figured forth the wretched condition of the Mexican people, writhing beneath the vampire-like oppression of Spain. "It was a party of twelve persons, fantastically attired in the costumes of the various Indian tribes, and who were grouped round a carro, or two-wheeled cart, in so picturesque a manner that it was easily seen they followed the direction of some intelligent head. The Indians were in mourning, and acted as pallbearers upon the cart itself were two figures, in whom the attributes of the ghastly and the comic were so strangely blended as to inspire the beholder with mingled feelings of curiosity and horror. One of the figures lay stretched at full length upon the car; it was a torso, from whose breast, and from the stumps of its mutilated limbs, blood was continually dropping, which, as fast as it fell, was greedily licked up by figures masked and disguised as Spaniards. There still seemed to be life in the victim, for it groaned and gave out hollow tones, and struggled, but in vain, to shake off the monster that crouched like a vampire upon its body and dug its tiger claws into its breast. The monster was as strange to behold as the sufferer. It had the cowl and the gloomy countenance of a well-fed Dominican monk; on one side of it was a blazing torch, on the other a yelling hound; its head was covered with a brass basin, intended probably to represent the barber helmet of Cervantes' knight. Above this helm waved a pair of wings, not unlike those which the fancy of old heralds has bestowed upon the griffon; the back ended in the tail of the coyote, or Mexican wolf, and the claws with which the monster ripped up the torso's breast were those of a caguar." A plain enough allegory, but lest any should not seize it, Guerero appears masked in the street where it is exhibited, and gives a commentary on it, in the witty and popular style likely to take with the crowds of the lower orders-amongst whom, however, are many Creoles-who throng to the strange spectacle. Suddenly, from a far distant balcony, resounds the cry of Vigilancia!' Vigilancia!' is echoed from mouth to mouth. Vigilancia!' repeats Guerero, thanks, señoras y señores,' and with a bow and a smile he disappears. The crowd close round the cart, and when the alguazils arrive, a few fragments of wood and paste-board are all that remain of the pageant. ture, more likely to appeal to their tastes and feelings than the grim drama enacted in the street. Its object is to expose the vices and weakness of Ferdinand VII, and to convince the Creoles of his unworthiness to reign over them. We are grievously tempted to extract, but must resist for want of space. The performance is near its close when it is interrupted by the alguazils. The actors escape, but the young noblemen find themselves deeply compromised by having witnessed this treasonable exhibition, and are condemned, as a punishment for their offence, to serve in the army. Amongst them is Manuel, Count St. Jago's nephew, who is in love with the viceroy's sister-in-law; and he, being Spanish in his sympathies, chooses to go to Spain and serve against the French rather than enter the Mexican army under Calleja. His adventures upon his journey to the coast are such, however, as to compromise him to the rebel cause. He falls in with Guerero, from whose lips he receives an animated account of Hidalgo's insurrection, its rise, progress, and suppression. Mr. Sealsfield has based this account, and most of the strictly historical parts of his book, upon the works of Robinson and Mier, but he introduces many details, gathered probably during his own visit to Mexico, and bis nervous style gives the charm of novelty to the whole. between a squadron of Spanish dragoons A fight in the mountains and a party of half-armed patriots, terminates in the defeat of the former, to whom the Indians show no quarter. Don Manuel, who, by the warmth of his indignation at the cruelty of the Spaniards, has been betrayed into using his arms against them, endeavors to stop the carnage.j the cries of fury of the Indians. At that mo"It was in vain: his voice was drowned by ment the vesper bells of Cholula were heard to ring, and those of the villages of the plain chimed in with a harmony indescribably soothing. "Ave Maria! murmured the Indians. Ave Maria! repeated Metises and Zambos ; and all, friends and foes, let their blood-dripping hands fall, sank their wild and furious glances to the earth, and whilst they mechanically seized and kissed the medals of the VirFrom the street the daring partizan goes gin of Guadalupe that hung around their to the Trespana coffee-house, then throng-necks, they commenced praying in loud moed with revellers, and makes his way into a notonous tones, 'Ave Maria! audi nos peccaroom where a party of young Creole nobles are playing monté. Before them he causes to be performed a comedy of a refined na dores! "And, as though the sound of the bells were commands from on high, these furious men bowed their heads, uplifted and