he did not perceive it; and was holding my head in one hand and his cutlass in the other, meditating the best way of making his blow, when, by a sudden and violent movement, I disengaged myself from his grasp, and at the same moment struck him with the hammer as hard a blow as I could on his face. The hammer was heavy, and I did not miss my blow. The Arnaout tottered; I struck him again; he fell, and in falling dropped his sword. I need not tell you that I seized it, and it was twice through his body before he knew any thing about it. I mounted his horse, and gallopped to our outposts, where I saw the arms of the sentinels glittering in the sun, and thence on to the camp. Nobody had doubted my being dead, and they looked at me as if I had been a ghost. On the same day I was attacked by a fever, and carried to the hospital, where I remained more than six weeks. As soon as I joined the army the gipsy came to me to confess she had lost, and to bring me the Tokai. I learnt that, during my absence, she had predicted the fate of many others, which had in every instance proved true; and that she had gained a great deal by wagers and legacies of the officers. I thought it was altogether very strange; but I did not know what to make of it.

Very soon after this two deserters came to the camp; they were Christians from Servia, and had been employed in the waggon train of the Turkish army, whence they had deserted to avoid a punishment they had incurred. As soon as they saw my prophetic gipsy they recognised her, and declared that she was frequently in the habit of visiting the Turkish camp by night, to give them intelligence of our movements. This surprised me a good deal; because she had often rendered us services, and we had admired the address with which she executed commissions even of some danger. The deserters, how

ever, persisted in their account: they: added, that they had often been present, and had heard this woman describe our positions to the Turks, discover to them our projects, and encouraged them to attacks, which had in fact been made and had succeeded. A Turkish cipher served her for a passport. This paper was found upon her; and, being looked upon as convincing evidence, she was condemned to be hanged for a spy. Before her execution I interrogated her respecting her prediction to me. She confessed that, by acting as a spy in both armies, she had made a profit upon each, and that she had informed both of so much as was likely to turn out to her own advantage. She said that those who consulted her on their destiny usually discovered as much as was necessary to enable her to guess, and that she left the rest to chance. As to me, in particular, she told me that she had selected me for the purpose of giving an example of her pretended skill, which should establish her influence among the soldiers, by fixing the day of my death so long beforehand. At the end of the time she had persuaded the Turks to make an attack on the posts of our regiment. She knew very well that two of the officers were to go on duty before me. She sold to one of them some wine, into which she had previously put some deleterious ingredients; and, at the moment the other mounted his horse, she went up to him as if to offer him something for sale, and had taken that oppor tunity of blowing a small morsel of German tinder, lighted, up the horse's nostril.'

The Baron added, that, notwithstanding the gipsy's confession, which was made public, the soldiers believed that she possessed a supernatural power. But, for my own part,' he said, 'the disbelief I always had in such stuff (and which, I admit, had been for a moment shaken) was cón→ firmed.'

POLITICAL satires of any sort have become rare, and good ones have been almost unknown for many years past. In England this kind of satire has fallen into disuse, because the liberty of the press is, with us, carried to such an extent, that it is not worth any man's while to say that allegorically, or by fanciful means, which he can say so much better, and more forcibly, in plain English. If Dean Swift were alive he would not condescend to write his Tale of a Tub,' but would denounce the vices and follies of parties, and of the age, perhaps, in the shape of letters, to the Dublin and London Magazine,' and a mighty pretty contributor we should think him. In other countries, where the right of expressing opinions is more rigorously fettered, it is by means of satire alone that the indignant groans and complaints of the oppressed can find a vent. Even this imperfect and unsatisfactory appeal to the common feelings of humanity, in behalf of the sufferers, is subject to the tyranny which pervades the government of the countries to which we allude; and a satire must be so much diluted and weakened as to be wholly impotent before its publication would be allowed. Still, how ever, satires, like those plants which thrive best upon rocks, will thrust out their hardy growth, in spite of the obstacles which intervene; and, as an instance of this, we cite a small book that has lately appeared in England, under the title of Le Diable Diplomate,' which proves that, although the allied sovereigns can prevent the publication of such attacks within their own dominions, they cannot repress it elsewhere; while their attempts only add to the bitterness which fills the writer's mind. It is written in French; the style is good; and there is no lack of that earnestness and severity which ought to characterize a work of this description. A satirist, like a pirate, ought to give no quarter; for he can, of course, expect no mercy himself when he falls into the hands of those against whom he has declared war.

