worth, the prince of poets, and a Marsh, the champion of churchmen." On this I complimented him on his patriotism, and hinted that it was a proof of his Irish predilections that he so vehemently praised the pigs. But I had like to have rued my joke, for had not a doctor in divinity been passing just at the moment, he certainly would have knocked me down. Resolving to be more cautious in future, I tried to hurry him forward, as it was now past three o'clock, and I wished him to hear the anthem at King's Chapel. But it was all to no purpose:-as we passed through the courts of St John's, he was every moment stopping to eulogize "their monastic, solemn, and majestic appearance, so well according with the abstract idea of a learned and religious society." However, we reached King's before the anthem had commenced, and the Ensign now feasted his eyes and his soul upon that matchless specimen of the lighter Gothic. The majestic elegance of St Paul's, or the sombre magnificence of the Abbey may strike us with a different, but scarcely more pleasing sensation, than the lightness, yet stability,—the inimitable workmanship,-and, above all, the glorious unbroken expanse of the inte

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rior of this lofty temple. As soon as Pratt had struck the first notes, I planted the Standard-bearer on one of the stone seats at the west end, in order that he might hear to the best advantage. There he sat, as motionless as the griffin above him; and, when the last note had died away, he exclaimed, "Tis the abstract of metaphysics'tis ideality personified, by G-." Here I clapped my hand suddenly on his mouth. He appeared much surprised at the liberty I had taken, and cast his eyes rather sternly upon me, but, on looking round him, he immediately recollected himself, and bowed his gratitude with that indescribable frankness and grace, which we literary men may appreciate, but cannot imitate.

It being now the hour of dinner, we hastened to Benet, where we found a few friends, whom I had invited to meet the Ensign, already assembled. I say nothing of the dinner, the wine, the company, &c. I leave all that to Morgan. We contrived, however, to consume our time, and various other articles, till nine, when singing was proposed. An ingenious young Freshman being first called on, commenced the following lay, from Fairy Land, with much poetical feeling :

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We missed the Ensign's stentorian, ho! iero! at the conclusion of this stanza; and on turning round, discovered that he had inadvertently dropped asleep. Mr-immediately took out his pencil, and in a few moments produced a striking sketch of his fine countenance, in which he has retained all its characteristic dreaminess and re

pose. When finished, he intends to present it to the Cambridge Philosophical Society, as a frontispiece to their first volume of Transactions.

Thus ended our first day's adventures. The series of occurrences which followed shall be carefully summed by, Dear North,

Yours indivisibly,

ALOYS VON G was the son of a respectable commoner in the -ssian service; and the germs of his promising genius had been early unfolded by a liberal education. When yet very young, but already furnished with well-grounded knowledge, he entered the military service of his sovereign; and, as a young man of great merits and still greater hopes, he could not long remain unknown to such a prince. G- was in the full fire of his youth; so was the prince. G- was ardent and enterprizing; the prince, who was of a similar temperament, had a natural affection for characters so constituted. With a rich vein of wit, and a redundancy of knowledge, G

had

a ready facility in giving animation to social intercourse; every circle in which he mixed, he enlivened by an unfailing festivity of mind; and upon every thing which chance brought before him, he had the art of shedding life and fascination. Graces such as these, and accomplishments which he possessed so eminently himself, the prince could not want discernment to appreciate in another. Every thing which G undertook, his very sports even, had an air of grandeur. Obstacles could not harm him; nor could any failures triumph over his perseverance. The value of such qualities was further enhanced by an attractive person, the perfect image of blooming health and of

gladiatorial strength-inspirited by the eloquent play of gesture and expression natural to a mind of restless activity; and to these was added, in look, walk, and deportment, a native and unaffected majesty, chastened and subdued by a noble modesty. If the prince had been charmed by the intellectual attractions of his young companion,-by so fascinating an exterior his senses were irresistibly ravished. In a short time, through the combined influences of equal age and sympathy in taste and character, an intimacy was established between them, possessing all the strength of friendship, and all the warmth and fervour of the most passionate love. With the rapidity of flight, did Gpass from one promotion to another; but these external marks of favour still halted in expression far behind the reality of his importance with the prince. With astonishing speed did his good fortune put forth its blossoms; for he, who was its creator, was also his devoted admirer and fervent friend. Not yet two and twenty years old, he found himself upon an elevation which hitherto had been to the most fortunate the goal and final consummation of their career. But a mind so active as his could not long repose in the bosom of indolent vanity; nor content itself with the glittering pomp of a high station, the substantial exercise of which he felt in himself courage and abilities to conduct. Whilst the prince was flying after the circles of pleasure, the young favourite buried himself among archives and books, and dedicated himself with laborious industry to business, of which at length he became so expert and perfect a master, that every concern which was of any importance passed through his hands. From the associate of his pleasures, he soon became the first councillor, the prime minister, and finally, the ruler of his sovereign. He disposed of all offices and dignities; and all rewards were received from his hands.

