easily as if I had been a child. I challenged him-we fought.

"I will break your right arm,' he said; but if you persevere, I will kill you.'

"His exquisite skill enabled him to keep his word. I went home with a fractured limb.

"When I recovered, I had resolved to watch my opportunity, and end his life. To be trampled on with such utter impunity, was more than I could bear. I forgot the divine precepts of religion. I forgot the ordinary feelings of humanity and honour, which would have led me to make any sacrifice of personal inclination, rather than plunge my wife, whom I had already rendered poor and helpless, yet further into distress and degradation. I even went so far as to fix upon the hour, when, in the face of day, my insults were to be righted, and my infuriated passions satiated by a gory revenge. Yes, my son," continued the narrator, with a face of ashy hue, while the son sat shuddering by his side, and hanging on his accents with fearful in terest, your father would have been a murderer, and might have perished on the gallows, but for the gracious interference of heaven. A fever seized me.

66

I was confined many months at death's door. It would be needless to explain the reflections which then passed through my mind. When I recovered, I was an altered man. I had been too near the chilly grave for passion. I shuddered at the escape I had made, and in relating it to you, I expect so dreadful a recollection will, in some degree, quell your self-confidence, as well as alter your opinion of the world. It may teach you the important lesson, that the good as well as the bad, are in danger, and that no man must ever sleep on his post."

ANIMAL FLOWER IN GRENADA.

THERE is a very singular animal flower (or Zoophyte) found inhabiting the side of the rocky wall that lines the carenage, next to the town, about two feet below the surface of the water, and consisting of a worm encased in a cylindric tube, fastened at the end to the rock, and throwing out its rays or tentacula at the other or outward end; the rays when extended standing in a sort of funnel shape; the flower bearing an exact resemblance to the purple passifloras or grannadilla (passion-flower); when fully expanded, this flower is peculiarly sensitive of the approach of any thing towards it, and it is next to impossible to obtain one in that state, as it is imme

diately retracted, (something in the manner of a snail when its horns are touched) even on the undulation of the water within its tubular shell. Whether this shell is separable from the rock at the will of the inmate, has not yet been thoroughly ascertained.

RETALIATION OF AN ARTIST.

THE performer who originally played the part of Achilles, in Corneille's tragedy of that name, had been originally a portrait taken, he agreed with an artist joiner's boy, and wishing to have his to paint it for forty crowns, on condition that he should be represented as Achilles. The painter was informed that the comedian was a bad paymaster, and to be even with him, he painted the figure in oil, and the buckler and some other parts in distemper. The picture was much admired; but the actor wishing to diminish the price, he found many faults, and at last offered only twenty crowns for it. The painter appeared satisfied; but told the player that to give additional brilliancy to the picture, he should rub it with a sponge soaked in vinegar. The consequence was, the vinegar drew out of Achilles was discovered a JOINER, all the colours in distemper, when instead holding a plane in his hand.

DIPLOMATIC STRATAGEM.

H. J.

Then

We are told by Busbequius, that while he was apparently ambassador, but really a prisoner at Constantinople, he made an artful though justifiable use of Turkish aversion for everything of the hog kind. His narrative shall appear in the words of the translator: "This humour of theirs being known, we put a pretty trick upon them. When anybody wished to send me a secret message, he would include it in a little bag, together with a roasting pig, and sending it by a youth, when any chiaux (or guard) met him, he would ask what he had there? the boy, being instructed before, would whisper him in the ear, and say that a friend of mine had sent me a roastingpig for a present. The guard therefore would push the bag with his stick to see whether the boy spake truth or no; and when he heard the pig grunt, he would run back as fast as he could, saying, 'Get thee in with thy nasty present!' Then, spitting on the ground, and turning to his fellows he would say, 'Tis strange to see how these Christians doat on this filthy, impure beast! They cannot forbear eating it, though their lives lay at stake.' Thus they were taken in, and the boy brought me what secret message was sent for."

H. J.

No. 66.

THE MESS-CHEST.

AN EVENT OF THE SPANISH REVOLUTION.

BY WILLIAM LEGGETT.

