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ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE VARIETIES

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History. Literature, the Fine Arts, &c.

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Among the astonishing acts of heroism of this extraordinary man, none more remarkable for a mixture at once of gallantry and temerity, than the circumstance which our engraving illustrates.

'It is necessary, for the better understanding of the following relation, to premise that Charles, after his total defeat by Peter the Great, at the battle of Pultowa, was obliged to fly into Turkey, and took up a temporary residence at Bender, a town in European Turkey, the capital of the province of Bessarabia, on the N. W. coast of the Black Sea, between the mouths of the Danube and the Dneister.

Here he remained waiting the turn of affairs in his favour, until the Porte, either from caprice or to oblige the European powers at war with Charles, ordered him to quit the Ottoman domiVOL III.

nions ; the King, whose haughty temper could not brook any thing like dictation, refused to comply, and the following attack was made Feb. 12, 1713, which Voltaire thus eloquently describes :--

"The word of command was immediately given The Turks marched up to the fortifications: the Tartars were already waiting for them, and the cannon began to play. The Janissaries on the one side, and the Tartars on the other, instantly forced the little camp. Hardly had twenty Swedes time to draw their swords when the whole three hundred were surrounded and taken prisoners without resistance. The king was then on horseback, between his house and his camp, with the generals Hord, Dardoff, and Sparre; and seeing that all his soldiers had suffered themselves to be taken prisoners before his eyes, he said, with great composure to these No. 63.

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three officers, Come, let us go and defend the house; we will fight, added he, with a smile, pro aris et focis."

"Accordingly, accompanied by these three generals, he forthwith gallops up to the house, in which he had placed about forty domestics as centinels, and which he had fortified in the best manner he could.

"The generals, accustomed as they were to the dauntless intrepidity of their master, could not help being surprised to see him resolve in cold blood, and even with an air of pleasantry, to defend himself against ten pieces of cannon, and a whole army: nevertheless they followed him, with some guards and domestics, making in all about twenty persons.

"When they came to the door, they found it beset by the janissaries. Besides, two hundred Turks and Tartars had already entered by a window, and made theinselves masters of all the apartments, except a large hall where the king's domestics had retired. Happily this hall was near the door at which the king designed to enter with his little troop of twenty persons. He threw himself off his horse with pistol and sword in hand, and his followers did the same.

The janissaries fell upon him on all 'sides. They were animated with the promise which the basha had made, of eight ducats of gold to every man who should only touch his clothes, in case they could take him. He wounded and killed all those who came near him. A janissary whom he wounded clapped his blunderbuss to his face, and had he not been jostled by the arm of a Turk, owing to the crowd that moved backwards and forwards like waves, the king had certainly been killed. The ball grazed upon his nose, and carried off part of his ear, and then broke the arm of General Hord, whose constant fate it was to be wounded by his master's side.

"The king plunged his sword in the janissary's breast. At the same time, his domestics, who were shut up in the great hall, opened the door to him. The king, with his little troop, springs in like an arrow. They instantly shut the door, and barricade it with whatever they can find. Thus was Charles XII. shut up in this hall with all his attendants, consisting of about sixty men, officers, guards, secretaries, valets de chambre, and domestics of every kind.

"The janissaries and Tartars pillaged the rest of the house, and filled the apart

ments. 'Come,' says the king, let us go and drive out these barbarians;' and putting himself at the head of his men, he with his own hands opens the door of the hall that leads to his bed-chamber, rushes into the room and fires upon the plunderers.

"The Turks, loaded with spoil, and terrified at the sudden appearance of the king, whom they had ever been accustomed to respect, threw down their arms, leap out of the window, or fly to the cellars. The king taking advantage of their confusion, and his own men being animated by the success of this attempt, they pursue the Turks from chamber to chamber; kill or wound those who had not made their escape; and in a quarter of an hour clear the house of the enemy.

In the heat of the fight the king perceived two janissaries who lay concealed under his bed, one of them he stabbed with his sword, the other asked pardon by crying "Amman.' "Igive you your life, replied the king to him, on this condition, that you go and give the basha a faithful account of what you have seen." The Turk readily promised to do as he was bid, and was allowed to leap out at the window like the rest.