To this greatness G had mounted in too early youth, and by too hasty steps, to enjoy it with moderation. The eminence, upon which he beheld himself, made his ambition dizzy; and no sooner was the final object of his wishes attained, than his modesty forsook him. The respectful submissiveness of manner which was addressed to him by the first persons of the land, by those who were raised so vastly

above him in birth, consequence, and fortune, nay, paid even as a tribute by old men, to him, a youth,—all served to intoxicate his pride; and the unlimited power of which he had become possessed, soon drew into light a certain harshness of manner, which at all times had been latent, as a feature in his character, and which has since continued with him through all varieties of fortune. No service was so toilsome and so vast, which his friends did not with confidence anticipate at his hands; but his enemies might well tremble; for, as on the one side he pushed his favour to extravagant lengths, so on the other did he carry with him a total neglect of all moderation in the prosecution of his vengeance. The influence of his station he employed, not so much to enrich himself, as to lift into fortune and notice a multitude who should pay homage to him as the creator of their prosperity; but caprice, and not justice, determined the choice of his subjects. By a haughty and imperious demeanour, he alienated the hearts of those even he had most obliged, whilst at the same time he converted all his rivals and secret enviers into so many irreconcileable enemies.

had

Amongst those who watched his steps with eyes of jealousy and envy, and who were silently preparing instruments for his destruction, was Joseph Martinengo, a Piedmontese count, in the prince's train, whom Ghimself placed in his present situation, as an inoffensive creature devoted to his interests, for the purpose of filling his own station about the prince in his hours of festal pleasure—a station which he himself gladly exchanged for one of more important business. Viewing this man as the creature of his own hands, that he could at pleasure throw back again into the original obscurity from which he had drawn him, he deemed himself assured of his fidelity through fear no less than through gratitude; and herein he fell into the very same oversight which Richelieu committed when he made over to Louis XIII., as a sort of play thing, the young Le Grand. Whilst, however, on the one hand, G had it not in his power to repair this oversight with the sagacity of Richelieu, he had, on the other, a far more wily enemy to deal with than he whom the French minister found it necessary to destroy. Instead of pluming himself, on his good

fortune, and letting his benefactor feel that he could now dispense with his assistance, Martinengo was rather elaborately careful to maintain a shew of dependancy; and, with studied dissimulation, attached himself more and more submissively to the author of his prosperity. At the same time, however, he did not omit to avail himself in its fullest extent of the opportunity which his office procured him for being continually about the prince's person, and for thus making himself by degrees necessary and indispensible to his comfort. Very shortly, he had read, and knew by heart, the innermost mind of his master; every avenue to his confidence he had secretly discovered; and imperceptibly he stole into his favour. All those arts, which a noble pride, and a natural magnanimity had taught the minister to disdain, were brought into play by this Italian, who did not reject the most abject means that could in any way further the accomplishment of his purpose. Well aware that man no where feels his want of a guide and an assistant more powerfully than in the paths of vice, and that nothing gives a title to bolder familiarities than sharing in the knowledge of infirmities and degradations which have been concealed from others,―he roused passions in the prince which till now had slumbered within him, and then obtruded himself upon him as a confidant and an accomplice. He hurried him into excesses of that sort, which can least of all endure witnesses, and which shrink even from being made known to others; and, by this means, he accustomed the prince imperceptibly to make him the depositary of mysteries from which every third person was excluded. Thus, at length, he succeeded in founding his infamous schemes of personal elevation upon the degradation of the prince; and, from the very same mystery which he had adopted, as an essential instrument of success, he drew this further advantage-that the heart of the prince was his own before G- had even allowed himself to suspect that he shared it with any other.

It may appear matter of wonder that a revolution so important should escape the notice of the latter. But Gwas too well assured of his own value ever to think even of such a man as Martinengo in the light of a competitor; and Martinengo again was far

too much alive to his own purposes, and too much on his guard to allow himself, by any indiscretion, to disturb his enemy in this haughty state of security. That, which has caused thousands before him to lose their footing upon the slippery ground of princely favour, did also supplant Gimmoderate self-confidence. The secret intimacy between Martinengo and his master, gave him no alarms. He readily made over to this stranger a privilege, which, for his own part, he heartily despised, and which had never been the object of his exertions. Simply, because in that way only he could pave his road to the supreme power, had the prince's friendship offered any attractions to him; and no sooner had the ladder lifted him to the eminence which he coveted, than with perfect levity, he suffered it to fall behind him.

