tion to the human mind. Camoens, Tasso and had heard enough of Tityrus, Daphnis, and flocks Milton had preceded him in time; but their re- and lutes. searches into Eastern objects were more poeti- The poem called "Seven Fountains" is in cal than learned. We do not suppose that Oli- truth a beautiful allegory. It is drawn in part ver Goldy was acquainted with Chinese when he from the Persian poet Nezami, but Sir William wrote like a mandarin—or that Tom Moore was states that he has taken unusual liberties with versed in the dialect of Cashmir when he wrote the original writer. It is a piece which ought to his Lalla Rookh. There is something in that be not only read, but pondered by every youth East, which powerfully affects the imagination. in America-we should say in the world, were Its very gorgeousness strikes the fancy. Its for- it not that our recommendation will not be apt mal gardens-its tanks-its stuccoed cottages to extend so far. This allegory has the usual its citron groves-its rare spices and rich per- accompaniments of all Eastern poetry-such as fumes-its cypress trees tasselled with blossoms pearls, diamonds, gems, rubies, lilies, roses and wound about them-its scenes of indolent re- a hundred other things; but the essence of the pose-its sequestered woods-its stupendous allegory is in its profound moral. We would rivers and its barbaric gold, are not lost on per- analyse it, but we fear that the analysis might sons of sensitive temperament. Among such keep some one of our readers from procuring and objects Sir William spent ten years of his valua- reading it as it deserves to be read. It will touch ble life, dispensing British law among the Hin- the heart of any ingenuous youth and inspire him doos, founding learned societies, and occasionally with disgust at that happiness which results from paying homage to the Muses. Those pieces are sensual pursuits, in contradistinction to that which the fruits of that reverential homage. flows from virtue. Solima, written in 1768, has a moral quite obSo late as 1772, pastoral poetry had not died vious. It celebrates an Eastern princess who out in England. Sir Philip Sidney had defend- erected a caravansera for the entertainment of ed it, and Spenser, Pope and Gay had given spe- pilgrims. The moral is the same precisely as cimens in this kind of composition. Sir William Pope inculcated in his Man of Ross, where he published his Arcadia before he left England for extols the benevolence of an old bachelor who Calcutta, and he had before him pastorals writ-lived on the Wye. Solima is a piece simply ten in Greek, Latin, Italian and Spanish. This pleasing, and the next to it in order is Laura, an poem is founded on a brief allegory by Addison, Elegy, translated from the two hundred and sevwhich appeared in the thirty-second number of entieth sonnet of Petrarch. For twenty-one the Guardian. At least its imitator has turned it years did Petrarch spin out verses about that into an allegory, and, in our judgment, the turn- Laura from the loom of his Cashmir imaginaing has not at all improved it. Addison's plot tion. We wonder he did not tire of his theme. was that Menaleas, a sort of king in Arcadia, It was a poor compliment to the female sex, that and father of a very pretty daughter, whose name he could find no other woman near Avignon as was Amaryllis, had received a pipe from Oberon winsome as Laura. The whole of this affair on condition that no one was to obtain his daugh- shews in Petrarch a mental weakness that is truly ter in marriage unless he could play the same astonishing, and we are surprised that Lord Byron, tune on the pipe with which Menalcas had been instead of praising this passion, did not apply to amused by the fairy. On a given day Menalcas it the whip of satire. sat on a green hillock with Amaryllis by his side, The rest of this volume consists of translations when a band of youths appeared in various cos-of Hafiz, Ferdusi and Mesihi, as well as other tumes to contend. This was a sensible plot, for Persian and Turkish poets. The most of them any poet would be apt to compete for such a are addressed to Hindoo gods and goddesses. handsome woman. Thus in his Queen's Wake, They are excessively tedious. There is a good the Ettrick Shepherd brings down all the High- deal of splendor in the imagery employed: but land minstrels to Edinburgh, to please Mary from its sameness it cloys on the taste. We reQueen of Scots, upon making her entry into her gret that Sir William did not keep more on EngScottish capital. But when the pipe was won, lish ground, for he has given us one or two sonthe miniature story ought to have stopped, and nets, the scene of which is laid at Cardigan in the oaten reed should not have passed through a Wales, and they are interesting; but the mind of succession of pastoral poets; for mankind have their author had been so long in an Oriental mould, long been tired of shepherds' songs. The com- that even