answer comes in music, and some of those fine, rough choruses, proceeding from a multitude, have all the effect of a noble organ.

A circle is again formed, and various airs being sung, at a given signal, every torch is launched into the air, so as to fall as nearly as possible in the middle, where being heaped up, they form a tremendous bonfire: whilst this is burning away, various airs are sung, and chorused loud and deep; and the never-to-be-forgotten "Burschen Leben" is never out of favour.

When the fire began to burn low, at a preconcerted signal, after a moment's perfect silence, a shout of the most ear-splitting nature-" Es lebet der Herr Rector, Hoch!"-terminated the exhibition of juvenile feeling of the students to their amiable old master, and then they scattered in groups to their several abodes; and the populace enjoyed the supreme felicity of kicking the embers of the bonfire about, till the watchmen came, and carefully extinguished all the remnants.

During the whole of this transaction, though apparently passive, I had been no uninterested spectator; and, with some degree of misgiving, I watched, dreading lest the intrusion of some prying knowledge should discover the cheatery I had enacted.

Next morning the Rector sent for me; and, after some few preliminary soundings, proposed to me to undertake the duties of curator and custodian of the university museum, for which I exhibited such remarkable fitness.

Here was the whole end and object of my schemes accomplished. My heart jumped at the proposal, but my tongue begged a few days to consider it. This, of course, was granted; and, chuckling in my mind at my success, I departed, determined to appear to deserve it. The stone was placed in the museum, with a label attached, indicating the time, place, and manner of its falling, and few were found to question its authenticity.

Meanwhile, I went to Berlin, and easily obtaining access to its noble libraries, hunted out all the accounts and plates of meteoric stones that had ever fallen, or been stated to have fallen, and, employing a poor artist, got drawings made of them on a grand scale, and invented a few more, which I contrived should be very like the one I had found, and which, I stated to be in various unknown private collections. On my return, I begged to present the Rector with these drawings, as a token of my esteem for his character, and also as proofs of my former diligence in the study of geology,-which, be it remembered, was nearly of seven days' standing, yet, by the exercise of my genius, on the credulity of man, had rewarded me better in that period, than it has many others in twice that number of years.

After installation into my new office, I studied sufficiently to prevent my ignorance being discovered; I cared to go no farther. Just at this time I got a start, on being told that two of my companions, Carl Bergman and Rupert Stoerk, had been closetted with the Rector. Could the Schelms have betrayed me? I trembled at

the thought. I was like a gambler who had made a desperate throw with false dice.

Instantly, I sought out Bergman, as though I had no other intention but that of inviting him to a beer party, and although I had to undergo some painful quizzing, I was relieved from any anxiety as to the result, by the confession of this worthy, that the sole object of the visit to the Rector had been to strengthen the impression already made, with regard to the authenticity of the stone. In fact, this veracious pair had told the old man that they were in the immediate neighbourhood of the oak, when this body, in a state of molten heat, had descended through the branches, consuming every thing in its way, and finally burying itself in the smoking soil. Frightened at the danger so near them, they had fled, and encountered Gruber, who had very much the appearance of a maniac, and was running directly in the teeth of the danger, paying no attention to their shouts, but pursuing, as it were, some invisible phantom.

"Yes, lads," cried the Rector, with enthusiasm, "that excellent young man was pursuing the invisible spirit of Science, and I have no doubt that she will one day crown him with glorious success: he is not the only one who, in a similar cause, has been deemed by the world, a madman!”

Thus, for the time, my fears were given to the winds; and, were I to judge by the quantities of beer with which my friends cooled their throats at my expense, I might well have supposed that the lies they had volunteered on my behalf, had blistered their tongues.

It is needless to say that full descriptions of this stone were published in Wochenblatts and Monadschrifts. An innocent old philosopher was indulged by a ride on his favourite hobby-horse-an antique and learned city was excited and delighted by a nine days' wonder-coteries of old ladies talked as if the city had escaped the sweep of an insane comet's tail-philosophers (now a planetary race) came from all sides to see, feel, and examine the Wonder, the tree, the forest, and the cuisine of the happy Rector; and last, not least in my estimation, I, Carl Gruber, obtained a good post, which enabled me to smoke a better Number, and to drink more beer than any student in the university; and now, how can the world accuse me, when all those advantages were gained to so many persons, by the simple exercise of a small portion of my mother-wit ?

CHAPTER IV.

"Quid ego istius prandia et cœnas commemorem ?"-Cic.

OUR little party at the solitary Inn, were somewhat disturbed, and thrown into confusion by the Countess having been suddenly taken ill, during the relation of the latter part of the last chapter; and it was not until long after, that the cause of this sudden illness became known. Although it is anticipating a part of our story, still we will account for it by stating, that though only a few years united to Eisenberg, she had married him, after a very short acquaintance, induced by his wealth and rank, but without any actual knowledge of his family.

Proud of her own aristocracy, and the many quarterings of her ancient race, it was more than her feelings could bear, thus suddenly to be made acquainted with the blast, which, like a simoom, had scorched her feelings in the most susceptible point. Could she credit it? Married to a peasant's son,-to an avowed hypocrite deceived in a point on which she thought herself invulnerable-her woman's dignity injuredand what woman can bear that ?-and, worse than all, to feel that she loved the man who had so grossly deceived her,-why, she knew not, except that he exer

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