put this cruel murder fills him with horror. Here Conrad appears truly noble, for his So thrill'd-so shudder'd every creeping vein, HE ROSE DEEM THY FASHIOOD SAP! AND SLOWLY, SPERNIY THE JCE WITHDREW, RAGE IN HIS EYE AND THREATS IN LIS ADIT 1: GULNARE AND SEYD. FROM THE BYRON Gallery. THE Pacha Seyd, satisfied of the security magnanimity and generosity. He knows that of his prison to hold the pirate, who is en- the Pacha has doomed him to the most awful chained in his cell, permits him to live longer tortures, that his own Medora's heart is breakthan he intended, solely that he may endure ing in his absence; but he cannot kill a sleepmore torture. Gulnare, true to her promise ing enemy, although he has slain hundreds in to save his life, endeavors to excite Seyd's fighting; so would rather die than be free upon cupidity for the large ransom he could obtain such base terms. by freeing him. Gulnare!—if for each drop of blood a gem It had not now redeem'd a single hour, "Gulnare-Gulnare-I never felt till now Horrified at his hatred and barbarity, Gulnare uses a slender artifice, by representing that the pirate deprived of his wealth and half his band, would soon fall an easy prey; This at once arouses the Pacha's jealousy and suspicion. "I have a counsel for thy gentler ear: I do mistrust thee, woman! and each word Night wears apace-my last of earthly rest!" Are on this cast-Corsair! 'tis but a blow! She flies from him to do the cruel deed her Borne in his arms through fire from yon Serai-self. He gathers up his chains to prevent her. Say, wert thou lingering there with him to fly? Gulnare, shocked and enraged at being accused of unfaithfulness, of which she is wholly innocent, permits her love for her lord and master to turn into hate, and thirsts for revenge. She bribes the guard and provides a boat for Conrad's escape, and at midnight repairs to his cell with a poniard in her hand, that she offers him to murder Seyd with, if he would be free. "But in one chamber, where our path must lead, There sleeps he must not wake-the oppressor Seyd !" When he finds her, she is returning. No poniard in that hand-nor sign of ill- Again he look'd, the wildness of her eye blood! He had shed the blood of his foes in torrents, and seen many ghastly scenes unmoved, but this cruel murder fills him with horror. Here Conrad appears truly noble, for his So thrill'd-so shudder'd every creeping vein, one by one, Cool-browed, shaking dew from her garlands, those garlands so fair Many gasp, climb, snatch, struggle, and die for -her everyday wear! O beauteous my sister, turn downwards those mild eyes of thine! They stab with their smiling, they blister and scorch where they shine. Young sister, who never yet sat for an hour in the cold, Whose cool cheek scarce feels half the roses that throng to caress, Whose loose hands hold lightly these jewels and silver and gold, Think-think thou of those who for ever- -for is love-crowned, While others drop empty in dry dust-What, what canst thou know PILGRIM'S SONG IN THE DESERT. 'Tis morning now-upon the eastern hills, Ten thousand thousand now, on Zion's hills, O home, dear home, my own, my native home! O Thou, the brightness of whose gracious face, These weary, longing eyes have never seenMy course, through toil and tears, I daily take! By whose dear thought, for whose beloved sake, I think of Thee, when the myrrh-dropping morn Of the wild human tide that rolls seething cter-I think of thee in the fair even-tide, Steps forth upon the purple eastern steep: nally round The isle where thou sit'st fair and calm like a statue of snow, Anear which the beautiful angels continually go. Keep pitiful. Whose eyes once turned from the angels to shine Upon publicans, sinners? O sister, 'twill not pollute thine! Who, even-eyed, looks on His children, the black and the fair, When the bright sandaled stars their watches keep. On thy dear word for comfort doth rely, Beholds thee here, unseen, but ever nigh. Walking in white with thee, she dimly sees, The loved, and the unloved, the tempted, un-Like morning stars, to light a coming dawn. Far better be Magdalen dead at the door of thy hall, All sinless now, and crowned and glorified, Where e'er thou movest, move they still with thee, As erst, in sweet communion by thy side, Walked John and Mary, in old Gallilce. But hush my heart! 'tis but a day or two Dead, sinning, and loving, and contrite, and par-Divides thee from that bright immortal shore. doned, to shine Midst God's saints in His heaven, than thou, angel-sister of mine. Nay, whitest thorn-blossom-white lily, more pure than the snowsWhite dove, flying skyward with not an earthstain on her wing, Rise up! rise up! and gird thee for the race! Thou hast the new name written in thy soul; taire du Roi Joseph. Publiés, annotés, et mis en ordre par A. Du Casse, Aid-deCamp de S. A. J. le Prince Jérome Napo léon. 8vo. Paris: 1853. From The Edinburgh Review. his head was turned, and his heart was harMémoires et Correspondence Politique et Mili-dened, by prosperity and success; the acquisition of unlimited power, and the perverting influence of abject flattery and submission, proved the