between Louis on the one side, and the Empire, Holland, and England, on the other. The treaty of Reyswick, in 1697, terminated the war, by which Louis gained nothing, acknowledged William III. as King of Great Britain, and restored the Duke of Lorraine to his dominions.

These, we may observe, for the present, are but a few of the historical instances of "Great Events from Little Causes."

SKETCH OF THE TRADITIONS OF GERMANY.'

Bur all the ruined fortresses, all the grey turretted castles, which rise upon the picturesque banks of the Rhine, the tops of Thuringerwald, the mountains of Silesia, do not record a tale of unhappy love. There are some pointed out by tradition as the abode of malignant spirits, and before which the credulous children of Germany make the sign of the cross as they pass. The people of the middle ages delighted to idealize the memory of princes who had dealt kindly and bountifully with them, but they marked out by a poem or a story the name of tyrants for execration. This was their only vengeance. They repaid themselves for all the exactions they had suffered,-all the tears they had shed,-all the blood they had lost, by a legend. Like the Egyptians, they tried the man after his death; they summoned him to their formidable tribunal, and condemned him in their popular songs,-in their fire-side tales-to endless remorse. Here the greedy baron, who his whole life long has been plundering his subjects, is doomed to toss with cries of agony on a couch made of the gold he has unjustly amassed. There the murderer stalks along, for ever pointing to a bleeding wound in his breast. And here, again, he who has despised the complaint of the poor widow, the tears of the orphan,-comes back at midnight to implore the prayers of the children of those once his victims.

In Bohemia, the ruins of the Castle of Kynast are pointed out to the traveller, and the following strange tale related:--"The lord of this castle had only one daughter, named Cunegonda, to whom, when dying, he bequeathed all his property. Cunegonda was beautiful, but of harsh and haughty disposition. When her father's old retainers entreated her to choose a husband, she led them to the top of a precipice, to the summit of a rock so steep that the bravest amongst men could not put his foot upon it without trembling, and she said, He who hopes to be my bridegroom must boldly ride to the top of this beetling crag, and I swear by all that is sacred never to betroth myself to any who will not dare attempt it for my love. Many knights adventured the fearful risk, but all failed. Some were lured by the beauty of Cunegonda, others were prompted by ambition, or by an absurd vanity, and the pitiless maiden, with equal indifference, saw perish those who loved her truly and those whom interested views led on to tempt their fate. One day, three new knights came to dare the enterprise. They were three brothers; all three young, handsome, brave; they attracted every eye, and the crowd followed them with ardent wishes for their success. One after another they essayed to climb the fatal rock. The first had hardly got half way when his horse made a false step and threw him into the abyss; the second failed a little higher up; the third advanced more cautiously, and already had he surmounted the principal difficulties, already was he near the top, when suddenly a dew-moistened plant made his feet slip, and he rolled from rock to rock into the yawning gulph beneath. Cries of horror burst from the

(1) Concluded from p. 121.

people at the cruel sight, and even Cunegonda for an instant felt a touch of pity. But soon she resumed her haughty indifference, and continued to behold, unmoved, the fate of all whom that bloody rock deterred not from. the contest. One morning, the sound of trumpet an nounces a fresh arrival. A knight enters the castle, his armour is dazzling in its brightness, an eagle's plume nods from his helmet, and his long black hair falls low upon his shoulders. He is handsome, far handsomer than all that had preceded him. Proud was his lo majestic his bearing. As she gazed upon him, Curs gonda felt a thrill of fear and love before unknown wo her. When he announced to her his desire to scale the

