The Dobson Family. 605 



he hud in his oars, and throwing open his rough cloak, the lightning 

 flashed upon his jewelled vest: it was the BARON. Lieba uttered a 

 piercing shriek, and then threw herself upon Ulric's bosom, who, 

 spell-bound sat, gazing at his father. 



" Ah, ah, boy," shouted the Baron, " did you think to deceive me. 

 Now say, will you give her up ?'' 



" Never father, never," answered Ulric resolutely. 



" Then she shall die," answered the Baron sternly ; and holding 

 back his son with one herculean arm, he with the other plunged the 

 ill-fated girl into the whirling waters. She gave but one long 

 piercing shriek as she was borne down by the eddying current. 



" Father," said Ulric in a low deep tone, and the lightning fell 

 upon his face, disclosing an unearthly fixedness of purpose, " Father, 

 you have destroyed your only son ;" and breaking with the strength 

 of despair from the Baron's grasp, he plunged himself into the 

 stream and instantly disappeared. 



Long and wildly did the proud Baron watch for him to rise, in 

 vain ; he then threw himself into the bottom of the boat, and wept 

 with agony : and they were the first tears he had shed since child- 

 hood. At length he rose, and called wildly on his son ; and then, 

 with a wild demoniacal laugh, he shouted, " I have no son: I had one 

 once, but I murdered him; ah, ha, ha I" and the rocks rang with 

 that unearthly laugh, and he sank insensible into the boat. Next 

 morning he was found many miles down the stream, and was brought 

 home ; but his mind was gone, and some months after he died a 

 madman. Even to this day the fishermen tell, that on the anniver- 

 sary night of this wild deed, when the spirit of the storm is abroad, 

 the scene is acted over again ; the maiden is dashed into the stream, 

 again her shriek is heard, and again the Baron is seen whirling 

 down the stream calling on his son, and again once more the rocks 

 reverberate with his wild unearthly laughter. 



<c How charming," said Julianna, endeavouring "to seem affected, 

 for which, however, she was not allowed time, inasmuch as they 

 reached Coblentz, and were assailed by the usual crowd of unsenti- 

 mental porters, all asking leave to take their luggage, and enquiring 

 where it was to be taken to. Their luggage, alas, was now in Rot- 

 terdam. Yes, the raspberry -jam and the ball-dresses, the walnut 

 ketchup, and the German grammars and dictionaries, all except half 

 a dozen that Mr. Dobson always carried in his coat pocket, were all 

 travelling a different route from their owners, who now betook them- 

 selves to the White Horse, where Mr. Dobson abused every thing 

 not English, and Emily enjoyed the rest of her fit of crying, which 

 had been interrupted by the appearance of the young Englishman, 

 after which they went most unromantically to bed. Next morning 

 they were on board the steamer: the young ladies looked wistfully 

 about them ; but the Englishmen were not there. They proceeded 

 up the flat uninteresting Rhine as far as Mayence, where they that 

 very evening held a council of war, and what was the result of their 

 sage cogitations ? Readers, be not dumb-foundered : they actually 

 determined next day to return to England, each rejoicing at the 

 plan, though from different motives. Mr. Dobson was anxious to get 