in them Eastern imagery has the preplex passions must now be reached by tones more ponderance. He believed in the identity to a powerful than any brought out by Gessner's shell, great extent of English and Hindoo objects; but or even that of Theocritus. Both Addison and the same objects are affected by climate, associSir William ought to have known that the world ation, and religion. If our author had kept to Albion he would have been a more powerful | its nightingales-its camels-its tents, entitle it poet. The woods of India may be more spark-to this distinction. The same is true, to a great ling than those of England-its fruits may be extent, of Persia and India, but it is probable more succulent-its rivers may be cast on a bolder scale; but there is something in English life that makes its way to the heart. No man can acquire much reputation as a mere translator. Pope's Homer has fallen into neglect. The same is true of Dryden's Virgil, though done with elegance; and Cowper's Odyssey, though he was true to the Greek costume. To gain reputation it is necessary that the translator should make a new work, and this is manifestly unjust to the original writer. In Wiffen's Tasso there is quite as much of Wiffen as of the Italian poet. that English associations will in all time to come, affect the Muses of the Ganges and the Burrampooter. Their imagery may be less glaring, and their sobriety may be promoted by the mixture which will take place of the English language with the Eastern dialects. The East India Company obtained a footing in India, in achieving which many questionable deeds were enacted, and at one time Lord Clive and Warren Hastings, were regarded with horror. But the British power has destroyed some of the most repulsive customs which prevailed among the Hindoos. We deeply regret that Sir William Jones never Many distinguished men have labored among the carried out his design of writing an epic of semi-barbarians of the British possessions, among which Britain was to be subject. He meditated whom Lord Wellington, Lord Teignmouth, Sir such a design in the twenty-third year of his James McIntosh, Dr. Carey, Sir Stamford Rafage, and the outline of his plan is contained in fles, Leyden and many others might be mentionthe volume we are examining. The world has ed. The accomplished Bishop Heber found there seen but four or five Epics, and their Authors by a grave. That country has enriched England, and universal consent, occupy the top of Parnassus. England may be of service to her slaves, but we It must remain an undecided point, whether Sir hope that an emancipation may take place at no William would have succeeded in this men- distant day, and that the course of human events tal enterprise. The possibility is, that after may roll on a national freedom for all the coloestablishing British law in India, that he antici- nial islands of England, and especially for any pated retiring on a pension, and devoting the territory she may have acquired by unjust conevening of his life to his epic, among the green quest. woods of England, or the mountains of Wales. Accordingly to his outline, a Tyrian Prince, was to discover Britain some ages before the Christian era, and to pass, of course, among islands that lay between Tyre and Britain, and one can Ringwood, Virginia. SONG. easily see what profound interest might have Translated from the German of Friedrick Matthisson. been awakened by the mind's being carried back to those dim ages and shadowy objects. We cannot see why the adventures of the Tyrian Prince might not have been as well wrought up as those of Ulysses, Æneas, Godfrey or Vasco de Gama. The volume concludes with a pleasing Essay on the Poetry of the Eastern Nations. This subject has excited considerable interest in England, and has been fully treated by Bishop Lowth, in a series of Lectures delivered at the University of Oxford. The object of the Bishop, however, is limited to the Poetry of the Sacred Writings, whilst that of Sir William extends to all sorts of Arabian, Persian and Hindoo bards. This distinguished orientalist believes that Arabia, the Happy, which lies between the eleventh and fifteenth degrees of North Latitude, to be the true field of Pastoral Poetry. He prefers it to the celebrated vale of Cashmir in the North of Hindostan. Its serene skies-the simple manners which prevail among its tribes-their independence and love of liberty-its gardens-its caravans and merchandise-its spice trees-its odors— [Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by John R. Thompson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.] THE CHEVALIER MERLIN. CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. ""Twas after dread Pultowa's day, No more to combat and to bleed. Faithless as their vain votaries, men, And Moscow's walls were safe again, Byron. We left King Charles under an oak on the evening of the day of Pultowa. Noises of the evening penetrated to