THERE are not many names on the list of those who have sacrificed their lives for freedom, which deserve more honour able mention than that of Riego. I was in the Mediterranean at the time of the brave attempt which terminated so fatally for him; and I well remember how eagerly we sought every disjointed scrap of intelligence which could be gathered concerning the romantic adventures of Mina with his little army in Catalonia, and the firm and prudent efforts of his noble compatriot, Riego. Old Port Mahon, according to custom, had been chosen for the winter quarters of our squadron; and though the Mahonese were by no means well affected to the cause of Ferdinand, yet the habitual caution and reserve of those islanders prevented their disclosing a very full account of what little they knew concerning the progress of events on the continent. Such drops of news as dribbled from

them, therefore, rather increased than quenched the flame of curiosity. This had arisen to a great height, when it was at last suddenly and sadly extinguished by the arrival of a little polacca vessel from Barcelona, which brought the melancholy tidings of the defeat and flight of Mina, and of the capture and execution of his brother in arms. This vessel had been despatched to Mahon with an official account of the triumphal entry of Ferdinand into Madrid, just six days after the inhabitants of that city had witnessed the public termination of Riego's eventful career.

There were bonfires and illuminations in Mahon on the receipt of this intelligence; but the outward demonstrations of rejoicing were rendered by fear, not gladness, and were as false as the hollowhearted monarch whose success they were kindled to celebrate. Had the despatches communicated news of his death, and of the triumph of the constitution, the revelry would have been another sort of affair; the faces of the people, as well as their casements, would have been lighted up for joy; and hearts, as well as feet,

would have joined in the bolero and fandango, and bounded to the music of the merry castanets.

One evening, during these mock rejoicings, I went on shore with Charles Maitland, one of our lieutenants, and as fine a fellow as ever trod a frigate's quarter-deck. He was young in commission, having been but recently promoted, after a tedious service of two whole lustres in the subordinate capacity of midshipman, during which period he had been the object of a full share of the "fantastic tricks" which naval commanders sometimes choose to play off upon those beneath them. When I say beneath them, I mean the phrase, so far as Charles Maitland is concerned, to apply to the scale of military gradation; for in any other respect he was beneath no man in the service. It had been his lot, as well as mine, to sail with a commander who allowed no opportunity to pass of proving his title to the nautical distinction he enjoyed, of being "the hardest horse in the navy." But those days were over now; and the more elevated rank, and more definite and important duties of a lieutenant, secured him, in a good measure, from a renewal of the annoyances he had so long endured.

Almost immediately on reaching the dignity of an epaulette, Charles had married a sweet girl, to whom he had been long attached, and whom his narrow and uncertain resources had alone prevented from espousing before. I stood groomsman on the occasion; and I remember well how handsome the fellow looked, as he led his blushing bride to the altar. A forty-four, convoying a trig, snug, clean-rigged little Baltimore clipper, could not appear more stately than he alongside that modest and wellmodelled girl. The truth is, Charley was one of the finest-looking men in the service-tall, well-built, round-chested, with an eye like an eagle's, and a mouth, the habitual smile of which, or rather the slight pleasant curve approaching to a smile, denoted an excellent disposition. and never did dog-vane show the course of the wind better than that smile expressed his temper. But I am wandering from my story.

The honey-moon-that briefest moon that ever sheds its light on the matrimonial state-had hardly yet begun to wane, when Charles was ordered to sea in old Ironsides. The old craft was lying in the harbour, her topsails loose, her anchor short-stay apeak, and all ready to trip, sheet home, and be off.

His name had been pitched upon at the last moment, to supply a vacancy left by somebody who had begged off; and as there was now no time for remonstrance, he had nothing to do but obey. I am no hand for painting scenes of the tender sort; so I leave Charley's parting with his young wife, and all that," to sympathetic imaginations," as the girl in the play has it.

A

But, avast a bit, and belay there! What am I doing all this while? pretty piece of lee-way I have made of it!

Here were we, a moment since, snugly moored in the harbour of Mahon, for winter quarters; and now, in the turning of a glass, have I put the Atlantic between us and the scene of my story. Well, stations for stays!-helm's a-lee, and about she goes! And we must now crack on all sail, and make a short cruise of it, till we get back to our starting point. There is no time now for buckling knee-buckles, as the boatswain's mate says, when he calls all hands in a squall at night! so, to make a short story of it, let it suffice to say, that Charles bade adieu to his wife, old Ironsides sailed, reached the Mediterranean in due time, went the usual rounds over that cruising ground (delightful cruising ground it is, by the way), and was now in daily expectation of the relief-ship, with orders for her to return to the United States.

