"Then," said Glossin, losing his temper, "at least get up, for an obstinate Dutch brute!" But he had barely uttered the words when Hatteraick sprang from where he lay and grappled with him. So sudden and irresistible was the attack, that Glossin fell, the back part of his neck coming full upon the iron bar with stunning violence. Nor did the ruffian release the deadly grip upon his throat until the last remnant of life had left his victim's miserable corpse. On the day following the death of Glossin, Dirck Hatteraick was himself found dead in the cell, having hanged himself by means of a cord taken from his bed, which he had cunningly contrived to attach to the prison wall. Little more remains to be told. Bertram was before long restored to the possession of his father's house and property, and Julia Mannering became his wife. His sister Lucy found a husband in her old lover Charles Hazlewood, and the dominie was raised once again to a condition of ecstatic happiness, seeing "his little Harry"--as he still continued to call him--now Laird of Ellangowan, and himself librarian in the house to which he had been so long a stranger. THE STARTLING ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN _Although the short book from which these stories are taken was written in 1785 by Rudolf Erich Raspe, a German of many talents who took up his residence in England, there really was a Baron Munchausen who served the author as a model. His whole name was Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Munchausen, a German, of course, but serving in the Russian army. After several campaigns against the Turks, he retired from the army and amused himself by telling awful whoppers about his bravery as a soldier and huntsman. A German editor who visited the baron two years before he died was told by the baron's neighbors that he really did tell wonderful stories in his younger days._ AN ADVENTURE WITH A LION AND A CROCODILE By R. E. Raspe Some years before my beard announced approaching manhood, or, in other words, when I was neither man nor boy, but between both, I expressed in repeated conversations a strong desire of seeing the world, from which I was discouraged by my parents, though my father had been no inconsiderable traveller himself. A cousin by my mother's side took a liking to me, often said I was a fine forward youth, and was much inclined to gratify my curiosity. His eloquence had more effect than mine, for my father consented to my accompanying him in a voyage to the island of Ceylon, where his uncle had resided as governor many years. We sailed from Amsterdam with despatches from their High Mightinesses the States of Holland, and in about six weeks we arrived at Ceylon, where we were received with great marks of friendship and true politeness. After we had resided at Ceylon about a fortnight I accompanied one of the governor's brothers upon a shooting party.