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Mc treads the insulting rabble with his heel;

Avenges the oppress'd, gives justice

sway.

Makes knaves submit to law, and rolls

way.

Broad Street, June, 7th.

COMMUNICATED

For the Lady's Miscellany.

AN ELEGY,

On the death of Bonaparte, a fine Cat.
Dear Puss, receive this mournful strain
Atribute of thy master's pain,

For such a loss as thee-
No more by you can he be blest,
Thy gentle spirit now's at rest,

From strife forever free.

Unlike the haughty sons of state,
No crouching herd of menials wait

'Round your untimely bier ;

Tho' no proud monument arise,
Thy faithful master's streaming eyes
Shall drop the pensive tear.

No more shall that smooth face of thine
Nor those dim orbs with lustre shine,

Thy lord's return to hail; Thou'lt cock those comely ears no mere, Nor playful scamper o'er the floor,

Nor twirl that beauteous tail.

Now thou are gone, each tiny mouse
And lustier rat, shall haunt the house,

Set free from your alarms;
Like thy great prototype of France,
You make your foes instanter prance,
With terror of your arms.
Tho' mighty be that conq'rors fame,
Your praise, me thinks, should be the
same,

You've kill'd your thousand rats; If he's an emp❜ror, why what then, If he is styled king of men,

You should be king of cats.

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OR,

WEEKLY

THE

VISITOR.

FOR THE USE AND AMUSEMENT OF BOTH SEXES.

VOL. XI.

Saturday, June 16,....1810.

THE CAVERN OF STROZZI.

In Continuation.

THE figure in white, and the one who held it enchained, arrived at the spot I had just quitted; and the former having seated himself, the other fastened the chain of his companion, or rather his prisoner, to a ring placed in the rock. which I had not perceived; he then withdrew to a short distance, pulled

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"S'death! said Ricardo, it depends only on yourself to render your life agreeable: your obstinacy causes all your miseries; you might be happy if you were complying."

"Great God!" replied the prisoner, "if I can purchase liberty only at the price of honor, I prefer dying with her I love to living with her I detest."

"Sensible determination," re

out a steel, struck it, lighted a pipe, plied the goaler; "to detest a

muttered a few oaths, and began to smoke.

After a mournful silence of ten or twelve minutes, which was only interrupted by the sighs of the personage who was seated, the latter addressed the one who appeared to be his keeper :

"Ricardo," said he, "what's the hour?""

"Past midnight," replied the other surlily.

"Midnight," exclaimed the prisoner, uttering a heavy sigh "Alas! all hours are to me equal, for they are all equally attended with grief; must I be condemned to die daily, and am I prevented ridding myself of a loathsome life."

charming woman, and dote upon a loathsome carcase. 12

"Ricardo," said the other, in an accent mingled with grief and indignation, "you are placed here to guard me, not to give me advice. Is it not enough you tyrannize over my person, but must you also be master of my thoughts."

Ricardo vented an oath, and was silent. The prisoner sighed, and leaning his head upon his hands, seemed to weep.

For myself, struck as I was with the scene I beheld, and the mysterious words I had heard, I thought the whole a dream.

Ricardo who had finished smok

Then let sweet hope thy sinking sou sustain,

For guilt alone can soothing hope de. stroy.

The prisoner was upon the point of answering-he was preparing his voice when Ricardo, wearied of his amusement, descended from

ing his pipe, amused himself by climbing to a part of the rock of steep ascent; and when he was at a sufficient distance not to hear me, I thought I would venture to utter a few consoling words that might afford a ray of hope to the wretched prisoner; but that I might not startle him, I sung a few plain-the crag of the rock, and approachtive notes in a very low voice: The unexpected sounds excited his attention: surprize and fear forced an involuntary exclamation from him, which however the goaler did not hear. Conceiving his first alarm had subsided, I softly sung the first couplet of the following stanza, which perfectly accorded with his situation.

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ed him, said, in the most brutal manner, Come, let us return."

"To-morrow then," cried the prisoner, as he was leaving the willow which concealed me.

"To-morrow," replied I.

"The devil!" said Ricardo,"did I not hear some one speak?"

"It was the echo," answered the prisoner, "which repeated my words-To-morrow."

Ricardo contented himself with saying-He had not before observe ed the echo; and having untied the chain of his victim, they returned into the Cavern.

