Finucane. "I heard somebody groaning and sneezing; didn't you hear it, Señor ?"

"No," said Cayrasso; "it would be the winds or a cat."

"I did hear something," said Amalia, who, no doubt associating it somehow with her friends ontside, rose and came hurriedly to the window, to anticipate a similar movement on the part of her companions. She leaned out of the window, and was so close to me that if I had breathed she would have felt it through the jalousy. "Shall I speak? thought I "shall I whisper?" No, she might scream or start; what a chance though! Shall I? Yes, I will

here goes; and I whispered soft and low as the most juvenile of zephyrs, "Amalia!" Thank Heaven! no scream-a little start, that was all, and she leaned farther out, so that she could whisper round the edge.

"Is it Timo?" she breathed. "No, he's down below; are you coming to-night?"

"Impossible at present; but watch that man go out. My window is round the corner, where there is also a tree, and you and Timo may climb and help me down. I will open the jalousies as a signal; but if it is impossible I will keep tryst to-morrow night. Now, go!" and she turned into the room remarking carelessly, "Nothing there."

Stealthily as a nocturnal cat I stole back to Tim, who from his coign of vantage had beheld the interview, and then we waited for the departure of the Commissary. A long wait we had of it, too; but at last out they came, Cayrasso and his guest; they crossed the garden, wished each other goodnight at the gate, and the Señor having locked it, recrossed the lawn and entered the house. The sound of bolting and barring ensued, the windows of the sitting room were closed, and all was again dark and silent.

"Let us go now under the window," said Tim; "but which is it?"

She said, 'Round the corner, where there is a tree;' but, hang it! there are four corners and trees all over the place. We must wait here till she makes the signal."

We hadn't long to wait. Presently the jalousies of the corner window at the back were thrown open, light streamed from it, and a female figure was visible; whereupon Tim bounced like a tiger across the lawn towards the house. I followed more cautiously, but before either he or I had got under the window the light was extinguished and the figure consequently became invisible.

said

"Hist! hist! Amalia!" Tim, in a strong whisper. "Si! si!" replied a voice from above; "espera un poco."

We waited silently for a minute, and then there was a movement above; one shutter was closed and a voice whispered, "Ven aca mi querido!" and Tim began to climb like a lamplighter. The fig-tree here was not so accommodating as its relative round the corner, and Tim came to a stop before his head was up to the window-sill.

"Amalia mi alma! mi coraçon !" he began in a low bubbling voice, inexpressibly revolting to a man out of love.

"But I can't," said Tim, breaking into English; "this confounded fig-tree does not go any higher : show me your dear face and reach down your beloved hand that I may kiss it."

It was at this moment intensely dark, and even the eyes of love would have failed to recognise a foot off any features, however dear; a white-sleeved arm was, however, stretched down, and Tim clutching the hand was beginning to operate on it with soft cooings,

when suddenly the voice of love was changed into a yell of horror and surprise, and Tim seemed to be caught up to the window as if by magic. Open burst the other leaf of the jalousies, and the moon, flashing from the clouds, revealed the burly form of Cayrasso! He had seized Tim by the wrist, and with his other strong arm, having now grappled him by the collar, proceeded to pump him up and down like the piston of a steam-engine.

"Ha ha ha!" he yelled with fiendish laughter. Ha ha ha! ladron Trador! you come esteal my daughter-you come" (pump, pump), you come" (pump)" and you get a dance" (pump, pump) 66 with me. Quiere usted bailar con mi, luz de mis ojos ? ha! ha!" (pump, pump, pump).

"Leave me-alone-you oldhound," gasped Tim, "or I'llor I'll break-your-d-d old-neck " (pump, pump, pump). "Shy some -thing at him-Fred-the fiend's ch-ch-ch-oking me" (pump).

But Cayrasso's arm began to tire no doubt, and by way of finish he caught Tim close up to the window by the collar, and disengaging his other hand administered four ring

WE proceed to place before the reader specimens of the metres in which it is proposed to translate the Odes.

We commence with the Dedicatory Ode to Maecenas, which is the first of the five varieties of metre technically called Asclepiadean, from a Greek poet, Asclepiades, who flourished after the time of Alcæus. Our version of this ode will be followed by experiments in the treatment of the Alcaic metre, the other four varieties of the Asclepiadean, and, lastly, the Sapphic.

