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the relatives of Olympia, with the utmost affliction and surprise, received the news of her sudden death, the most shocking circumstances of which the abbess prudently concealed. At first they would not believe it, but demanded a sight of her, and going out of the church in a body, the ladies, and Carantani himself, (this privilege being granted to fathers) entered the convent, notwithstanding the resistance of the abbess and nuns. What a spectacle was this for a father, for a sister, for a whole family! One of the most amiable young women, the victim of a violent despair, all the horror of which was yet visible in her countenance !

Great as Carantani's obduracy had hitherto been, he now burst into tears, and became frantic with sorrow. He accused himself too late as the murderer of his daughter, and stung with this tormenting thought, which was but too much the suggestion of truth, he fled from the convent, and even from the city, with the greatest precipitation. He mounted his horse with a design to conceal his shame, his grief, and his remorse, in the obscurity of a country-seat.-But heaven designed him for a public example. He had scarcely ridden six miles, when his horse taking fright, threw him, and his foot hanging in the stirrup, he suffered a death yet more dreadful than his unhappy daughter. Dragged by his horse, which ran full speed, every limb was broken, and his body was covered with wounds and bruises. Divine justice seemed to extend itself even to his carcase after he was dead; for his head and arms were entirely separated from it. The horse did not stop till it got home. Who can conceive the horror and consternation of his family, when they saw the horse furiously galloping and dragging after him the torn and bloody trunk! Victoria, who was an eyewitness of this dreadful event, could not sustain the complicated calamity which was thus heaped upon her, on the very day in which she expected to have been completely blessed. The death of her sister, and of her father, attended with uncommon circumstances of horror, and the loss of her lover, who refused to prosecute his alliance with a family which suicide had dishonoured, made so deep an impression on her mind, that she died two days afterwards, and closed, by her death, a series of disastrous events, which afford instruction of the most memorable kind to parents, with regard to their conduct towards their children.

REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCE

In the month of September, 1824, the body of a young woman, dressed in black silk, with a watch, a ring, and a small sum of money, was found floating near Spithead, by a lieutenant of the impress, and conveyed to Ryde in the Isle of Wight. As no person owned it, a parish officer, who was also an undertaker, took upon himself to inter the body, for the property that was attached to it, which was accordingly performed.

One evening, about a fortnight after the event, a poor man and woman were seen to come into the village, and on application to the undertaker for a view of the property which belonged to the unfortunate drowned person, they de clared it to have been their daughter, who was overset in a boat as she was going to Spithead to see her husband. They also wished to pay whatever expence the undertaker had been at, and to receive the trinkets, &c. which had so lately been the property of one so dear to them: but this the undertaker would by no means consent to. They repaired, therefore, to the churchyard, where the woman having prostrated herself on the grave of the

deceased, continued sometime in silent meditation or prayer; then crying, Pillilew! after the manner of the Irish at funerals, she sorrowfully departed with her husband.

The curiosity of the inhabitants of Ryde, excited by the first appearance and behaviour of this couple, was changed into wonder, when returning, in less than three weeks, they accused the undertaker of having buried their daughter without a shroud! saying, she had appeared in a dream, complaining of the mercenary and sacrilegious undertaker, and lamenting the indignity, which would not let her spirit rest!

The undertaker stoutly denied the charge. But the woman having secretly purchased a shroud (trying it on herself), at Upper Ryde, was watched by the seller, and followed about twelve o'clock at night into the church-yard. After lying a short time on the grave, she began to remove the mould with her hands, and, incredible as it may seem, by two o'clock had uncovered the coffin, which with much difficulty, and the assistance of her husband, was lifted out of the grave. On opening it, the stench was almost intolerable, and stopped the operation for some time; but, after taking a pinch of snuff, she gently raised the head of the deceased, taking from the back of it, and the bottom of the coffin, not a shroud but a dirty piece of flannel, with part of the hair sticking to it, and which the writer of this account saw lying on the hedge so lately as the middle of the present year. Clothing the body with the shroud, every thing was carefully replaced; and, on a second application, the undertaker, overwhelmed with shame, restored the property. The woman (whose fingers were actually worn to the bone with the operation) retired with her husband, and has never been heard of since.

