Madame de Stael, after applauding Schiller's tragedy for the restoration it effected of the character of the French heroine, adds:--"The French alone have consented to this degradation of the character of the maiden; even an Englishman, Shakspeare, represents her in the beginning as inspired by Heaven, and afterwards led astray by the demons of ambition." The delineation of the Maid of Orleans, in the _first Part of Henry VI_., is associated with the greatest name in our literature, and therefore, we presume, must be treated with respect; but it is the only title to respect we can discover in it. We cannot, with Madame de Stael, trace the inspired maid in any part of the play. La Pucelle gives us, it is true, in the commencement, a very good account of herself; as she was playing the part of an impostor, it was not probable she would do otherwise: but her own manner very soon betrays the courtesan; and, when alone, we find her in the Company of no other spirits than such as witches are accustomed to raise. We were still more surprised to find Schlegel describing the Maid of Orlean of _Henry VI_. as more _historical_ than the portraiture of Schiller. There is the same amount of fable in both. In _Henry VI_., we have an echo of the coarse superstition and vulgar scandal of the English camp--in Schiller, the fable is beautiful, and assists to develop a character of exquisite purity. THE STOLEN CHILD. A TRUE TALE OF THE BACK-WOODS. It was towards the commencement of the month December 1825, that I was going down the Mississippi in the steam-boat Feliciana. We had arrived in the neighbourhood of Hopefield, Hampstead county, when one of our paddles struck against a sawyer,[1] and was broken to pieces. We were obliged in consequence to cast anchor before the town. [1] The local name for large tree-trunks which get partially buried in the mud, one end sticking, up just below the surface of the water. They cause frequent accidents to the steam-boats on the Mississippi.