seemed at a first glance to have less method in their architecture. The last thing we reached was the most beautiful. From the cornice of a long gallery hung a thin, translucent sheet of spar, in the graceful and waving folds of a curtain ; with a lamp behind, the hand could be seen through any part of it. It was perhaps twenty feet in length, and hung five or six feet down from the roof of the cavern. The most singular part of it was the fringe. A ferruginous stain ran through it from one end to the other, with the exactness of a drawn line, and thence to the curving edge a most delicate rose-tint faded gradually down like the last flush of a sunset through a silken curtain. Had it been a work of art, done in alabaster, and stained with the pencil, it would have been thought admirable.

The guide wished us to proceed, but our feet were wet, and the air of the cavern was too chill. We were at least four miles, they told us, from the entrance, having walked briskly for upwards of two hours. The grotto is said to extend ten miles under the mountains, and has never been thoroughly explored. Parties have started with provisions, and passed forty-eight hours in it, without finding the extremity. It seems to me that any city I ever saw might be concealed in its caverns. I have often tried to conceive of the grottos of Anti-Paros, and the celebrated caverns of our own country, but I received here an entirely new idea of the possibility of space under ground. There is no conceiving it unseen. The river emerges on the other side of the mountain, seven or eight miles from its first

entrance.

We supped and slept at the little albergo of the village, and returned the next day to an early dinner.

A ball on board the "United States." The guns were run out of the ports; the main and mizen-masts were wound with red and white bunting; the capstan was railed with arms and wreathed with flowers; the wheel was tier with nosegays; the American eagle stood against the mainmast with a star of midshipmen's swords glittering above it; festoons of evergreens were laced through the rigging; the companion-way was arched with hoops of green leaves and roses; the decks were tastefully chalked; the commodore's

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skylight was piled with cushions and covered with red damask for an ottoman; seats were laid along from one carronade to the another; and the whole was enclosed with a temporary tent lined throughout with showy flags, and studded all over with bouquets of all the flowers of Illyria. Chandeliers made of bayonets, battle-lanterns, and candles in any quantity, were disposed all over the hall. A splendid supper was set out on the gun-deck below, draped in with flags. Our own and the "Constellation's" boats were to be at the pier at nine o'clock to bring off the ladies; and at noon everything promised of the brightest.

First, about four in the afternoon came up a saucy-looking cloud from the westernmost peak of the Friuli. Then followed from every point towards the north an extending edge of a broad, solid black sheet, which rose with the regularity of a curtain, and began to send down a wind upon us which made us look anxiously to our ball-room bowlines. The midshipmen were all forward, watching it from the forecastle. The lieutenants were in the gang-way, watching it from the ladder. The commodore looked seriously out of the larboard cabin port. It was as grave a ship's company as ever looked out for a shipwreck.

The country about Trieste is shaped like a bellows, and the city and harbour lie in the nose. They have a wind that comes down through the valley, called the "bora," which several times in a year is strong enough to lift people from their feet. We could see by the clouds of dust on the mountain roads that it was coming. At six o'clock the shrouds began to creak; the white tops flew from the waves in showers of spray, and the roof of our sea-palace began to shiver in the wind. There was no more hope. We had waited even too long. All hands were called to take down chandeliers, sword-stars, and ottomans; and before it was half done, the storm was upon us, the bunting was flying and flapping, the nicely-chalked decks were swashed with rain, and strown with leaves of flowers, and the whole structure, the taste and labour of the ship's company for two days, was a watery wreck.

Lieutenant C

who had had the direction of the whole, was the officer of the deck. He sent for his peajacket, and, leaving him to pace out his watch among the

ruins of his imagination, we went below to get early to bed, and forget our disappointment in sleep.

The next morning the sun rose without a veil. The "blue Friuli " looked clear and fresh; the south-west wind came over softly from the shore of Italy, and we commenced retrieving our disaster with elastic spirit. Nothing had suffered seriously except the flowers, and boats were despatched ashore for fresh supplies, while the awnings were lifted higher and wider than before, the bright-coloured flags replaced, the arms polished and arranged in improved - order, and the decks re-chalked with new devices. At six in the evening every thing was swept up, and the ball-room astonished even ourselves. It was the prettiest place for a dance in the world.

