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4 rest—or if not—the place was given to me of the unfortunate being still stretched be- POBTST. THE LAST TREE OF THE FOREST. BY MF.S. FELICIA REMANS. Whisper, thou Tree, thou lonely Tree, One, where a thousand s1t>od! Well might proud talcB be told of thee, Last of the solemn wood ! Dwells there no voice amidst thy boughs, With leaves yet darkly green ? Stillness is round, and moontide glows— Tell us what thou hast seen. “ 1 have seen the forest shadows lie, Where now men reap the com; I have seen the kingly chase rush by, Through the deep glades at morn. “ With the glance of many a gallant spear, And the wave of many a plume, And the hounding of a hundred deer, It hath lit the woodland’s gloom. 1 1 have seen the knight and his train ride past, " iili his banner borne on high, leaves there was brightness cast, gleamy panoply. n at mvfoot hath laid ♦ ‘be flowers, 1 rkly pray’d, at ves •’ '! ■ * jo wild and glen, - Xp>re, '■ the red wine’s cheer, ns of. yore. • t sting in-my shade, nest ring snf the high Crusade, uef and king. o forms are gone, earth of old ; a -joouniful tone, to sunny light 'looks cot Here is no glorj left us now, v the glorv ot the dead - *hat who e they slumber low, ) st leaves were shed!” V rk Tree, thou lonely Tree, / lriieat for the past! ) home in thy Bhade I see, ( .rhl from every blast. nd a mirthful Bound tirr meets mine ear ; 1* >r man’s children sport u. f, with nought ,ad that cabin’s w* y ;mm«r glow; door stands free to all, »ot of a foe. ijeVls arc on the breeze dark Trcc!-r- i'' r n, amidst ihingshike these, .ormy Past, with thcc .,ov.' the ■t walked wind ha. neatWiinvand was in yn instant gone The {TfeetofUhe'Kin^'of the two Sicilies was coming into the Bay of Naples after a successful co-operation with the imperial The oily was all in without any solicitation. I had even shrank from what I must look on as the price of blood ; but refusal would have been suspici ous and fatal. I soon after married. The emoluments of my new situation were con- forces against Venice sidtrable. I launched out into life, as is j an uproar of exultation. The whole range | throa wasufilled; but stooping his cold brow expected from every man in office. My;of the magnificent'bouses on the Crialja i upon the marble of the casement, which was u Is there no alternative! They or 1—an ignoniinious death—or—1” Tho minister’s voice died away. “ Or safety, honour, wealth unbounded— prince of the Calabriaswas the quick ra* ply. Manfredonia could not speak, his wife had her expenses too, and I became embarrassed.” “ But the public funds were in your bands; you might have relieved your difficulties, and replaced the money at your leisure.” “ Dreadful expedient! I need conceal nothing from you—you have some strange power over my confidence. I have been in the habit of employing that expedient; and at this hour master of a zechio. Matteo Flores is a villain ; but he is rigid to inferior villains—and I am undone.” “ Matteo Flores! My old enemy, and were illuminated wvvrc uiuiiikjcwcu jr and fetes of the most colder, he, gave a tokeu of acquiescence with costly description were going on in the man- his hand. ' The rocket flew into the air, and sions of all the principal courtiers. But the 1 it was instantly answered by a shower of fire most costly was that celebrated in the pu- works that illuminated the whole horrizon. lazzo of the Count of Manfredonia, first I “ They come,” exclaimed the Hungarian minister, and a man of the most distinguish. “ I knew they w>uld toot fad.” The sound ed abilities and success in his administra-J seemed repeated rorniearth and air. Man tion. The Spanish alliance had been nego- fredonia cast oneioo!^ towards the bay, on tiated by him in the face of difficulties inuu- which a huge cresejfe of ships of war, with till now all has been safe : but this very'day j merable ; and the late conquest of the Ye- lamps in their bows fnd rigging, were ad- I have received an order to pay up my ba- ! netian terra firraa was due not less to his di- J vancinglike a host of new fallen stars. At lance to the minister, who is fitting out an 1 plomatic sagacity than to his personal en- that moment the door was burst open be- expedition against the Algerines! I am not j terprize. hind him—he was grasped by the neck— But he was more respected than popular, and the king and a crowd of armed men His life of anxiety and occupation had given stood in the room him secluded habits; and on this evening he It was in the month of November : the had soon retired to his cabinet, leaving all weather was stormy ; and the chillness of a yours too, my dear friend. Oh for an ounce the pomp and vanities of almost royal feas- Neapolitan winter night is often