folded their hands, and, kneeling upon the carcases of their mountains, forests and barrancas, than we elain foes, implored, in humble formula, for- had obtained from all the works we had giveness for themselves and for their enemies. previously read on the subject. But of this "Over valley and plain the shades of evening had spread themselves; in the barrancas more hereafter. We pause to make a final it was already night; but the mountains of the extract of a scene upon the Paseo Nuevo, Sierra Madre still glowed in flame color, the or public promenade of the city of Mexico. majestic, snow-covered peaks blazing, like The Paseo, a double alley of poplars, exmighty beacons, in unspeakable glory and tending from the south-western extremity of splendor. Suddenly flocks of vultures and the capital to the bridge over the Chalco eagles arose and drew near, their hoarse cries canal, a distance of a couple of miles, is mingling with the groans of the dying and sobs of the wounded, and completing the horrible sublimity of the scene. The last note of the bells tolled out: the Indians arose, gazed at each other for a moment in lowering silence, and then, without a word, threw themselves upon the remaining Spaniards with a rage and rapidity that seemed scarcely human. In a few seconds not one of the dragoons drew the breath of life. To a man they had been strangled and stabbed by their vindictive and pitiless foes." Even from such brief scraps as these may be gathered evidence of great power, both picturesque and dramatic. We do not propose to go into further details of the plot of the Viceroy,' which can hardly be said to be brought to a wind-up, excepting as regards certain political manœuvres. of Count St. Jago, crowned with complete success. But the common forms of ro- 1 crowded with the carriages of the Creole ladies, with pedestrians and horsemen. A group of the latter, consisting of Spanish officers, have halted by the side of the road, and are indulging in loud and insolent comments on the appearance of the ladies. black-bearded crew, a fiery little ensign, as he "Carajo suddenly exclaimed one of the gave his horse the spur, and galloped after a coach containing two ladies, one of whom, judging from the graceful outline of her elegantly dressed form, possessed no ordinary attractions. The young officer's sudden movement drew the attention of his comrades and of the public, and both began, although after a different fashion, to make their remarks upon it. "Demonio !' cried the officers. low, deep tones. "Adelante, Lopez!' cried several officers. "Viva el conquistador!' shouted others, encouragingly. "By my soul, bold as a Navarrese exclaimed one. 666 Say, rather, saucy as an Andalusian,' rethe honor to be a born Andalusian.' plied another, for Don Lopez Matanza has 666 From the country which the archangel Gabriel himself visited,' laughed a third. "This witty conversation was suddenly interrupted by a loud scream of indignation and terror proceeding from the carriage in which galloped up with all the external gallantry of the two ladies sat, and to which the ensign had a Spaniard, and the insolence of a privileged profligate. For one moment a stillness like that of death reigned in the Paseo, whilst thousands of heads were turned, and thousands of necks stretched out, in the direction whence the cry came, and then, as the cause gradually became known, the carriages all stopped, and riders and walkers galloped and pressed in hundreds round the coach whose occupant had been outraged. In an instant the presumptuous officer was surrounded by an innumerable throng, forming a compact mass round him and the carriage. At the same time a murmur arose which at first had a character of timidity, but soon became louder and more threatthe audacious insulter of Mexican womanhood, ening. As yet no hand had been lifted against when suddenly the terrible words 'Down with the tyrants!' echoed through the crowd. A hundred hands were raised, and the unfortunate ensign disappeared from off his horse. The other officers, who had come up in all haste, in vain endeavored with drawn swords to force their way to their comrade. "The unlucky Spaniard lay behind the fountain, stone dead, his breast pierced with numerous stiletto thrusts. Certain blue marks upon his throat plainly told that he had first been strangled and then stabbed. "They have twisted his neck like a young hound,' cried Don Pinto. "Señoria, for the mother of God's sake!' exclaimed an old Spanish hidalgo to a colonel, who stood a little apart, absorbed in the con- "Señores,' said the colonel, softly and templation of a brilliant phaëton, which now gravely, our brother has sought his fate. rapidly ascended the Paseo, and apparently These despised Creoles begin to discover their unmindful of what had passed-Señoria!' shame. Beware of quickening their percepscreamed the hidalgo, 'only think what inso- tions.' lence! one of your officers, the very honora- "Madre de Dios!' murmured a captain; ble