The satire supposes that Satan, monarch of hell, was holding a

court, in honour of some new arrivals in his dominions. All hell kept holiday, the new-comers were cordially greeted, and the fires were stirred. At this time dispatches were received, in consequence of which the monarch made a speech, in which all the diplomatic elegancies and compliments are whimsically and happily inserted. He ends by appointing two demons to be his ambassadors to the various courts of the earth, for the purpose of spreading the maxims of the policy of hell, and of keeping up its population from the redundant one of the earth. The chief of these demons is called Asrasrafel; and the other, who acts as his secretary, is M. Duraux-Hommes. They proceed to the earth, and alight first in Africa, where they soon make the blessings of their mission known. Greece, Turkey, Naples, Rome, are all, in turn, visited by the devils; and, in most places, things are found to be so bad, that even the devils cannot make them worse. A rapid sketch is given of the affairs of Europe for the last twenty years nearly, and the members of the holy alliance are held up to the scorn and detestation which they merit. If we had space enough we should willingly give our readers some specimens of the manner in which the satirist handles the governments and the politics of the European states; but, as England comes in for no small share of his labours, our love of our own country compels us to give that the preference. Suffice it to say that, of all the crowned heads, the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Austria, are by no means spared.

England is called, in the satire, the country of the Centaurs; and, in speaking of its customs, although there is a reasonable share of prejudice, and much of that misrepresentation which foreigners are led into from not understanding them, the ridiculous points are still so well preserved that we must be amused in spite of ourselves; and not the less, perhaps, since it is at our own expense.

It will always happen that persons whose knowledge can only be super

ficial will take those things to be rooted in a system which they see upon its surface; and, as it is the business of a satirist not to draw portraits, but to make whimsical caricatures, we must admit that England offers him an ample and fertile field for his exertions. Rira bien qui rira le dernier is a good saying; and, when he has done quizzing us for what he thinks our follies, we shall console ourselves with the reflection that England is the only country which would permit him thus to mock her to her face, and the only one in which he can mock others without the fear of losing his ears, if not his head. But we proceed to give a specimen of his work.

The two diabolical travellers, being uncertain whither to bend their course, the chief resolved, as we have said, to visit the country of the Centaurs. The secretary approved of this highly, because, he said, he was very desirous of seeing the fairhaired nymphs of that nation, who were so fond of virtue that they thought there was none of it left for the women of any other country. As to wish and to do is nearly the same thing with the devils, they soon reach the English shore, and proceed to the capital, the smoke of which is very agreeable to them.

The atmosphere of the city, heavy and impregnated with coal-smoke, was extremely grateful to the lungs of Dur-aux-Hommes. He was strongly disposed to take up his abode immediately adjoining an immense manufactory, which was eternally vomiting forth smoke and flame, because it reminded him of his native country, and he could have always warmed himself for nothing. Asrasrafel, however, who was better acquainted with the world, knew that to lodge in such a quarter of the town would ruin him for ever in the opinion of the good Centaur society. He was fully aware that a man's merit is always ascertained by the place and style in which he lives. He, therefore, took a splendid lodging in the most fashionable part of the town; he hired servants, whom he clothed in a dashing livery, and called himself the Count Asrasrafel; for he knew exactly the way in which to

gain the hearts of the Centaurs.How nobility grows upon one by travelling!

