from which alighted no less a person than that vigilant and distinguished officer, (as he is justly styled by the reporters of the proceedings of the New-York Sessions,) Mr. Jacob Hays, accompanied by his trusty Achates. They were escorting, with their usual marks of attention and courtesy, a gentleman in a Canada fur сар, black stock, blue frock, with frogs and embroidery, buckskin breeches, and a dirty frill, in which the diamond breast-pin was now no longer conspicu

ous.

This respectable person no sooner recognised Plutarch, than he appealed to him to testify that he was a nobleman incog.; and a disguised gentleman; and that he could talk French. This he did with great volubility, and at the top of his lungs; but it produced no other effect on the high constable, than to make him regard the sheepish looking ex-member with a peculiarly acute and comprehensive side-glance; by which he seemed to imprint at once, on the iron tablets of his memory, every characteristic feature of the chop-fallen ci-devant Assembly-man.

Plutarch, who saw how Terence's affairs stood, was glad of an opportunity to escape, by throwing himself into the back seat of the stage, which was now going off. His quondam French master, however, did not let him go, without asking him to treat him at least to a drop of the cretur;

and on his paying no attention to this request, told him he was no gentleman at all," but only jist a neegur; and that he might go home to his beggarly family, and he would find they had cleared out; for the Aigle Bank was bussted, and the Cataract of Freedom was stopped; and the ould women were crazy."

Before I dismiss Terence-whose taste for large castles was soon gratified, by his being sent to exercise his architectural genius in assisting to erect the Sing Sing state prison-a word or two more about him may be necessary. The intelligent reader may have gleaned, from his own account of himself, the probable facts in his history. To France he had never been, but Botany Bay he had certainly visited. I know not how he left Australasia, or whither he wended from thence; but shortly before the time of this narrative, he had been in the service of a gallant officer, from the green isle of chivalry, and love, and song, whose regiment was stationed in Canada. I love the Irish character, and the Irish melodies; and I love the Irish whiskey, when well compounded with lemons, sugar, and hot water, on a winter's night. Let not the good and the brave and the beautiful, to whom the harp and the shamrock are dear, look on me with unfriendly eyes, if my story has compelled me to

advert to the failings of one of their countrymen. Terence was afflicted with a fondness for irregular appropriation. Such furtive propensities are said to be natural weaknesses in some individuals, and even to run in families; operating irresistibly upon their subject, and compelling them to abstract clandestinely the personal property of others. In the days of superstition, demoniac possession would have been assigned as the cause of this tendency. In our days, the phrenologist ascribes it to a preternatural developement of the organ of acquisitiveness, as he most certainly does any mal-addresse, (such as poor Terence's,) in its direction and application, to an equally imperfect developement of the organ of secretiveness. But I shall not trouble the reader with the philosophy of the case; and must content myself with stating the fact, that Terence was given to stealing. While at Quebec, in the service of a highminded colonel, whose hard-earned laurels and private virtues, might well, in an estimation of national character, counterbalance the infirmities of an hundred such specimens as his valet, our nobleman incog. picked up by the ear a quantity of miscellaneous French, together with some crude notions of rank, title, high life and foreign manners; and one day, when his constitutional malady came strongly upon him, he picked up

his master's valise, and his diamond breast-pin, which was lying on the toilet. With these goods in his custody, he travelled into the "States," where he spent some time, in the course of which he took occasion to commit some new depredations in the city of New-York; as appeared when he was brought to the police-office, to be examined on the, charge of stealing the breastpin, the value of which had induced his master to pursue him. He had thus the honour of being claimed by two governments, as a special subject of judicial and executive attention; and to present, in his own beautiful person, one of the most debated and debatable questions of international law. But the colonel being contented with the restitution of his jewels, the state of New-York was left to deal with Terence; and in what wise he was dealt with, I have already suggested. Peace be to his labours in the hammering of Westchester marble, for the construction of his own cell; wherein requiescat in pace!

And now I hurry to a close. When Plutarch got home, he found that Terence's intelligence was not much exaggerated. The Eagle Bank had stopped payment. The "Cataract of Freedom" was no longer issued; and the printer had run away, leaving Plutarch alone, to face certain angry creditors. Mrs. Peck and her daughter

had resolved to migrate, under the auspices of the Reverend Professor, to the West; whereupon the disbanded Assembly-man, knowing that his creditors would soon be reinforced by his New-York hatter, boot-maker, and especially his tailor, who, on the credit of his legislative dignity, had fitted him out for Albany, with stylish cloak, and surtout, and frock, and a full suit of customary black, and a large assortment of white, red, and blue waistcoats and under waistcoats, of his own choice; not forgetting, moreover, his too confiding cousin Diodatus' claims upon him for a gold breast-pin, and a new Geneva gold watch-saw no other course before him, than to prevail upon the family to take him along.

Thither, then, they marched with bag and baggage, scrip and scrippage. I know not what has become of Plutarch since. But I do know that Miss Peck contrived to marry the President of the college; and I sincerely hope, as I know him to be a worthy gentleman, that he is satisfied with the arrangement.

It was on a fine spring morning, when the sun, bright and cheerful, seemed to shed a smile over the face of the responsively laughing earth, from which the snows had vanished, while the herbage in many spots was assuming its verdant hue, that the windows of Mr. Viellecour's house were