such as to of opium in his soup to-night: it would be j ting to the crowd that filled his superb apart- try the feelings of men accustomed to the justice to you, to me, to all mankind! Iiments. He was sitting, wearied and head-(coldest climates; yet through that entire DOMESTIC LO^ d in tho wild delimits, .ie thst’^throng, 0f > n fancy’s fondest flights, Ana chased the phantom, Pleasure, long— Even from a gay and giddy boy, I strove to drown each care with glee, But never, never, tasted joy, Till found, Domestic Love, in tbee. The bright romance of fervid youth, The glory of those golden days, *’« When love’s sweet image pass’d like truth Herself, before my raptur’d gaze; The luxury of each dear dream, By warm anticipation wove, In all their fragrant freshness seem Concentrated in Domestic Love. This peaceful home—these fervent friends, These budding blossoms of my line, With wiiom my very being blends, V\ hoae destiny arid hopes are mine— If there’s a Paradise on earth, A joy below like joys above, It glows around the social hearth - Of home and dear Domest ic Love. THE CUP OF HONOURS. \Conc\uded.~\ . Five years after, the Italian was sitting at twilight in his cabinet, surrounded by books and papers, when ho beard a low knock at the door, and a stranger entered, who seat ed himself, and addressed him by hfe name. He was altogether unconscious of the ac quajotance. “ Do you forget your old friend Malatesta.?” said the stranger. “ You Malatesta! impossible. I had cer tain intelligence of his being taken up by the Inquisition and dying in the dungeon. Resides friend, you are at least fifty years older; he was in tho prime of life, but you——” • - “ I am what I say, and I am not what I look. Five years of hard weather and toss ing about in the world, sometimes half starving, and sometimes half burned to death under a tropical sun, would be enough to make some alteration in a man’s outside Why, I don’t think that even you look much the better for your staying at home; you don’t seem to have recovered that night on the Solfatara yet.” The Italian started at the name. It let him at once into the full conviction that the decrepit being before him was the boatman But bow changed ! His black and curling hair was thin and white as snow.; his florid complexion was jaundiced and wrinkled he walked with extreme difficulty; the athle tic limb was shrunk, the whole noble figure was dwindled and diminished into that of one on the very verge of the grave. r “ Accursed be the memory of that night,” exclaimed the Italian : “ better I had died From that moment I have been a miserable man. “But you got the deputy-treasurership and have it still, I think.” “ Aye: that letter, that you persuaded me to write in drink and madness, did the business. I was never asked for proofs but I might as well have stabbed him at once—the suspicion wwi einougfa—he was turned out of his office .and in desi «* Went up tlio Solfatara,” said Malatesta, with a low laugh. ^ \ The Italian shuddered, and, with his eyes cast on the ground, said “the unfortunate man died by his own band, erven in this very room.” ’ There was silence for a while; he swear it by the majesty of evil,” exclaimed the old man, springing up from his seat with the vigour of manhood ; “ have you thought of nothing to save yourself! 1 know Mat teo well; lie is corrupt to the very' bottom of hi.- soul—but he is vindictive, unprin cipled, merciless. Ah, my young friend, how soon, if he were in your situation, he would extinguish all his fears : the tiger would your hlood before he laid his head up the pillow to-night.” “ / yet Flores, said the Italian, is not wise m jeing too bard upon me; I know some of his proceedings that might ruin him. We have private transactions—for he has been constantly in want of money; and, if I am not altogether mistaken, he is at this moment engaged in a desperate design. I am even convinced, tliatf nothing but the urgency of this enterprfze could make him press me now Cor the money, which he must know I cannot raise, if 1 we:e to search the world.” j , “ Then vvhv not inform the king of it at once ? You thereby save yourself, and ex tinguish his credit at a blow. You may re member, Matteo Flores has had the life of one king to answer for already.