have said how handsomely they were dressed as long as they were with
their mother. When I saw the boy at Venice, who perfectly recognized
me, his only garb was a wretched yellow cotton gown. His little feet,
on which I had admired the little shiny boots, were WITHOUT SHOE OR
STOCKING. He looked at me, ran to an old hag of a woman, who seized his
hand; and with her he disappeared down one of the thronged lanes of the
city.

From Venice we went to Trieste (the Vienna railway at that time was only
opened as far as Laybach, and the magnificent Semmering Pass was not
quite completed). At a station between Laybach and Graetz, one of my
companions alighted for refreshment, and came back to the carriage
saying:--

"There's that horrible man from Baden, with the two little boys."

Of course, we had talked about the appearance of the little boy at
Venice, and his strange altered garb. My companion said they were pale,
wretched-looking and DRESSED QUITE SHABBILY.

I got out at several stations, and looked at all the carriages. I could
not see my little men. From that day to this I have never set eyes on
them. That is all my story. Who were they? What could they be? How can
you explain that mystery of the mother giving them up; of the remarkable
splendor and elegance of their appearance while under her care; of
their barefooted squalor in Venice, a month afterwards; of their shabby
habiliments at Laybach? Had the father gambled away his money, and
sold their clothes? How came they to have passed out of the hands of a
refined lady (as she evidently was, with whom I first saw them) into the
charge of quite a common woman like her with whom I saw one of the boys
at Venice? Here is but one chapter of the story. Can any man write the
next, or that preceding the strange one on which I happened to light?
Who knows? the mystery may have some quite simple solution. I saw two
children, attired like little princes, taken from their mother and
consigned to other care; and a fortnight afterwards, one of them
barefooted and like a beggar. Who will read this riddle of The Two
Children in Black?

ON RIBBONS.

The uncle of the present Sir Louis N. Bonaparte, K.G., &c., inaugurated
his reign as Emperor over the neighboring nation by establishing an
Order, to which all citizens of his country, military, naval, and
civil--all men most distinguished in science, letters, arts, and
commerce--were admitted. The emblem of the Order was but