the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was a beautiful woman, or large doll, richly dressed, with arms extended, ready to embrace its victim. Around her feet a semi-circle was drawn. The victim who passed over this fatal mark, touched a spring, which caused the diabolical engine to open, its arms clasped him, and a thousand knives cut him into as many pieces in the deadly embrace.

Colonel L. said that the right of these engines of infernal cruelty kindled the rage of the soldiers to fury. They declared that every inquisitor and soldier of the Inquisition should be put to the torture. Their rage was ungovernable. Colonel L. did not oppose them; they might have turned their arms against him if he had attempted to arrest their work. They began with the holy fathers. The first they put to death in the machine for breaking joints. The torture of the inquisitor put to death by the dropping of the water on his head, was most excruciating. The poor man cried out in agony to be taken from the fatal machine. The Inquisitor-General was brought before the infernal engine called "the Virgin." He begged to be excused. "No," said they, "you have caused others to kiss her, and now you must do it." They interlocked their bayonets, so as to form large forks, and with these pushed him over the deadly circle. The beautiful image instantly prepared for the embrace, clasped him in its arms, and he was cut into innumerable pieces. Colonel L. said that he witnessed the torture of four of them-his heart sickened at the awful scene-and he left the soldiers to wreak their vengeance on the last guilty inmate of that prison-house of hell.

In the meantime it was reported through Madrid that the prisons of the Inquisition were broken open, and multitudes hastened to the fatal spot. And O what a meeting was there! It was like a resurrection! About a hundred who had been buried for many years were now restored to life. There were fathers who found their long lost daughters; wives were restored to their husbands, sisters to their brothers, and parents to their children; and there were some who could recognize no friend among the multitude. The scene was such as no tongue can describe. When the multitude had retired, Colonel L. caused the

library, paintings, furniture, &c., to be removed, and having sent to the city for a waggon load of powder, he deposited a large quantity in the vaults beneath the building, and placed a slow-match in connection with it. All had withdrawn to a distance, and in a few moments there was a most joyful sight to thousands. The walls and turrets of the massive structure rose majestically towards the heavens, impelled by a tremendous explosion, and fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins. The Inquisition

was no more.

Penny Reader.

EXEMPLARY CONDUCT.

A REMARKABLE example of moral excellence, combined with filial and sisterly affection, has been brought under public notice by the late distribution of the prizes of merit annually given by the French Academy. Among the prizes awarded one year was the sum of one thousand francs to a young girl, named Hortense Fagot, a native of Bolbec, department of the Lower Seine. M. Tocqueville, in announcing the decision of the Academy, drew a touching picture of the exemplary conduct of the meritorious young female on which the prize has been conferred.

Hortense Fagot is the daughter of parents in humble life. Her father, an idler and a spendthrift, after treating his wife and children with cruelty and neglect, at length wholly abandoned them. The wife died in a state of miserable poverty, and on Hortense (then fifteen years of age,) devolved the care of three younger sisters and a brother. This duty she fulfilled in a truly exemplary manner. To the sister next in age to herself she consigned the task of managing the little household affairs of the family; and for the two younger girls she obtained employment in a spinning factory, in which she herself worked. Her little brother, the youngest of the family, she managed by dint of great exertion to get instructed in the business of a

weaver, and she procured him employment in a neighbouring town. By good management and rigorous economy in her domestic affairs, Hortense was enabled in the space of four years to pay all her mother's debts. This duty being fulfilled, the family began to collect a little sum of money, which was placed in a savings' bank.

M. Tocqueville stated, that during the last ten months the earnings of this meritorious family amounted to 1,277 francs. The Academy have added one thousand francs to the little treasury so honourably earned by Hortense Fagot.

Penny Record.

ORDER.

Keep every thing in its proper place. Do everything in its proper time; and delay not till to-morrow, what should be done to-day.

Beware of the beginnings of bad habits; the worst habits are acquired not at once, but by degrees.

