bourg St. Germain, and, leaving our carriage | Anna Charlotte Dorothea by name, a born there, took a fiacre, and proceeded to Mile. Lenor- Von Medem, and third wife and relict of mand's, in the Rue Tournon. After we had rung Peter, last Duke of Courland, who died the and knocked several times, a young girl appeared, 13th of January, 1800. She was born the and told us we could not see Mademoiselle L., as she was at that moment engaged, and that we 8th of February, 1761 (consequently had must either come another time, or wait till she entered her fifty-first year but three was at leisure to receive us. We chose the latter, months before the "lark" we find her enand were shown into a room, in which books, gaged in), and was married the 6th of Noprints, paintings, and stuffed animals, musical and vember, 1779. She lives (if she has not other instruments, bottles with snakes and lizards died since 1822) on her estate of Loebichin spirits, wax fruits, artificial flowers, and a medley of other articles, covered the walls, the tables, au, in the principality of Altenburg, and and the floor, leaving scarcely an unoccupied spot has a jointure of sixty thousand florins (or for the eye to rest on. It was fully two hours five thousand pounds sterling) a year. Her before any one came near us, during which time youngest daughter, Dorothea, was married, we heard the house-door, as well as that of the in 1809, to the nephew of Prince Talleyrand. adjoining cabinet, open and shut repeatedly. At The reader sees that in the Duchess of last, when our patience was almost worn out, the Courland we have got a tangible fact, taken door of the room we were in was opened, and a in connexion with which, the Countess N. figure, of a height and breadth that surprised us, N. becomes at least a fair probability; and made its appearance. It was Mile. Lenormand. There was undeniably something imposing in the now letthe fair probability proceed with her picture she presented her bulk nearly filled the narrative, secure from further interruption: door; her air was marked by a stately composure, and the expression of her countenance had the kind of solemnity one expects to find in the professor of a mysterious art. She had broad, flat features, and wore a black silk morning dress, and a cap with a deep border, that completely covered the hair. She beckoned us into the cabinet, seated herself in a high arm-chair, before a large table, on which lay astronomical charts and papers covered with calculations, and pointed to two lower seats, which we took possession of. She now looked good-naturedly at us, and told us we were disguised. We confessed it; she said nothing further on the subject, and when taking leave, we named ourselves of our own accord."

:

We must here interrupt the countess to say, that we regret she should have thought it necessary to maintain an incognito with us, which she was so obliging as to drop towards Mlle. Lenormand. Countesses that have anything out of the common way to tell, should eschew the anonymous, lest readers of an incredulous turn of mind should be led to suspect that they are no countesses at all. Letters of the alphabet are bad vouchers for a tough story; even the newspapers will not insert your account of a "man's nose bitten off by an oyster," unless you send your real name and address. "Q. Z." will not do. And what better is "N. N. ?" For anything one knows, it may stand for Nobody, of Nowhere.

As our

countess, however, has not thought proper to name herself, it is well that she has not practised the same reserve in relation to the Duchess of Courland. The duchess is a good guarantee for the authenticity of the countess; for this Duchess of Courland is a real personage,

"After the duchess had been disposed of, my turn came, and Mlle. L. interrogated me as fol lows:

in

up

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The first letter of your Christian name?' "A.'

"The year, day, and hour of your birth?
"Sunday, the 18th of May, 1777, four o'clock

the afternoon.'

"Your favorite colors?

"Black and white.'

"Favorite fruits?"

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Pine-apple and mulberry.'

"In walking, whether do you like best to go hill or down?

66 Up.'

"Your favorite animals?

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Eagle, swan, dog, and horse.'

"She now glanced into the chart of the heavens, told me that I stood under the influences of Venus and Jupiter, and then proceeded to detail the events of my past life, with a particularity of the circumstances which she related being and a fidelity, which filled me with wonder-many such as I believed known to no human being but myself. While thus engaged, she did not once look at me, but kept her eyes fixed on the chart, from which she seemed to be reading aloud. "At last she raised her eyes to mine, and asked

"Do you desire to know the future?