ruin of his moral sentiments, seared his conscience, and destroyed the natural sympathies and affections of which before Or all books, the most generally and con- his elevation he had given many manifestations. stantly popular are the memoirs, diaries, and Less has been ascertained and recorded of the letters of eminent and remarkable people; early life of the Emperor Napoleon than of and the descriptions and details of the courts, any man who ever rose, by his own energy the cabinets, and the camps of famous mon- and ability, from a low condition to the sumarchs, statesmen, and generals have an unfail-mit of human grandeur; and it is curious and ing universal attraction. Generation after interesting to contemplate him as he was in generation continues to read, with undimin- the days of his obscurity and. poverty, when ished zest, the vast collection of French me- the height of his ambition was to obtain some moirs which embrace the reigns of Louis XIV. petty distinction in his native island of Corsica, and his predecessor, to wander in imagination and his most ardent desire to promote the through the galleries of Versailles, and the happiness and welfare of the numerous family saloons of the Hotel de Rambouillet, and, in of which he constituted himself the guardian the mind's eye to people those celebrated and the protector. Joseph and Napoleon, the localities with the illustrious and interesting two eldest of the Bonapartes, were knit tocharacters of both sexes who once adorned gether, in their youth, by the closest bonds of them, and with whom the De Retz', Motte villes, friendship and affection; and from the first and St. Simons have made us so familiar. The moment of their being separated they mainhistories and the memoirs from the beginning tained a regular and incessant correspondence of the French Revolution down to the end of (of which, unfortunately, most of the earliest the war form another such group, which though letters were lost*), commencing at a period less romantic and classical, are even more im- when the fortunes of the family were still at a mediately interesting to ourselves than the first. low ebb; and we think that more is to be To the more modern series, the "Memoirs learnt from these letters, of the real disposition and Correspondence of King Joseph" form a of the Emperor, and they furnish better matevery valuable addition; though the interest rials for forming an impartial judgment of him, of the "Correspondence" is principally de- than all the voluminous contributions of his rived from the letters of the Emperor Napo-admirers or his detractors, of his friends or leon, of which a large proportion of it consists. his foes. We see him here in the freshness of Joseph himself, though he had to play (nolens his precocious and aspiring youth,' with his volens) considerable parts in the great drama heart yet warm and unspoilt, and (as we may of the Consulate and the Empire," was a imagine) nursing in the deep recesses of his star of inferior magnitude, and only shines by mind vague and visionary hopes, to be transthe borrowed light of his connection with the cended by such a destiny as in his wildest great luminary of his family. Not but what dreams he never could have caught a glimpse he seems to have been rather underrated by of. We then see the gradual development of his contemporaries; for, though far from hav- the ambitious and despotic elements of his ing abilities of a high order, he was certainly character, the effects of increasing power upnot deficient in intelligence, prudence, and judgment. He enjoyed the reputation of being a worthy, well-disposed man, moderate in his desires, and of a benevolent, humane disposition; and such an estimate of his character is confirmed by the correspondence before us. The Bonapartes were an ancient Ghibelline It has been said that no two men are more dis-family, a branch of which lived, in the middle similar than the same man at different periods ages, at St. Miniato, near Florence. Several of his life; and however true or false this may of its members filled, at different times, mube as a general axiom, it is eminently true as nicipal offices in various Italian towns. On regards Napoleon Bonaparte; for when we examine attentively his conduct and his career from first to last, we shall find that though there are some traits of character which may be constantly traced, and will be found repro- † Napoleon told General Bertrand (at St. Heleduced in different forms throughout all the cir-na) that his family was of Roman origin; that there cumstances of his eventful life, that character a Bonaparte had written an account of the sack of were Bonapartes at Rome in A. D. 1000, and that underwent as great a change as his fortunes; Rome by the Constable of Bourbon in 1500. - on it, and the subordination of whatever there ever was of tenderness and amiability in his nature, to the passion for boundless domination, and the exigencies of an uncontrolled and uncontrollable will. of a vessel carrying Joseph's effects after his EmNapoleon's letters were lost in the shipwreck bassy at Rome, and Joseph's were taken in La Vendee. |