adopted as the communication with the Black Sea, that it should be deepened, and that canals should be cut between the curves to avoid its tortuous course. This channel is much wider than that of Sulina, and its waters are not lost in marshes or a spongy soil, and might thus be more capable of serving the purposes of navigation. Divided as the Danube now was, all its noble features were gone; it had sunk into an insignificant, sluggish, muddy river, scarcely more than eighty yards wide, its banks, if possible, more dreary and monotonous than when skirting the Dobrudschka. A vast interminable field of rushes, ten or twelve feet high, was all that could be seen on either side, save now and then the sail of some vessel rising apparently from the marsh as the river wound through it, and the rude hovels used as guard-houses on the Russian bank. Flights of wild geese, herons, and pelicans, pursuing their leaden flight, seemed to harmonise with the scene. Huge eagles, too, soaring over some carrion left by the receding waters (at one time we counted seventeen in one spot), lent a characteristic stillness to this tract of desolation. At about two P.M. the lighthouse at the Sulina mouth, conspicuous amid a cluster of masts, hove in sight, and we were soon abreast of what is called the town of Sulina. The anchor was let go, and we remained stationary in the middle of the river. Some officials boarded us, but they did not trouble us with any inquiries. They seemed more concerned with the ship's officers and the refreshment they had below. The whole of the fortifications and the town which had been occupied by Russia for the real purpose of closing the Danube to all but herself, had been destroyed by us during the late war. The church and the lighthouse alone were spared. At the water's edge were several wooden houses, devoted to the sale of such articles as sailors require. These were evidently of recent construction, and showed that the opening of the navigation of the Danube had stimulated the enterprise of those who cater to the wants of a ship's crew. The number of vessels also lying off proved that its advantages were not disregarded. Having taken a pilot on board, the anchor was weighed, and gently we steamed towards the formidable bar. As the Danube merged into the ocean, I could not but feel some disappointment that a river which had flowed 1550 miles, and borne us on its waters above 1300, viz., from Donnerwurth, its extreme navigable point,* and which had absorbed in its course one hundred and twenty other rivers, should thus tamely glide into the sex Like the Nile and the Rhine, the Danube embouches through a marsh, and its waters are either broken up into lesser streams and half stagnant pools, or lost in a swamp, and, instead of approaching the ocean as the Seine or our own noble Thames, it steals, as it were, stealthily into the broad expanse of the Euxine, as if sensible of its ignoble appearance. The fact of there being no tide in this sea, and therefore no flux and reflux up or down the river, may also account in some measure for its sluggish waters and narrow channel. Buoys have been again laid down, which the Russians had removed, and guided by them we had no difficulty in finding water enough. There was but little swell as we crossed the bar; what little wind there was set off the shore, and had it not been for several débris in the shape of masts and the ribs of sunken vessels rising out of the water, but firmly fixed in the sand, The Danube had carried us from Donnerwurth, by Ratisbon, Linz, and Vienna, to Pesth. the dangers of the entrance to the Sulina mouth might have been thought an exaggeration. I was told there was eleven feet of water. I saw none of those appliances in the shape of rakes which it is said vessels are compelled to carry at their stern to disperse the collecting mud and sand. The bar passed, we were fairly launched on the treacherous Euxine. With a clear sky and a powerful telescope, I endeavoured to get sight of the now-famed Serpents' Island, but in vain, and I cannot but think that its occupation as affecting the entrance to the Danube has been somewhat overrated. Our course lay to the south in the direction of Varna, and as we stretched out from the coast, the sea, which had been hitherto tranquil enough, gradually assumed a turbid appearance, and ere nightfall we were satisfied that the Euxine had not been unjustly maligned. During the night the steamer pitched and rolled very much; it was not until we approached the bay of Varna that we were in smooth water. Here, about 10 A. M., we anchored. Varna! What sad reminiscences does that word evoke. Diarrhoea and death-how many a brave spirit sighing_for a nobler fate was sacrificed a victim to those pestilential swamps. The town itself stands well on the side of hills rising abruptly from the seashore. On the left, looking from the sea, was the fatal morass; and on the right were three or four houses of imposing appearance, in contrast with the rest of the