Imatges de pàgina
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The old law-suit with Levy is lost:

You are fined for not cleaning the street,
And the water-pipe's burst with the frost,
And the roof lets the rain in and sleet.
Your old tenant at seventy-four
-Has gone off in the night with his gear,
And has taken the key of the door→→→

But I wish you a happy New Year!
There's misfortune wherever we dodge;

It's the same in the country and town;

There's the porter has burn'd down his lodge,

While he went off to smoke at the Crown. The fat butler makes free with your wines And the footman has drunk the strong beer;

And the coachman can't walk in a line-
But I wish you a happy New Year!
Your Account of a Visit to Rome,'

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Not a critic on earth seems to laud: And old Huggins is lately come home, And will swear that your Claude isn Claude.

Your election is far from secure,

Though its likely to cost very dear, You're come out in a caricature

But I wish you a happy New Year! You've been christen'd an ass in the Times, And the Chronicle calls you a fool;

And that dealer in boys, Dr. Ghrimes,

Has engaged the next house for a school; And the play-ground will run by the bow'r, That you took so much trouble to rear; We shall never have one quiet hourBut I wish you a happy New Year!

Little John will not take to his book,

He's come home black and blue from the cane:

There's your unele is courting the cook,
And your mother is married again!
Jacob Jones will be tried with his wife,

And against them you'll have to appearIf they're hung, you'll be wretched for lite, But I wish you a happy New Year!

Hood's Comic Annual.

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mischievous bull, puts me in mind of a similar case, which I myself witnessed, many years ago, in Edinburgh. I was proceeding from the old to the new town, by the earthen mound, at the head of which I was led for a few minutes to look at a bull that had got into an enclosure there, after the unmerciful butcher lads had driven it fairly mad. The crowd that gathered on the outside of the fence increased the brute's fierceness. At last they began to cast ropes over its horns, and around its neck, thereby to pull it to a stronghold, that it might be slain in the place where it was, which drove it to its most desperate fury. Its eyes now glared madness, there were handfuls of foam flying from its mouth, with its fore feet it pawed the ground, throwing lumps of earth as high as the adjoining houses, and it bellowed so as to make one quake. It was any thing but an agreeable sight, so I moved away homewards. But before I got to the foot of the mound, an alarming shout caused me to look back, when I perceived the animal at no great distance behind me, coming on with all its rage. I had just time to spring to the top of the wall that lined the footpath, and to behold its future progress.

I shudder to this hour when I think of what immediately I saw. Among the people that were near me and in jeopardy, was a young lady, and as you have said, she wore a red mantle, which is a very offensive colour to many of the brute creation. As I did, she also made for the wall, but had neither time nor strength to gain its top, ere the infuriated animal drove towards her. She turned her back, however, to the inaccessible eminence, as if to see the full extent of her fate, and then stood as nailed to it, save only her arms, which she threw aloft in her despair, which would indeed have been as fragile in defence as a rotten reed. Her tender body would have been nothing against a force that could have broken bars of brass, and horns that might have transfixed an animal of its own size. As I have said, directly towards the unprotected young lady the bull drove for ward with intentest eye he came on, he mistook his mark not an inch: for, as the multitude behind him yelled their horror, he dashed with prodigious strength and madness against her.

"Was it not a miracle that the dear young woman escaped unhurt and untouched? Yet it is true: for the terrifle animal struck at her so accurately, that a horn smote the dead wall on

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`either hand, thus embracing, but from their great length, shielding, her person from even the slightest damage. But the staunch wall withstood the tremendous thrust, and sent back with rebounding force, to a great distance, the huge and terrible brute, throwing him prostrate, never to rise again: for numberless destructive weapons were plunged into him before he had time to recover from the recoil. Whether the lady's hair changed colour 1 never heard; but some wonderful alteration might well be conceived to testify the extent of her petrified despair.

