darest thou enter my domain? Have I not long since forbidden thy detested race to approach my palace? But instant death shall be the punishment of thy presumption." With these words the giant, brandishing his club, hastened towards Jaroslaw, who fearlessly struck the cords of

Next morn, or ere the dawn of day,
Came the bride and wedding-folk so gay;

The wine-cup circled, with good cheer;
But where tarries Sir Oluf, my bridegroom
dear?"

"Sir Oluf with horse and hound is gone
To the forest, and will be here anon."
To his chamber soon the damsel sped;
There lay Sir Oluf—he was dead!

At the first note the giant drop

And a pair of gold spurs I'll present to thee,

And a shirt of silk most fair and white,

began to play a lively interlude, he immediately fell to leaping and capering, as if he had been bitten by: a tarantula; and by the time the shepherd had finished the song, his enemy sunk to the ground completely exhausted with the severe exertion. Jarosław, thinking it not advisable to allow so strong and so dangerous an adversary time to recover his strength, ran up to him, and touched him with the ivory staff, on which he instantly expired. The conqueror could not suppress his curiosity to search the garment of his vanquished

light."

And when he reach'd his castle-gate,

His mother all trembling the.e did wait; In anxious tone, said she, "My son, Why art so pale? Why lookst so wan?"-"Wan, mother, and pale! Ah! well I might; I have been in the Erl-king's domain tonight."

"Dear, my child, say not so," she sighed, “Or what shall I tell thy buxom bride?”— "Tell her, with horse and hound I'm gone To the forest, but shall be bark anon."

key. Haha! thought he, to this key there must certainly be a lock somewhere in this valley, and to the lock a house, or some other building, and it would be a shame to return without discovering it. He therefore collected his flock, and drove it forward in high spirits. He had gone scarcely a mile when he perceived a magnificent palace, built of black marble: he went up to it, and, behold! the key exactly fitted the lock of the door, which he opened. At that moment he heard a loud neighing in the stable, which was exactly opposite to the entrance, and when he reached it, he saw an exquisitely beautiful coal-black horse, which pawed the ground, as if im-... patient of inactivity. The bold youth, delighted with the handsome spirited animal, sprung upon his back,

by delicious hills. Presently a giant advanced towards him: he was much taller than the other, so that the youth could have walked upright between his legs. In other respects he was not so hideously ugly as the other; he was of the ordinary colour of men, dressed in a white woollen garment, and armed with a sickle of polished steel. This white giant called out as furiously as his black brother to the shepherd, when at the distance of several hundred paces, asking, how he had come thither, and what business he had on his domain. Jaroslaw, not in the least intimidated, replied, "Take my advice, Mr. Giant, and don't be quite so haughty. I have humbled the pride of one such as thou already. I am come hither because I had a mind to see this valley, and to let my sheep graze in these rich pastures; and if thou dost not molest me, I will neither rob thee of any thing, nor do thee any other injury." The giant was too much astonished at the hardihood of the diminutive intruder to be able to reply, but raised his sharp sickle to dispatch the young shepherd. Jaroslaw immediately began to play on his lute, and to sing a jolly hunting song; and the white giant fared no better than his black brother: he began to leap and caper, but was able to continue the exercise much

longer. The shepherd several times repeated his song, and played till his arm sunk with fatigue from the instrument; but the giant had not yet danced away all his strength. When the music ceased, he recovered himself, stepped up close to the youth, and again raised his tremendous sickle; but Jaroslaw nimbly slipped between his legs, at the same time touching one of them with his staff, on which his enormous antagonist immediately dropped down dead, and would have crushed him in his fall, had he not sprung aside with all his agility.

Jaroslaw, as before, searched the garments of the giant, and found a key cut out of a single precious stone; and he had not gone much farther when a wonderful palace of crystal appeared before him. The key opened the gate, and he found every thing arranged here in the same manner as in the other: a noble horse, a fold full of sheep, all sorts of costly furniture; in the hall a complete suit of armour, with shield, sword, and lance, and also a table, upon which was placed a flaggon of wine, but every thing of a white colour. On the table was this inscription in black letters: "Drink without fear: he who can empty this flaggon may defy the devil himself." (To be continued.)

nation, render them more susceptible of momentary inspiration. We tramontane frost-bitten personages cannot think of these things; we have enough to do to make both ends meet. We toil from morning Q

till night to provide sustenance for ourselves and our offspring; and the sustenance craved by a tramontane stomach is exceedingly substantial: it would satisfy to repletion three Italians in good health. The Neapolitan groom of the writer of this, who had to find his own board, could make a hearty dinner upon a small raw cucumber, with an onion and a moderate piece of bread; and if he happened to be luxuriously inclined, a farthing's-worth of iced water from the stall at the corner of the street would complete his repast. Offer this fare to an English groom, and what would be his answer?

But to return to Mr. Pistrucci, the first, as far as we recollect, who displayed the improvisatore talent before a London audience. We went to the Argyll-Rooms at his last exhibition (23d June), and we can safely aver, that he equalled, if not surpassed, the best improvisatori we heard in Italy.

As many of our readers may wish to form some idea of the nature of such a display, we shall briefly state what we saw and heard.

Before the appearance of Mr. P. in the saloon, any person of the audience was at liberty to drop into a vase on the table a written subject. Many availed themselves of the opportunity, and when the seer entered, he had to open some fifteen or eighteen papers, propounding, among others, the following subjects (in Italian):

The Death of Lord Byron, The Lover tricked,

Mr. Pistrucci, after pausing one mo

ment, began to string the whole of these subjects into connected poetry, which, like almost all his subsequent deliveries, he sang to the accompaniment of a player on the piano-forte.

"The Death of Lord Byron" followed next, and some of the ideas Mr. P. introduced were select and pathetic. Byron's shade, he exclaimed, at the close of one stanza, will ever haunt tyrants and slaves! As there were many foreign Liberals in the room, the sentiment met with liberal applause.

es four

Mr. P. then offered to sing an opera in two acts upon any of the given themes; and l'Amante burlato, "The Lover tricked," was selected by the audience. He forthwith proclaimed, with much humour, the dramatis persona, and proceeded, partly by recitative, and partly by songs, deep into the first act. But as a two-act opera was no trifle in point of time, he left off, with the approbation of the audience. There was naturally a certain proportion of common-place work in this extempore drama, but some good hits nevertheless kept the interest alive. The old gentleman in love was railed at by his servant, who compared his master to Mount Etna, full of fire within and snow without. We thought this very fair, off hand.

The description of " A Dandy" had many humorous and laughable points.

But Mr. P. appeared to the greatest advantage in his impromptu poem, "The End of the World," or "The last Judgment." This he delivered in declamation without music, and the subject must have been congefor he often nial to his poetical vein, displayed a fervour and pathos APproaching sublimity, which made a