easily have profited. But the latter neglected doing so, until at last, taking advantage of a violent and imprudent assault made by his antagonist, he brought his forte in contact with De Roncevalles' faible, and the sword of the French officer flew into the air, leaving its owner disarmed, and at the mercy of his adversary. Leon let the point of his weapon fall on the ground. "If Captain de Roncevalles," said the Spaniard, in the same calm tones, and with the same exquisitely courteous manner for which he was at all times remarkable; "if Captain de Roncevalles is satisfied that I am not the poltroon for whom he has for some days past taken me, my object in seeking this duel has been attained, and I am sincerely glad that it has been so at such trifling expense of bloodshed."

The Frenchman stood for a moment, struggling between the better feelings of his nature, and mortification, not unmixed with anger, at his defeat. The former prevailed, and he held out his hand to Leon.

"After what has passed," said he, "it would be as absurd in me to doubt your courage as your skill and generosity. I cannot divine your reasons for submitting to the impertinence of that shabby dog, Lavrille; but whatever they may have been, I at least have now no right to question them. Under all circumstances, Señor Leon, Gerald de Roncevalles your friend."

is

"My motives for acting as I have done, are easily explained," returned Leon, smiling; "but with your permission, I will defer disclosing them until to-night, when those who witnessed what they consider my pusillanimity, will be present to listen to its justification.'

The slight wound in Leon's shoulder was now dressed, and the parties left the ground.

Upon the evening of the day on which this duel took place, De Roncevalles and the other young men who had been present at Leon's dispute with Lavrille, were again assembled at the club. The banker alone was absent. He had heard of the occurrences of the morning, and had not thought it advisable to put himself in the way of the man whom he had offended; and who, now he had got his hand in, might, he thought, perhaps call him to an account. De Roncevalles, with eager generosity, had made it his business to tell every one who could possibly have heard of the insinuations circulated against Leon, how well the latter had proved himself a man of honour and courage. It was with extended hands, and smiling countenances, and manifold excuses for past slights, that the Spaniard was received upon entering the club. After these effusions of good feeling had subsided, Leon addressed himself to De Roncevalles.

"I promised you this morning," said he, "that I would explain my motives for overlooking Monsieur Lavrille's insolence, and, what was far more difficult for me to submit to, his unfounded insinuations against a lady for whom I entertain the highest respect. In order to do so, I must go back to an early period of my life, when I was residing at the Havannah, in which colony my boyhood and youth were passed. From the age of seventeen, up to my return to Europe, which took place about eight years since, I belonged to a society of young men who passed a large portion of their time in fencing-rooms and pistol-galleries, and most of whom, consequently, became first-rate swordsmen and admirable shots. After a time, weary of snuffing candles with bullets, and marking each other with the chalked buttons of the foils, some of the more restless and hotheaded among us began to covet opportunities of displaying our prowess

Skill in the use of arms, however ornamental,

in a more serious manner. and often useful an acquirement, has a tendency to make young and thoughtless men quarrelsome, and under the influence of a West Indian sun, the blood easily becomes heated, and the temper irritable. We were twenty in number, all from twenty to twenty-five years of age; all possessed of quick eyes, nervous arms, and that suppleness of limb and muscle which a tropical climate gives. In numerous duels with officers of the garrison, with those of various ships of war lying off the island, with foreigners and with natives, we came off victorious; and soon, encouraged by our success, and cherishing a sort of absurd pride in the notoriety it gave us, we made it almost our business to seek duels, and scarcely a week passed without one or other of our number having an affair of that nature upon his hands. Los Veinte, as we were called, in allusion to our number, soon became the terror of the Havannah, and the Habanera ladies trembled when they saw their sons, husbands, or brothers repair to a café, theatre, or other public place, where they were likely to come in contact with members of our dreaded society.

"Although we were thus, as it might be said, almost at enmity with our fellow-citizens, the most perfect good understanding existed amongst ourselves. We were all young men of competent fortunes, without any occupation in life save that of amusing ourselves. We were in the habit of dining together three or four times a week, either at a fonda or at one or other of our houses, and the utmost harmony and good feeling always reigned at these repasts. The dinner-hour was early, and after the meal, card-playing and conversation, the cigar and the siesta, filled up the afternoon in the most agreeable manner.

"We were dining one day at the house of a young Valencian named Luis Villabella, who had just received some choice French and Spanish wines, which he was desirous we should taste. The weather was exceedingly hot, and the dinner had been laid out upon tables in the patio, or inner court of the house, under a thick green awning that effectually excluded the rays of the sun. The repast was excellent, the wines deliciously cool, and we all of us drank enough, some of us perhaps too much. Cards were then produced, and several of the party sat down to play. For some time every thing went on pleasantly and quietly, until, on a sudden, a dispute arose at a table on which a game of tresilio was played. The four players were all exceedingly intimate and attached friends, two of them were cousins of the name of Rodriguez. At first no one took notice of their discussion, but at length it became so violent, that we interposed to check it. They fiercely rejected our interference, and continued their quarrel with greater vehemence than before.