"I remember another story about a bull chase, and the catastophe that befel my friend the Laird of, as described to me by himself. The creature was a favourite, which he intended to exhibit at a competition of cattle, and which had a character for remarkable docility and good nature; attributes which the laird proclaimed, that all who meant to breed a fine dairy stock might be apprised where an excellent parentage was to be found. For every dairyman knows the value of a kindly tempered cow, not only as regards guiding and handling, but in the article of milk. Among the Dunlop cheesemakers, it is a beautiful sight, that of the milk-maid, when the milking hour comes, standing at the gate of the enclosure where the herd are grazing and ruminating, and enticing them home to her, by merely chanting, Pretty ladies! pretty ladies!' As they approach her, she hss a name for each, and a liking, according to their several merits, whilst they court her approbation, by submitting to the hand that is held out. The laird had been among his cattle on the occasion referred to, and was returning from them, at a pace suited to his bandy legs and rotund corpus, when he was advertised of something extraordinary being in the wind, by a crooning at no great distance behind. This was no other than the voice of his favourite bull making decidedly to address him. Naebody can tell,' said the laird, what crotchet a bull beast may tak' into his head in the dog days; so he hobbled off the best way that he could to a stone fence which was at hand.

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"Breathless he gained the dyke, and attempted to clear it at a vault. But it was vain without the aid of science, therefore he had to lay hold of the top with his hands, and endeavour to arrive at a proper pitch of elasticity ere he could accomplish the feat. This he hoped for through the subservience of

his legs; springing up and dropping down his body, thus to progress in his practice. But, alas! the animal, just at the critical point of time when the liard ejaculated, Here for it!' unceremoniously lent him a hearty slap behind; which impetus so much surpass ed the worthy man's expectations and arrangements, that it drove him heels over head to the safe side of the fence, into an ugly pond of stagnant water. On hearing the laird relate this story, 1 said it was a mercy that his bull had so considerately watched the moment when he could advantageously volunteer his rough aid. But he would not admit that there was any kindness or discretion in such a coarse customer, for that he felt the effect of the attack for many a long day, which was less than agreeable. I next presumed that the docile creature had not by this one misdeed entirely forfeited his master's good will. And the choleric man answered, 'I dociled him; for as soon as I was able to hirple hame, I took my rifle and shot him as dead as a door nail, to teach him manners, and that nane o' his gets might be casten up to me afterwards.'

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"I marvel," 'quoth our hostess, "how you can carry in your head a' the stories ye write and tell, Mr. Scott. Ye'r an unco man." "My dear madam," answered he, "I hardly know what it is to let anything slip that I have once fairly got hold of." weel believe it," she again said," but ye have na told whither the laird's hair was affected by his fright.' "Why, I believe, it continued as it had been for many years, which was white; but,' proceeded he, "I'll tell you a curious story about a fright I myself got, that may convey some information regarding the sympathies of one's hair with the affections of the mind.

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"It happened several years ago, when I was traversing the Highlands, along with a much beloved, but now departed friend; one of the true men of the old school; one who was rich in classical and legendary lore, but still more in sterling moral virtues. For it has been my lot to possess friends and companions from whom I was ever gaining, till my store has become somewhat bulky. Alas! there are so many deserters from the corps by this time, who shall no more return, that I wish to cherish the persuasion, that to be gone and be with them, will be far better. My friend and I were among the thickly strewn

mountains and ragged rocks of the wildest branch of the Highlands, where there is a remarkable natural ravine, which we visited and explored. It is, rather than a ravine, a fearful pit or dungeon, descending deep among the yawning rocks. It is as if a volcano had boiled there, but in course of time spouted out all its lava, forming strange adjacent peaks all around; thus leaving the furnace or crater dry and empty. It is a terrific throat wide open, on the very edge of which one may stand and look down to the very bottom.

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"There is a mode of descent into its depths which visitors may command. This is by means of rope and windlass, as it were into a coal pit, which are fixed and worked from a prominent brow of the highest frowning peakTo the main rope a machine is attached, called a cradle, by four shorter cords, that tie to its distinct corners.He that descends takes his stand or seat in the cradle, within the stretch of the four diverging cords that meet above his head. A rough old Highlander presided at the windlass, who appointed my friend first to go down. Ere the cradle came up for me again, a presentiment of some horrid accident about to happen to one of us began to take hold of my nature, and I could not resist inquiring if all was right with my friend below. Hoo, surely,' was the answer. "And the cradle will be up for you in a minute; ye are as heavy as twa o' him. Is the rope frail?' 'No very rotten ava; the last ane was rottener afore it brak, an' let a man fa',' was the alarming reply.Was he killed, say you?" Killed, though he had had a hundred lives, he wad hae been killed; he was smashed to pieces down on yonder jagged rock,' quoth the hard-hearted Celt. I now examined the rope, and it appeared much worn, and to be old. How old is it?' inquired I. 'Just five years auld, the last was a month aulder afore it brak,' was his next piece of tantalizing information. With some irritation of manner I put it to him, why a new one had not been provided before any risk could attend a descent; and to make things worse, he provokingly announced, "We are to get a new, ane the môrn; ye'll likely be the last to try the auld.'

