Fieschi, bursting into laughter; and at the same time perceiving M. Oliver Dufresne, principal inspector of the prisons, with his snuff-box in his hand, he begged for a pinch of snuff. The functionary, to satisfy his last wish, placed a pinch of snuff on his hand, and Fieschi took it with a kind of eagerness. At a quarter after 7 o'clock, the preparations were finished. The condemned got up to be led to the fatal vehicle. Pepin, who continued smoking his pipe, then said-"Gentlemen, the crime of Fieschi is confined to him alone. There is no other guilty man here besides himself." I have done my duty," observed Fieschi," and all I regret is, not to have had forty days more to live, in order to write a great number of things that remained to be told." The three convicts were then led out of the hall, and were taken through the garden to one of the furthest gates, where three vehicles were standing to receive and conduct them to the place of execution. Fieschi walked first, and did not cease talking to those who were around him. Pepin came next, with his pipe in his mouth. Morey was last, hardly able to drag himself along, and assisted by two executioner's men, who held him under the arms, to whom he more than once said, "Do not leave hold of me, for I should instantly roll like a bundle." "Come, keep up your courage," said one of the attendants to him. "Courage!" exclaimed Morey, "I want none of that; it is a pair of legs that I am in want of." Each of the convicts was placed in a separate vehicle, with a confessor and two gendarmes. The doors of the three vehicles were left

open. Attended by a party of gendarmes and Municipal Guards on horseback, the procession started from the Luxembourg at half-past seven for the place of execution. The melancholy cortège took the way of the Boulevards to the place of execution. A great display of the armed force had been deemed necessary by the government. There were 6,200 men under arms, not including the numerous agents of the police, who were so stationed as to prevent the curious from traversing the road through which the cortège was to pass. On every tree of the Boulevards and gardens adjacent, commanding a view of them, there were perched from ten to fifteen persons. The dead walls along the Boulevards were also crowned with crowds. Now and then Morey looked out of the door of his vehicle, to see whether the scaffold was yet in sight. A few moments before the arrival of the cortège, the commissaries of the police on the Place St. Jacques allowed that portion of the crowd which was nearest to a very wide circle formed round the guillotine, to take their station within that circle, which was instantly filled with about 3,000 persons. the outside of the gate, at a tavern, the duke of Brunswick was to be seen at a window of the first-floor, looking over the gate on the scaffold with a spying-glass. The duke wore a fashionable greatcoat of an olive green, and frequently waved about a beautiful Indian silk handkerchief. There was with him an Englishman, who was said to be a person of distinction-he was accompanied by an interpreter. They gave 60 francs each for their places.

On

The three vehicles having ar

that

rived at the place of execution, Pepin mounted the scaffold with a firm step, and exhibited in his entire deportment a degree of calmness and resignation that formed a strong contrast to the weakness and irresolution he displayed during his trial. On reaching the platform he bowed to the assembled multitude, resigned himself into the hands of the executioner, and in another moment ceased to exist. Morey next ascended the scaffold. His age, his physical infirmities, and his gray hairs, seemed to command respect, in spite even of his guilt. In consequence of his extreme debility, he was lifted on the scaffold by the executioner and his assistants, by whom he was strapped to the fatal board. The knife then descended, and he was a headless corpse. Both he and Pepin declared that they died in

nocent.

During the execution of Pepin and Morey, Fieschi, who stood at the foot of the scaffold, turned away his head, "not," he said, "that he feared the sight of death, but that he might not appear to brave his accomplices." He continued to converse with those around him till the assistant executioner laid his hand upon his shoulder as indicating that the fatal moment for him had arrived. Fieschi, accompanied by his confessor, whom he had entreated not to leave him till the latest moment, came forward without hesitation, and requested permission, to address the spectators. M. Vassal, the commissary of police, consented, but desired that he would be brief. He immediately mounted the steps with extraordinary rapidity, and placing himself in the attitude of an orator, pro

nounced the following words with a clear and firm voice:-"I am about to appear before my God. I have told the truth. tent.

tent. I have rendered a service to my country by pointing out my accomplices. I have told the truth, and no falsehoods, as I call upon Heaven to witness. I am happy and satisfied. I demand pardon of God and man, but above all of God. I regret my victims more than my own life." Upon this he turned quickly round, and delivered himself into the hands of his executioners.