Order will make our duty and business easy and agreeable, and the chief point of order is a right state of mind.

MEMOIR OF MARY WEST.

THE subject of the following memoir was born in Mellor, a village near Blackburn, in the county of Lancashire, on the 20th of January, 1806. At an early age, her parents sent her to a Sabbath-school connected with the Established Church; which she continued to attend until the family removed to Lower Darwen. Mary was then admitted into the Wesleyan Methodist Association Sabbath-school, Newfield. Here, by her serious, modest demeanour, as well as deep attention to the instructions given, she won the affection of her teachers. The benefit she derived, was manifest in her conduct, at home, and amongst her associates. The Word of God was her delight; she often committed

whole chapters to memory, and received rewards from her teachers.

A tea party is held on Christmas-day for the teachers, friends, and scholars of the Sunday-school, after which some of the scholars recite appropriate pieces. Mary was much interested in those meetings; and was delighted to take part in the recitations. She had committed to memory for this occasion, "A memoir of Phoebe Dixon," contained in the Juvenile Companion for March 1849. She looked forward with pleasure to the day; but the Almighty, whose ways are not as ours, and whose wisdom is infinite, was pleased to lay his hand upon her, and symptoms of consumption appeared, and she was obliged, through illness, to leave her employment, on the 21st of December.

Mary was very submissive to the Divine will, yet she was anxious to be able to attend her employment, and especially to attend the tea party. She so far recovered as to be able to go to her employment on the 24th, and went to the tea meeting on Christmas-day. She was, however, very unwell; and, after she had recited her piece, was obliged to be conveyed home. Medical aid was procured; but it was unavailing. The physician called her father aside, and told him there was no hope. Mary saw him weeping, and begged him to desist from sorrowing. The language of her heart and prayer to God was, Father, thy will, not mine, be done." As when in health she had followed the injunction of her Saviour, "And thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and shut to thy door, and pray to thy Father which seeth in secret; so in her affliction she was rewarded with a joyful anticipation of "the rest that remains for the people of God."

She was visited by many of the teachers and friends, and always expressed herself as being very happy, and requested them to pray with her. When some of her schoolfellows visited her, she desired them to meet her in heaven. When her end approached, her sufferings increased. She could find no rest to her body, but her mind was kept in perfect peace. Having called her parents and sisters to her bed-side, she desired them to prepare to meet her in heaven. When they promised to comply with her request,

she said, "You cannot, unless you repent and turn to God." Then she urged upon them the necessity of doing this. On the 6th of March, 1850, her happy spirit left this world for a happier clime, where the inhabitants never say they are sick.

Mary was fifteen years of age, and was interred in the burying-ground of Paradise Chapel, Blackburn. A funeral sermon was preached by Mr. H. Baron, superintendent of the school, from Psalm xc. 12. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

THE MOTHER'S ROCK.

HUMBOLDT, in his celebrated travels, tells us, that after he had left the abodes of civilization far behind in the wilds of South America, he found, near the confluence of the Atabapo and Rio Ternie rivers, a high rock-called the "MOTHER'S ROCK." The circumstances which gave this remarkable name to the rock, were these:

In 1799, a Roman Catholic Missionary led his half-civilized Indians out on one of those hostile excursions, which they often made to kidnap slaves for the Christians. They found a Guahiba woman in a solitary hut, with three children-two of whom were infants. The father, with the older children, had gone out to fish, and the mother in vain tried to fly with her babes. She was seized by these manhunters, hurried into a boat, and carried away to a Popish missionary station at San Fernando.

She was now far from her home; but she had left children there who had gone with their father. She repeatedly took her three babes and tried to escape, but was as often seized, brought back, and most unmercifully beaten with whips. At length, the missionary determined to separate the mother from her three children; and, for this purpose, sent her in a boat up the Atabapo river, to the missions of the Rio Negro, at a station called Javita. Seated in the bow of the