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FREDERIC THE GREAT.

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1r came to the knowledge of the King of Prussia, that a corporal of his bodyregiment, a fine young fellow, wore a watch-chain suspended from a leaden ball, merely from a wish to appear consequential. Frederic, wishing to be convinced of the matter, accosted the corporal one day on the parade. "Corporal," said he, " you must be a prudent fellow, to have saved a watch out of your pay." "I fiatter myself that I am brave, sire," replied the man; "the watch is of little consequence.' The King, taking out a watch, set with diamonds, said: "My watch points at five. How much is yours?" Shame and confusion first appeared in the corporal's face at length he drew out his bullet, and answered with a firm voice: My watch, sire, shews me neither five nor six, but it tells me that I ought to be ready, at every hour, to die for your Majesty." The King replied: " In order that you may daily see one of those hours at which you are to die for me, take this watch."

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In one of the forced marches of his army, Frederic rode beside his cavalry, and heard a trooper at a short distance make a horrid noise with cursing and swearing. He immediately rode up to him, and heard him exclaim, among many other oaths: "I wish this confounded sort of life was at an end."—" You are very right, my lad," said the king: "I wish the same: but what can we do? We must have patience, till it is peace." After the action near Breslaw in Silesia, between the Prussians and the Austrians, which preceded the battle of Lissa, and before the two armies met in this latter contest, a French soldier in Frederic's service, who had just deserted, was stopped, and conducted to the king. "Why did you leave me," said Frederic. "Because, answered the soldier, “ your affairs are too desperate."-" Well," replied the king, "go back to your colours. We shall have another battle soon; and if I lose it, come and find me out, and you and I will desert together."

By such instances of occasional condescension and lenity did Frederic acquire the confidence of his soldiers, and secure their exertions in gaining those glorious victories which have conferred on him the title of Greut.

DURING the second bombardment of Algiers, the Moors, in despair, fastened their Christian slaves to the mouths of their cannon, and in this way their mangled bodies were fired against the hostile ships. An Algerine captain, who had been, some years before, taken prisoner by the besiegers, observed among the number an officer who had at that time shown him the kindest treatment, and with whom he had contracted an ardent friendship. He perceived him at the moment when they were about to fasten the unfortunate man to the cannon. The Algerine cried out, and made the most violent struggles to save the life of the victim. But finding his entreaties vain, and that they were on the point of firing the gun, he threw himself across the body of his devoted friend, clasped his arms firmly round him, and called aloud: "Fire! Since I cannot save the life of my friend, I will at least enjoy the consolation of dying with him." The Dey, who happened to be an eye-witness of this scene, was so moved at the sight, that he instantly conceded to heroism what he had denied to humanity.

SINGULAR CAPTURE.

ENGLISH history does not record more daring action than that of Edward Stanley, an English officer, at the attack of one of the forts of Zutphen, in the Low Countries, in the year 1586. Three hundred Spaniards defended the fort, and when Stanley approached it, one of them thrust a pike at him to kill him; he seized hold of it with both his hands, and held it with such force, that the Spaniards, unable to wrest it from him, drew him up into the fort. He instantly drew his sword, and dispersed all that were present: this so astonished the garrison, that it gave Stanley's followers time to storm the fort, and establish themselves in their conquest.

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INFLUENCED by an ardent desire to visit the indestructible monuments of ancient grandeur at Thebes, Napoleon was on the point of setting out from Cairo, for Upper Egypt, when a courier from Marmont, governor of Alexandria, announced the disembarkation of a large body of Turks in Aboukir Bay. They appeared there on the 10th of July, 1799, and effected a landing under the protection of the British navy; taking possession of the fort of Aboukir, and of a redoubt placed behind the village of that

name.

This intelligence was received by Napoleon on the evening of the 15th; he sat up all night, dictating orders for the direction of all the divisions of his army, and on the 16th, at four in the morning, he was on horseback and all his troops VOL. I.

in full march. On the 23rd he arrived at Alexandria with the divisions of Murat, Lannes, and Bon, where he joined the garrison under Marmont, which had not ventured to leave its intrenchments in presence of such formidable enemies. The division of Desaix was at the same time ordered to fall back to Cairo from Upper Egypt, so that, if necessary, the whole French force might be brought to the menaced point. Mourad Bey, in concert with the Turks at Aboukir, descended from Upper Egypt with three thousand horse, intending to cut his way across to the forces which had landed at Aboukir; but he was met and encountered near the Lake Natron, by Murat at the head of a body of cavalry, and after a severe action, obliged to retrace his steps, and take refuge in the Desert.