Ensign Don Lopez Matanza, of the regi-'in broad, bright daylight, and in the face of ment of Saragossa, as I believe, condescended thousands, they have throttled him like a dog!' to favor the Señorita Zuniga with his atten- 'Such deeds alarm me,' said the colonel; tions, and to offer her a salutation which any 'they are sparks which may easily grow into countess in Mexico should feel honored to re- a blaze. Once more, señores-prudence!' ceive, and the shameless girl-' "By my soul, Don Abasalo Agostino Pinto, you are a fool!' replied the colonel, spurring his horse, and dashing into the thick of the crowd, which at the same moment divided, in order to give passage to the phaëton and its four Andalusian horses, and to escape the swords of the six life-guardsmen who preceded the vehicle. Strangely enough, a few seconds saw the crowd dispersed in wonderful order and silence in the side alleys, and the viceroyal equipage was able to draw up unimpeded beside the carriage in which the insulted ladies sat. "What is all this?' inquired one of two ladies who occupied the phaeton. 666 "A picket of troops that had been stationed a thousand paces off, on the bridge over the Chalco canal, now came up; the colonel gave the necessary orders, and, after seeing the corpse laid upon a bier formed of muskets, rode down the Paseo. The other officers followed the body of their murdered comrade." We have spoken of Mr. Sealsfield's writings in terms of very high praise, and reflection does not induce us to retract one syllable of the commendation bestowed. Maturely considered, our verdict is that he is one of the most remarkable writers of his class now "A piece of gallantry carried rather too living. His works are invaluable acquisifar, as I understand,' replied the colonel, and tions to German literature, both on account of which my ensign, Don Lopez Matanza, has of their intrinsic worth and interest, and as been guilty.' likely to stimulate a fresher and more natu"We are inexpressibly grieved, dear señoral tone amongst the present school of Gerras,' continued the lady, in melodious, but man novelists. He deals in the real and somewhat imperious tones, 'and intreat you the true, not in mysticism and sickly sentifor a while to consider our carriage as yours. ment. Whilst lauding the merits of his wriAnd whilst she leaned over with enchanting grace towards the ladies, two richly liveried tings, we are not however blind to their deattendants lifted the terrified and half-fainting fects. The former are, a deep knowledge Creole out of her coach, and placed her in the of human nature, character skilfully drawn, phaeton beside their mistress, who bowed to dialogue spirited and dramatic, description the officers, and then, with the gracious smile of a high order, incidents agreeable and ofof a queen, continued her progress along the ten striking. His failings are an utter neg"For a moment the eyes of the colonel fol-ligence in the carrying out of his plots, oclowed the proud beauty, and then turned their gaze upon the Creoles, who again rode, drove, and walked about as if nothing in the least un Paseo. usual had occurred. casional inconsistencies and omissions, such as writers of the present day rarely hazard, and, in some instances, wildness and incoherency of style. At times he seems to "Strange! upon my honor,' said he to his throw the reins upon the neck of his imneighbor; but where is Ensign Don Lopez Ma-agination, which carries him Heaven knows tanza? Don Martinez, you will take away his sword for three days. Where is Ensign Don Lopez Matanza?" repeated the colonel in a louder tone. He had disappeared, and his horse with him. "Where is Don Lopez Matanza?' exclaimed all the officers. "Seek him behind the fountain,' cried voices in the distance. "Jesus Maria! Todos diablos!' Santa Virgen!' shouted and screamed the officers. where, but certainly far beyond the ken of his reader. This is especially the case in his last publication, South and North,' a narrative of an adventurous ramble through Mexico, accomplished by a party of Americans. We refer the reader to the seventeenth chapter for a fine sample of the powerfully rhapsodical. The travellers bivouac in a swamp, and are attacked by the mus And further on: "From out of the distant background the and chicazopotes, and chirimoyas, and strawberry trees, the whole valley one vast garden, but such a garden as no northern imagination could even faintly picture."-Süden und Norden, vol. i., p. 210. quito fever. The chapter was written, we ❘ of the nopal gardens, then the ultramarine and should think, during a paroxysm of that dis- gold, and green, and white, and bright yellow tressing malady, or under the influence of of the orange and citron groves, and finally a pipe of opium. But this same book, al-the lofty fan and date palms, and the splendid banana, all covered with millions of dewdrops though extravagant and of little interest as that glittered and sparkled like countless diaa whole, contains passages as fine as any monds and rubies."