"Your drooping country, torn with civil hate, "The sea's our own; and now all nations greet, "Heav'n, that has placed this island to give law, "Whether this portion of the world were rent "Hither the oppressed shall henceforth resort, This Cæsar found; and that ungrateful age, With losing him, went back to blood and rage; Mistaken Brutus thought to break their yoke, But cut the bond of union by that stroke." What politic impudence, this reminding Cromwell of Brutus ! "That sun once set, a thousand meaner stars In the next stanza he proceeds to contrast the Roman Senate with the English Parliament on a like occasion, and Rome's dire catastrophe with England's sudden prosperity; and concludes with— "As the vex'd world, to find repose, at last "Then let the Muses, with such notes as these, We will now give Marvell's treatment of the same subject; and herein we have an admirable study of the distinction between the true and false of sentiment, in written matter of any sort : 66 AN HORATIAN ODE UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN FROM IRELAND. "The forward youth that would appear, His numbers languishing. " "Tis time to leave the books in dust, "So restless Cromwell could not cease "And, like the three-forked lightning, first His fiery way divide. For 'tis all one to encourage high, The emulous, or enemy; Or with such to inclose Is more than to oppose. "Then burning through the air he went, ""Tis madness to resist or blame "Who from his private gardens, where He lived reservèd and austere, (As if his highest plot To plant the bergamot,) "Could by industrious valor climb To ruin the great work of Time, And cast the kingdoms old Into another mould! "Though Justice against Fate complain, And therefore must make room "What field of all the civil war, They can affirm his praises best, "Nor yet grown stiffer by command, "He to the Commons' feet presents “And has his sword and spoils ungirt "She having killed, no more does search, "What may not then this isle presume, And to all states not free "The Pict no shelter now shall find, "But thou, the war's and fortune's son, March indefatigably on; And, for the last effect, "Besides the force it has to fright The same arts that did gain This, in a merely literary sense, is a very noble and elegant eulogy. In addition, from our knowledge of the author's character, it is but just to judge it honest and sincere. Holland was the enemy of the Commonwealth, and harbored and comforted the outcast King; therefore it was obnoxious to Marvell, who has made a very whimsical, almost absurd, satire upon it, which should be familiar to all who have ever heard the name of the author. It is only necessary to hint at it here. He styles Holland “the indigested vomit of the sea;" "so much earth as was contributed by English sailors (or pilots? this last is better, because more contemptuous) when they heav'd the lead !” and says, "the Dutch, with mad labor, fished the land ashore," "And dived as desperately for each piece Of earth, as if 't had been of ambergrease." "How did they rivet, with gigantic piles, Through the centre their new-catched miles! And to the stake a struggling country bound, Where barking waves still bait the forced ground!" "Yet still his claim the injured ocean laid, And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples play'd;" "The fish ofttimes the burgher dispossest, And sat not as a meat but as a guest;" "And oft the Tritons, and the sea-nymphs, saw Whole shoals of Dutch served up for cabillau." "Who best could know to pump an earth so leak, Him they their lord, and country's father, speak. To make a bank was a great plot of state ;] Invent a shovel, be a magistrate." And other such; but we must have done with these rare worthies. Of politicians of the passing day, their story will serve to instruct a gracious few, and amuse the graceless many. Surely, history, personal, political, or literary, no where presents another instance of such sustained symmetrical con trast. Ir was a warm evening towards the end of the pleasant month of January -No, reader, this is no misprint; January is a pleasant month in some parts of the world, and the venue of our story is laid in the southern hemisphere. It was a warm delightful evening; the lingering day was on the point of melting into twilight; the eternal trade-wind moved lazily through the streets and squares of Lima, flapping its wings still moist with the snows of the Andes, fanning the fainted air, and making it a luxury to breathe the breath of life. On such an evening, we beg the reader to repair with us to the City of Kings, the lordly capital of Peru-only in imagination, however: would to Heaven it were otherwise. The fair Limenians* had just sallied out for the evening paseo, vespers, an ice on the plaza, or the serious business of love-making. Limenians. We have adopted this word in speaking of the inhabitants of Lima almost upon our own responsibility alone. We have seen it and heard it used but very seldom, and never by paramount authority. Writers seem to have followed no rule but their own caprice in that respect. They employ indiscriminately the epithets Limayan, Limanese, Limanos, and such like derivatives, without having either custom, analogy, or any other excuse whatever to offer, except this, that there is no one adjective which has thus far obtained exclusively in the case. We have made choice of the word at the head of this note for several reasons. Its termination has an English sound, an obvious recommendation. It resembles the corresponding term in Spanish, which is Limeño (pronounced Limenio.) And finally, its formation proceeds according to the analogy that governs in similar cases. There