I took this opportunity of observing the expression of her eyes, into which I looked for a fewTM moments before answering. There was, however, nothing unusual to be detected in them, nothing indicating a state of somnambulism, no gleam of prophetic rapture, not a characteristic to mark them as the organs of a preternatural vision. You such eyes was guiltless of all commerce with the would say that the soul which looked through powers of an invisible world, and that if Mlle. Lenormand really divined at all, it was by the rules of an art learned by rote, and not by any oracular promptings from within.

"With such thoughts as these, I answered her question in the affirmative. On this she took my left hand, gazed on its lines, wrote down some numbers on a sheet of paper, reckoned, contem-government for the performance of this promise, plated the celestial chart, again pored over my hand, again wrote and reckoned, and so on for not less than two hours. The duchess got tired, and went away, and I at last began to be faint with hunger. Mlle. L. had a cup of soup brought to me, and said, 'Have patience, for I have something to learn here.' At last her calculations appeared to be brought to a satisfactory result, and she dictated to me what follows;

hold of the Duke of Deux-Ponts. The the King of Wirtemberg, who placed him duke, discovering indications of talent in at the head of his old department of the boy, took care that he should enjoy finance. From what causes we are not inevery advantage of education; he was formed, he held his appointment little more placed in the Gymnasium of Mannheim in than a year. A pension of four thousand his fifteenth year, and, after two years of florins was conferred upon him at his repreparatory study, proceeded to the Uni-tirement; and, taking up his abode once versity of Heidelberg, from which he after-more in Heidelberg, he devoted the rest of wards removed to that of Göttingen. In his days to the "cultivation of the sci1790, he exchanged an academic life for ences. In this occupation-a consideraone devoted to diplomacy, being made pri- bly pleasanter one, we reckon, than liquivate secretary to the Count of Westpha- dating the national debt-he was engaged lia, minister of state to the Elector of up to the year 1838, and may, for anything Mayence. After this he occupied various we know, be engaged at the present writing. posts of gradually increasing importance, So much to advise the reader who Presitill 1803, when he was intrusted with a dent Malchus properly is or was, and now high" cameral" appointment by the King to his account of what passed between himof Prussia. When the kingdom of West- self and Mlle. Lenormand. phalia was erected, in 1807, he was called He had heard, he tells us, of the farto give King Jerome (the most brainless of famed divineress long before he saw, or the Bonaparte family), the aid of his finan- supposed that he ever would see her, and cial abilities, first as a member of the coun- the way in which her name came to his ears cil of state, and afterwards as director- was this. There was a certain Count Mogeneral of imposts, and liquidator-ge- rio in the Westphalian service, a Frenchneral of the national debt; the last-man by birth, whom King Jerome had apmentioned office, however, after a short pointed marshal of the palace, and in contenure, he gave up, and we rather think the cert with whom the finance-minister had office itself was abolished, as calculated to received orders to remodel the royal housecreate a popular delusion-to say nothing hold, with a view to its being placed on a of its being a sinecure. During the next more economical footing. This business three years he was employed in various necessitated frequent and prolonged intermissions (to Berlin, Hanover, Paris, &c.), views between the two officials, which took the object of which, it is our impression, place at the house of Malchus; and at was generally something connected with these, Morio, after the lapse of about an money matters, as the bent of his genius hour, generally became uneasy, and showed was decidedly that way. From this period a marked anxiety to terminate the sitting the rise of his fortunes was rapid. In 1811, he was named Minister of Finance; in 1812, of War; and in 1813, of the Interior simultaneously with this last charge, he received the title of Count Merienrode, Jerome probably thinking that such an accumulation of employments (leaving no one domestic or foreign affair of the kingdom that Malchus was not to manage) would be too much for the head of a simple common

er.

After the dissolution of the Westphalian monarchy, Malchus took up his residence at Heidelberg, where for some time his position was by no means an enviable one, in consequence of the violent attacks, both in reference to his administration and his personal character, of which he found himself the object. However, he showed his assailants a bold front, and published a memoir, in which the charges against him were ably combated. He lived some years in privacy, and with straitened means; at length, in 1817, he entered the service of

and to get home. This impatience was quite inexplicable to his colleague, who one day asked him the reason of it.

"The reason is," replied Morio, "that my wife is in an agony of dread if I remain out of her sight a moment after the time she has reckoned to see me.

