And now, gentle Reader, one word ere we part, Just take a friend's counsel, and lay it to heart. _Imprimis_, don't smuggle!--if, bent to please Beauty, You _must_ buy French lace,--purchase what has paid duty! Don't use naughty words, in the next place,--and ne'er in Your language adopt a bad habit of swearing! Never say "Devil take me!"-- Or, "shake me!"--or, "bake me!" Or such-like expressions.--Remember Old Nick To take folks at their word is remarkably quick. Another sound maxim I'd wish you to keep, Is, "Mind what you are after, and--Look ere you Leap!" Above all, to my last gravest caution attend-- NEVER BORROW A HORSE YOU DON'T KNOW OF A FRIEND!!! * * * * * For the story which succeeds I am indebted to Mrs. Botherby. She is a Shropshire Lady by birth, and I overheard her, a few weeks since, in the nursery, chaunting the following, one of the Legends peculiar to her native County, for the amusement and information of Seaforth's little boy, who was indeed "all ears." As Ralph de Diceto, who alludes to the main facts, was Dean of St. Paul's in 1183, about the time that the Temple Church was consecrated, the history is evidently as ancient as it is authentic, though the author of the present paraphrase has introduced many unauthorized, as well as "anachronismatical interpolations."--For the interesting note on the ancient family of Ketch, I need scarcely say, I am obliged to _the_ Simpkinson. Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie, THE SHROPSHIRE BLUEBEARD. A LEGEND OF "THE PROUD SALOPIANS." Hisce ferè temporibus, in agro Salopiensi, Quidam, cui nomen Johannes, ~Le Sanglaunt~ deinde nuncupatus, uxores quamplurimas ducit, enecat et (ita referunt) manducat; ossa solùm cani miræ magnitudinis relinquens. Tùm demùm in flagrante delicto, vel "manu rubrâ," ut dicunt Jurisconsulti, deprensus, carnifice vix opprimitur.--RADULPHUS DE DICETO. Oh! why doth thine eye gleam so bright, ~Bloudie Jacke~? Oh! why doth thine eye gleam so bright?-- The Mother's at home, The Maid may not roam, She never will meet thee to-night! By the light Of the moon--it's impossible--quite! Yet thine eye is still brilliant and bright, ~Bloudie Jacke~! It gleams with a fiendish delight-- "'Tis done-- She is won! Nothing under the sun Can loose the charm'd ring, though it's slight! Ho! ho! It fits so remarkably tight!"-- The wire is as thin as a thread, ~Bloudie Jacke~! The wire is as thin as a thread!-- "Though slight be the chain, Again might and main Cannot rend it in twain--She is wed! She is wed! She is mine, be she living or dead! Haw! haw!!"--