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But already the cradle waited for me to step into it; I could not disappoint my companion by not doing as he did; and ashamed to seem to hesi

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tate before the hardy Highlander, at once I took my seat. It was perhaps to encourage me, that he said, as he let me off, 'A far heavier man than you gaed down yesterday.' Then he strained the rope,' cried I; but it was too late to return, and after all I got safe down. The sun shone brightly, and made every intricacy, even in the deep crater, clear and open to the eye. The floor might allow a hundred and fifty people to stand on it at once: and consists of a fine sand that sparkles with pebbles, which have dropt from the surrounding and impending rocks. The face of these rocks is also gemmed by thousands of the same sort, that glittered beautifully to the sun-beam; all which has naturally suggested the idea of a work of enchantment, for it is called the Fairy's Palace. But I confess, though a palace, it had few attractions for me; for besides the disheartenings the Highlander filled me with, ere my descent, my friend, now that I was down, though without any mischievous intent, crowned my fears, by giving, with startling effect, the follow ing narrative. A young man once ascended from this, but when he came to the top, he incautiously stood bolt upright in the cradle, and then a moment ere it was landed, being impatient to get out of it, he made an adventurous leap for the breast of the rock. But the cradle being still pendant in the air, without a stay, fled back on the impulse, of his spring, and fearful to think, let him fall between it and the landing place. Horrible! most horrible!' was my natural exclamation. But,' continued my friend, keep ye your seat in the cradle till it be firmly land ed on the rock, and all will be safe.' He ascended, and 1 prepared to follow. "I thought of the young man's leap and fall; I figured to myself the spot where he alighted, and the rebound he made when he met the ground, never more to rise. And as I took my seat, my limbs smote one another, and my teeth chattered with terror. When I had descended I kept my eyes bent downwards, and was encouraged the nearer I got to the bottom. But on my ascent, though I looked all the while upwards, I was tremblingly alive to the fact, that I was ever getting into higher danger. I held the spread cords as with the gripe of death, never moving my eyes from the blackened creaking main rope. There! there it goes!' I gasped the words; for did I not first see one ply of the triple-twisted line snap

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asunder as it happened to touch a pointed piece of granite? And when once cut and liberated, did the ply not untwist and curl away from its coils? Did I not see another ply immediately follow in the same manner, leaving my life to the last brittle thread, which also began to grow attenuated, and to draw so fine, that it could not long have borne its own weight? I was speechless; the world whirled round, I became sightless, and when within one short foot of being landed, I fell !—I fell into the grasp of my friend, who seeing me about to tumble out of the cradle from stupor, opportunely snatched and swung me, cradle and all, upon the rock. When strength returned I ran from the edge of the precipice, still in the utmost trepidation, shaking fearfully, and giving unintelligible utterance to the agony of my awe-struck soul. And if my hair did not undergo an immediate change of colour, I was not without such an apprehension; for certainly it stood on end during my ascent from the floor of the Fairy's Palace.",

Thus the mighty minstrel-the matchless enchanter went on, with anecdote growing out of anecdote, till he wrapt all that heard him in the greatest delight and wonder. The Metropolitan Mag.

HISTORY OF DON CARLOS.

