Imatges de pàgina
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The stream was here clear and shallow; "I have given no order." said but it soon became deep and rapid. Junot. "I insist upon nothing of the Little is said in the Scriptures respect- kind. I only requested, that my greing the extensive valley of the Jordan nadiers, whom I consider my friends between Tiberias and Jericho. It must and my children, would do that for me, have been thickly populated from its at which they ought not to feel repugluxuriance, being watered throughout nance, inasmuch as it is for their own by the river. Yet with all the charms benefit. I thought, that in return for of its situation, the air around the lake, what I have done for them,-in return during the summer, is close and sultry. for what I have obtained for the corps, Of all places in Palestine, however, a the most favoured in the service,-my stranger would desire to fix his resi- companions in danger and glory would dence here; as a situation on any of the not refuse to sacrifice to my wish a verdant hills around would be exempt handful of hair, which is as inconvefrom the often oppressive air on its nient to themselves, as it is unpleasant banks." to one who admires the fine fellows he has the honour to command. And I must say, the whole of my brave gre. nadiers have not acted like you, for they have almost all complied with my wishes; a circumstance which makes me feel more sensibly the obstinacy of those who have not....But, what is it you want?"

ANECDOTE OF JUNOT,
ON HIS ORDER FOR THE FRENCH SOL-

DIERS HAVING THEIR HAIR CUT.

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ONE morning whilst we were at breakfast, Junot was informed that a soldier wished to speak to him. The aide-de-camp on duty was directed to ascertain what the man wanted. The latter replied, that he wished to have an audience of the general, and would return if he could not then be admitted. Junot was always accessible. He had not forgotten that he had himself served in the ranks. He therefore ordered that the soldier should be shewn into the drawing-room. His brow, however, contracted, when the aide-de-camp said to him in an under-tone, " He wears a top-knot, general, and one with flour enough in it to make a hasty-pudding." On his entering the drawing-room, we perceived a young man of six-andtwenty, tall, well-made, with agreeable features, and whose manner indicated that he prided himself not a little upon his smart soldier-like appearance. He bowed with an easy, natural air, seeming, however, embarrassed, as Junot with a severe look surveyed his powdered top-knot. But a circumstance which surprised me was, to see the soldier interchange a look of acquaintanceship with my daughter Josephine, whom I held by the hand. She was then three years and a half old, was always dressed as a boy, and the grenadiers called her their little general. She returned his salute by a nod of her beautiful little head, and whispered to "It is M. Anselme."

me,

"What is your pleasure, my friend?" said Junot to the young man.

"General, I wish respectfully to ask, whether there is an order for us to cut off our hair? As it was not in general orders this morning, I thought that-"

Junot was angry, and I perceived that he had some difficulty in restraining himself. The young man betrayed emotion, but not fear. Having advanced a few steps, he said,

"General, throughout the division which you command, there is not a heart more devoted to you than that of Anselme Pelet. I am not disobedient, general, nor am I obstinate. Permit me to prove it.".

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General," he continued, "I have a mother whom I love and respect, as it is said you love and respect yours. When I left my home to join my regiment, she asked me to cut off my hair and leave it to her. I refused....I have also a mistress to whom I am passionately devoted;" as the young man said this, he blushed deeply. "She too asked me for some of my hair to make a necklace, and I refused to give her even a lock.....I could refuse even the Emperor himself. But I see I must sacrifice this hair.....I am the only one of my company who has not done so.

They have all done it for you, general, and shall I be the only one to displease you? No, sir, I will not; but I have a favour to ask in return."

So saying, he drew from his pocket a large pair of scissors, and presented them to Junot, who asked him what he

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was long, thick, flowing in natural ringlets, and of the most perfect auburn. On receiving the scissors, and seeing his head bowed down before him, waiting to be shorn of its locks, Junot, naturally kind, felt so much emotion, that his hand was not steady.

"My friend," he said to the young soldier, "this is a sacrifice, as you said just now, and I wish for no sacrifices. Keep your hair."

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No, general, it must be cut off. If it were not, I should be the only one in my company who wore it.....I am not quarrelsome, but I never shun any man who wishes to quarrel with me; and I should not like to be the cause of disturbances, to which my singularity could not fail to lead.....Pray, general, cut off the first lock." And he again bent his head.

