did of a child's intelligence, namely, as | tions for a public appointment under ence. dizement. When we remember that during his long course of public service he had never set aside the interests of the State in favor of his own, and, so far from profiting by the many opportuBesides two or three comedies, of nities of enrichment that would have which "La Mandragola," so highly presented themselves to a dishonest or praised by Macaulay, is the most cele- avaricious man, he went out of office as brated, and a few pamphlets on Floren-poor, save for a small paternal inherittine government, Machiavelli composed ance, as he went in — when we see that a dialogue on the "Art of War," in the employment he sought in the State which he referred again to his favorite of Florence involved the sacrifice of no idea of a national militia. This work principle, the betrayal of no friend purports to be the full report of certain we cannot resist the conclusion that conversations held between Machiavelli | what impelled him was his consciousand his friends, Rucellai, Colonna, ness of great powers and his wish Buondelmonte, and other noble Floren- to employ them in the service of his tines in the Orécellarii Gardens at Flor-country. ence, so long the haunt of philosophers At last, the way seemed open. The and poets. He concludes with a perora- Studio (or Academy) of Florence comtion marked with the stately and yet missioned him to write the history of impassioned eloquence to which he often rises, when speaking on a subject that lies near his heart: He then, who, being a prince, should yet despise these ideas, despises his kingdom; if a citizen, his city. And I am ill-content with Nature, for either she should have withheld from me the knowledge of these things, or given me power to execute them. Nor, being aged, can I longer hope for any opportunity of executing them, and therefore I have been liberal with you, who, being young and gifted, may be able, if my words have found favor with you, to forward or suggest them at the fitting moment in aid of your prince. And I would wish his city. The death of Leo X. and the six weeks' pontificate of Adrian VI. was followed by the election of Giulio title of Clement VII. Machiavelli was dei Medici to the papal throne, under the once more allowed to enter public life, and was despatched on a diplomatic mission to Rome soon after Clement's accession. We next find him at Venice, sent by the Florentine government on some business of trifling import, which occupied him much less than the movements of the emperor Charles V., whose troops, after the crushing defeat of the French at Pavia, had overrun Lombardy, and were menacing both Florence and Rome. you to feel neither dismay nor distrust, for It is difficult, after reading these words, to attach much weight to those who think that his numerous applica He was denied the sight of that tardy triumph, but, at the same time, a great affliction was spared him. He had not to see his city deprived of the remnant of her liberties, lying prostrate and captive at the feet of her tyrants. He died tive. just at the time when Florence, encour- | gave several instances within his own aged by the weakness of the reigning experience which contradicted it. I pope, made a last effort for freedom. transcribe the most striking, filling up Returning from a mission to Rome, he the gaps of a brief and hurried narrahad found the Medici expelled, and a free government established, in which, however, there was no place for him. His acceptance of office under the Medici had ruined him with the party now temporarily in power, and, while measures were being hastily taken to reconstitute the republic, and put the city in a state of defence, he had to stand aside, suspected and unemployed. This cruel mortification, acting on a state of health already delicate, and much impaired by toil and fatigue, brought on an illness, of which he died, on June 22, 1527. He was buried at Santa Croce, where in 1787 a monument was erected to him, with the hearty cooperation, it is curious to note, of the reigning grand-duke. It bears his name and the dates of his birth and death, with this inscription only added : Tanto nomini nullum par elogium. From Temple Bar. He was sitting one night in the upper story of his fort, which overlooks the great Rejang River. The newest literature of the Sarawak Library had just come to hand, in its slow circuit of the out-stations. The Rejang residency is not very far from the capital, and news often reached my friend within three months of date. After exhaustive study of the newspapers and magazines, he forwarded them to his nearest colleague, and so, getting more and more limp, they circulated, until the resident of Bintulu thought himself lucky to be reassured as to the continued existence of Europe above ground five months ago. Even that speed was possible only in the dry season. During the rains no mail could be forwarded for weeks at a time. I should put these statements in the past tense, for the new rajah's fleet of steamers and swift gunboats has probably amended the former state of things. It will be conceived that residents were happy when the post came in. My friend Lord is an officer in the After devouring his private correspondSarawak service. I made his acquaint-ence, Lord stretched himself upon a ance nineteen years ago, when travel- heap of furs, topped by a mat to check ling through the dominions of Rajah the rising warmth; filled his glass of Brooke, and many pleasant hours we schnapps, well watered; laid a box of spent together, in forest, on wide, silent No. 3 cheroots in easy reach; comstreams, or in the quaint bazaars of manded silence in the fort, and preKuching. Our correspondence had pared for an evening at home, in all never quite ceased when Lord wrote me that he