town: these are the residences of the British, American, and other consuls; it being Sunday, the flags of their respective nations were hoisted in reverence to the day. The steamer was to remain here three hours; going ashore, then, in a boat, we soon found ourselves in the principal street of Varna. The dirt and filth beggars description-to attempt it would be a hopeless task. Toiling under a burning sun up the rugged, loathsome causeway, we heard a mixed noise of shouts, of execration, and laughter: a gun was being brought down from the nowdismantled fort. To the rude waggon on which it was lashed were yoked twenty-four oxen, with two buffaloes at wheel. With convulsive jolts it crawled along over the rugged causeway, one wheel now in apparently an inextricable fix, then poised in mid-air as if the whole must topple over, the attendant Turks yelling to their utmost as they endeavoured to restore its equilibrium, or urged with their goad the buffaloes and oxen to exert their strength. During the earlier stage of the Russian campaign, when the capture of Shumla was feared, it was of the utmost importance that Varna should be strong in defence. All such apprehension was now at an end, and this gun was now being removed from the battery to be added to those which lay on the coast, amid broken gun-carriages and other warlike appliances in straggling confusion, without any attempt at order or preservation. We returned to the steam-boat, and at two P.M. were steaming out of this sequestered bay. Not reaching the entrance to the Bosphorus before daylight, it was unnecessary to lay-to, and we proceeded without stopping. This channel and its scenery are said to defy description: imagination alone can faintly picture the beauty of the scene. Viewing it as we did by the light of the rising sun, the impression it created, although indelibly fixed, confirms the truth of the adage. At about eight o'clock in the morning we anchored off the Golden Horn, and after an amusing scene with the Turkish custom-house officials, ending in the payment of two francs as "backsheesh," we landed at Tophana, and toiling up the steep hill to Pera, thankfully entered the cool hall of Messeris's hotel. THE DETECTIVE OFFICER. BY THE AUTHOR OF ASHLEY." I. A THERE sat one Tuesday evening in the month of June, in a room at Rotherhithe, a small collection of country people, men and women. discontented expression was on their faces, and not without cause. They were from Suffolk, intended emigrants to Sydney, who ought to have gone out of dock on the previous Saturday, but from some bad management, which they could not or would not comprehend, the ship was to be detained for another week: and they rebelled at the delay.. "A boxing of us up in this here wicked Lunnon, as is full of murders and revellings!" cried a woman, who was spelling over a newspaper. "A poor innocent lamb they have been a murdering of now. A pretty little fellow, with flax-coloured hair, it says." "Read it out, Goody Giles," said some of the company. Goody Giles preferred to tell it. "He were found in a place they call the Regent's Park. A gentleman were a passing along, and his dog jumped into the water, and fished up a bundle, which they think had lodged on the side, without sinking. They got it out and opened it, and it were a poor little boy strangled to death." "When was it? How big was he?" inquired one of the men. "It were last Friday morning, and he looked to be a going on of two year," replied Goody Giles. "His frock and pinafore were of blue cotton." Another woman, seated at the window, turned round her head. "What else do it say?" she asked, in a quick tone. 66 Well, I don't mind as it says much else. Tam, take the news, and look." "Tam" took the newspaper, and ran his eyes over it. "Yes it does, mother. It says as there's a reward of 201. offered for the murderer. And he had got on a shirt and petticoat clumsily marked 'R. P.' in grey worsted." "Hey, Mrs. Thrupp! what's the matter of you?" For Mrs. Thrupp had risen from her seat at the window, and stood as if petrified. "Forgive me if I'm wrong!" she breathed, "but it's just the likeness of little Randy." "Thou foolish woman!" uttered her husband. "Thy thoughts be tied on nought but that little 'un, night and noon. about him shortly." Thee'll get crazy "Randy wore his blue frock and pinafore the day I left him." "For the matter of that, Mother Thrupp," interposed Peter Miles, "there be a hundred or two children in blue frocks and pinafores in this town of Lunnon alone." "And that's the very mark of his shirt and petticoat," persisted Mrs. Thrupp. "I thought his ma might be fashed at seeing no mark, for ladies is particular, and when I were a mending up Thrupp's stockings, Aug.-VOL. CX. NO. CCCCXL. 