"Why, sir," replied the man, who had often seen his interrogator in Tarningham, "Mr. Wharton's clerk told me that there was an execution going to be put in, so I came up to see if I could get my bill. But the lawyer was beforehand with us; and the matter is not so much, only forty pound or so, and I did not think it worth while, when I found how matters are going, to trouble the hearty old gentleman, who has spent a deal o' money with us all in his day."

"You seem a very respectable man," said Beauchamp, calmly, but still somewhat moved, "and you shall not lose by your conduct. You, sir," and he turned to another, "I think you are the stationer at Tarningham-is yours the same errand, and on the same information?" "Yes, sir," answered the person he addressed," one of Mr. Wharton's young men came down and told me; but I think, with my neighbour Groves, that we should behave handsome."

"I see the whole matter," said Beauchamp, speaking rather to himself than those around. "You can wait a little, gentlemen? I think Sir John can pay you all without inconvenience, though he is a careless man, and his affairs may not be quite in order."

They say Mr. Wharton has arrested him, sir," said a little man, with a thin, small voice.

"I will go in and see," replied Beauchamp, with a smile. "If any of you could contrive to go or send down to Tarningham, and say to Mr. Bacon, the attorney, that Lord Lenham would be glad to see him here immediately, you would oblige me. Tell him to lose not a moment."

"I'll go, in a jiffey," cried the stout man, jumping into a tax-cart. "Who did you say, my lord?"

"Lord Lenham," answered Beauchamp; "he will know who you mean ;" and turning round, he walked into the house.

The servants grouped themselves differently at his appearance, and bowed low, the butler venturing to say,

"I am glad you

have come, sir."

"Where is your master?" asked Beauchamp.

"In the library, sir," replied the man, "with a number of them. It is a sad time, sir, 'specially for my poor young lady."

The man walked on before, and opened the library door; Beauchamp followed quickly; and certainly the sight which that room presented was a painful one. Mrs. Clifford sat near one of the windows, the picture of despair; Isabella was seated near the table, with her eyes buried in her hands, and the rich curls of her beautiful hair falling over her face. Mary was bending down to speak to her; grief in her lovely face, but yet as calm and composed as usual. Old Sir John was a little in advance, with two bailiffs standing near-not the same who had been there earlier in the morning—and his valet behind him, helping him to put on his great coat, while Mr. Wharton stood at the other side of the large library-table, with a smile upon his lip, a frown upon his brow, a sparkling black eye, and a double degree of red in one of the cheeks, though the other looked somewhat pale. Two or three men, whose business there and ordinary functions were not apparent at the moment, made up the rest of the company.

Sir John Slingsby had one arm in the sleeve of his great coat, and was thrusting angrily and ineffectually at the garment, to get the other

in also, speaking all the time in a furious tone, with his face turned to Mr. Wharton.

"I tell you, Wharton, you are a d-d scoundrel," he said, "an ungentlemanlike blackguard. You have swindled me out of thousands, and you know it; and now, without giving me a hint, you come upon me in this way."

"You are angry, Sir John, you are angry," said Mr. Wharton, in a sweet tone. "It is as unpleasant to me as to you, I can assure you; but when I heard that Mr. Wittingham had issued process, I was compelled, however unwillingly, to take care of myself and my clients. You know you a month ago it could not go on any longer; so you cannot say

I told

you

I had not notice."

The old baronet was about to pour upon him a new volley of objurgations, thrusting manfully at the sleeve of his coat all the time, when suddenly his eye rested upon Beauchamp and he stopped, turning a little pale, for the presence of that gentleman at such a moment both surprised and pained him. Mary whispered a word to her cousin, however, and Isabella starting up with the tears in her eyes, and a glow upon her cheeks, held out her hand to him exclaiming, “ Õh, thank you, thank you! Dr. Miles was not to be found," she added, in a whisper, For I would not have

sent."

66

Beauchamp smiled and shook his head half reproachfully, and Sir John recovering himself took his hand saying, “Ah, Beauchamp, you have come at an awkward time. Can't ask you to dinner to-day, my dear sir, for the house is in the hands of the myrmidons of the law, and I must away, they tell me. It's a bad job, I am afraid."

"Nevertheless I intend to dine with you here, Sir John," answered Beauchamp, laughing and shaking the baronet's hand warmly, "so you had better take off your great coat."

"I beg your pardon, sir," said Mr. Wharton, taking a step forward, "but I am afraid Sir John Slingsby cannot remain with you at present. Business has been too long delayed already by the folly of the officer who thought fit-"

"To act like a man of some consideration and feeling I suppose, sir," said Beauchamp, eyeing him from head to foot with a calm, cold, withering look. "You are Mr. Wharton the attorney I imagine, of whom I have heard so much in regard to several transactions soon to be inquired into."

