ing for it but to go forward and take our seats. The | but himself and the ladies of the family. In the meeting was one of vital importance to every one middle of dinner, a gentleman, whom I had not seen present. Not only were the exigencies of the gov- before, entered and walked straight up to the hosternment most urgent, but each individual supporter ess, as I thought, to apologize, but he said nothing, of it knew that on the satisfactory termination of and, after looking at her strangely for a moment or that meeting depended his hopes of indemnity for two, moved across the room to a picture, which he losses, and the settlement of his claims, whatever began to examine. I thought this rather curious they might be. The public tranquillity, too, was at conduct, but supposed he was some intimate friend stake, because the greater part of the army, after or relation, who did not stand on ceremony. As to five years' incessant fighting, had no other reim- our conversation the day before, de lunatico inquibursement to look to for all their toils and dangers, rendo, I had forgotten all about it. When, however, but what might be alloted to them if this conference the new-comer began to walk round and round the passed off well. table, murmuring broken sentences, I began to understand the case.

Nay more; at the very moment that we were seated there, an extensive conspiracy was on foot, in which a minister and several other persons of rank were said to be engaged, and which, if some of the conspirators had not turned informers, might have been successful. Yet so great was the command of countenance possessed by the ministers there assembled, and so complete the absence of all appearance of excitement, that no one would have supposed the business under discussion to have been more than an every-day matter. War is a sharp teacher, and in troublous times political students learn in months what it takes years to acquire in peace. The men who sat there as ministers had been, not very long before, one a clerk, another a cattle-farmer, and so on. And now they were governing a country three times as large as France, and had learned so much from the experience of the late struggle, that they were by no means unfitted for the task of government.

After a long discussion, our business, for the time at least, was satisfactorily concluded. C. and I then took leave, having received several invitations to breakfast from the ministers; for at Carácas it does not seem to be the fashion to give dinners. These invitations we accepted, and walked back to the hotel.

Presently the madman, for such he was, went up to the buffet, and began fumbling with the things there. "If he takes up a knife, and makes a rush at some one," thought I, "it will not be pleasant." However, as no one took any notice of the intruder, I too said nothing about him, and went on talking to the lady who sat next me, and eating my dinner. In a minute or two my eyes wandered back to the gentleman at the sideboard, when, to my consternation, I perceived that he had indeed got hold of a knife, with which he had already cut himself pretty severely, for the blood was trickling from his wrist. He was muttering, too, faster than ever, and his eyes glittered like sparks, though he did not seem to be looking at us, but had his gaze fixed on the wall. I tried to attract C.'s notice, but failing to do so, said in a low voice, "Look out, or there will be mischief directly!"

C. glanced quickly at the man, and with great presence of mind filled a glass of wine, and rose and offered it to him. He looked at C. for a moment in a way that was not agreeable, then very quietly put down the knife, and walked out of the room without saying a word. C. resumed his seat with the greatest composure, and said: "Poor fellow, he was one of the best scholars in Carácas, and would certainly have distinguished himself; but the girl he was engaged to fell in love with his brother, and married him. He has been insane ever since."

On the way we heard a good deal of shouting, mingled with laughter, and presently we met a big, wild-looking man, who seemed to be in a perfect frenzy, stopping from time to time and imprecating I went away, wondering whether it was by pecuthe most dreadful curses on all about him. He was liar infelicity that so soon after my arrival at Caráfollowed by a number of people who were jeering cas I should have witnessed a visit of this kind, or and throwing stones, which he returned with inter- whether such incidents were common. I had not est, picking up flints as large as one's fist, and throw-long to wait before learning that they were by no ing them with a force that would have shattered the means rare. I went one evening to a musical enterskull of any one but a negro. He was in fact a mad- tainment at the house of a person high in office. man; in general, they said, tolerably quiet; but on The lady of the house was singing "Il Bacio" very this occasion goaded to fury by his persecutors. I charmingly, and a group had been formed round said to C.: "This is a very disgraceful scene. In her, near to which I had taken a seat with my face any European city the police would interfere, and towards the door. Presently I saw a man enter, prevent this poor maniac from being tormented. whose peculiar look immediately reminded me of Have you no madhouse in Venezuela to which this the gentleman with the knife at the buffet. The wretched man might be sent?" "Well," said C., new-comer, like his predecessor, walked straight up "as to the police, you yourself must admit that, to the lady of the house, and in a hoarse voice comthough our streets are not patrolled in the daytime, menced a muttering accompaniment, which jarred disturbances are rarer here than in European towns. strangely with the music and the sweet tones of the With regard to mad people, I never heard of any singer. Everybody looked annoyed, but no one serious accident from their being allowed to go spoke to the intruder; only, the group near the about as they choose, and so I don't see the use of piano gradually melted away, leaving him standmadhouses here. But you will have more opportu- ing by himself. nities before you leave Venezuela of forming an opinion on this subject. Our lunatics are in general very quiet. What you see to-day is an unusual Occurrence."