was coming home on leave, and my heart rejoiced. I gathered a small company of friends, such as could talk with a man who had passed half his life in the jungle, and I think they all admit that Sunday afternoon to have been one of the pleasantest and most interesting they remember. Many stories Lord related, in the thoughtful and impressive manner which men learn in a solitary existence amongst savages. Somebody remarked that romantic and chivalrous passion could not be found in Moslem people. My friend did not agree with this common belief, and he senses of the expression. I can fancy the picture, for often I beheld its like. The fort, built of solid timbers, had a ground floor, empty and dark. As with all other buildings of that country, its inhabitants lived up above, on the spacious first floor, which had two chambers, of great size, and the closet where Lord slept. One was the armory and magazine, where lounged fortmen off duty, playing chess upon the mats, or gossiping, or chanting in low tones love poetry, or verses of the Koran. This evening they had thrown aside their uniform, and lay in trousers only, or in petticoats of dull red tartan; a solitary candle flared on their supple, yellow | Such a night and such a scene had been shoulders. Down the room some hun- familiar to Lord for many years. He dreds of rifles were stacked, and light did not feel the savage solitude which guns stood muffled behind the closed would have chilled a stranger. embrasures. The front hall, larger still, A sentry challenged below, and his looked across the river. Here, in cry was echoed from the balcony. Solgroups around their guns, peeping diers raised themselves to listen, but through the embrasures, and ready for Lord did not stir, deep in some bit of instant service, sat the fortmen on duty, news, discussed, worn out, and forgotin blue jackets, red sashes, snowy trou- ten long ago in Europe. A trade-boat sers, and head-handkerchiefs. There was passing, maybe, or sick revellers is no soldier neater than your Malay; returning from a week's festivity, or a he loves to wash both his garments and lover was detected stealing by. The his person. Smoking is forbidden on sentry's voice could be heard again in guard, but the bronze box containing questioning, impatient tone. Then the penang, areca-nut, pepper-leaf, chalk or Malays began to laugh, and one near lime, and tobacco, was pushed quietly the magazine called softly: "Madoud, along the floor, and a ceaseless stream eh Madoud! luck has come for you of red saliva stained the mats. Very Presently arrived the sergeant of the quietly the men chatted under their outer guard. He reported gravely that breath, laughed softly, and watched the a young girl from the Suei River asked Tuan Roseden (resident) studying the to see the Tuan Roseden. mysterious doings of Belât. On the balcony outside each angle, and on the platform below, stood sentries, watching the river. For, though piracy and head-taking had already been suppressed, those evil habits would certainly have revived, as they would now, on signs of carelessness. Young men heated mind as well as body at the midnight fire of their jungle homes, when grey-haired pirates recounted their exploits of another day. Though more rarely with each year, canoes still slipped up or down, and tried to pass the fort in darkness, with muffled paddles. It was the night for such an enterprise; So black that the portholes seemed to frame a square of ebony, and the broad, open lattice between roof and walls glimmered against the sky. All the light in the vast guardroom was furnished by a lamp upon the floor beside the resident. The shadow of his table fell in a great black smirch on walls and open roof; the whispering soldiers loomed misshapen and gigantic; dimly seen in corners, and at the foot of enormous posts, furry heaps lay rolled around big monkeys, slumbering with their arms across their eyes. No sound came from without, saving the murmur of the flooded stream, and the monotonous evensong of crickets in the trees. יי ! Lord threw down his papers in a rage. Woman brings trouble to the philosopher and the recluse in every land; but special circumstances make her an object of dread to magistrates in the East. The sex is not less enterprising nor more reasonable in Borneo than elsewhere, and female activity results in a row, as a general thing. When this disaster happens, the fair one appeals to her kindred, so does the injured male, and Lothario frequently heads a third party. In the troubles of married life, however, there is always a consolation fund, so to put it, in the dowry, which distracts the attention of all concerned. But when scandal arises about a young girl there is seldom a by-issue ; the loss to her family is direct. The lover may or may not be able, may or may not be willing to make compensation; and in any case the avenging kinsman will probably not wait to see, if they catch the fugitive. This girl was not even a subject of Sarawak; the Suei River lies in the sultan's territory. International complications on the top of family broils! Lord swore at the prospect; his Malays grinned, nudging one another. He seated himself at his official table, and placed the lamp thereon. The girl was ushered in; those fortmen loung "I did not know the Dayang's intention, Tuan! I am sorry she has come !" But the light in his eyes contradicted him. "What is your family ?" 