ON MULCIBER GRIM. Fragment. Here cool the ashes of Mulciber Grim, late of this parish, blacksmith. From his youth upwards he was much addicted to vices, and was often guilty of forgery. Having some talents for irony, which he usually increased by blowing up This rendered him so unpopular, his conduct was generally accompanied Though he sometimes proved a warm friend, regardless of the injury he might do thereby : and when he had any matter of moment upon the anvil, Among the numberless instances that only be remembered, That he was the means of hanying many of the innocent family of the Bells, under the idle pretence of keeping them from jangliny; And put great numbers of the hearts of steel into the hottest flames, Merely (as he declared) to soften the obduracy of their tempers. At length, after passing a long life in the commission of these black actions, his fire being exhausted, and his bellows worn out, he filed off to that place, where only the fervid ordeal of his own forge can be exceeded; HENRY DE MONTMORENCY. BY DR. DRAKE. THE sullen tolling of the curfew was heard over the heath, and not a beam of light issued from the dreary villages; the murmuring cotter had extinguished his enlivening embers; and had shrunk in gloomy sadness to repose, when Henry de Montmorency and his two attendants rushed from the castle. The night was wild and stormy, and the wind howled in a fearful manner. The moon flashed, as the clouds passed from before her, on the silver armour of Montmorency, whose large and sable plume of feathers streamed threatening in the blast. They hurried rapidly on; and, arriving at the edge of a declivity, descended into a deep glen; the dreadful and savage appearance of which, was suf ficient to strike terror into the stoutest heart. It was narrow, and the rocks on each side rising to a prodigious height, hung bellying over their heads. Furiously, along the bottom of the valley-turbulent, and dashing against large fragments of the rock, ran a dark and swollen torrent; and farther up the glen, down a precipice of near ninety feet, and roaring with tremendous strength, there fell, at a single stroke, an awful and immense cascade. From the clefts and chasms of the crag, abrubt and stern, the venerable oak threw his broad breadth of shade; and bending his gigantic arm athwart the stream, shed, driven by the wind, a multitude of leaves: while from the summits of the rock, was heard the clamour of the falling fragments; that, bounding from its rugged side, leaped with resistless fury on the vale beneath. Montmorency and his attendants, intrepid as they were, felt the inquietude of apprehension. They stood for some time in silent astonishment: but their ideas of danger, from the conflict of the elements, being at length alarming, they determined to proceed; when all, instantly, became dark! while the rushing of the storm, the roaring of the cascade, the shivering of the branches of the trees, and the dashing of the rock, assailed, at once, their sense of hearing. The moon, however, again darted from a cloud. They rode forward, and following the course of the torrent, had advanced a considerable way, when the pierc ing shrieks of a person in distress arrested their speed. They stopped: and listening attentively, heard shrill, melancholy cries, repeated at intervals, up the glen; which gradually becoming more distinct, grew faint, and died away. Montmorency, ever ready to re lieve the oppressed, couched his lance, and bidding his followers prepare, was hastening on: but, again, their progress was impeded, by the harrowing and stupendous clash of falling armour; which, reverberating from the various cavities around, seemed here and there, and from every direction, to be echoed with double violence, as if a hundred men in armour had, in succession, fallen down, in different parts of the valley. Montmorency having recovered from the consternation into which this singular noise had thrown him, undauntedly pursued his course; and presently discerned, by the light of the moon, the gleaming of a coat of mail. He inmediately made up to the spot where he found, laid along at the root of an aged oak, whose branches hung darkling over the torrent, a knight, wounded and bleeding. His armour was of burnished steel. By his side there lay a faulchion, and a sable shield, embossed with studs of gold and dipping his casque into the stream, he was endeavouring to allay his thirst, but through weakness, from the loss of blood, with difficulty he got it to his mouth. Being questioned as to his misfortunes, he shook his head; and, unable to speak, pointed with his hand down the glen. At the same moment, the shrieks which had formerly alarmed Montmorency and his attendants, were repeated, apparently at no great distance. And now every mark of horror was depicted on the pale and ghastly features of the dying knight! His black hair, dashed with gore, stood erect; and stretching forth his hand toward the sound, he seemed struggling for speech-his agony became excessive; and, groaning, he dropped dead on the earth! The suddenness of this shocking event; the total ignorance of the cause; the uncouth scenery around; and the dismal wailings of distress, which still poured on the ear with aggravated strength, left room for the imagi nation to unfold its most hideous ideas. Yet Montmorency, though astonished, lost not his fortitude and resolution; but determined, following the direction of the sound, to search for the