By this time we had reached the hotel, and I parted with C., having first accepted an invitation to dine with him next day. I went to his house accordingly about seven P. M., and found no one

At last, he went closer to the lady, who continued to sing with marvellous self-possession, and leaning over her, began to strike chords on the piano. This was too much even for her aplomb, she stopped and walked down the room; and the stranger, after addressing some incoherent remarks to the people near him, followed her. I was too far off to see what took place then, but there was a bustle, and I

go.

heard the intruder talking in a loud, angry voice, after which he suddenly went off, and the party broke up. This man, I was subsequently informed, was intoxicated as well as insane, yet no attempt was made to remove him, nor was he even told to On the following Sunday I went to breakfast at the house of the minister of public works. It was a sumptuous entertainment, with very beautiful fruits and flowers displayed on the table, and many more dishes than guests, for of the latter there were only sixteen. The place of honor fell to my lot, opposite to the acting president of the republic: an old general with an iron constitution, who, unhappily for me, supposing all men to be equally vigorous, plied me at every pause in the collation with fruits pleasant to the eye, and of tolerable flavor, but to the last degree pernicious to a person of weak digestive powers. Owing to these flatter

ing attentions, the order of my meal ran something in this style.

A brimming plateful of turtle-soup, good in quality, overpowering in quantity, and indifferently cooked; a large fruit of the custard-apple genus; prawns, párga fish, and oysters; several fruits of the cactus, called here tuna, selected for their size by the general; turkey, prepared in a fashion peculiar to the country, boned, and the inside filled with a kind of stuffing redolent of garlic; a plate of cherries; a fricandeau of some unknown meat; several slices of pine-apple; a dish, name unknown, the chief ingredient being the flesh of the land tortoise; grapes of various kinds; and an infinite series of other trifles.

|

seemed to please the company so much as my happening to say, "Viva la Amarilla!”- "Hurrah for the yellow!"-which I did when a flower of that color was given me, though I had no idea that yellow was the color of the party in power. The next speech was the health of the ministers, proposed by a red-hot republican, who discoursed with immense fluency on the rights of man. Among other things, he assured us that, as all obstacles to perfect freedom were at length removed, Venezuela would now enjoy permanent tranquillity, during which all the blessings of the golden age would be restored. Ten days afterwards, one of the ministers and a number of leading men were arrested and thrown into prison, while, at the same time, an insurrection, with which it was supposed they were connected, broke out in several of the provinces.

THE FAIR FANARIOTE.

IN consequence of the numerous revolutions that have accompanied the fall of the Greek empire in Byzantium, most of the inhabitants of Fanari, near Constantinople, boast of being descendants of the dethroned imperial family, -a circumstance which is probable enough, and which nobody takes the trouble to dispute, any more than the alleged nobility of the Castilian peasantry, or the absurd genealogies of certain great families.

In a retired street in Pera, one of the suburbs of Constantinople, a descendant of the Cantacuzenes followed the humble calling of a butcher; but, in spite of industry and activity, he had great difficulty in earning a sufficiency to pay his way, and mainNo speeches were made; indeed, the meal was tain his wife and his only daughter Sophia. The too severe for any but the most languid conversa- latter had just entered her fourteenth year, and her tion. The longest meal must, however, come to an growing beauty was the admiration of the whole end, and at last, after a wind-up of coffee and cigars neighborhood. Fate, or, if you wish to call it, of an exquisite flavor, we separated. The Sunday Providence, ordained that the poor butcher should following, the scene was repeated, but on this occa- suffer repeated losses, which reduced him to a consion it was the acting president who gave the break-dition bordering on beggary. His wife unfolded his fast. Having determined not to risk my life any distressed circumstances to a Greek, one of her relamore by undue complaisance, I refused all offers of tions, who was a dragoman to the French embassy, fruit, and ate more moderately. At last the meal and who, in his turn, related the story to the Marreached its termination, and the president, filling his quis de Vauban, the ambassador. This nobleman glass, looked round the table, and then at me, and became interested for the unfortunate family, and said, “Brindo al señor qui nos ha llevado treinte especially for Sophia, whom the officious dragoman mil libras," "I drink to the gentleman who has described as being likely to fall into the snares that brought us thirty thousand pounds." I was some- were laid for her, and to become an inmate of the what disconcerted by the wording of the toast, and harem of some pasha, or even of a Turk of inferior thinking that it spoke for itself, judged it unneces- rank. sary to rise to respond. Presently, filling his glass again, the old general said, "I drink now to the English government, which has always been the protector of Venezuela, and has set the best example for free states to follow."