"Consider of it again," said Junot. "Would you like to leave the grenadiers and return to your former corps?" The soldier drew himself up: his eyes, though moist with emotion, emitted sparks of fire.

"Would you then send me back as guilty of insubordination, general? I have always done my duty, and General Dupas will tell you, that Anselme Pelet is a good and loyal soldier."

Junot made no further remark, but, approaching the young man, cut off his hair, which fell in large masses around him.

"Where do you come from?" said Junot.

"From Burgundy, general."
"Indeed."

"Yes, general, from Etormay, near Bussy-le-Grand."

"And why did you not tell me that we were countrymen?"

"Because I should have seemed to be soliciting a favour, and I would obtain favours only as a reward for good service."

Junot and I interchanged looks. "That lad will get on," said he, after the soldier was gone; a man with such feelings as he evinces is adapted for great and noble actions."

Memoirs of the Duchess of Abrantes as translated for the Athenæum. Customs.

ATTRIBUTES TO THE SUN AND MOON. For the Olio.

As many names were given by the ancients in their devotions to the sun, so were there many given also to the moon. The one as the king, and the

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other as the queen,-they were honoured and worshipped in proportion to their known, or supposed, attributes. Astaroth was an idol of the Zidonians. In her temple, the armour of Saul was suspended, after his death. The moon was here understood, as Astarte, Juno, and Urania. As a lesser, celestial light, she was called Astro-arch, in Herodian, the queen of the planets; and by Horace, the queen of the stars; and by Virgil, the queen of the gods. As the sun was worshipped in the likeness of a ram, emblematic of heat; so was the moon, as a sheep-Astaroth signifying a flock of sheep. The custom being to expose certain idols at the tops of their houses, they were supposed also to be influenced by the sun and moon in the progress of their revolutions.

As Jupiter Ammon was painted (according to Lucan) with horns, so was the moon also. The reasons adduced chiefly are three: the first peculiar to the sun, the other common both to sun and moon. First, the sun was painted with rams' horns, by reason of his entering Aries, the ram, in the first sign of the zodiac. Secondly, because as the strength of horned animals consists in their horns, so the virtues and influences of the sun and moon are derived into sublunary creatures by their beams. Thirdly, because the light of the sun and moon gives a cornuted reflection. When Moses descended the Mount, Aaron and the people observed his face shone, hence it is that Moses is painted with horns, a beautiful specimen of which is in the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," by Michael Angelo, under the head Husbandry. These horns were termed by the ancient critics "horns of magnificence." The moon was also worshipped in the name of Diana. Yet though acknowledged as such in all Asia, she was so highly esteemed by the Ephesians as to make them exclaim→ 'Great is the Diana of the Ephesians!' This arose, says Pliny, partly in consequence of the extraordinary time that was spent in building her Temple, and partly from the great gain procured to the silversmiths in making and selling silver temples of Diana. There has been much dispute respecting these: some think they were little houses, or portable shrines, like the Temple with the image of Diana inclosed, as closets or shrines (in our day, the keeper of the closet with royalty is an office held sacred,) in which images were kept. Some writers think certain coins, or pieces of money, with the impress to have

borne a similar signification. The like custom of naming coins from their sculpture was usual with the ancients. Another kind of idolatrous worship to the moon, once popular, was, that men sacrificed to her in women's apparel, and vice versa, because they thought the moon to be male and female. Hence the moon is called Lunus, or Luna; and Venus, whom Philocorus affirms to be the moon, is termed Deus Venus, as well as Dea Venus.

By the many titles given to the celestial phenomena, it may be deduced that in all the realms of poesy and imagination, they are diversified almost into obscurity as to their origin and import, till they are shorn of their beams!

Table Talk.

J.R.P.

SHARP RETORT.-One of the Yorkes, when at Malvern, in 1761, writing to a literary friend, gives the following anecdote :-"The Bishop of Norwich met with an old fellow here, who is reputed a deist. This gentleman thought proper to touch on some point of religion to his lordship, who, not choosing to enter far into the subject with him, said at last, "When I think a man much in the wrong in an opinion I may pity him, but I can never be angry with him for differing from me. I never knew a man change his opinion for being kicked DOWN stairs." "Very true, my lord," replied the other; "but I have known many a man do it for being kicked UP stairs." New Mon.