Left alone, and abandoned to my reflections, I recalled every cir cumstance of the scene I had be held; I compared them together, in the order in which they had appeared, with the words I had extracted from the book at the library. I presumed that the unhappy wretch who was confined in the Cavern of Strozzi was the victim of the passion of some powerful lady, to whose desires he refused to yield. But why should he have said "that he preferred dying with

her he loved to living with her he detested?" Perhaps his mistress was a prisoner as well as himself, and the wretched pair were both immured in this dreadful Cavern. Why talk of dying with her? Was it intended to sacrifice them ?— Again : "What could Ricardo mean by the words "cherish a loathsome carcase ?"

All these thoughts, and a crowd of others floated on my brain.—

behind the old willow, I counted eleven without having perceived any thing. At length, a few minutes before midnight, the entrance into the inmost cavern was unloosed, and the prisoner came forward, followed by the brutal Ricardo. Both placed themselves on the rock near the willow. Ricardo chained his victim as before, lighted his pipe, and walked to a short distance. I repeated, in a low voice, the stanza I sung yes

As soon as I had solved one ques-terday, which the prisoner listen

tion, some objection, which I had not foreseen, plunged me in doubt. The night and part of the day passed in this manner; a thousand schemes entered my imagination: sometimes yielding to a cowardly fear, I thought of flying forever from this scene of horror and danger: sometimes animated by a more noble sentiment, I determined to inform the holy inquisitors of what I had seen. Evening had arrived, and I had adopted no fixed resolution. i ran towards the shore-my gondola appeared; but I desired the gondolier to return again next day, pretending (what indeed was but too true) that the singularities and wonders of the Cavern required more than a day to examine them thoroughly.

The day had quite departed; night had veiled the earth, and the moon shed her faint and glimmering rays over a sea of clouds; a southerly wind, which blew from Venice, made me distinctly hear the hours strike. Still concealed

ed to with attention; then cautiously extending part of my body towards him, keeping the other concealed behind the tree, I said to him, "Are you acquainted with a certain book in the library of St. Mark?"

He started" I see,' said he, "you have read the thirteenth pages; but I am too much observed to speak: if you can feel for my misfortunes, act as this letter directs you; and when you shall have read it, pursue the dictates of your own heart."

I was about to reply, but the return of Ricardo only gave me time to put forth my hand, and take the letter the prisoner presented. I then again concealed myself. Ricardo repeated the same circumstances I have described to have taken place yesterday; and the prisonery as he was going away, turned his head towards the place where I was, and sung these words in a melancholy tone of voice:

"Who aids the cause of innocence op. || give you no idea of those of which

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you are still ignorant. If you are desirous of becoming acquainted with them, and of rescuing the most miserable of men, repair tomorrow about midnight to the sea shore, near the bay which is opposite to Venice; a bark will land there; follow those whom you see leave it, without, if possible, being perceived by them; observe them, and act as honor and pity dictate.”

The moon was not sufficiently clear to enable me to read the letter he had given me, and it would have been imprudent to have struck a light; I therefore left the cavern and waited on the sea-shore the return of the day. But as I had It is easy to imagine what my passed the preceding night with-impatience was during the rest of out sleep, was wearied by the ideas this extraordinary adventure had excited, and was lulled by the monotonous sound of the billows beneath me, I yielded to these various impulses, and fell into a profound sleep.

It was broad day-light when I awoke. The fatigue I had undergone, the sleep I had enjoyed, added to the sharp and nitrous air from the sea, had excited the cravings of hunger in an extreme degree; but I had but little provision left; therefore I could only assuage without satisfying it.

I saw, with some uneasiness, that in order to enable myself to explore the end of this adventure, it was necessary I should return to Venice; and my regret was increased when I read the prisoner's letter. It was to this effect:

"What you have already seen of my misfortunes, dreadful as they may have appeared to you, can

the day-an impatience which was encreased by the calls of hunger. I traversed the island, but it only presented singular petrifactions, and spars of every form and color -things which at any other time I should have felt a lively interest in, but which then only augmented my hunger, my impatience, and fatigue.

This tedious day at length closed. The sun quitted the horizon, and my faithful gondolier did not fail to make his app arance. We soon crossed the strait that separated us from Venice. When I had arrived at that city, I only delayed the necessary time to obtain a fresh supply of provisions, and in half an hour after returned to the island of Strozzi.

In order the better to follow the instructions contained in the pri soner's letter, I concealed myself behind a rising ground near the bay, where, by raising my head, I could discover the sea. I remain

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