On the following day the new count and his secretary, the Chevalier Dur-aux-Hommes, waited upon the diplomatic officers, to whom they had letters of introduction. These gentlemen received them very civilly, and afterwards proposed to present them to the Centaur minister. He, with the prudence which distinguishes his nation, evaded the visit; asked three weeks to consider, and to make inquiries, lest they should be mere swindlers-a class of men which has of late become very numerous. This formality having been fulfilled, he was upon the best terms with the two strangers; he introduced them at his parties, and answered for their being creditable persons, and of good reputation. A very respectable old dowager conceived an extraordinary predilection for Asrasrafel, on account of his title and his elegant figure, but chiefly because he spent his money like a nobleman. She had, besides, a pretty little grand-daughter, whom she intended to complete the count's happiness. The little lady, on her part, had calculated that the count would suit her marvellously well; for, with the Centaurs, every thing is performed by arithmetic. The ambassador gave himself little trouble about this matter, but carried on a very extensive flirtation with some excessively sentimental ladies, who said they had souls for poetry, and who prated about profound and eternal affections. He pursued one of these affairs so warmly, that, one fine morning, he was discovered, as he was studying the language, at the house of a lady of the highest reputation. The husband of the lady, who made this unpleasant discovery, prepared to throw him out of the window; but Asrasrafel, by a checque on his banker, and the promise of paying his debts, obtained from the indignant lord permission to retire through the door. This afforded fine sport for the newspapers of a country in which the disgrace and weakness of the few form the amusement of the mass of the people. Scandal is a certain source of fortune among

them. The papers were filled with a thousand dull stale jokes, as usual; while the seductive devil found himself much better off than before. The ladies now disputed the possession of him-only, however, for the purpose of reforming him-saying that it was not his fault, but that there are certain creatures of so much effrontery, that-&c. &c. &c. Many of them came to see him out of pure compassion, in order to make him sensible of the impropriety of his conduct; but he gave them such good reasons for what he had done, that they went away his zealous defenders. In short, the ambassador was all the rage; his carriage, the cut of his clothes, and of his hair, were every where imitated-every thing was à la mode d' Asrasrafel. If he had even taken it into his head to display his devil's tail, all the fashionable world would have mounted similar ones; so fond are the Centaurs of any thing strange!

All the ladies who had marriage. able daughters beset him. He was compelled to listen to some, who sang romances in a manner that would make a man melancholy for the rest of his days; and to others, who played some twenty pages of detestable music, which had been dedicated to them by an amateur. Sometimes he was obliged to praise the drawings of other young ladies, where landscapes shone in all the glowing glories of bright green; sometimes groups of trees, elegantly disposed in the form of birch brooms round a castle in ruins, for the purpose of affecting the spectator by its deplorable condition; sometimes a flight of ill-omened birds, which looked as if they were nailed against the sky, harmonized with the subject of the picture; sometimes beautiful dark blue lakes, with some very white swans, and a boat, where a fisherman appeared quite resigned to his fate. All these admirations were, in their turn, inflicted upon him. At length these ladies grew indignant at the aversion he displayed for marriage. They said, in all companies, that Asrasrafel would be very happy of an alliance with them, but that they had objections to it; and, when they said this, nobody believed them.

"

Notwithstanding all these things (and I can hardly tell why) Dur-auxHommes got very tired. He one day met a good-looking, well-fed, Centaur, who was walking with the most tranquil air in the world, and holding a cord in his hand, to a tree near him. Whither are you going, my friend?' asked the secretary. I am going to hang myself,' replied the Centaur: 'I am too rich, too fat; things go on too well with me, and I can bear them no longer. I have no time to stay chattering with you, so good-by!'-and he hanged himself. I should not care if I did the same thing,' said Dur-aux-Hommes, but that it would be to no purpose-so tired am I of this country! Luckily for the secretary, at this moment, a crowd arrived; a ring was made, and two men began to box in the most agreeable and edifying manner imaginable. The secretary was so pleased that he betted on both of them; in an instant they were covered with blood. Some one told him they were fighting for money. "Ah!' he cried, indeed the people of this nation deserve their wealth, since they take such pains to get it.' These boxingmatches were very much to his taste. One day, as he was riding into town from one of them, he went along at a great rate, whipping and spurring violently. Soon after his arrival he was summoned before a magistrate, where he found a gentleman (Dick Martin) who apostrophized him very severely, and insisted upon the magistrate's fining him heavily. I will let you know, my friend,' he added,

