Litchfield enquirer., 1860-03-29
THREE STARTLING SITUATIONS.

1 "A SA'SsShSSg 0iAA uoPPy " % uuo uS been what any conscientious "gentlema connected with the press" would feel himse justified in calling checkered" I did nc begin life as the heir to dukedom, find my self at twenty-one to have been illegltimate and eventually in a position to dictate t some popular author, from the sick-ward ( union workhouse, the interesting raw ma terials of his novelette,, 7He Falling Sta, Neither did begin life lad in the knife house, and
 Creeping up from high to higher
 Become on Fortunes crowning slope,
 The centre of Wards desire,
 And fit with Aldermen to cope.
 The prayer of my godfather for me was lik Agur's, that should have neither riches no poverty; he left me that much-abused inheri tance-which, to reasonable man, is never theless the best in the world, since it enable him to pursue all good objects for their owl sake-"a moderate independcnee"; and
 have kept it ever since.
 Hence, o reader, it is vain to expect iron this comfortable quill either soaring flight into the Empyrean (with large E o down swoops into the Abysms. 1 know nc more of palaces than 1 do of prisons; an6 vet l have had my three "starling situa tions" too. Most mortals who have growr to be men and women have had some expe ricnce always afterwards observable to theiI minds-eye in the level road of their existen ces, eveu if they be but the having proposal, of marriage rendered to them by Q black man; and why not like the rest?
 First, then, 1 have had the privilege of be. holding a spiritual manifeStation-thrce dis dinct, or, at all events, separate ghosts at the same time. This happened on my way from Calais to Paris in the winter of 1882 The boat. as it always docs when am in it "a proof of my honest assertion that there is nothing about me unlike what belongs to the majority of my felow-creutures-had made an exceedingly bad passage. and I landed upon the shores of France with a vacuum within me that had yet no desire 10 rcplcnish. Had it been otherwise, there was very little time to do it, for the dili- gencc, unlike myself, quite full inside, was upon the point of starting, and climbed up in miserable condition beside the conductor How he screamed, gesticulated, and cracked his prodigious whip like demon-driycr, and it is not necessary, and it would be painful to me to describe. l fell asleep as soon as l could, and forgot him; and when l woke again, he was asleep too, and the horses were going at their owu sweet will, and pace, which latter in France is a very moderate one. felt cold md hungry enough, but yet so faint as not to seem equal to the effort of waking the driver, and urging him to push on lit.'e faster to the next roadside inn; so faint, so ,',ow<y, that no earthly thing, think, short rt an upset could have reused me up, or awakened my interest. No earthly thing, perhaps; but what was that running along the hedyc-oa the top Of the hedge-upon the left hand; running along by the side of the diligence, and yet Il little in advance, so as to turn Lack and look at it, and tt me! That woke me soon enough. and most thor ough'y. What business had Mary Ross, my little ward-wo had lutel y been left widow with two children, and whom had bidden goodbye to only few days before-what business, 1 say, had she to be running atop of Il roadside hedge between Calais and Paris at midnight, always keeping her head turned round, and her eyes fixed upon me! There was not the least doubt of it being Mary, although had never seen her with that look of pain and entrcaty on her face before am thankful to think that she never had the reason to ask for anything, either for herself or others, twice from me. She never looked before, but glided swiftly on along the hedge; aud when a gap or gate intervencd, seemed to leap it without any spring OF unu- sual exertion. When her eyes were not on mine, they were fixed on one or other of the two fore-wheeIs of the diligence; and, pres ently. leaned over to see what was attract iig her in the left-hand one Georgy was tlcre-Georgy Ross, her eldest son, revolv ing with the wheel, and upon its rim, disap. bearing and coming up again as though he were bound to it, with his white face upward towards me and her. but with shut eyes Hi, brother Charles Was ou the other wheel, knew, although, of course, I could not See him; and, presently, upon the great empty front se;.t, where there was room for four be- side the drver, there lay stretched on either side of me those same two boys. in long white dresses, which-since they were dead, poor things, as it subsequently turned out-migh, have been shrouds had scarcely time to pu, my hands out, right and left, and Mrough each of these bare forms, to feel tue bare cushion of the seat, when the driver, with burst of saeres woke. and dashed the horses, calling them pigs and demons. Then the children and their dear mother vanished from my sight forever. Being of phlegmatie, or as prefer to call it-of philosophical dis noSitiOn I Simnlv entered i'm my note hook writing it there. as sat in the clear moon light. "Curious illusion, produced [Decem Der IA. ls32] by hunger and fatigue"
 Nevertheless, as l sat at breakfast ir Paris on the morning of the 18th, I received word by post that Mary Ross and her two children were all dead of typhus fever " Mary" the letter said, "kept asking fol you, William, as though you could have saved her little ones, and even after they were out of the reach of earthly aid. Sh, herself did not survive them more than few no1.s. They all died on :he l4th"
 M! second startling situation" vas mol enostiy one. although the locality was fal
 oet'e. aaapted for such Q phenomenon thar the blgt-road to Paris-a fine old m.nor
 house in Stafordshire, that had hesn Q ,..,y nat,, stronghold in the time of tue civil ~ wass p,, p. pert had sailled out of it at the head of hi
 rake-helly Babeaters, and Cromwell hsr stormed it with his Ironsides, smitiup A ~ ra. that is to say, it's then possessor, Sir Jas per Seton-hip and thigh. He was cut f, pieces in the great hall, which is now tn
 music-room, or was, in the days knew it | and the clash of staa1 is ctill fo ho boOr