estimated at several millions. Egypt is governed, or rather oppressed, by sixteen Beys or Lords. The Porte preserves there nothing but a shadow of authority, that resides in the hands of a Bashaw, whom the Beys keep, as a kind of prisoner, in the castle of Cairo. In the absence of Murat Bey, the most powerful of these sixteen tyrants, who was gone to fight Haslem Bey, one of his brethren, application was made to Ibrahim Bey; he promised the most striking protection, and even offered his own people and camels to carry the goods. The proposal was accepted without hesitation: but unhappily the wealth of the caravan, which his avidity prompted him still to exaggerate, made him wish to carry it off; and he concerted with the Arabs of Tort (famous for their ferocity and plundering) the blackest and most cowardly of all perfidies. The camels filed off from Suez the 15th of June. The travellers set out at six o'clock in the evening; the night passed without accident; but at break of day, in the middle of a defile, formed by two chains of hills, the caravan was beset by about 1200 Arabs: they first made three discharges of their musketry, and then fell sabre in hand on the ten Europeans that composed the caravan, who being dispersed, were hacked, taken, and stripped even of their shirts, and driven naked into the desert. On the other hand, the real conductors of the camels, on the first shot being fired, which was undoubtedly the signal agreed on, turned the camels about, and drove them themselves, not without some resistance, but with eagerness, into the town of Tort, belonging to the Arabs, after having passed four days under the walls of Suez.

The Europeans, maimed, stripped, and still pursued by the banditti, divided themselves by chance into two parties. One took the road to Suez, which was but eight leagues off, and the other consisting of the persons who had marched foremost, could not make their way through the body of the Arabs, to gain Suez, ran towards Cairo, which was twenty-two leagues off; but, in order to escape the ferocity of the Arabs, were obliged to take bye-roads, which increased prodigiously the distance. Unfortunately Messrs. de St. Germain and de Chilly were in that troop; it consisted, with them, of a black, who belonged to them; of Messrs. Barrington and Jenkins, Englishmen; of Mr. Vendelwelden, Captain of the Danish vessel; of an Armenian, named Paul, who was interpreter to the ship; and two mendicant Arabs: in all nine persons.

It is impossible to describe the dreadful torments and mortal anguish that overpowered eight of these unhappy fugitives, and which M. de St. Germain could not have escaped without a miracle.

There is not a more burning climate on the face of the globe, than the deserts of Egypt: the wind that blows there is a consuming fire; there no rain ever falls: there is not a drop of water to be got, nor does a shrub grow within the space of thirty leagues; and the sand, almost turned red by the scorching heat of the sun, is composed of little angular pebbles that tear the skin, and enter it like glass; by a strange contrast, the nights, in that frightful climate, are almost as cold as the days are hot; and when a man escapes the suffocating vapours of the day, it is almost impossible to withstand, without clothing, the freezing air of the night.

It was in this murdering desert, that M. de St. Germain, with his unfortunate companions, had to struggle against all the horrors of death during three days and four nights, without eating or drinking, parched with a consuming thirst, scorched by the sun, exposed naked, stark naked, to clouds of insects and flies, the torment of which is more cruel than can be imagined; falling down

twenty times in an hour with fatigue, and rising again by the excess of pain occasioned by the pebbles tearing every part of his body; walking oftentimes on hands, and at last overcome with fatigue, covered with an universal ulcer, reduced to skin and bone, having drank up all his urine, his lips and tongue dried to a powder, his sight dim, his hearing gone, no longer able to speak, and seized at intervals with a violent fever and the delirium of death, having had several fits of a kind of apoplexy and lethargy, he arrived, by a species of miracle, at the country house of the Bey, near Cairo. But the greatest of his misfortunes, the most cruel of all his torments, which made him twenty times over wish for the death he was struggling against, was to have beheld the successive exit of all his companions. Mr. Barrington was the first victim that fell; Messrs. Jenkins and Vendelwelden followed next; the black, the Armenian, and one of the mendicant Arabs, although robust and inured to the rigour of the climate, perished like the rest. But the most terrible of all sights for M. de St. Germain, that which a feeling heart cannot figure to itself without being seized with horror, was to see his brother overwhelmed with fatigue, heat and thirst, with twenty-two wounds of a sabre, conjuring him to abandon him and provide for his own safety; and to be reduced to the alternative of seeing him perish before his eyes, or leave him in the desert, in order to employ the poor remains of strength he had left, to procure him some assistance. He chose the latter. The excess of their sufferings made them hope they were drawing near the end of their miseries. His strength redoubled at his brother's danger, but all his care proved fruitless. They were still at too great a distance from Cairo; and the Bey's people, whom he had engaged to run to the desert in quest of his unfortunate brother, and the black that accompanied him, could notdiscover either of them; they found only the bodies of the other Europeans; and M. de Chilly either fell a victim to the many torments he endured, or he was dragged away into slavery, if he has been so fortunate as have his life saved by any of the Arabs.

