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Saavedra and Don Vicente Valdez meet | gently opened, and a man appeared, dress-
frequently, and in private, at the house of ed in the garb of a cura, or parish priest.
Don Fernando Pinto."
His face was pale, and his look constrained

"Ha! well, that corresponds!" said and downcast. Francia. "What more ?"

"Well, Pai* Melindez, what word from "Manuel Artigas says, that if you com-your penitent ?" inquired the supremo. pel him to pull down his house to form your "Dona Teresa informs me that, from new street, he shall expect compensation." the expressions let fall by her lover, she is "He shall have it-free lodgings in the more than ever convinced that some plot is publie prison; I will have no grumblings at going on in which Saavedra and Vicente my plans for the improvement of my capi- Valdez are concerned. But she cannot actal. Anything more?" quire any certainty with regard to their designs."

"The old Pelado says that you can drive out the Franciscans to-day, but your own turn may come to-morrow.

"He says so the scoundrel! I have long borne with his mutinous expressions. Good! No one suspects you of communicating with me, Estevan ?"

"No, your excellency; thanks to my little office and my management."

"Well, go! Be faithful, and you shall meet with your reward."

The spy departed, and the dictator ringing a bell, a sergeant of the guard entered. "Sergeant," said Francia, "you will take a file of men and arrest Manuel Artigas without delay, and commit him to the public prison. This will serve him for lodgings while his house is pulled down, and teach him discretion. Tell him so. You will then proceed to seize the old Spaniard, Ruiz Palacios, commonly called the Pelado; iron him with a double bar, and have him ready for the banquillo* to-morrow morning, as a warning for all traitors."

"Yes, your excellency. I have to report that the French merchant, Latour, is at the point of death. He is with his family at the house of his father-in-law, Don Pedro Cortina."

"Have you warned her that her salvation depends on bringing you a full and accurate report of all she sees and hears on the subject?"

"Yes, your excellency."

"Well, then, I warn you, Pai Melindez, that your salvation-do you understand? depends on your bringing me a full report of all you see and hear on that and every other subject."

"Yes, your excellency; I endeavor to do my duty," answered the poor priest submissively. "I was this evening at the country-house of Don Enrique Gonsalez, where there was a large tertulia, to celebrate the recovery of his charming wife, after the birth of their fourth child. lovely family is that of Don Enrique.”

A

"Pah!" interrupted the dictator with a scowl. "What is this trash about lovely children and charming wives, with which you are stuffing my ears? Beware, Senor Cura; tell me what is important for me to know, and remember that I have other sources of information to check you if you play me false."

Don Enrique spoke of your excellency, and of the noble manner in which you rescued his patrimony from the clutches of his villanous enemies." "Ha! well?”

"Very well. Place a guard in the dwelling, and also in his warehouse, and at the moment he dies, seize his property for the use of the state. Our treasury is get- "He said that he could not conceive ting low; and whatever happens, my faith-how the Dictator Francia and Dr. Francia ful troops, who love me like children, shall not want their pay. You may go, sergeant."

The soldier departed on his errands of terror, enchanted with the favor shown by his master to the body to which he belonged, and by means of which the crafty despot secured his ascendency over his fellow-citizens, and maintained his arbitrary power. A low knock was then heard; and after a reiterated command to enter, the door was

The "little bench" or stool on which criminals are seated for execution.

the advocate should be the same man."

"Don Enrique has a feeble imagination," said the despot in a dry sarcastic tone. "Well, what else? There was more of it?"

"Yes, your excellency," replied the unhappy priest, twitching at the sleeve of his cassock, and hesitating with a look of distress; "he said that if you continued to add to your prisons, and the number of

*Pai, which signifies "father" in the Guarani or native Paraguayan tongue, is the term by which priests are usually addressed in that country.

their inmates, you would shortly not have subjects at large sufficient to guard those in confinement." "He said that!" exclaimed Francia, pausing for a moment. "The fool! The senseless, babbling idiot! I have spared him so long, because I considered him too weak an enemy to deserve more than contempt. And yet, not appreciating my clemency, he must talk!must express his idle, worthless opinions about my state policy, and do his best to excite disaffection against me. He shall learn, and his associates shall take warning, that I have yet faithful subjects enough to keep watch over all traitors. Begone, Sir Priest!"'

recting my punishment. In return, I will
venture to hope that, if hereafter any mem-
ber of my family should be so unfortunate
as to incur your displeasure, you will par-
don him, remembering that you have al-
ready had one voluntary victim in the
unhappy
JOAQUIM VILLARINO."