"And why?" inquired Malchus. Morio then related that his wife, before he met with her, had had her nativity cast by Mlle. Lenormand, who, among other things, had told her that she would be married three times. Her first husband would be a man between whom and herself no acquaintance at that time existed: the marriage would be a very advantageous one, and put her in possession of all she could reasonably wish for, but when blest with the fulfilment of her highest wish-to be in the way of becoming a mother-she would, soon after a great fire, receive in her house a visitor of great distinction, and, not long after, lose her husband by a violent death.

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Married a second time, not so brilliantly, but still very well, she would return to her native country (she was a Creole), where she would in a short time lose her second husband, and marry a third, who would survive her.

After this explanation, Malchus seems to have indulged, as far as it was possible, the wish of his fellow-laborer to shorten the hours of business. One day, however, he found it necessary to continue the sitting considerably beyond the usual time, when Morio, unable to contain his anxiety, at last insisted upon breaking off, and said, "Come, monsieur le ministre, do me the honor to accompany me home; you shall see for yourself the state of terror in which my absence places my wife, and you will never again blame my reluctance to prolong that terror an avoidable moment." chus complied, and found the countess in a Malstate of suffering which her husband had not at all exaggerated. When she learned that he had been acquainted by Morio with the ground of her apprehensions, she said, "You can judge, then, whether I have cause to tremble for my husband's life. In every other particular the prophecy has been verified. I did not know him, nor he me; my marriage with him was a most advantageous one, and has truly put me in possession of all I could reasonably wish for; I am so happy as to have the prospect of being a mother, and that very soon; the " fire" has unfortunately taken place-it was great the burning of the palace; the "distinguished visitor" is no longer to be waited for, for the king, in consequence of that calamity, established himself here in the Bellevue (the name of a palace in Cassel, in which Morio, as chief of the royal household, resided), and we had to give him up several rooms. Yes, I must tremble when I think of the stage to which my fortunes are arrived, for I am driven to the conclusion that the violent death of my husband is now very near."

Malchus said what he could to tranquillize her; assured her that with him, at least, her husband was perfectly safe, and that one more meeting-though she must not alarm herself if it should prove a somewhat lengthened one-would now terminate the business which took him away from

[Jan.

house: they rode through the royal mews, where Morio explained various things to the king, while the countess was in such extreme anguish of terror that they had to put her to bed. After a while the king the mews. rode home, but Morio was still detained in the countess heard it, sprang frantic out of On a sudden a shot was fired; bed, and shrieked out, band-they have shot him!" That is my hus

been maliciously shot by a French farrier, It was but too true: poor Morio had over whom, on account of his disorderly conduct, it had been found necessary to give a German the preference.

upon Malchus, and when the Westphalian This occurrence made a deep impression catastrophe, in 1813, brought him to Paris, he was not surprised at finding the name being urged-almost teased, as he says-by of Lenormand in all men's mouths, nor at many of his friends, to have his fortune told by her. Among other things, he was assured that she had predicted to Murat, in the time of the consulate, that he would one day be a king; but that Murat had only laughed at her, and said, if that ever came to pass, he would make her a kingly present, which also, on his ascending the Neapolitan throne, he did.

years before been avouched by all the jourAnother story, which he heard had some nals of Paris, was this. During the Spanish to learn his destiny, when she assured him war, an officer came to Mlle. Lenormand, distinctly, that a week from that day, somebody would give him, in a coffee-house, the information of his brother's death in Spain. The officer, who was not even certain that his brother was in Spain at all, determined not to go into any coffee-house till after the time predicted. But on the eighth day, some good friend, knowing nothing about the oracle, dragged him by main force into one, the threshold of which he had hardly crossed when his servant brought him a and such a place, on such and such an ocletter, announcing that his brother, at such casion, had been killed in Spain.

Napoleon had twice spoken with the sorFurther, it was positively asserted that ceress-once at her own house, and the second time at the Tuileries; but as nobody but Duroc was present, nothing cerA day or two after this, Morio was at for neither of these worthies was likely to tain could be known of what had passed, the minister's till about eleven o'clock, and give it wind, and she dared not. All, therethen rode out with the king. On their re-fore, that people told so confidently, as havturn, Malchus saw them both pass his ing been said by her to the First Consul

her.