mountain, she turned pale, she trembled; glad world she have been to have forbidden the attempt, to ba twined her arms around him, and to have vowed to b eternal fidelity. But he was determined to attempt: perilous journey. Already is he on his way, climbing by the hair-breadth path from crag to crag, from peal to peak. Cunegonda follows his course with eag anxious eye, reckoning his every step, his every per... When she sees him advancing as yet unscathed, stand high; she lifts her eyes to heaven, she prays, she hopes erect upon the most precipitous ledge, her heart beat then the next instant relapses into despair. Meanwhil her knight pursues his way, onward and upwards, till last he wheels his noble horse on the topmost peak, az his plume waves above the abyss. At this sight, Cune gonda falls upon her knees, and the air resounds wit ward to meet the stranger knight. But he repulsed br her cries of almost frenzied joy. She now rushes ter with the most loathing contempt, Hence, vile wretc said he, 'begone from my sight, thou tigress, who basi been the cause of so many tears! Dost thou remember the many noble knights thy cruelty has slain-De thou remember the three young brothers whom th didst behold with pitiless eye perish one after the other execrate thee.' I am come to avenge them. Thou lovest me,-I loathe

"With these words he left her; and the unhappy Cun gonda, a prey to disappointed love, to torturing remo flung herself headlong from the precipice down whit had been hurled so many victims to her insensati cruelty."

all the other love-tales of Germany. In almost all, er This legend of Cunegonda forms a striking contrast appears meek and tender, faithful and devoted, growing up like a flower silently budding forth, expanding a solitude. The maiden devotes herself to him whe she loves, takes him as her protector, as her lord, a bound up heart and soul in his destiny. He suffers, she suffers with him; he commands, she obeys; he returns wounded from the battle-field, she dresses his wounds and tends his couch with unremitting care; he lear his country for knightly emprise, she retires from u world to pine for his absence many a long year,-to a of every passing wave, of every flitting cloud, if th have not seen her love, if he will not soon return. abodes of two brothers. They had been brought ? Near Hirzenach are the remains of two castles, th with a young orphan girl, and both loved her with tas same ardent passion. When she was of age to ma they both offered themselves to her, and implored of h to choose. The young girl durst not avow a preferen?. brother was the most favoured, generously abander but the eldest, thinking he had discovered that h his claim, and left the country. The second was de ous of visiting the Holy Land before his marriage, a some years after, it was reported that he had returne to Germany, bringing back with him a young Greck maiden as his betrothed. These tidings soon reached the elder brother, and, indignant at this desertion of he whom he had so long loved, and whose memory he st fondly cherished, he challenged him to single combat determined upon vengeance. The day was fixed. Th two brothers met midway between their respectiv castles; their swords were already drawn, and they we

rushing upon each other in fratricidal rage, when suddenly the maiden threw herself between them, and with soft pleading looks, and earnest, yet gentle words, succeeds in appeasing their fury. Instead of deadly conflict, they meet in brotherly embrace, and swear eternal friendship. Without one reproach to him who had betrayed her, she who had reconciled them retired to a neighbouring convent, to weep, to pray, to die. Another tradition I would not willingly omit. A knight of Lorraine, named Alexander, sets out for the Holy Sepulchre. His wife gave him as her parting love-gift a white vest, upon which she had embroidered a red cross. "Take this," she cried, "and wear it ever, for my sake. It is the symbol of my devoted constancy, -no stain can ever rest upon it." The knight is taken prisoner by the Saracens, sent to the Sultan, and condemned to draw the plough. Through all his labours he ever wears his vest, and neither rain nor dust, neither mire nor blood, could imprint upon it a single stain. It was white as the day upon which he took it from the hand of his young wife. This marvel was observed, and told to the Sultan, who sent for the prisoner, and asked him how he became the possessor of this wondrous vest. "It was the gift of Florentina, my wife," said Alexander, "the token of her stainless faith." The Sultan dispatches a trusty embassy to Metz, with orders to employ every means, every art, to seduce the devoted Florentina. But promises, presents, adulation, all were alike vain, the young wife remains insensible to the gallantry of the Saracen. A short time after, she assumes a pilgrim's habit, and, with harp in hand, she goes from shore, till at last she reaches Palestine, and the country where her husband is a captive. She gains entrance into the palace, and so deftly does she enact the minstrel's part, that the Sultan, caught by the sweet sounds of her voice and instrument, desires her to name the guerdon she would have. She asks the liberty of a prisoner, makes choice of her husband, and without making herself known to him, takes with him the road to Metz. When within two or three days' journey of the city, she says to her companion, "I am now obliged to leave you. There is your way, and here is mine. In return for the scrvice I have rendered you, I ask only a piece off your vest." The knight readily gives it to her. She takes the shortest road, arrives at Metz twenty-four hours before him, resumes her woman's garb, and, when her husband appears, receives him with every mark of joy, and with as apparent surprise as if she had never seen him since his departure. But the friends of Alexander are not slow in communicating to him the suspicions excited in their minds by her long absence, and her concealment of where she had been, and how she lived. The knight is inflamed with jealousy, and he summons his kinsmen and his friends, and there, in solemn assembly, he demands of his wife an explanation of her conduct. Florentina asks permission to leave the hall for a few moments, and she soon re-appears in the pilgrim's robe, her harp slung upon her arm, and the fragment of the vest in her hand. The knight recognises his beauteous deliverer, and falls at the feet of his loving wife.

