water-falls made music for the echoes, and man went singing to his labour: "Give me,' said I, "the clank of fetters, and the yell of galley-slaves under the lashes of the whip." And, in the bitterness of my heart, I cursed the earth as I trode over its prolific surface.

I entered the ancient kingdom of Castile, and the prospect was a recreation to my sorrow-vexed soul: I saw the lands lie waste and fallow; the vines trailed on the ground, and buried their fruitage in the furrows; the hand of man was idle, and nature slept as in the cradle of creation; the villagers were thinly scattered, and ruin sate upon the unroofed sheds, where lazy pride lay stretched upon its straw in beggary and vermin. “Ah! this is something," I cried out, "this scene is fit for man, and I'll enjoy it." I saw a yellow half-starved form, cloaked to the heels in rags, his broad brimmed beaver on his head, through which his staring locks crept out in squalid shreds, that fell like snakes upon the shoulders of a fiend." Such ever be the fate of human nature! I'll aggravate his misery by the insult of charity. Harkye, Castilian," I exclaimed, "take this pisette; it is coin, it is silver from the mint of Mexico; a Spaniard dug it from the mine, a Frenchman gives it you; put by your pride and touch it!"—" Čurst be your nation," the Castilian replied, "I'll starve before I'll take it from your hands."-"Starve then," I answered, and passed on.

'I climbed a barren mountain; the wolves howled in the desert, and the vultures screamed in flocks for prey; I looked and beheld a gloomy mansion underneath my feet, vast as the pride of its founder, gloomy and disconsolate as his soul: it was the Escurial." Here then the tyrant reigns," said I, "here let him reign; hard as these rocks his throne, waste as these deserts be his dominion!" A meagre

creature passed me; famine started in his eye, he cast a look about him, and sprung upon a kid that was browsing in the desert, he smote it dead with his staff, and hastily thrust it into his wallet. "Ah, sacrilegious villain !" cried a brawny fellow; and leaping on him from behind a rock, seized the hungry wretch in the act; he dropped upon his knees and begged for mercy. Mercy!" cried he that seized him, "do you purloin the property of the church, and ask for mercy ?" So saying, he beat him to the earth with a blow, as he was kneeling at his feet, and then dragged him towards the convent of Saint Lawrence: I could have hugged the miscreant for the deed.

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'I held my journey through the desert, and desolation followed me to the very streets of Madrid; the fathers of the inquisition came forth from the cells of torture; the cross was elevated before them, and a trembling wretch in a saffron-coloured vest, painted with flames of fire, was dragged to execution in an open square; they kindled a fire about him, and sang praises to God, whilst the flames deliberately consumed their human victim. He was a Jew who suffered, they were Christians who tormented. "See what the religion of God is," said I to myself, "in the hands of man!"

From the gates of Madrid I bent my course towards the port of Lisbon; as I traversed the wilderness of Estremadura, a robber took his aim at me from behind a cork-tree, and the ball grazed my hat upon my head. "You have missed your aim," I cried," and have lost the merit of destroying a man.". "Give me your purse," said the robber. "Take it," I replied, "and buy with it a friend; may it serve you as it has served me!"

I found the city of Lisbon in ruins! her foundations smoked upon the ground; the dying and the

dead laid in heaps; terror sate in every visage, and mankind was visited with the plagues of the Almighty, famine, fire, and earthquake. Have they not the inquisition in this country?" I asked; I was answered "they had."-"And do they make all this outcry about an earthquake?" said I within myself, "let them give God thanks and be quiet."

Presently there came ships from England, loaded with all manner of goods for the relief of the inhabitants; the people took the bounty, were preserved, then turned and cursed their preservers for heretics.

"This is as it should be," said I," these men act up to their nature, and the English are a nation of fools; I will not go amongst them."-After a short time behold a new city was rising on the ruins of the old one! The people took the builders' tools, which the English had sent them, and made themselves houses: I overheard a fellow at his work say to his companion-" Before the earthquake I made my bed in the streets, now I shall have a house to live in."-"This is too much," said I; "their misfortunes make this people happy, and I will stay no longer in their country." I descended to the banks of the Tagus; there was a ship, whose canvas was loosed for sailing." She is an English ship," says a Galliego porter; "they are brave seamen, but damned tyrants on the quarter deck."-" They pay well for what they have," says a boatman, "and I am going on board her with a cargo of lemons."-I threw myself into the wherry, and entered the ship: the mariners were occupied with their work, and nobody questioned me why I was amongst them. The tide wafted us into the ocean, and the night became tempestuous, the vessel laboured in the sea, and the morning brought no respite to our toil." Whither are you bound?" said I to the master.- "To hell," said he, "for nothing but the devil ever drove at such

a rate!" The fellow's voice was thunder; the sailors sung in the storm, and the master's oaths were louder than the waves; the third day was a dead calm, and he swore louder than ever."If the winds were of this man's making," thought I, "he would not be content with them.' A favourable breeze sprung up as if it had come at his calling.-"I thought it was coming," says he; "put her before the wind, it blows fair for our port.' "But where is your port?" again I asked him.-"Sir," says he, "I can now answer your question as I should do; with God's leave I am bound to Bourdeaux; every thing at sea goes as it pleases God." My heart sunk at the name of my native city. "I was freighted," added he," from London with a cargo of goods of all sorts for the poor sufferers by the earthquake; I shall load back with wine for my owners, and so help out a charitable voyage with some little profit, if it please God to bless our endeavours."" Heyday!" thought I, "how fair weather changes this fellow's note !""Lewis," said he to a handsome youth, who stood at his elbow, 66 we will now seek out this Monsieur Chaubert at Bourdeaux, and get payment of his bills on your account." Shew me your bills," said 1, "for I am Chaubert."-He produced them, and I saw my own name forged to bills in favour of the villain who had so treacherously dealt with me in the affair of the woman who was to have been my wife.

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"Where is the wretch," said I, "who drew these forgeries?"-The youth burst into tears. "He is my father," he replied, and turned away." Sir," says the master, "I am not surprised to find this fellow a villain to you, for I was once a trader in affluence, and have been ruined by his means, and reduced to what you see me but I forgive what he has done to me; I can earn a maintenance, and am as happy in my present hard employ, nay happier,

than when I was rich and idle; but to defraud his own son proves him an unnatural rascal, and, if I had him here, I would hang him at the mizen yard.””

NUMBER XVI.

CHAUBERT's narrative proceeds as follows:- When the English master declared he was happier in his present hard service than in his former prosperity, and that he forgave the villain who had ruined him, I started with astonishment, and stood out of his reach, expecting every moment when his frenzy would break out; I looked him steadily in the face, and to my surprise saw no symptoms of madness there; there was no wandering in his eyes, and content of mind was impressed upon his features.-"Are you in your senses," I demanded, " and can you forgive the villain ?"

"From my heart," answered he, "else how should I expect to be forgiven?" His words struck me dumb; my heart tugged at my bosom; the blood rushed to my face. He saw my situation, and turned aside to give some orders to the sailors; after some minutes he resumed the conversation, and advancing towards me, in his rough familiar manner, said—" It is my way, Mr. Chaubert, to forgive and forget, though to be sure the fellow deserves hanging for his treatment of this poor boy his son, who is as good a lad as ever lived, but as for father and mother". "Who is his mother? What was her name ?" I eagerly demanded. Her name had no sooner passed his lips, than I felt a shock through all my frame beyond that of electricity; I staggered as if with a sudden stroke, and caught hold of the barricade; an