M. de St. Germain, having thus seen all his companions fall, at last arrived naked, alone, and in a dying condition, at the country-house of the Bey. The assistance he received there stopped the progress of the disorder; and after he was carried to Cairo, to the quarter of the Franks, he owed his life to the skill of M. Grasse, a French physician; and to the praiseworthy care of Messrs. Magallon and Olive, merchants of Marseilles, who took him into their house.

The French were not the only persons that gave him tokens of the part took in his misfortunes. Several Englishmen that sailed with him from Bengal to Suez, particularly Mr. Ross, who commanded the English factory at Ďaka, whilst himself was at the head of the French factory, gave him the most feeling proofs of their sensibility. It was with the greatest difficulty that he declined accepting the offers of every kind that were made him, chusing rather to give the preference to the French merchants at Cairo.

M. de St. Germain, being happily recovered, tried every means, but in vain, to obtain restitution of about 300,000 livres in effects and merchandize that belonged to him in the caravan; but in abandoning his fortune, he must comfort himself with the thoughts, that he had the happiness to escape, all at once, every possible kind of death, hunger, thirst, suffocating heat by day, mortal cold by night, excessive fatigue, the destructive sting of the insects, the fire and sword of the Arabs, the grief of seeing his companions perish, and his inability to succour his brother; and, finally, a long and dangerous illness, the consequence of such horrors and miseries!

KING ROBERT THE BRUCE.

After the death of Wallace, the conquest of Scotland, which had taken Edward fifteen years to accomplish, seemed complete; but the fire of patriotism was only smothered, not extinguished. Robert Bruce, the grandson of the competitor of the crown against Baliol, fought in the ranks of the English army at the battle of Falkirk; and the Scottish historians say that he encountered Wallace in person on the field, and Wallace found means, instead of obstinately fighting his antagonist, to form an appointment with him for a future meeting. Bruce is said to have kept his appointment, and to have been urged by the eloquence of Wallace into that path of patriotic ambition, which he afterwards so successfully pursued. For the present, he was constrained to return to England with the victorious Edward; but he lost no time in concerting with some of his countrymen at the English court, the means of redressing their country's wrongs, and liberating it from the English yoke, Edward obtained, through treachery, intelligence of the project which was on foot among the Scottish chiefs, and had resolved on committing Bruce to close custody, when a speedy flight saved him from his grasp. All the movements of Bruce were so strictly watched, that no person could venture to confer with him by letter; but a friend, who felt interested in his welfare, and was apprised of the resolution of Edward to seize his person, sent him by a servant, under some pretence, a pair of spurs. Bruce penetrated the symbolical meaning of the present, and immediately fled to Scotland, where in a few days he arrived in safety. With the aid of his brother, Edward Bruce of Douglas, and some other chiefs, he succeeded in raising a number of his countrymen to rally again round the royal banner of Scotland. His cause for awhile seemed desperate, and there were moments when he was even constrained to consult his safety, by wandering on the mountains, and sheltering in the caves. But adverse fortune only served to add vigour to his determination to set his country free. He was in a short time able, with the flower and strength of Scotland round him, to meet the English king at Bannockbourn, in the neighbourhood of Sterling, not far from the spot where Wallace had once emancipated his country, by the rout of the forces under the Earl of Surrey. On the eve of the memorable battle, Maurice, abbot of Inchaffray, celebrated mass in the midst of the Scottish army. He then passed along the front, bare-footed, with a crucifix in his hand, and in a few words exhorted the Scots to fight for their rights and liberty. The Scots fell down upon their knees. Edward perceiving this, cried out, "See, they yield, they implore mercy." "They do," answered Umfraville, one of his commanders, "they do implore mercy, but not from us. On that field they will be victorious or die." On the morning of the battle, while both armies were in view of each other and eager to engage, Bruce, with a crown above his helmet, and a battle-axe in his hand, ascended an eminence, and haranguing his troops, reminded them of the ancient bravery and the valiant deeds of their ancestors; recapitulated the wrongs and indignities they had suffered from the English; called to their recollection the deeds and the fall of the patriotic and brave Wallace; and earnestly exhorted them to stand firm, and enter the field with the full determination to conquer or die. "Let that determination," he concluded," gather strength with every blow of your arms, and with every fall of your brave companions. Thus let the rallying word be, Scotland's freedom, or death! To arms! to arms! my dear and brave companions." The onset was tremendous; and long and severe the conflict.

Victory declared at last on the side of liberty and right; and before the sun set, Scotland was free.

The victory of Bannockburn put an end to all questions about the right of succession to the crown, and to the divisions, and consequent weakness, which had embarrassed the Scots in their preceding contests. The glory of Robert Bruce was complete; his name was undoubtedly popular; and no candidate for the throne could, for the future, hope to supplant his descendants. Accordingly, though the barons retained their turbulence, and the authority of the crown was inadequate to the internal good government of the kingdom, yet, as no dispute existed about the person of the monarch, the throne always formed the rallying point of national independence to such a degree, as to extinguish all hope of future conquest.