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The army, which landed at Aboukir nine thousand strong, consisting of the forces which had arrived at the close of the siege of Acre from Rhodes, and had been transported thence to the mouth of the Nile by Sir Sidney Smith's squadron, though almost destitute of cavalry, was much more formidable than any which the French troops had yet encountered in the East. It was composed of intrepid Janizzaries, admirably equipped and well disciplined; accustomed to discharge their firelock and throw themselves on the enemy, with a sabre in one hand and a pistol in the other. The artillery was numerous and well served; and they were supported by the British squadron. Napoleon arrived within sight of the peninsula of Aboukir on the 25th of July, and though his force did not exceed eight thousand men, he no sooner saw the dispositions of the enemy, than he resolved to make an immediate attack; and so strongly was his mind already impressed by the great destinies to which he conceived himself called, that he said to Murat, "This battle will decide the fate of the world."-" At least of this army," replied the other; "but you should feel confidence from the circumstance, that all the soldiers feel they must now conquer or die. The enemy have no cavalry; ours is brave; and be assured, if ever infantry were charged to the teeth by cavalry, the Turks shall be to-morrow by mine."

hours of repose, and establishing a battery to protect their operations, he commenced a new attack. At three o'clock the charge was beat, and the troops advanced. They were led gallantly forward; but the Turks, transported by their ardour, advanced out of their intrenchments to meet them, and a bloody convict took place in the plain. In vain th. Janizzaries, after discharging their fusils and pistols, rushed to the attack with their formidable sabres in the air; their desperate valour at length yielded to the steady pressure of the European bayonet, and they were forced back, contesting every inch of ground, to the foot of the intrenchments. Here, however, the plunging fire of the redoubt, and the sustained discharge of musketry from the top of the works, arrested the progress of the French soldiers, and they recoiled in disorder from the dreadful carnage. When the cavalry attempted to pass the narrow defile between the works and the lake, they were assailed by a murderous fire from the gun-boats, and were repeatedly forced to retire.

Advancing rapidly,

This attack having failed, Napoleon was doubtful whether he should continue the battle, or rest contented with the advantage already gained. He was relieved from this perplexity by the imprudent conduct of the Turks themselves. No sooner did they see their assailants retire, than they rushed out of the fort of Aboukir, and commenced cutting off the heads of the dead bodies which lay scattered over the plain. Napoleon instantly saw his advantage, and quickly turned it to the best account. and in admirable order, the French arrested the sortie, and returned to the attack of the intrenchments, by this time in a great measure stripped of their defenders. All proved successful, and the whole line of redoubts was captured; while several squadrons, in confusion, penetrated through a narrow opening, and got into the rear. The Turks now fled in confusion towards the fort of Aboukir, but the French cavalry, which now inundated the space between The extraordinary success of this first them and the fort, charged them so fuattack, inspired Napoleon with the hope, riously in flank, that they were thrown that by repeating the same manœuvre into the sea, and almost all perished in with the second, the whole of the remain-es. The enemy penetrated into ing army might be destroyed. For this urpose, after allowing the troops a few

The dispositions of the general were soon made, and his measures speedily crowned with success. The Turks maintained their ground, till they saw it turned by Murat's cavalry; but the instant that was done, they fled in confusion, and being charged by the French horse, rushed tumultuously into the water, where almost the whole were either drowned or cut down by grape-shot. -The Janizzaries defended themselves bravely, but the French at length routed them, and carried the village at the point of the bayonet; and its defenders, who refused all quarter, were either put to the sword or drowned in the water.

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commander prisoner, and shut up the remnant of the army, amounting to about two thousand men, in the fort of Aboukir. Heavy cannon were immediately planted against the fort, which surrendered a few days after. Five thousand corpses floated in the bay of Aboukir, two thousand had perished in the battle, and the like number were made prisoners of war in the fort. Hardly any escaped, a circumstance almost unexampled in modern warfare.

Mustapha Pacha, the general, being brought into the presence of his victor, was saluted with these words: "It has been your fate to lose this day; but I will take care to inform the Sultan of the courage with which you have contested it." 66 'Spare thyself that trouble," answered the proud pacha, " my master knows me better than thou."

Thus ended this memorable battle, which, though it did not repair the immense losses and fatal consequences of the naval conflict of the Same name, will always recal to the memory of Frenchmen one of the most brilliant achievements of their arms.

GHOST STORIES.

(Extracted from "Tough Yarns.") "MIDNIGHT came, a dark, dreary, cold, starless midnight, and I was ordered to visit all the outposts to see that the sentinels were alert upon their duty. The dead bodies of those who had fallen in battle remained unburied. I looked upon many a bleeding and mangled form during the day; I had seen many a poor wretch writhing in the last pang of mortal agony; I had gazed with a sort of desperate wildness on the convulsive contortions which expiring nature had left upon the countenance: and now, in the stillness and solitude of night, to traverse the spot where they lay in promiscuous heaps as they had fallen,-my very soul was harrowed up! I would not disobey, and I did not dare to ask for attendance, lest my secret should transpire.

