That dwells somewhere beyond your herring-pool ?"
The query seem'd of difficult digestion,

The party shrugg'd, and grinn'd, and took his snuff,
And found his whole good breeding scarce enough.
XIV.

Twitching his visage into as many puckers
As damsels wont to put into their tuckers,
(Ere liberal Fashion damn'd both lace and lawn,
And bade the vale of modesty be drawn,)
Replied the Frenchman after a brief pause,
"Jean Bool!-I vas not know him—yes, I vas—
I vas remember dat von year or two,

I saw him at von place call'd Vaterloo-
Ma foi! il s'est tres joliment battu,

Dat is for Englishman-m' entendez vous ?
But den he had wit him one damn son-gun,
Rogue I no like-dey call him Vellington."
Monsieur's politeness could not hide his fret,
Se Solimaun took leave and cross'd the Strait.

XV.

John Bull was in his very worst of moods,
Raving of sterile farms and unsold goods;
His sugar-loaves and bales about he threw,
And on his counter beat the Devil's tattoo.
His wars were ended and the victory won,
But then, 'twas reckoning-day with honest John,
And authors vouch 'twas still this Worthy's way,
"Never to grumble till he came to pay;
And then he always thinks, his temper's such,
The work too little and the pay too much.*"
Yet, grumbler as he is, so kind and hearty

That when his mortal foe was on the floor,
And past the power to harm his quiet more,
Poor John had well nigh wept for Buonaparte !
Such was the wight whom Solimaun salam'd
"And who are you," John answer'd, " and be d-

XVI.

"A stranger, come to see the happiest man,
So, Seignior, all avouch,-in Frangistan."t-
"Happy? my tenants breaking on my hand;
Unstock'd my pastures, and untill'd my land;
Sugar and rum a drug, and mice and moths
The sole consumers of my good broad-cloths
Happy? why, cursed war and racking tax
Have left us scarcely raiment to our backs."
"In that case, Seignior, I may take my leave;
I came to ask a favour-but I grieve.".
"Favour!" said John, and eyed the Sultaun hard,
"Its my belief you came to break the yard!

* See the True-Born Englishman, by Daniel De Foe

-d?"

+ Europe.

But, stay, you look like some poor foreign sinner,-
Take that to buy yourself a shirt and dinner."-
With that he chuck'd a guinea at his head;
But with due dignity the Sultaun said,———
"Permit me, sir, your bounty to decline;
A shirt indeed, I seek, but none of thine.
Seignior, I kiss your hands, so fare you well."

"Kiss, and be dd," quoth John," and go to hell!" XVII.

Next door to John there dwelt his sister Peg,
Once a wild lass as ever shook a leg

When the blithe bagpipe blew-but soberer now,
She doucely span her flax and milk'd her cow.
And whereas erst she was a needy slattern,
Nor now of wealth or cleanliness a pattern,
Yet once a-month her house was partly swept,
"And once a-week a plenteous board she kept.
And whereas eke the vixen used her claws,
And teeth of yore on slender provocation,
She now was grown amenable to laws,

A quiet soul as any in the nation;

The sole remembrance of her warlike joys
Was in old songs she sang to please her boys.
John Bull, whom, in their years of early strife,
She wont to lead a cat-and-doggish life,

Now found the woman, as he said, a neighbour,
Who look'd to the main chance, declined no labour,
Loved a long grace, and spoke a northern jargon,
And was dd close in making of a bargain.

XVIII.

The Sultaun enter'd, and he made his leg,
And with decorum curtsied sister Peg;
(She loved a book, and knew a thing or two,
And guess'd at once with whom she had to do.)
She bade him "sit into the fire," and took
Her dram, her cake, her kebbock from the nook ;
Asked him " about the news from eastern parts;
And of her absent bairns, puir Highland hearts!
If peace brought down the price of tea and pepper,
And if the nitmugs were grown ony cheaper ;-
Were there nae speerings of our Mungo Park ?—
Ye'll be the gentleman that wants the sark?

If

ye wad buy a web o' auld wife's spinning, I'll warrant ye it's a weel-wearing linen."

XIX.

Then up got Peg, and round the house 'gan scuttle
In search of goods her customer to nail,
Until the Sultaun strain'd his princely throttle

And hollow'd," Ma'am, that is not what I ail.

Pray are you happy, ma'am, in this snug glen ?" Happy ?" said Peg," what for d'ye want to ken ? Besides, just think upon this by-gane year,

Grain wadnae pay the yoking o' the pleugh." "What say you to the present ?" Meal's sae dear, To mak their brose my bairns have scarce enough." "The devil take the shirt," said Solimaun,

"I think my quest will end as it began. Farewell, ma'am; nay, no ceremony, I beg,""Ye'll no be for the linen then ?" said Peg.

XX.

Now, for the land of verdant Erin,

The Sultaun's royal bark is steering,

The emerald Isle where honest Paddy dwells,
The cousin of John Bull, as story tells.

For a long space had John, with words of thunder,
Hard looks, and harder knocks, kept Paddy under,
Till the poor lad, like boy that's flogg'd unduly,
Had gotten somewhat restive and unruly;
Hard was his lot and lodging, you'll allow,
A wigwam that would hardly serve a sow;
His landlord, and of middlemen two brace,
Had screw'd his rent up to the starving place;
His garment was a top-coat, and an old one,
His meal was a potatoe and a cold one;
But still for fun or frolic, and all that

In the round world was not the match of Pat.