The Swedes, having at last made themselves masters of the house, again shut and barricadoed the windows. They were in no want of arms. A ground room full of muskets and powder had escaped the tumultuary search of the janissaries. These they employed to good purpose. They fired through the windows almost close upon the Turks,. of whom, in less than half a quarter of an hour they killed two hundred. The cannon still played upon the house; but the stones being very soft, there were only some holes made in the walls, and nothing was demolished.

"The kam of Tartary, and the basha, were desirous of taking the king alive, being ashamed to lose so many men, and to employ a whole army against sixty persons, thought it most adviseable to set fire to the house, in order to oblige the king to surrender. They ordered some arrows twisted about with lighted matches, to be shot upon the roof, and against the doors and windows. In a moment the house was in flames. The roof all on fire was ready to tumble upon the Swedes. The king, with great calmness, gave orders to extinguish the fire. Finding a small barrel full of liquor, he took it up, and being assisted by two Swedes, threw it upon the place where the fire was most violent. At last he

recollected that the barrel was full of brandy; but the hurry inseparable from such a scene of confusion, hindered him from thinking of it in time.--The fire now raged with double fury.The king's apartment was reduced to ashes. The great hall where the Swedes were was filled with a terrible smoke, mixed with sheets of flame, that darted in at the doors of the neighbouring apartments. One half of the roof sunk within the house, the other fell on the outside, crackling amidst the flames.

"In this extremity, a centinel called Walberg, ventured to cry, that there was a necessity for surrendering. "What a strange man is this, says the king, to imagine that it is not more glorious to be burnt than taken prisoner!" Another centinel, named Rosen, had the presence of mind to observe, that the chanceryhouse, which was not above fifty paces distant, had a stone roof, and was proof against fire; that they ought to sally forth, to take possession of that house, and then defend themselves to the last extremity. "There is a true Swede for you," cries the king, and embracing the centinel, he made him a colonel upon the spot. "Come on, my friends, says he, take as much powder and ball with you. as you can, and let us take possession of the chancery, sword in hand."

"The Turks, who all the while surrounded the house, were struck with fear and admiration, to see the Swedes continue in it, notwithstanding it was all in flames; but their astonishment was greatly increased when they saw the door opened, and the king and his followers rushing out upon them like so many madmen. Charles and his principal officers were armed with sword and pistol. Every man fired two pistols at once, the moment the door was opened; and in the twinkling of an eye, throwing away their pistols, and drawing their swords, they made the Turks recoil above fifty paces. But in a moment after, this little troop was surrounded. The king, who was booted, as usual, entangled himself with his spurs, and fell. One and twenty Janissaries at once sprang upon him. He throws up his sword into the air, to save himself the mortification of surrendering it. The Turks bear him to the basha's quarters, some taking hold of his arms, and others of his legs, in the same manner as sick persons are wont to be carried in order to prevent their being hurt.

No sooner did the king see himself in their hands, than the violence of his temper, and the fury which such a long and

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Scenes and Impressions in Egypt. By

the author of Sketches in India.

This tour is a very extensive one. Sailing from Bombay in December 1822, the author navigated the Red Sea in an Arab vessel; landed at Kosseir, crossed the Desert to Egypt, surveyed the wonders of that land, embarked again at Alexandria, visited Malta, Sicily, Naples, traversed Italy, and closed his journey at Paris. From the various scenes of which he has sketched his impressions, we shall select two or three examples: Crossing the desert is not with him a barren subject; but it is written with all the pedantry of a country shoolmaster.

