has it witnessed yet this glorious spectacle. Here within thy palace-walls hast thou hitherto hidden thy wonderful prowess. Here in the shade, unapplauded, nay, unknown by thy subjects, fall, beneath thy imperial hand, giants and barbarian warriors from every corner of the globe."

"While beasts the fiercest that ever made mortals tremble," continued Læ. tus, "start at thy approach and sink beneath thy blow!"

"Not an Athlete can stand before thee!"

"Jove! how that last gigantic Scythian bit the dust but now ! "

"And the sable Ethiopian, too! I confess, oh Commodus, I tremble for the result."

"Drank ever blade more deeply of the crimson tide?' " asked the emperor, with a savage smile. "Hermes! I scarce knew it myself ere it was twice plunged in his heart."

"In truth," said Lætus, "I think your sword, mighty Commodus, is instinct with slaughter, and has a natural thirst for the blood of these barbarians. Such amazing power never before dwelt in human arm."

"I swear to ye, good Lætus and noble Eclectus," said the emperor, modestly," I would not hear these things, but that I feel there is a certain foundation for your flatteries. I ever loved, ay, in my earliest boyhood, the glow and glory of war. My father, Marcus, thrust ever on me pedagogues in what he termed 'branches of learning.' Pluto! how they wearied me! But my noble Moors and Parthians, who taught me to dart the glittering javelin and send the swift arrow to the mark-I know not how it was, but my very soul and nature leaped to them."

"Would to Jupiter! my noble lord," said Lætus, " you would gratify your wondering subjects with the sight of your godlike skill in all the arts that become a man, a soldier, and an emperor! The report of it is abroad on every lip, and in the amphitheatre, when a gladiator makes a death-plunge, when the most formidable lion of the day lies at length extended on his back, the populace cry out to one another, a glorious bit!' a sweet plunge!' 'worthy of a man!'. 'worthy of a god!' 'Commodus himself could scarcely do better!'

"Ay! speak the knaves thus, my good Lætus?" demanded the emperor, with evident gratification. "I think, then, it were better to leave them in their

"But an emperor

"Went not Nero even into Greece to wrestle at the Olympian Games? demanded Lætus.

"He was overcome," cried Eclectus; "but surely the fear of such

"Fear! Eclectus? By the immortal Jupiter! in my objections I did but jest. Fear? The great god Hermes bear me witness, I should meet with confidence, and before the assembled world, the boldest gladiator that ever trod the arena; let them hunt the Elbe or the Danube for their brawniest giants, let them bring Arab or Moor, Briton, Greek or Numidian, I will meet the best of them, foot to foot, hand to hand, before assembled Rome, and that as soon as notice can be given to these doubting slaves of mine. Go, Eclectus, announce to the people that Commodus, their emperor, will cast aside his imperial robes and his imperial power, and challenges the universe for a match. Begone! By the thunder of Jupiter! the thought makes my lagging pulses beat anew. Sefi! loitering slave, wine!"

The tawny Parthian presented a crystal charger of Chian. The two parasites withdrew, and Sefi remained alone with his master, excepting the mute slaves who, waiting in an ante-chamber, came and went at the slightest summons, and for every idle caprice.

It was at certain times the practice of the emperor thus to feast alone, flinging off, with the cares of empire, much of its formal pomp. He had been previous to this interview engaged as usual in practising the sports in which he so much delighted, several gladiators having had the honour of dying beneath his hand to beguile the ennui of his morning hours. Nothing was more common than such events in his amusements, which he had hitherto carried on either in the

school for gladiators or in the private grounds of his imperial palace. It ap. peared, too, that he every day grew more sanguinary, and on the present morning two unhappy slaves had expired beneath his knee, amid the shouts and laughter of his select auditory. Fatigued with his manly toils, he had reclined to repose himself before his daily feast, when the flatteries and artifices of his chamberlain and pretorian prefect had started this new design, which, in that insatiable yearning for excitement, the most fearful penalty of all illicit or immoderate indulgences, had at once kindled his imagination.

"It must be with thee quite alone, oh Commodus ! exclaimed Claudius Pompeianus the senator, the day previous to that appointed for the imperiał combats in the amphitheatre.

"Am I not alone, reverend sirs?" demanded the emperor, somewhat im patiently.

Claudius looked around upon Lætus, Eclectus, and Sefi.

"Even these," said Pertinax, prefect of the city, "even these must be no listeners to that which we have to say."