XXI.

The Sultaun saw him on a holiday,

Which is with Paddy still a jolly day:

When mass is ended, and his load of sins

Confess'd, and Mother Church hath from her binns

Dealt forth a bonus of imputed merit,

Then is Pat's time for fancy, whim, and spirit!
To jest, to sing, to caper fair and free,
And dance as light as leaf upon the tree.
"By Mahomet," said Sultaun Solimaun,
"That ragged fellow is our very man!
Rush in and seize him-do not do him hurt,
But, will he nill he, let me have his shirt."

XXII.

Shilela their plan was well nigh after baulking,
(Much less provocation will set it a-walking)
But the odds that foil'd Hercules foil'd Paddy Whack,
They seized and they floor'd and they stript him Alack!
Up-bubboo! Paddy had not a shirt to his back !!!
And the king, disappointed, with sorrow and shame,
Went back to Serendib as sad as he came.

are.

THE SOURCE OF THE NILE.

From "Bruce's Travels."

"LOOK at that hillock of green sod in the middle of that watery spot," said our guide;" it is in that the two fountains of the Nile are to be found: Geesh is on the face of the rock where yon green trees If you go the length of the fountains, pull off your shoes as you did the other day, for these people are all Pagans, worse than those that were at the ford; and they believe in nothing that you believe, but only in this river, to which they pray every day, as if it were God; but this, perhaps you may do likewise." Half undressed as I was, by loss of my sash, and throwing my shoes off, I ran down the hill, towards the little island of green sods, which was about two hundred yards distant, the whole side of the hill was thick grown over with flowers, the large bulbous roots of which appearing above the surface of the ground, and their skins coming off on treading on them, occasioned me two very severe falls before I reached the brink of the marsh: I after this came to the island of green turf, which was in form of an altar, apparently the work of art, and I stood in rapture over the principal fountain which rises in the middle of it.

It is easier to guess than to describe the situation of my mind at this moment-standing in that spot which had baffled the genius, industry, and inquiry, of both ancients and moderns, for the course of near three thousand years. Kings had attempted this discovery at the head of armies, and each expedition was distinguished from the last, only by the difference of the numbers which had perished, and agreed alone in the disappointment which had uniformly and without exception followed them all. Fame, riches, and honour, had been held out for a series of ages to every individual of those myriads these princes commanded, without having produced one man capable of gratifying the curiosity of his sovereign, or wiping off this stain upon the enterprise and abilities of mankind, or adding this desideratum for the encouragement of geography. Though a mere private Briton, I triumphed here, in my own mind, over kings and their armies; and every comparison was leading nearer and nearer to presumption, when the place itself where I stood, the objects of my vain glory, suggested what depressed my short-lived triumph. I was but a few minutes arrived at the Source of the Nile, through numberless dangers and sufferings, the least of which would have overwhelmed me, but for the continual goodness and protection of Providence. I was, however, but then half through my journey, and all those dangers which I had already passed, awaited me again on my return. I found a despondency gaining ground fast upon me, and blasting the crown of laurels I had too rashly woven for myself.

I saw Strates expecting me on the side of the hill. "Strates," said I," faithful squire ! come and triumph with your Don Quixote, at that island of Barataria, where we have most wisely and fortunately brought ourselves! come, and triumph with me over all the kings of the earth, all their armies, all their philosophers, and all their heroes!" "Sir," says Strates, "I do not understand a word of what you say, and as little what you mean you very well know I am no scholar." "Come,"

*

said I, "take a draught of this excellent water, and drink with me a health to his Majesty King George III. and a long line of princes." I had in my hand a large cup made of a cocoa-nut shell, which I procured in Arabia, and which was brimfull. He drank to the king speedily and cheerfully, with the addition of, "Confusion to his enemies," and tossed up his cap with a loud huzza. "Now, friend," said I, "here is to

a more humble, but still a sacred name; here is to-Maria!" He asked if that was the Virgin Mary? I answered," in faith, I believe so, Strates."

*

I was, at that very moment in possession of what had for many years been the principal object of my ambition and wishes: indifference, which, from the usual infirmity of human nature, follows at least for a time complete enjoyment, had taken place of it. The marsh, and the fountains, upon comparison with the rise of many of our rivers, became now a trifling object in my sight. I remembered that magnificent scene in my own native country, where the Tweed, Clyde, and Annan, rise in one hill; three rivers, as I now thought, not inferior to the Nile in beauty, preferable to it in the cultivation of those countries through which they flow; superior, vastly superior to it in the virtues and qualities of the inhabitants, and in the beauty of its flocks crowding its pastures in peace, without fear or violence from man or beast. I had seen the rise of the Rhine and Rhone, and the more magnificent sources of the Soane. I began in my sorrow to treat the inquiry about the source of the Nile as a violent effort of a distempered fancy:

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her?—

TO A TUFT OF EARLY VIOLETS.

SWEET flowers! that, from your humble beds
Thus prematurely dare to rise,
And trust your unprotected heads
To cold Aquarius' watery skies;

Retire, retire! THESE tepid airs

Are not the genial brood of May;