And by mistake sequins (1) with paras jumbling,

Until the sum was accurately scann'd,

And then the merchant giving change, and signing Receipts in full, began to think of dining.

XXX.

I wonder if his appetite was good?

Or, if it were, if also his digestion ? Methinks at meals some odd thoughts might intrude, And conscience ask a curious sort of question, About the right divine how far we should

Sell flesh and blood. When dinner has opprest one, I think it is perhaps the gloomiest hour Which turns up out of the sad twenty-four.

Voltaire says

XXXI.

"No:" he tells you that Candide Found life most tolerable after meals; He's wrong-unless man were a pig, indeed, Repletion rather adds to what he feels, Unless he's drunk, and then no doubt he's freed From his own brain's oppression while it reels. Of food I think with Philip's son, (2) or rather Ammon's (ill pleased with one world and one father); (3)

(1) [The Turkish zecchino is a gold coin, worth about seven shillings and sixpence. The para is not quite equal to an English halfpenny.] (2) See Plutarch in Alex., Q. Curt. Hist. Alexand., and Sir Richard Clayton's "Critical Inquiry into the Life of Alexander the Great." (3) [MS." But for mere food, I think with Philip's son,

Or Ammon's-for two fathers claim'd this one."]

XXXII.

I think with Alexander, that the act
Of eating, with another act or two,
Makes us feel our mortality in fact
Redoubled; when a roast and a ragout,
And fish, and soup, by some side dishes back'd,
Can give us either pain or pleasure, who
Would pique himself on intellects, whose use
Depends so much upon the gastric juice?(')

XXXIII.

The other evening ('twas on Friday last)-
This is a fact, and no poetic fable

Just as my great coat was about me cast,

My hat and gloves still lying on the table, I heard a shot-'twas eight o'clock scarce past— And, running out as fast as I was able, (2)

I found the military commandant

Stretch'd in the street, and able scarce to pant. (3)

(1) ["Last night suffered horribly from an indigestion. I remarked in my illness the complete inertion, inaction, and destruction of my chief mental faculties. I tried to rouse them, and yet could not. I should believe that the soul was married to the body, if they did not sympathise so much with each other. If the one rose when the other fell, it would be a sign that they longed for the natural state of divorce. But, as it is, they seem to draw together like post-horses."- B. Diary, 1821.]

(2) The assassination alluded to took place on the 8th of December, 1820, in the streets of Ravenna, not a hundred paces from the residence of the writer. The circumstances were as described. -[" December 9. 1820. I open my letter to tell you a fact, which will show the state of this country better than I can. The commandant of the troops is now lying dead in my house. He was shot at a little past eight o'clock, about two hundred paces from my door, I was putting on my great coat when I heard the shot. On coming into the hall, I found all my servants on the balcony, exclaiming that a man was murdered. I immediately ran down, calling on Tita (the bravest of them) to follow me. The rest wanted to hinder us from going, as it is the custom for every body here, it seems, to run away from the stricken deer."- B. Letters.]

(3) [MS."Just kill'd, and scarcely competent to pant."]

XXXIV.

Poor fellow for some reason, surely bad,

They had slain him with five slugs; and left him there To perish on the pavement: so I had

Him borne into the house and up the stair,

And stripp'd, and look'd to, (1)

add

But why should I

More circumstances? vain was every care; The man was gone: in some Italian quarrel Kill'd by five bullets from an old gun-barrel.(2)

XXXV.

I gazed upon him, for I knew him well;
And though I have seen many corpses, never
Saw one, whom such an accident befell,

So calm; though pierced through stomach, heart, and liver,

Him borne as soon's I could, up several pair

Of stairs and look'd to,But why should I add
More circumstances," &c.]

(2) ["We found him lying on his back, almost, if not quite, dead, with five wounds, one in the heart, two in the stomach, one in the finger, and the other in the arm. Some soldiers cocked their guns, and wanted to hinder me from passing. However, we passed, and I found Diego, the adjutant, crying over him like a child—a surgeon, who said nothing of his profession -a priest, sobbing a frightened prayer and the commandant, all this time, on his back, on the hard, cold pavement, without light or assistance, or any thing around him but confusion and dismay. As nobody could, or would, do any thing but howl and pray, and as no one would stir a finger to move him, for fear of consequences, I lost my pa. tience made my servant and a couple of the mob take up the body sent off two soldiers to the guard- despatched Diego to the Cardinal with the news, and had him carried up stairs into my own quarters. But it was too late he was gone. There were found close by him an old gunbarrel, sawn half off; it had just been discharged, and was quite warm.' B. Letters.]

He seem'd to sleep,- for you could scarcely tell
(As he bled inwardly, no hideous river
Of gore divulged the cause) that he was dead:
So as I gazed on him, I thought or said—

XXXVI.

"Can this be death? then what is life or death? Speak!" but he spoke not: "wake!" but still he

slept :

"But yesterday and who had mightier breath? A thousand warriors by his word were kept In awe: he said, as the centurion saith,

'Go,' and he goeth; ' come,' and forth he stepp'd. The trump and bugle till he spake were dumbAnd now nought left him but the muffled drum." (1)

XXXVII.

And they who waited once and worshipp'd-they
With their rough faces throng'd about the bed
To gaze once more on the commanding clay
Which for the last, though not the first, time bled:
And such an end! that he who many a day
Had faced Napoleon's foes until they fled,-
The foremost in the charge or in the sally,
Should now be butcher'd in a civic alley.

XXXVIII.

The scars of his old wounds were near his new, Those honourable scars which brought him fame; And horrid was the contrast to the view

-(2)

But let me quit the theme; as such things claim

(1) [MS. —"And now as silent as an unstrung drum."]

(2) ["I had him partly stripped-made the surgeon examine him, and examined him myself. He had been shot by cut balls or slugs. I felt one of the slugs, which had gone through him, all but the skin. He only said, 'C Dio!' and Giesu!' two or three times, and appeared to have suffered

Perhaps even more attention than is due

From me: I gazed (as oft I have gazed the same) To try if I could wrench aught out of death Which should confirm, or shake, or make a faith;

XXXIX.

But it was all a mystery. Here we are,

And there we go:—but where? five bits of lead, Or three, or two, or one, send very far!

And is 'this blood, then, form'd but to be shed? Can every element our elements mar?

And air-earth-water-fire live- -and we dead? We, whose minds comprehend all things? No more ; But let us to the story as before.

XL.

The purchaser of Juan and acquaintance
Bore off his bargains to a gilded boat,
Embark'd himself and them, and off they went thence
As fast as oars could pull and water float;
They look'd like persons being led to sentence,
Wondering what next, till the caïque (1) was
Up in a little creek below a wall

[brought O'ertopp'd with cypresses, dark-green and tall.

-

little. Poor fellow! he was a brave officer; but had made himself disliked by the people." I knew him personally, and had met him often at conversazioni and elsewhere. My house is full of soldiers, dragoons, doctors, priests, and all kinds of persons, though I have now cleared it and clapped sentinels at the door. To-morrow the body is to be moved. You are to know, that if I had not had the body moved, they would have left him there till morning in the street, for fear of consequences. I would not choose to let even a dog die in such a manner, without succour; — and, as for consequences, I care for none in a duty."B. Letters.]

(1) The light and elegant wherries plying about the quays of Constanti. nople are so called.