previously callous, uttered an hysterical cry. Said the Alcalde:-
"At last, Vincente, you begin to understand the enormity of your
offence?" "Ah, Senor Alcalde, my error was clumsy indeed. If you
only knew how miserable I am!" "If human justice prove inflexible,
there is another justice whose pity is inexhaustible. Repentance is
never too late." "Ah, Senor Alcalde, but my copy was not unique!"
With the story of this impenitent thief we may close the roll of
biblioklepts, though Dibdin pretends that Garrick was of the
company, and stole Alleyne's books at Dulwich.

There is a thievish nature more hateful than even the biblioklept.
The Book-Ghoul is he who combines the larceny of the biblioklept
with the abominable wickedness of breaking up and mutilating the
volumes from which he steals. He is a collector of title-pages,
frontispieces, illustrations, and book-plates. He prowls furtively
among public and private libraries, inserting wetted threads, which
slowly eat away the illustrations he covets; and he broods, like the
obscene demon of Arabian superstitions, over the fragments of the
mighty dead. His disgusting tastes vary. He prepares books for the
American market. Christmas books are sold in the States stuffed
with pictures cut out of honest volumes. Here is a quotation from
an American paper:-

"Another style of Christmas book which deserves to be mentioned,
though it is out of the reach of any but the very rich, is the
historical or literary work enriched with inserted plates. There
has never, to our knowledge, been anything offered in America so
supremely excellent as the $5000 book on Washington, we think--
exhibited by Boston last year, but not a few fine specimens of books
of this class are at present offered to purchasers. Scribner has a