In the preface to his translation of Horace's Odes, Mr Conington states, with a modesty which enhances the respect due to a scholarship so eminent, the principles he adopted for the construction of his measures. Two rules in especial he commends to consideration : 1stly, That it is necessary, in translating an ode of Horace, to choose some analogous metre; 2dly, That a translator of the odes should appropriate to each ode some particular metre of its own, and adhere systematically to the metre so chosen.

To the propriety of the first rule we entirely subscribe; but, with all submission to so high an authority, we are persuaded that more would be lost than gained by a rigid adherence to the second rule.

We think, for instance, that the metre selected for the version of the Alcaic or Sapphic stanza should invariably be in quatrain, and observe the relative proportion and compass of the Latin strophe, so that the translator may be neither tempted to expand nor compelled to retrench the meaning of his author. With regard to the rhyth

mical form in which a sufficient analogy with the Latin strophe can be best obtained by the English, there will always be differences of taste and opinion. Our own plan, which we state with all diffidence, has been this-first, to make as exact an imitation as possible of the original form in each several metre employed by Horace, and then to adopt such modifications of flow and cadence as seemed to us best to harmonise its rhythm to the English ear. But as there are more ways than one in which such modifications may attain the object sought, so we think that a translator would do well to consult the general spirit of the ode translated, and vary his modifications according as the spirit most prevalent in the ode demands lively and sportive or serious and dignified expression. It will be seen, by comparing Book I. Ode ix. with Ode xxxv., in the specimens annexed, that in our mode of treating the Alcaic stanza we have thus employed two different forms of rhythm, either of which will admit of slight occasional variations without disturbance to what Mr Conington happily terms "the general type" of the measure. In point of fact, all translators of Horace's Odes whose versions have come under our notice have felt how impossible it is to preserve fidelity to the spirit of each ode in any given metre by adopting one invariable mode of versifying that metre in English; all have varied the English measures they employed from measures which in the Latin original are the same, according to their several perceptions of the distinction between the spirit and

the form of a poem. Even Mr Conington himself, while arguing in favour of inflexible adherence to such English metre as may be once selected to represent some particular Latin one, acknowledges his own occasional deviations from the rule he prescribes.

For the Sapphic metre, in which Horace has composed more odes than in any other except the Alcaic, we have avoided, save in one or two of the shorter poems, any imitation of the chime rendered sufficiently familiar by Canning's "Knife - grinder," not only be cause, in the mind of an English reader, it is associated with a popular burlesque, but chiefly because an English imitation of the Latin rhythm, with a due observance of the trochee in the first three lines of the stanza, has in itself an unpleasant and monotonous sing-song. In our version of the Sapphic we have chiefly employed two varieties of rhythm for the statelier odes, our own blank verse in the first three lines, usually, though not always, with a dissyllabic termination; and, in the fourth line, a metre analogous in length and cadence to the fourth

line of the original, though without any attempt at the impossible task of preserving the Latin quantity of dactyl and spondee. In fact, as Dr Kennedy has truly observed, the spondee is not attainable in our language, except by a very forced effort of pronunciation. That which passes current as an English spondee is really a trochee. For the lighter odes of the Sapphic metre, a specimen of a more sportive or tripping measure will be subjoined.

In this number we have limited ourselves to translations from odes in the First and Second Books, selecting those that are best suited to try the average capacities of the English metres proposed. We reserve for a subsequent number the severer test afforded by those odes in the Third and Fourth Books in which Horace exhibits his maturest genius and attains to his loftiest heights.

One word as to the notes whichaccompany these translations. It will be seen that to the English text are appended only such as may serve for brief explanations to the general reader; and to the Latin text any more critical comments submitted to the attention of students.

It is doubtful whether this ode was composed as a dedicatory preface to the First Three Books or only to Book I.—the former supposition is more generally favoured. The poet condenses a rapid survey of the various objects of desire and ambition, commencing with the competition of the Olympic games, and passing from that reference to the Greeks, to the pursuits of his

own countrymen in the emulation for power, the acquisition of riches, and SO on, through the occupations and tastes of mankind in that busy world from which, at the close, he intimates that he himself is set apart. It has been considered that the allusion to the foreign and almost obsolete contest of the Olympic games is incongruous, and only to be explained by