THIS wretched prince had from his infancy manifested every species of imbecility and depravity which can be united in the mind of one man. Incapable of instruction, yielding without bounds to every passion, stupid as the most grovelling brutes, ferocious as a beast of prey, no care of courtly masters. no lessons of learned preceptors could bestow on him that scanty polish of manner, and that smattering of the general language of intercourse, which are expected from princes. His grandfather, Charles V., who saw the heir of the Spanish dominions at sixteen, bewailed the fate of his late empire. A Venetlan minister, long resident at Madrid, when he saw the prince eagerly tearing to pieces the rabbits brought in for his sport, and contemplating with delight the convulsions of their muscles. and the palpitations of their hearts, foretold to his senate the miserable condition of those many millions, in every region, from sunrise to sunset, who were to be subject to his will. At eigh teen he fell from a high scaffold and received wounds in the head, which dur

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ring the remainder of his life added convulsions, confusion of thought, and occasional attacks of insanity, to his natural defects and habitual vices. His father, perhaps justifiably, restrained him. His mad passion for travelling was exasperated, and he formed wild schemes of escape. His incoherent talk often turned on the revolt of the Flemalings, with whom he sometimes affecthed a fellow-feeling; while, on other occasions, he professed an ambition to command the army against them. When the Duke of Alva took his leave to repair to that command, Carlos said, My father ought to have appointed me. "Doubtless," said Alva, "his majesty considered your life as too precious." Carlos drew his dagger, and attempted to stab Alva; adding, "I will zi hinder your journey to Flanders, for I will pierce your heart before you set out. Towards the end of 1567, his frenzy seemed to rage more fiercely, mingled with much of that cunning which sometimes, for a moment, covers madness with a false appearance of reason. He declared to his confessors that he was resolved to take the life of a man. In reply to their inquiries who it was, he said that he aimed at a man of the highest quality; and after much importunate examination, he at length uttered, "My father!" His father, attended by the chief officers of state, went at midnight in armour to arrest him. Philip, acting on his fatal notions of the boundless right of kings and fathers, did not shrink from communicat

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rage of Carlos often approached to insanity, and might sometimes be infamed to such a degree as to be transformed into utter alienation of mind. The clouds which always darkened his feeble reason might sometimes quench it. The subtle and shifting transformations of wild passion into maniacal disease, the returns of the maniac to the scarcely more healthy state of stupid anger, and the character to be given to acts done by him when near the varying frontier which separates lunacy from malignity, are matters which have defied all the experience and sagacity of the world. At this point the records of the commission close with a note made by their secretary, stating shortly that the prince died of his malady, which hindered a judgment. A dark veil conceals the rest of these proceedings from the eyes of mankind. It is variously related. Philip is said to have ordered that advantage should be taken of the distempered appetites of Carlos, which after he had confined himself t

water for a time, were wonted

hurry

him into voraciously swallowing monstrous quantities of animal food that his excesses should be allowed, if encouraged: and that he should thus be betrayed into becoming his own executioner. Another narrative, not quite irreconcilable with the former, describes the prince of Eboli and the cardinal Espinosa as having intimated to Olivarez, the physician of Carlos (as darkly as John spoke to Hubert,) that it was necessary for him to execute the senI pro

ing his proceedings to the great corpo- tence of death, which the kintient in

erations of Spain, and to the principal Catholic states of Europe. His subjects and his allies interceded for Carlos. Their intercessions were withstood by the iron temper, the unbending policy, and the misguided conscience of Philip, although he was occasionally haunted by the unquenchable feelings of nature. The commissioners appointed to try Carlos reported, that he was guilty of having meditated, and at his arrest attempted, parricide; and that he had conspired to usurp the sovereignty of Flanders. They represented the matter as too high for a sentence, but insinuated that mercy might be dictated by prudence; and threw out a hint, that the prince was no longer responsible for his actions. Men of more science than the Spanish commissioners, and more secure in their circumstances, might be perplexed by the intrinsic difficulty of ascertaining the precise truth, in a case where the malignant

nounced on the wretched
such a manner that the disease might
seem to be natural. When he felt him-
self to be in the agonies of death, he
desired to see his father, and to receive
his blessing. Philip sent his blessing,
but, by the advice of the confessor, de-
clined to disturb the dying devotions of
Carlos. Vanquished by nature, how-
ever, he stole into the chamber, and,
standing unseen, spreading his arms
over his son, prayed for a blessing on
the expiring youth. The father with
drew, bathed in tears, and Carlos not
many hours after breathed his last. An
historian, who wrote from original do-
cuments, adds to a narrative otherwise
not dissimilar, the significant words,
"if, indeed, violence was not employ-
ed." However terrific the sound of
this may be on other occasions, in the
circumstances of Carlos, it rather re-
lieves the mind, by intimating that his
agonies were cut short, and can hardly

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