66 My father was Pangeran Douroup, head chief of the Suei River. He is dead, and our people have all left. My brothers sailed to Sulu, and I do not know what has become of them. When I grew to be a man, I crossed into Sarawak, and enlisted with the English rajah." Lord saw the whole story. “Step out, Madoud ! " he cried in passion. The youth stood forward frankly, and saluted. A tall young fellow, for his race, fair-skinned and well-featured. A very shadowy moustache edged his lips, proof almost positive of Arab blood; his frayed sarong was silk, broidered with gold, his head-handkerchief had a "Have you property? Would Pantrimming of rusty gold lace. Madoud geran Musahor give you his daughter to was evidently a scion of good stock, wife ?" down in the world. "I have property. But Pangeran "Who is this girl, and why does she Musahor would not give me Dayang come after you? "Come nearer!" Lord said to the girl, when they were left alone. Why, you are wet through.' 66 Isaka." Why?" Madoud was silent. "What is to be the end of this?" Lord continued after a pause. "The Merciful One knows! You will not give her up, Tuan!" At this point Isaka returned, clad in Lord's bathing petticoats. Her streaming wet hair had served the purpose of a veil when she entered; it was now caught up, knotted, and adorned with a few blossoms of gardenia. Flowers of some kind are indispensable for the Malay girl's toilette; Isaka had helped herself from the tray placed as usual on Lord's dressing-table. In pretty embarrassment she tried to conceal her features with a handkerchief, gripped in her little teeth; but it dropped when she spoke, and great was her confusion. Isaka would have been thought pretty My canoe was leaky," she faltered. "It sank at the landing-place." "Have you come from Sibungan in anywhere. She was slender and graceit? How many days have you been out?" "Two days in the river, Tuan, and two days at sea, and two days up to this place." ful as a nymph of the woods, with large, thoughtful eyes and tiny mouth. Her nose was not perfection, truly, but for a girl of her race singularly good. Surveying the frightened, childish little "It leaked all the time?" beauty who had made such a desperate "Yes, Tuan! It was an old canoe venture for love, Lord swore to protect which I found." her, if it might be. The answer was inconsequential, but Lord understood. This Malay chief Isaka questioned had no suggestion. | at Satang. But Limoung, my brother, The full extent of her design was now has one ready to start. He will be achieved. Lord did not comprehend at glad to lend it, for Pangeran Musahor is first, and felt suspicious. "What?" he rich!" sternly said. "A girl of high rank has spirit to elope, to go unveiled amongst men, to risk perils which a warrior saw no course possible but the instant would not face composedly, for the purpose of joining her lover- this I believe, for I see it. But do not tell me that the same girl has formed no plan to escape the consequences of her act. Why, Dayang, that must be a wicked woman or a fool who would bring death upon her lover and herself, on others also perhaps, for a whim!" Isaka began to cry. Madoud looked at once in the dark. The chief pergrave. ceived this, and with evident distaste "What did you think of during these he proposed to lodge her in his own six days' journey?" despatch of Isaka to her parents. As he thought, so would all his fellows. By no law, English or native, could a free-born child be sheltered who complained of no ill-treatment, who had left her father's house to pursue a lover unsuitable. The Tuan Resident could not dispute this view, and his heart failed him. But Isaka must not be started off harem. Lord knew what moral tor "Of Madoud," she sobbed, "and of ments there awaited her, and knew also keeping the canoe afloat ! " "Do you mean to swear you have no friends in this country who will take your side?" None, Tuan, by the Prophet! I thought the English rajah would protect me, if only I got here. Madoud is his trusty servant ! " Her frankness was patent. But if, upon the one hand, some further complications were avoided by the Dayang's friendlessness, upon the other an urgent difficulty arose. The fort was no proper residence for a Malay girl of birth, and he dared not trust her outside. Telling Isaka to veil herself, Lord summoned the guard to re-enter, and before them all he sent Madoud to fetch Nikodah Bakeer, oldest and most respectable of Malay chiefs in the town. The youth departed, Isaka withdrew to the bedroom, and Lord returned to his newspapers with a mind ill at ease. that she might be spirited beyond his reach by dawn. He suggested, therefore, as an alternative, that two trustworthy female slaves should be sent to pass the night with Isaka. In the second place, he begged the chief to take Madoud in charge, and keep him in safe custody till further orders. Nikodah Bakeer reluctantly consented. Madoud set off, in great bewilderment, between two soldiers, whilst Isaka, who heard the conversation, audibly bemoaned her fate. Presently arrived the slaves, in charge of the returning fortmen. Only to hear their silly voices, and impudent laughter, Lord knew what an insult had been passed upon the Dayang, and indirectly on himself. In place of elderly and respectable females, Nikodah Bakeer had sent the two most flighty servants of his household; intimating thereby that Isaka could expect no better com An hour afterwards came the Niko-pany henceforward. dah, a withered veteran, pirate in youth, The slaves came up, good-looking trader in middle age, and now devotee. girls of their class, with bold eyes. To him the story was revealed in pub- They stared about curiously, seeking lic, and greatly did it move him, though and finding recognition from the forthe listened without a word. The beads men. Lord sternly ordered them into of his rosary, rattling between nervous the bedroom, and resumed the study of fingers, testified anger and disgust. his mail. But a story more interesting When all was told, the Nikodah mut- far was working itself out in his own tered two or three short prayers, and jungle residence at the moment, and said: " My boats are loading cocoanuts Lord's attention flagged. His troubles |