A striking feature in all the German legends is the homage paid to beauty. Wherever it appears, whether in a legend or in a popular ballad, it carries all before it; it levels all distinctions. A daughter of the people it raises to the rank of the noble. Men proudest of their birth court its smile-kings rise up to do it honour, as the Trojan sages before Helen. So great is its ascendancy that the people attribute it to magic influence, as in the story of Lore Lay, told by a legendary poet,

thus:

"Tell me," cried he, and deeply was he moved as he spoke, "tell me, unhappy Lore Lay, who has made of thee a wicked sorceress?"

"Alas, my lord Bishop, let me die! I am weary of life; for each one that looks upon me is doomed to misery. Magic fire is in mine eye, and in the wave of mine arm is a magic spell. Condemn me to the flames, for only thus canst thou put an end to my enchantments." "I cannot condemn thee till thou hast told me how it is that thy magic fire has been already infused into my breast. I cannot condemn thee, for my heart would break."

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'My lord Bishop, mock not thus a hapless maiden. Be it thine rather to pray for me that the God of all mercy may have mercy upon me. I desire not to live any longer, for I can love no more. Condemn me to death; death is all that I crave of you. He whom I loved has betrayed me-he has abandoned me for a foreign shore. My tender glance, my sweet voice, my face that men call lovely, has been no spell to him. Give me then death; suffer me to die. What should I live for, when him whom I love I can never more behold?" And the bishop was moved to pity. He summoned three knights. "Take her," he said, "to the peaceful cloister. Go, fair Lore Lay, and may Heaven have pity on thee. Thou wilt become a nun; thou wilt wear the dark robe and the veil, and have fitting space to prepare for thy death-voyage."

The knights depart with her for the cloister, and often as they journeyed did they gaze with pitying sadness upon the fair Lore Lay.

"Courteous knights," she cried," let me go to the top of yonder rock. I wish for the last time to behold the abode of my beloved;-I wish for the last time to gaze upon the Rhine's deep waters. And then we will go to the cloister and I shall be at peace."

Steep was the rock, precipitous the ascent. But with winged speed she is at the top, and there she stands and cries, "I see a boat upon the Rhine-he who guides the bark must be my beloved. Oh, doubtless it is my beloved, and my heart once more has joy!" With these words, she droops her head, then springs into the whelming waters.

Here ends the poet's song. But the people have caught up the tradition, and add, that Lore Lay still appears in the midst of the river into which she had flung herself. Often is she seen on the surface of the waters, plaiting her long tresses; and nightly is she heard to sing and touch the chords of her harp and none who approach her too nearly, or lend an ear to her melodious chants, can resist the magic of her voice, the fascination of her glance. They abandon their bark to plunge into the stream.

Thus, in the poetry of the people, beauty is imperishable, and death, which sweeps away at a breath emperor and king and pope, has no power over the soft glance, the sweet voice, of maiden loveliness.

