horses, and preceded by two outriders in English jockey-costume. The only occupant of this dazzling vehicle was a young and elegantly attired woman. Soon as Arnold beheld the jockeys, he recognised the garb of the mysterious youth who had spoken to him on the Jungfern-stieg, and again but an hour since in his garden. "That must be my lovely countess," he exclaimed, as he bounded forward with lightning-speed to overtake the brilliant equipage. Finding his horse an encumbrance rather than a help, he transferred it from his legs to his fingers, succeeded at length in overtaking the carriage, and, to his inexpressible delight, discovered in the fair traveller his radiant and enchanting Cordula. She immediately observed and recognised him. Stopping the carriage, she greeted the breathless and agitated student with a melodious laugh. "Hah! Do we meet again ?" said she. "Strange and incomprehensible youth! Are you not ashamed of yourself, to have mistaken me for an enchanted Melusina? What do you think of me now? Am I a marble Sphinx, or an ivory knob ? Ha! ha! ha! you are truly an original personage. Do step into the carriage, and give an account of yourself."

The abashed and bewildered Arnold did not wait a second invitation. Springing with an elastic bound of delight into the vehicle, he took the proffered seat by its lovely mistress, and the four prancing Danes resumed their speed.

"Ah! my adorable countess," exclaimed the happy student, as soon as he could find breath and language, "why did you address me so mysteriously in that Egyptian cham. ber? And why did you recline upon your couch in the very attitude of the Egyptian Sphinx? Dangerous and incomprehensible fair-one! My nights and days are successive dreams, haunted by your angelic form. Even the common incidents of every-day life as sume a supernatural and mysterious character; and, can you believe it, lovely countess! when I first beheld your equipage, I was mounted on this foolish stick, and cantering along the high road like a brainless child, firmly believing all the while that I had a noble courser under me? Nay, more! I have even doubted the reality of those days of paradise, which I lived under your hospitable roof; and even now, that your vicinity brings the sweet conviction home to my ravished senses, I am disturbed by a vague and unconquerable apprehension that my present happiness is but a delusion, which a word or look may dissolve for ever."

“Ha! ha! ha! ha!" laughed the countess, until the tears rolled down her cheeks. "Singular being! can you still doubt the evidence of your senses? When will these wanderings of fancy cease? Beware, friend Arnold, of indulging such pernicious excite ments, or you will end in doubting your own

existence. You must struggle manfully against these dangerous hallucinations, and open your eyes and senses to a conviction that you are again my prisoner, and returning to the castle as fast as my impetuous Danes can whirl you."

"Would I were your prisoner for life, most lovely countess! or that I had never entered the sphere of your enchantments!" exclaimed the enamoured youth, with a gaze so fraught with tender meaning, that the blushing, smiling Cordula found it expedient to introduce a less hazardous topic of conversation.

The hours flitted on rosy wings over the enraptured student as he listened to the music of her thilling voice, and became each moment more enthralled. The evening had advanced unperceived, and the sun was sinking majestically behind the dark woods, when the carriage stopped at a park-entrance, and the countess, with a smile of mystery, invited him to walk through her enchanted grove to the castle.

As he assisted her descent, he observed, for the first time, the features of the two outriders, and discovered in one of them the mysterious youth who had roused him by that fatal question from beneath his window. While he hesitated to indulge his curiosity, the countess, with flattering familiarity, took his arm and led him through the forest scenery which surrounded and concealed her castle. Suddenly a stream of brilliant light shot across the horizon. "Hah!" exclaimed Arnold, “what a splendid meteor!"

"It was no meteor," replied the countess, " but a rocket from the castle gardens. You will meet a numerous assemblage of my friends and neighbours, to celebrate my birth-day by a fête champêtre, and a masked ball of dramatic costumes. That rocket was a signal to commence the illuminations, which are designed by my clever little page Florestan. He paints admirably in oil; and to-morrow," she added, with a sigh, "he shall paint your portrait, that I may at least possess a copy, in case the strange original should again doubt again abandon me. But I trust, Arnold!" continued the bewitching Cordula, "that your second visit will be more enduring than the first."