The letter fell from the hands of the dictator. An unwonted expression of regret lingered for a moment on his harsh countenance; but it soon passed away, and recovering himself, he observed, loud enough for the captain to hear him, "The poor fool must needs meddle with matters above his sphere; and finding that his imThe curate departed, and the little pertinence offends me, he sees fit to leap tinkling bell summoned a sentinel, whom into the river. Well, so be it! Perhaps Francia directed to call the Captain Or- he is right. He has saved me trouble. begoso. In a few minutes the captain Sooner or later, it must have come to this. made his appearance-a ruffianly-looking No government can endure the officious insoldier, with immense whiskers and mus-terference of unqualified subjects, and it is taches, and dressed in a blue uniform, with necessary," he continued, looking steadily red facings, a blue sash, and epaulets. He at the officer, who quailed beneath his held in his hand a letter, which the dicta-glance, (6 to repress it by any means whattor instantly remarked. Orbegoso, you will take with you "Ah! A petition from my children-twenty dragoons, and proceed to the house of Don Enrique Gonsalez: arrest him instantly; drag him, if need be, out of his bed; convey him to the prison in your barracks; have him heavily fettered, and place him in the dungeon heretofore occupied by Pedro Garcia, who died this morning. There let him rot, as a warning to all impertinent babblers who cannot restrain their tongues from wagging on forbidden subjects. Go!"

my soldiers?" he inquired.

"No, your excellency; it is a letter which was found on the table of poor Villarino. They have just brought his body home from the river."

"What' drowned ?" exclaimed Francia, astonished; and snatching the letter, he tore it open, and read as follows:

"TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE SUPREME

DICTATOR.

soever.

The officer made his obeisance, and departed. The dictator, seating himself "It is now two years since your excel-quietly at the table, lighted a cigar, and lency deigned to cast your eyes on me, and was soon absorbed in a book, utterly reconsider my poor abilities worthy of your gardless of the misery which in a few short service. I appeal with confidence to your hours he had spread around him. excellency to attest the fidelity, the assiduity with which I have devoted myself to the duties of my office. For a single inconsiderate observation, intended for the benefit not less of your government than of our common country, I am driven from your presence, and threatened with the same doom which has overtaken so many worthier citizens before me. I understood but too well the meaning of your excellency's last words. But the name of Villarino shall never, through me, be sullied by the infamy of the banquillo or the state-" Letters on Paraguay" by the Messrs. prison. I do but anticipate my fate, which was sure to overtake me. I spare you the annoyance-may I say the pain?-of di

Some of our readers may share in the doubt of poor Gonsalez-whether it can be possible that the bold, upright, incorruptible advocate described in the first of these scenes, could have become the heartless wily dictator, the suspicious tyrant, who has just been seen ruling a miserable people through the agency of hireling troops, of degraded spies, of jailors and executioners, and all the customary apparatus of despotism. Those of them, however, who may have read the admirable

Robertson, will be aware that all the important incidents of the narrative are strictly true; the only liberties here taken

*

the dungeon, the torture, the ignominious death. Such, by the teaching of history,

with them being in the minor details and descriptive portions of the story. The dictator Francia is one of a long list of examples and the experience of all nations, is the which prove the baneful effect of arbitrary regular and inevitable sequence of results power on the possessor. Before he became which flow from the establishment of an irthe ruler of Paraguay, he was esteemed the responsible authority. No benevolence is only man in the country fitted to govern so hearty, no honesty so pure, no humility it-so high was the confidence in his sa- so lowly, as not to yield at last to the engacity, his firmness, and, above all, his grossing sway of the passion for dominaintegrity. Had he not been trusted with tion. It is therefore no exaggeration to say unlimited command, it is probable that he that the restraints of constitutional forms would have made a most excellent executive are, at least, quite as valuable to rulers as governor. But having once acquired a dic- to their subjects; for if the latter have to tatorial power, his unbounded pride and fear the injurious effects of arbitrary power ambition incited him to use every effort upon their external and temporal prosto retain it. Then followed a prætorian perity, the former have still more to dread soldiery, an all-pervading espionage, se- its subtle and lasting influence upon themvere exactions to supply a failing treasury selves. -rebellions, conspiracies, proscriptions—

From Chambers's Journal.

