raffles, and the price of all the yellow shoes
which gave such grace to the footsteps of her
children, to say nothing of the pair which had
been brought home for "pa."

66

Now, just at this juncture there came a
long and important knock at the door, which
the gentleman in black thought might have
emanated from the hand of a hackney coach-
man, but which all the children in the yellow
shoes, and "ma" into the bargain, assured
him was "pa;" and "ma," having begged
him not to mention to "pa" what she had
disclosed to him in strict confidence respect-
ing money which she had clandestinely dis-
posed of in the Margate raffles, and having
received his guarantee of perfect secrecy,
went out into the "hall" to meet "pa."

assured "pa" that the gentleman was a gen.
tleman, "pa," wishing to be a gentleman
too, went into the back parlour and changed
his coat for a dirty dressing-gown, which
hung behind the door, and his dirty shoes
for the before-mentioned yellow Margate
slippers.

outstared all the eyes in a peacock's tail, gave
him a reception at the parlour door, and in-
vited him into its sacred interior-why then
the poor gentleman in black had no choice
but just to submit to his destiny, and walk
quietly into the room, and being duly in-
stalled in a chair, ma," after having made
a great deal of noise to make the children
quiet, began to repose her confidence in him,
relating to him her various plans of educa-
tion, with sundry other of her maternal cares,
from which, by a natural transition, she re-
verted to her own school-days-days in
which, from her astonishing aptitude, she had
been a monopoliser of all the prizes in the
establishment, until the principal-no, the
governess (there were governesses in those
days), excluded her from the competition, be-
Then came a whispering between them re-
cause it was so discouraging to her fellow specting the apparent condition of their visi-
pupils and then she was obliged to leave tor, the result of which was, that as
;
school earlier by two years than was intended
by her friends, because the masters and the
teachers, and, in fact, every creature con-
nected with the seminary, unanimously de-
clared that she was beyond their hands, that
there remained nothing more which she could
be taught; that so, having attained that point
of perfection, she returned home, and then,
Thus accoutred, the head of the Renchall
she did not know why, she could not think family walked majestically great, and amiably
how it was, but she had so many admirers condescending, across the intervening six
that she did not know what to do with them feet, and entered the presence of his visitor
all; that although she had offers from two with his head already bent for a bow; but
lieutenants in the navy, one captain in the never came thunder-cloud across summer sky
army, one city knight who had since been so black as the frown that knitted itself into
lord mayor, two architects, one engineer, five the inch-and-a-half forehead of Mr. Rench-
drawing-masters, three writing-masters, seven all, and the protrusion of his chin could only
dancing-masters, besides a variety of more be measured by its own depth, being, we
or less distinguished individuals, too numer-lieve, about six inches.
ous to mention-yet, notwithstanding these
numerous competitors, she did not know
why, she could not tell how it was, but she
supposed because marriages were made in
heaven, that she had contracted one on earth
with none of all these men of high degree,
but only with that amiable and exalted per-
sonage, Richard Renchall, Esq.; that truly
it was against the wishes of her friends, who
thought that she might have done much bet-
ter; but the heart, the heart, was not to be
influenced by mercenary motives, and the
event had proved the justice of her favour-
able opinion and devoted attachment, for she
could truly say that during all the years of
their union they had never had a word of dis-
agreement, but that he was the most devoted
husband, the most indulgent parent, &c., &c.

(To be concluded in our next.)

66

To all this the gentleman in black said "Hum," and "Ah," and "Yes," and "No," with happy propriety in the right places.

The proprietor of all this laudation, not
having yet returned to the bosom of his in-
teresting family, his lady, feeling as those
always do who confer favours, an increasing
complacency towards the recipient, went on,
in the enlargement of her heart, to more par-
ticular instances of the flourishing circum-
stances of the Renchall family; the last mark
of her condescending confidence being an ac-office, Water-lane, Fleet-street, London.

count of her visit to Margate, and all the
money which she had spent of which she had
told Mr. Renchall, and all the money she had The only vice that cannot be forgiven is
spent of which she had not told Mr. Rench-hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is
all; the money she had lost i the room itself hypocrisy.

THE FLY'S LETTER-BOX.

The country trade are informed that it is
impossible to supply all the demands for
back numbers (i. e, the cheap lots of
fifty dozen sorted) received this week, but
they will be issued in rotation as the orders
have arrived at the office.

It

is unnecessary to repeat that the publisher
pledges himself hat all the plates shall be
fine impressions.

"ma" OUR LAST AND BEST LIKENESS OF THE QUEEN.

The first impressions from each of the drawings prepared for last week's number of the " 'Fly," were worked on imperial paper, with great care, and may be had, price 61. each, plain, or ls. coloured. Order the NEW QUEEN, published by Glover, at the "Fly" office.

TO THE COUNTRY TRADE.

NOTICE.