Such is a rapid sketch of German legendary lore. Volumes might be written on the subject, and industriously have the Germans compiled the materials for such a work. The principal collections of these popular stories are to be found in the books of the brothers Grimm, and of Musæus, some of which have been given to the English public through the medium of a translation. It has been well said that the very fables of antiquity should be preserved, because the belief which they obtained, and the influence they exercised, are facts it is not allowable to omit. They are among the most important facts in the history of the human race; they are facts concerning mankind, not merely concerning individuals. Of what importance is it to the present generation whether Cadmus or Theseus existed--of how much importance that the belief in these men existed for many years! The one is a question of an individual, the other of the state of humanity. Without understanding the errors, prejudices, superstitions, and creeds of various nations, we should not only be

unable rightly to understand their history, but also our own intellectual constitution. This consideration stamps importance upon

"Old legends of the monkish page,
Traditions of the saint and sage,
Tales that have the rime of age,
And chronicles of old."

FRANK FAIRLEGH;

OR, OLD COMPANIONS IN NEW SCENES.

CHAPTER III.

HOW I RISE A DEGREE, AND MR. FRAMPTON GETS ELEVATED IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.

THE week passed away like a dream, and with a beating heart, and throbbing pulse, I went through the various examinations, and engaged with my competitors in the struggle for honours. Anxious in the highest degree as to the result of my labours, I scarcely ate, drank, or slept, and, had the necessity for exertion been protracted much longer, my mind could not have borne the continued strain, and I should probably have had a brain fever. It was the eventful Friday morning on which the poll list was to come out, and in the course of an hour or two my fate would be known. Utterly worn out by a night which anxiety had rendered sleepless, I had hastily swallowed a cup of tea, and, turning away from the untasted eatables, flung myself, wrapped in a dressing-gown, on the sofa. I had not, however, lain there above a quarter of an hour, when a tap was heard at the door, and Mr. Frampton made his appearance, attired as usual in the well-remembered blue coat, with brass buttons, drab shorts, and gaiters, and the broad-brimmed hat, lined with green, fixed sturdily on his head, as if it was not made to take off at any time. "Umph! found my way up, you see! Fellow you call the gyp wanted to make me believe you were outthought I looked too like a governor to be let in, I suppose; but it wouldn't do, Sir; old birds are not to be caught with chaff; and he spoke with an air of such intense honesty that I felt sure he was lying, and told him

Don't get up, boy, don't get up; you look as jaded as a hunted antelope. Why, you've never touched your breakfast; you'll kill yourself if you go on at this

rate."

"It will not last much longer, Sir," said I; "in about another hour or so my fate will be known. The poll list comes out this morning. Some of my friends were to call for me, and we were to make a party to go down to the Senate House together, for there is sure to be a crowd; but I shall let them go without me, for I'm in such a state of nervous anxiety that I feel fit for nothing."

"Umph! I'll go with them, if they've no objection," returned Mr. Frampton. "If I should happen to get knocked over in the scuffle, I shall want somebody to pick me up again. I shall like to see how near the tail of the list they stick your name, Frank-umph!"

At this moment the door was flung open, and Lawless, Archer, and one or two more men of my acquaintance, came tumbling over one another into the room, laughing vociferously at some unknown jest. Owing to the shape of the apartment, the place where Mr. Frampton had seated himself was not easily to be seen as you entered, consequently none of them observed him." "Fairlegh, old boy!" began Archer

less.

"Pon my word, it's true, and what will you lay it's a lie?" sang Archer. "Oh! if you had but seen him. Fairlegh; he looked like-hang me if I know any thing ugly enough to compare him to."

Was he at all like me, Sir-umph!" inquired Mr. Frampton in his gruffest tone, putting on the broadbrimmed hat, and rising slowly from his seat as bet spoke.

"The very apparition itself, by Jingo!" exclaimed a Archer, starting back in alarm, half real, half affected thereby nearly overturning Lawless, who was just le hind him.

“Hold hard there; where are you jibbing to? You smash my panels in a minute, if you don't look outeh-why surely it's the old fellow from Heimsten. Mr. Frampton Sir, your most obedient.”

"Same to you, Sir," was the reply; "glad to see your spirits don't seem likely to fail you, Mr. Lawles laughing at me, all of 'em, impudent young dogswhat's t'other one's name, Frank the one that took 1. for a ghost-umph!"