place whence these terrible screams seemed to issue: and, recommending his men to unsheath their swords, and maintain a strict guard, cautiously followed the windings of the glen; till, abruptly turning the corner of an outjutting crag, they perceived two corpses mangled in a frightful manner, and the glimmering of light appeared through some trees that hung depending from a steep and dange rous part of the rock. Approaching a little nearer, the shrieks appeared evidently to proceed from that quarter; on which, tying their horses to the branches of an oak, they as cended slowly, and without any noise, towards the light. But what was their amazement! when, by the pale glimpses of the moon, where the eye could penetrate through the intervening foliage, in a vast and yawning cavern, dimly lighted by a lamp suspended from its roof, they beheld half a dozen gigan tic figures in ponderous iron armour! Their vizors were up; and the lamp faintly gleaming on their features, displayed an unrelenting sternness, capable of the most ruthless deeds. One, who had the aspect and the garb of their leader-and who, waving his scymetar, seemed menacing the rest-held on his arms a massy shield, of immense circumference; and which, being streaked with recent blood, presented to the eye an object truly terrific! At the back part of the cave, and fixed to a brazen ring, stood a female figure; and, as far as the obscurity of the light gave opportu nity to judge, of a beautiful and elegant form. From her the shrieks proceeded. She was dressed in white; and struggling violently, and in a convulsive manner, appeared to have been driven almost to madness, from the conscious horror of her situation! Two of the banditti were in high dispute: fire flashed from their eyes, and their scymetars were half unsheathed; and Montmorency expecting that in the fury of their passion they would cut each other to pieces, waited the event. But, as the authority of their captain soon checked the tumult, he rushed in with his followers; and hurling his lance-Villains!" he exclaimed, "receive the reward of cruelty!" The lance bounded innocuous from the shield of the leader, who turning quickly on Montmorency, a severe engagement ensued. They smote with prodigious strength, and the valley resounded with the clangor of their steel, The faulchions, unable to sustain the shock, shivered into a thousand pieces, when Montmorency, instantly elevating with both hands his shield, dashed it with resistless force against the head of his antagonist: lifeless he dropped, prone on the ground, and the crash of his armour bellowed through the hollow rock! In the mean time his attendants, though they had exerted themselves with great bravery, and had already dispatched one of the villains, were by force of numbers overpowered; and, being bound together, the remainder of the banditti rushed in on Montmorency, just as he had stretched their commander on the earth: and obliged him, also, notwithstanding the most vigorous efforts of valour, to surrender. The lady, who during the rencontre had fainted away, waked again to fresh scenes of misery, at the moment when these monsters of barbarity were conducting the unfortunate Montmorency and his companions to a dreadful grave. They were led, by a long and intricate passage, to an iminense assemblage of rocks, which, rising between seventy and eighty feet perpendicular, bounded on all sides a circular plain, into which no. opening was apparent, but that through which they came. The moon shone bright; and they beheld in the midst of this plain, a hideous chasm; it seemed near a hundred feet in diameter; and on its brink grew several trees, whose branches, almost meeting in the centre, dropped on its infernal mouth a gloom of settled, horror. Prepare to die!" said one of the banditti; "for, into that chasm shall you be thrown: it is of unfathomable depth; and, that you may not be ignorant of the place ye are so soon to visit, we shall gratify your curiosity with a view of it. So saying, two of them seized the wretched Montmoren. cy, and dragging him to the margin of the abyss, tied him to the trunk of a tree; and having treated his associates in the same manBer" Look!" cried a banditto, with a fiend like smile; “look, and anticipate the pleasures of your journey.' Dismal and pale affright shook the cold limbs of Montmorency; and as he leaned over the illimitable void, the dew sat in big drops on his forehead. The moon's rays, streaming between the branches, shed a dim light, sufficient to disclose a considerable part of the vast profundity, whose depth lay hid; for a subterranean river, bursting with tremendous noise into its womb, occasioned such a mist from the rising spray as entirely to conceal the dreary gulph beneath. Shuddering, on the head of this accursed pit, stood the miserable warrior: his eyes were starting from their sockets; and as he looked into the dark abyss, his senses, blasted by the view, seemed ready to forsake him. Meantime, the bandittii having unbound one of the attendants, prepared to throw him in. He resisted with astonishing strength; shrieked aloud for help; and just as he had reached the slippery margin, every fibre of his body racked with agonizing terror, he flung himself with fury backward and forward on the ground Fierce and wild convulsions seized his frame; which being soon followed by a state of exhaustion, he was in this condition, unable any longer to resist, hurled into the dreadful