A STORY OF APSLEY HOUSE.

are but little--not near enough to keep our boy at school. Now, please your majesty, if you would have the goodness to give her the bit of waste ground outside the Park

ONE fine autumn day, in the year 1750, as his majesty George II. was taking a ride in Hyde Park, his eye was attracted by the figure of an old soldier, who was resting on a bench placed at the foot of an old oak-gate, we could build a shed for her fruittree. The king, whose memory of faces stall, and it would be, 1 may say, like an was remarkable, recognised him as a vete- estate to us." ran who had fought bravely by his side in some of his continental battles; and kindly accosting him, the old man, who was lame, hobbled towards him.

"Well, my friend," said the monarch, "it is now some years since we heard the bullets whistle at the battle of Dettingen: tell me what has befallen you since."

"I was wounded in the leg, please your majesty, and received my discharge, and a pension, on which my wife and I are living, and trying to bring up our only son."

"Are you comfortable? Is there anything you particularly wish for ?"

"Please your majesty, if I might make bold to speak, there is one thing that would make my wife, poor woman, as happy as a queen, if she could only get it. Our son is a clever boy, and as we are anxious to give him a good education, we try every means in our power to turn an honest penny; so my wife keeps an apple-stall outside the Park gate, and on fine days, when she is able to be out, she often sells a good deal. But sun and dust spoil the fruit, and rainy weather keeps her at home; so her profits.

The good-natured monarch smiled, and said, "You shall have it, my friend. I wish all my subjects were as moderate in their requests as you." He then rode on, followed by the grateful blessings of his faithful veteran.

In a few days a formal conveyance of the bit of ground to James Allen, his wife, and their heirs for ever, was forwarded to their humble dwelling. The desired shed was speedily erected, and the good woman's trade prospered beyond her expectations. Often, indeed, the king himself would stop at the Park gate to accost her, and taking an apple from her tempting store, deposit a golden token in its place. She was thus enabled to procure a good education for her son, who really possessed considerable talents.

Years rolled on. George II. and the veteran were both gathered to their fathers; but Mrs. Allen still carried on her trade, hoping to lay up some money for her son, who was become a fine young man and had obtained a situation as head clerk in a large haberdashery establishment. He lived with

his mother in a neat, though humble dwell- then, with many tears, related the events of ing, a little way out of the city; and thi- the morning, and concluded by asking him ther he hoped soon to bring a fair young what they were to do. Edward paused. bride, the daughter of a Mr. Gray, a music" And so," said he at length, "the Lord teacher, who resided near them. "Sweet Chancellor has taken a fancy to my Lucy Gray!" as her lover was wont to call her, had given her consent, and the happy day was already fixed.

One morning, however, when Mrs. Allen proceeded as usual to her place of merchandise, she was startled to perceive the space around her fruit-stall filled with workmen conveying stones, mortar, and all the implements necessary for commencing a building. Some were standing round the shed, evidently preparing to demolish it. "Come, old lady," said one of the men, (( move your things out of this as fast as you can, for we can do nothing until the shed is down."

"My shed!" she exclaimed ; 66 and who has given you authority to touch it?"

"The Lord Chancellor," was the reply; "he has chosen this spot for a palace that he is going to build, and which is intended to be somewhat grander than your fruitstall. So look sharp about moving your property, for the shed must come down."

Vain were the poor woman's tears and lamentations; her repeated assertions that the late king had given her the ground for her own, were treated with ridicule; and at length she returned' home, heart-sick and desponding.

Misfortunes, it is said, seldom come alone. That evening Edward Allen entered his mother's dwelling wearing a countenance as dejected as her own. He threw himself on a chair, and sighed deeply. "Oh, mother!" he said, "I fear we are ruined: Mr. Elliot has failed for an immense sum; there is an execution on his house and goods, and I and all his clerks are turned adrift. Every penny we possessed was lodged in his hands, and now we shall lose it all. Besides, there have been lately so many failures in the city, that numbers of young men are seeking employment, and I'm sure I don't know where to turn to look for it. I suppose," he added, trying to smile, "we shall have nothing to depend on but your little trade; and I must give up the hope of marrying sweet Lucy Gray. It will be hard enough to see you suffering from poverty without bringing her to share it."