6

whether you are to be permitted to trate poor dumb craturs in this barbarous manner!' Dur-aux-Hommes was about to make a beautiful speech in reply, when the magistrate told him he was an impertinent person, and doubled the fine. The secretary made some very profound reflections on this affair, and came to the conclusion that, in this country, horses were treated with greater care and consideration than men. • But why should I complain of that?' he said; the horse is the worthier of the two.'

The satirist proceeds, through the means of the observations which the infernal diplomatists make, to pass

his strictures upon the customs and manners of the English people. Duraux-Hommes spends so much money in a borough during an election, that the burgesses propose to return him as their member. He refuses, with some rudeness; upon which a stout elector is about to give him a threshing, when, by an adroit disposition of some more money, the secretary engages the other voters on his side, and they duck their fellow-freeman in a horse-pond. A projector waits upon the ambassador with several prospectuses of joint-stock companies but the time when such things were ridiculous is gone by; and no effort of human ingenuity can exceed the real follies which have been committed on this subject. Asrasrafel goes to dine with the lord-chancellor; and here the great law officer's public as well as his private conduct is joliment fustigé.

This great inan (the chancellor) entertained him before dinner with a discourse on the necessity of public and private economy; and assured him, in the course of it, that prodigality was the mother of all possible vices.

The appearance of the butler, who came to announce that dinner was served, proved to the diplomatist that the great lawyer, his host, did not confine himself to merely talking on his favourite subject, but that he practised economy also. All his servants seemed half dead from inanition; they might have been taken for so many skeletons in livery. To be fat was reckoned a mortal sin in this household. They sat down to a dinner which was execrable; and, although they did not eat much, they talked a great deal, having nothing better to do. The man of law praised the institutions of his country. The laws of the Court of Chancery,' observed he, are incomparable in all respects, but particularly for the expedition with which they are administered; in this respect, I believe, nobody can complain. Come tomorrow, and you will hear some causes. Asrasrafel went accordingly. The first thing he saw was a very melancholy looking old man of eighty, at the door of the court. What is the matter, my friend?' he

asked. Alas! sir,' replied the old man, I have a cause depending in this gulf, and I have been expecting its decision for the last seventy years. I am, however, told now not to be discouraged, for that in a few years it must be terminated; so that I still live in hopes.' This rencontre changed Asrasrafel's intention to enter the court; and he went home, smiling at the inconsistency of mankind.

Asrasrafel and his colleague find their residence in the country of the Centaurs very dull, and are reduced to try to amuse themselves by reading the newspapers from one end to the other, and by betting that there would not be one fine day in a month. Asrasrafel goes to pay a visit to the Centaur minister, whom he finds cutting his nails. He expresses some surprise at this, and concludes that he is quite at leisure. Never less so,' replies the minister; and never was the correspondence of my office carried on so punctually and expeditiously.' He then explains to the ambassador that he does all his business by means of a steam-engine, and shows him three cast-iron clerks, who are working with the greatest accuracy in an adjoining room. The minister expatiates upon the advantages of this invention to the nation; notwithstanding which it appears that not one sous is saved, and that the flesh-and-blood clerks who have been dismissed to make way for those of cast iron are starving.

Asrasrafel afterwards dines with the minister, and is enchanted to find several very agreeable ladies of the company, and promises himself the pleasure of passing some delightful hours with them after coffee; when, to his surprise, at a given signal, the fair ones arose precipitately, and retired to another room. The ambassador thought the house was on fire, and he was astonished to see that the gentlemen tranquilly kept their places.

Sit down, my friend,' said the master of the house; we shall enjoy ourselves, now that we are freed from them.' For Heaven's sake, explain!'-'I mean the women, whose presence annoys us.'-Yes,' cried the others, 'they annoy us; they annoy us. By G-d, we thought they