Originaux," and with the highly comic part of Breten

ville.

Up to that time, the sword had been the only weapon allowed in duels: the obligation of wearing it constantly, imposed, at the same time, that of knowing how to use it; and the certainty of being skilful to defend their lives, made men less careful of exposing them. The alteration which took place in dress, under the reign of Louis XVI. probably contributed to introduce the use of pistols in duels; a mode of fighting, which, by-the-bye, has nothing noble-nothing French in it; in which courage cannot supply the want of skill, and in which you are compelled to kill a defenceless adversary, or to suffer yourself to be killed in the same manner. This anti-chivalric custom now begins to be out of fashion.

For about two centuries witnesses have taken the place of seconds. This is at least one step towards reason and equity; for if it is inhuman to fight to avenge your own injury, it were certainly most absurd to fight to avenge the injury of another, against a person who had neither offended you nor your friend. Witnesses, in our days, regulate the mode and the conditions of the fight, and in no case will they allow the adversaries to meet with unequal arms. They were less scrupulous in the time of Henry III. since it is ascertained that in the duel between Caylus and D'Entragues, the first was killed, because he fought only with a sword; while the other fought with a sword and a dagger: on Caylus's observing the inequality, D'Entragues, who, however, was considered a man of honor, replied drily, "You have then committed a great fault to leave your dagger at home, for we are to fight, and not to discuss our weapons." At that period, it appears that the offended had even the singular privilege of imposing upon his adversary any condition to which he chose to submit himself: this at least is the inference which may be drawn from a fact, related by Brantome. He speaks of having witnessed a duel between a gentleman of very small stature, and a very tall Gascon sergeant: the first regulated the conditions of the duel in such a manner, that they were obliged to fight with a collar round the neck, armed with points, which compelled them to hold up their heads very high. This mode," says Brantome, "had been invented very prettily by the little one, who could raise his head against his tall adversary, and mark

him at his ease, which the other could not do against him, without bending and piercing his own throat. In this manner the short combatant dispatched the Gascon very easily with two thrusts of his sword." In our days, the short one would pass for a murderer, if he could find a tall man fool enough, or a fool tall enough, to accept of such conditions.

This dissertation, into which I have almost unconsciously fallen, is only an introduction-perhaps rather too long, to the adventure which I have now to relate. One day last week, as I was breakfasting with a Bavarian in one of the Cafes, on the Bouvelart, near some young men, who were making a more substantial repast, I heard one of them, called Alfred, receiving the congratulations of his friends, on a marriage which he was on the eve of contracting with a lovely girl, to whom he was passionately attached. It would be difficult to say how a quarrel began between that young man and one of his friends, as I only paid attention to it, when it had grown so serious as to give me some anxiety respecting the manner in which it might terminate. I only know, that the question was originally how far a woman may love a man who wears a wig. Alfred had uttered some witticisms on the occasion, which one of his friends was foolish enough to apply to himself; these witticisms had been replied to by other repartees -ill-nature had intruded, and, as it always happens, he who remained first without an answer, was the first to get angry. The sneer with which Alfred repulsed the attack of his adversary, caused the latter to lose all patience, and some words escaped from him, the consequences of which I easily foresaw. I availed myself of the authority of my age, and my former profession, to interfere as a mediator in this quarrel. I insisted on the extremely trivial nature of the cause.—I extenuated as much as possible the meaning, and especially the intent, of the offensive terms, which one of the adversaries had used; and it is probable that I should have succeeded in reconciling them, had there not been present several people, who, without having had any other duels on their hands, than those in which they acted as seconds, find the means of acquiring cheap reputation for bravery. I still know some bravos of that kind, on the watch for every dispute, and ready to carry every challenge; not a single pistol shot has been fired-not a single sword-thrust made in Paris for these last twenty

years, of which they cannot give an account. No one knows better than these the laws and formalities of duels; they spend their lives in the fencing-rooms of Le Sage and Peignat, on the way to, and in the alleys of, the woods of Boulogne, and Vincennes; and firmly believe, they have fought as often as they have seen others fight.

