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 successful.—They unfurnished a closet, and hung it with black.

The colonel’s wife was the only one admitted to their confidence, as they could rely on her discretion. Her husband had even a little altercation on the subject with her. She wished, that for the ventriloquist scene they should use the model of a head in plaister, which her son used to draw from; whereas the colonel maintained that they must have a real skull: “Otherwise,” said he, “the spectators’ illusion will speedily be at an end; but after they have heard the death’s head speak, we will cause it to be handed round, in order to convince them that it is in truth but a skull.”

“And where can we procure this skull?” asked the colonel’s wife.

“The sexton will undertake to provide us with it.”

“And whose corpse will you thus disturb, for a frivolous amusement?”

“How sentimental you are!” replied Kielholm, who did not consider the subject in so serious a light: “We may easily see you are not accustomed to the field of battle, where no further respect is paid to the repose of the dead, than suits the convenience of the labourer in the fields where they are buried.”

“God preserve me from such a spectacle!” ex-