-Süden und Norden, vol. thing that Mr Sealsfield has written or that i., p. 177. we have read. He is never more happy than in the description of scenery. It is easy to babble about green fields, and the merest scribblers reckon thereupon for filling up considerable portions of their drow-silver dome of the star of Mexican mountains towered into the heavens, one vast field of frostsy post octavos, but between such babbling ed silver, detaching itself from the deep azure and the vivid picturesqueness, strength of of the sky as from a dark blue ocean. More diction, and happiness of expression, which to the right, but nearer, the cliffs of the Senplace a fine landscape, an aboriginal forest, poaltepec, with their granite terraces, and gathe incalculable vegetable luxuriance of a bles, and towers, rose in fantastic groups to a Texian prairie, or the tropical glories of a height of twelve thousand feet. But at the foot Mexican barranca, before the reader's eyes swimming in all the colors of the rainbow, of this mighty world of snow and mountain, in the mellow, sunny coloring of a Claude, were hedges of banana and palm, dividing or with the savage boldness of a Salvator, sugar, and cotton, and nopal fields, sprinkled lies a chasm both deep and wide. Let us with citron, and orange, and fig trees of gigansee on which side of the gulf Mr. Sealsfield tic height, twice as high as our northern oaks; stands. Hear him describe a sunrise in every tree a hothouse, a pyramid, a huge noseSouthern Mexico: gay, covered to the distance of a hundred feet from the ground, with flowers and blossoms, "Wrapped in our mantles, we watched the with dendrobiums, paulinias, bignonias, and last stars that yet lingered palely in the heav-convolvulus. And then pomegranate gardens, ens. Suddenly the eastern sky grew light, and a bright point appeared, like a fallen star floating between heaven and earth-but yet no star, its hue was too ruddy. We still gazed in silence, when a second fiery spot showed itself in the neighborhood of the first, which now and increased, and became like a flaming grew tongue, licking round the silver summits of the snow-crowned hills, and then descending, as "This valley of Oaxaca has about the same the flames in a burning village creep from roof right to be styled a valley that our Alleghanys to walls. And as we looked, five, ten, twenty would have to be called bottoms. We should mountain peaks became bathed in the same call it a chain of mountains, although here it rosy fire, which spread with lightning swift- is looked upon as a valley, in comparison with ness, like a banner of flames, from hill-top to the far higher mountains that rise out of it and hill-top. Scarce five minutes had elapsed surround it as with a frame. And truly a magsince the high mountains, wrapped in their nificent frame they are, with their varieties of dull pale shroud of snow, had shown dim and light, and shade, and color, here looking like frosty in the distance, and now both they and dead gold, then like the same metal in a state their smaller brethren flamed forth like mighty of fiery solution, and then again darkening inbeacons or lava-streaming volcanoes, bringing to a deep, rich, golden bronze. Below, the to our minds, in all its living truth, the word bright and dark green, and crimson and purple, of Him who said, 'Let there be light, and there and violet and yellow, and azure and dazzling was light.' Above, all was bright and glori- white of myriads of flowers, and the prodigious ous day; below, gloomy sullen night. Here palms, far more than a hundred feet high, their and there, floods of radiance were poured in majestic turbans rising like sultans' heads through the clefts of the mountains, and where above the luxuriant tree and vegetable world! they penetrated, a strange contest ensued. And then the mahogany trees, the chicazoThe shades of darkness seemed to live, and potes, and in the barrancas the candelabramove, and engage in desperate struggle with like cactus, and higher up the knotted and mathe intrusive sunbeams that broke and dispers-jestic live oak. A perpetual change of plants, ed them, chasing them up the wooded heights, and rending them asunder like cobwebs, so that suddenly and as by enchantment were disclosed the deep indigo blue of the tamarinds and chicazopotes, lower down, the bright green of the sugar fields, lower still, the darker tints Yet one more extract of a similar class: trees, and temperature. For five hours have we ridden, and have changed our climate nearly as often, passing from the tierra templada, the temperate zone, into the tierra caliente and muy caliente, the hot and torrid. Just now we are roasted with heat, the sweat bursting from was, in fact, a surprise, followed, as we have always understood, and as other writers on the subject have asserted, by the instantaneous and panic flight of the whole of Santa Anna's army. On the other hand, he gives some laughable instances of their poltroon