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1.

AH! why should Pity wet my bier,
And give my corse her tardy tear?
And the same eye that coldly slew me,
With drops untimely warm bedew me?
Alas! for harm is fleet as wind
And healing ever lags behind.
2.

Perhaps, when life well nigh is spent,
She'll faintly smile a sad consent-
And just before she sees me die,
Will heave a kind repentant sigh:
For sigh of ruth-O wayward fate,
Will ever come-and come too late.

EFFECT OF MOONLIGHT.

STANZAS.

3.

She cannot undo what is done;
For if a smile were like the sun,
And sighs more sweet than gales that creep
O'er rosy beds where fairies sleep,
And every tear like summer rain
To thirsty fields-'twere all in vain.
4.

For never sun so bright was seen
Could make a leaf that's sere be green;
Nor spicy gale, nor April shower,
Restore to bloom a faded flower:
Thus sun, and wind, and balmy rain,
And smiles, and tears, and sighs, are vain.
HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

VARIETIES.

With regard to light, we would mention the singularly useful, and hitherto unobserved effect of moonlight, in assisting the completion of certain important phenomena. The crystallization of water, under the form of those light frosts which so much prevail during the early spring, and in autumn, and which are of such importance in assisting the operations of agriculture, by rendering the surface of the earth mellow, and better susceptible of the manure that is necessary to it, are greatly assisted, and in many cases entirely brought about by the intervention of moonlight. It is well known that, under certain circumstances, water will sink to the temperature of 22 degrees before it freezes, or takes the form of crystals. Indeed it will invariably do so in the absence of any mechanical agitation, and in the absence of light. It is an unquestionable fact, but one which has not hitherto been observed generally, or attended to, that during that period of the year alluded to, before the moon rises on a still clear night, when the atmosphere is at a lower temperature than 32, the water remains in a liquid state, but immediately on the moon's rising, and diffusing its light around, the water freezes, and performs the salutary offices required of it, without subjecting us to the severity of a low temperature.

IGNEZ DE CASTRO.

Few personages are recorded in history who have been oftener celebrated by dramatic writers than this princess. There have been no less than five tragedies formed from her pitiful narrative; viz. two in Engfish, one in French, one in Spanish, and one in Portuguese. The latter, perhaps, approaches nearest to the truth of history, and is not inferior in point of poetical merit. The author, Senhor Nicole Luis, had no occasion to resort to fiction, to heighten the passions of an audience, as the simple facts are sufficient to fill up all the scenes of pity and terror, and to show to what lengths love and revenge are capable of transporting the human mind.

The subject of this tragical piece is as follows. Don Pedro, son of Alonzo the Fourth King of Portugal, and heir apparent

to the crown, having fallen in love with a lady of the court, named Donna Ignez de Castro, thought he could not share the crown which awaited him with a more amiable person. She united to all the charms of beauty, the most graceful and accomp. lished manners. The prince, waving all considerations of birth and fortune, was privately married to her by the Bishop of Guarda. Notwithstanding the nuptials were performed with all the secrecy imagi nable, yet they reached the king's ear, who had premeditated a consort for Don Pedro in the King of Castile's daughter. He questioned him as to the truth of the report, but the prince, knowing his father's arbitrary disposition, thought it prudent then to conceal the fact.

The nobility also had intimation of the marriage, and the preference given to Ignez had awakened their jealousy. Hence they took every opportunity of representing her as a woman of the greatest ambition, and pretended that very fatal consequences were to be apprehended from such an alliance: they also condemned the prince as a rash and disobedient son. The king, who was a man of weak understanding, gave ear to their calumny, and they worked upon his passions to that degree, that he resolved to murder the unfortunate príocess. Accordingly he set out to perpetrate the horrid deed, accompanied by three of his courtiers, and a number of armed men. Donna Iguez at this time resided at Coimbra, in the palace of Santa Clara, where she passed her time in the most private manner, educating her children and attending to the duties of her domestic affairs. The prince, unfortunately, was abroad on a hunting party when the king arrived. The beautiful victim came out to meet him, with her two infant children, who clang about his knees, screaming aloud for mercy. She prostrates herself at his feet, bathes them with tears, and supplicates pity for her children, beseeching him to banish her to some remote desart, where she would gladly wander an exile with her babes. The feelings of nature arrested his arm, just raised to plunge a dagger into her breast. But his counsellors urging the necessity of her death, and reproaching him for his dis

regard to the welfare of the nation, he relapsed into his former resolution, and commanded them to despatch her! at which they rushed forward, regardless of the cries of innocence and beauty, and instantly struck off her head.

