The convent of 'Our Lady of Punishment,' Nossa Señora de Pena, on the summit of the rock. Below, at some distance, is the Cork Convent, where St Honorius dug his den, over which is his epitaph. From the hills, the sea adds to the beauty of the view. It is a well-known fact, that in the year 1809 the assassinations in the streets of Lisbon and its vicinity were not con. fined by the Portuguese to their countrymen, but that Englishmen were daily butchered; and so far from redress being obtained, we were requested not to interfere if we perceived any compatriot defending himself against his allies. I was once stopped in the way to the theatre at eight o'clock in the even ing, when the streets were not more empty than they gener. ally are at that hour, opposite to an open shop, and in a car. riage with a friend: had we not fortunately been armed, I have not the least doubt that we should have adorned a tale' instead of telling one. Mr Beckford, author of Vathek. Behold the hall where chiefs were late convened ! !* Oh! dome displeasing unto British eye! And sundry signatures adorn the roll, Whereat the Urchin points and laughs with all his soul. XXV. Convention is the dwarfish demon styled That foil'd the knights in Marialva's dome : Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled, And turn'd a nation's shallow joy to gloom. Here Folly dash'd to earth the victor's plume, And Policy regain'd what arms had lost : For chiefs like ours in vain may laurels bloom! Woe to the conquering, not the conquer'd host, [coast. Since baffled Triumph droops on Lusitania's XXVI. And ever since that martial synod met, How will posterity the deed proclaim! XXVII So deem'd the Childe, as o'er the mountains Did take his way in solitary guise : [he Sweet was the scene, yet soon he thought to flee, More restless than the swallow in the skies: Though here awhile he learn'd to moralize, For Meditation fix'd at times on him; And conscious Reason whisper'd to despise But as he gazed on truth, his aching eyes grew His early youth misspent in maddest whim; Or dim. XXVIII. To horse! to horse! he quits, for ever quits he shall calm his breast, or learn experience The Convention of Cintra was signed in the palace of the Marchese Marialva. As I found the Portuguese, so I have characterized them. That they are since improved, at least in courage, is evident. The late exploits of Lord Wellington have effaced the follies of Cintra. He has indeed done wonders; he has perhaps changed the character of a nation, reconciled rival supersti tions, and baffled an enemy who never retreated before his predecessors,-1812. The extent of Mafra is prodigious; it contains a palace, convent, and most superb church. The six organs are the most beautiful I ever beheld, in point of decoration : we did Count Julian's daughter, the Helen of Spain. Pelagius not hear them, but were told that their tones were correspond-preserved his independence in the fastnesses of the Asturias, ent to their splendour. Mafra is termed the Escurial of Por- and the descendants of his followers, after some centuries, com tugal. pleted their struggle by the conquest of Granada. My voice was heard again, though not so loud; From lips that now may seem imbued with gail; But now, so callous grown, so changed since I've learn'd to think, and sternly speak the truth. And, arm'd in proof, the gauntlet cast at once say; This, let the world, which knows not how to spare. POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION. I HAVE been informed, since the present edition went to the press, that my trusty and wellbeloved cousins, the Edinburgh Reviewers, are preparing a most vehement critique on my poor, gentle, unresisting Muse, whom they have already so bedeviled with their ungodly ribaldry: 'Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ:' I suppose I must say of Jeffrey as Sir Andrew Aguecheek saith, An' I had known he was so cunning of fence, I had seen him dd ere I had fought him.' What a pity it is that I shall be beyond the Bosphorus before the next number has passed the Tweed! But I yet hope to light my pipe with it in Persia. My Northern friends have accused me, with justice, of personality towards their great literary anthropophagus, Jeffrey; but what else was to be done with him and his dirty pack, who feed by lying and slandering,' and slake their thirst by evil speaking'? I have adduced facts already well known, and of Jeffrey's mind I have stated my free opinion; nor has he hence sustained any injury-what scavenger was ever soiled by being pelted with mud? It may be said that I quit England because I have censured there' persons of honour and wit about town ;' but I am coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my return. Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving England are very different from fears, literary or personal; those who do not, may one day be convinced. Since the publication of this thing, my name has not been concealed: I have been mostly in London, ready to answer for my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry cartels; but, alas! the age of chivalry is over,' or, in the vulgar tongue, there is no spirit now-a-days. There is a youth yclept Hewson Clarke (subaudi Esquire), a sizer of Emanuel College, and I believe a denizen of Berwick-upon-Tweed, whom I have introduced in these pages to much better company than he has been accustomed to meet; he is, notwithstanding, a very sad dog, and for no reason that I can discover, except a personal quarrel with a bear, kept by me at Cambridge to sit for a fellowship, and whom the jealousy of his Trinity contemporaries prevented from success, has been abusing me, and, what is worse, the defenceless innocent above mentioned, in the Satirist, for one year and some months. I am utterly unconscious of having given him any provocation; indeed, I am guiltless of having heard his name till coupled with the Satirist. He has therefore no reason to complain, and I dare say that, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, he is rather pleased than otherwise. I have now mentioned all who have done me the honour to notice me and mine, that is, my bear and my book, except the Editor of the Satirist, who, it seems, is a gentleman-God wot! I wish he could impart a little of his gentility to his subordinate scribblers. I hear that Mr Jerningham is about to take up the cudgels for his Maecenas, Lord Carlisle. I hope not: he was one of the few who, in the very short intercourse I had with him, treated me with kindness when a boy; and whatever he may say or do, 'pour on, I will endure.' I have nothing further to add, save a general note of thanksgiving to readers, purchasers, and publishers; and, in the words of Scott, I wish To all and each a fair good night, But ne'er didst thou, fair Mount! when Greece was young, See round thy giant base a brighter choir; Nor e'er did Delphi, when her priestess sung The Pythian hymn with more than mortal fire, Behoid a train more fitting to inspire The song of love than Andalusia's maids, Nurst in the glowing lap of soft desire: Ah! that to these were given such peaceful shades [glades. As Grecce can still bestow, though Glory fly her ⚫ These stanzas were written in Castri (Delphos), at the foot of Parnassus, now called Atakupa (Liakura), Dec. 1809. |