counterfeiting wealth and rank, obtained the hand of the baroness Rudolpha. On discovering the cheat, she fled from him, and employed measures to have him buried in the mines of Idria. She then most unlawfully married Narenor. But in his destiny I have interested myself. I saw in him the elements of good becoming, from the agency of ungoverned passions, the ministers of evil. By leading him through a series of adventures, I have endeavoured to give him lessons suited to his mind's disease. By nature deformed, I have embellished his person. In fortune poor, I have enriched him. By descent unillustrious, I have ennobled him. Have these things made him happy? Yet, fear not, Ernestine, to bestow on him thy affections. Thy father himself sanctions it. The clay that is most carefully tempered, will make the finest porcelain.

"But first, Narenor, I must impose onthee a penance for having dared to affect my daughter's hand, while thine was, as thou didst think, bound to another. Return to thy native deformity, and only recover the graces of thy present form, in proportion as thy mind becomes the temple of well-ordered thoughts, and harmonious passions. When that is the case, Ernestine shall be yours.

"To Rudolpha and Conrade, I can assign no greater punishment than that of living together. Unhappy couple, depart ! "Narenor, retire to the Schelwer forest, and there pass the time of thy probation!

"Scatter the elixir to the winds-cast away the philosopher's stone, and burn the genealogy."

Let the curtain drop.

Ὁ μῦθος δηλοι.—But I will not insult my I will only bid them most heartily farewell.

readers with a moral.

E. B.

IMPROMPTU.

Written for a Design of a Fountain.

STRANGER! if in thy heart thou bear the love
Of Nature, whether for her own sweet sake
Or for the sake of thoughts, which, mute elsewhere
And lifeless, spring up in thee at her call,

As the lute vibrates to the minstrel's hand;
Pause, stranger, here! and to this lucid stream,
These waving boughs, and this sweet solemn calm,
Enhancing grace by added awe, approach

A welcome guest !-for they were made for thee.

97

OPENING OF THE ELEVENTH ILIAD.

Now from the couch of Tithon, ministering

New light to gods and men, rose Morn; when Strife,
Despatch'd by Jove, to the Achaian ships

Rush'd down, and in her hand the sign of war

Wav'd fearful. On Ulysses' broad black ship,
The midmost of the fleet, whence easily
Thy shout might by Achilles have been heard,
Or Ajax, at its far extremities,

She stood, and to the congregated Greeks

Rais'd the loud Orthian war-song, that each heart
With sudden valour fired; and had a God

Then given them choice of battle or return,

They would have chosen battle. Loud was heard
The voice of Agamemnon, as he call'd

His men to arm, and in the midst himself
Braced on his glittering armour.

The hosts

Array'd for battle: on the trench's verge

They left their chariots, and in arms themselves,
Horsemen and foot, pour'd forth. Incessant shouts
Vex'd the still morn. The foot mov'd first, the horse
Close follow'd: Jove, the martial tumult wide
Awakening, sent from heaven a rain-shower mix'd
With blood, in sign that many a valiant soul
Should to its reckoning fleet. On th' other side
The Trojans arm'd for battle; Hector them
Array'd, and wise Polydamas, and he
Honour'd by Trojans even as a god,
Æneas, and Antenor's warrior sons,
Agenor, Polybus, Acamas of form

Unmatch'd by mortals. In the foremost rank
Was Hector, by his round effulgent shield
Distinguish'd. As the star of pestilence
Now breaks in all its glory forth, anon
Cowers under darkness, Hector now was seen
The van exhorting, now amidst the rear
Conspicuous, while his frame all o'er with arms
Flash'd, like the lightnings of our father Jove.
VOL. III-PART I.

H

As reapers in some rich man's field mow down
Oppos'd, the harvest, barley, or wheat; the sheaves
Fall thick: so, each to each oppos'd, they held
In even scale the war; equal were set

The squadrons, and like wolves their rage; with joy
Discord beheld, she only of the Gods

There present; from on high the deities,
Each at his shining threshold set, survey'd
The war,
while all arraign'd the Thunderer's will,
Too partial to the Trojans. He of them
Light heeding, sate on Ida's top apart,
Rejoicing in his glory; thence survey'd
The towers of Ilion, and the ships of Greece,
The flash of arms, the slayers, and the slain.

RECOLLECTIONS OF BARBARY.

No. 11.

TUNIS, the capital of the kingdom or regency of Tunis, is a large and populous city, built at the inland or western extremity of a salt lake, which communicates with the bay at a place called La Goletta, about twelve miles from the capital. This lake, or marsh, is shallow and muddy, and the exhalations from it, as well as from the ditches which surround the city, and in which all sort of filth is thrown, are, especially in summer, extremely offensive. Yet Tunis is considered a healthy place, being seldom visited by epidemic diseases. When I was there, it had been for many years free from the plague, notwithstanding the dangerous proximity of Egypt, that great storehouse of contagion.

