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The little dauntless covetable flower:
My gallant knight, whose eye still follows hers,
Caught at the half-form'd fancy; setting spurs
To his astonish'd horse, mad up the height
Where way was none, as if the beast had wings,
He tears his desperate course-and plucks the toy.
My lady shrieks, but ere the blood has time
To quit the cheek it plays in, by her side
He brings his panting steed, and gives the rose.
She blush'd, and chid, and was all rose herself;
Upon her temples, 'midst her silken hair,
She placed the flutter'd blossom; then, I own,
It seem'd worth all the hazard."

Athelwold returns to Edgar's court, and tells that falsehood which was almost as repugnant to the lover, as it was to the man of honour. Many excuses readily occur to cheat his conscience; but chiefly this, that his own love was so much more pure, and would be so much more constant, than that of the roving Edgar. He contrives to describe Elfrida as an ordinary dame, whose renown was owing to her secluded position. He adds, that she is amiable, her father wealthy, and that the match might suit a thane not so devoted to beauty as his sovereign. He obtains permission to pursue his own courtship.

On his second return to court, Athelwold begins to betray signs of repentance and of a troubled spirit. Dunstan, who was desirous that the king should marry, had been disappointed in the failure of the late project, and who beheld in Athelwold an enemy to the Church, is not slow in framing suspicions adverse to the thane. He goes himself to Olgar's castle where the bride was kept immured much against her will—he sees at once the treachery that had been practised, and does not fail to sow some seeds of discord in the mind of Elfrida. He returns, divulges his discovery to Edgar, and then follows the well-known catastrophe. She who

had been loved for beauty only, now displays an ungovernable vanity. The manner in which she contrives to quarrel with her husband, and justify the full permission she gives her beauty to captivate the king, is managed by the writer not without art; the remorse, too, of the noble thane, for the breach of honour he had committed, mingled as it is with many reflections of a philosophical as well as moral nature, is portrayed with some spirit. But we are not tempted to rescue either of these portions of the play from the flames. They must burn. We shall extend our generosity to one more extract only. In the fourth act, while Athelwold has again left the court, and is completing his courtship of Elfrida, we are brought into closer acquaintance with Dunstan. We see him not in the moving world, but in his solitude. He is sitting by the side of that most miserable of all abodes which ascetic ever constructed a kind of open grave which he had dug with his own hands for his painful habitation. He here reveals to us a combination, which, in men of such excitable nature and such dubious morality as Dunstan, has probably often existed; the visions of enthusi asm alternating with religious doubts, and these, coupled with remorse, leading to renewed severities of penance.

"Dunstan. (alone-midnight.)
Encircle me, ye angels, and ye saints
That once like me were mortal! Lo, I rise,
And, borne upon the wafture of your wings,
I mount-I climb the air-I enter heaven!
Ha! gone! all gone! Deserted here, I rest
On the bare earth, beneath the vacant moon;
Alone with God and nature. Terrible

Is this unseen Omnipotence!

Come back, ye shapes that talk'd with me ere while!

Oh, stand betwixt this Nature-God and me,

This dread Invisible! Let devils come,
And let me struggle with their grinning spite;
Their hideous rage were comfortable here,

And social in this blank immensity.

-Down on thy knees! Pray! without ceasing, pray!
So shalt thou find religion, if not God.

Pray-thou hast sins-they are thy bond to Heaven.
It is not joy, it is not innocence,

'Tis guilt that leads to the celestial gates.

Hail, thou mysterious sin!

Now, what is man, O Lord! that thou should'st have

Regard for him, his virtue, or his guilt?

What are to thee his follies or his crimes,

More than his grief or joy? Man tortures man;

Let man see to it, punish, and prevent:

For what end else is he made capable
Of reason, or of social government?
Creature most sad, weak, and contemptible,
Think'st thou thy little day of vagrant life
Can anger thy Creator, or can please?
Canst thou do honour, puppet, to thy God?
Or vex with errors? Or, poor jealous fool!
Dost hold it for an honour of thine own,
That God should plague thee everlastingly,
For mutual, mad, and transitory sins?

