madman endeavouring to drag me to the
aperture with the evident intention of throwing
me out upon the line.

And now I felt that the crisis was at hand,
and that it was but a question of time whether
I could hold out until we arrived at the
station, or whether I should be murdered by
the lunatic. We were both young men, and
though, perhaps, I was naturally the more
powerful, yet his position gave him great
advantages, as I was still extended on my
back, while he was stooping over me, and
while my limbs were cramped he had free
play for all his energies. On seeing me
recovering from the swoon, he uttered a
short, sharp cry, and, bending lower, twined
his hands in my cravat. Now was my
opportunity his back was towards the door, his
face so close to mine, that I could feel his
breath upon my cheek. Gathering all my
remaining strength together. I seized him by
the ancles, and literally hurled him over my
head on to his face. He fell heavily, striking
his head against the opposite door, and lay
stunned and bleeding. In a second I was on
my feet ready to grapple him, but as I rose
the engine shrieked our approaching advent
to the station, and almost before I could raise
my fallen foe we ran in to Tamworth. The
first person I saw on the platform was Ellen's
brother, to whom, after hearing that she was
out of danger, I, in a few words, narrated my
adventure, and pointed out the stranger,
who, still insensible, was supported by some
of the porters.

"Let's have a look at the fellow!" said
Fred Luttrell— an unsophisticated youth—
but he no sooner had set eyes on the pallid
face than he drew back, exclaiming, " By
Jove, it's Bodé !"

And so it was; and by the aid of explanation,
I received afterwards from Fred
Luttrell, I was, in some measure, enabled to
account for the attack made upon me. It
appears that the Vicomte de Bodé had seen
Ellen while in Burgundy, and fell desperately
in love with her; but his addresses were
utterly discouraged by her friends, for one
reason alone — but that a most powerful one.
His family were afflicted with hereditary
insanity, and he himself had already on two
occasions shown the taint. Of course it was
impossible to declare to him the real reason
of his rejection, and he was accordingly
informed that Ellen's parents had long since
pledged her hand to a connexion of her own.

After her departure he grew moody and
irritable, and it was judged advisable to have
him watched; but he managed to elude the
observation of his keepers, and to escape to
England. Ellen's address was well known
to him; he was proceeding thither; and
when he heard the very house mentioned by
the porter at Crewe as the direction of my
luggage, he doubtless, in his wandering mind,
pictured me as his rival and supplanter.

My dear Ellen recovered, and so did the
Vicomte — that is to say, from my assault.
As to his madness, it stood by him, poor
creature, until he died.

BANKING.

IT happens in this world that the person
who is well off; the happy man who is blessed
with an abundance of goods, has still one
drawback to his exultation; for, almost
always it occurs that he has not enough of
some one thing — of several things— perhaps
at the same time that he has more than
enough of some other thing, or things. While
somebody else, also well off in his way, has a
corresponding deficiency of some other
different thing, and a similar superabundance
of some particular commodity, which is not
the same commodity as that which constitutes
the superfluity of his well-stored neighbour.
Peter has more wheat; which he and his
family grind into flour, and bake into loaves,
than he and his can contrive to eat, although
they were to sit up all night to do so: Paul
has more hides; which his sons and his
serving-men tan into leather, and fabricate
into shoes, than his entire household can
possibly wear out, even though each
individual member were a Wandering Jew.
And so it is throughout the globe. With the
exceptions of the class known as the Poor,
everybody has more of some one article than
is needed for his private wants: more wine,
more wool, more potatoes, or more wood and
coal. It would be simpler and less inconvenient
if every family, or every head of a
household, had, or produced, a moderate
quantity of each separate article, just sufficient
for his annual consumption; he would then
be independent, beholden to nobody, and an
immense amount of trouble and discontent
would thus be spared. But it is not so; and
never will be, till all men are born with equal
talents, strength, and stature; until all climates
are equally genial, and all soils put forth the
same fertility. Possibly, it was not intended
by the Creator of all things that human
beings, whether singly or in small knots with
a common interest, should be independent in
their self-sufficiency, or that the fate of man
should be to live in solitary and exclusive
isolation.

In any case, there is no help for this state
of mundane affairs; those who have no shoes
must get shoes somehow, those who have no
loaf must obtain a loaf somewhere. There
are two ways of effecting the purpose: — First,
if you are strong and unscrupulous, you may
look out for some weaker person possessed
of shoes or bread, as the case may be, and
may then take them from him by main force,
leaving him to help himself as he can.
Perhaps he will yield without resistance or
revenge; perhaps he will either wound you
at the time or will wait to retaliate when you
are in a defenceless state. This is ROBBERY
and its consequences; it was, and is, the