Soon after the above transaction, the prince arrived; but, alas! found those eyes that were wont to watch his return with impatience, closed in death. The sight of his beloved Ignez, weltering in gore, filled his mind with distraction, and kindled every spark of revenge in his soul. In all the agony of rage, he called aloud on the avenging hand of heaven to punish these monsters, who deprived him of all he held dear upon earth.

As soon as her remains were interred, he put himself at the head of an army, who sympathized with his distress: they carried fire and sword through the adjacent provinces, and laid waste the estates of the murderers. The royal troops could not oppose them; they fled at the appearance of the gallant avengers of innocence. But the king, wretched man! could not fly from himself; the cries of his grand-children still echoed in his ears, and the bleeding image of their unfortunate mother was constantly before his eyes. Death at length commisserated his situation, and he expired, full of repentance for his accumulated crimes. He was an undutiful son, an unnatural brother, and a cruel father.

The prince now ascended the throne, in the 37th year of his age. He no sooner obtained the power, than he meditated to revenge the death of his beloved Ignez. The three murderers, namely Pedro Coello, Drogo Lopez Pacheo, and Alvaro Gonsalva, had fled into Castile, previous to the death of the late King. The prince ordered them to be tried on a charge of high-treason, and being found guilty, their estates were confiscated. Next he contrived to seize their persons, by agreeing with the king of Castile that both should reciprocally deliver up the Portuguese and Castillian fugitives who sought protection in their respective dominions. Gonsalvi and Coello were accordingly arrested, and sent in chains to Portugal. Pacheo escaped into France. The king was at Santarem when the delinquents were brought to him; he instantly ordered them to be laid on a pyre that was previously formed, contiguous to which he had a banquet prepared. Before the torch was kindled, and while they agonized at every pore, under the most lingering tortures, their hearts were cut out; one at his breast, the other at his back. Lastly, the pyre was set on a blaze, in presence of which he dined, while they evaporated in the flames.

Having thus appeased his insatiable thirst of revenge, he ordered his marriage with Donna Ignez to be published throughout the kingdom; then her body was taken out of the sepulchre, covered with regal robes. and placed on a magnifi

247

cent throne, around which his ministers assembled, and did homage to their lawful queen. After this ceremony, her corpse was translated from Coimbra to Alcobaco, with a pomp hitherto unknown in the king dom; though the distance between these two places is fifty-two miles, yet the road was lined on both sides, all the way, with people holding lighted tapers. The funeral was attended by all the noblemen and gentlemen. in Portugal, dressed in long mourning cloaks; their ladies also attended, dressed in white mourning veils.

The cloud which the above disaster cast over the mind of Don Pedro, was never totally dispersed; and as he lived in a state of celibacy the remainder of his life, according to his vow, there was nothing to divert his attention from ruminating on the fate of his beloved spouse. The impression her death made on him was strongly characterized not only in the tortures he inflicted on her murderers, but also in all the acts of his administration, which, from their severity, induced some to give him the appellation of Pedro the Cruel; by others he was called Pedro the Just; and upon the whole, it appears that the latter title most properly appertained to him.

GAS IN DWELLING-HOUSES.

householders from suffering gas-lights withA correspondent strongly persuades in any part of their houses. He says the quality of the air is peculiarly injurious to health, as the pulmonary organs are affected by all miasmata. He adds, "I have of late avoided all rooms lighted with gas of any kind, and am satisfied I have prevented the progress of a cough, which, though my frame is very strong and healthy, came on gradually and increased, till I discontinued December last, and notwithstanding the my attendance on all gas-lighted rooms in severity of the winter, have never coughed since. This fact is known to several medical persons of eminence."