"Good Jove!" exclaimed Commodus, "knew I not your long-tried and upright characters, I might well deem it imprudence to comply with a request so strange. But, thanks be to the gods, I dare be indulgent to my servants, even when they press me beyond patience. Good Lætus, and Eclectus, your leave -Sefi, begone. Now, most learned senator, most wise and grave prefect, we wait your pleasure; but be brief, for it is almost the hour of repast, and that obstinate Scythian dog to-day has wearied me much. Come, your business ?"

"Noble emperor," said Claudius, after a moment's pause, 66 I know not, if thy time be so short and thy body so fatigued, whether

Nay, on, Claudius; what disturbs thy placid brow? It looks clouded as Ætna. Hast thou pardon to ask for another convict? a new love-match to

"What-how-Claudius-what means this childish emotion?" "It means, said Pertinax, in the most respectful but firm tone, "that Claudius Pompeianus and myself, oh Commodus, cherish for thee a love more true and deep than words can expressa love to which our own lives would be cheerful and inadequate sacrifices; and we come before thee now to prove by our actions the fidelity of our friendship. We place ourselves in peril to do thee service."

"What service?" demanded Commodus.

"To put thee in possession of truth." "Truth, slaves?"

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Now, by the immortal gods, Claudius, this is too much!"

"We have come to thee, ob emperor," rejoined Pertinax, "in peace and love. Thou art young, and youth loves pleasure. Thou art powerful, and power is beset with temptations. Claudius Pompeianus and myself are already old. The world, which thou hast yet to traverse, lies behind us, past for ever. Our thoughts are on Elysium, our feet are in the grave. On the earth we have nothing to hope, we have nothing to fear, and we come to counsel thy inexperience. Go not to-morrow on the Son of Marcus, emperor of Rome, I have held thee in my arms ere

arena.

This episode about second marriages recalls the Widow Wilkins to my mind. Never shall I forget her. She was the greatest patroness of matrimony and portrait-painting I ever met with. Her virgin designation was Higginbottom, but she had exchanged it as she went through life for that of Thompson, Johnson, Bradshaw, Mugs, Morris, and Wilkins, to which rather formidable list of gentlemen she had successively resigned her heart and hand, so that latterly she scarcely knew what her real name was, and used, in consequence, to make sad confusion, at times, in her mournful recollections.

Lest any venerable spinster should be overwhelmed with surprise and astonishment at the marvellous good luck of the Widow Wilkins, I may just be allowed to mention, that she possessed 700l. a-year in her own right.

Besides this, she was by nature of a most lovable temperament; and, if her face and person were not of the very first quality, she made up in quantity, being fully the size of any two of her husbands put together. No one could say that the Widow Wilkins "was nothing to look at:"-it would have been mighty difficult to have taken a miniature of her! Her progeny was almost as unlimited as herself, ranging somewhere between twelve and twenty, of all ages, sizes, and denominations. I mention these seemingly trivial particulars because of their intimate connexion with the fine arts, the Widow Wilkins having made it an affectionate rule through life never to suffer a husband to go out of the world or a child to come into it, without having their portrait taken, and a room, of which she alone kept the key, was set apart for the reception thereof. Now Mrs. Wilkins having gone through so much, and having suffered so many bereavements, and worn such a succession of widow's caps, had naturally accumulated a large quantity of griefmore than she could bear-so that when she felt herself rather low, she was wont to have recourse now and then to artificial stimulants in order to prevent her sinking altogether. Taken in moderation they operated very well, but when applied too copiously they used to open the flood-gates of affliction, and then away came her pent-up sorrows, trials, and tribulations, like a river bursting its banks and sweeping everything before it. In these moods she used to proceed to her beloved portrait-gallery-her great store-house of buried affections and

deceased sympathies-and there indulge in all the "luxury of grief." One day -one never-to-be-forgotten day-she seduced me to accompany her, attended by a brace of her pledges of past happiness answering to the names of Mugs and Morris. As we proceeded towards the room fearful forebodings stole upon me, which were, alas! too soon realized.

The Widow Wilkins turned the key and threw open the door. Heavens, what a sight met my view! Not Fatima when she entered Bluebeard's blue chamber could have been more electrified. There hung the semblances of the deceased Thompson, Johnson, Bradshaw, Mugs, Morris, and Wilkins, with all the little Thompsons, Johnsons, Bradshaws, Mugs', Morris', and Wilkins' ranged in order due under their respective progenitors. Gracious powers! what a crowd of recollections must have rushed upon the widow's memory at such a sight! It was too much for her, and she sank overpowered into an easy chair, and began to heave and shake (so did the house) most fearfully. She was a bad figure for the pathetic it must be admitted, but let that pass. Meanwhile her