"The road through the desert is most wonderful in its features: a finer cannot be imagined. It is wide, hard, and firm, winding for at least two-thirds of the way, from Kosseir to Thebes, between ranges of rocky hills, rising often perpendicularly on either side, as if they had been scraped by art; here, again, rather broken, there overhanging, as if they were the lofty banks of a mighty river, and you traversing its dry and naked bed. Now you are quite landlocked; now again you open on small valleys, and see, upon heights beyond, small square towers. It was late in the even-. ing when we came to our ground, a sort of dry bay; sand, burning sand, with rock and cliff, rising in jagged points all around---a spot where the waters of ocean might sleep in stillness, or with, the soft voice of their gentlest ripple, lull the storm-worn mariner. The dew of the night before had been heavy, we therefore pitched our tent, and decided on starting, in future, at a very early hour in the morning, so as to accomplish our march before noon. It was dark

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when we moved off, and even cold. Your camel is impatient to rise ere you are well seated on him; gives a shake, too, to warm his blood, and half dislodges you; marches rather faster than by day, and gives occasionally a hard quick stamp with his broad callous foot. Our moon was far in our wane. She rose, however, about an hour after we started, all red, above the dark hills on our left; yet higher rose, and paler grew, till at last she hung a silvery crescent in the deep blue sky. I claim for the traveller a love of that bright planet far beyond what the fixed and settled resident can ever know ;---the meditation of the lover, the open lattice, the guitar, the villagers' castanets, are all in sweet character with the moon, or on her increase, or full orbed; but the traveller (especially in the East) he loves her in her wane: so does the soldier at his still picquet of the night; and the sailor, on his silent watch, when she comes and breaks in upon the darkness of the night to soothe and bless him.

"Who passes the desert and says all is barren, all lifeless? In the grey morning you may see the common pigeon, and the partridge, and the pigeon of the rock, alight before your very feet, and come upon the beaten camel-paths for food. They are tame, for they have not learned to fear, or to distrust the men who pass these solitudes. The camel-driver would not lift a stone to them; and the sportsman could hardly find it in his breast to kill these gentle tenants of the desert: the deer might tempt him; I saw but one; far, very far, he caught the distant camel tramp, aud paused, and raised and threw back his head to listen, then away to the road instead of froin it; but far a-head he crossed it, and then away up a long slope he fleetly stole, and off to some solitary spring which wells, perhaps, where no traveller, no human being has ever trod. Here and there you meet with something of green,---a tree alone, or two, nay, in one vale you may see some eight or ten; these are the acacias; small-leaved and thorny, yet kind, in that "they forsake not these forsaken places." You have affections in the desert too; your patient and docile camel is sometimes vainly urged if his fellow or his driver be behind; he will stop, and turn, and give that deep hoarse gurgling sound, by which he expresses uneasiness and displeasure. It is something to have rode, though but for a few days, the camel of the desert. We

always associate the horse with the Arab warrior, and the horse alone; also the crooked scimetar. Now these belong to the Syrian, and the Persian, the Mameluke, and the Turk as well. The camel is peculiar to the Arab alone. It was on the camel that Mahomet performed his flight to Medina. It was on a white she camel that he made his entry into that city. Seventy camels were arrayed by his side in the Vale of Beder. And it was on his own red camel that the Caliph Omar, with his wooden dish and leathern water-bottle, and bag of dates, came to receive the keys of the holy city of Jerusalem and the submission and homage of the patriarch Sophronius. Moreover, it is on a winged white camel, in a golden saddle, that the Moslem, who is faithful to the end, believes that he shall ride hereafter."

Among the antiquities of Thebes, Luxor, Carnac, Memphis, &c. we think the following most interesting.

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'Nothing is more difficult than to procure here any little antiques of value, to carry away with you as memorials of your visit the Arabs, indeed, bring you little mummy ornaments, such as little termini of wood or pottery, which are always found in the tombs; also scarabæi, rings of wood or pottery, scraps of papyrus, and a variety of trifles which I cannot name: but these are sure to be the mere refuse of the privileged collectors, and of the many sharpwitted non-descripts in their service. The ground is regularly parcelled out on both sides of the river: here England may dig, there France; this is Mr. Salt's ground, that Mr. Drovetti's; here Lord Belmore made excavations, there an American traveller. The Arab fallahs get their twenty paras a day, and work as little as possible for the money. French and Italians, generally in Turkish costume, that is, in a sort of half and half dress, are their task-masters, and do not hesitate to strike them, to which they do not submit, laugh, scowl, or run away. I saw one of these parties, and watched them long; a man was directing them in the common Arab dress, the brown zaboot; he had a beard, and quite an Arab complexion; indeed, he had been for some time the evening before at our house, to arrange about the hire of a boat, and we took him for a common Arab, till he said something to Monsieur R. (Rifaud) in good French, with the true accent of his country.

