SPIDERS. 207 



pincers of its antagonist, resigns its place to 

 her, and spins itself a new web in another 

 situation ; but if the old Spider can find 

 none of its species that will, either by consent 

 or compulsion, resign its nest to her, she 

 must then perish for want of subsistence. 



The French Prisoner and Spider. 



A BEAUTIFUL picture, called Le Bal de 

 Watteaux, of which the following anecdote is 

 the subject, was some years since held in the 

 highest estimation on the Continent, by the 

 most celebrated artists. 



Pelisson was a writer, who having given 

 offence to the French government, was thrown 

 into a cell of the Bastile, where, as usual 

 during the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, 

 the prisoners were debarred the visits of their 

 Mends, and lived on bread and water, without 

 the comfort of any book whatever, or the use 

 of pen and ink. 



After a few months of confinement life 