These words were uttered in a voice trembling with emotion, and the supremely blest and enraptured student knelt to his fair enslaver, and, with a beating heart and faltering tongue, stammered his tale of love. In blushing haste the lovely countess 'extended her ivory hands to the kneeling Arnold, and bade him rise. Still holding his hands in hers with a gentle pressure, which electrified the happy student, she fixed upon his glowing features a long and searching gaze. "Ah, Arnold! Arnold!" at length she said, in tones of tender and impassioned modulation, " if you really loved me, you would not

sockets, like nebulous stars. A sudden shivering ran through the frame of Arnold as the eyes of Mephistopheles, before so undistinguishable, were now protruding from the sockets of the mask, and glared upon him like the riveted and glittering orbs of a rattlesnake. Sick and giddy with abhorrence, Arnold covered his aching eye-balls with his hands, and by a desperate and convulsive effort released himself from the thraldom of this basilisk. Turning away, he would have rushed from the hall, but found himself hemmed in by the grotesque and waltzing phantasms of Callot and Hoffmann, whose endless numbers darted in rolling succession round the immense hall, like the vast and buoyant articulations of a sea-serpent. As their mysterious forms whirled round him with appalling velocity, the alarmed student could not dispel an instinctive apprehension that some inscrutable and tremendous evil was maturing amidst all this portentous festivity.

"Enough! enough!" exclaimed the countess at his elbow, as she made a signal to the band to cease. The dancers paused to refresh themselves, and the sweet converse of his lovely mistress soon roused the dreaming Arnold from his tragic visions, and restored him to a full sense of his happiness. The large folding-doors were now thrown open; the vivacious Florestan bounded into the hall, and summoned the countess and her guests to view his fireworks from the castle gardens. Immediately the mob of maskers rushed like a torrent through the portal, and spread themselves in gay and laughing groups along the margin of the lake. Upon an island in its centre appeared an illumined tower, inodelled after the castle of St. Angelo at Rome. A signal rocket rose from the castle roof, and immediately a girandole of a thousand rockets rushed with volcanic force and brilliancy from the island-tower. The tower disappeared, and the vivid outlines of temples, palaces, and pyramids, appeared in magical succession, concluding with a lofty altar of coloured lamps, before which stood two colossal candelabras. A venerable man, with silver locks, and clad in priestly garb, was kneeling in prayer before the altar, and by his side stood a young and blooming chorister, swinging a golden censer. "My beloved Cordula!" exclaimed the delighted Arnold, "let not that splendid altar blaze in vain. Confirm at once my promised happiness, and bid that venerable priest unite our destinies for ever." The blushing and agitated countess took his offered hand, and accompanied him to the margin of the lake, where rode a galley, gorgeous as that which bore the Queen of Egypt, and manned with numerous rowers. A velvet couch, under a silken canopy, received the beauteous pair, and the stately vessel, yielding to the efforts of the rowers, glided majestically over the tranquil bosom of the VOL. I.

lake. A flight of marble steps, descending from the altar to the lake, was crowded with a group of choristers, each holding in his hand a blazing torch. They welcomed the enraptured Arnold and his countess with an hymeneal chant, and accompanied them to the foot of the altar, where the aged priest greeted the happy pair with a benevolent and approving smile. He joined their hands, and in deep and impressive tones proceeded to bestow upon them the final benediction. At this moment the bridegroom thought he heard a voice whispering the fatal questions in his ear-" Arnold! who are you? And who is your bride?" He turned hastily round to look at his beauteous Cordula, and, oh horror! her bloom and freshness had disappeared; she was pale as a marble statue, and the position in which she reclined before the altar, was that of the Egyptian Sphinx. Glancing hastily at the priest and chorister, the alarmed student beheld the fiendish smile of Mephis topheles lurking on the old man's lips, and the boy, before so different, was now the very image of the laughing Florestan. "No, by all that's sacred! Cordula! thou art no human being;" exclaimed the gasping and horror-struck Arnold, as he started on his feet. The countess uttered a wild and unearthly shriek, and in an instant the torches, lamps and tapers were extinguished by a fearful gust, which swept with blasting speed over the lake and island. The bride, and priest, and choristers disappeared, and the stars were veiled in darkness, the giant's harp broke out in loud and wailing murmurs, the rain streamed down in torrents, hot lightnings hissed, and horrid thunders rolled around the heavens. The sleeping waters of the lake rose up in madness, enormous waves threw up their foaming tops. Soon a loftier wave rushed up the staircase, drenched the luckless Arnold to the skin, tore up the solid marble, and covered the highest level of the tottering islet. Clinging with the last energies of despair to a contiguous shrub, the breathless and half-drowned youth regained his feet after the wave receded. Again the lightning blazed upon the lake, and by its flitting glare, Arnold beheld the boiling labyrinth of waters articulate with life, and all the slimy worms and bloated reptiles of the Nile gliding and quivering with open jaws around him. With an inarticulate shriek of horror he made a final and desperate effort to escape the teeming waters, and succeeded in gaining a high branch. Vain hope! a mountain wave, rising above the head of the devoted Arnold, swept man, and tree, and island into the yawning gulf.