"With this man I had some conversation; he told me that he had deserted

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from the French army in Egypt, that numbers of his countrymen had done the same, and that he was married, and settled in the country, a renegade, in fact. I asked him if la France, la belle France,' with her wines and her pleasures, never entered his head: he gave a kind of shrug, and with a sort of imploring look, said, 'Mais Monsieur, ah oui, mais enfin que voulez-vous ?" Well, thought I to myself, I understand you; a quoi bon?' ou make all your little excursions at Thebes on jack-asses, driven by Arab or Coptic boys all dirty, laughing, and good tempered, glad to have the light work, and double pay they get from you; you are terribly pestered at all times by people who ask Bucksheesh, more from idleness, habit, and amusement, than want. You soon pick up a few words of vulgar Arabic, and from necessity learn others. In walking in the bazaar of the village on a marketday, I singled out a fine-looking young man, a Copt, and (through Mohammed, our Arab) asked him many things about the inhabitants of his persuasion. learned from him, that their church was about five miles away, among the hills; that all who attended went there on the Saturday afternoon for an evening and midnight service, and returned on the Sunday morning to their homes, where they then enjoyed themselves according to their means; that they were not more oppressed than the Arab fellahs, nor by them: there is, though, some slight capitation tax, which has been immemorially paid.

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"I learned from other quarters, that the Copts are more intelligent, more often in employ, and more provident (comparatively) than the common Arabs, among whom they are settled; but there is little perceptible difference to the eye of a stranger even in their appear

ance.

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Returning, we again called on Caviglia. Magic had been at work in his little hut: plans and drawings had been hung all round, concealing and ornamenting all its walls; his books established on shelves and tables; in fact, it looked that sort of home, in which the soldier and the traveller find some comfort in their sojournings. Among his books I observed Denon, a Florence edition, the Zendavesta, and the works of Pascal. We turned over the plates of Denon; and he showed us a small hieroglyphic vocabulary, in manuscript, for the interpretations in which Dr. Young and Mr. Champollion were the authorities.

"He declined returning with us that evening to our boat, but said he would himself accompany us to Saccara on the morrow, which he did. His wish was to show the interior of that pyramid opened by the French, he having founded some opinion on the examination of it, which leads him to suppose that none of the pyramids were sepulchres---I leave him to amuse himself with the difficulty. He is a kind man, with much enthusiasm about Egyptian antiquities, having exhibited enterprise and perseverance, and fearlessly expended all he could he is unpretending too, considering his visit to Paris, and and the nonsense he heard talked there about Moses and Orpheus, and which, at times, will peep from under his modest avowals, that he is only a sailor, with a strong turn this way, which has made him both labour and read on antiquities.

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"We were all much disappointed, and he was exceedingly provoked, to find that the Arab fellahs had blocked up the entrance, and that so effectually, and with such huge stones, that it would have taken many men and a day's labour to have removed them. We returned along a raised bank, just dividing the desert from a low green, cultivated flat, the ancient bed of the lake Acherusia: we went on, and through a few calumps of dates, and down to another long open flat, where, to the eye of the antiquarian, a few stones scattered here and there in the corn, give the site and traces of a street of the ancient city of Memphis.

"In other parts, you see remains of wall of unburnt brick; and again, in one spot, brick-work of a later date; a part of a bath; and also the facing of a canal. These last are of the city in its latter days: the stones, with their hieroglyphics, as old as the time of its first founder; the sumptuous temple of the great Vulcan of the Egyptians, so renowned once, is the more particular object of Mr. Caviglia's search; and here, as his fancy suggests, and his means admit of his buying and rooting up a tree, or getting them not to sow on a few square yards of fertile land, he digs and excavates---finds nothing! hopes, fears, and digs again, and finds a broken shaft, a statue, or a stone---and sleeps the sounder, and wakes the happier for it! He appears to understand how to conciliate the common Arab very well: though not settled, he was already erecting near his hut, where he had dug a well, a little kind of wig-wam of the date leaf, about six feet or more in

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