the desolate bivouac as the night, illumined by a July moon, deepened. The Calmucks of the Czar and the banditti of Moldavia were traversing the plains, unwearied from a battle in which they had taken scarcely more part than vultures take in the slaughter which spreads a bloody feast for them. The forest hid, with its wilderness of summer leaves, the little band of fugitives. The enemy came and went on the plain without making an effort to penetrate the concealing shadows. was in that disturbed sleep which does not refresh the sleeper. The beams of the paling moon fell upon his face, making it appear ghastly; at times a low moan issued from his motionless lips. Then Mazeppa made a circuit of the sleeping band. The sentinels were asleep with the rest. The horses, accustomed by this time to the howling of the wolves, grazed and browsed, grinding the succulent food with lazy jaws, but stopping even that languid labour to stare at the moving figure of the Hetman. The enemy were no longer heard. With a shrill whistle the old man changed in a moment the whole scene. The sleepers were staggering to their feet. The forest became alive with their moving forms. The fugitives were in a short time ready to continue their flight. King Charles, more ill than ever, was once more lifted to the saddle. Poniatowski took post on his right hand, Merlin on his left. Mazeppa assumed the lead, and the band left the wood, directing its course toward the mouth of the Vorska. The open country was gained before the broad light of day had wholly driven the shadows from it. The hillocks were spotted with black on their western sides. The moon and planets were still visible, as white as plates of silver in the sky now swiftly changing its colours. Between the unhappy men and the glimmering planets, the air was alive with rustling wings and harsh croakings. Vultures were passing in black streams. They were going to Pultowa. North of west, four leagues distant, were the Mazeppa, more wakeful than his companions, hills in the angle of the rivers. To these hills the spent a great part of the night in meditation upon fugitives pricked rapidly on. By an hour's travel his ruined fortunes and in listening to the various the top of one of them was gained, and a scene sounds which broke upon the stillness of the which for a moment inspired hope burst on the sombre solitude. An owl, with a cry like the view of the band. The colours of Sweden were wail of a woman, wandered from one part of flying in and around a village-the little town of the dusky woodland to another. The wakeful Perwolocna-and a substantial remnant of the old man once saw the melancholy bird, beating Swedish force was visible, ranked and in array its wings amongst the burnished leaves at the for action. The foe, whom they were prepared summit of a majestic chesnut tree which out-tow-to receive, was also visible, but only at points ered its comrades into the yellow light. Wolves widely separated by the concealing hills which were howling, and three or four of them, each rose, round and isolated, like tents of some Titan animal squatting on his haunches with head erect, army. Trumpets were sounding lustily from the were visible in a little glade which, wet with dew and silvered by the moon, looked like a winding stream with a white and glistening surface. The noises of the hostile lancers were not sounds of so boding or dispiriting a character as these night-cries of the tenants of the wilderness. But at last a morning bird—a feldfare or some other sweet singer-flew to a tree-top and began a flourish of jubilant music. Then the Hetman knew that grey streaks were in the east, although invisible to him. He rose from the ground and, shaking himself like a dog roused from his kennel, went to the king's side. Charles will never hear it again.” advancing battalions of the victorious enemy; no instrument of martial music replied from the Swedish ranks. Instead, a hymn went up from them-a hymn stern and solemn. Merlin said to one near him: "The hymn sounds like that grand but melancholy music which we have heard on our northern coasts when the sea beats roughly upon them." "Yea," answered the stout soldier, seizing upon the thought of home-"the music of our northern seas is pleasant to hear. Our wives and our little children are listening to it. Sir, we The band of the king presently descended at Lewenhaupt over-ruled this despairing self-sacrifull gallop from the top of the hill to unite with fice. Two captains of the same brave regiment their comrades. It was Lewenhaupt who held stood side by side on the edge of the Boristhenes the village of Perwolocna. He had maintained and shot each other through the head. a small unbroken force in the reverses of Pultowa, had fallen back on the baggage, where his force became a nucleus for fugitives, and swelled soon to ten thousand men. He had retreated, fighting for many leagues of the way, to the Boristhenes, on the banks