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My dear Niece,

Be not surprised at the receipt of this letter or the subject of it. To congratulate you in the most tender manner, upon your approaching nuptials with that amiable youth, the dauphin, was the original design of this epistle; but I found, whilst my heart dictated felicitation to you, to me it intimated the most poignant sorrow.

When I reflect on the many happy years that await you, united in those indissoluble bonds of felicity, with a prince, whose transcendant virtues, and personal accomplishments, place him, as well by birth as merit, in the most exalted point of view, and render him at once the admiration of the women and the envy of the men; and then compare the reverse of my fortune-doomed to celibacy, though my heart has long made its choice, and fixed its immovable affection on him who is truly worthy of it. What a cruel reflection! what a dreadful perspective! deprived even of hope, or the probability of even surmounting the prejudices of custom, annexed to my lamentably elevated situation.

How very unfortunate is my lot-born a princess, to be miserable! Oh! that fate had decreed me the most humble station!—at least, one far beneath my present! I might then have been happy, too happy, with the worthiest of men (for it is in vain to conceal my passion), the marquis Turbilly: but I am for ever debarred his sight! forbid evermore to think of him! Why were weak mortals born with passions, if they are not to be gratified? Why, from the weakest of the human species, is the most heroic fortitude to be exacted? Man, lawless man, in every department of life, may rove without controul through all the labyrinths of love; in them it is considered, if not meritorious, the slightest crime.

But, wherefore should I lament? There is a road still left me; the cloister alone can afford relief! Thither will I fly; there shall my future days be spent in praying for your welfare, and in religious contemplation; forgetting I am a woman, my soul will soar to heaven and to futurity.

Not all the charms of grandeur-the allurements of the most polished and brilliant court in Europe-neither the solicitations of relations, nor the interpositions of friends, can make me swerve from a resolution I have taken, to leave a world that can afford me no happiness, deprived of the only object capable of communicating it.

Farewell, most lovely princess,

LOUISA.*

The princess Louisa adhered to her resolution, and retired to a convent,

where she spent the remainder of her days.

THE SNOW-SPIRIT.

(Written in Bermuda.)

No! ne'er did the wave in its element steep
An island of lovelier charms;

It blooms in the giant embrace of the deep,
Like Hebe in Hercules' arms.

The tint of your bowers is balm to the eye,
Their melody balm to the ear;

But the fiery planet of day is too nigh,

And the snow-spirit never comes here.

The down from his wings is as white, as the pearl Thy lips for their cabinet stole,

And it falls on the green earth, as melting, my girl, As a murmur of thine on the soul.

Then fly to the clime where he pillows the death,
As he cradles the birth, of the year;

Bright are your bowers and balmy your breath,
But the snow-spirit never comes here.

How sweet to behold him, when borne on the gale,
And brightening the bosom of morn,
He flings, like the priest of Diana, a veil
O'er the brow of each virginal thorn.

But think not the veil he so chillingly casts,
Is the veil of a vestal severe :

No, no! you will see what a moment it lasts,
Should the snow-spirit ever come here.

Then fly to his region, lay open his zone,
And he'll weep all his brilliancy dim,
To think that a bosom as white as his own,

Should not melt in the day-beam like him.

Oh! lovely the print of those delicate feet,
On his luminous path will appear;
Fly! fly! my beloved, this island is sweet,
But the snow-spirit cannot come here.

THE PERSIAN LETTERS.

IN the Persian Letters, by lord Lyttleton, as originally published, the imaginary Persian writes to his friend at Ispahan an account of his introduction to the house of lords, and, after giving a general description of its appearance and character, he proceeds to state, that, in a certain part it, there was a considerable body of personages distinct in figure from the other nobles, being peculiarly habited in robes of white and black, who, (adds the Persian) "from such observations as I am qualified to make, appear to have no kind of business there." It is, however, a remarkable circumstance, that this passage has been omitted in the several editions of the Persian Letters, which were published after the noble author's reverend brother had been elected to a seat on the episcopal bench.

THE ROBBERS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

It appears from a letter of Lupus, abbot of Ferrières, in the ninth century, that the highways were then so much infested by banditti, that it became necessary for travellers to form themselves into companies, or caravans, that they might be safe from the assaults of robbers. The numerous regulations published by Charles the Bold, in the same century, discover the frequency of these disorders; and such acts of violence were become so common, that by many they were hardly considered as criminal; and for this reason, the inferior judges, called centenarii, were required to take oath that they would neither commit any robbery themselves, nor protect such as were guilty of that crime. The historians of the ninth and tenth centuries give pathetic descriptions of their outrages. They became so frequent and audacious, that the authority of the civil magistrate was unable to repress them. The ecclesiastical jurisdiction was called in to aid it. Councils were held with great solemnity; the bodies of the saints were brought thither, and, in presence of their sacred relics, anathemas were denounced against robbers and other violators of the public peace. One of these forms of excommunication, issued in the year 988, is still preserved, and is remarkable for the eloquence with which it is composed.

