wandered too far in the carrières. Madame
Puy is still living, and in health, but she
"well remembers that day. and those which
followed it." She immediately called upon her
friends and neighbours to assist the workpeople
in making a search. They readily answered
to the appeal, incurring themselves no slight
danger. The man who guided me through
the mushroom beds, in his zeal to find his
missing master lost himself for thirteen hours,
although well provided with lights.

Another day elapsed, and no M. Puy. The
whole population of Lille was filled with
anxiety. The authorities were called upon to
lend their aid. The troops were ordered down
into the caverns. Drums were beaten, and
guns were fired; but it is singular that, in
those horrid recesses, the most powerful
sounds make but little way. Douaniers, or
customs-men, were sent for from the
frontier, bringing with them their powerful, keen-
scented, and well-trained dogs. But instead
of the dogs finding M. Puy, they themselves
narrowly escaped being lost. One magnificent
brute got so completely strayed, that
he must have perished had he not been
at last discovered. Parties tied one end of
various balls of string to frequented
portions of the cavern, and then went forward
in opposite directions, unrolling them as they
proceeded, in the hope that the lost man
might stumble upon the clue. Others
penetrated as far as they dared, bearing with
them bundles of straw, a single one of which
they laid on the ground, at short intervals,
with the head or ear pointing the way to
in order to escape from this den of horrors.
No fear there that the wind, or an animal, or
a human passenger, should disturb so slight
and frail an index! Everything, in short,
was done that courage and friendship could
suggest; but for three days the benevolent
hunt was fruitless.

After M. Puy had disappeared for three
whole days, he was found at last by a bold
young man, in the place where he had
determined to remain till sought for. The spot is
just under a mill in the neighbouring village,
and is a long, long way from the point of starting.
His first inquiry was, how long he had
been there?  for he had no means of measuring
the lapse of time. He was astonished to learn
that three days had been passed in that lone
concealment, without either food or drink.
It was well for him, perhaps, that he was
obliged to remain in that state of ignorance.
As the hour of his deliverance became more
and more delayed, he might otherwise have
fallen into a fatal despair. As it was, in spite
of every care, six months elapsed before he
recovered from the consequent illness; and
it was probably at least a twelvemonth before
he was exactly himself again.

This, then, is the cost of Mushrooms in
France, in consequence of people refusing to
eat wild ones, even if gathered by persons
competent to distinguish the wholesome from
the poisonous kinds; namely, the constant
deterioration of health, and the occasional
risk of life, on the part of those whose
profession it is to cultivate them.

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

BABY CHARLES became KING CHARLES.
THE FIRST, in the twenty-fifth year of his age.
Unlike his father, he was usually amiable
in his private character, and grave and
dignified in his bearing; but, like his father, he
had monstrously exaggerated notions of the
rights of a king; and was evasive, and not
to be trusted. If his word could have been
relied upon, his history might have had a
different end.

His first care was to send over that
insolent upstart, Buckingham, to bring Henrietta
Maria from Paris to be his Queen; upon
which occasion Buckingham—with his usual
audacity—made love to the young Queen of
Austria, and was very indignant indeed with
CARDINAL RICHELIEU, the French Minister,
for thwarting his intentions. The English
people were very well disposed to like their
new Queen, and to receive her with great
favour when she carne among them as a
stranger. But, she held the Protestant
religion in great dislike, and brought over a
crowd of unpleasant priests, who made her
do some very ridiculous things, and forced
themselves upon the public notice in many
disagreeable ways. Hence, the people soon
came to dislike her, and she soon came to
dislike them; and she did so much all
through this reign in setting the King
(who was dotingly fond of her) against his
subjects, that it would have been better for
him if she had never been born.

Now, you are to understand that King
Charles the First—of his own determination:
to be a high and mighty King not to be
called to account by anybody, and urged
on by his Queen besides—deliberately set
himself to put his Parliament down and to
put himself up. You are also to understand,
that even in pursuit of this wrong idea—
enough in itself to have ruined any king—
he never took a straight course, but always
took a crooked one.

He was bent upon war with Spain, though
neither the House of Commons nor the
people were quite clear as to the justice of that
war, now that they began to think a little
more about the story of the Spanish match.
But the King rushed into it hotly, raised
money by illegal means to meet its expenses,
and encountered a miserable failure at Cadiz
in the very first year of his reign. An
expedition to Cadiz had been made in the hope of
plunder, but as it was not successful it was
necessary to get a grant of money from the
Parliament, and when they met—in no very
complying humour—the King told them, " to
make haste to let him have it, or it would be