2 D ready for the start, I took the needle and worsted, and marked his three shirts and his two petticoats, R, for Randy, and P, for Penryn." "R. P. is but common letters," interposed Robert Pike, "and stands for many a name. They stands for mine." "Don't take no note of she, Robin," cried John Thrupp; "her head's turned with losing the little urchin." Mrs. Thrupp said no more. But she read the account, and noted the address where application might be made to the police, and the body of the child seen. When she was alone with her husband at night, she told him she should go and ask to see it. "Thee'd never be so soft!" "I must satisfy myself. Something keeps whispering that it's little Randy. I told you his mother shook him and hit him, like a dog a shaking a rat." "A pretty figure thee'll cut, a going to own a drownded child, when thee gets sight, and finds it's one thee never set eyes on afore !" exclaimed John Thrupp. "It's only my time and a walk, and my mind'll be at rest. While we are kept a waiting here, we have got nothing to do, now all our things is a board." The same evening that these several labourers and their families were conversing together, there appeared at the police-station, indicated in the advertisements connected with the crime, a shrewd-looking man, airily attired about the neck and waistcoat. He demanded to see the inspector. "What for?" inquired an officer in Something touching the murder. again." "Go in there," said the policeman. attendance. If I can't see him now, I'll come He went into the room indicated, and stood before the inspector, who inquired his name. "John Ripley." "Who and what are you?" "I was well to do once, but I got down in the world, and I am lately reduced to drive a night cab. I tried a day one, but I had to pay sixteen shillings to its master every morning, before I took it out, and I could not make it answer. I pay six shillings for the night one." "Its number, and its owner?" John Ripley satisfied him, also in various other particulars. Some of his answers were written down. "And now," said the officer, "what have you to say about this affair?" "First of all, sir, I want to know whether the reward will be paid to me, if I point out the person who put the child in the water? Because that person," shrewdly argued the man, "may not have been the one who actually did the deed-though I wouldn't mind laying something that it was. "If you can indicate to us the individual who put the body where it was found, and through that information the murderer be discovered and taken, you will be entitled to the reward." "And receive it ?" added the man. "And receive it," said the inspector, with a checked attempt at a smile. "Now go on." "Well, sir, last Thursday evening I took out my cab at nine o'clock, and for more than half an hour not a fare did I get. Then one hailed me, and I drove him all up to the Regent's Park, on to St. John's Wood. I set him down there, and was going back, when a woman came out of the Park, put up her hand, and made a noise." "How made a noise?" Why, she had tried to speak, but was so out of breath she couldn't, and only a noise came from her. I got down, opened the door, and she scrambled in. I have seen many a one make haste over getting into a cab," continued the speaker, "but I never saw one tumble in as quick as she did. She was like a hare that the dogs are after. John's Wood,' she said to me. "What part of it?' I asked. 6 road, St. "Drive on,' she said. 'I'll tell you when to pull up.' So I did as she told me, and "What time was this ?" interrupted the officer. Between ten and half-past." "I drove to the part she told me, and presently she pulled the string, and I jumped off and let her out. I thought I should get a shilling from her, but she puts half-a-crown into my hand, and goes away on, down the road." "Is that all?” "Not quite. I turned back with my cab, and had not gone far, when a gentleman, two ladies, and two children, hailed me, and told me to turn round. They got in, and I was driving down the road again, when at a house, past which I had driven her, I saw the same woman-or lady; whichever she was. She was standing inside its gate, looking up and down the road." "How do you connect all this with the finding of the child's body?" Why, sir, I feel a positive conviction, in my own mind, that it was that very woman who had been placing the body in the water. She panted and shook as she came from the Park, like, as I said, a hunted hare, and the moment she was inside the cab, huddled herself into one corner of it, like the same hare run down. And why should she conceal her house from me, and make me drive past it, if she had been up to good ?" "These circumstances amount to very little," said the inspector. "At all events, they look suspicious enough for the police to follow up," quickly retorted the man. "Which I suppose you'll do, sir." The inspector kept his own counsel; as inspectors are sure to do. Neither eye nor lip moved. "What house was this?" he asked. "I cannot describe it as you would understand, but I can point it out when I'm there." "How was the woman dressed ?" "In a big dark shawl, which nearly covered her, and a silk dress. And she kept a black veil over her face." "Should you know her again?" |