Then, in Holland, as was the case with England and Germany, many refugees, abjuring their nationality, changed their French names into Dutch.  The Leblancs called themselves De Witt,—­the Deschamps, Van de Velde,—­the Dubois, Van den Bosch,—­the Chevaliers, Ruyter,—­the Legrands, De Groot, etc. etc.  With the change of names, Huguenot churches began to disappear, so that out of sixty-two which could be counted among the seven provinces in 1688, eleven only now remain,—­among them those at Hague, Amsterdam, Leyden, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Groningen.  These are the last monuments of the Huguenot emigration to Holland, and a certain number of families preserve some sentiment of nationality, who consider themselves honored by their French, noble, Protestant origin, while at the same time they are united by patriotic affection to their newly adopted country.

This rapid chapter of the expulsion of the ‘Huguenots,’ or ‘Protestants,’ or ‘Refugees,’ from their native land, with their settlement in England and Holland, seem necessary for a better understanding of our subject.  Thence, they emigrated to America, and it is our object to collect something concerning their origin and descendants among us.  The Huguenots of America is a volume which still remains fully and correctly to be written.  This is a period when increased attention and study are directed to historical subjects, and we gladly will contribute what mite we may possess to the important object.

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THE BLACK WITCH.

‘A witch,’ according to my nurse’s account, ’must be a haggard old woman, living in a little rotten cottage under a hill by a wood-side, and must be frequently spinning by the door; she must have a black cat, two or three broom-sticks, and must be herself of so dry a nature, that if you fling her into a river she will not sink:  so hard then is her fate, that, if she is to undergo the trial, if she does not drown she must be burnt, as many have been within the memory of man.’

ROUND ABOUT OUR COAL FIRE.

In a bustling New England village there lived, not many years ago, a poor, infirm, deformed little old woman, who was known to the middle-aged people living there and thereabout as ‘Aunt Hannah.’  The younger members of the little community had added another and very odious title to the ’Aunt’—­they called her ’Aunt Hannah, the Black Witch.’  Not that she was of negro blood.  Her pale, pinched and patient face was white as the face of a corpse; so, also, was her thin hair, combed smoothly down under the plain cap she always wore.  Very white indeed she was, as to face, and hair, and cap, but otherwise she was all and always black, especially so as regarded an ugly pair of gloves, which were never removed from her hands, so far as the youngsters were aware, and which added to the fearfully mysterious aspect of those members.  Exactly what they covered, the children never knew, but they saw that one hideous glove enclosed something like a gigantic, withered bird’s claw, while within the other there musts have been a repulsive and horrid knob, without proper form, and lacking any remotest attempt at thumb and fingers.