The body of Pepin was given up to his family for burial at their request. The others were delivered for dissection.

A MURDER ALLEGED ΤΟ

HAVE BEEN COMMITTED BY THE

REIGNING DUKE OF BRUNSWICK. -The following extraordinary narrative was extracted from the Times newspaper:-"The present reigning duke of Brunswick paid court to Mrs. Methfessel (née Demoiselle Lehmann), and was much countenanced in so doing by her husband. The duke found the most convenient spot for making love' was behind the scenes, when Mrs. Methfessel was in her theatrical costume. A Mr. Cornet, a celebrated singer, having quarrelled with Methfessel, fell, of course, into disgrace with the duke, and to be revenged, persuaded the machinery-master to exhibit the lovers to the public. As a matter of joke the poor fellow agreed, and raised the curtain just at the instant when the Royal Duke and Madame Methfessel were tenderly embracing each other! The lady fainted, the Duke cried revenge, unsheathed his sword, and passed it through the body of the machinery-master, who breathed his

last upon the stage-a tragic end!

SUPERSTITION.-The Journal de la Meuse, of the 21st February, relates, that a few days before, the crier of the town of Loupy le Petit, with permission of the mayor, made the following proclamation :-"The inhabitants are informed, that a woman having relics of St. Hubert and others, which are good against hydrophobia and other complaints, will come to their houses to-morrow, in order to mark their dogs, cats, sheep and other animals, demand. ing only one sou for each. A mass will be celebrated in honour of the great saint, to prevail upon him to preserve all such animals from the said complaints." fact, on the following day the woman appeared, accompanied by a shepherd, and marked a great many animals, thereby procuring a considerable sum. The mayor

In

himself was the first to set this excellent example. The rector, unwilling to become an actor in such foolery, refused to perform the mass.

29. FALL OF A HOUSE IN THOMAS'S STREET, LIVERPOOL. -This morning, at about half-past six o'clock, the watchman, Brice Smith, whose beat is in Lordstreet and the vicinity, was going off duty, when he was startled at hearing a loud rumbling noise, like distant thunder, which was succeeded by an appalling crash. He turned his eyes in the direction of the sound, and saw a dense cloud of dust rising and spreading slowly in the air, apparently in the neighbourhood of South Johnstreet. He ran to the spot to which the column of pulverised matter directed him, and found that it proceeded from a house in

Thomas's-street, having been suddenly precipitated from its site into a deep excavation, which had been dug for the foundation of a new building. The neighbourhood was immediately in a state of the utmost alarm and conimotion. No time was lost in sending the intelligence to the police-offices, and Messrs. Whitty and Parlour promptly attended. They had, however, been preceded by John Hewitt, the superintendent of the fire-engines, who commenced a series of effective operations the moment of his arrival.

Traversing the ruins in every direction, he at length heard the cries of children almost immediately under the gable of the next house. With the assistance of a few men, he quickly dragged forth, from what appeared at first sight to be the very thickest of the ruins, a man, his wife, and three children, who had slept in the cellar, but of whom more anon. With the view of enforcing something like a system, Mr. Whitty ordered the fire-bell to be rung, and in an incredibly short space of time the firemen were on the spot. In a few minutes Hewitt, whose sense of hearing seemed to be acute to a degree most extraordinary, declared that he heard the moans of a person under the rubbish at the extreme end, where the workmen had not hitherto been employed. Their efforts were instantly directed to this spot, and at the depth of about a yard, a man was found alive, though he had been literally buried in dust and fragments of brick. A Mr. Scott, surgeon, who was on the spot, directed that a little water should be administered to him, which considerably revived him. Some time elapsed ere his arms

and legs could be extricated, and it was then found, that he was so much bruised, that it was deemed advisable to send him to the Infirmary. Immediately after this Mr. Parlour discovered another body a little higher up the ruins. It was instantly released, but on being pulled forth, it was found to be completely inanimate, having been crushed to death by the pressure of the superincumbent matter. In the meantime, Hewitt, having worked down about two feet in a particular spot, discovered a little boy alive, who, having been extricated, was sent to the infirmary. Scarcely had he been dragged forth, when Hewitt declared that there was another living being beneath the rubbish at a spot whish he indicated. The men instantly commenced working downward at this point, and after great efforts, a female was taken out alive. While clearing the place for her exhumation, a bed was discovered, and from between it and the rubbish protruded the arm of a man, with the hand firmly clenched. In the hope that life might not have been entirely destroyed, he was extricated with the greatest speed, and every means used to resuscitate him, but in vain. During this operation a further search was made in the bed, when a female corps was discovered, horribly mangled, and it was evident, from their relative positions, that they had perished together while fast asleep.