Tunis has the same appearance as the other Barbary towns; the streets narrow, tortuous, and not paved; the houses low and mean looking, with the exception of a few buildings belonging to goverment, of the mosques, the pointed minarets of which rise loftily above the other structures, and also the mansions of the European consuls, which are near each other in the district inhabited chiefly by Franks or Christians, and near the Marine or Goletta Gate. On entering the latter, there is a sort of square, an irregular open place, which is the rendezvous, or a kind of exchange, for Christians and Jews. There, in the evening, one might see a motley assemblage of people of various nations and conditions. Masters of Mediterranean vessels, European merchants, Jewish and Greek brokers, or tradesmen, clerks of the several

Consuls, Italian and French travellers or adventurers, all formed in groups, and talking of money matters: while the inferior crew of sailors, jugglers, Jews, and Christian captives, were hovering around, endeavouring either to excite the sympathy or impose upon the credulity of their betters. Now and then, as the hour of prayer drew near, a silent sullen Mussulman would stalk through the animated crowd, without being in the least moved from his habitual apathy,—without ever looking right or left out of his way. On one side of this square was seen the English Consulate house; opposite to it the Swedish; farther on the French, Spanish, and Austrian; and farther to the right that of the United States. These buildings have terraces raised on steps, on the highest part of which are staffs, where, on Sundays and other particular days, the flags of the respective Powers are hoisted. It was pleasing in the midst of a most obstinate war, which was then raging all over the world, to see these flags flying peacefully by the side of each other; those of France and England almost meeting when flapped by the wind. The Consulate houses, although not remarkable by their exterior, are extensive and commodious; the apartments are spacious, the walls solid; a janizary or guard, who serves at the same time as dragoman or interpreter, stands at the door of each Consulate, to ensure protection and respect. At Tunis, there had been, for a long time, no instance of the least violation of that sacredness with which the Consuls' houses are invested.

There are, at Tunis, three or four inns for Christians; the Imperial hotel, the Italian, the French, and the English, under the patronage of their respective nations. The attendants were Greeks, as well as those of a wretched cuffé, which was called by the name of the Christian Coffee-house. Provisions are very cheap at Tunis, except wine, which is brought from Sardinia and Sicily. Poultry, eggs, and vegetables are plentiful; as well as butcher's meat, chiefly mutton or lamb; fish, fruit, especially figs, melons, dates, peaches, &c. The national standing dish, which is also often served on Christian tables, is the Kooskussoo, a kind of pudding made of Indian-corn flour, stuffed with hashed meat of various sorts, eggs and onions, and highly seasoned. The natives eat great quantities of it. The poor people live very frugally; bread dipped in olive oil, onions, salt fish, and melons, constitute their common food.

Tunis is called the Paris of Barbary. The inhabitants are more civilized than the Algerines, more humane, and more inclined to the peaceful pursuits of industry and trade. Tunisian vessels trade with Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, and Malta. Caravans set out yearly from Tunis, and cross the desert into Negroland, whence they bring gum, ivory, ostrich feathers,

and black slaves of both sexes. The latter are in great number at Tunis, where they are employed in most families as servants, and are in general humanely treated. I inquired what part of Africa they came from, and I was answered, from Cashna." There were two of these poor creatures, females, in the inn where I was; they seemed to have much activity, but little intelligence; they stared, grinned, and leaped about for joy like children; the sounds of their voice, meant for words, probably of their own inland dialect, and mixed with a few Moorish words, seemed hardly articulate. A piece of coarse blue cotton cloth thrown round the loins, and tied across one shoulder, was their garment. These blacks are in general good sized, well made, and of a fine jet colour. They appear generally to be good-natured harmless creatures; yet I have seen occasionally some of them quarrelling in the streets of Tunis, when the ferocious expression of their eyes, and their hideous guttural yells, make them look like demons.

The condition of the Christian slaves, however, was much more to be pitied than that of the blacks. There were, I understood, nearly two thousand whites in slavery between Tunis and La Goletta. They were chiefly Italians, with some Spaniards and Portuguese. Some were in the private service of the Bey, and worked in his gardens, at his castle of Bardo, and their lot was considered as tolerable; some of them even saved money. Others were in the service of private individuals, and their fate depended on the character of their masters. The most unhappy were those employed by Government to carry on the works at La Goletta, which is the harbour of Tunis, and where the Bey was raising fortifications and warehouses, and constructing a new mole. There, on a sandy shore, those unhappy creatures were working during the long days under a scorching sun, chained in pairs like vile criminals, carrying mortar, stones, and other heavy burdens, to assist to raise the defences of their oppressors; covered with rags and vermin, allowed a scanty pittance and brackish water, and exposed to the scourge of their overseers. At night they were huddled together in a sort of barn, to sleep upon filthy straw, if the exhalations of the place and the heat of the atmosphere allowed them any rest. The price of ransom for a common slave was about three hundred Venetian sequins, and double the sum for the master of a vessel or a priest. If the pirates happened to seize a man of fortune or condition, his ransom became proportionate to the means they supposed him to have of redeeming himself. The Sicilian Prince Paternò, the richest nobleman in Sicily, while crossing from that island to Naples with a considerable amount of property on board, was taken by some Tunisian cruizers, who, after having seized his