This, of course, compelled me to reply, and I expressed the pleasure I had had in visiting that beautiful country, in which Nature had been so lavish of her gifts, and whose inhabitants, by their gallant struggle for liberty, had shown themselves worthy of such a fair inheritance. England, I said, was the friend of all free nations, and would no doubt support the Venezuelans in maintaining their independence, as warmly as she had aided them in acquiring it. These, and many other things, I was obliged to say in English, not having suflicient Spanish at command for an oration. A friend, however, translated what I had said into pure Castilian, and his version seemed to give great satisfaction, more particularly as he compressed my harangue into very small compass. Nothing, however,

Prompted by pity, curiosity, or perhaps by some other motive, the ambassador paid a visit to the distressed family. He saw Sophia, was charmed by her beauty and intelligence, and he proposed that her parents should place her under his care and allow him to convey her to France. The misery to which the poor people were reduced may perhaps palliate the shame of acceding to this extraordinary proposition; but, be this as it may, they consented to surrender up their daughter for the sum of fifteen hundred piastres, and Sophia was that same day conducted to the ambassador's palace.

She found in the Marquis de Vauban a kind and liberal benefactor. He engaged masters to instruct her in every branch of education; and elegant accomplishments, added to her natural charms, rendered her an object of irresistible attraction.

In the course of a few months, the ambassador was called home, and he set out, accompanied by this Oriental treasure, to travel to France by land. To diminish, as far as possible, the fatigue of a long

journey, they proceeded by short stages, and having passed through European Turkey, they arrived at Kaminietz, in Podolia, which is the first fortress belonging to Russia. Here the marquis determined to rest for a short time, before undertaking the remainder of his tedious journey.

Count de Witt, a descendant of the grand pensionary of Holland, who was governor of the place, received his noble visitor with every mark of attention. The count, however, no sooner beheld Maria, than he became deeply enamored of her; and on learning the equivocal situation in which she stood, being neither a slave nor a companion, but, as it were, a piece of merchandise purchased for fifteen hundred piastres, he wound up his declaration of love by an offer of marriage. The count was a handsome man, scarcely thirty years of age, a lieutenant-general in the Russian service, and enjoying the high favor of his sovereign, Catherine II. The fair Greek, as may well be imagined, did not reject this favor of fortune, but accepted the offer of her suitor without hesitation.

It was easy to foresee that the Marquis de Vauban would not be very willing to part with a prize which he regarded as lawfully acquired, and to which he attached no small value. The count, therefore, found it advisable to resort to stratagem. Accord ingly, his excellency having one day taken a ride beyond the ramparts, the drawbridges were raised, and the lovers repaired to church, where their hands were joined by a papa. When the marquis appeared at the gates of the fortress, and demanded admittance, a messenger was sent out to inform him of what had happened; and to complete the dénouement of the comedy, the marriage contract was exhibited to him in due form.

the court of Poland, he made a tour through Italy, and on his return, he met the Count and Countess de Witt at Hamburg, where he fell deeply in love with Sophia. Not to weary with the details of the romance, I will come to the dénouement at once.