"Allow me to introduce you. Mr. Frampton. M Archer, Mr. Green, Mr. Lacy, Mr. Richards"

The individuals named delivered themselves of series of nods and jerks as I pronounced their variet: patronymics, and Mr. Frampton took off his hat, sai made a polite bow to each man separately; then turning to Archer, he said,

"Pray, Sir, may I inquire when and how you becam so intimate with Noah's great-grandfather as to mistak me for him?-umph!"

"Well, Sir," said Archer, who was evidently taken somewhat aback by this direct appeal, "it is an affairthat is, a circumstance what I mean to say is-b thing, as you must see, was completely-in fact it wa quite by accident, and promiscuously, so to speak, th I mistook you for the respectable antediluvian—I shoul say, for his ghost."

either. Not that there are such things in reality: a "Umph! don't think I look much like a ges humbug, Sir. A man goes and eats beef and pudd 27 enough for two, has the nightmare, fancies next morna he has seen a ghost, and the first fool he tells it to be lieves him. Well, Mr. Lawless, not made a ghost yourself by breaking your neck out of that Interna Machine of yours yet. Get King Louis Philippe og out for a ride with you in that, and his life would be greater danger than all the Fieschis in France cou ever put it in. Umph!"

The horses are in first-rate condition," retarted Lawless, "enough to pull a fellow's arms off till they done about ten miles; that takes the steel out of the a bit, and then a child may guide them. Happy to you a drive, Mr. Frampton, any time that suits -eh?"

"Thank ye, Sir, when that time comes I'll let yo know; but I hope to live a few years longer yet, s therefore you'll excuse my not accepting your s offer. Besides, if Mr. Archer were to see the ghost Noah's great-grandfather in a tandem, he'd never 201 over it." Then came the aside;-" Umph! had there, the young jackanapes."

Well, Fairlegh, are you coming with us!” asked Lacy: "the list must be out by this time." "No; 'pon my word I can't," replied I. "I'm god for nothing this morning."

"Serve you right, too," said Lawless, "for refusing the second bowl of punch last night. I told you no good would come of it, eh?"

"Positively, we ought to be going," said Richards "we'll bring you some news presently, Fairlegh, a will set you all right again in no time."

"I only wish you may prove a true prophet," re plied I.

Umph; if you'll allow me, I'll accompany you, tlemen," said Mr. Frampton; "make one of your party Umph!"

Several of those appealed to exchanged glances of horror, and at last Archer, who was rather an exclusive, and particularly sensitive to ridicule, began—

Why, really, Sir, you must excuse"Umph! excuse? no excuses are required, Sir; when you've lived as long as I have, you'll learn not to care in what company you sail, so as it's honest company. Noah's great-grandfather found out the truth of that, Sir, when he had to be hail-fellow-well-met with tiger cats and hippopotamuses in the ark-hippopotami, I suppose you classical men call it-though, now I come to think of it, he never was there at all. But you will let an old man go with you, there's good boys," continued Mr. Frampton, in a tone of entreaty; "not one of you feels more interest in Frank Fairlegh's success than I do."

"Come along, Governor," exclaimed Lawless, taking him by the arm, you and I will go together, and if any body gets in your way, down he goes if he were as big as Goliath of Gath. You shall see the list as soon as any one of them, for you're a trump,-a regular brick!' With a very odd tile on the top of it," whispered Archer, pointing to the broad-brim.

Rushbrooke, Senior Wrangler,-Crosby, second,Barham, third, Fairlegh, fourth!"

"Nonsense," exclaimed I, springing up, "the thing's impossible!"