chasm! His armour striking on the rock, there burst a sudden effulgence; and the repetition of the stroke was heard for many minutes, as he descended down its rugged side! No words can describe the horrible emotions which, on the sight of this shocking spectacle, tortured the devoted wretches. The soul of Montmorency sunk within him: and as they unbound his last fellow sufferer, his eyes shot forth a gleam of vengeful light, and he ground his teeth in silent and unutterable anguish. The inhuman monsters now laid hold of the unhappy man. He gave no opposition; and though despair sat on his features, not a shriek, not a groan, escaped him! But no sooner had he reached the brink-than, making a sudden effort, he liberated an arm, and grasping one of the villains round the waist, sprung headlong with him into the interminable gulph!All was silent-but at length a dreadful plunge was heard, and the sullen deep howled fear ully over its prey. The three remaining banditti stood aghast! They durst not unbind Montmorency; but resolved, as the tree to which he was tied grew near the mouth of the pit, to cut it down; and by that means he would fall along with it into the chasm. Montmorency, who, after the example of his attendant, had conceived the hope of avenging himself, now saw all possibility of effecting that design taken away; and as the axe entered the trunk, his anguish became so excessive that he fainted. The villains observing this, determined, from a malicious prudence, to forbear: as at present, he was incapable of feeling the terrors of his situation. They, therefore, withdrew, and left him to recover at his leisure. Not many minutes had passed away, when, life and sensation returning, the hapless Montmorency awoke to the remembrance of his fate-"Have mercy!" he exclaimed, the briny sweat trickling down his pallid features; "oh! Christ, have inercy!" Then looking around him, he started at the abyss beneath, and shrinking from its ghastly brink, pressed close against the tree. In a little time, however, he recovered his perfect recollection; and perceiving that the banditti had left him, became more composed. His hands, which were bound behind him, he endeavoured to disentangle; and, to his inexpressible joy, after many painful efforts, he succeeded so far as to loosen the cord, and by a little more perseverance, effected his liberty. He then sought around for a place to escape through, but without success! At length, while passing op the other side of the chasm, he observed a part of its craggy side, as he thought, illuminated; and, advancing a little nearer, he found that it proceeded from the moon's rays shining through a large cleft of the rock, at a very considerable depth below the surface. A gleam of hope now broke in on his despair; and gathering up the ropes which had been used for himself and his associates, he tied them together; when, fastening one end to the aim of a tree, and the other to his waist, he determined to descend as far as the illuminated spot. Horrible as was the experiment, he hesitated not a moment in putting it into execution: for, when contrasted with his late fears, the mere hazard of an accident weighed as nothing; and the apprehension that the villains might return before his purpose was secure, accelerated and gave vigour to his efforts. Soon was he suspended in the gloomy abyss: and neither the roaring of the river nor the dashing of the spray, intimidated his daring spirit; but having reached the cleft, he crawled within it. Then loosening the cord from off his body, he proceeded onward; and at last, with a rapture no description can paint, discerned the appearance of the glen beneath him! He knelt down, and was returning thanks to Heaven for his escapewhen suddenly * * * * * Gleanings. ACCOUNT OF A SICILEAN DIVER. IN the times of Frederick King of Sicily, (says Kircher,) there lived a celebrated diver, whose name was Nicholas; and who, from his amazing skill in swimming, and his perseverance under water, was surnamed the Fish. This man had from his infancy been used to the sea; and earned his scanty subsistence by diving for corals and oysters, which he sold to the villagers on shore. His long acquaintance with the sea, at last brought it to be almost his natural element. He was frequently known to spend five days in the midst of the waves, without any other provisions than the fish which he caught there, and ate raw. He often swam over from Sicily to Calabria, a tempestuous and dangerous pas sage, carrying letters from the king. He was frequently known to swim among the gulfs of the Lipari Islands, no way apprehensive of danger. bottom of the gulf of Charybdis; he now, therefore, conceived that it would be a proper opportunity to have more certain information. He, therefore, commanded our poor diver to examine the bottom of this dreadful whirlpool; and as an incitement to his obedience, he or dered a golden cup to be flung into it. Nicholas was not insensible of the dangers to which he was exposed, dangers known only to himself; and therefore he presumed to remonstrate but the hopes of the reward, the desire of pleasing the king, and the pleasure of shewing his skill, at last prevailed. He instantly jumped into the gulf, and was as instantly swallowed up in its bosom. He continued for three quarters of an hour below; during which time the king and his attendants remained very anxious for his fate: but he at last appeared, holding the cup in one hand, and making