Almost immediately beneath the bed above mentioned, but a little to the right, and deeper in the ruins, the workmen came to another bed; and turning it over, a couple of aged men, evidently, from their worn and wasted ap

pearance, in the last stage of poverty and decay, were found lifeless. In getting these out the workmen had for the time departed from their systematic plan of turning over all the rubbish as they proceeded. A momentary pause ensued, when Hewitt declared, that he heard a man moaning faintly between the ruins and the wall of the excavation. The first floor of the building had fallen diagonally, some of its joists being supported at one end by a piece of wall, and a great part of it having been preserved entire in the fall. On turning this over a man was found immediately under it. He was alive, and comparatively uninjured. At some depth below this, the body of a boy was found dead.

The occupants of the cellar, who were so miraculously preserved, were Michael Naughton, his wife, his son, and two daughters. Naughton said, that his son, Peter Naughton, a lad of about eleven years old, being rather unwell, had slept apart on a straw mattress with his mother. This mattress was placed on the floor of the cellar. Naughton himself had his two daughters in bed with him. In the morning he was suddenly awaked by his son screaming that the house was falling. Naughton sprung up, and instantly dragged both the mother and son into an arched vault, which was formerly under a portion of the shop. The two round spar-like beams, which supported the floor of the room above them, fell only at one end, exactly in the position of the shaft of a cart, when it is put down without the horse. These kept the falling materials above from descending upon the two children, till the

father could remove them to the vault. Had the woman and boy remained in their first position, they would have been crushed to death by the ends of the beams, which fell directly upon their bed. The occupier of the house was one James Carlin. The front room he used as a shop, in which he vended greens, fruit, cakes, &c. The rooms, cellars, &c., he let nightly to hordes of Irish labourers, &c., whom he suffered to sleep to the number of, sometimes, ten or twelve in each apartment. The landlord of the house, seeing its dangerous state, had caused Carlin to be served with repeated notices to quit, all of which were unavailing. The danger was pointed out to him in strong terms, but in vain, and though himself and his wife escaped, yet his son, a boy aged about twelve years, perished. Six other individuals lost their lives by this accident.

MARCH.

1. MURDER BY A PRIEST.At Dijon, a priest of the name of Delacollonge, was tried for the murder of Fanny Besson. The trial occupied four days.

The proceedings commenced with the examination of the prisoner. He admitted having received at his house other young women besides Fanny Besson, one of whom, in consequence of his having closed his door against her upon his hearing she was a bad character, had, on more occasions than one, insulted him in public, even at his church. He acknow

ledged that Fanny Besson visited him at his house several times, and

that she passed for his cousin. Sometimes she stopped with him a fortnight or three weeks: in 1834 she came in May, and remained two or three months. He took a lodging for her at Dijon to lie in, as she was pregnant, and afterwards took her back to his rectory. His servant girl knew of his connection with Fanny Besson, and told the mayor of St. Marie la Blanche of it. The pri soner then proceeded to give an account of the manner in which the death of the victim was occasioned, persisting that he had no intention to kill her. He was about to take her to Chalons, and had assisted her to pack up some of her effects. Being with her in her room, and both being very unhappy, the suicide of the two was talked of, when he, with her consent, pressed her neck closely with his two hands, as an experiment of the effect of strangulation. When he removed his hands she fell, and, seeing she was dying, he gave her absolution, and death ensued. He did not dare to call in his servant in this extremity, as he had great distrust of her. Feeling it necessary for his own sake, and for the honour of the deceased, to conceal her death, he reflected how he could dispose of the body, which he could not bury, as his garden was exposed to public view, and his cellar was too small. He first thought of burning it, but this seemed impracticable. He therefore ripped it up, took out the entrails, and threw them into the privy, and then cut the body to pieces; these pieces he first placed in a trunk, and subsequently took them out, and put them into a sack, in which he carried them out at night, and threw them into a pond. Although he placed a