every pore, as we move through an entirely new world of plants and animals. Borax, and mangroves, and ferns as lofty as trees, and trees like church towers, springing out of the aboriginal forest far higher even than the colossal mahogany. And then the exotic animals that we see around us-black tigers-we have stumbled upon at least a dozen of the cow-ery in previous encounters, when opposed ardly, sneaking brutes-and iguanas, three feet long, and squirrels twice as large as those in the States, and ocelotls, and wild boars, and cojotes-although these latter are to be found every where—and grinning apes of every size and species. And yonder, standing out white and bright from the deep-blue heavens and bronze-colored rocks, is the village of Quidricovi.”—Süden und Norden, vol. ii., p. 184. Similar passages abound in the book whence these are taken. Allowing for the disadvantage of a translation, and the difficulty of rendering the full richness of the original German, they will be admitted to display great descriptive power, as well as a keen perception and poetical appreciation of the beauties of external nature. but to a tithe of their numbers. The Dons, although numerically and in discipline far superior to the back woodsmen pitted against them, who had little notion of military tactics, and fought, for the most part, each man on his own hook,' yet labored under some disadvantages. Not the least of these appears to have been the quality of their ammunition. Charcoal-dust cartridges, and muskets 'made to sell,' both proceeding, we are told, from British manufactures, were picked up and curiously examined by the Texians after a fight upon the banks of the Salado, during which they had had reason to feel astonished at their own seemingly miraculous invulnerability to a heavy fire. And as the Mexicans, out of respect for the superior qualities of their opponents' weapons, usually fired at extreme musket-range, and sometimes a trifle beyond, it is no wonder that the Texian loss was reckoned by units, when that on the other side amounted to hundreds.* The cavalry, whose sabres, upon the level prairie, ought to have told with terrible effect against the irregular array of the Texians, behaved with conspicuous cowardice, and when they were brought up to a charge, their officers were picked off, and the men retired in confusion. The most conspicuous feature in the 'Cabin-book,' which, as the name hints, contains a string of stories told in the cabin of a steamer, is an animated account of the Texian revolution, its causes, progress, and ultimate triumph. Mr. Sealsfield's narrative of battles and marches could not be more graphic had he himself taken share in them. We know not whether this was the case, although from his evidently erratic and adventurous propensities we should not be surprised to learn that he had made the campaign, and that those are his own ad"We saw the officers furiously gesticulating, ventures that he puts into the mouth of a brandishing their sabres, and torturing their young American settler in Texas. After a horses with the spur, till the irritated animals very few skirmishes, the steady courage and reared and plunged, and sprang into the air, terrible marksmanship of the Texians seem all four feet off the ground. It is fair to say, to have inspired their antagonists with a that the officers showed far more pluck than wholesome terror; and although the exult-we had given them credit for. Two squadrons ation of the former at their early and easy successes was soon damped by their terrible reverses at the forts of Goliad and the Alamo-where thirteen hundred men, the flow"The loss of the Mexicans (during the siege er of the Texian and capture by the Texians of St. Antonio de army, were sacrificed-the Bexar, in December, 1835) consisted in 740 dead, prudence of Houston and the tenacity of his a few men slightly wounded, who marched away soldiers again changed the fortune of the with General Cos, and a large number whose war, and the final victory of San Jacinto hurts were severe, and who remained behind unand capture of Santa Anna established the der care of our surgeons. Our loss amounted to six dead, twenty-nine wounded who went into independence of Texas. Conquerors and hospital, and a few others who were not suffitheir partisans do not willingly detract from ciently hurt to prevent their going into quarters the merit of their achievements by taxing in the town. The disproportion is so enormous the vanquished with utter cowardice and in-as to be almost incredible, but in most of the accapacity, and Mr. Sealsfield extols the des- tions of that war, the killed of the Mexicans were to those of the Texians as one hundred to one.". perate courage displayed by a portion of the H. Ehrenberg's Fahrten und Schicksale cines Mexicans in the abovenamed battle, which | Deutschen in Texas,' pp. 73. officers; but those who had been spared, had charged us, and lost two-thirds of their nothing daunted by their comrades' fall, used |