FIRE DAMP.

On Monday night last, (Oct. 20) Whitehaven was thrown into the utmost agitation, by an awful explosion, of fire-damp from the William Pitt coal-mine,belonging to the Earl of Lonsdale. No less than 15 men, 16 boys, and 2 girls, have come to a premature death by this catastrophe. It is generally supposed that one of the workmen occasioned the explosion by carelessly removing the cylinder of his lamp There were also 17 horses killed, but some of their drivers escaped.

Memoir of a young Greek, Mademoiselle
Pauline-Adelaide-Alexander Panani, a-
gainst his Serene Highness the reigning
Prince of S... C.....

(From a French Journal.) MADEMOISELLE Alexander Panani complains of having been seduced by the Prince of S... C..... The two volumes she has published, and the interesting creature to whom she has given birth, do not seem to

eclat of her complaints, and the interest excited by her misfortunes, render her an object of hatred to her oppressor. Obliged to go to Vienna, they give her a Baron Fichler as compagnon de voyage, in the same carriage with herself. Sleeping with her child in her arms, she is suddenly awakened by violent and repeated blows: she finds herself in a hollow, the carriage broken to pieces, and the baron standing at the top of the precipice quietly watching her; and it is not till the end of the day he remembers that to save appearances he ought also to be hurt, and surrounds his head with an enormous napkin. Several attempts to poison her and her child are also mentioned. These memoirs are followed by a great collection of letters from the Prince de C.... and the Duchess dowager. The love-letters are rather curious: not tender effusions, but pretty financial details, whose minuteness is so absolutely ridiculous, that no one could believe it was an affair of the heart. They are preceded by a letter from the Marshal Prince de Ligne, who advises the publication most strongly. He says, "All Europe ought to know this: your book will attract attention. It will inflict on the powerful the only punishment that can here reach them: it will spread through the continent the history of your misfortunes; and a future age will remember your complaint and their

shame."

leave a doubt on the subject. She was, it is stated, but fourteen when the Prince offered her a place as dame d'honneur in the ducal palace-an old expedient in the drama, but enough for a young girl without experience. Having won her consent, the agents of the Prince could think of nothing better than making Molle Panani assume the dress of a man, and forwarding her under this envelope to his Highness by the public diligence. The second day of her journey an unexpected jolt loosened the cap and comb which fastened up the hair of the pretty traveller. The secret of her sex is discovered; in spite of the high for tune awaiting her, she finds herself the butt for all the bourgeois witticisms of which the diligence is the theatre. Her tears, her modesty, and the protection of the driver, extricate her from this embarrassment. Arrived at the place of her destination, disappointments await her cherished hopes, there is no place for her in the palace-the Prince, however, offers her one in his heart, as well as a lodging at one of his farms. A little anecdote here occurs, a most admirable specimen of German gallantry-It was the Prince's wish that she should visit the chateau he inhabited. She sets off with a guide, and at the close of the day arrives at the place; her guide enters, and shuts the door in her face. For two hours she is left in the open air, exposed to a most tremendous storm. At length a noble and tender voice seizes an interval between the claps of thunder, and invites her to climb a ladder placed beneath the window of her destined apartment. Our heroine, divided between the fear of the storm and that of breaking her Haack's Thucydides, with Latin, 4 vols. neck, at last ventures on the chance provid- 8vo. 21. 2s.-Ditto, without Latin, 3 vols. ed by her prevoyant lover's tenderness, 1.11s.6d.-Dibdin's Sea Songs, Part I. Svo. climbs the ladder, and escapes all dangers -Hermit in Prison, 2 vols. 12mo. 14s.except a severe cold. Malle Panani de- Traditions of the Castle, 4 vols. 12mo. 28s. scribes herself to have been the victim of Naval Records, Part I. 12mo. 8s.—Bankavaricious tyranny and cold calculating er's Daughter of Bristol, 3 vols. 12mo 18s. passion. She is left, a few months before -Macloe's Natural History, 12mo. 4s. 6d. her confinement, a stranger, without friends, Magendie on New Remedies, &c. 12 mo 4s. money, or Her mentor, from 6d.--McKenzie's 500 Receipts, square even the beginning, was a counsellor Tit12mo. 10s. 6d-Watt's Poetical Sketches, tel, the first economist of the age. This 8vo. 68.-Williams's Abstract for 1823, 8vo. statesman had but one white shirt: 10 s. 6d. McAdam on Roads, 7s. 6dgrand court occasions it was taken down Yates on Water in the Brain, 6s. 6d.—Wilfrom the peg in the anti-chamber, but so son's Sermons, 12 mo 5s.-Gurney's Lecsoon as he returned it was carefully retures on Chemistry, 8vo. 13s-Supplement placed on its customary supporter. Her to Penn's Geology, 8vo. 5s entreaties are answered by promises, her importunities by threats; she is hurried from place to place, and her last hope seems to have expired on receiving a severe reprimand for prodigality-the giving a piece de douze sous to an old beggar. She is herself obliged to have recourse to the charity of others, and an innkeeper of Dresden consents for a time to keep the son of the Prince of C. for charity. She endeavours to obtain intercessors at the court, but youth and beauty obtain for her but dangerous protectors. We come now to the tragic part of these memoirs; the