two young hopefuls had stationed themselves in the centre of the room, and regardless of their mother's grief, commenced puffing dry peas through a tin tube at the eyes and noses of the several objects of the widow's regards and regrets in great style, accompanying every suc cessful shot at a prominent feature with an exulting shout. I attempted to rebuke them, but the widow recovered herself sufficiently to explain to me that "the poor dear boys were always best when they had exactly their own way." Her tongue once loosened; went, and went, and went! I soon ceased to wonder at the successive mortality of her husbands. Such an instrument in continual operation was enough to wear out any man. In the present case there was no lack of argument. Every glance of her eye brought up a recollection and suggested a theme. She described the persons, vouched for the accuracy of the likenesses, and enlarged upon the virtues of the very extensive range of subjects before her, interspersing her narrative with details of all their friends, families, relatives, and connexions, direct and contingent, with a fulness and fluency that must in a very little time longer have proved fatal to the hardiest and most patient of listeners.

It wanted a quarter to four as I entered that room. It struck seven as she

turned the key and expressed a hope that I had been gratified.

My nervous system had been for some time previous to this in rather a shattered state. Ten days elapsed before I again left my chamber. Ever since I have entertained a very natural, and I trust excusable horror of every-day portraits. C.

THE ARCTIC REGIONS.

A TALE OF THE SEA.

We take from a very old monthly publication the following extraordinary narrative of an adventure in the Polar Seas. The circumstances are certainly within the range of possibility, since no putrefaction could take place whilst the bodies of the unfortunate sufferers were in the temperature of a vessel "encased in thick-ribbed ice."

"In the spring of the year 1804, a whaling vessel sailed from the port of London upon a voyage to the Polar Seas. Nothing material is said to have occurred until the arrival in these solitary regions, when it became the duty of the crew to keep a perpetual look-out upon the horizon in search of fish; whilst thus occupied, it was fancied by one of the seamen that a sail was discernible as far to the northward as the eye could reach, and as the course of the whaler was towards the supposed vessel, a mast became gradually distinguishable amidst the mountains of ice which appeared in that quarter to bound the sea. It was now summer, and the afternoon unusually calm, whilst the whaler gradually neared the object in view; the supposition being that it was a vessel engaged in operating upon the blubber, in a bay which would open to the view upon approaching nearer to the ice. Upon arriving, however, at the spot, it became clear that the vessel was a wreck, embedded in the ice, and could only be approached by a boat. This having been lowered, the captain and several of the seamen landed upon the ice, and proceeded to the vessel, which proved to be a brig. The sails were furled, very little appeared upon the deck, and all the arrangements were those of a vessel laid up for a long period of time. Descending to the cabin, the first object which was seen was a large Newfoundland dog, coiled upon a mat, and apparently asleep. Upon touching the animal it was found to be dead, and the body frozen to the hardness of a stone. Entering the cabin, was next seen a young lady seated at a table, her eyes open, and gazing with a mild and

stedfast expression upon the new comers to that solitary spot. She was a corpse, and in that apparently resigned and religious attitude had been frozen to death. Beside her was a young man who it appeared was the brother of the lady, and commander of the brig. He, too, was dead, but sitting at the table, and before him lay a sheet of paper, upon which he had written the following words—' Our cook has endeavoured since yesterday morning to strike a light, but in vain; all is now over.' At the other side of the cabin stood the cook, with a flint and steel in his hand, frozen to a statue, in the vain endeavour to procure that fire which alone could save himself and his companions from the cold arms of death. The superstitious terrors of the seamen now hurried the captain away from the wreck, the log-book alone being brought away, and from this it appeared that the ill-fated vessel was a brig, which had belonged to the port of London, and had sailed for the Arctic regions more than fourteen years before.”

MISCELLANIES.

COURAGE.

Is corporeal, not mental. It consists in a firm, strong texture of the nerves.

DECISION.

The shortness of life makes decision a virtue, which otherwise would be blind obstinacy. Did we live to the age of Methuselah, we could think and re-think, decline and resolve, until we had placed the thing before us in every possible light; but as it is, we must often jump at a conclusion in the dark.

MISERY.

Most people, if they were sent in search of misery, would look in the wrong place. They would pass by palaces, and search at the hovels of poverty. But misery must be estimated, not by the number of adverse accidents, but by the degree of morbid sensibility of the sufferer.

PRINCIPLE.

The virtue of a person without principle, is something like a warm wind in winter, pleasant enough while it lasts; but it is here to-day, and gone to-morrow.

SENSATION.

All mankind are equally in search of vivid sensations. The young seek them in love; the old, in avarice; princes, in war; the people, in sedition; the Christian, in original plans of benevolence.

No. 122.

Price Two-pence.