Mr. GLOVER, (the publisher of the "Fly," &c.,) in answer to the frequent inquiries, informs the Country Trade that he will supply them with all the London Periodicals and Newspapers for cash, at a very reduced scale of charges-equal to any other agent in London. Address (post-paid), to the " Fly"

MADAME VESTRIS. The excitement caused by the hasty retan from America, and re-appearance at the Olympic Theatre, of this beautiful and tilented actress, induces Mr. Glover to re-anounce his accurate portrait of her, which created such a sensation previous to her departure. It is a full-length drawing on store. by the first artist in lithography of the day and is printed on India paper, imperial size, for framing. Reduced price, 6d., or l coloured.

BARF

POWDER.

WARRANTED NOT TO WEAR THE PLATE.

This article instantaneously cleans all kinds of tarnish or rust, and, as if by magic, prodees most inimitable polish upon Gold, Silver, Plated Goods, Brass, Tin, and Copper, and makes British Plate, Zinc, or Pewter, look equal to the best Silve

road; Brown, Commercial-road; Parker, Bridg

Sold wholesale and retail, at Hallet and Ca British Plate factory, 41, Ludgate-street; and st Wilson's, 87, Fenchurch-street; Thomas and C, Old Kent-road; Birchmore, 4, New Kent-road: Thomas, Hammersmith; Kussel, 67, Whitechape street, Lambeth; Whitehead, Minories; Baters, Chemist to the Queen, 8, Castle Inn, Leicester square; S. Chappell, 84, Lombard-street; as wholesale, at the Manufactory, 92, Fenchurch-street Agents wanted for every Town in the Kingdom. N.B.-Plate cleaned with this Powder will at again tarnish. Price 6d. per Box.

ARFIELD'S DIAMOND PLATE

Published for JAMES GLOVER, at Water-lane,
Fleet-street.

John Cunningham, Printer, Crown-court, 72, Fiest-stres

No. 4-NEW SERIES.]

[TWOPENCE.

63

Every purchaser of this number of "THE FLY," is entitled to an exquisitely-executed Lithographic PRINT of Getting a Rope's-cnd,” which is presented gratuitously.—[A similar print with every number.]

MYNHEER WODENBLOCK.

A TALE OF WONDER AND IMPENETRABLE

MYSTERY.

"UBI MEL, IBI MUSCA.”

:

(For the FLY.) Whoever has been at Rotterdam cannot fail to remember a house of three stories, situated in the Fauxbourg, in face of the basin of the canal which runs through this city, winding its course towards La Haye, Leyden, and other towns. He will, I say, remember this house, for sure I am it will be pointed out to him as formerly belonging to the most able mechanic on whom the light of day in Holland ever shone to say nothing of his daughter Blanche, whose beauty was so much extolled at that time. Unhappily, we have nothing to do with this fair damsel, but with Mynheer, her father. It is well known with what ability all his surgical apparatus was arranged, and, above all, we should notice the admirable skill with which he constructed (without distinction) cork legs, and legs of wood. So it was, chat all who had the mischance to lose a limb had recourse to his marvellous science; and, however desperate their condition, they soon were, it is said, placed again on their legs. The maimed and the halt, impotent folk deemed incurable, found themselves so well suited with legs from the hands of M. Turningvort, that they were well nigh tempted to murmur against Providence for having entrusted a secret of this sort to a simple mortal, and were beginning to doubt if legs of cork and wood were not preferable to legs of bone, flesh, and blood. To say truth, had you seen in what style and fashion the legs of Mynheer Turningvort were turned out-what ingenious springs he contrived-you would

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26.

have been much puzzled to decide the point,
especially had your feet been subject to gout,
or your big toe tormented with corns.

One morning, as M. Turningvort was occu-
pied in giving to a calf and ancle joint that
polish and springy lightness for which he was
famous, a messenger came to inform him that
his attendance was wanted at M. Woden-
block's. Now, M. Wodenblock was the most
opulent banker in Rotterdam. It is not here
necessary to say that our artist suspended his
work, and putting on his Sunday suit, and
covering his head with his best peruke, set
out for the hotel of M. Wodenblock, holding
in his hand his three-cornered hat, and cane
mounted with a silver top.