resource.

on

Such is the Liberal Review of a book of which we know nothing, except that its source is not the purest, and its aim detraction and revenge.

-

NEW WORKS, OCT. 1823.

Copy of a Letter to Mr. Methuen, from his
Gardener.

"Honred Sir,-My wif an I have taken the lan from Winsor Jenny Cedar has lost The Oxen are com down to prase the Gods. her head, the rest of the scrubs are well.

From your humble servant, &c.” What he meant to say was: Honoured Sir,-My wife and I have taken the influenza. The Virginia cedar has lost its head: the rest of the shrubs are all well. The auctioneer came down to appraise the goods.

SPIRIT

OF THE

ENGLISH MAGAZINES.

BOSTON, JANUARY 1, 1824.

(Lit. Gaz.)

MEMOIRS OF THE QUEEN OF ETRURIA.

MA ARIA LOUISA, Infanta of Spain, Queen of Etruria, the third daughter of King Charles IV. and Maria Louisa Infanta of Parma, was born in 1782. She was still very young when the Infant Don Louis of Bourbon, eldest son of the Duke of Parma, came to Madrid for the purpose of receiving the hand of the Infanta Maria Amelia. That princess was of a very melancholy and reserved character; Maria Louisa on the contrary united to the graces of her sex the vivacity and sprightliness peculiar to her age. The prince of Parma had inspired an equal inclination to the two sisters, but eventually preferred Maria Louisa. It is at the period of her marriage (1796) that these Memoirs commence.

The royal pair resided in Spain, and lived very happily together. In the 6th year after her marriage the princess bore a son, and in the following year the prince, by the Treaty of Luneville, was called to the throne of Tuscany by the title of King of Etruria. In April 1801 the King and Queen set out for Tuscany, taking Paris in their way at the express desire of the First Consul," who wished to see what effect the presence of a Bourbon would produce in France"! "Alarmed as we were at this intelligence, (says the Queen,) it appeared evident to us that the danger in which our lives might be placed, was not at all thought of, in comparison with pleasing Buon32 ATHENEUM VOL. 14.

aparte, and exhibiting us in a country where a few years before so atrocious a massacre had been made of our family. All that we could say on the subject, however, was useless, and we were obliged to take the road to Paris." Three weeks' residence in the French capital dispelled these fears, and, prosecuting their journey, the travellers in August 1801 reached the royal palace at Florence, which they found in so forlorn a condition as to oblige them to have recourse to the neighbouring nobility for plate and other articles of domestic use. "Our court (the Queen writes) was gradually formed, but I could not succeed in retaining in my suite a single Spanish lady; all those who had accompanied me to Florence were recalled a month after our arrival." Tuscany was at this time occupied by French troops under Murat ; a burden pressing very heavily on the people, but which all the endeavours of the King failed to remove.