his way good among the waves with the other. It may be supposed he was received with applause when he came on shore; the cup was made the reward of his adventure; the king ordered him to be taken proper care of; and, as he was somewhat de bilitated by his labour, after a hearty meal, he was put to bed, and permitted to refreshi himself by sleeping. When his spirits were thus restored, he was brought to satisfy the king's curiosity with a narrative of the wonders he had seen; Some mariners out at sea one day observed and his account was to the following effect. something at some distance from them, which He would never, he said, have obeyed the they regarded as a sea monster; but upon its king's commands had he been apprised of approach it was was known to be Nicholas; half the dangers that were before him. There whom they took into their ship. When they were four things, he said, which rendered the asked him whither he was going in so stormy gulf dreadful, not only to men, but to fishes and rough a sea, and at such a distance from themselves: 1. The force of the water burstland; he shewed them a packet of letters, ing up from the bottom, which required which he was carrying to one of the towns of great strength to resist; 2. The abruptness Italy, exactly done up in a leather bag, in of the rocks, that on every side threatened such a manner as that they could not be wet destruction; 3. The force of the whirlpool by the sea. He kept them thus company for dashing against these rocks: and, 4. The some time on their voyage, conversing, and number and magnitude of polypus fish, some asking questions; and after eating an hearty of which appeared as large as a man; and meal with them, he took his leave, and, jump-which, every where sticking against the rocks, ing into the sea, pursued his voyage alone. În order to aid these powers of enduring in the deep, nature seemed to have assisted him in a very extraordinary manner: for the spaces between his fingers and toes were webbed, as in a goose; and his chest became so very capacious, that he could take in, at one inspiration, as much breath as would serve him for a whole day. The account of so extraordinary a person did not fail to reach the king himself, who commanded Nicholas to be brought before him. It was no easy matter to find Nicholas, who generally spent his time in the solitudes of the deep; but at last, after much searching, he was found, and brought before his majesty. The curiosity of this monarch had been long excited by the accounts he had heard of the projected their fibrous arms to entangle him. Being asked, how he was able so readily to find the cup that had been thrown in; he replied, that it happened to be flung by the waves into the cavity of a rock, against which he himself was urged in his descent. This account, however, did not satisfy the king's curiosity. Being requested to venture once more into the gulf for further discoveries, he at first refused: but the king, desirous of having the most exact information possible of all things to be found in the gulf, repeated his solicitations; and, to give them still greater weight, produced a larger cup than the former, and added also a purse of gold. Upon these considerations the un fortunate diver once again plunged into the whirlpool,—and was never heard of more. Humour. THE MAN OF COMPLEX IDEAS; BY DR. PERFECT. expires.-Time is the measurer of all things, but is itself immeasurable; and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed. Like space, it is incomprehensible, because it has no limit, and it would be still more so if it had. It is more obscure in its source than the Nile, and in its termination than the Niger; and advances like the slowest tide, but retreats like the swiftest torrent. It gives wings of lightning to pleasure, but feet of lead to pain, and lends expectation a curb, but enjoyment a spur. It robs beauty of her SALAMANDERS and Cyclops he saw in the charms, to bestow them on her picture, and flame, builds a monument to merit, but denies it to a house; it is the transient and deceitful flatterer of falsehood, but the tried and final friend of truth. Time is the most subtle, yet the most insatiable of depredators, and by appearing to take nothing, is permitted to take all; nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from us, and us from the world. It flight; and although it is the present ally, it constantly flies, yet overcomes all things by will be the future conqueror of death. Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise; bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other; but, like Cassandra, it warns us with a voice that even the sagest discredit too long, and the silliest believe too late. Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it; he that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies; but he that has made it his enemy will have little to hope from his friends. ECCENTRIC BLESSING. AN old priest granted to James the First, on his coming to England, the following blessing: " May Heaven bless you, and make a man of you, though it has but bad stuff to make it of!" Miscellanies. TIME. TIME is the most undefinable, yet paradoxical of things;-the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past, even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of the lightning, at once exists and A LANCASHIRE PUN. DICK DOLT, more the pity, To steal jokes from Tim Grin,* * The successor of the immortal Joe Mille'. |