of a tall cedar; Nurtado was interred beyond the Timbueyian frontier. In their last interview, he thus poured out his anguish to the responding soul of Miranda :— "Hours fled to heaven! I knew not your inestimable value, when unrestrained I could behold the loveliest of forms, and elevate every sensibility in communion with transcendant excellence. When these arms could enclasp her to the heart which now palpitates, with a thousand fears, for her safety-for her honour: but in those bliss

the aspirings of innocent joy, while melody, of the tenderest tones, greeted the ear of connubial love. Happy spouses! around whom the soft gales of hallowed passion breathe free and stormless! hardly can ye appreciate your enviable privileges, till, like the hapless pair, severed, though allowed to meet, no more of union remains, except the never-slumbering recollection of transports, by sweet graduation calmed to the delicious langour of placid unreserved confidence. Dearer to my soul is the com

expressed in Miranda's lovely countenance, the humanized savage treated her with tender respect-submitting, in all things, except restoring her to Nurtado. The unfortunate husband, returning with his convoy to the ruined fort, immediately conceived the cause and extent of his disaster. To ascertain whether Miranda had been involved with the general carnage, or reserved for a more direful fate, he examined all the bodies. She was gone! Who can imagine his anguish-his distracted rage! He rushed forth to search for her amongful days, no tyrannic inspection damped the Indians. Siripia soon received intelligence of his appearance, ordered him to be seized, but Miranda's tears gained a respite for his execution. Her interpreter even persuaded Siripia to grant her request for a meeting. Nurtado, disfigured by grief and fatigue, with his clothes torn and covered with dust, and bound with chains, Siripia hoped could not be advantageously contrasted with a youthful chieftain in the pride of conquest, and glaring ornament: but he knew not that the virtues, the talents of Nurtado, were more dear to Mi-panion of years-the mother of my babes, randa than the graces of his person. She was permitted to sing, but not to talk to him, as, with undaunted air, he dragged his manacled limbs on one side of Siripia. Siripia did not understand the Spanish language; the Indians, surrounding the grove of red cedars, were not near enough to distinguish words; and the afflicted pair imparted their feelings to the music of a lively strain, hoping their tones would deceive the tyrant-but Miranda, unconsciously, uttered the beloved name, and their eyes betrayed their communication. Mad-ration. Glad affection bounded before my dened by jealously, Siripia aimed a long dagger at the fettered Nurtado. Miranda interposed, and clinging to her dearer self, received the steel in her spotless bosom.ruined walls blasted my sight. Oh saints Her blood flowed on the stem of a floripondia. Nurtado loaded her murderer with reproaches, and struck him a furious blow with his head, as he attempted to separate Miranda from him. Siripia drew the reeking point from Miranda's breast, and plunged it, to the hilt, in Nurtado's body. He wished for death, and blessed the hand that struck the blow. Yet even in death, Siripia would not suffer Miranda and Nurtado to be united. By his orders, her remains were inhumed by the shadow

than when I led her to the holy altar; blushes dying her polished cheeks, her snowy bosom heaving with timid anticipation, her beauteous orbs glistening in tears of mingled foudness, and retiring modesty, as, with tremulous steps, I supported her to receive the sacred benediction, which enlarged our solicitudes, our duties, and meliorated all enjoyments. But ravening ferocity seized my treasure. Unapprehensive of impending calamity, we smiled at each others reluctance to undergo a brief sepa

path, in threading the woody mazes that led me again to the haven of my peace, caroling a lay of love. The scathed and

and angels! how I explored them-how I hurried here-seems the dream of phrenzy. Sad and beamless are my few fast-fleeting hours; this bereaved heart, tortured by anxieties, different in lassitude as in specific cause, desires to rend at once, if its bursting could prolong the happy years of her, that, on earth, imparted to her wedded lover far more than earthly bliss!"

"Oh thou, that to every conjugal endearment superadded the dignity of a wise counsellor and improving friend! She that

209

blade is in a moment sheathed in a heart pure as the limpid waters from a marble rock. The expiring glance of Miranda is

mingled souls with the noblest of Castilians, shall not survive him to fall the prey of a savage. Her spirit would not brook dishonour from the most polished sovereign || fixed upon her beloved. Nurtado exaspe

of Europe. Grief should soon dissolve every tie that holds her imprisoned in a mortal frame, and when the mighty soul of Nurtado."

That name-the interchanged looks of impassioned sympathy! Siripia, infuriated, grasps the jewelled hilt; the gleaming

rates her murderer by a blow from his forehead-the only member at his command, avenges his wrongs, and procures release. The vital tide of the fondest pair unites in death.