At this awful moment, a shrill voice shouted in the ear of Arnold-" You have dropped your stick into the garden, Sir!" Opening his eyes, the amazed student found himself seated by moonlight in his verandab, and the old woman who took care of his

apartments standing by him with the Sphinx stick in her hand. "Thank God!" exclaimed the inexpressibly relieved youth, as he wiped his streaming forehead, and threw his stick into the garden well-"Thank God! 'twas but a midsummer-night's dream, and that cursed Sphinx was nothing but a night-mare."

THE BATTLE OF NAVARINE.

BY AN OFFICER.

As so many accounts have already been made public, from high authority, detailing the causes, &c. of the Battle of Navarine, it may be deemed superfluous to say any thing more about it in this place. Official statements, however, of such events, are, though not inaccurate, often covered with a varnish, throwing parts into the shade, while others are forcibly brought into notice; thus hiding little inaccuracies which will not bear the scorching rays of investigation, while those features only are exhibited which can withstand the broad glare of truth. Though not actually in the action (having been on detached service), I rejoined the squadron immediately afterwards, while still in the bay, and found the minds of all ranks in a ferment, more from the total unexpectedness of what had taken place, than from the battle itself. Great uncertainty prevailed as to the manner in which it would be received in England; and, as the substance of the Treaty of London was generally known, considerable doubts were entertained. One topic, however, filled all mouths; and being an impartial, though not an uninterested auditor, I was enabled, from so many sources, and such various statements-where each spoke his real sentiments without concealing, or adding to, what he believed to be the true state of the case-to form a correct opinion of the events leading to, and occurring in, the battle; and to decide in toto that it was actually began by the allied fleet, leaving aside the hostile demonstration of entering the harbour in line of battle, the people at quarters.

On their final junction before Navarine, the three admirals, seeing the disasters of the Greeks daily increase, and enraged at the bad faith, as they conceived, on the part of the Turks, determined on demanding reasons of the Captain Bey for his recent conduct, and to insist on his returning to Constantinople, ar to Alexandria; in case of his refusal, to adopt such measures as might effectually prevent his doing farther injury to the Greek cause. The obvious method of neutralizing so large a fleet, by means of a blockade, was considered impracticable during the winter months; and as the Pasha had refused to

comply with the wishes of the allied admirals, they resolved to anchor their ships in the harbour alongside those of the Turks; thus effectually to preclude them from escaping, unless by fighting their way out. An admirable scheme this; and, but for an untoward accident, the winter might have passed pleasantly enough, in dinner-partics, smoking bouts, &c. But why Navarine could not be blockaded, I believe most naval officers. will find it difficult to answer. For years our fleet had kept off Toulon, where the gales are not the mildest; and during the months of February, March, and April, 1824, His Majesty's ships Revenge and Naiad did blockade Algiers, on the stormiest and most dangerous coast of the Mediterranean, so closely, that a fishing boat could not get in or out. Moreover, Navarine appears peculiarly adapted for such an undertaking: to the northward, Zante affords anchorage against the south-west gales, which bring up a heavy sea; to the southward, the gulfs of Calamata and Kolokythya present both anchorage and lying-to room; and in case of blowing weather from the westward, the fleet could hold its own, without risk of being embayed; added to which, out of a harbour like Navarine, with deep water and a narrow entrance, the Turkish fleet could not have issued under twenty-four hours. I believe it will be allowed, that where British ships cannot keep the sea, no others can.

On the 20th October, at noon, every thing was prepared; the signal made, "Ready for action!" answered by "the affirmative;" the squadrons, English, French, and Russian, running in one line for the harbour of Navarine, where the Turkish fleet, consisting of about sixty vessels (as had been ascertained by previous reconnoitring), were moored in the form of a crescent, small vessels occupying the intervals. Under each point were anchored fire-ships; to look after which was the duty assigned to the Dartmouth and smaller vessels. On approaching the fort, which commands the entrance of the harbour, a Turkish officer came on board the Asia, to desire the admiral not to enter; to which request Sir Edward haughtily replied, on the quarter-deck-" Tell your master, that I am not come here to receive orders, but to give him orders, and see them executed too; and that if he fires a single shot, I will sink his whole fleet, and be glad of the opportunity of so doing;" thus evincing, if not a wish to promote hostilities, no disinclination to try the strength of arms-some people may say that the action of going in, in order of battle, was in itself unequivocal. At fifteen minutes after two, p. m., the three English line of battle ships had moored, with springs on their cables, in the midst of the Turkish fleet: the Dartmouth (frigate) had also anchored close to a fire-ship; but not liking the vicinity of so dangerous a neighbour, Captain Fellows