had been no toro fight that day; and slowly had the tedious hours crept on despite the usual resources of Peruvian idleness, lisping scandal, smoking puros, drinking maté, (a habit imported from Buenos Ayres,) and lolling and rocking in the indispensable grass hammock that just swung clear of the stone floor. The streets were filling with sayas y mantos, that picturesque and convenient costume of the ladies of that region. Blessed saya y manto! Were Phidias to live again, and deify in marble the myth of Amorous Intrigue, certes he would drape his statue in that delightful dress. So uniform and similar to each other were the charming black phantoms that flitted past, delicate though not aerial, but graceful and languid as the dancing girls of old Ionia, that the mother could not have recognized her daughter, though her own needle had sewed every stitch of every seam and ploughed the silken furrows of the elegant disguise. Reader, did you ever lose your wits at a masquerade ball, in attempting to follow some particular black domino through the crowd of black dominos? If so, remember your bewilderment, and learn to pity a Limenian husband if he chance to be jealous; thoughManco-Capac be praised-the element of jealousy seldom enters into the character of the gentlemanly Peruvian. But to return to our story-for we have a story to tell-the streets of Lima, on a fair evening of January, 183-, were filling with a throng of bustling mortals, bent on the busy pursuits of idleness. Under one of the arcades of the Plaza Mayor, several young men stood in a group, sipping frescos de piña for a pretext, but really and evidently engaged in the arduous toil of killing time. They were all foreigners; some wore the British, others the American navy uniform; one, somewhat taller than the rest, was conspicuous no less for his fine figure and pleasing, manly countenance, than for his citizen's dress, which contrasted with the gold bands and glittering buttons around him. It was difficult to venture, with any degree of probability, any surmise whatever as to the nationality of the latter. His features and form had something of the North American cast; but he had a slight accent when speaking in English, not that Yankee peculiarity which Mr. Cooper and other English authors are so fond of pointing out, but an unaccountable foreign intonation difficult to be located. He was not a native of Peru, for his fluent Castilian was free from all provincialism; whenever he addressed a few complimentary remarks to passing señoritas, he lisped like a true Madrilene, although a practised ear might have detected that in his pronunciation which declared that he was not a Spaniard by birth. In truth he was one of those cosmopolites who have taught themselves foreign tongues, until they have lost, in a measure, the idiomatic peculiarities of their own. "Saint Clair," cried an American midshipman, addressing this personage, "when is that steamer of yours going to astonish the natives of these parts ?" "She will soon arrive, my boy; why do you ask?" "Because I have invited the girls for an excursion to Chorillos on board of her; we are to have the Vallejos, the Recaverras, and all the rest of the fashion." "Well, Crocket, I should advise you not to appoint a day." "Why so?" unsuspiciously demanded the you think she'll be in young man. pretty soon?" 66 Don't “Yes, my boy; at least I hope so; but that is not the reason: you might get quarantined, you know. You remember the sailing match." The young man addressed as Crocket, a curly-headed young middy, joined in the laugh which this remark elicited at his expense, although it alluded to a circumstance which had mortified him not a little. Owing to some youthful misdemeanor, his last lib erty day had proved a day of penance, which he had passed gazing ruefully through the starboard bridle-port of the unwieldy transport ship which represented the American flag in the harbor of Callao, whilst his friends, in fast cutters and with ladies and music on board, were beating against the fresh trade-wind, racing for the expense of a sumptuous dinner at San Lorenzo. They were still laughing-for the author of the joke had that very afternoon shown himself the liberal proprietor of a champagne of superior brand-they were still laughing, when there "hove in sight," to use the phraseology of our new acquaintance, a most voluptuous figure attired in the national gear of the country. As usual, the folds of the manto were drawn over the head and features so as to allow but one eye to appear-but what an eye! The diamond glittering on the pretty hand which held the jealous veil, threw no such flashes as that bright black eye. The lower edge of the saya, gathered quite tightly, displayed such tiny feet as Lima alone can boast, while the artful and coquettish motion of the figure contrived to give, through the ample drapery, such promise and vague indications of the perfection of female proportions, that Canova, had he been there, would have made a pilgrimage to the summit of Chimborazo for the sake of copying from such a model. Christopher Columbus!" ejaculated Crocket. This was a nautical oath peculiar to himself. Though wild to excess, the youth had principles of his own, and seldom indulged any very profane interjections. 