B. G.

ACCOUNT OF AN ACADEMICAL MEETING.-A FRAGMENT.

AND I too have been on the Continent, where I have seen strange things: of one, which has met the eye of few, if any, of my contemporaries, I am very willing to give an account, without, however, mentioning, the name of the town, for if it were known, many and many would wish to go thither; but I think the emigration from this country has already been carried to such an excess, that I should scruple throwing a further bait in the way.

When at, I heard of an establishment, composed of twenty-four members, who made it their province to inquire solely into the moral and physical constitution, &c. of the most beauteous part of the creation. The mansion in which they assembled was called the Observatory for Women. Desirous of being admitted to one of their meetings, I wrote the following note to the chairman:

"SIR, An ancient sage hath said, that, in our youth, we lived to love, and that, in a more advanced age, we loved that we might continue to live. I happen to be exactly between these two periods, and am at a loss to decide whether, in fact, to live is not to love, or whether love does not constitute life. The fair sex have, hitherto, been my only study-the objects of my worship, of my joy, and of my sorrows. Never have heard, without shedding a tear, the recital of their generous actions, or that of their misadventures; never did a tender glance from one of them fail causing the most slender of my fibres to quiver; 1 hate not one of them, and will serve, to my latest breath, her I have loved once. When they have deceived me, all I have " No. 116. Vol. XVIII.

demanded of them was to condescend to deceive me again; and I would abhor myself if any one could reproach me with having abused her secrets, denied her such advice as strict probity suggested, or obtained from her any pleasure at the cost of her happiness. The lover, in me, constitutes a separate being, who will watch with the candidness of childhood; for that ever-feeling, and sometimes spoiled child, it is that I solicit the favour of being admitted to one of the meetings of your society.PHILOGYNE."

I was pretty well aware that the description I had given of myself would not convey a very high opinion of my abilities to a cunning personage, such as must be the president of a society of observers; but I thought that it must be the same with the leader of an association as with the head of an empire, or every other man that is fond of power or of ostentation. They do not dislike people of my disposition, because they all know how easily a simpleton may be made an admirer. I, therefore, was not at all surprised at receiving an obliging letter, enclosing a ticket of admission: the shape of it, however, was remarkable enough, being an oval of black pasteboard, and in the centre a woman, naked and extended, covered from head to foot with the inscription of this solitary word-mysterious!

As I arrived at an early hour, I had leisure to survey the whole establishment. The house, which was situated in a remote part of the town, was equally plain aud neat. It stood in the middle of a garden, in which the most refined taste appeared

Dd

to be accidental, and nature to have decked, braces, girts, and cushions, varied ad inherself with lovely negligence. Whilst finitum, indicated services of higher im

pacing the pleasant groves which autumn had not yet entirely divested of their foliage, and where maternal affection still inspired sweet and chaste warblings to some of the feathered tribe, I could not help, in spite of myself, ascribing the origin of our modern gardens to the description of Eden, by Milton.

portance. In short, a thousand masterpieces of mechanism and of chemistry, seemed to have been imagined to part those charms which a vicious propensity brought close to each other; to bring back fugitives to their natural posts; to fill up vallies; to compress exuberances, and to level heights. At the sight of a green silk curWhilst involved in thought, I chanced to tain, carefully closed, I suspected that it be standing facing a door, over which was concealed more intimate secrets still; I the following inscription-A woman anatocould feel a sudden flush overspread my mized! I shuddered at the sight, for I whole countenance, yet my trembling hand like not those gloomy secrets which blast refused to withdraw the veil, and I retreatpleasure, nor those hideous treasures of ed hastily. The museum of the Graces, science that impoverish imagination. How-thought 1, must have its Index, the same ever, I was a tourist, and had my share of as the great libraries of the Christian inquisitive spirit; I felt what an addition world. it would be to my self-importance, if, on As I was leaving this arsenal, I met a my return home, I were capacitated to lady, who, indeed, had no occasion to enter speak of that cabinet, and to compare it to it to be supplied, so natural was her bloomthe famous collections of Bologna and of ing complexion, so easy her shape, and so Florence. I, therefore, finally acted as the graceful her figure in all her motions.— generality of men do at every moment of Upon seeing me, she stopped short, and their lives; vanity got the better of disgust, eyed me with an air of curiosity bordering and I went in. on interest. I should have been puzzled But what was my surprise, when, casting || what to ascribe this kind of preference to, my eyes over an extensive saloon, I ob-had it not occurred to me that observation served nothing that bore the appearance of was the characteristic of the house I was a theatre of anatomy. A multiplicity of in. Meanwhile, the attention of the beauobjects, of divers shapes and colours, were tiful lady grew still more evident; and my either displayed on tablets, or hung sus- surprise reached its summit, when, appended round the wainscot. I soon dis-proaching me, I heard her say, with peculiar covered that they composed a chronological || familiarity:-" You have been punctual, description of all the fashions, and patterns || Mr. Philogyne; but I expected as much.” of the various means which the consoling -"How, Madam, do you know me?"art of the toilet, and the retrieving hand of "To the very bottom of your soul, if, howmantua-makers have practised, to correct ever, you have been sincere."—I worked the outrages of time, or the mistakes of the different springs of my imagination, in order to return a sprightly answer, but remained with my mouth gaping; an oratory accident which generally befals me, whenever I wish to appear witty.

