e same day they had been elected,
because one of the citizens of Rome had heard a mouse squeak.

A.V.M.

* * * * *

NAPKINS.

When Diego de Torres, the Spanish ambassador, in 1547, first dined
with the Emperor of Morocco at his court, he was amused by the customs
of the table; neither knives, forks, nor spoons, were provided; but
each person helped himself with his fingers, and cleaned his hands
with his tongue, excepting the emperor, who wiped the hand he took his
meat up with on the head of a black boy, ten years old, who stood by
his side. The ambassador smiled, and the emperor observing it, asked
what Christian kings wiped their hands with at meals, and what such
things were worth? "Fine napkins," replied the ambassador, "a clean
one at every meal, worth a crown a piece or more." "Don't you think
this napkin much better," said the emperor, wiping his hand again on
the black boy's head, "which is worth seventy or eighty crowns."

* * * * *

JUSTICE.

"What is your fare, coachee," said a stout gentleman alighting from a
hackney-coach.

_Coachee_.--"One shilling, sir."

_Gent_.--"One shilling! What an imposition for such a short distance."

_Coachee_.--"I'll take my oath that is my fare."

_Gent_.--"Will you? very well, I am a magistrate, proceed--(_Coachee
is sworn_)--That will do, the shilling I shall keep for the
affidavit."

* * * * *

Philip III. King of Spain, wept at an _Auto da Fe_, because he saw so
many fellow creatures inhumanly tormented. This was thought by the
Grand Inquisitor to be a great sin, and he terrified the king so much
with his remonstrances, that Philip suffered himself to be bled, and
the blood to be given to the common executioner, to be burnt at the
next _Auto da Fe_, by way of penance.

* * * * *

_Cobweb_ comes from the Dutch word _Kopwebbe_; and _Kop_ in that
language signifies a spider.

* * * * *

(S.I.B.'s interesting paper on the Birth of Edward VI. and Death of
Queen Jane Seymour, did not reach us till our description of Hampton
Court was ready for press: our Correspondent's contribution shall
appear next week.)

* * * * *

LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE FOLLOWING NOVELS IS ALREADY PUBLISHED:

s. d.
Mackenzie's Man of Fe