Nothing is so easy as to obtain a divorce in Poland. The law extends so far on this point, that I know a gentleman, Mr. Wortel, who had no less than four wives, all living, and bearing his name. Count Patocka, therefore, availing himself of this advantage, and having previously made every arrangement necessary, one morning called on Count de Witt, and, without further ceremony, said: "Count, I love your wife, and cannot live without her. I know that I am not indifferent to her; and I might immediately carry her off; but I wish to owe my happiness to you, and retain forever a grateful sense of your generosity. Here are two papers, one is an act of divorce, which only wants your signature, for you see the countess has already affixed hers to it; the other is a bond for two millions of florins, payable at my banker's in the city. We may, therefore, settle the business amicably or otherwise, just as you please." The husband doubtless thought of his adventure at the fortress of Kaminietz, and like the French ambassador, he resigned himself to his fate, and signed the paper. The fair Sophia became, the same day, the Countess Patocka; and to the charms of beauty and talents were now added the attractions of a fortune the extent of which was unequalled in Europe.

FOREIGN NOTES.

FRENCH law is a severe protector of patents and copyrights. We doubt if our courts would hold that the two words "popular concerts constituted a

"

To save Sophia from the reproaches which her precipitancy it may perhaps be said her ingrati-property; but M. Pasdeloup has recovered damtude would have fully justified, the count directed ages against a musical speculator whose announcethe ambassador's suite to pack up their baggage, and ments of another series under that title seemed to join his excellency extra muros. The poor marquis threaten injury to his well-known enterprise at the soon discovered that it was quite useless to stay Cirque Napoleon. where he was for the purpose of venting threats and complaints; and he had no hope that the court of France would think it worth while to go to war for the sake of avenging his affront. He therefore took a hint from one of the French poets, who says,

"Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte pour le sot,

L'honnête homme trompe, s'éloigne, et ne dit mot,"

SIR JOHN LAWRENCE has sent three native Asia by different routes. Each one is independent agents, disguised as merchants, to explore Central of the others, and kept in ignorance of their appointment, so that on their return three independent narratives may be looked for. They are instructed to take note of all that they see, to observe the temper whether movements are taking place in favor of of the different peoples among whom they travel, Russia, and to visit Bokhara, Khokand, and Samarcand before they turn back.

and he set off, doubtless with the secret determination never again to traffic in merchandise which possesses no value when it can be either bought or sold. About two years after this marriage the Count de Witt obtained leave of absence, and, accompanied AN English paper says that a London publishing by his wife, he visited the different courts of Europe. firm has been recently trying to prevail on the Poet Sophia's beauty, which derived piquancy from a Laureate to permit the introduction into this councertain Oriental languishment of manner, was every-try of the American editions of his works, alleging where the theme of admiration. The Prince de Ligne, who saw her at the court of France, mentions her in his memoir in terms of eulogy, which I cannot think exaggerated; for when I knew her at Tulczin, though she was then upwards of forty, her charms retained all their lustre, and she outshone the young beauties of the court, amidst whom she appeared like Calypso surrounded by her nymphs.

I now arrive at the second period of Sophia's life, which forms a sequel perfectly in unison with the commencement. Count Felix Patocka, at the commencement of the troubles in Poland, raised a considerable party by the influence of his rank and vast fortune. During a temporary absence from

as a reason that they are quite as well if not better printed, and that they are so very much cheaper than the English editions. Another reason adduced for their introduction here, we believe, was the desirability of circulating Mr. Tennyson's writings amongst the working classes. Notwithstanding these representations, the Laureate has, we understand, failed to perceive any necessity for allowing American reprints of his poems to circulate here.

SEVENTEEN highly interesting autograph letters of Lord Byron were sold last month in London by Messrs. Sotheby. They are mostly addressed to Mr. J. Hodgson, and contain numerous passages which have not yet been published.

Saturday

THE fascinations of a literary career, which seem so brilliant when viewed from afar, and through the pleasant illusions of hope and youthful confidence, present but a pitiable appearance in the biographies of most literary men. Experience is daily reading us a homily on the precariousness of the profession, and the habitual improvidence of the professors; but we do not often meet with a sterner warning than is conveyed in the paragraph from the Northern Whig which has been copied into the papers. A man of genius, William Carleton, at an age when even the day-laborer may fold his arms and cease to work, nearly blind, and with fading faculties, at seventy-one has still to struggle on to maintain a large family upon £150 a year, the residue of his pension after the insurance premium is paid. Now when we consider that of all forms of literary work none is so lavishly remunerated as fiction, and that the author of the "Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry" was very popular with readers of fiction, the announcement that William Carleton is in distress implies either the insufficiency of literature as a means of securing a competence even for an author who has considerable success, or else the improvidence which permits a man to make income of his capital, "living from hand to mouth," without any serious forethought of the coming days when failing faculties or waning reputation will no longer secure the income. Read the story how you will, it is one which should arrest the serious thought of the many ambitious aspirants who are tempted to escape the "drudgery" of commerce for the illusory

attractions of literature.

