642 The Little-Go. 



reeled during his residence abroad, did not a little incline him to the 

 choice of a profession whereby he was enabled to indulge in the lei- 

 sure so necessary to one devoted to literary pursuits. He entered the 

 university better prepared than most men of his age to commence the 

 academical career. 



'Twas there we first became acquainted. A similarity of pursuits 

 drew us often to walk abroad ; our intercourse soon ripened into in- 

 timacy, and there are few who have been at college but will allow 

 that the friendships which are there formed generally prove the most 

 endearing of all ties of that kind, cherished the longest, and forgotten 



the last. And such will it be with the remembrance of M . Oh, 



God ! how inscrutable are thy ways \ Alas ! that I should have 

 nought but his remembrance now left me ! Oh, who could have 



imagined that the young, the noble, the ardent, the chivalrous M 



should be so soon doomed to destruction ! That he, the bright, the 

 talented, the enthusiastic, should so speedily be hurled upon his awful 

 journey to that unknown bourn 



Illuc, unde negant redire quemquam ! 



So awfully to perish too ! 



The morning of the morrow the ominous morrow, at length broke 

 in upon the sleepless couches of the few who were to figure with 

 good or ill success in the schools on that day. It was one of those 

 grey, misty, autumnal day-breaks so frequently at that season of the 

 year the harbingers of a set in rain. Slowly and heavily dawned the 

 light, and the clouds, which had been gathering from the time the 

 moon of overnight had disappeared, now rolled in sable mantles 

 athwart the murk atmosphere, and threatened the city with a deluge. 

 There was a solemn stillness throughout the air, a presageful aspect 

 of things was spread over the face of nature, and as the eye wandered 

 over the surrounding objects nothing but gloom, gloom, came re- 

 flected into the mind from the sad austerity of their sombre guise. 



At length the rain fell and in torrents. The sandy streets of the 

 clinker-paved city were washed bare to the lowest stones ; not a par- 

 ticle of soil but was carried down by the rushing streams as they de- 

 scended on either side of the deluged pavement. The houses and 

 colleges adjoining the street poured out water in continuous spouts 

 from their projecting pipes ; the springs burst ; the swollen Cherwell 

 swept away its green banks in many places ; the fields and marsh land 

 to the south side of the city were completely overflowed 



"Water, water, every where ! " 



It seemed a second deluge. Ten o'clock came, yet the heavens gave 

 no sign of change. Another half-hour, yet the storm, which had been 

 discharging its fury upon the earth for the last three hours, abated 

 not one jot its awful rage. The rain still poured down incessantly. 

 The whole country was enveloped in darkness. 



But the darkest scene was already over ! The cloud had passed 

 by, and burst upon its victim like a thunderbolt ! It had happened 

 had ended ; and the silence of the grave, of stupefaction, of death, 

 had succeeded to the appalling visitation. 



