As her legal adviser She takes an old Miser, A sort of" poor cousin." She might have been wiser; By name Maurice Beevor, A shocking old scamp, should her own issue fail, In his ear whisper'd low***. "Bully Gaussen" said "Done !-- To accomplish the deed, He adopted a scheme he was sure would succeed. Of Candish, and Noreys, Of Drake, and bold Raleigh, then fresh in his glories, That he left, which was bad, The only true friend in the world that he had, The kidnapping crimp Took the foolish young imp On board of his cutter so trim and so jimp, And he must have been drown'd, For 'twas nonsense to think he could swim to dry ground, Call'd Billy the Norman," Had not just at that moment sail'd by, outward bound. A shark of great size, With his great glassy eyes, Sheer'd off as he came, and relinquish'd the prize; So he pick'd up the lad,* swabb'd, and dry-rubb'd, and mopp'd him, And, having no children, resolved to adopt him. * An incident very like one in Jack Sheppard, A work some have lauded and others have pepper'd, When a Dutch pirate kidnaps and tosses Thames Darrell Just so in the sea, and he's saved by a barrel,— On the coast, if I recollect rightly, it 's flung whole, And the hero, half-drown'd, scrambles out of the bung-hole, [It aint no sich thing! the hero aint bung'd in a barrel at all. up by a Captain, jest as Norman was arterwards.-PRINT. DEV.] He's picked Full many a year Did he hand, reef, and steer, And by no means consider'd himself as small beer, When old Norman at length died and left him his frigate, A sailor ne'er moans; So, consigning the bones Of his friend to the locker of one Mr. Jones, On the voyage it appears That he rescued a maid from the Dey of Algiers; That the Poet begins,-thus commencing his play. ACT I. Giles Gaussen accosts old Sir Maurice de Beevor, And hints he may find some more work for him yet; That the boy they had ten years ago sent away If she'll buy him (Sir Maurice) a farm near the Ex. "Take, take it," she cries; "but secure every document.""A bargain," says Maurice," including the stock you meant?" The Captain, meanwhile, With a lover-like smile And a fine cambric handkerchief wipes off the tears Does not know how to act. It's her very first visit-and then to begin By asking a stranger-a gentleman, in One with mustaches too-and a tuft on his chin Here the Countess steps in from behind, and says "No!— Fair sir, you are welcome. Do, pray, stop and dine- ACT II. After dinner the Captain recounts with much glee And his hair-breadth escapes, Talks of boa-constrictors, and lions, and apes, And fierce " Bengal Tigers," like that which you know, Then diverging a while, he adverts to the mystery With the Algerine fleet, And forced them by sheer dint of arms to retreat, Here just touch'd her toe, and she moved on her seat,)— In short, he so chatter'd, Now lively, now serious, so ogled and flatter'd, Captain Norman's adventures were not yet half done, Bounces into the room, And talks to his guest as you'd talk to a groom, Claps his hand on his rapier, and swears he 'll be through him- His hate of his brother, He rails at his cousin, and blows up his mother. "Fie! fie!" says the first. Says the latter, "In sooth, This is sharper by far than the keen serpent's tooth!" A remark, by the way, which King Lear had made years ago, (When he ask'd for his Knights, and his Daughter said "Here's a go!") This made Ashdale ashamed; But he must not be blamed Too much for his warmth, for, like many young fellows, he He goes off in a huff; Lady A., who is now what some call "up to snuff," Between the Sea-Captain she dreads like Old Scratch, ACT III. Miss Violet takes from the Countess her tone; "The night being dark," Though "the moon," the Sea-Captain says, rises in Heaven "One hour before midnight,"-i. e. at eleven. From which speech I infer, -Though perhaps I may err, That, though weatherwise, doubtless, midst surges and surf, he When "capering on shore," was by no means a Murphy. He starts off, however, at sunset to reach An old chapel in ruins, that stands on the beach, Has just given Father Onslow a knock on the pate, Norman kneels by the clergyman fainting and gory, And tells him all how and about it—and dies! ACT IV. Norman, alias Le Mesnil, instructed of all, She questions his νους, And threatens to have him turn'd out of the house. Till, in spite of her fears, She admits he's the son she had cast off for years, Just as if in a joke, Determined to put in his wheel a new spoke, And slips off thus disguised, when he sees by the dial it ACT V. Now comes the Catastrophe-Ashdale, who's wrapt in And just as the knife Of the Pirate is raised to deprive him of life, Saves the hangman a job, And executes justice most strictly, the rather, 'Twas the spot where the rascal had murder'd his father. Then in comes the mother, Who, finding one brother Had the instant before sav'd the life of the other, Ashdale puts a good face On the matter; and, since he 's obliged to give place, For gossip and scandal, Sets the whole of the papers alight with the candle ; Both are pleased with the part they acquire as joint heirs, MORAL. The public, perhaps, with the drama might quarrel "Young Ladies of property, "Young Noblemen! shun every thing like a brawl; |