The ship has an admirable band of twenty Italians, collected from Naples and other ports, and a fanciful orchestra was raised for them on the larboard side of the mainmast. They struck up a march as the first boatful of ladies stepped upon the deck, and in the course of half an hour the waltzing commenced with at least two hundred couples, while the ottoman and seats under the hammock-cloths were filled with spectators. The frigate has a lofty poop, and there was room enough upon it for two quadrilles after it had served as a reception-room. It was edged with a temporary balustrade, wreathed with flowers, and studded with lights; and the cabin beneath (on a level with the main ball-room) was set out with card-tables. From the gangway entrance, the scene was like a brilliant theatrical ballet.

An amusing part of it was the sailor's imitation on the forward decks. They had taken the waste shrubbery and evergreens, of which there was a great quantity, and had formed a sort of grove, extending all around. It was arched with festoons of leaves, with quantities of fruit tied among them; and over the entrance was suspended a rough picture of a frigate with the inscription "Free trade and sailors' rights." The forecastle was ornamented with cutlasses and one or two nautical transparencies, with pistols and miniature ships interspersed, and the whole lit up handsomely. The men were dressed in their white-duck trowsers and blue jackets, and sat round on the guns playing at draughts, or

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listening to the music, or gazing at the ladies constantly promenading fore and aft,-and to me this was one of the most interesting parts of the spectacle. Five hundred weather beaten and manly faces are a fine sight any where. The dance went gaily on. The reigning belle was an American, but we had lovely women of all nations among our guests. There are several wealthy Jewish families in Trieste, and their dark-eyed daughters, we may say at this distance, are full of the thoughtful loveliness peculiar to the race. Then we had Illyrians and Germans, and, Terpsichore be our witness-how they danced! My travelling companion, the Count of Friuli, was there; and his little Viennese wife, though she spoke no Christian language, danced as featly as a fairy. Of strangers passing through Trieste we had several of distinction. Among them was a fascinating Milanese marchioness, a relative of Manzoni's the novelist, (and as enthusiastic and eloquent a lover of her country as I ever listened to on the subject of oppressed Italy) and two handsome young men, the Counts Neipperg, sons-in-law to Maria-Louisa, who amused themselves as if they had seen nothing better in the little duchy of Parma.

We went below at midnight to supper, and the ladies came up with renewed spirit to the dance. It was a brilliant scene indeed. The officers of both ships in full uniform; the gentlemen from shore, mostly military, in full dress; the gaiety of the bright-red bunting, laced with white and blue, and studded, wherever they would stand, with flowers; and the really uncommon number of beautiful women, with the foreign features and complexions so rich and captivating to our eyes, produced altogether an effect unsurpassed by any thing I have ever seen even at the court fétes of Europe. The daylight gun fired at the close of a galopade, and the crowded boats pulled ashore with their lovely freight by the broad light of morning.

sport. Her partly disclosed figure has all the incomplete slightness of a girl. The handsome features of Joseph express more embarrassment than anger. The habitual courtesy to his lovely mistress is still there; his glance is just averted from the snowy bosom toward which he is drawn; but in the firmly curved lip the sense of duty sits clearly defined, and evidently will triumph. I have forgotten the painter's name. His model must have been

some innocent girl whose modest beauty led him away from his subject. Called by another name, the picture were perfect.

A portrait of Count Wallenstein, by Vandyke. It looks a man, in the fullest sense of the word. The pendant to it is the Countess Tourentaxis, and she is a woman he might well have loved-calm, lofty, and pure. They are pictures I should think would have an influence on the character of those who saw them habitually.

Here is a curious picture by Schnoer-Mephistopheles tempting Faust. The scholar sits at his table, with a black-letter volume open before him, and apparatus of all descriptions around. The devil has entered in the midst of his speculations, dressed in black, like a professor, and stands waiting the decision of Faust, who gazes intently on the manuscript held in his hand. His fingers are clenched, his eyes start from his head, his feet are braced, and the devil eyes him with a side-glance, in which malignity and satisfaction are admirably mingled. The features of Faust are emaciated, and show the agitation of his soul very powerfully. The points of his compasses, globes, and instruments, emit electric sparks towards the infernal visitor; his lamp burns blue, and the picture altogether has the most diabolical effect. It is a large painting; and just below, by the same artist, hangs a small, simple, sweet Madonna. It is a singular contrast in subjects by the same hand.

A portrait of the Princess Esterhazy, by Angelica Kauffman-a beautiful woman, painted in the pure, touching style of that interesting artist.

Then comes a " Cleopatra, dropping the pearl into the cup." How often and how variously, and how admirably always, the Egyptian queen is painted: I never have seen