Desponding at the fruitlessness of my efforts, and the small success of my mediation, I saw with real grief those young men, who, an hour before were inseparable friends, depart, after having appointed a meeting at noon at the barrier of the Champs Elysees. I conceived for the one who was called Alfred, and who was not better known to me than the rest, that sympathetic interest to which we often surrender ourselves, without inquiring into the cause; he appeared to be the youngest-loving, and beloved; his life seemed to belong, as it were, to two families. But there still, perhaps, remained some means of preventing the misfortune, of which I had a sad presentiment. I walked pensively towards the place of meeting, and chanced to encounter in the great alley of the Champs Elysees, an officer of the chasseurs of the guard, whom I am in the habit of meeting at his relation's, Madame de R****, and who is not more distinguished for the nobleness of his disposition, than for the renown of his valor. As I concluded my relation of the circumstances attending the approaching duel to the captain, we saw two carriages, in which the adversaries and their seconds were seated, arrive one after the other. The captain was on horseback; at my request he followed the carriages, which took the road to the wood of Boulogne, having promised to give me an account of all that should happen. I had not much time to make long reflections on the strength of a tyrannical prejudice, which silences humanity, justice, and reason -which compels two friends to murder each other, and which allows judges (when an appeal is made to the authority of the laws,) to condemn a criminal, whose conduct they approve, and would imitate in a similar case. At the moment that I reached the gate of the wood of Boulogne, I saw Captain Shastily approaching, and read in his countenance the fatal news which he had to communicate. He gave his horse to the care of a boy on the green, and leading me into a neighbouring alley, related to me in a few words the cruel catas

"The carriages,"

trophe, of which he had been a spectator. said he, having stopped near La Muette, the four persons which they contained, alighted, and glided precipitately into the wood. I followed them, and, having given my name, begged permission to interfere in a quarrel, with some of the particulars of which I was already acquainted. "You are welcome, Captain," answered the younger of the two adversaries, "but spare us humiliating explanations at this moment, which could have no other result in any case, than to delay an encounter which is unavoidable." Despairing of ultimate success, I endeavoured in my quality of witness, to alter something in the forms of the duel; we settled that only one shot should be fired on each side; that they should be placed at the distance of twenty paces, and that they should fire together on a given signal: I myself loaded Alfred's pistol, and made him take the lowest part of the ground, which is of advantage in a pistol fight; also advised him to moderate his impetuosity, which gave his adversary a decided superiority over him. All the arrangements being made, the antagonists on their ground, the pistols in their hands and cocked, the signal was given,--they fired--and the unfortunate young man, for whom you and I had so much interested ourselves, fell, mortally wounded." The grief which this fatal event excited in my heart, was the deepest which I have experienced for a long while, and I could not check my tears when the carriage passed me, which contained the remains of that unhappy youth, now to be carried back to his father, who at that very moment was employed in preparing for the celebration of his nuptials.

TO AN AUTHOR.

FROM THE FRENCH OF FABIAN PILLET.

When I call'd you a blockhead, I candidly own,
It was hastily done, for I could not have shown
Such proof as would warrant conviction;
But thanks to the anger my boldness has rais'd,
You're an author become, and now, fortune be prais'd !
I've proof that defies contradiction.

MEDITATIONS ON MAN.

FROM THE FRENCH OF ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE.

BY THE LATE HENRY NEELE.

Man is a fallen God, who ne'er forgets
His native heaven; whether in bitterness
He ponders o'er his lost felicity,

Or filled with boundless hopes, his bosom pants
With dreams of future glory. Fall'n or faulty,
Man is the mighty riddle-on the earth

A slave, immur'd within the senses prison,
He feels he has a soul that's born for freedom-
He pants for happiness, and he is wretched-
He would search all things, and his eye is weak;
He would love through eternity, and what
He loves is frail, and perishes-alas!
All mortal men resemble Eden's exile;
When God had banish'd him the happy garden,
At the forbidden gate he sets him down,
And at the fatal boundary wildly gaz'd→→→
He heard the river of immortal life
Flowing; he heard the angels' happy song ;-
Th' harmonious sigh of everlasting love;
And, with a desp'rate effort, tore himself
From those sweet sounds, to listen to the echo
Of his own sighs, and count his falling tears.

TO A FLOWER,

FROM THE FIELD OF GRUTLI,

BY MRS. FELICIA HEMANS.

[Grütli was the field on which the three Swiss patriots used to hold their nightly meetings in the days of William Tell.]

Whence art thou, flower? from holy ground

Where freedom's foot hath been!

Yet bugle-blast or trumpet sound,

Ne'er shook that solemn scene.