and seeing a second arrow in his quiver, asked him. what that was for? Tell replied, evasively, that such was the usual practice of archers. Not content with this reply, the vogt pressed on him farther, and assured him of his life, whatever the arrow might have been meant for. "Vogt," said Tell, "had I shot my child, the second shaft was for thee; and be sure I should not have missed my mark a second time!" Transported with rage, not unmixed with terror, Gesler exclaimed: "Tell! I have promised thee life, but thou shalt pass it in a dungeon."

171. Accordingly he took boat with his captive, intending to transport him across the lake to Kussnacht in Schroytz, in defiance of the common right of the district, which provided its natives should not be kept in confinement beyond its borders. A sudden storm on the lake overtook the party; and Gesler was obliged to give orders to loose Tell from his fetters, and commit the helm to his hands, as he was known for a skilful steersman. Tell guided the vessel to the foot of the great Axemberg, where a ledge of rock, distinguished to the present time as Tell's platform, presented itself as the only possible landing-place for leagues around. Here he seized his cross-bow, and escaped by a daring leap, leaving the skiff to wrestle its way in the billows. The vogt also escaped the storm, but only to meet a fate more signal from Tell's bow in the narrow pass near Kussnacht. There, from the top of a rock, William, looking steadfastly at Gesler, and placing his arrow on the string, directed it to the heart of the tyrant, who fell, venting his rage and fury against the Swiss patriot.

MOTION OF OUR GLOBE.

172. This diurnal sphere on which we live would alone evince the power of its Almighty maker. When we consider its magnitude, its daily rotation, its annual revolution, the rapidity of its course, and reflect how vast must be the power to move this single mass, we are lost in amazement, and humbled under a deep sense of our own weakness. It was calculated by an astronomer, that with a lever, whose fulcrum was six hundred miles from the earth's centre, and with a moving power equal to two hundred pounds in weight, or the power of an ordinary man, and in velocity equal to a cannonball, placed at the immense distance of twelve quadrillions of miles, it would require twenty-seven billions of years to move the earth one inch. How vain would be the united force of all the human beings that now people the earth to produce even this effect!

173. Yet our globe rushes onward in its course, at the rate of one thousand miles a minute. But what is our earth to the planet Saturn, which is more than one thousand times bigger than this sphere of ours? What is it to the sun, nearly a million times greater? What is it to the whole planetary and cometary systems? Only one of five hundred masses. What is the planetary system itself? It is nothing when compared to the universe-nothing to the thousands and thousands of systems, each enlightened by its sun and stars, extending through the immensity of space. From the nearest of these stars or suns, our distance is not less than thirty-seven billions of miles; and when we reflect that luminous bodies are discoverable by the telescope, whose light, if we may credit the calculations of an eminent astronomer, has been nearly two millions of years in reaching our globe, though moving at the rate of more than ten millions of miles in a minute, what a conception does this give of the universe!

ABD-EL-KADER.

Born in 1806, at Gaetna (Africa).

174. There are few men of the present day whose career has attracted so much attention as that of Abd-el-Kader, and of whose character so little that can be relied upon is known. Independently of the portraits in which he is alternately represented as a hero or a cruel savage, the vulgar appetite for the wonderful, with the assistance of the public press, has spread abroad a thousand anecdotes, most of them without the slightest foundation, which add much to the difficulty of arriving at the truth. My impression, however, is that his character may be defined in a few words. Ardently desirous of power, his ambition, strengthened by his talents, and confirmed by his religion, exerts a paramount influence over all his actions.

175. In the prime of life, he is described as small of stature, with regular features, a pleasing expression, and of mild and gentle manners. Daringly active both in mind and body, he has taken advantage of circumstances to place himself at the head of the Arab tribes discontented with Christian rule, and unwilling to submit to the restraints of a regular government. For this position his talents, piety, and lineal descent from the Prophet, through his only daughter, Fatima, eminently qualify him. Whatever his motive, be it religious ardour, patriotism, or ambition, he is a brave man, and a skilful leader, struggling for the liberties of the people of his fatherland, and as such he is deserving of our sympathies.

TUNIS.

A SLIGHT SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY.

176. The city of Tunis, although, according to the ancient historians, founded at an earlier period than that of Carthage, was of little importance until

* after the final destruction of that city by the Saracens, A.D. 698; up to this time she had shared the varying fortunes of her powerful neighbour, falling successively into the hands of the various nations that had made Africa their battle-ground. Safe, however, in her apparent insignificance, she still exists, and is the capital of a sovereign state, whilst generation after generation have grown their crops where Carthage stood. Under the Mahometan rule, Tunis gradually increased in consequence. Foreign warfare, intestine discord, and frequent revolutions, contributed to divide the African conquests of the Saracens into independent states. The holy city of Kairouan, after a time, ceased to be the capital, and Tunis became the seat of government of that state to which she has given her name.

177. Until the early part of the sixteenth century there is little to be related of general interest, except the expedition of St. Louis, at the head of the sixth crusade, in 1270, and his death amid the ruins of Carthage. In 1531 the younger Barbarossa, assisted by a Turkish force, treacherously seized upon Tunis, on the pretext of restoring Alraschid, the elder brother of the reigning prince, and in whose name he professed to act, pretending that he had left Alraschid, whom he had put to death at Constantinople before the expedition sailed, sick on board his vessel. Four years after, Barbarossa was driven, after a gallant defence, from his newly-acquired possession by Charles V., who replaced Muley-Hassan upon the throne as his tributary, requiring from him six horses and as many hawks, as an annual token of his vassalage; the emperor, moreover, retained the Goletta, and all the fortified seaports. This state of affairs did not last long; the Spanish garrisons were expelled by the Turks, and Tunis became a province of the Porte.

178. In 1655 Admiral Blake, with an English fleet, memorable as the first that had entered the Mediterranean since the time of the Crusades, anchored in the bay, and demanded the release of the

English captives. The Turkish viceroy, in reply, insolently desired him to look at his castles of Porto Farino and the Goletta, and do his utmost. The admiral laid his vessels close in shore, destroyed the defences of the castles, landed his crews, burnt the Tunisian fleet, and released the English prisoners. Thirty years after this occurrence the Tunisians, dissatisfied with the Turkish rulers they received from Algiers, revolted, elected a Bey from among themselves, and declared the sovereignty hereditary. The Porte, not being then in a condition to maintain its claims, tacitly acquiesced in this arrangement; since which time the Beys of Tunis, although nominally subject to the Sultan, have been virtually independent princes.

179. Tunis, with a population, as nearly as it can be estimated, of 120,000 inhabitants, stands close to the western edge of the lake, surrounded by a wall pierced with numerous outlets; the suburbs on the northern side of the city are also enclosed by a wall of more recent construction, defended by occasional bastions in place of towers.

From the summit of a hill a short distance to the northward of the city, to which Europeans have given the name of Belvedere, is a splendid panoramic view of Tunis and the surrounding country. The city, inclining towards the lake, lies on the slope of a range of heights, crowned by the Kasbah and various detached forts. A picturesque island, with the ruins of an abandoned fort, once used as a lazaretto, rises towards the centre of the lake, and the constant traffic between Tunis and Goletta specks the surface of the latter with a fleet of boats. Beyond, on the narrow belt of land that separates the sea and lake, stand the forts and dockyard of the Goletta.

180. Still farther out are the vessels anchored in the roads; and, broken only by the rocky form of the island of Zembra, the lovely bay of Tunis stretches seaward, as far as the eye can reach. The elevated promontory of Cape Bon forms the eastern side of the bay, and on the western one are the ruins of Car