aggard eyes to heaven, he demanded pardon of God and the
people for the violation of the great prerogative of the former and the
social rights of the latter, and besought most earnestly the mercy of the
Judge into whose presence he was about to enter. In less than two minutes
both he and his companion were headless corpses, and in a quarter of an
hour no vestige, save a few remains of sawdust, was left of the terrible
drama that had been enacted. Soon, however, a confused murmur pervaded the
crowd--a report that the victim of cruelty and avarice had realized the
dread presentiment of his own mind, and justified the prediction contained
in the anonymous letter he had received. On inquiry, this was found to be
true. As the signal rung out for execution, the unhappy man, whom
twenty-two stabs of the dagger had failed to kill, expired in a paroxysm
of terror--adding one more to the many examples already upon record of the
fatal force of fear upon an excited imagination.

LADY ALICE DAVENTRY; OR, THE NIGHT OF CRIME. (FROM THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY
MAGAZINE.)

Daventry Hall, near the little village of the same name in Cumberland, is
the almost regal residence of the Cliffords; yet it does not bear their
name, nor, till within the last quarter of a century, had it come into
their possession. The tragical event which consigned it to the hands of a
distant branch of the Daventry family is now almost forgotten by its
occupants, but still lingers in the memory of some of humbler rank, who,
in days gone by, were tenants under Sir John Daventry, the last of a long
line of baronets of that name. Few men have entered life under happier
auspices: one of the oldest baronets in the kingdom, in one sense, but
just of age, in the other, possessed of an unencumbered rent roll of
L20,000 per annum, he might probably have selected his bride from the
fairest of the English aristocracy; but when he was twenty-three he
married the beautiful and poor daughter of an officer residing in his
vicinity. It was a love-match on his side--one partly of love, parly of
ambition, on hers; their union was not very long, neither was it very
happy, and when Lady Daventry died, leaving an infant daughter to his
care, at the expiration of his year of mourning he chose as his second
wife the wealthy and high-born widow of the county member. This was a
_marriage de convenance_, and might have perhaps proved a fortunate one,
as it secured to Sir John a wife s