nature.

My amiable interlocutor was pleased to take the will for the deed, and was so indulgent as to proceed as follows:-"The fact is plain enough; I am the wife of the president of the society, and occasionally

A whole day would not suffice to describe the tenth part of the whimsical articles that were exposed to my view. The cosmetics, pomatums, and night-masks, had laid under contribution every substance of the globe: the sea-calf had supplied its ivory teeth; the constellation of Berenice flowed in an hundred different figures; the whale had sacrificed the black and flexible fangs which line its enormous mouth; the gum *The catalogue of such books as were prohi elastic, artfully stretched, powerfully counbited by the council of Trente is also called Index. There is at Rome a congregation of the teracted the expansion; the brass wire, Index, to which is ascribed the right of examin wound up in a spiral, aud imprisoneding the books which are there to be received, and between satin sheaths, seemed to breathe; "the perusal of which is not allowed to strangers,

them with ingratitude? O, ye women, your real friend is not the man whom your beauty allures; it is he, who, with a sympathising heart, laments the absence of your external accomplishments!"

The president's lady took me to the as

kept for us; the company was numerous, but partly composed of queer-looking figures: the members of the society soon after entered in a body, each of them bearing over his heart an eye in a medallion,

bis amanuensis. He directed me to answer your letter."-"Ah! Madam, however sensible I might be of my happiness, I could not have imagined it was so great!"-"And although I do not always object to exaggeration, yet I invite you not to make so much of a trifling occurrence. I had fore-sembly-room, where two seats had been seen your anxiety to visit this house, and had proposed to come and meet you, as a foreigner; I am only sorry I came too late, for I would not have shewn you that nauseous cabinet that you have been viewing." —“Why, indeed, Madam, in that pretend-suspended by a chain of braided hair.ed exhibition of a woman anatomized, I have found every thing except a woman. Is she, then, amidst all her ornaments, a mere accessary article, that may be omitted without any consequence? Who can be the saucy author of such an inscription?" —“That bold satirist is a great favourite of mine, he is my husband, Sir: the denomination is nothing, nevertheless, it is the thing itself that is horrid. After having viewed that scandalous collection of our deceptions, confess now that you must hate us."-" I, Madam! Ah! heaven grant some benevolent deity had so skilfully disguised all the imperfections in which our world abounds! The innocent artifices of the toilet are an homage paid to our taste: they evince a particular attention to please us men, which, for my part, 1 feel proud at our suggesting. Has not unkind, unpropitious nature, occasioned sorrow sufficient to those victims who are forced to recur to them, without our overwhelming

They were all either superannuated or young men; but whilst the countenance of the former breathed indulgence and urbanity, the latter looked stern, haughty, and pedantic; to speak the truth, this occasioned me no surprise, as at that time of life they should adore, and not scrutinize women. Nevertheless, I discovered, upon more strict investigation, that those individuals, whom I had mistaken for old men, were less burthened with years than brought to premature decay in consequence of excessive laborious study: and as, on the contrary, it is a common thing to see astronomers attain, with unimpaired constitutions, the remotest periods of human life,* I concluded that it was less favourable to longevity to be au observer of women than of the skies.

The president at length rang his little bell, and delivered the following animated speech.

TOPOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM.-No. XXIII.

WARWICKSHIRE.