-Not mine-not mine-these thoughts, this blasphemy!
It is the whispering demon at my ear

Utters these impious doubts. O God! O God!
Some say thou didst not of immediate will,
But through subordinates, create this world;
If that some spirit seized thy vital power,
And used it for his wild and sportive thought,
What huge and dread responsibility
Lies on that reckless angel! I am dark,
I cannot know, by willing more to know;
But I can suffer;-suffer for these doubts,
As for all other sins. Here will I lie

In my damp living grave, with crawling worms
Balk'd of their wasting prey. My nourishment
But feeds disease-my life is agony-
What can I suffer more? Here let him cast
His pangs upon me, and re-string my frame
For the fresh torment; let him doom to hell,
Eternally with devils to abide.

I can but suffer. Here I lay me down,

A prostrate slave before resistless power.

Let the scourge fall! there is no other help.

-O Christ! The scourge has fallen, and on thee!"

Such is the conception which this writer formed of Dunstan and such the manner in which he thought the ascetic hermit might be combined with the political highpriest and the most learned person of his age.

THE CAUCASIAN WAR.*

THE extraordinary and effectual stand which the tribes lying along the eastern coast of the Euxine have made against the gigantic power of Russia, has naturally awakened "strong interest" in Europe; it has all the features of the times of romance, exhibiting the might that slumbers in a peasant's arm," exemplifying the noble resistance that may exist among men destitute of every thing but native intrepidity, and cheering all independent nations with the evidence that the feeblest who are determined to fight for their firesides, may struggle against the most colossal with distinguished honour, and perhaps with final victory.

even the ferocity of barbaric minds and manners may eventually be trained to civilization by the pressure of new calamity. But no man, who has the common feeling of right and wrong inculcated in him by nature, and still less, no man who feels the sympathies commanded by Christianity, can doubt, that to covet the territories of other sovereignties is a national crime; that to enforce the claim by. blood is a heightening of the crime; and that to protest against the principle and the practice is equally just, in feeling, in policy, and in religion. Russian aggrandizement is the true danger of the world.

Among the striking features of the present crisis is the prominence into which the tribes of the Central Caucasus have been thrown within the last

half dozen years. Until that period they were almost wholly unknown. Russia had marched through the country in their rear, and swept the borders of the Caspian with trivial diffi

It is not our purpose here to pronounce upon the immediate motives of the Russian Cabinet. But the undeniable fact is, that Russia has proceeded in a course of violent aggression on all the neighbouring states for the last hundred years; that this aggression has been continued until it has actually grown into a settled principle of Rus-culty. She had conquered Mingrelia sian policy; that every successful seizure of territory has been so far from satiating the passion for aggrandizement, that it has given new eagerness for encroachment; and that, in a desperate and unquenchable ambition which palpably aims at the sovereignty of the world, the object present to it from the beginning of its career under the first Peter, and enlarging and spreading with stronger temptation before it to this hour, is the seizure of the empire of the Sultan.

High purposes may be connected in the councils of Providence with this fierce, restless, and inappeasable love of possession; the mysterious agency which brings good out of evil may render the march of Russian power the means of accomplishing great objects, of which Russian policy never dreamt. The excitement of war may awake new life in the world of Islamism; the necessity of repelling despotism may give birth to the only antagonist by which it can be finally repelled-constitutional freedom; and

and Georgia twenty years before, and held them in firm possession. But the tribes which, by their position, were objects of the highest importance to a power whose direct purpose was the command of both shores of the Euxine, remained nearly unknown.