"A dispute between mere acquaintances is often easy to arrange; a slight concession on either side may do it; but when bosom friends quarrel it is another matter. They know each other's weak points, and where to strike, so as to give the greatest pain, and leave the most rankling smart. It was so in this instance. The quarrel, which had had its origin in some slight misunderstanding about the cards, became envenomed; allusions were exchanged, especially between the two cousins, unintelligible to the bystanders, but which seemed to stimulate to the utmost the rage of the persons to whom they were addressed. At last, in an access of unbounded fury, one of the Rodriguez hurled a pack of cards at his cousin's head, at the same moment that one of the other dis

putants, incensed almost to madness, spat contemptuously on the ground, and applied to his adversary the most insulting epithet that the Spanish language possesses. Then, as if exhausted by this display of ungovernable passion, the aggressors threw themselves, pale and panting, into their chairs. The two others approached the master of the house, and asked for his swords.

"A feeble attempt was made to patch up the quarrel, but we all saw that it would be in vain. Things had gone too far. The tables were cleared away, and dust was sprinkled over the marble flags of the patio, to prevent the combatants from slipping. Villabella had only one pair of swords. The buttons were snapped off a pair of foils, the points hastily filed, and the four gladiators posted themselves opposite each other, rage, and deadly determination on their pallid countenances.

Such

"I have seen many duels, but I shall never forget that one. fiendish fury and blood-thirstiness! They fought too fiercely for the contest to last long. In the very first passes, all were more or less wounded, but they persevered, although the pavement soon became slippery with blood. We more than once tried to interfere, but were repelled at the sword's point. In less than a quarter of an hour, two of the combatants lay corpses upon the ground, a third was desperately wounded, and the fourth, the younger Rodriguez, was lying upon the lifeless body of his cousin, tearing his hair, and cursing himself, in a frantic paroxysm of grief and remorse.

"I sailed for Europe soon after that sad event," continued Leon, after a short pause, "but before I did so, our society met once more to register a vow, which I for one have strictly kept. With joined hands, and heads uncovered, we swore upon the cross never to provoke a duel, except under these circumstances, namely, when we should be insulted on account of a previous act of forbearance. Thus my oath prevented me from resenting the offence offered me by Monsieur Lavrille, but as soon as a third person insulted me for not having noticed it, I was at liberty to call him to account for so doing. I know not whether such a system, or any modification of it, may be susceptible of general application, but it is perhaps not altogether unworthy the consideration of those who are desirous of doing away with the argument of the sword. That duels can ever be entirely abolished I much doubt, but I am fully convinced that means might be found of rendering them of far less frequent occurrence."

On a bright and cheerful morning about a fortnight after the duel between Leon and De Roncevalles, a long line of equipages was formed before the church of St. Catherine, at Toulouse. Presently a brilliant bridal party began to issue from the church-door; gay uniforms, nodding plumes, silks, jewels, and flowers; dashing officers, dapper civilians, and lovely women, the dark-eyed sons and daughters of southern France were there. Between De Roncevalles and his sister, a charming Parisian belle, came the Spaniard Leon, supporting on his arm the graceful form of Pauline Duveyrier. He shook his former antagonist heartily by the hand, Mademoiselle de Roncevalles kissed Pauline on both cheeks, and then Leon handed the latter into an elegant travelling carriage, on which a coat of arms, surmounted by a coronet, was emblazoned. The horses' heads were turned southwards, and amidst bright smiles, and waving kerchiefs, and countless good wishes, the Marquis of Leon y Caceres and his bride set off for Madrid.

LITERATURE.

THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.*

FERTILE as the press has been of late in descriptions of the "whereabouts" of the East, and of the manners, habits, and dispositions of its swarthy denizens,

Souls made of fire and children of the sun,

the stupendous relics of by-gone ages with which it teems, the monuments of art which it exhibits amidst its rudest deserts, as if in mockery of the paltry rivalry of modern civilisation, must ever render its varied regions objects of the greatest interest as well as wonder; and though visiters to the Pyramids may now vie in point of numbers with those less ambitious travellers who some fifty years since defied "hazy weather" with "Master Noah" in the perils of a Margate voyage, yet seldom, if ever, does any one, even of the most unobservant among them, return without bringing back with him some fresh stone from the cairn of buried centuries, or some useful information with respect to nations and races, once so distant, but now brought, by the magic influence of steam, as it were, to our very doors.