What an unbelieving Jew it is," said Archer; "hand him the list, and let him read it himself. Seeing is believing, they say "

Yes, there it was, beyond all possibility of doubt; with my own eyes did I behold it. Fairlegh, fourth Wrangler!" Why, even in my wildest moments of hope my imagination had never taken so high a flight. Fourth Wrangler! oh! it was too delightful to be real. So overcome was I by this unexpected stroke of good fortune, that for a minute or two I was scarcely conscious of what was going on around me, and returned rambling and incoherent answers to the congratulations which were showered upon me. The first thing that roused my attention was a shout from Lawless, demandin calling Mr. Frampton, was going to make a speech. The cry was immediately taken up by the others, who for some moments defeated their own purpose by calling vociferously for "silence for the Governor's speech!' Having at length from sheer want of breath obtained the required boon, Mr. Frampton, waving his hand with a dignified gesture, began as follows:

Having made my outer man respectable, I returned to the sitting-room, and waited with impatience for the return of my friends. Oh! the horrors of suspense ! that tooth-ache of the mind, in which each moment of anxiety, stretched on the rack of expectation, appears to the overwrought senses, an eternity of gnawing anguish of all the mental tortures with which I am acquainted, defend me from suspense !

I had worked myself up into a thorough fever, and was becoming so excited that I was on the point of rushing out to learn the worst at once, when sundry shouts, mingled with peals of laughter, reached my ear, --sounds which assured me that news was at hand. And now, with the inconsistency of human nature, I trembled at, and would willingly have delayed their arrival, lest it might bring me the certainty of failure, than which the doubt and suspense I had been so lately execrating appeared preferable. The sounds grew louder and louder they were approaching. Oh how my heart beat in another moment they would be here. Sinking into a chair, for my knees trembled so that I could scarcely stand, I remained with my eyes fixed upon the door in a state of breathless anxiety. More shouting! surely that was a cheer

Hurra! hurra! out of the way there! room for the Governor!"-a rush of many feet up the stairs-more cheering the door is thrown open, and a party of from fifteen to twenty under-graduates come pouring in, with Mr. Frampton in the midst of them, carried in triumph on the shoulders of Lawless, and another man, and waving a poll-list in one hand, and the broad-brimmed hat in the other.

Bravo, Fairlegh! all right, old fellow! never say die! hurrah!" exclaimed half a score voices, all at once, while both my hands were seized, and nearly shaken off, and I was almost annihilated by congratulatory slaps on the back from my zealous and excited friends.

"Well," exclaimed I, as soon as I could make myself audible amidst the clamour, "I suppose by your congratulations I'm not plucked, but how high do I

stand?"

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Umph on this happy occasion, gentlemen-set of noisy young scamps !-on this happy occasion, I say "(shouts of encore ! bravo! &c.)-"what I was going to say was-umph!" (a cry of "you have said it," from a man near the door, who thought he could not be seen, but was.) Much obliged to you, Sir, for your observation," continued Mr. Frampton, fixing his glance unmistakeably on the Detected One, "but I have not said it, nor does it seem very likely I ever shall say it, if you continue to interrupt me with your small attempts at wit." (Cries of hear! hear! don't interrupt the Governor! Shame! shame!" and an aside from Mr. Frampton, "had him, there, umph!" during all of which the detected individual was striving to open the door, which several men, who had perceived his design, held firmly against him) "What I was going to say,' resumed the speaker, "when that gentleman who is trying to leave the room interrupted me," (more cries of "shame!") "was, that I beg in the name of my friend, Frank Fairlegh, to invite you all to a champagne breakfast in his rooms to-morrow," (tremendous cheering, and a cry of "Bravo, Governor! you are a brick ! from Lawless,) "and in my own name to thank you all, except the gentleman near the door, who has not yet, I see, had the grace to leave the room, for the patience with which you've listened to me," (laughter, and cries of "it was a shame to interrupt him," at which the Detected, with a frantic gesture, gives up the door, and turning very pale, glances insanely towards the window,) "and for the very flattering attentions generally, which you have all of you, particularly Mr. Archer, done me the honour of paying me."

A perfect tornado of cheers and laughter followed Mr. Frampton's speech, after which I thanked them all for the kind interest they had expressed in my success, and begged to second Mr. Frampton's invitation for the following day. This matter being satisfactorily arranged, certain of the party laid violent hands on "the Detected One," who was a very shy freshman of the name of Pilkington, and, despite his struggles, made him go down on his knees, and apologize in set phrase to Mr. Frampton for his late unjustifiable conduct; whereupon that gentleman, who enjoyed the joke, and entered into it with as much zest as the veriest pickle among them,