We should, however, apprise the reader
that a short time previously M. Wodenblock,
according to custom, had used but little cere-
mony towards a poor relation who had come
to visit him; and, being himself desirous of
showing him the door, would have given a
certain hint from behind to urge him down
stairs the faster, but, in the act of so doing, he
lost his balance and fell, without sense or mo-
tion, to the bottom of the staircase. The ser-
vants ran to his assistance, raised him up,
and put him to bed. On coming to himself,
M. Wodenblock discovered, with feelings of
horror, that he had fractured his right leg,
and broken three teeth. He might have ac-
cused this relation with attempting his life,
who was really the cause of the accident, but
being naturally of a mild temper, and inclin-
ing to mercy, he contented himself with send
ing him for a short time to prison. A dentist
soon reinstated the three broken teeth, which
he extracted from a poet at the rate of twenty
sous each, but took care to repay the science
by five hundred francs, charged on the
banker. The surgeon called in, after examin-
ing the leg, on the first notice of the acci-
dent, declared that the cure was impossible
without amputating the limb. It was neces-
John Cunningham, Printer, Crown-court Fleet-street.

sary, therefore, to submit to the operation. The member cut off was carried away by the doctor to serve as a text to a lecture, made the next day to his pupils. Thus it was; and M. Wodenblock, considering that he was in the habit of walking on two legs, and not hopping upon one only, and prejudiced, no doubt, in favour of the first mode of locomotion, sent after a time to our friend, who lived in face of the basin of the canal, to bespeak a leg, which might replace the one he had so unluckily lost.

M. Turningvort was introduced into the magnificent chamber of the rich banker, whom he found extended on his bed. The left leg, it is true, made a tolerable good figure, but the stump which remained of the other was wrapped up with bandage and liga

tures, and looked rather so-so.

"You have heard of the accident that has happened to me?" said M. Wodenblock to the artist, as soon as he saw him. "You know I have been within an ace of death's door. All Rotterdam has heard of it with fright and dismay. You must therefore make me a leg; but a leg the nearest to perfection that you have hitherto turned out of your hands."

Turningvort replied to these words by a most respectful salute.

"You know I do not mean to restrict you to price," replied the banker. "Whatever you ask will be paid, on condition that you provide me the best leg you ever made in your life."

The artist bowed this time most humbly. "I don't want a wooden leg, shaped like a spindle. I want a cork leg; I desire it to be elastic and light, with as many springs within side as there are wheels to a watch. It is not possible for me to explain myself clearer, not knowing your business; but I want from you a leg just as good as the one I have lost. I know it is not impossible for you to accom

pense.'
The Dutch Prometheus declared that to
please M. Wodenblock he would surpass any
thing that the power of man had hitherto
done; and further engaged, at the end of a
week, to produce a leg that should carry the
palm against legs of all colours (no matter in
which hemisphere they were got), made of
bone, tendons, and flesh.

66

Plish this end, and if I am satisfied with the | his entire satisfaction, and his lively demon- | natural powers of the leg would doubtless in work, you will have 25,000 francs as a recom-Istrations of joy upon the occasion. He strode time wear themselves out. He was now prowith long and strong steps from one end of ceeding (or, more justly to speak, carried the room to the other, going and coming in-away) in the direction of the Great Leyden cessantly, while at each revolution of his Canal. When he got sight of Turning vort's march he clasped the hands of Turning vort house, he called out in despair to the artiste to with delight, and was quite inexhaustible in come to his rescue. Our artist put his head praise of his most admirable work. The ma-out of the window. chinery, in fact, performed its office in a most surprising manner. In the banker's gait there was no stiffness, no effort, no fatigue, the locomotive apparatus moved perfectly; it was as if they were the natural organs of bone, tendons, and muscle. No one, not even a fellow sufferer with the banker, could have supposed that this tibia, this ancle-bone, owed its regularity and order to certain mechanical springs, of a particular kind, hid under the wide trousers of our stout Hollander, had it not been for a slight oscillation occasioned by the rapid motion of twenty little wheels, one let into the other, and a small jingling noise like that of a clock's pendulum, though a trifle more strong: if it were not for these, I say, M. Wodenblock would have quite forgotten that he had met with a serious accident, or that the leg was otherwise, before the unlucky raising of it, to give the benediction (as he called it) to his dear nephew who had come to take leave of him.

Villain!" said the unhappy banker; "come down quickly. The leg that you have made me is possessed with a spirit of mischief; it won't allow me to stop; it drags, and drags on, without ceasing. I have been going at this rate ever since you left the house, and unless you come to my help, Heaven knows how much longer I may have to walk. What ails you? Why stand you there looking at me with your mouth open? Come down, I say, to my rescue, or in another instant more I shall be out of your sight, and it will then be impossible for you to come up with me."

One would be tempted to accuse M. Turningvort of rhodomontade; but his words, how ever boasting they might seem, were considered by the artist as already established by proof, and that he was justified therefore in using them. A man of theory as well as practice, he had long been engaged on a discovery which he had only arrived at on the morning he was sent for by M. Wodenblock. Like all other mechanics who fabricated legs of wood, Turningvort found himself posed by the difficulty of introducing certain springs into the leg, which, by proper contrivance, might be made to move at pleasure, and thus rival the admirable mechanism which the knee and the ancle bones perform in the ac tual system. Now, the grand secret to which we alluded was the working of these parts by means of mechanical art; and this, as we have already said, was only discovered on the day he had been sent for by the rich banker. The leg, therefore, ordered by M. Wodenblock was to be made on the new system.