"My name is Wharton, sir; yes, my name is Wharton," answered the solicitor in a sharp, fierce tone, "and I insist that you do not interrupt the operation of the law."

"The operation of the law I shall not interrupt," replied Beauchamp, "but the operations of the lawyer I certainly shall."

"He's a nabob," said Sir John Slingsby to his niece in a low, laughing voice, "yes, you are quite right, Beauchamp, this is Mr. Wharton, the attorney, calling himself esquire, and a greater scoundrel does not live between the four seas. He has cheated me through thick and thin, and now wants by coming upon me all in a moment to get possession of my property as he has done with others before now.'

BUSHIRE.

(EUPHRATES EXPEDITION.)

BY W. FRANCIS AINSWORTH, Esq.

Navigation of the Head of the Persian Gulf to Bushire-Our Reception there -Description of the Town-The Mesembrian Peninsula-The Portuguese Rushire-Navigation of Nearchus-Start for the Interior of Farsistan-The Gurmisir, or Hot District.

THE absence of all facilities for completing the equipment of the steamer at Bassora, and for making such repairs as had become necessary after the long and trying descent of the river just accomplished, led the commander to wish to prolong the journey to Bushire. This plan met with some opposition on the part of the naval officers, who considered that the Euphrates steamer was neither seaworthy nor adapted by her construction for navigating open waters, but as the weather was very favourable for so short a navigation, the passage across the head of the gulf was ultimately resolved upon. We did not, however, quit Bassora without an accident; a black cook having fallen out of a boat while coming on board, and being in a state of inebriety, he went so suddenly down that notwithstanding many endeavours on our part to save him they were quite ineffectual, and no traces even of his body were ever discovered.

The descent of the lower part of the Euphrates river, presenting every possible facility of combined width, depth, and smoothness, was an easy affair; but it was getting dusk when we entered into the Persian gulf, which is at its head full of dangerous shallows, extensive sandbanks, and muddy deposits. Under such circumstances very few quitted the deck during the night; the carpenter reported the dead-lights made fast with an unusual air of importance; and some of the natives on board were in a state of visible perturbation. Suddenly, in the midst of the night, the peremptory order to back hard astern roused every one to a sense of the dangers of our situation; one heave of the lead had made the difference of from three fathoms to three feet of water, we were going right upon a bank, but a quiet sea and the reversion of the engines, carried us off before the keel had touched the ground, a circumstance which most probably would have entailed the loss of the vessel. Midsummer nights are luckily very short, and daylight soon came to relieve the naval officers from their anxious navigation of a little known sea amidst darkness and crowded shoals, and we afterwards got on cheerfully and confidently.

Our unexpected approach to the city of Bushire, was the cause of no small amount of wonder and surprise. It was about four o'clock in the evening of the 23rd of June, a light breeze from the west had relieved the air of its oppressive sultriness, and as the tall Badgirs or windtowers threw their lengthened shadows across the streets of the sandy city, the robed Persians had begun to peer forth from their cool recesses and to venture into a more bracing atmosphere. At first it was reported that a ship was on fire in the offing, and the greater portion of the population had hurried to the beach, or were grouped on the spacious balconies and the roofs of the houses. An equal degree of uncertainty existed at the house of the Honourable East India Company's Resident. There were several ships in the roads, among them the sloop-of-war

Amherst, and a fine frigate belonging to the Imam of Muscat. The steamer had now approached these so closely as no longer to be mistaken. At first it was supposed that it might be the Hugh Lyndsay, but her course from the northwards, her difference of build and slight proportions, soon undeceived them on that point; at length the truth flashed upon the minds of those who were looking out from the sloop, the tardy British ensign was hoisted, and, as we came paddling in alongside, the yards were manned by our countrymen, who welcomed us with three hearty cheers. Those cheers more than recompensed us for upwards of a year's toils and fatigues. How different to our reception in England, where not a voice was heard in our favour, and not a hand was held out in token of approbation!

The steamer, drawing but little water, was enabled to bring-to immediately off the quays, and, as a variety of repairs were indispensable previous to the re-ascent of the Euphrates, a native bungalow was hired to dispose of stray objects for the time being, and a small house, with its accompanying wind-tower and a terrace to sleep upon, waslengaged for the officers. I never observed a thermometrical difference of two degrees between the temperature in the apartment below the wind-tower and that of the shade, but the relief derived from the draught of air was very great, infinitely more so than would have been anticipated from the slight difference of temperature. The Badgir appeared, indeed, a decided improvement upon the subterranean Sirdaubs of Baghdad and Mosul; but, then again, there are no breezes to catch inland, and the wind-tower would be useless in the city of the Khalifs.