SINGULAR INSTANCE OF GENEROSITY.

Though little detached pieces of history cannot be supposed to give us any important idea of the rise and fall of empires, the religion, customs, and manners, of great and powerful states; yet, in periodical publications,they perhaps if properly selected, tend to a more noble purpose: they improve the heart, regulate the passions, and, by exposing to our view pictures drawn from real nature, make us more inclinable, either to imitate the virtue, or despise the vice. One example will go further than an hundred precepts; and, in proportion as the examples of virtue and vice are predominant, in any age, among the great, so will the morals of the vulgar be.

While Rome was a growing state, her Generals were brave and virtuous, and they were imitated by the meanest citizens; but, when luxury, grandeur, and the thirst of power and partial distinction crept into the senate, men were held in consideration, only in proportion to the magnificence of their buildings, the luxury of their tables, and their external parade.

When time has established facts, when the corroborating testimony of succeeding ages has fixed its seal on them, and when they afford examples which come home to the bosom of every individual, we pay more respect to them, than we do to those fleeting objects, which daily present themselves to our view in our own times. From the ancients, we learn wisdom; from our own times to imitate the prevailing vices and fashions.

During the war between the Portuguese and the inhabitants of the island of Ceylon, Thomas de Susa, who commanded the European forces, took prisoner a beautiful Indian, who had promised herself in marriage to an amiable youth.

The lover was no sooner informed of this misfortune, than he hastened to throw himself at the feet of his adorable nymph, who with transport caught him in her arms. Their sighs and tears were mingled; and it was some time before their words could find utterance to express their grief. At last, when they had a little recovered, they agreed, since their misfortunes left them no hopes of living together in freedom, to partake with each other all the horrors of a civil war.

Susa, who had a soul truly susceptible of tender emotions, was moved at the sight. "It is enough (said he to them) that you wear the chains of love; you shall not wear the chains of slavery. Go, and be happy in the lawful embraces of wedlock."

The two lovers fell on their knees. They could not persuade themselves to quit so generous a hero; and thought themselves happy in being permitted to live under the laws of a nation, who so nobly knew how to make use of victory, and so generously to soften the calamities of war.

THE RULING PASSION STRONG IN DEATH.

The Turks are very fond of Chess, which is a game that corresponds with the gravity of their tempers. The following anecdote proves at once their partiality for this amusement, and their indifference about matters of much higher concern.

An Aga had incurred the displeasure of his sovereign, and the warrant for his execution arrived whilst he was engaged at Chess. The game was nearly over, and he begged the officers, who were the messengers of his fate, to delay the sentence for a few minutes, that he might have the satisfaction of beating his adversary. His request was granted: and when the game was finished, he thanked them for their civility and condescension; kissed the order which deprived him of life; and submitted, with the greatest composure, to the stroke of the executioner.

VIRTUE REWARDED.

In the year 1713, the Czar of Russia was smitten with the charms of a beautiful young lady, the daughter of a foreign merchant in Moscow: he first saw her in her father's house, where he dined one day; he was so much taken with her appearance, that he offered her any terms she pleased, if she would live with him; which this virtuous young woman modestly refused, but dreading the effects of his authority, she left Moscow in the night, without communicating her design even to her parents. Having provided a little money for her support, she travelled on foot several miles into the country, till she arrived at a small village where her nurse lived with her husband and their daughter, the young lady's foster-sister, to whom she discovered her intention of concealing herself in the wood near that village; and to prevent any discovery, she set out the same night, accompanied by the husband and daughter. The husband, being a timber-man by trade, and well acquainted with the wood, conducted her to a little dry spot in the middle of a morass, and there he built a hut for her habitation. She had deposited her money with her nurse to procure little necessaries for her support, which were faithfully conveyed to

her at night by the nurse or her daughter, by one of whom she was constantly attended in the night-time.