of which he now stood, doubting between surrender and a battle of despair. With the surrender of Lewenhaupt the magnificent host with which Charles had passed the Russian borders, no longer existed in any available remnant-save the thousand horsemen who fled toward the Turkish frontier, and some scattered parties which the lancers of the Czar were pursuing in other directions-some toward the Desna others toward the Don-all were dead or slaves. So conclusive had proved the disastrous battle of Pultowa. When the Swedes saw their king whom they supposed to be dead, they expressed their joy in gallant shouts. But the fury of joy was short- Peter the Great upon finding the work thus lived. Charles was nearly insensible. Instead accomplished, wrote the following cheerful words of a hero, exalted in his proud courage by dis- of self-approbation and laudation in his diary. aster, and ready to lead his desperate host in the" Thus hath an incomparable great victory been final struggle of brave hearts, the Swedes saw achieved by the prudent and gallant conduct of but a sick man whose visage betrayed scarcely a his majesty, the Czar, who hath been approved consciousness of the presence of those about him. a true and great captain.” The hopes, excited by his coming, fell therefore As the conqueror wrote, his defeated rival was as suddenly as they sprang up. But the love and craving a little water to moisten his parched lips. care of his veterans did not give way for a mo- Let us rejoin the flying king in the desert. ment to selfish distresses. A boat was found, The sinking sun was nearing the horizon, and Charles and two or three of his attendants which was but the flat line of an immeasurable were placed in it with an old calash, procured in plain. The feeble grasses of this plain were the village, a small stock of provisions, and sev-parched away by the summer heat until the sands eral boxes of treasure which Lewenhaupt had of an Arabian waste could wear no more desorescued from the baggage. Poniatowski plunged late aspect. The descending orb filled the west on horseback into the deep and rapid stream. like a conflagration. Its hot splendours streamed Others followed, Merlin and Caputsch amongst over the vast reach of sands with a white and them. Mazeppa passed in the boat with the king. The crazy barque, yielding to the current and struck by a sudden wind, was near foundering. The Hetman threw over board the greater part of the treasure. The opposite bank was at length gained. Many horsemen were lost in this passage of the Boristhenes; and for a time the air was filled with the cries of drowning steeds. All who attempted the passage on foot perished. When the survivors had won their way across, they gathered about the king, numbering now, by additions from the force of Lewenhaupt, a Better would it have been had we died like thousand men. Charles was placed in the ca- brave men on the field of battle," said Merlin lash-Count Horn, one of his generals, fainting who had placed himself at Mazeppa's side. from wounds, shared it with him-and the thou-"My vitals are burning. These blasts of wind sand Swedes, lashing their horses, continued to are like the breath of hell.” fly into the desert. Lewenhaupt, with an army suffering for want of food, destitute of powder, deserted by its king, surrendered to Prince Menzikoff, the pastry-cook. There were incidents of this surrender worthy of being remembered. A Swedish colonel* observing the Muscovites approach, advanced with a single battalion to meet them, preferring an honorable death to the disgrace of a surrender. *Colonel Troutefette. tremulous glare. The vision of an eagle must have failed before a lustre so intense. A breeze had sprung up with the decline of the sun, but, instead of refreshing, it filled the air with a fiery dust which nearly stifled man and horse. Ajourney of twenty leagues, without a drop of water, over a sandy desert, under a raging sun-heat, had been accomplished by King Charles and his party since leaving the Boristhenes. Now water only could save life-water of which on the vast levels not a trace could be seen. "Your northern natures," the Hetman answered, "are easily overcome by these trials. A hardy man should be able to endure thirst in the mouth of a furnace for one day. But truly water must be found or the horses will die, and then we shall be eagles without wings." Caputsch was engaged, as Mazeppa spoke, in controlling some freaks of his little Tartar. The restless struggle of the horse made a rare clatter of the various goods which the boy had heaped on his back, and the noise drew the attention of the Hetman. After watching the conduct of the pleasures of massacre and plunder. He sent a horse for a minute the old man said: few swimmers, with swords between their teeth, "The courser looks out over the sands, and to the Turkish bank to seize boats. This meawhinnies, and spreads his nostrils. The robbers sure was