In 1802 the King and Queen, though the former was in declining health and the latter far gone in pregnancy, undertook a visit to Spain, to be present at the marriage of the Prince of Asturias (now Ferdinand VII.) to the princess Maria Antoinette of Naples. The journey altogether proved disastrous, for her majesty suffered not a little in being delivered of a princess at sea, and the fatigue of travelling so much augmented the disorders of her consort,

that five months after their return to Florence, in 1803, she was left a widow at the age of twenty-one, with two children. Having premised thus much, we shall now leave the Queen to relate her subsequent oppressions and sufferings in her own words.

"When I assumed the reins of government my sole idea was to promote the happiness of my subjects---the King, my son, was every thing that I could wish my only ambition was, to be able some day to show him the difference between the deplorable state in which I had found the kingdom, and that in which I expected to deliver it into his hands. In the midst of these agreeable illusions, a fatal blow came to overturn the structure of happiness which I took a pleasure in elevating. On the 23d November 1807, while I was at one of my country residences, the French minister D'Aubusson la Feuillade, came to inform me that Spain had ceded my kingdom to France; that it was necessary I should depart. --- The entrance of the French troops into the capital compelled me, contrary to my wishes and intentions, to quit the kingdom. At the moment of our departure, the French published a proclamation, in which they released our subjects from their oath of fidelity; but nothing of that sort could be valid first, because that measure was the effect of compulsion; secondly, that it was founded on motives that had no existence. In this manner, on the 10th of December, 1807, at the worst period of the year, I took leave of a country where my heart has ever since remained. I was given to understand that a part of Portugal would be offered me, as a compensation for Tuscany; but that offer only served to increase my affliction.

"At Milan, I had an interview with Napoleon, in which I expressed to him the sorrow I felt at quitting Tuscany, and requested that he would be good enough to restore me that state, in place of the portion of Portugal. He had the impudence to tell me, that for his own part, he would have left me quiet in Tuscany, but that it was the court of Spain which had proposed the exchange, because my parents wished

me to be nearer to them. This man had already formed the idea of invading Spain, and he wished to prevail on me not to return there, but to reside at Turin or Nice. - - - My parents met me at Aranjuez; and after enjoying the satisfaction of seeing them, along with my brothers, my first care was to get information of the treaty by which I had been deprived of my sovereignty. They told me that they had been deceived. I cannot deny that while on one side I was as it were thunderstruck by the discovery of the horrible treachery committed against us; on the other, this discovery somewhat consoled me, and encouraged me to renew my entreaties to be allowed to return to my dear Tuscany. While the attempts I made to effect this were going on, the revolution of the 18th of March, and my father's renunciation of the crown took place, and my brother was named his successor. I used the same entreaties with him, and had obtained the most solemn promise from him that my wish should be gratified, when, by a second act of treachery, he was drawn to Bayonne, and we were all obliged to follow him. --- I knew nothing of what had been going on, and almost the first words which my father addressed to me on my arrival there, were, 'You must know, my daughter, that our family has forever ceased to reign.' I thought I should have died at the intelligence. I knew not what could have taken place, never having had even the remotest idea of the possibility of such an occurrence. I took leave of my parents, and retired into my chamber, more dead than alive.”

Buonaparte being at this time at Bayonne, Maria Louisa sought a negociation, which was for some time carried on speciously, but in the sequel left her a prisoner with her father and mother, who were destined to repair to Fontainbleau, while her brothers were ordered to Valençay.

In May 1808 the ex-patriated Queen arrived as Fontainbleau, where finding only a single apartment allotted to herself and family, she in consequence hired a house called Passy but at the moment of taking possession, was escorted back by troops, two sentinels

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