The next day after her flight, the Czar called at her father's to see her, and finding the parents in anxious concern for their daughter, and himself disappointed, fancied it a plan of their own concerting. He became angry, and began to threaten them with the effects of his displeasure, if she was not produced nothing was left to the parents but the most solemn protestations with tears of real sorrow running down her cheeks, to convince him of their innocence and ignorance what was become of her, assuring him of their fears that some fatal disaster must have befallen her, as nothing belonging to her was missing, except what she had on at the time. The Czar, satisfied of their sincerity, ordered strict search to be made for her, with the offer of a considerable reward to the person who should discover what was become of her, but to no purpose; and the parents and relations, apprehending she was no more, went into mourning for her.

Above a year after this she was discovered by an accident. A colonel, who had come from the army to see his friends, went a hunting in that wood, and following his game into the morass, came to the hut, and looking into it saw a pretty young woman in a mean dress. After enquiring of her who she was, and how she came to so solitary a place, he found out at last that she was the lady whose disappearance had made so great a noise: in the utmost confusion, and with the most fervent entreaties, she prayed him on her knees that he would not betray her; to which he replied, that he thought her danger was now past, as the Czar was then otherwise engaged, and that she might with safety discover herself, at least to her parents, with whom he would consult how matters should be managed. The lady agreed to his proposal, and he set out immediately and overjoyed her parents with the happy discovery: the issue of their deliberations was to consult Madam Catharine (as she was then called) in what manner the affair should be opened to the Czar. The colonel went also upon this business, and was advised by Madam to come next morning, and she would introduce him to his Majesty, when he might make the discovery and claim the promised reward. He went according to appointment, and being introduced, told the accident by which he discovered the lady, and represented the miserable situation in which he found her, and what she must have suffered by being so long shut up in such a dismal place, from the delicacy of her sex. The Czar shewed a great deal of concern that he should have been the cause of all her sufferings, declaring that he would endeavour to make her amends. Here Madam Catharine suggested, that she thought the best amends his Majesty could make was to give her a handsome fortune and the colonel for a husband, who had the best right, having caught her in pursuit of his game. The Czar agreeing perfectly with Madam Catharine's sentiments, ordered one of his favourites to go with the colonel, and bring the lady home; where she arrived, to the inexpressible joy of her family and relations, who had all been in mourning for her. The marriage was under the direction, and at the expence of the Czar, who himself gave the bride to the bridegroom; saying, that he presented him with one of the most virtuous of women; and accompanied his declaration with very valuable presents, besides settling on her and her heirs, three thousand rubles a year. This lady lived highly esteemed by the Czar, and every one who knew her.

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Two brothers, and a sister, the children of one pious mother, a widow, lived together in one house in the city; the sister, the youngest of the family, was about nineteen, one of the brothers near forty, and the other about twentysix years of age. The sister, as well as the mother, was pious and well instructed; the brothers men of business, in which they were much taken up and engaged, but still sober and orderly people. Having been merchants and resided abroad, on their return to England, as partners, they had large concerns on their hands, kept two or three servants and book-keepers daily in the counting-house, and doing business as well at the water side as at the Royal Exchange. As the eldest of these brothers was a widower, and the youngest a bachelor, the young lady, their sister, was their housekeeper, and in a familiar way they called her their governess. The old lady, with some of the younger children, lived a little way out of town, where her recollections of a visitation similar to what she again expected, often gave her much uneasiness on account of her sons in the city. This occasioned her visits to be much more frequent than before; and her repeated admonitions to prepare for the event expected, by repentance and a change of life, at length were thought officious, and in a great measure imputed to imbecility. But, as before observed, the old lady had lived in London in the time of the great plague, as it was then called, twenty-nine years before, viz. in 1624, when there died of all distempers above fifty-four thousand people, exclusive of those in the out-parishes. One of the last conferences these young men had with their mother upon this subject, was in February, 1665, and then but one person had died of the plague since December; so that the eldest brother once or twice jested with her and his sister on the subject, and, as the latter thought, a little profanely. It was not above a fortnight after this discourse when the city had another alarm, and one of her brothers was the person that brought the news that the plague had

VOL. II.

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