Dr. Spangenberg mentioned further, that at the time of his consulting Lenormand, he was for the first time of his life at Paris; that he had no mind to consult her, but had been teased into doing so by Monsieur de Pful and other friends. He had never before been in the neighborhood of her house, had never seen her until that day, and, at his visit, told her neither his name nor his circumstances, nor suffered anything to escape him which could have served her as a clue.

Malchus was at length prevailed on to visit the divineress; the following is his account of the visit, which we give in his own words :

power.

-that he would be emperor, that his wife (Josephine) was his guardian angel, that he would for a time reign and make war prosperously, but afterwards become unfortunate, subsequently be overcome and dethroned, and at last die in exile-all this, Malchus considers, could have been only conjecture; at least no one knew anything certain about it. It struck him more, he said, that the Countess Bocholz (whoever she was) was more than once very pressing with him to feel the pulse of the fates, and protested to him that Lenormand had told her circumstances out of her past life, which it had given her a positive thrill of terror to hear, they being things known almost to no human being, and of which Lenormand "All this at length overcame the repugnance 1 could by no earthly chance have been in- felt towards a sybil of this species, and I deterformed. Many others of his most intimate mined to go, intending however to put the reality friends spoke in the same way, but there of her miraculous knowledge to every test in my was nobody that so much aroused his curiI was glad to find that the street in which she osity, respecting this singular woman, as lived, and even the quarter of the town in which Dr. Spangenberg, the queen's (what it was situated, was one in which I had never queen's) physician. This personage, who been. I put on a threadbare cast-off surtout, and is described by Malchus as a particularly a very shabby old hat, got into a fiacre, and drove dry, clear-headed man, who brought everyto the Faubourg St. Germain, alighted before turnthing to the bar of reason, and admitted ing the corner of the Rue Tournon, and proceeded to her house on foot. On my ringing, the door nothing that was not susceptible of mathe- was opened by a little girl, who might be about matical proof, assured him, just as every fourteen years of age. I asked for Mile. Lenorone else did, that it was perfectly incom- mand, and received answer that she would scarcely prehensible what this woman knew, and be able to speak with me just then, as she was excould tell one. To him, as well as to the tremely busy. Very well,' said I; ask her Countess Bocholz, she had presented the when I may call again? After a few moments, picture of his earlier life, in its leading out- the child returned with the answer, Next Saturlines, with the greatest fidelity, day, any time after twelve o'clock.' I expressed reminding my wish that she would appoint the hour herself, him of many things which, even in Meck- as I had, I said, abundance of leisure, so that it lenburg (his native country), very few peo- was equal to me at what time I came, and I was ple were aware of, and which, here in Paris, anxious that her reception of me should interfere no human soul could know. Also with res- with no other engagement. The little maid disappect to the present and the paulo-post-peared and presently there came out of the adjoinfuture, she had said things to him, which were true, or had since become true, to a degree that was enough to drive one mad. For instance-"he would in eight days' time receive very interesting intelligence, through an old friend, respecting affairs in his own country, but the bringer of this intelligence would die two days after." He and his friends, with whom he was livSaturday came, and I was there (in the same ing at Compiegne, had several times joked dress) punctually at three o'clock, was again reabout this, and wondered when the messen-ceived by the little maid, and requested to wait a ger, who was to die two days after deliver- few moments, as somebody was just then with ing his message, would make his appear- Mlle. Lenormand. About ten minutes might have ance. At last, on the eighth day, the actor passed, when the door of the cabinet opened, and Narcisse, who had spent a considerable time young woman, supported by a man under the at Cassel, and elsewhere in Germany, armiddle age, came out, weeping so excessively, that rived, and brought him several pieces of tears, and giving utterance to the most heart-pierc one could literally have washed oneself in her news which were of great interest for him, ing lamentations. Her companion did everything but-two days after Narcisse died. possible to assuage her grief, reminded her that

ing chamber a woman advanced in years, and, I must confess, not without somewhat witch-like in her appearance, her eyes glancing about her not exactly with fire, but still with an expression of uncommon intelligence and subtlety. Coming straight up to me, and giving me no time to speak, she put a card into my hand, and, with the words, Samedi, trois heures, monsieur,' disappeared again into her cabinet: she hardly saw me half a second and I had not opened my lips in her presence.

a

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