The heart-rending accents with which these words were pronounced, attested the despair and cruel agony that tormented the soul of the unhappy banker. The spectacle struck our mechanist at once with perturbation and horror: evidently, he had not foreseen this incident, or, if he had, he was not possessed of the means to avert it. Nevertheless, he came down immediately to give assistance to M. de Wodenblock left home quite en- the unfortunate man, still hoping to relieve chanted, and after having bustled, as was his him from his perils and dangers. But M way, through a great part of the town, he was Wodenblock was already far off. Turningvort about to ascend the staircase of the Town- set off running after him, and though still in On the eighth day, as was agreed upon, our hall, perceiving at the top of it his friend the strength of his manhood, he had all the artist presented himself with his magical leg Vanoutern, who also recognised him, and held trouble in the world to come up with him. carefully wrapped up to his expecting patient. out his hand accordingly. The banker hast- This at length having accomplished, he seized It was easy to judge, by the complacent twink- ened forward, eager to embrace his friend; the banker in his vigorous arms, to prevent ling of the mechanic's eyes, what was passing but what was the astonishment of the good his feet touching the ground. But this strain his mind, and that he considered the 25,000 Vanoutern on seeing his friend pass before tagem (if such I may call it) was to no purfrancs, which would form part of the dower him without stopping, without so much as pose, for the locomotive faculties of the instru of the charming Blanche, was hardly equiva-saying "How d'ye do?" However, we must ment-so to speak-preserving all their enerlent to the work which was to ensure him that not set this down to the account of incivility gies, carried away the artist as well as the celebrity and immortality which had been the on the part of M. Wodenblock; the astonish-burthensome banker he had caught up. He dream of his life, and now upon the point of ment of this gentleman being one hundred therefore set him down on the ground, and being realised. times greater than that of Vanoutern, on per- stooping pressed one of the springs, strongly ceiving that he had not the power to deter- believing by that means he would suspend the mine how, when, or where, he might stop the velocity of the machine, if not oblige it to movements of his leg. So long as his wishes stop. But, alas! what was his grief and dehad been in agreement with the principles spair on seeing M. de Wodenblock fly off like that caused the machine to act, all went well; an arrow from a bow, crying out, in a lamentbut now that he desired to stop the machinery able tone, "I am a lost man, possessed with a of the instrument, he found he had no more demon-a lost man! Stop me, for Heaven's power over it than the man in the moon. He sake! I shall die! Will nobody break in anxiously wished to converse with his friend pieces the devil's own leg? TurningvortVanoutern, but the leg, in spite of his efforts, Turningvort, you have assassinated me!" and continued its march in fact, would go- the unhappy banker, exhausted and pale as ahead, and he found himself forced to obey. death, was still borne on with a fearful rapiIt is true he used all the means in his power dity, as if by some superhuman and mystical to stop, or at least to check the rapidity of its power. The artist was in a condition, too, not movements; but, alas! it was all to no pur- much to be envied. One would have said he pose, the leg would not halt. At one time he had been struck down by a thunderbolt: withheld fast by the iron railings; sometimes by out voice and without motion, he could no post, by the walls, by the doors-any where, more comprehend the phenomenon than the in short, that a likely place offered; but the unhappy man who was the victim of his scienleg acted with so much vigour, and made such tific labours. He let himself fall on his knees, terrible leaps and bounds, that he feared lest clapped his hands together, his wondering his arms should be put out of joint, so he al- eyes still fixed upon the banker, who was drivlowed himself to proceed by impulsion. ing on with the force and velocity of a wild buffalo, along the canal, with a voice of lamentation and woe, which fatigue, despair, and desperation made hardly intelligible. Leyden is more than twenty miles from

By this time he began to be greatly alarmed, his leg appearing to require new force as the friction diminished, and the springs got into play, and his only hope was that the super

Turningvort unrolled the precious packet, and displayed to the eager gaze of the banker the leg thus destined for him. The day was now far spent, and the artist and the banker were still engaged in unbounded discussion upon the movements of the wheels, the springs, the balance, the power, weight, &c., and, above all, in the putting together of the numerous pieces of which the machine was composed. M. Wodenblock could scarcely contain himself for joy, so much was he astonished and transported by the artist's work. But it was quite impossible at that hour to make an experiment of the leg; it was growing late, and our banker found himself weary, and more disposed to sleep. Still, however, in order to lose no time, and make an early trial of the instrument next morning, and to ascertain how it worked, M. Wodenblock begged of the artist to pass the night at his house; to which request M. Turningvort consented, not without pleasure, and with good grace. Next day all preparations were made in good time; M. de Wodenblock being I cannot say how pleased with the mechanical dispositions of his leg, nor shall I attempt to describe