"Alone then I departed, every nerve agitated with the commotion that shook my trembling frame. Alone I took my way to the nearest outpost, often starting aside as some stiffened corpse lay stretched across my path. The hollow moaning of the waves breaking against the rugged

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rocks, came with a fearful sound upon the wind, which rushed past in hurried gusts, and now and then a half-stifled groan burst from some poor creature who yet survived the carnage, and was recovering sensibility. I had reached about half way to my first place of destination, when my faculties became in a great measure paralysed, on hearing something behind which emitted a strange and unnatural noise. I determined to face it, and turned round for that purpose. The atmosphere was dense and hazy, enveloping the earth in darkness; but amidst the gloom, a most horrible figure kept rising up to more than mortal height, and then again sinking to scarcely half the stature of man; two immense projections issued from its hideously formed head, and a pair of burning eyes glared with vengeful fierceness upon me: all my old feelings returned; dismay crept upon my spirit, and making one desperate effort, I ran with amazing rapidity from this terrifiic object. But alas! I had not run far, when I stumbled over a dead body, and fell in the midst of several others. I stretched out my hands to assist me in rising, and they rested upon the cold clammy face of a corpse ! Once more upon my feet, I looked round; the monster was close to me, rising and falling as it had done before, and again I bounded away, not knowing whither. A building presented itself, which I hoped was one of the outposts, and hastily entering it, I fell about twelve feet into a space below, but sustained no bodily injury, as the floor was covered with piles of seal skins. Here, in thick darkness and insensibility, I lay for several hours, when I was accidentally discovered by a party who had clandestinely left the main body to seek for plunder, and were attracted to the spot by seeing an enormous he-goat near the entrance to the building. By the light of the lantern which they carried, I was readily recognised, and soon rescued from my uncomfortable situation. The fresh air and human voices soon restored me to animation, and almost the first thing I saw, quietly standing amid the group of seamen, was the innocent cause of my alarm and misfortune, the great he-goat! My fall was attributed to accident; and, attended by the party, I visited the outposts and made my report

unheeded. In vain I struggled to suppress my emotion,-trembling imbecility was rapidly creeping upon my system,all my former terrors were reviving, when at that moment the devices of the guerillas recurred to my recollection, and cocking the lock of the pistol, I stood in perfect readiness. Again the crate moved, so as to get more into my rear: but a

to the commanding officer. The account of my adventure soon spread, but the occurrence was attributed to any thing except the real cause, as the different taletellers had each a story of his own to magnify my intrepidity; and thus my weakness not only escaped detection, but I actually gained approbation for my courage. From that hour my determination became more and more strength-picket-guard passing through the street ened to resist the pusilanimity, which in spite of every effort would at times attack me.

below, I called to the officer, and instantly sprang over the breastwork that divided the two roofs, and ran to that part which was most likely to cut off a retreat if the crate had been moved by human agency

of which, I confess, I entertained strong doubts. These, however, were soon dispelled; for I had scarcely reached my station, when the crate was thrown up, and the tall gaunt figure of a guerilla was for an instant seen against the dim light of the sky. But it was only for an

"Iwas next employed in the capture of Monte Video, or rather the city of San Philip, which is the proper name, Monte Video being a lofty inountain on one promontory of a deep bay, as the city of San Philip stands on the extreme point of the other promontory. After the city was taken, I was stationed at night on the flat roof of a house which communicated with several others; having re-instant; our pistols seemed to be disceived orders to be very vigilant, and in charged at the same moment of time. I case of any thing material occurring, to heard his ball whistle by my ears, and it forward immediate information to the left a tingling sensation that indicated officer in command of the party, who was how very close it had passed to my head: to dispatch the intelligence to head- the smoke hindered me from seeing more, quarters. The post was one of extreme | but I felt the sharp point of a knife importance, and had been entrusted to graze down my breast,—I heard a heavy me on account of my apparent fearless- fall into the street below,—a fire of musness. It overlooked the gates leading to ketry succeeded;-then followed a wild the shores of the bay, which, though in shriek, and the guerilla was a corpse! our possession, were frequently visited His knife had been intended for my by guerilla bands, who secretly dealt death | heart, but a backward step on my part, to the incautious sentinels. I had been saved me: the skin was slightly scratched, about one hour upon the look-out, and and the instrument remained in my had suppressed the rising sensations of coat without doing further injury. terror which had more than once attacked

me; when, to my great surprise, a large empty earthenware crate, that stood in the corner of the next flat, began to move slowly along the roof. I had been leaning over the parapet of the house, with my back towards the crate, but the slight rustling made by the movement caused me to glance over my shoulder without appearing to turn my head. The motion ceased: but I could not doubt the fact, for the crate was not in the situation where I had first seen it. I still remained in my position without stirring, but kept my eyes directed by a sidelong glance towards the object. Again it moved, but so slowly and so noiselessly, that by a person possessing a mind of any other stamp than mine, it would have passed unheard, and consequently

"In what manner the desperado had gained the roof, I could not divine; and I felt certain that he was not under the crate on my first taking the post, as I had carefully examined it. I had afterwards an opportunity of witnessing the mode by which he had accomplished it, and it was simply through the efforts of a number of men, who were raised up successively on each other's shoulders. His design was assassination and plunder. For my share in this transaction, I obtained the approval of Sir Home Popham, and was raised in temporary rank.

"The next trial of my nervous system was at Sierra Leone. I was then in a frigate, and as fears were entertained that the French were about to make a descent upon some part of the settlement, (a

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