That Egypt and Syria, especially, continue to become daily objects of increased notice and importance must cease to excite surprise when we consider the very important part they will in all human probability be called upon to play at no distant date, all things conspiring, as they seem to do, to render them about to become once again the high road to India, and to make a portion of their territories the great thoroughfare through which the commerce of the Western World will have to pass, not to say the depôt of its wares, and the emporium of its manufactures.

While the eye of the merchant, of the political economist and the statesman will then necessarily be directed towards a point so prominent in their several spheres of vision, that of the philologist, the scholar, and the antiquary, will be no less attracted to where are yet to be found the remnants of languages long lost, but which every succeeding year is contributing to restore, the growing elucidations of classic mysteries, the solution of many an "historic doubt," and the separation of fact from fiction, of the severe records of Truth from mythological metaphor and poetic fancies.

Among all the volumes that have issued from the press upon this interesting theme, from those of the high-born lady to the hardy Burckhardt-from the massive prose of Robinson, to the deep thoughtful poetry of Milnes-from the calm researches of Wilkinson and Lane to the brilliance of the author of Eöthen'-from the scoffing scepticism of Volney to the graceful piety of Lord Lindsay, we question whether any will be found more agreeable to the general reader, or more satisfactory to the graver student than those before us. uncombined with elegance of style, to a strong sense of the ridiculous, To great liveliness and spirit, not and a vein of genuine humour, which is constantly breaking out, but never unseasonably, Mr. Warburton unites a quickness as well as depth of

The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel. By Eliot Warburton, Esq. 8vo. 2 vols.

observation, a shrewdness of inference, an information and intelligence, and a "Catholic-hearted"-ness, to borrow an epithet of his own, which not only render him one of the pleasantest compagnons du voyage it has ever been our good fortune to travel with, but exhibit him as an individual peculiarly well qualified for the task he has undertaken by the possession of those qualities which distinguish the gentleman, the scholar, and the Christian, and by a happiness of temperament which "makes the best" of difficulties, and extracts a smile, or even a hearty laugh, from circumstances calculated to excite in minds not so harmoniously attuned, a much less amiable ebullition.

The author in his opening chapter takes leave of "Old England, and the New Year together," and starting from Southampton, on board the Oriental steamer, proceeds at once to the Levant. His description of the motley company with whom he is associated, and their style of living on board, is given with much humour, not unmixed with pathos, of which latter quality, the following allusion to one of his fellow-passengers will afford no unpleasing specimen.

It did not require the isolation of our lot to create a deep interest about one of our fair invalids, who only appeared on deck when we entered on a milder climate. This poor girl was going to the Mediterranean, in the hope of prolonging, not of saving, the life whose sunset hour was already visible in the bright colour of her hectic cheek. When I first saw her, her eyes, in which the light of immortality seemed already shining, were gazing mournfully on those northern skies, which she was never to behold again, at least with an upward glance. Her helplessness, and youth, and beauty, seemed to exercise an influence over all around her; the little children spoke softly, and the helmsman seemed to move the wheel more gently, lest it should disturb her.

Is it the respect that men unconsciously feel towards those about to "put on immortality," or tenderness for those about to part from earth, that checks the wild laugh, and makes the eager foot tread lightly as it approaches that pale girl? I know not; but if the old theory, that failing life could be restored by the infusion of healthy blood, were true, I believe there is not a man in all that crowded ship who would not freely let his best blood flow for her, whom he never saw before, and whom, after a few more sunsets, none will ever see again.

After touching at Malta, on the evening of the eighteenth day from leaving England, "a faint speck is the only object visible from the decks," but "that speck is Pompey's Pillar," and the traveller is soon after at Alexandria, between the ancient and modern state of which, he draws a striking contrast, while a condensed account of the battle of the Nile, into which, "though an old story now," he is not unnaturally led, is one of the most graphic descriptions we have read, and delineates that splendid scene of British triumph in colours not unworthy of its subject.

A pleasing instance of national good faith, and of its enduring moral effects, is given in a subsequent narrative of the events which succeeded Bonaparte's departure from Egypt, leaving, as he did, the remainder of the French force at Cairo, under the command of the gallant, but ill-fated Kleber.

The latter

Had accepted, and was preparing to act upon terms of capitulation from the Turks, which Lord Keith had, however, refused to ratify. The moment Sydney Smith learned the English admiral's determination, he took upon himself to inform Kleber of the fact, and to advise him to hold his position. The Turks exclaimed against this chivalrous notice as a treachery, and there were not a few found in England to echo the same cry; but the spirit which dictated the British sailor's act was understood in the deserts-a voice went forth among the tents of the Bedouin and the palaces of the despot, that England preferred honour to advantage.