THE SCOTTISH THISTLE.-This ancient emblem of Scottish pugnacity, with its motto Nemo me impune lacessit, is represented of various species in royal bearings, coins, and coats of armour, so that there is some difficulty in saying which is the genuine original thistle. The origin of the national badge itself is thus handed down by tradition :When the Danes invaded Scotland, it was deemed unwarlike to attack an enemy in the pitch darkness of night, instead of a pitched battle by day; but on one occasion the invaders resolved to avail themselves of this stratagem, and in order to prevent their tramp from being heard they marched barefooted. They had thus neared the Scottish force unobserved, when a Dane unluckily stepped with his naked foot upon a superbly prickled thistle, and instinctively uttered a cry of pain, which discovered the assault to the Scots, who ran to their arms, and defeated the foe with a terrible slaughter. The thistle

was immediately adopted as the insignia of Scotland.-Lit. Gaz.

PAWNBROKERS' PLEDGES, LIKE POLITICIANS, NO SINECURE.-If a pledge of the value of only four-pence be received into a pawnbroker's care, for an hour, the article pledged will occasion twenty-four different operations, to pass the strict regularity required by the law. Well, indeed, may the pawnbrokers' apprentices carry a pen behind their ears and their ready wits about them, since each assistant has as much to perform as four-and-twenty fiddlers all of a row. Why, pin-making is nothing compared with the interest taken in the pledges of our day; and, parliamentary candidates might take a hint "on pledges."

P.

CALCULATING BOYS.-There are now living in Sicily three boys equally gifted with the aptitude for mathematical calculations. At the head of the triumvirate stands Vincent Zucchero, to whose extraordinary feats in calculation the public curiosity has of late been repeatedly directed. It would seem from recent experience, that this youth possesses a mind capable of devoting itself with rare success to other branches of study besides the mathematics. Two years ago he was ignorant even of his alphabet; but in consequence of the pains taken with him by the Abbe Minardi, who has been engaged as his tutor, through the liberal interposition of the government and corporation of Palermo, he is at this moment able to read off-hand the most difficult of the Latin and Italian classics, and has given public proofs of the unprecedented extent of his acquirements. Two other boys by name Ignatius Landulina and Joseph Puglisi, have come forward to enter the lists against him. The former has not reached his tenth year, and resolved some of the most obstruse questions in the highest branch in geometry, which were put to him by professors of the University of Catanio. Landolina did not confine himself to mere dry answers, but entered acutely into the metaphysics of the science. The third child Puglisi, who is about seven years old, affords no less striking proofs of his extraordinary talent in giving off-hand answers to problems, which usually require tedious arithmetical calculations. It is remarkable to see him, in the very act of listening to a question and giving his solution, pursuing his pastimes like any other child, as if both the one operation and the other were matters of equal ease and unconcern to him.

Erratum-Page 198, 1 "On Sunset," read here after "the weary heart might."

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Illustrated Article.

THE NYMPH OF THE LURLEI BERG.-A TALE.

O syrens, beware of a fair young knight,
He loves and he rides away.

A GROUP of armed men were sitting cheerlessly round a naked and ill-furnished board in one of those rugged castles that overhang the Rhine- they looked at the empty bowl, and they looked at the untempting platter-then they shrugged their shoulders, and looked foolishly at each other. A young knight, of a better presence than the rest, stalked gloomily into the hall.

"Well, comrades," said he, pausing in the centre of the room, and leaning on his sword, "I grieve to entertain ye no better-my father's gold is long gone-it bought your services while it lasted, and with these services, I, Rupert the Fearnought, won this castle from its Lord-levied tolls on the river -plundered the burgesses of Bingenand played the chieftain as nobly as a robber may. But, alas! wealth fliesVOL. X.

See page 226

luck deserts us-we can no longer extract a doit from traveller or citizen. We must separate."

The armed men muttered something unintelligible-then they looked again at the dishes-then they shook their heads very dismally, and Rupert the Fearnought continued

"For my part I love every thing that wealth purchases-I cannot live in poverty, and when you have all gone, I propose to drown myself in the Rhine."

The armed men shouted out very noisily their notions on the folly of such a project of relief; but Rupert sunk on a stone seat, folded his arms, and scarcely listened to them.

