on the alert, and succeeded in arresting a French escort of seven soldiers on foot, and the same number on horseback, conducting the baggage-wagon of a French colonel of the line.  It contained all his effects, and money to a large amount.  Upon the first fire of Spatolino’s band, five of the soldiers were killed, and three desperately wounded; he then threw himself amongst the others, who were placed on the defence, and who had expended their fire without hurting a single individual of the band.  Spatolino, with his pistols, killed two, and a few moments saw him and his band masters of the field.  Spatolino ordered his men to strip the dead, and placing every thing in the wagon, after digging a pit for the bodies, they retired to a cave in a wood near the road, where the booty was equally divided.  He took himself two of the best horses, and armed and equipped his band in a superior manner.  He also presented to his wife a part of the spoil, she having been armed in the action, performing the duty of a sentinel on the highway in advance about half a mile off, to give notice, in case of an overwhelming force appearing.  Spatolino, having made a fair division of the spoil to raise the courage of his companions, sent all his own money to his parents, informing them at the same time, that for the future they should be released from misery, as he would ever bear in mind the beings who gave him birth.—­New Monthly Magazine.

* * * * *

AN UNINSURABLE RISK.

  A bookseller opened a shop on the coast,
    (I’d rather not mention the spot,)
  Where gentlemen lounged o’er the Herald and Post,
    And ladies read Byron and Scott.

  Much personal memoir, too, shone on the shelves,
    Which boasted a whimsical olio;
  Decorum sang small, in octavoes and twelves,
    And scandal in quarto and folio.

  The bookseller, prudently aiming to set
    Th’ ignipotent god at defiance,
  To open a policy vainly essay’d
    At the Albion, the Hope, and Alliance.

  “My friend, your abortive attempt prithee stop,”
    Quoth Jekyll, intent on a joke,
  “How can you expect to insure, while your shop
    Is rolling out volumes of smoke?”

Ibid.

* * * * *

LONDON NEWSPAPERS.

On few subjects are the public under more misapprehension than on the absolute and relative circulation of several portions of the London daily press.  The greater part of the people would startle were they told that The Times circulates probably under 7,000 a day on an average; the paper is seen, as one may say, in every pot-house in London, and all over the country; and yet this is all its number.