"Oh, Edward," said his mother, "what you tell me is bad enough; but, my poor boy, I have still worse news for you. She

mother's ground, and her poor fruit-stall must come down to make room for his stately palace. Well, we shall see. Thank God we live in free, happy England, where the highest has no power to oppress the lowest. Let his lordship build on: he cannot seize that which his sovereign bestowed on another. Let us rest quietly tonight, and I feel certain that all will yet be well."

The following day Edward presented himself at the dwelling of the Lord Chancellor. "Can I see his lordship?" he inquired of the grave official who answered his summons.

"My lord is engaged just now, and cannot be seen except on urgent business."

"My business is urgent," replied the young man ; "but I will await his lordship's leisure."

And a long waiting he had. At length, after sitting in an anteroom for several hours, he was invited to enter the audience chamber. There, at a table covered with books and papers, sat Lord Apsley. He was a dignified-looking man, still in the prime of life, with a pleasant countenance and quick penetrating eye. Well, my friend," he said, "what can I do for you?"

"Your lordship can do much," replied Edward; "yet all I seek is justice. You have chosen, as the site for your new palace, a piece of ground which his majesty King George II. bestowed on my parents and their heirs for ever; and since my father's death, my mother has remained in undisturbed possession. If your lordship will please to read this paper, you will see that what I state is the fact.

Lord Apsley took the document, and perused it attentively. "You are right, young man," he said; "the ground is indeed secured to your family by the act of our late gracious sovereign. I took possession of it, believing it to be a waste spot, but I now find I must become the tenant of your surviving parent. What does she expect for it?"

"That," said Edward, "she is satisfied to leave to your lordship. We are confident that the chief lawgiver of our country will do what is just and right.”

"You shall not be disappointed, young

138

golden pippin-tree, which the old lady pronounced to be almost as fine as the apples which his gracious majesty King George II. was wont to select from her stall at Hyde Park Corner.

man," replied the Chancellor. "I was of-garden filling a basket with the fruit of a fered a site for my palace, equally eligible, at a yearly rent of four hundred pounds. That sum I will pay your mother, and have it properly secured to her heirs for ever." Edward thanked his lordship, and respectfully withdrew.

Before a week had elapsed, his mother was established in a neat and comfortable dwelling in one of the suburbs; and ere two had gone by, sweet Lucy (no longer Gray) might be seen in the sunny little

And thus it came to pass that the stately mansion of England's warrior-duke is subject, at the present day, to a ground rent of four hundred pounds a year, payable to the representatives of the old applewoman.

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War is passion's basest game,

Madly played to win a name;

Up starts some tyrant, Earth and Heaven to dare;

The servile million bow:

But will the lightning glance aside to spare
The despot's laurelled brow?

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AIR-Soprano.

Time a checkered mantle wears;
Earth awakes from wintry sleep;
Again the tree a blossom bears,-

Cease, Britannia, cease to weep!
Hark to the peals on this bright May-morn!
They tell that your future Queen is born!

SOPRANO SOLO AND CHORUS.
A Guardian Angel fluttered
Above the babe unseen;

One word he softly uttered-
It named the future Queen:
And a joyful cry through the island rang,
As clear and bold as the trumpet's clang,
As bland as the reed of peace-
"Victoria be her name!"

For righteous triumphs are the base
Whereon Britannia rests her peaceful fame.

QUARTETT.

Time, in his mantle's sunniest fold,
Uplifted on his arms the child;
And, while the fearless infant smiled,
Her happy destiny foretold:-

Infancy, by wisdom mild,

Trained to health and artless beauty;
Youth, by pleasure unbeguiled
From the lore of lofty duty;
Womanhood in pure renown,
Seated on her lineal throne:
Leaves of myrtle in her crown;
Fresh with lustre all their own,
Love, the treasure worth possessing
More than all the world beside,
This shall be her choicest blessing,
Oft to Royal hearts denied."

RECIT. (Accompanied.)-Bass.
That eve the Star of Brunswick shone,
With steadfast ray benign,

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