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Ah, if one could get some of the wealth that lies in the Rhine!" said an old marauder, "that would be worth diving for!"

"There cannot be much gold among the fishes I fancy," growled out another marander, as he played with his dagger.

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too by a handsome man, if he be brave enough."

Rupert lifted his head-" And how?" said he.

"The Water Spirits have the key to the treasure, and he who wins their love, may perhaps win their gold."

Rupert rose and took the old robber aside; they conversed long and secretly, and Rupert, returning to the hall, called for the last hogshead of wine the cellar contained.

66 Comrades,' ," said he, as he quaffed off a bumper-" Comrades, pledge to my safe return; I shall leave ye for a single month, since one element can yield no more, to try the beings of another; I may perish-1 may return not. Tarry for me, therefore, but the time I have mentioned; if ye then see me not, depart in peace. Meanwhile, ye may manage to starve on, and if the worst come to the worst, ye can eat one another."

So saying, the young spendthrift (by birth a knight, by necessity a robber, and by name and nature, Rupert the Fearnought) threw down the cup, and walking forth from the hall, left his companions to digest his last words with what appetite they might.

Among the Spirits of the Water, none were like Lurline; she was gentle as the gentlest breeze that floats from the realms of Spring over the bosom of the Rhine, and wherever at night she glided along the waves, there the beams of the love-star lingered, and lit up her path with their tenderest ray. Her eyes were of the softest azure of a southern heaven, and her hair like its setting

sun.

But above all her charms was the melody of her voice, and often when she sat upon the Lurlei Rock by the lonely moonlight, and sent her wild song above the silent waters, the nightingale paused from her wail to listen, and the winds crept humbled round her feet, as at a sorcerer's spell.

One night as she thus sat, and poured forth her charmed strains, she saw a boat put from the opposite shore, and as it approached nearer and nearer towards her, she perceived it was guided by one solitary mariner; the moonlight rested upon his upward face, and it was the face of manhood's first dawn-beautiful, yet stern, and daring in its beauty -the light curls, surmounted by a plumed semi-casque, danced above a brow that was already marked by thought; and something keen and proud in the mien and air of the stranger, designated one who had learnt to act no

less than to meditate. The Water Spirit paused as he approached, and gazed admiringly upon the fairest form that had ever yet chanced upon her solitude; she noted that the stranger too kept his eyes fixed upon her, and steered his boat to the rock on which she sat. And the shoals then as now were fraught with danger, but she laid her spell upon the wave and upon the rock, and the boat glided securely over them, and the bold stranger was within but a few paces of her seat, when she forbade the waters to admit his nearer approach. The stranger stood erect in the boat, as it rocked tremulously to and fro, and still gazing upon the Water Nymph, he said

"Who art thou, O beautiful maiden! and whence is thine art? Night after night I have kept watch among the wild rocks that tenanted the sacred Goar, and listened enamoured to thy lay. Never before on earth was such minstrelsy heard. Art thou a daughter of the river? and dost thou-as the greybeards say lure us to destruction? Behold I render myself up to thee! Sweet is death if it cradle me in thine arms! Welcome the whirpool, if it entomb me in thy home!"

"Thou art bold, young mortal," said the Water Spirit, with trembling tones, for she felt already the power of Love. "And wherefore say thy tribe such harsh legends of my song? Who ever perished by my art? Do I not rather allay the wind and smooth the mirror of the waves? Return to thine home safely and in peace, and vindicate, when thou hearest it maligned, the name of the Water Spirit of the Rhine."

"Return!" said the stranger haughtily, " never, until I have touched thee

knelt to thee-felt that thy beauty is not a dream. Even now my heart bounds as I gaze on thee! Even now I feel that thou shalt be mine! Behold! I trust myself to thine element! I fear nothing but the loss of thee!"

So saying the young man leapt into the water, and in a minute more he knelt by the side of Lurline.

It was the stillest hour of night; the stars were motionless in the heavens: the moonlight lay hushed on the rippling tide: from cliff to vale, no living thing was visible, save them, the Spirit and her human wooer.

"Oh!" said he, passionately," never did I believe that thy voice was aught but some bodily music from another world;-in madness, and without hope, I tracked its sound homeward, and I

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