After the usual introduction, and mentioning the outrage which gave occasion to the anathema, it runs thus:

"Obtenebrescant oculi vestri qui concupiverunt ; arescant manus, quæ rapuerunt; debilitentur omnia membra quæ adjuverunt. Semper laboretis, nec requiem inveniatis, fructuque vestri laboris privemini. Formidetis, et paveatis a facie persequentis et non persequentis hostis, ut tabescendo deficiatis. Sit portio vestra cum Judâ, traditore Domini, in terrâ mortis ac tenebrarum; donec corda vestra ad satisfactionem plenam Ne cessent a vobis hæ maledictiones scelerum vestrorum persecutrices, quamdiu pennanebitis in peccato pervasionis. Amen. Fiat, fiat."-Bouquet; Recueil des Hist. tom. x. p. 517.

convertantur.

(Translation.)

"MAY your eyes, that have coveted, be darkened! May those hands, that have robbed, be withered up! May all the limbs, that have helped, be enfeebled! May ye always labour, but never find rest! and may ye be deprived of the fruit of your labour! May ye be in fear and dread from the face of the enemy, whether he pursue, or do not pursue you, that by wasting away you may at length be consumed! May your portion be with Judas, who betrayed our Lord, in the land of death and darkness, 'till your hearts are converted to make full satisfaction! May these curses, taking vengeance on your wickedness, never cease their effect on you, as long as you remain in the sin of robbery. Amen. So be it, so be it."

KNIGHTS ROBBERS.

IN the Dictum de Kenilworth, made in the fifty-first year of the reign of Henry III. there is the following curious clause: "Knights and esquires who are robbers, and among the principal robbers in wars and plunderings, if they have no lands, but have goods, shall pay half of their goods for their redemption, and find sufficient surety henceforth to keep the peace of the king and kingdom.”

ADDITION TO THE APOCRYPHA.

THE following very curious document is taken from a small volume, entitled, "The Thyrd Boke of the Machabees, not found in the Hebrew Canons, but translated out of the

Greke into Latyne, and taken in the steede of one of the Bookes of Holy Scripture, worthy to be reade by all godly men; never before set forth in the Englesh tounge." It is dedicated "to the ryghte noble and virtuose lady, lady Anne Douchesse of Somerset, &c. by her most bounden and daily oratour, Gwalter Lynne, wyshedd aboundance of all grace and godlyness; with a lounge and prosperous estate to God his honour, and your grace's health and salvatyon." The title page states it to have been "imprinted at London for Gwalter Lynne, dwellyng in Somers Keye, by Billynsgate, in the year of our Lord, MDL. cum priv. ad imprimand. solum." The book consists of seven chapters, of which the following is a specimen :

"Herein it is declared, the fearfull punyshmente of the blasphemous tyranny of Ptolemeus.-Item, What myschefe he dyd afterwards enterpryse againste the Jewes, whiche God nevertheles dyd gracyously withstand, and brought it to a good ende, thereby sygnyfying unto us, that the hartes of kinges and princes, and of all men, are in his hande.-Proverb xxii. Regum 1. c. d. i. Hester vi. 6.—And that no man shall be confounded that putteth his trust and confidence in hym, Esaye xlix. c. xxviii. c. lvii. 6.—Psal. xxv. a. 31. a. xxvii. c, lxxi, a. Roman ix. d. v. a. &c.

66 CHAP. I.

"When Philopater had understood by thoos that were comen agayne, that Antiochus had taken from hym suche holds as he had, he raysed all his army, as well foot as horsemen, and taking with hym his sister Arsinoe, he ranne out even as farre as the countries of Raphia, that were borderinge upon hym, where Antiochus' host camped; and one Theodotus, thynkynge to brynge the matter to pass, by crafty traines, when he hadde taken the strongest men of armies that were put unto hym by Ptolemeus: in the night, he gat him to Ptolemeus tent, to kill him unawares, and so make an end of the battel. But Dositheus, called the son of Drimilius, a jew borne, and afterwards forsaking the law, and tourned from his father's ordinances, which was hired for the purpose, put in his stead, in the tent, another poore man, which chanced to be slayen, for hym; and as they fought fiercely together, but Antiochus moare, Arsinoë went diligently about her men, weeping pitifully, her heare about her shuldars, and desired them that they would helpe her valiantly, promysing to give to every of there wyfes and children, yf he had the victory, two pounds of gold. Thys it chaunced that their enemies

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