Well, as I said before, Mahon was all in a bustle on account of the news from the continent. Bells were ringing, music playing, bonfires shone in one place, and illuminations glittered in another. Groups of people, of all ages and conditions, were in every square and open place; and the expression of many a pretty face that peeped out from the folds of the red mantilla, or the scowl of many a dark eye that glared beneath the shadow of the sombrero, denoted any thing but pleasure at the intelligence that had been received. Of all the difficult tasks in the world, there is none harder than to put on the semblance of joy at that which stirs our righteous indignation; and he who can best dissemble in such cases-no matter how strong the motive-is not the man I should choose for my friend.

Well, Charles and I went ashore one evening, as I said, during the rejoicings. We had no other object in view than to take a long stroll together, along the romantic shores of one of the prettiest and quietest bays in the world, and to converse without restraint (that, at least,

I supposed was his motive) on the topic which was ever uppermost in his mind. We were yet in the midst of the town, and were threading our way through the crowd in one of the principal squares, when a woman-and a pretty old one too, as well as one might judge by the withered and sallow face which her threadbare mantle was so disposed as only half to betray-suddenly presented herself before us, and whispered a single word, in a low, guttural voice, to my companion. One who has sat as many cold watches as I have, on the look-out, on the foretopsail-yard, naturally acquires a quick eye; and it therefore did not escape me that the old woman, as she spoke to Charles, slipped a sealed note into his hand. She then passed on, mixed with the throng, and in an instant disappeared from my following glance. In Spain, the country of intrigue and romantic adventure, there was nothing so very singular in this as to justify great surprise; and perhaps the circumstance would soon have passed from my mind altogether, had not subsequent events, which I could not but consider in some way connected with it, kept it continually in my thoughts.

On reaching the first convenient place, Charles paused to peruse the billet. Its contents, whatever they were, seemed to engage him deeply. He stood pondering over the paper for several moments, with the air of one in earnest and perplexed meditation; and then, suddenly crumpling it in his hand, and thrusting it into his pocket, cast round him a quick and apprehensive glance, as if fearful that some one might have overlooked him. There was more confusion in his manner, and more hesitancy in his speech, than I had ever before seen him exhibit, when he approached me, a moment or two after this, and said that an unexpected engagement would oblige him to forego the intended walk, and leave me to pursue my way alone.

I had known Charles Maitland from a boy. We had studied our lessons on the same form; had shot our marbles into the same ring; had entered the navy within a few weeks of each other; had been shipmates and messmates through two long and eventful cruises, and a good part of the time had been watchmates. I knew that he had a soul of honour; that his principles were well established, his head clear, his morality nice, and that he loved his young wife with the most ardent attachment. Yet for all this, I could not help feeling a

certain indefinite fear that there was something wrong connected with that note. It could not be a challenge; for he was beloved by all the officers of the squadron, and I was very sure he had not been embroiled in any quarrel on shore. Besides, if it were so, he would have applied to me as his friend ;-and then, again, women are not chosen as bearers of such messages. Yet that the subject, whatever it might be, was of no ordinary kind, was evident from the impression which the perusal occasioned, and not less evident from his withholding the matter from me. Our communion had always been of the most frank and unreserved description; we had been sharers of each other's thoughts, sentiments, and wishes, from boyhood up; I had been in his confidence through his whole course of wooing; and indeed, until the present moment, he had never shewn a desire to keep any thing from my knowledge. Reflections of this kind caused me, perhaps, to give undue importance to the circumstance which had just occurred. I began to fear that Charles was in some way concerned in an unworthy adventure; and a vague suspicion, which I did not like to entertain, and could not altogether reject, took possession of my mind that woman was at the bottom of it. I turned with a slow step towards the quay, and hummed, as I descended the long lateral road that is excavated from the perpendicular cliff which overlooks the bay

"Though love is warm awhile,
Soon it grows cold:

Absence soon blights the smile,
Ere love grows old."

