and unusual. So thought my classmates; and I being ignorant, and utterly innocent of conspiracy, they resolved to be absent on the morning of the execution.* It is no more than justice to myself to state what was the offence. I therefore give an original record, being the half-burned rough minutes of the trial, picked up by me in the college yard, and which the janitor had, probably, incautiously swept out of the President's room. I give also a copy of the letter which the good old man sent to my father, for the purpose of making sure of my attendance at the time and place to which the ceremony was postponed. The letters are perfect models in their way-safe precedents. The record is half consumed, but I give a fac-simile of its remains. irreverent be'Cypress appeared before the board on a charge of disturbing * the of the Chapel by talking; which fact being fully proved ig. also of several of several the professors & partially admitted * board after mature deliberation sentenced him to diand not to be received by him -tion until he had made such acknowledgment * and ate as the board should consider satisfactory." The following is the President's epistle, scilicet. * King's Coll., Shrove Tuesday. "SIR-Your son, J. Cypress, Jr, signed an acknowledgement of his incorrect behavior during the religious exercises of the Chapel, which he was to have read on Tuesday last; but perceiving that most of his classmates were then absent, I deferred his reading it until I should have an opportunity of informing the class of the consequence of a combination to resist the authority of the College. I have given them that information, and have ordered their attendance in the Chapel at prayers to-morrow, when I shall expect your son to appear and read the reasonable acknowledgment he has subscribed. I have thought it my duty to make this communication to you, being assured that your son cannot fail to profit by your good advice on this "With great respect, Your ob't serv't. occasion. "To J. Cypress, Senior, Esq." Now follows the writ of "intrabit in executionis locum" which put me in the pillory; to wit: "REV'D SIR,-It is with pain that I learn that my son has been guilty of incorrect behavior during the religious exercises of the chapel. Be assured that it meets my decided disapprobation. A sense of our unworthiness when we approach the presence of the Sovereign of Heaven and Earth in prayer ought to affect onr hearts with due solemnity. I regret God bless their noble souls! Only thou wert there, sitting with meekness and sweet humility, and pitying, doubtless, those bad young men who imposed it upon thee to represent the virtue of the class, and to reap the meed of the contrast of thy good behavior;—like Hogarth's good apprentice, who married his master's daughter, and got the estates and honors of the family. Verily, good boys shall have their reward. Prosperity shall still follow thee, O my friend!—assiduous, watchful, vain, subtle, obsequious to the People,—the People shall yet own thee for a mighty man to get office from them. Let us go on with the roll. P. M. is called and comes; and we clasp to our bosom the spirit of poetry and the soul of friendship. He was the favorite of the class, the prized and admired. What sensibility of criticism, or what instability of purpose, dearest P., deprives the class of the honor of thy name, long since by heaven decreed to be celebrated for mighty genius. By his side, coming with modest steps, approaches amiable STEPHEN H. His thin form, pale cheek, light blue eye,-his pleasantly smiling, half opened lips, disclosing small brilliantly white teeth, are familiar and welcome as heretofore. Only he is older, and there is a cast of care upon his brow, deeper, the trouble he has given you, and the disgrace he has brought upon himself, and I pray God that the discipline imposed upon him will have a salutary effect. He has my orders to attend the chapel to-morrow morning, and comply with your directions. Indisposition has prevented his attendance to-day, which I hope you will excuse. Your ob't serv't, "To "Pres. King's Coll. J. CYPRESS. That is the kind of Twiggery administered to boys when they get into College, and are called "Gentlemen." Twiggery for small boys is only milk and water. This is imperial tea. and half melancholy. Happy is that village church which owns him for her pastor. Next, jolly I. F. dashes to his place, and we greet his rosy face with the well-remembered joy of old times. He first gave his heart to the study of the decisions of Courts that have powers to overrule the established fashions of other brother and sister tribunals, and which are commonly called "Law ;" but soon, and wisely, determined that the whole race of Bracton and Britton were unprofitable company; and now he draws a revenue from rum, sugar and molasses. Mark him "present" with a whole heart. BILL B. cannot speak. Consumption wasted away him, beloved both by the professors and his fellow-pupils. Weep not. It is the common lot. We have all got to go soon. Call on. J. S. gives an uncertain sound. His voice is as the voice of a ghost, or else as of a schoolmaster buried alive in the far west. I know not how to mark him. Good-hearted S. O., too. He left his country, and pursued the lucre of merchandize in a foreign land. Does the sunny sky, or the cold earth of the churchyard canopy his head. He is absent without excuse. H. J., solemn and dignified for a little fellow, wears a bishop's cassock, and seems to censure the freedom with which we summon old associates; but he takes his seat and submits to our invocation. G. W. flourishes with the scalpel and lancet. Impatient haste draws him to his patients. We must let him depart. He is one of the friends to whom we might give authority in an extreme case to cut us, but then, only professionally. G. H. ministers to the reformed Dutch in a pleasant town n Jersey. When I saw him last, some years ago, he had given proof of his power of persuasion, by inducing a prime lamb of his flock to become his spouse; and she had given fruitful evidence of her attachment to the shepherd, in the shape of half-a-dozen little lambkin boys and girls. F. P. comes next, true gentleman, from his magnificent manor, nor avoids a seat with his classmates, who always received him open-armed. Goddess Fortune, when she smiled upon him, took off her bandage and exercised good judgment. G. G. rather majestic at some times, but always good-natured. G. cries out a hearty "here." He worshipped the legal muses, and still officiates in their priesthood, speaking oracles to clients, who, with just confidence, pay well for favorable responses. W. C. leaps into his place with a long bound;-he whom we used to call "Amaryllis," with his soft, feminine cheek, clear gentle eye, and beginning-to-grow downy chin. He was famous for a quick moving foot, and was always chosen first at foot-ball. I have to show a scar upon my knee, gained from him upon the Battery, in the raging melee. The class got through trigonometry while I was laid up, and that consoled me. He plays now the serious games of "for that whereas,” and "may it please your Honor." The boy ball-player has disappeared in the Counsellor of men. The list is nearly through; Death has made sad havoc below the middle of the class. There are left, besides, to answer only W. M. and W. G., bred to the legal bar, but happily independent upon that laborious profession;—and then, dear Doctor Bill, and E. P., of unquestionable talent and laziness, Nimrod of the class,―mighty feather scatterer. We awarded to him the first honor in that department of science, which comprises the theory of percutient bodies, and the composition and resolution of forces and projectiles. That kind of philosophy was truly natural to him-he was born to illustrate it. I never knew a practical lecturer who, “the initial velocity being given," could better "find the direction in which a body must be projected in order to hit a given point." He is high yet on some kind of "points," and almost inimitable as to "direction." Let us not forget C. E., honored with a diploma, causa favoris, and the payment of the necessary fees ;;-nor simple G. S., "commee," as his name went. He was the jovial Andronicus of the class, yet was sometimes pathetic, and read compositions about "the streaming rivulet of consistency which flows but to cement," and other poetical melancholies of the same tender spirit. Commee paid the fees, however, and got his diploma. Money is a great blessing. Where the boy is now the Lord knows. Mark him absent. What horrid appetite of the grave has swallowed up the rest of the three last grades! Little, hump-backed P. S., and red-haired Tom K., and strong-passioned E. S., and thin J. L., torn from the church, and fat " Duck" W., and pale, innocent shadow W. F., who answered to the sobriquet of "Sol Lob," and musical Jack T., with his ever-present companion Jun.? -Alas! boys "You are not here! the quaint witch Memory sees And points where once you sat, and should be now, Shall meet as then we met ?"-SHELLEY. Stay! stay! stay! stay! I recall my invocation! not, I conjure you! Speak not! My heart is gone! not bear the solemn vision! * * * Speak I can What fearful changes are produced by the revolution of a few short years! We entered, a class of forty-seven. We |