"What can I give thee back, O liberal

And princely giver, who hast brought the gold And purple of thine heart, unstained, untold, And laid them on the outside of the wall In unexpected largesse? am I cold, Ungrateful that for these most manifold High gifts I render nothing back at all? Not so; not cold, but very poor instead. Ask God who knows. For frequent tears have run The colors of my life, and left so dead And pale a stuff it were not fitly done To give the same as pillow to thy head. Go farther! let it serve to trample on." Shakespeare has no finer sonnet than that. The one blemish in it, ("Ask God who knows"), which is apt to excite a feeling of the ridiculous if dwelt upon, is the kind of blemish very frequent in her poems, -a reckless, or at least prodigal, introduction of God and Christ, disturbing the homogeneity of impression; but it is evidently a spontaneous mode of thought with her. I cannot venture to go on quoting passages as I should like to quote and comment, but as a single specimen of the delicate varieties she could throw into the same sentiment, let this little poem be compared with the sonnet just given:

"O, wilt thou have my hand, Dear, to lie along in thine?

As a little stone in a running stream, it seems to lie and
pine.
Now drop the poor pale hand, Dear, unfit to plight with
thine.

"O, wilt thou have my cheek, Dear, drawn closer to thine
own?

My cheek is white, my cheek is worn, by many a tear run down.

Now leave a little space, Dear, lest it should wet thine

own.

"O, must thou have my soul, Dear, commingled with thy
soul?

Red grows the cheek, and warm the hand; the part is in
the whole,
Nor hands nor cheeks keep separate when soul is joined
to soul."

TOUCHING a volume of selections from Mrs. Browning's poems, published by Chapman and Hall, the editor of The Fortnightly Review says: The selection has been made by Browning himself; and the poet's instinct and the husband's reverential love have combined to give this Selection a peculiar artistic interest, over and above the separate interest of each poem. "It has been attempted," he says, "to retain and to dispose the characteristics of the general poetry whence this is an abstract, according to an order which should allow them the prominency and effect they seem to possess when considered in the larger, not exclusively the lesser works of the poet. A musician THOMAS BEWICK has recorded, in his Autobiomight say, such sweet chords are repeated, others graphical Memoir, that in 1812, during his slow remade subordinate by distribution, so that a single covery from a severe illness, he conceived the plan movement may imitate the progress of the whole of a book similar to Croxall's Esop's Fables; and as symphony. But there are various ways of modulat- he gained strength began to draw designs on wood ing up to and connecting any given harmonies; of the fables and vignettes. "In impatiently pushand it will be neither a surprise nor a pain to find ing forward to get to press with the publication, I that better could have been done as to both selec- availed myself of the help of my pupils, - my son, tion and sequence, than in the present case all care William Harvey, and William Temple, who were and the profoundest veneration were able to do." eager to do their utmost to forward me in the enA better selection? Possible; but not to me con-graving business, and in my struggles to get the book ceivable. I read the whole volume through, and ushered into the world." William Harvey, born at felt as if I were reading one work. That is the final Newcastle in 1796, was apprenticed to the great retest of the artistic construction of such a selection; viver of wood-engraving at the age of fourteen. His it is also a test of the unalterable sincerity of the employment during the seven years of diligent apwriter, who expresses her own mind, and is not try-prenticeship was not always of so pleasurable a nature ing experiments on yours. The various poems have as his work upon his master's drawings. Bewick very various degrees of merit, but they have all the was a general engraver, at a time when he himself supreme merit of being genuine. They are songs; was almost the only artist who saw the capabilities musical utterances of thoughts and fancies passing of wood-cuts for the illustration of books. And so through the poet's brain. In affluent felicity of ex- when Harvey sat at the bench in his master's workpression, Mrs. Browning is a study for poets and shop in St. Nicholas Churchyard, Newcastle, patientcritics, even when the thought expressed is of little ly laboring upon shop-cards, and all the other comvalue. We often hear the far-off echo of Shake- mon productions in copper or wood of a country spearian phrase, as, for instance, — engraver, his opportunities for any practical ac