GENERAL DEUMESNIL.

General Deumesnil, who lost a leg in the campaign of Russia, commanded the fortress of Vincennes in 1814, when France was invaded by the allies: Deumesnil still held out, although the capital and adjacent country had been occupied by the allies, and, when summoned by the Russians to surrender, he sent for answer, "Give me back my leg, and I will give up the fortress."

CURIOUS DREAM OF CARDINAL BEMBO'S MOTHER VERIFIED. The following letter from Cardinal Bembo to a nobleman of the house of Medici, written in 1512, gives a curious account of a dream of the cardinal's mother, which was but too unhappily realized.

"Magnificent Lord,-I reply to a letter, in which you expressed a wish to know the nature of a dream of my mother's, which revealed to her during the night what was to happen to me the next day. To satisfy your curiosity, I shall add to my answer an account of its accomplishment.

"At the time my father was ambassador from your nation to Rome, under the pontificate of Pope Innocent, I found myself detained at Venice, with my mother, by a process which our family had to sustain against a gentleman, a countryman of ours, called Simon Goro. This Goro sent off here one of his nephews, called Giusto, to plead in his name against me. One morning, as I was coming out of my chamber, with my papers in my hand, which I was to lay before the magistrate who had the decision of our suit, I met my mother, who advanced towards me, and asked me whither I was going. Upon my reply, she recommended me not to have any dispute on that day with Giusto, and to confine myself merely to presenting my papers to the judges in his presence. She repeated her request on this subject very often, which appeared to me so singular, that I could not help asking her the 'I will tell you,' replied she; I dreamed this night that Giusto wounded you in the right hand. You know how often my dreams have been verified; therefore I entreat you, my dear child, endeavour to have no altercation with the man.' I promised her. We parted, and I repaired to the tribunal.

reason.

"Having met Giusto, I accosted him amicably, and shewing him the papers which I had, I told him that I was going to lay them before the judges. Giusto, older than I by some years, had already hurt his reputation, and even deranged his head, by his bad conduct. He snatched the papers from my

THE MASON AND HIS SON.

The following fact occurred at Clagenfurt in Carinthia, when the French army occupied that town. The thunder had very much injured the point of the very high steeple of the principal church; and a mason and his son were employed to repair it. A crowd of inhabitants assembled at the place to witness this perilous operation. The father, a man of fifty years of age, still vigorous and active, ascended first; his son followed him; they almost reached the summit; the spectators tremblingly counted the steps, when they saw the son suddenly lose hold of the ladder, and fall to the ground. A cry of terror arose. All crowded towards the unfortunate man, who lay shattered upon the pavement, without a sign of life. In the mean time the father continued to ascend, performed his task, descended with sang froid, and appeared with a melancholy but composed air before the spectators, who immediately surrounded him. All endeavoured to console him; but they soon learned with horror, that the fall of his son was not accidental, for that he himself had precipitated him from the top of the steeple. "Heavens!" exclaimed they, is it possible? What fury! what madness!" "Listen to me," replied the father, without emotion-" In our trade there are certain rules and customs. The oldest and most experienced ventures into danger the first; the other follows. According as one ladder is secured by cords, another is raised; which is at first fastened at the bottom to the top of the other. Then the eldest ascends the ladder, which is only steadied at the bottom; and, assisted by his companion, who supplies him with cord, he proceeds to fasten it at the top. This is a work of the greatest danger. As I was occupied at the highest extremity of the ladder, I suddenly heard my son exclaim below me, Father, father, there's a cloud before my eyes; I know not where I am.' I instantly raised my right foot, and gave him a kick on the forehead, and he fell without uttering a word.-I am assuredly to be pitied, much to be pitied, for I am far from believing myself guilty. In our trade it is well known, that if the head turns giddy in a dangerous position, where there is no means of assisting oneself and of taking time to recover, that man is irretrievably lost. Now such was the case of my son. From the moment that his sight was gone, there was no hope of him. In two or three seconds he must necessarily have fallen; and in his last agonies would undoubtedly have grasped at the tottering ladder on which I was placed, and would have dragged it away, and we should have both fallen. In an instant I foresaw this inevitable result, and prevented it by dealing the blow which precipitated him, and which saved me, as you see. Now tell me, you who call me monster, if I had killed myself at the same time with him, who would have supported his unfortunate wife and children, who have henceforth nothing to look for but my labour? To die for him would perhaps have been the duty of a father; but to die along with him without any utility, is, I believe, what neither religion nor justice require." During some moments a profound silence reigned throughout the assembled crowd; but the clamours recommenced; the mason was arrested, and delivered over to the tribunals. He there displayed the same firmness he had shewn before the people. The judges, like the multitude, could not resist a first impulse of horror; but, on reflection on the situation in which he was placed, and the motive he had assigned for his conduct, they acknowledged that his reasoning, however horrific, was just, and exhibited a presence of mind, to which, though with shuddering, they could not refuse their admiration.