Martinengo was not the man to rest satisfied with a part so subordinate. At every step which he advanced in the favour of his master, his wishes became bolder, and his ambition began to grasp at a more substantial gratification. The artful and histrionic sort of humility, which he had hitherto constantly maintained in the presence of his patron, grew more and more oppressive to him as the increase of his personal consequence roused his pride into activity. The carriage of the minister towards him not adapting itself by any more courtly air to the rapid progress which he was making in the prince's favour; but, on the contrary, not seldom appearing to be palpably directed to the purpose of abasing his lofty pretensions by recalling him to a salutary recollection of his origin,— at length, this constrained and discordant connection became so irksome to him, that he framed a serious scheme for putting an end to it at once by the destruction of his rival. This scheme, under the most impenetrable veil of dissimulation, he nursed into maturity. As yet, he durst not run the hazard of measuring his strength against that of his competitor in open combat ; for, although the early bloom had passed away from the favour which Ghad once enjoyed, yet had it begun too early, and had struck root in the breast of the young prince too deeply to be thus abruptly dislodged. The slightest occurrence might restore it in all its original strength; and, therefore,

Martinengo well understood that the blow, which he was meditating to inflict, must be a mortal blow. What G—— might have lost perhaps in the affections of the prince, he had gained in his respect. The more it had happened to the prince to have withdrawn himself from the administration of public affairs, the less could he dispense with the services of a man, who, with the most conscientious devotion and fidelity, had consulted the private interests of his master, even at the expence of the country; and dear as G had formerly been to him in the character of friend, no less important to him was he at this moment in that of minister.

By what sort of means it was that the Italian accomplished his purpose, has remained a mystery between the few on whom the blow fell, and those who guided it. It is conjectured, that he laid before the prince the original draughts of a clandestine and very suspicious correspondence which Gis represented as having carried on with a neighbouring court; whether authentic or spurious-is a point upon which opinions are divided. Be this as it may, however, too sure it is, that his scheme was crowned with a terrible success. In the eyes of the prince, Gappeared the blackest and most ungrateful traitor, whose offences were placed so far beyond all colourable doubt, that, without further investigation, there seemed to be no room for hesitating to proceed against him. In the profoundest secrecy, the whole affair was arranged between Martinengo and his master; so that G- did not, even from a distance, perceive the storm which had now gathered over his head. In this ruinous state of security, he continued up to that dreadful moment, at which, from being the object of universal homage, he was destined to sink down into that of the ut

termost commiseration.

When this decisive day appeared, G―, according to his custom, visit ed the parade of guard. From the rank of ensign, in the short space of a few years, he had been pushed forward to that of colonel; and even this rank was but a more modest name for the station of prime minister, which, in fact, he was then filling, and which raised him above the native dignitaries of the land. The parade was the usual stage on which the incense of

universal homage was offered up to his pride, and where, in one little hour, he enjoyed that grandeur and dignity for which he suffered toil and privation the whole day through. Here it was, that those who were most illustrious for rank, approached him with reverential timidity; and those, who were without assurances of his favourable dispositions towards them, not without trembling; here even the prince, if he ever happened to be present, found himself neglected by the side of his vizier; inasmuch as it was far more dangerous to incur the displeasure of the last, than it could be serviceable to have the other for a friend. Just this place, and no other it was, where heretofore he had been worshipped as a god, that was now chosen for the dreadful theatre of his humiliation.

Lightly, and with a careless step, he entered the well-known circle, that, anticipating no more than himself what was to happen,- -on this day, as on all the former, opened before him respectfully, awaiting his commands. Short was the interval which elapsed, before there appeared, with two adjutants in attendance, Martinengo; no longer the supple, cringing, smiling courtier, but insolent, and with a peasant's arrogance, like a footman suddenly become a gentleman; with a determined step of defiance he strides up to G; and, facing him with his head covered, he demands his sword in the prince's name. With a look of silent consterna

tion the sword is surrendered to him; drawing it from the scabbard, he inclines the point to the ground; with a single step splits it in two, and throws the fragments at the feet of GAt this appointed signal the two adjutants proceed to lay hands upon him; one busies himself in cutting away from his breast the cross of his order; the other in stripping off both his epaulettes, together with the facing of his uniform, and in tearing out of his hat the badge and plume of feathers. Throughout this appalling operation, which is all conducted with incredible speed, from the whole assembly of above five hundred persons, who were standing closely around, not a soundnot a single respiration is to be heard With pallid faces, hearts throbbing, and petrified with death-like horror, stands the dismayed multitude in a circle about G- -; who, during the con