der.' Not at all, one of them replied; we are sent into a wretched country, where there is nothing else to plunder than the coltages of poor miserable peasants, whilst we leave a rich province, full of gentlemens' seats and opulent villages, which afforded us an inexhaustible source of pillage. But our colonel has incurred the minister's displeasure, and we all bear its weight.' I retired to my own house, and sought a relief in books from the painful ideas which saddened my soul. I chose the famous work of Grotius, and began to read it; but the cool way in which he describes the most cruel actions, and his long and useful definitions of the art of slaughtering our fellow creatures filled me with disgust. Never was such an important subject so ill treated. What! must the surface of the earth be deluged with blood! and shall we prostitute our praise, by bestowing it upon the being who commits numerous murders in the face of day, because the voice of trumpets and the thunder of cannons proclaim them aloud to the admiring world! whilst we hang the obscure robber, who stabs his victims whilst shrouded in midnight darkness. This author clads the hideous fiend of war with a mantle of purple, veils the horror that frowns in its features, and crowns its forehead with a diadem. Then, while the monster reddens with human gore, he prostrates him self, and hails it as the giver of glory and fame. Who, thought I, will dare to strip this idol of its ornaments, to reveal the terrific spectre, who tramples on the gasping corpse of children, maidens, and helpless aged men ; who snuffs exulting the scent of slaughter and death through the vast extent of empires, and hovers over the surface of the ravaged world? I then burned Grotius's book, hoping that this century would not roll over our heads without being honored with a work of a directly opposite tendency. Yielding to the melancholy ideas that stole upon me, I threw myself upon a couch; but scarcely had sleep closed my eyes, when I found I was transported into a foreign land, and stood in a wide extended plain. There more than eighty thousand men had spread their beds of straw beneath light and sheltering tents. Such an interesting spectacle had struck my sight. never Here they seemed to enjoy the pristine liberty of the antediluvian ages, far from the corrupted towns where vice and dissipation hold their court. I approached them; but what was my sorrow, when I perceived they were armed with murderous woapons, when I descried a battery of thirty cannons geomatrically pointed, and, when looking at myself, I saw I was dressed in regimentals, a knapsack on my back, a long tube which dealt forth death loaded my hands, and the infernal bayonet hung by my side. On a sudden the drums were beaten; like Horace and Demosthenes, I philosophically the blasted abode of the damned could not present a more terrific spectacle. Mournful shrieks, the rattling peals of cannon, the burst threw down my arms, and attempt-ing thunder of the bombs deafen ed our ears and hardened every. heart. Panting bodies lay in the midst of expiring horses; others half crushed beneath the merciless feet of men, dragged themselves along the ground, and howling with anguish, called in. vain for mercy. Here, wan and ed to run away; but I was arrested; the names of coward, treacherous mortal, astounded my ears; and I was reminded of the oaths I had taken the night before. Yesterday,' they told me, whilst you were drunk you promised--I promised! Alas! gentlemen, I must have been shamefully in-gory faces, with matted hair, lintoxicated when I promised to slay my fellow creatures.' I was about to make a long speech to prove that I ought not to be compelled to fight, but they would not hear my reasons, and I was dragged away by the obedient crowd. The thunder of man, which in a day destroys more men than the thunder of Heaven does in ages, gave the signal for the battle. The sky was on a sudden wrapped in flames then darkened with clouds of smoke. Hissing bullets flew around us; whilst our officers animated and impelled the obedient files of soldiers, who rushed forward to deluge with their blood the heaps of corpses which strewed the field. Compelled to fire my musket, like the rest of my companions, I shot the empty air, and preferred death to killing a fellow creature. Pale with horror I was forced to proceed; and those who rallied at my fears attempted to drown theirs in strong and in- No one was ever so glad to be toxicating liquors. What a dread-slain as I was at this moment. ful scene was spread around me !" soon lost sight of the field of bat gered gasping in the expectations of death; and there, despair and || suffering, and all the scenes of horror started up by war, all the wounds, the varied torments which it inflicts, burst upon the sight. Nature and humanity were inces-santly outraged by sacrilegious hands; the birds of the air flew away struck with dismay; whilst a cloud of hungrý ravens watched with screams of exultation each bloody carcase, each mangled limb that strewed the earth. pursued my way over the heaps of the wounded, and the teeth of a dying wretch were fastening on my leg, when a man, more impetuous than the fiery courser which he rode, grasping the hair of my uncovered head, lifted high his murderous steel, but a burning cannon ball spared him the trouble of killing me, and scattered afar my lacerated limbs. 1 tle, and of those senseless beings, who, led by a deceitful phantom of glory, slaughter each other. The earth assumed the appearance of a small point faintly lighted; whilst I waded rapidly thro' damp and thick darkness. Instead of the deafening thunders of war, a calm and universal silence reigned around me. Light sport of the winds, I began to feel anxious about my fate, when my feet touched a more solid ground. I then perceived I was become a skeleton of a dazzling whiteness, yet I was not displeased or disgusted with this sudden change. And in reality I cannot conceive why we shrink at the sight of fleshless bones, the timber frame of a building is equally deserving of our admiration as its outward ornaments. My white skeleton soon found itself in company with other skeletons of the same nature, and equally naked. Our bones clashed together, and formed a loud and far-heard rattling noise, which filled me with an involuntary terror, and made me loath my abode. I viewed the surrounding croud with anxiety and apprehension.All their motions were quick and rough, and though reduced to the 'most deplorable state, they held their heads proudly erect. Heavy clouds rolled over us, and darted the flaming arrows of lightning, which shed a red glare over the hovering gloom. (To be continued.) For the Lady's Miscellany. VARIETY. ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. Ways and Means—The captain of a trading vessel having some contraband goods on board, which he wished to land, says to an exciseman or wharfinger (whom he knew) "If I were to put a half crown piece upon each of your eyes, could you see?" The answer was, "No, and if I had another upon my mouth, I could not speak" London pap. A letter with the following superscription was put in the post office of Balbiggrin, in Ireland. TO MR. JOHN WINTERS. New Town Gore-County. Leitrim to be forwarded to Terence Sheanan or to John Owen or Mary Sheanan, all brothers in Conocopel or elsewhere near or about Newton Gore, or somewhere else in that county! Among the presentations to the Queen of England on her birth day (18th January) was Mrs. Pinkney. The fol lowing description of her dress on that occasion is given in all the London papers. Mrs. Pinkney (the American ambassador's lady-Geranium velvet em. broidered silver drapery, festooned with bullion rope and tassels; train of ger anium velvet, embroidered in silverHead dress, feathers and diamonds A singular, though not very moral custom prevails in the island of Port land, near Weymouth, which is very little known. The young men and wo. men of that tsland are allowed to coha. bit previous to marriage, and should no offspring be the consequence, it is deemed a hint from providence that the young folks should not marry, and the parties separate for ever: on the contrary, should any offspring result from this intercourse, it is considered that providence sanctions their union, and the parties are bound in matrimony. EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY. Andrew Pearse, a very industrious man, who works at Messrs. Hare and Son's, floor cloth manufactory, Bristol, was married January 20, 1801, to Hannah Taylor, by whom he has fourteen children in little more than six years, and a speedy prospect of a farther increase to the family. The children consist of three boys, born October 1, 1801; two boys, October 3, 1802; one boy and a girl, July 16, 1803 ; two boys, May 13, 180k; one boy and a girl, February 14, 1805; one boy and a girl, January 14, 1806; one boy, Nov. 16, 1807. An extraordinary circumstance oc⚫urred, a few days ago, at Beddington corner, near the Mitcham, in Surrey— An elderly woman dropped down dead, and fell into a ditch. A coroner's inquest was held and a verdict given— died by the visitation of God. She was buried at Beddington Church; and one of the men who assisted in carrying the body to the ground, on his return home from the funeral, found himself ill, and dropped down dead at the same spot where the woman died. FEMALE HEROISM! Not excelled by four Men, armed with rifles, guns, and dogs. About the beginning of April, as the wife of a Mr. Schott, who lives at Pott's Forge, called Greenwood Forge, in Nor. wegian township, Berks county, (Penn.). in the forenoon was eing to the spring house, (about 100 yards distant from the house) and had opened the door, a large WILD CAT bounced upon hera half grown dog, luckily by, seized the monster, when this female hero caught. bold of one of his hind legs, and so well mauled his head with a wash stick that she could drag him up to the house, where she took up an ax and finally des patched him. He proved to be one of the largest of the Wild Cat kind. It was remarked by our informer, that this woman possessed more courage than four or five men of District township, Berka county aforesaid, who some time since walked in the woods, armed with. guns, rifies, and had dogs with them on purpose for sport, saw one of these Wild Cats about 20 yards before them, concluded best not to molest it-and it is even said, they fled so precipitately over rocks, hedges, &c. that one of their company got sorely bruised, and was likely to lose some of his limbs. of the fellows' lives." We were requested to notice the above duel, but we hope not to be troubled with similar requests in future.-— We wish to exhibit human nature in its most commendable forms, and shall hereafter seldom or ever notice the exploits of either duelists, horse thieves, or pick pockets. A person from London took an inn in a country town in the north, in which there were four others, viz.-The Bear, Angel, Ship, and Three Cups; when, in order to introduce a sign not like theirs, the landlord put up the sign of the White Horse, and under it the following lines: My White Horse shall bite the Bear, And make the Angel fly: -Shall turn the Ship her bottom up, And drink the Three Cups dry. Two persons running against each other in the dark, one angrily cried out, "d-n it, can't you see where you are going?" "No," replied the other, "for it is so dark, that I mistook you for a gentleman." LADY'S MISCELLANY. NEW-YORK, MAY 5, 1810. The price of the Miscelfany is reduced to Two Dollars per annum. The Office of the Lady's Miscellany is removed to No. 317 Water-st. two doors south of Roosevelt-street. Those of our patrons who have changed their residence, will please give notice at the office, in order that they may be served regularly. Our City Inspector reports the death of 38 persons for the week ending on the 21st April last, of the following diseases-Burnt 2, caries 1, consumption 7, convulsions 3, cramp in the stomach 1, debility 1, decay 1, dropsy 1, dropsy in the head 1, inflammatory fever 1, typhus fever 1, infantile flux 1, hives 4, inflammation of the bowels 1, insanity 1, intemperance 1, liver disease 1, old age 1, pleurisy 1, spasms 1, syphilis 2, teething 1, worms 2. Bridget Farrell, a native of Ireland, aged 34 years, and her daughter, a young child, both of whom perished in the late fire in Elm-street. On Monday evening, in a violent gale, the large new Church in the village of Goshen, was completely levelled with the ground, and much other damage done. BONAPARTE'S MARRIAGE. Extract of a letter from Paris, dated March 1, 1810. The splendid and expensive prepara. tions for Napoleon's marriage, are here the sole topics of conversation. He has now condescended to announce that the Austrian grand duchess, Maria Louisa, is the happy or wretched object of his choice. This princess is the daughter of Francis II. the present cmperor of Austrin. She is the grand daughter of |