Bushire, whose proper name is Abu Shahir, "the father of cities," corrupted into Abushire and Bushire, being the principal seaport of Persia, presents an aspect of bustle and trade to which the Anglo-Indian residency and the almost constant presence of one or more sloops of war, contribute in no small degree. The flat-roofed houses are grouped almost indifferently upon the beach, and among them are a few public buildings, more especially the caravanserai, a sort of exchange or commercial mart which leads into the bazaar, the governor's house, and the residency, the last a fortified mansion with a guard of sepoys occupying the best and most exposed situation in the city. The wind-towers rising above the flat-terraces give a peculiar appearance to the town. Many of the mosques have the usual cleanly appearance, and peeping through the brick-latticed walls it was not uninteresting to observe the sacred ablutions going on in their various compartments, groups of boys chanting the evening hymns, and occasional female forms flitting along the dark corridors to prayer. Frazer and Morier have both spoken disparagingly of Bushire, but every thing is only comparable to that which is analogous to it, and Bushire, with its well-provided market, and its gigantic flasks of Shiraz wine sometimes covering half a quay, appeared to us to be a city redolent with comforts and luxuries infinitely superior to any that we had hitherto fell in with during our travels. The cargoes of asafœtida piled up by the side of the array of flasks were certainly objectionable, and after a hot day they perfumed the atmosphere to a sickening degree.

The water at Bushire is also execrable. It is obtained from wells sunk without the city, from ten to sixteen feet deep, in a sandy soil with an argillaceous substratum, and the water is always brackish to a greater or less degree, and is charged for in the port accordingly. A very saline

draught being cheaper than a less bitter and purgative beverage. Wherever these wells are met with, there is a cottage or two with a few palms, and the tree tamarix. I observed the roots of the latter penetrating to the bottom of several of the wells. The water is drawn up by oxen in leather vessels with long spouts, which are held upwards as the rope is drawn over the roller, but which fall down and discharge their contents on arriving at their destination.

It is needless to enter into details upon the commerce of Bushire, since such are to be found in the popular compendiums of M'Culloch and Macgregor. I will confine my observations to the physical aspect of things, upon which my personal explorations may furnish more that Bushire is built upon a rocky bed, that is peninsulated from the mainland by a low and often submerged tract. This peninsula corresponding to the ancient Mesambria, is above eleven miles in length, from three to four in width, and nowhere rises more than forty feet above the level of the sea.

is new.

The rock upon which the town itself is built, is a calcareous sandstone, containing an abundance of sea-shells, similar to what occur in the present day in the Persian gulf. This rock forms cliffs of about twelve feet in height to the south-west, and is not above a mile and a half in width, by a mile and a quarter in length, and the approach to the town is cut off by high tides. To the south the same marine formation is succeeded by higher lands, where the remains of the Portuguese settlement of Rushire (Ru al Shahir, or "the City at the Cape") are still visible; the cottages in the neighbourhood being built of the ruins of the olden town, and where there also exists the ruins of a large edifice, designated as the residence of Shah Selim. Cinerary urns are also found in the same vicinity. Beyond Rushire the sea-cliffs become more lofty, and are intersected by wide and deep ravines, till at Hallilah they begin to lower. The eastern side of the peninsula, which fronts a sea of sand, rises in cliffs of nearly a hundred feet in height. The best water on the peninsula is obtained at Shaikh Abu and Hallilah. At Rushire the water is very bitter, and I found one spring impregnated with hydro-sulphurous acid, probably produced by the decomposition of marine organic products. The greater part of the peninsula is under cultivation, chiefly of cotton. The central elevated platform is, however, completely barren. A fringe of date-trees occupies the line of junction of the rock with the marine sands to the east and south-east. The neighbourhood of Shaikh Abu and the coast, from a mile and a half south-west of Bushire to Hallilah, is for the most part occupied by cotton plantations. There are also occasional date groves. Near Bushire the roots of the vines are protected by circular stone walls, but they do not thrive vigorously.

The fleet of Nearchus when sailing along this coast, not being able to double the cape in the evening, anchored in the bay to the eastward. The place was called Hieratis, and near it was a canal called Heratemis. D'Anville identifies the site with the Kirazin of Idrisi, and Dr. Vincent with Hallilah. The description, however, appears to refer to the island at the mouth of the Khor Kayir, or Quoir. The next day the fleet sailed to Mesambria, and anchored at the mouth of the torrent called Padargus. Mesambria means a peninsula, and by a torrent is meant a dry summer bed, such as nearly crosses the peninsula at Ru al Shahir where the fleet may have next rested. From that station on the peninsula the fleet sailed