Mr Bell, from whose narrative we chiefly derive the anecdotes and observations that follow, is evidently a man of ability. He writes with clearness and force; he describes spiritedly and not too much, seizing on the prominent features of the country, without confusing them by lavishness of colouring or minuteness of detail. Alarmed as our feelings may be at the progress of human ambition, he places its criminality in the strongest light, by its contrast with the simple patriotism and natural bravery of the race of gallant mountaineers on whose bodies it must trample before it can enslave the land of their fathers.

By one of the treaties signed by Mahmoud in his days of depression, Turkey had made over to the Czar all

* Journal of a Residence in Circassia during the Years 1837, 1838, and 1839. By James Stanislaus Bell. 2 vols.

that belonged to her of sovereignty over the tribes of the Caucasus, and Russia instantly and fearfully availed herself of the pretext for bringing the whole country into subjection. But the truth was, that Turkey had signed away what it was not in her power to bestow; that the Caucasian tribes had never acknowledged more than a nominal sovereignty in Turkey; and that the sea-shore was the only part by which even that was formally acknowledged. The new demand of submission, therefore, came like a thunderbolt upon the Circassians. The Russian army advanced in force sufficient to justify the belief at St Petersburg, that no merely barbarian power could resist it for a single campaign; but the Czar, who had seen nothing but an empire of serfs, was now to take a lesson from a commonwealth of freemen. The Circassians rose in their villages, cursed the name of the invader, pronounced their determination to resist ; and adopting, as if by instinct, the true tactique of mountain war, drove their cattle from the valleys, burned their barks on the shores, removed their families to the hills, stockaded the mountain passes, and, calling on every man to take up his rifle, prepared to fight to their last breath against the Czar and slavery. The result was altogether beyond conjecture; for what could the desultory resistance of a population of peasants be expected to perform against the disciplined troops, the financial resources, and the devouring ambition of the Russian empire?

The "affair of the Vixen" has been familiar to the British public. It arose out of an attempt, on the part of some British merchants, to carry on an independent trade with Circassia. The Vixen was seized by the Russians, and the whole business produced a formidable addition to the troubles of Lord Palmerston, already perilously immersed in protocols, and the official puzzling of the most puzzled diplomacy since the days of Laputa. Mr Bell, the chief agent on the occasion, returned to Constantinople. Lord Durham, the champion of Liberalism in England, was sent to display his flexibility at the foot of the despot; he performed the suppliant to admiration, bowed to the Emperor with the pliancy of a Chinese mandarin, found his Radicalism utterly melted down in

the irresistible radiance of the imperial smile, and having accomplished that object dearest to every Whig and Radical in existence-the enjoyment of a two years' salary-returned to England, bringing nothing with him but a character from the Czar, and a couple of Russian ribands at his buttonhole.

In 1837, Mr Bell resolved on making a second experiment, and started from Constantinople by the Turkish steamer for Trebizond, but landed at Sinope. This town would form a study for the antiquarian; it stands on the end of a promontory, guarded on the land side by lofty double walls, which, having been repaired by the Turks from time to time, give numberless proofs of the barbaric readiness with which they availed themselves of the labours of the past. The walls are patched with slabs bearing Greek and Latin inscriptions, and with fragments of beautifully executed alto-relievos, capitals, entablatures, and fluted marble columns! The country affords no less interest to the geologist, presenting a great variety of soil as it recedes from the coast; hills evidently volcanic, those hills forest-crowned; the valleys fertile and abundant in flowers, among which were "most fragrant violets; " orchards and vineyards, showing the luxu riance of the land, and even the quiet and comfort which the indolence of the Turk allows to the Asiatic farmer. But this fine portion of the earth is coming into play, and it will not be long forgotten or unexamined.

But there is already a silent operation going on, whose effects must have been felt, even without the more rapid stimulant of war.