Simon, and his wife Alice, who both lie under a tomb erected by himself. He died in 1519; she survived him, and left by her will a silver penny to every child under the

Thales lived 90 years; Democritus, 109; Eratosthem, 80; Copernic, 70; Galileo, 78; Stoftler, 79; Fernel, 72; Mercator, 82; Clavius, 75; Briggs, 78; Borelli, 71; Newton, 85; Halley, 86; Bradley, 70; Mouton, 78; Hevilms,

COLESHILL. This place had long been a royal demesne; it was possessed by Edward the Confessor, and afterwards by the Conqueror. In the reign of William Rufus it fell into the hands of the Clintons; from them to the Mountforts, who held it till the reign of Henry VII. Coleshill, after the execution of Perkin Warbeck, was immediately bestowed on Simon Dig-76; Sethward, 73; Kirch, 71; Lahire, 78; by, ancestor to the present Lord Digby, now the possessor; in the church are various fine tombs belonging to the Digbys.|| Among others, that of the above-mentioned

Flamstead, 74; Desplaces, 77; John Bernouilli, 71; Daniel, 82; Dominic Cassini, 88; Jacques, 84; Francis, 71; Huyghens, 66; Delisle, 80; Euler, 77; La Condamine, 71; Pingre, 83; Lemonnier, 84.

age of nine, whose parents were housekeepers in the parish, on condition that every day in the year, after mass, they should kneel down at the altar, and say five paternosters, an ave, and a creed for her soul and that of her husband, and all Christian souls; she likewise left to the Dean the annual sum of six shillings and eightpence to see this duty performed, which continued till the reformation. The inhabitants purchased from the crown the lands charged with this money, part of which maintains a school; the rest is distributed to such children who repair to the church every morning at ten o'clock, and say the Lord's prayer; and the clerk has an allowance for seeing the performance, and ringing the bell to summons them.

Coleshill Hall, the deserted seat of the Digbys, lies about a mile or two from the town, in a fine park. The house consists of but one story, besides garrets; yet the apartments are numerous; approachable only by strange and unintelligible entrances. COVENTRY.-The time of the foundation of this city is unknown: the traitor Edric ravaged the country in 1016, and burnt the nunnery in Coventry: on its ruins, Leofric, the fifth Earl of Mercia, founded a monastery. The town was made a corporation in the reign of Edward III. In that of Henry IV. two Parliaments were held there.

The famous translator Philemon Holland lies buried in Trinity church; he is said to have written a large folio with only one pen, which never wanted mending; which gave occasion to the following lines:

« With one sole pen 1 wrote this book,
"Made of a grey-goose quill;
"A pen it was when it I took,

"And a pen I leave it still,"

COMBE ABBEY.-Notwithstanding the conversion of this ancient building to the seat of a nobleman, it yet retains the form of its conventual state. The cloisters are preserved on three sides of the ancient court, glazed as when occupied by its for

mer owners.

Lord Harrington was the refounder of this house, which is beautifully adorned within, with portraits of distinguished characters.

BEDFORDSHIRE.

DUNSTABLE-A long old town, where Roman money has been very frequently found. According to the monkish legends its name was Dun's stable, or the stable of a robber named Dun. It very probably was a waste at the time of the conquest, and might have been a harbour for thieves, by reason of the woods with which the country was overrun. This determined Henry 1. to colonize the spot, and he encouraged the people, by proclamation, to settle there. He also built a royal palace, called Kingsbury, which stood near the

occupied by a farm-house. Here Henry kept his Christmas, with his whole court, in 1123. He made the town a borough, bestowed on it a fair and market, and several other privileges. He kept the town seventeen years in his own hands, and then bestowed it, with all its privileges, on the priory, which he founded here for black

Coventry is seated on a ground gently sloping on most sides; the streets are in general narrow, and composed of very an-church; the site of which palace is now cient buildings. The church of St. Michael has a specimen of the most beautiful steeple in Europe; a tower enriched with saintly figures on the sides, and an octagon rising out of it, lengthened into a most elegant spire. Sir Christopher Wren used to speak of this as a complete masterpiece of architecture in King Stephen's time this church was a chapel to the monks; became after-canons about 1131. The church, and an wards a vicarage; and on the dissolution of the religious houses, fell to the crown. The above-mentioned beautiful steeple was begun in the reign of Edward III. in 1972, by two brothers, Adam and William Bota, at their own charges, which amounted annually to one hundred pounds; it was twenty years in building. Coventry used to be styled the secret harbour of Margaret of Anjou.

arch in the adjoining wall, are the only remains of the priory. The front of the church is singular, having a gallery divided by carved Gothic arches; a great door, with a round arch, richly carved with scrolls and ovals, including human figures; and the capitals of the pillars cut into gro tesque forms. The steeple is attached to one side of the front.

The town of Dunstable is now chiefly