waits-where is the warrant for John Bradford's release?"

"It is in my hand," she said, "and needs only thy sign and seal. Here is the hand-writing of our queen." Ravenstone snatched the parchment, but did not rashly sign without unfolding it-"Thou art deceived, Alice, or willing to deceive-this is a marriage contract, investing thee with the lands of Giles Rufford as thy dowry." "does my

"And to whom," asked she, smiling, queen-mistress license me to give it by her own manual sign?"

Ravenstone looked again, and saw his own name entered, and himself described as the husband chosen for her maid of honour by queen Mary. "Has she also signed," he said, "the reprieve of John Bradford?"

"It is in my hand, and now in thy sight, Henry Ravenstone; but the seal that will save thy friend may not be placed till thou hast given sign and seal to this contract. Choose !-"

The warrant for Bradford's liberation was spread before him, and her other hand held the contract of espousals. He smiled as he met the gaze of her keen blue eyes, and wrote the name of Henry Ravenstone in the blank left for it. She added her own without removing those keen eyes from his; and placing the parchment in her gipsire, suffered him to take the warrant of his friend's release. It was full and clear, but when he turned to seek the chancellor's signet-ring, the coffer had closed upon it. "Blame thyself, Ravenstone!" said Alice of Huntingdon-" thou hast laughed at the tales of imps and fairies, yet thou hadst woman's weakness enough to pry into that coffer and expect a miracle. As if thy master had not wit sufficient to devise a safe place for his ring, which thy curiosity placed there more than thy obedience! Didst thou

think I came into this chamber like a sylph or an elfin, without hearing the stroke on the silver bowl which gave notice thou wast here?-Truly, Ravenstone, man's vanity is the only witch that governs him."

"Beautiful demon! when the crafty churchman who tutors thy cunning has no need of it, will thy other master, the great Prince of Fire, save thee from the stake?"

My trust is in myself," she answered; and throwing her cloak and wimple on the ground, she loosened her bright hair till it fell to her feet, waving round her uncovered shoulders, and amongst the thin blue silk that clung to her shape, like wreaths of gold. Her eyes, large and brilliant as the wild leopard's, shone with such imperial beauty as almost to create the triumph they demanded. Be no rebel to my power, Ravenstone, for it is thy safety. Gardiner has ordered Bradford's death without appeal, and feigned his dream of danger to decoy thee here! But I have earned a fair estate by serving him, and thou mayest share it with me."- "Thy wages are not yet paid, Alice!" he replied, grinding his teeth-" that fair estate is mine, and that contract can avail thee nothing without my willHenry Ravenstone is a name as false as thy promise to save Bradford."-Alice paused an instant, then laughing shrilly, clapped her hands thrice. In that instant the chamber was filled with armed men, who surrounded and struck down their victim, notwithstanding his desperate defence. "This is not the bishop!" one of the men exclaimed-" this is not Stephen of Winchester-we shall not be paid for this."-" He is Giles Rufford of Huntingdon," answered his companion, the ruffian Coniers-" and I am already paid."-Alice would have escaped had not the length of her dishevelled hair enabled her treacherous accomplices to seize it. They twined it round her throat to stifle her cries, making her boasted beauty the instrument of her destruction *. She was dragged to Newgate on a charge of sorcery, and executed the next morning by John Bradford's side, in male attire, lest her rare loveliness should excite compassion. He knew her, and looking at the laurel

* Coniers and his gang confessed their guilt before the queen's council in November, 1555.

stems mingled with the faggots, said, as if conscious of his young friend's death-" Alas! the green tree has perished for my sake!"-It was indeed his favourite laurel, which had been hewn down with cruel malice for this purpose. The people, just even in their superstitions to a good man's memory, still believe the earth remains parched and barren where John Bradford perished on the first of July, 1555; and his heart, which escaped the flames, like his fellow-martyr's, archbishop Cranmer's, was embalmed and wrapped in laurel-leaves. His memory is sanctified by the religion he honoured-while Alice of Huntingdon's sunk among dust and ashes, as a worthy emblem of the cabalism she practised.-European Magazine.

