A SHORT WAY TO IMMORTALITY.
HISTORY, says Mr. Felix Bodin, in his able little Insum6e of the History of France, is very complaisant to assassins, for it always immortalizes their names. Speaking of the murderer of Henry the Fourth, he says, " C'6toit Ravaillac, puisqu'il faut le nommen" The fact is certainly remarkable ; and upon a diseased mind it is not surprising that this promise of eternal notoriety should have acted as a stimulus to murder. The Due de Rovigo, in the Memoirs, jast published, has recorded one case of the kind : a Prince Von der Suhln arrived in Paris to assassinate Bonaparte ; he was questioned as to his motive, when it appeared that he had resolved upon the deed in the hope that his name woold be connected with the Emperor's for all time. A similar circumstance is related of an officer who accompanied Charles the Fifth to the top of a lofty tower : he confessed that with a similar hope he had been strongly tempted to precipitate himself and the Emperor together from the height on which they stood into the abyss below. We have forgotten the officer's name, if we ever knew it : but we suppose that had he perpetrated the assassination, we should have paid him the compliment of remembering him with the Ravaillaes and the Feltons. Damien and Hatfield put in a claim for the notice of posterity by having actually attempted the crime. This is the old story of Erostratus, who • burned the temple of Ephesus to hand
down 'tame ;vith the event.
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