkness, then silence
—lasting, terrible, profound. The hoase had gone
to bed; the honse would quickly be aftcep; it was
time to be np and doing. But first and foremost, I
must get rid of the plate. Without thet hideous
corpus delicti I should have some ‘chance. I must |
at all hazards, creep down into the hall. find my
way to the Jower regions, and replace the accursed
thing where I had found it. It required nerve to
attempt this: but I was thoroughly wound up; and
after allowing a reasonable time to elapse, to give
my enemies a fair opportunity of falling asleep, I
set out upon the adventure. The door creaked as
I went out; the plate grated against my very soul —
as I descended the steps; but slowly, stealthily, I
crept along the wall; and at length found myself ”
‘on the level floor. There was but one door on that
side of the hall, which led to the area-room—I ree-
ollect the fact distinctly—and it was with inexpres-
ible relief I reached it in safety, and grasped the’
knob in my hand. The knob turned—but the door
did not open; it was locked; it was my fate to be
a thicf; and after a moment uf new dismay, I
turned again doggedly, reached the stair, and re-
entered the apartment I had left,
» ‘Ir was like getting home, It was snag and pri-
vate. I had a chair there waiting me. I thought
to myself, that many a man would take a deal of
treuble to break into such a house. I had only ‘
sneaked. ‘I wondered how Jack Shepherd felt on
such occasions.; [had seen him at the Adelphi in
the person of Mrs. Keeley, and a daring little dog
he was. (Ile would make nothing of getting down ”*
into the street from the window, spoons and all. I
tried this 5 the shutters were not even closed, and
the sash’ moving noisclessly. 1 bad no difficulty
in raising it. “I stepped out into the balcony, and
looked over. ‘Nothing was to be seen but a black | *
and yawning gulf, beneath, guarded by the i imagin-
ary spikes of an invisible railing. Jack woald |
have laughed at this difficulty; but then he had
more experience in the craft than I, and was pro-
vided with sll necessary appliances, As for me, I
had stupidly forgotten even my coil of rope. The © '
governor's house had either no balcony at all, or it
was too far apart to be reached. Presently I heard
a footstep on the side-walk, a little way off.” It was
approaching with slow and measured pace} the
person was walking as calmly and gravely in. the
night as if it had been broad day. Suppose Ir.
hailed this philosopbical stranger, and confided to.
him, in a friendly way, the fact that the” baronet
without the slightest Provocation, had locked me
up ia his house, with his silver spoons in my pock-
a Perhaps he would advise me what to do in
he predicament. Perhaps he would take the trou-
bie of knocking at the door, or crying fire, and when
the servants opened, I might rush out, and so make
my: escape, But while I was looking wistfully
down to see if I could not discern the watking fig-
ure, which’ was now under the windows, a sudden’
glare'from the spot dazzled my sight. It was the
bult’s-eye of a policeman; and with the instinet’ of |
dering j in the dark, with the spoon in my hand, I
am quite sure that no malefactor in a dungeon
a predatory character, I shrunk back trembling,
crept into the room, and shut the window.
