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and universal destruction in case of refusal. The ladies, her friends and companions, who were in the house with her, shrunk from the contest, and were silent; but, undaunted by their threats, this intrepid lady placed herself before the chamber into which the unfortunate fugitive had been conducted, and resolutely said,-"To men of honour the chamber of a lady should be as sacred as the sanctuary! I will defend the passage to it though I perish. You may succeed, and enter it, but it shall be over my corpse." Said the officer, "If muskets were only placed in the hands of a few such women, our only safety would be found in retreat. Your intrepidity, madam, gives you security; from me you shall meet no further annoyance."

Nor is this the only instance of her unconquerable fortitude. At Brabant, the seat of the respectable and patriotic Bishop Smith, a sergeant of Tarleton's dragoons, eager for the acquisition of plunder, followed the overseer, a man advanced in years, into the apartment where the ladies of the family were assembled, and on his refusal to discover the spot in which the plate was concealed, struck him with violence, inflicting a severe sabre wound across the shoulders. Aroused by the infamy of the act, Mrs. Shubrick, starting from her seat, and placing herself between the ruffian and his victim, resolutely said, "Place yourself behind me, Murdoch; the interposition of my body shall give you protection, or I will die :" then, addressing herself to the sergeant, exclaimed, "O what a degradation of manhood—

what a departure from that gallantry which was once the characteristic of British soldiers! Human nature is degraded by your barbarity;-but should you persist, then strike at me, for till I die, no further injury shall be done to him. The sergeant, unable to resist such commanding eloquence, retired. The hope, however, of attaining the object in view, speedily subjected the unfortunate Murdoch to new persecution. He was tied up under the very tree where the plate was buried, and threatened with immediate execution unless he would make the discovery required. But although well acquainted with the unrelenting severity of his enemy, and earnestly solicited by his wife to save his life by a speedy confession of the place of deposit, he persisted resolutely, that a sacred trust was not to be betrayed, and actually succeeded in preserving it. When complimented at an after period on his heroic firmness, he asserted, that he was strengthened in his resolution by the recollection that a part of the plate belonged to the church, and that he should have considered it as sacrilege, had he suffered it, through a weakness of disposition, to fall into the hands of robbers.

INTREPID MOTHER.

THE superiority to all selfish consideration which characterizes maternal tenderness, has often elevated the conduct of woman, and has seldom appeared more admirable than in the wife of a soldier in the 55th regiment, in America, during the campaign, in 1777. Sitting in a tent with her husband at breakfast, a

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bomb entered,and fell between them and a bed where their infant lay asleep. The mother begged her spouse would go around the bomb, before it exploded, and take away the child, as his dress would allow him to pass the narrow space between the dreadful messenger of destruction and the bed. He refused, and left the tent, calling to his wife to hasten away, as in less than a minute the fuse would communicate to the great mass of combustibles. poor woman, absorbing all care in anxiety to save her child, adjusted her garments to guard against touching the bomb, snatched the unconscious innocent, and was hardly out of reach, when all the murderous materials were scattered around. Major C, of the 55th regiment, hearing of this action, distinguished the heroine with every mark of favour. She survived many years to lament his fate at Fort Montgomery, in the following month of October.

A COURAGEOUS WOMAN.

IN Prussia as well as in Holland, captains in the merchant service of small property, which generally consists of a little vessel commanded by themselves, make their ship their home, and live there constantly with their families, who accompany their head in all his voyages. One of these Prussian captains, M. Hesser, was recently navigating his galliot Minerva, from Konigsberg to Riga. On board his vessel were his young wife, with three small children, and his crew, composed of a mate and four sailors. In the Baltic, during a violent

storm in the night, while Hesser and his men were on deck, the galliot was run into by an English merchant ship, Star, Captain Robson. The shock of the two vessels was so great that Captain Hesser and one of his sailors were thrown against the prow of the Star, to which they clung, and from whence they crawled on board that ship. The three other sailors fell into the sea, and disappeared immediately, so that there remained on the galliot only Mrs. Hesser, her three children, and the mate; the latter, unfortunately, during the accident, had met with a severe fall, by which he was so seriously wounded that he was unable to work. In this state of things, Mrs. Hesser had the courage to take upon herself the charge of navigating the ship. By turns, captain, mate, and sailor, using the little nautical knowledge she had been able to acquire in her former voyages, this intrepid young woman succeeded, by incessant labour, for eighteen hours, in gaining with her vessel the port of Riga. The native and foreign sailors at Riga, having learned the courageous conduct of Mrs. Hesser, caused a medal to be struck in her honour, and the corporation of seamen at Riga, presented her with one thousand rubles-four thousand francs. Captain Hesser and the sailor who were saved on board the Star, were carried by that vessel to Rostoch, in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg, whence they arrived safe and sound at Riga.

THE MILLER'S MAID, OR THE VALUE OF PRESENCE OF MIND.

NEAR the hamlet of Udorf, on the banks of the Rhine, not far from Bonn, there yet stands the mill which was the scene of the following adven

ture:

One Sunday morning, the miller and his family set out as usual to attend service at the nearest church, in the village of Hensel, leaving the mill, to which was attached the dwelling-house, in charge of his servant maid, Hanchen, a bold-hearted girl, who had been some time in his service. The youngest child, who was still too young to go to church, remained also under her care.

As Hanchen was busily engaged in preparing dinner for the family, she was interrupted by a visit from her admirer, Heinrich Botteler. He was an idle, graceless fellow, and her master, who knew his character well, had forbidden him the house; but Hanchen could not believe all the stories she had heard against her lover, and was sincerely attached to him. On this occasion she greeted him kindly, and not only got him something to eat, at once, but found time in the midst of her business to sit down and have a gossip with him, while he did justice to the fare set before him. As he was eating he let fall his knife, which he asked her to pick up for him. She playfully remonstrated, telling him she feared, from all she heard, he did little enough

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