sent a boat on board to know their intentions, and to desire them to shift their birth. His boat's crew, contrary to the usual custom on such occasions, was armed; and on arriving alongside the Brûlot, part sprung up the side, catlass in hand, and were of course shot; a discharge of musketry at the same time poured into the boat, killing the lieutenant and most of the crew. The Dartmouth immediately opened a fire of musketry on the Brûlot, which soon after exploded. Sir Edward Codrington, on seeing this affair, sent his flag-lieutenant on board the ship of Moucharem Bey, to inquire into it, and to desire him not to fire. The Bey replied, that he had no intention of firing;-that the commander of the fire-vessel was an ass; and that he had sent for his head, in consequence of having acted without orders. In the mean time, La Sirène (Admiral de Rigny) coming in, fired a gun into the guilty Brûlot, and decided the event, balancing on the turn of a hair. The Turkish ships and batteries began to open, an occasional shot recochéd along the glass-like water, and by fifty minutes after two, the whole line was enwrapped in fire and smoke, from end to end, shrouding a scene of devastation seldom witnessed. For tunately Moucharem Bey, in part, kept his word, and did not open his fire, raking the Asia's stern, for fifteen minutes; when the Asia, freed from other embarrassments, sprung her broadside and sunk him. At half-past six, all opponents being completely silenced, the allies ceased firing; and where a forest of masts had proudly risen to the breeze, a few floating wrecks were only visible. The firing from the French and English ships was beautiful: the officers described it, like exercising at a mark, so still the water, and so comparatively free from danger. The slaughter was chiefly confined to the upper decks of the English line of battle ships, Azoph, and La Sirène, and the boats of the small vessels; the Russian line of battle ships, with the exception of the flag, took but little share in the action, not getting in till an hour and a half after it began.

It is not to be conceived, that two fleets of such magnitude, the one actuated by such hostile and jealous emotions as the Turkish must have been, so insulted in its own port, could have long lain together without coming in collision; and therefore it may be considered a truly fortunate circumstance that the event was thus speedily brought to a conclusion, by the difference of opinion which took place between the Dartmouth and the Turkish Brûlot; otherwise, in the course of a short month, allowing things to have borne a peaceable appearance, God knows what might not have happened to the allied fleet through the artifices of the Turks! Treachery it could not have been called, since every means in their power would have been lawful in expelling their unwelcome visitors: the

idea of being able to blockade them in such a manner, was in itself preposterous, and carried with it the certainty of coming to action sooner or later.

In numerical force, the Turks were superior; but in the essential, in point of equipment, science, and actual strength, every thing in short that contributes to the success of an engagement by sea or by land, the allied fleet may reasonably be supposed to have had treble the advantage. Contrast their ships, their force, weight of metal, science of their officers, state of their crews, accustomed to naval affairs, and versed in gunnery, with the hulks composing the Sultan's fleet, so bad, that, with the exception of two frigates built at Marseilles and Leghorn for the Pasha of Egypt, I will venture to say not one had been considered sea-worthy in an English port. Deficient in every thing that constitutes a man of war, fitted out in haste, and manned from the canaille of Constantinople, and the Arabs of Upper Egypt-which last, perhaps, never saw the sea till thrust in pairs on board the fleet sailing from Alexandria-it is astonishing how they were enabled to offer so protracted a resistance, which cost so dear to their opponents. The conduct of the allied fleet might be compared to the generous chivalry of the knight of old, who would throw aside his helmet or his buckler to be on equal terms with his opponent. From the failure of wind also, in shore (to be expected on that coast), entering the harbour in one line was unfortunate, since the head-most ships were in action nearly two hours before the sternmost got up; whereas, in two lines, half the delay would have been avoided, and double the effect produced.-Notes to the Poem of Navarine.

ON AUTUMN.

I LOVE the dews of night,
I love the howling wind,

I love to hear the tempest sweep
O'er the billows of the deep!
For nature's saddest scenes delight
The melancholy mind.

Autumn! I love thy bower With faded garlands drest; How sweet, alone to linger there, When tempests ride the midnight air, To snatch from mirth a fleeting hour, The sabbath of the breast.

Autumn! I love thee well:
Though bleak thy breezes blow.
I love to see the vapours rise,
And clouds roll wildly round the skies,
Where from the plain the mountains swell,
And foaming torrents flow.

Autumn! thy fading flowers
Droop but to bloom again;
So man, though doomed to grief awhile,
To hang on fortune's fickle smile,
Shall glow in heaven with nobler powers,

Nor sigh for peace in vain.-Haven.