successful. The Swedish force began, of Budziac are familiar with this region, and Os- by small parties, to cross the river. Other boats beck has often traversed it. The horse perhaps were seized, and the transportation went on more remembers some spring of water. Give him a speedily. As it advanced, the Calmucks, gathfree rein, child." ering courage, and concentrating their force, Caputsch did this, and the Tartar horse at made many dashes upon the lingering fugitives, once wheeled and set off at a brisk pace in a whose numbers were fast reduced, as boat after direction materially divergent from the course of boat received its load, and was pushed off for the the band. Mazeppa dispatched several Cos-farther bank. These onsets became presently a sacks to follow the boy. These seekers of wa-steady battle, waged with fury by the Tartars ter disappeared in the distance. They were and met with the faltering resistance of men who absent so long that the eyes which were strained fight in the act of flight. Merlin remained with to see them return began to be hindered by the the rear, engaged in a contest which, every modusky twilight. But then with a joyous halloo ment, became more critical. He had despatched the little party came back at full speed to rejoin Caputsch in one of the boats. The rear had bethe main body. Water had been found. The come the post of strong men. horse of Caputsch had gone straight to it. It numbers seemed to grow. was abundant. A number of desert springs bub-creased. They were soon interspersed, on foot, bling up through the sands made the head of with the Swedish horseman, clogging the necks what, in a different soil, would have been a con- and very limbs of the steeds with their sinewy siderable brook. As it was the soil soon arrest- arms. ed the flow, leaving instead of a continuous The Norwegian giant, panting from the slaughstream only a long narrow lagoon, edged broadly ter, his sweeping sword pouring its blood over with coarse grasses and shrubs, and spotted over his gauntlet, his dress discoloured and rent, plunits surface with the white flowers of the water-ged his way to the water-side. His comrades lily. were pressing in confusion into the boats, their crowds hemmed in, driven, and penetrated by the enemy whose knives were ripping out the bowels of the war-horses, and severing the wrists of the oarsmen. The night was passed near this pool. Its grasses and shrubs vanished before the devouring horses. Bread for the men had been procured at Perwolocna. Refreshed by food and water, the remnant of the great army slept on the desolate plain-its prostrate forms as motionless as the overthrown columns of some old lost city whose site the desert winds have nearly buried. Day broke. New hearts beat in the bosoms of the brave Swedes. The blue eye of their king had regained its clear courage. For five days this ride was continued over burning sands and under brassy skies, and then The Calmuck Their audacity in On the Turkish bank, those who had escaped were gathered, looking back to watch the fate of their comrades, and shouting counsel or hope to them. King Charles did not witness the scene. He had in fact entered Oczakow, giving no heed to the despised foe whom he deemed hardly bold enough to come into close contact with his iron Swedes. As Merlin plunged his way to the water-side, King Charles, sufficiently restored to be able to he felt the slim Tartar arms binding him like direct his band, reached the banks of the Bogh-cords. Galba struggled like a lion when the nets the ancient Hypanis. The Calmucks had been of the Nubian hunters begin to master him. His dogging his steps for the last three days. They yerking heels were clogged with the clinging foe; were swarming in his rear at a safe distance as the reins, which sword-stroke after sword-stroke he reached the river opposite to Oczakow, a had freed, were again clutched by numberless Turkish frontier town. The inhabitants of Oc- hands. The gallant horse, rearing, dragged up zakow refused to furnish boats to the wanderers, the enemies at his head; then he reeled, and fell whose dress and language were strange to them, on one side. As he went down the Tartars until their governor issued the order. The wise swarmed over him and his giant rider. With a Waywode debated the question with Turkish furious struggle the good horse rose, but riderless. sobriety, and finally waived a decision, submit- He shook off the crowd whose clutches were now ting the question to his superior, the Seraskier of directed to his master, and then, with a snort and the province, who resided at Bender in Besara- a magnificent dash onward, took to the water at bia. King Charles was in no case to await the a long bound. As he clove the surface of the decision. His enemies came on with a fury Bogh, a wild wail came from the Turkish shore. quickened by the prospect of quite losing the It issued from the lips of Caputsch, who stood VOL. XV-92 |