66 "A ve-ry pret-ty girl," languidly drawled forth a young lord with a single epaulet, plying his quizzing-glass not ungracefully. "Fine craft that," growled a red-faced, gray-headed lieutenant in H. B. M.'s Navy, who thought it unseamanlike to allow an opportunity to pass of bringing in Neptunian metaphors-" Fine craft that, and a capital figure-head." "Saint Clair,” resumed the young American officer, "did you see that look? Hist, there goes another. She is after you, my fine fellow. Heave short, my boy, and make sail in chase." Saint Clair had too good an opinion of his precious person, and withal too much sagacity in such matters, not to have noticed the look; and the flattering inference of his young friend was the more readily enter tained, that he already knew by experience | dren-men with guilty winnings still ringing how many kind things the eye of a señor- in their hands, men who carried concealed ita can speak in the City of Kings.* Per-weapons and were very ready to use them— haps also he had business elsewhere, and women, who were hurrying to fulfil promises was not sorry of a pretext to part company. better left unkept-children, the too forward At all events, he lost no time in following the technical directions of his sea-faring companion. "No following," cried Saint Clair, as he started in pursuit. "Honor bright," answered Crocket. "Come, gentlemen, let us go and try our luck at monté." trious little insect he pursues through the forest trees-not the Indian warrior, who dogs the mocassin prints upon the autumn leaves, ever displayed more perseverance and ingenuity than Saint Clair in tracking the game he was now chasing. Nevertheless, so many sayas y mantos rustled under the portals and in the open square, and so similar were they all to that of his inamorata, that several times he lost sight of her. Once he was on the point of giving up his enterprise, when he caught a glance of a jewelled little hand playing carelessly with the black folds description rather falls short of the truth. We have witnessed similar scenes time after time in the City of Kings. Fortunately we are enabled to transcribe a passage in point from a highly respectable authority : Every morning at a quarter to nine, the great bell of the Cathedral announces the raising of the Host, during the performance of high mass. Im Not the bee-hunter, who lines the indus-mediately every sound is hushed in the streets and squares. Coachmen stop the carriages, riders check their horses, and foot passengers stand motionless. Every one suspends his occupation or his conversation, and, kneeling down, with head third solemn stroke of the bell ceased to vibrate uncovered, mutters a prayer. But scarcely has the when the noise and movement are resumed; the brief but solemn stillness of the few preceding moments being thus rendered the more impressive by contrast. The same incident is renewed in the evening between six and seven o'clock, when the bell sounds for the Angelus, (oraciones.) The Cathedral bell gives the signal by three slow, measured sounds, which are immediately repeated from the belfries of all the churches in Lima. hand, suddenly suspended; nothing moves but the Life and action are then, as if by an invisible lips of the pious, whispering their prayers. The oracion being ended, every one makes the sign of the cross, and says to the person nearest him, Buenas noches, (good night.) It is regarded as an in saying,' Good night,' and if several persons are act of courtesy to allow another to take precedence together, it is expected that the eldest or the most distinguished of the group should be the first to utter the greeting. It is considered polite to request the person next one to say Buenas noches; he with equal civility declines; and the alternate repetition of Diza Vm,' (you say it,)- No, señor, Diza Vm,' (no, sir, you say it,) threatens sometimes to be endless. of a saya. We dare not say that she beckoned to him; but certain it is that she displayed the jewel upon her hand at an opportune moment, and when her pursuer seemed to hesitate whether to proceed or turn back. The ladies will appreciate the nicety of our distinction, and perhaps furnish us with some delicate phrase to express the precise shade of our meaning. Saint Clair, however, did not stop to settle punctilios. No sooner did he mark his prey than he sprang forward to overtake it; but, at that very moment, the great bell of the Cathedral commenced tolling, the military band before the palace struck a solemn strain, and suddenly, as if by one accord, every being upon the plaza knelt down. It was the signal for the Angelus, and therefore, men, women, and chil * City of Kings. (Ciudad de los Reyes.)-Lima has obtained this high-sounding appellation from the simple fact that it was founded on the day of the Epiphany, in 1534. Angelus-Some of our readers may feel disposed to question the accuracy of our description of a scene which Lima actually presents twice every day in the year. We grant that to the untravelled American it may present at first view an air of strangeness and improbability. Nevertheless our the Cathedral bell is truly astonishing. The half"The effect produced by the three strokes of uttered oath dies on the lips of the uncouth negro; the arm of the cruel Zambo, unmercifully beating his ass, drops as if paralyzed; the chattering mulatto seems as if suddenly struck dumb; the smart repartee of the lively Tapada is cut short in its delivery; the shop-keeper lays down his measure; the artisan drops his tool; and the monk suspends his move on the draught-board: all with one accord join in the inaudible prayer. Here and there the sight of a foreigner walking along indifferently, and without raising his hat, makes a painful impression on the minds of the people."-Travels in Peru, by Dr. J. J. Von Tschudi. As to the concluding remarks of the learned doctor, we would here state that it altogether depends on the mood of the populace whether the sight of indifferent foreigners "merely makes a painful impression," or provokes a riot. To the honor of "our flag" be it said, we have never |