AN ACCOUNT OF CIRO ANNICHIARICO. CIRO ANNICHIARICO, born of parents in easy circumstances, in the little town of Grottaglie, was destined to the ecclesiastical profession, and entered it very young. His brothers are respectable farmers; his uncle the Canonico Patitaro, is a man of learning and information, and never took any part in the crimes of his nephew. The latter began his infamous career by killing a young man of the Motolesi family, in a fit of jealousy. His insatiable hatred pursued every member of the family, and exterminated them one after the other, with the exception of a single individual, who succeeded in evading his search, and who lived shut up in his house for several years, without ever daring to go out. This unfortunate being thought that a snare was laid for him when people came to tell him of the imprisonment, and shortly after of the death of his enemy; and it was with difficulty that he was induced to quit his retreat.

Ciro, condemned for the murder of the Motolesi, to fifteen years of chains, or exile, by the tribunal of Lecce, remained there in prison four years, at the end of which time he succeeded in escaping. It was then that he

began, and afterwards continued for several years, to lead a vagabond life, which was stained with the most atrocious crimes. At Martano, he penetrated with his satellites into one of the first houses of the place, and, after having offered violence to its mistress, he massacred her with all her people, and carried off ninetysix thousand ducats.

He was in correspondence with all the hired brigands; and whoever wished to get rid of an enemy, had only to address himself to Ciro. On being asked by captain Montorj, reporter of the military commission which condemned him, how many persons he had killed with his own hand, he carelessly answered, " E chi lo sa? saranno tra sessanta e settanta." " Who can remember? they will be between sixty and seventy." One of his companions, Occhiolupo, confessed to seventeen ; the two brothers, Francesco and Vito Serio, to twentythree; so that these four ruffians alone had assassinated upwards of a hundred!

The activity of Ciro was as astonishing as his artifice and intrepidity. He handled the musket and managed the horse to perfection; and as he was always extremely well mounted, found concealment and support, either through fear or inclination, every where. He succeeded in escaping from the hands of the soldiers, by forced marches of thirty and forty miles, even when confidential spies had discovered his place of concealment but a few hours before. The singular good fortune of being able to extricate himself from the most imminent dangers acquired for him the reputation of a necromancer, upon whom ordinary means of attack had no power, among the people, and he neglected nothing which could confirm this idea, and increased the sort of spell it produced upon the peasants. They dared not execrate, or even blame him in his absence, so firmly were they persuaded that his demons would immediately inform him of it. On the other hand, again, he affected a libertine character: some very free French songs were found in his portfolio when he was arrested. Although a priest himself, and exercising the functions

of one when he thought it expedient, he often declared his colleagues to be impostors without any faith. He published a paper against the missionaries, who, according to him, disseminated illiberal opinions among the people, and forbade them on pain of death to preach in the villages, "because, instead of the true principles of the Gospel, they taught nothing but fables and impostures." This paper is headed, "In nome della Grande Assemblea Nazionale dell' Ex-Regno di Napoli, o piuttosto dell' Europa intera, pace e salute.""In the name of the Great National Assembly of the Ex-Kingdom of Naples, or rather of all Europe, peace and health."

He amused himself sometimes with whims, to which he tried to give an air of generosity. General d'Octavio, a Corsican in the service of Murat, pursued him for a long time with a thousand men. One day Ciro, armed at all points, surprised him walking in a garden. He discovered himself, remarking that the life of the general was in his hands; but," said he, "I will pardon you this time, although I shall no longer be so indulgent, if you continue to hunt me about with such fury." So saying, he leaped over the garden wall and disappeared.

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Having hidden himself, with several of his people, behind a ruined wall at the entrance gate of Grottaglie, the day when general Church and the duke of San Cesario, accompanied by some horsemen, reconnoitred the place, he did not fire upon them. He wished to make a merit of this before the military commission; but it was probably the fear of not being able to escape from the troops who followed the general, that made him circumspect on this occasion.

Ciro's physiognomy had nothing repulsive about it; it was rather agreeable. He had a verbose, but persuasive eloquence, and was fond of inflated phrases. Extremely addicted to women, he had mistresses, at the period of his power, in all the towns of the province over which he was constantly ranging. He was of middle stature, well made, and very strong.