This

From this day forward, Charles's visits to the shore were more frequent than before, but always in the evening, and now he invariably went alone. If other officers happened to go in the same boat, he was sure to separate himself from them on reaching the quay, and pursue a direction different from the rest. soon came to be noticed and to be talked of, and it was whispered about in the mess, that, on two or three occasions, he had been seen, late in the evening, walking with a female closely muffled, in an unfrequented and lonely part of the shore, at some distance from the town. Different officers professed to have seen this female with him, and their descriptions of her person tallied with each other. In the minds of the mess generally, who did not know Charles so thoroughly as I, and whose morality was not of so scrupulous a kind as his or as

I had always thought his to be-this matter created no surprise, and was only laid hold of as furnishing an opportunity for sundry nautical jokes and witticisms. These jests, however, met with such a reception as by no means encouraged those who offered them to a repetition.

It chanced one day that Charles and I were sent on shore on a piece of duty together, and that our business lay in that part of the town to which it had been noticed that he always directed his steps. As we passed through the streets, we discovered that there was a consider able hubbub among the inhabitants, and we soon ascertained that it was occasioned by a party of soldiers who had lately arrived from the Maine, commissioned to search the island for certain proscribed constitutionalists, who were supposed to have taken refuge in Minorca. A good many of these wretched fugitives had been discovered and executed; but the individual against whom the proclamation of Ferdinand was chiefly directed, had hitherto eluded the vigilance of the bloodhounds. This person was a brave young chief, who had filled a confidential and important post under Riego, and who, by his intrepidity, activity, and ceaseless vigilance, had been greatly instrumental in the success of that partisan warfare in Catalonia, which cost the royalists so much blood and treasure, and so long upheld the sinking hopes of his compatriots. To seize and slay Don Castro de Valero, the name of the youthful and interesting chief, was deemed so important an object by the monarch, that immense rewards had been offered for his apprehension, and numerous parties had been sent in every direction in which rumour alleged that he had fled. The troop of mercenaries who had been despatched to Mahon were stimulated by the hope of reward to much greater activity than usually characterizes Spanish soldiers, who are at once a by-word for indolence and rapacity. They had closely searched the house of every person suspected of the slightest disaffection, and had followed every imaginary clue with the keenest zeal of avarice. They had even visited the foreign national ships in the port, and had procured strict orders to be issued, forbidding the officers from harbouring or rendering any assistance to those who were held as traitors by the government within whose waters we lay.

On the afternoon in question, in consequence of certain hints which had been communicated to this party, they had renewed their search, and at the time we

came up, were about entering an humble dwelling, which, as I learned from the crowd, was occupied by a poor old widow and her niece. We were yet at

some distance when we noticed the house at which the soldiers paused, and we could perceive the withered old duenna standing on her threshold, throwing her arms about with great vehemence, and sputtering with amazing volubility every variety of guttural execration, of which the Spanish language has so large a store. The blood mounted to Charles's forehead, and the fire to his eye, as this sight drew his attention; and springing forward with great eagerness, he rushed by the crowd of mendicants and idle spectators whom the circumstance had collected, broke through the ranks of the soldiers, and stood in the midst of the dwelling, before the foremost of their number had gained admittance. I did not pause to consider whether this impetuosity of my friend arose from a generous but imprudent feeling of indignation at the object of their search, or from some less selfish motive, but made all haste to follow him. My progress, however, met with more obstruction than his unlooked-for movement, and I was not able to rejoin him for more than a minute. When I at length forced my way into the building, I found him defending a door which led to an inner apartment, and surrounded by the mercenaries, all jabbering together their vehement and incoherent menaces. As yet, no blow had been struck; but it was evident, from the violence of their gestures, that hostilities would not much longer be delayed. As I entered, they all huddled closer round my companion; and pushing against him with one sudden and united impulse, the door broke from its fastenings, and the whole party fell violently to the floor. I have before said that Charles was strong and agile, but I was not prepared for such a display of muscular energy and activity as he now exhibited in releasing himself from the superincumbent crowd of prostrate and grappling soldiers. In an instant he was on his feet, and beside a bed, which I now observed in one corner of the room. The apartment was lighted by a curtained lattice; but though the illumination was not strong, particularly to vision that had just passed the broad glare of day, it was sufficient to shew that the bed was occupied by a female, who had partly risen from the couch, whose cheek was flushed, and whose dark eyes glowed like fire, probably with indignation at this rude intru