The people of

Sinope carry on a considerable trade in the fine oaks with which their adjoining hills abound. The "steamer is abroad," worth all the " schoolmasters" of this liberal age. The Trebizond steamers call at Sinope for coals. The Turks and Persians were at first afraid to trust themselves to ride on these "fire-horses;" but they have now got over their terrors, and they pass, generally, to the number of sixty or a hundred every trip. These are wondrous doings in Turkey. Twenty years ago the passengers would have been taken for madmen, the captain would have been hanged as a magician, and the ship would

have been confiscated as a "contraband" of the Prince of the Power of the Air!

After some discussion as to the mode of arriving at Circassia without being overhauled by the Russians, Mr Bell, at length, embarked on board a coaster, commanded by an old Turk named Khader. Khader was a hu. mourist, who scattered his jokes round

all his passengers. Their banquet was not much suited to epicurism; twice a day they had a stew of dried salt-meat, eggs, and onions, followed by a cup of sugarless coffee, and a pipe. Their other meals were irre gular, optional, and requiring strong stomachs; for their composition was garlic, olives, and capsicums. They had five Circassians on board, warrior merchants, who brought with them considerable quantities of packages for the home trade; but their first care was to look to their arms and ammunition-a sign of the times! The winds were continually shifting, and at length fell dead calm. Then the native resources of the Oriental came into play. A Mollah wrote a verse from the Koran, which he tied aloft in the rigging, and another Turk hung up the Koran itself at the stern. It may be presumed that the charm was effectual, for a breeze set in shortly after. Next day, as they approached the coast, they were startled by the reports of distant cannon; but a swallow flew by, which was regarded as a happy omen, and they were comforted. The captain was a man of experience; his vessel had been already captured by the Russian cruisers, but he had made his escape with his crew in a cockboat, in which, after four days of hazard, he reached the shore. He had sailed the Euxine for twenty-five years. His contrivance for ascertaining the set of the wind was happy his vessel had no vane; but he stuck out his long pipe, which was seldom out of his hand, over the gunwale, and it answered the purpose. The wind at last rose, and put the old captain into remarkable good-humour. He

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had said to an old Circassian gentleman, who had gone below through a fit of sickness, "that he was happy to see him again on deck, for when he was asleep so often, and forgot to say his prayers, they had bad winds." To a remark, that he seemed in good spirits" Yes, yes," said he, " I have

one old wife and one son, and, whenever I can make some money for them, I can laugh all day long." The wind fell again; but Moslem invention was not to be exhausted. The Mollah went round the deck with a little cup for paras, to buy candles to place in the mosque of a saintly Derveish at Sinab, which paras he wrapped up in a piece of rag, and tied round the tiller! In the evening, another scene perfectly Oriental occurred. The sails being trimmed, and the evening prayers said, the steersman proposed telling them a tale, to pass the time. While he knelt, as they generally do, with the tiller under his arm, and a pipe in one hand, the other being free for action, with the moonlight shinning upon his expressive features, and the surrounding circle of Turks and Circassians all listening in silence and light, the whole was an example of the involuntary picturesque. His tale was one of the old Arab family, of unhappy sultans and wonderful derveishes; but it was broken short by a fresh breeze. Another night was spent upon the waters. The sea, under the full moon, looked like a bath of silver. To add to the interest of the scene, an eclipse came on. The alarm was obviated by the Englishman's prediction of it, from his almanac; but all his attempts to explain the phenomenon were met with that acquiescent doubt, which relieves the Turk from the trouble of thinking. "It is the will of God," said they; and this solution accounted for every thing. It is the Turkish royal road to science; and saves the brain prodigiously.

But they were now approaching their harbour and their hazard to.. gether. Morning showed them the mountains of Circassia about forty miles off; but it soon after showed them two Russian vessels, one a threemasted cutter of six guns, and the other a large gun-brig, coming down full upon them. The chase now began, and the Turks were recommended to throw their bales overboard. But this they would not do: however, as something must be done, they threw overboard a gun-carriage and a Circassian flag. Their only hope was in the tactique of the Russians, who are bad sailors. The cutter commenced firing the first shots fell short. Twice before she neared them, way was lost by the necessity of altering

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