—Smite him, and get yourself the name of patriot—it is the ihost thriving trade going ; • and if you then want to have the handling of the public gold, you may have it to your heart’s content, and have all the honour and glory that the rabble can give besides.” “ I have thought of it. But all access to iie-king has been of late impossible. Flores has had him surrounded by his creatures. The result of discovery on my part, would be an order for my hanging within four and twenty hours. I am inevitably a ruined man.” Malatesta had'east his eye upon a case of pistols, hidden, on his entrance, among a mass of papers. He took up one of them, and pointed it significantly to his forehead. The Italian faintly smiled. “ l see that I must have no secrets with you,” said he. “ Those things are sometimes good friends : they pass a man’s accounts when nothing else can—you and I agree at last.” He took up the fellow pistol and began to ex amine the priming. Malatesta sat gazing at him as his eye glanced into the barrel. “ One touch of this trigger,” murmured the Italian, “ and all is over.” “ Madman!” exclaimed his visitor, seiz ing it, “ shoot your enemy, your destroyer, the public enemy, the regicide, if you will, or if you have a sense of common duty about you; but as to shooting yourself”—he sank back in his chair, with a laugh—“would you make yourself the sneer of all Naples, only to oblige him ? Now, listen to me with all your ears. I have, from particular circumstances, a strong hope of bringing that villain to justice. “Justice!” exclaimed the Italian “it is now that you are the madman. Justice in Naples! Justice with ached, in a small study that looked out up- night, the Clriaja was filled with the thou- on the waters ; and where the slight sound sands and ten thousands of the Neapolitan of the sea-air, and the subsiding waves were multitude, to see the preparations for an il- the only music. lie had been for some J lustrious execution. A scaffold was raised days waiting for despatches from the imperi- in front of the mansion of the celebrated and al governor of Milan; and their delay had unfortunate Count of Manfredonia. He increased his habitual irritability. A page had been tried in secret, and consigned to announced their arrival. The courier was the dungeons under S^, Elmo. His crime an officer of rank, in the uniform of the was not distinctly divulged; but he was Hungarian guard. He delivered a personal charged with some sttange offences that letter from the imperial court, announcing apparently belonged to the tribunals of the him as in its entire confidence, and empow- church, as well of the i|tate. Traitor and ered, under the name of a bearer of des- magician were a fearful combination ; and patches to negotiate m the fullest manner j the city was in a state of boundless confu- with the minister. sion. The bells of the citadel routed Man Manfredonia seized the despatch, and fredonia from a broken slumber and a few read them with evident and eager satisfac- minutes before day break the governotof ti e tion. “All is as it should be,” said he; castle entered his cell, with the confessor. “ but why this delay ? The business was on to give him notice that his time was come, the point ,of discovery; aqd half an hourl The confessor remained with him for con- might have been fatal.” J fession. f Holy father,* said the miserable “ The delay was inevitable,” pronounced man, * I have but one sin to confess.’ He the officer firmly; “ precautions were ne- then disclosed the singular succession <\f cessary—they take time—and the court events which had led him on from obscurity was to be put on its guard, but now we to rank, and at each step with its accompa must proceed to execution. The archduke Hying crime. * But had you no adviser, no is actually within three hours’ march of Na-1 accomplice in those acts of guilt, no tempter pies, with a strong column of cavalry ; the —said the confessor. The word struck Genoese fleet are only waiting for a rocket J on the unhappy map’s ear. * Aye ; too from your roof to come round Miseno, and 1 surely I had. But my chief tempter was by this time to-morrow the fools that now fill my own hatred of obscure competence, of the throne will be on their passage to Afri- the superiority of others, the mad passion for ca. and Prince and governor of Calabrias, being first in all things. ‘Yet.’ and his voice will be for yourself and your posterity. You j died away, evil was the day I first met thee, may depend on the archduke’s honour.” Malatesta.’ He sank upon his knee in “ Honour ?•” replied Manfredonia, with a prayer, hitter smile : “ well, so be it. The king I “ Would you desire to see that temoter a- has insulted and injured me beyond human gain, or have you forsworn all connexion forgiveness. Nay, I have certain intelli- with him?” said the confessor, ffenee, that l have grown too important in “From the bottom of my soul I have the public eye to be endured by the low iea- swornwas the answer of the penitent, lousy of the race that infest the court, and “ Then more fool you,” exclaimed the that, before this night was over I was to confessor, throwing back his cloak- “ once have been arrested; and probably sacrificed more, and your life is saved, make that pray- in my dungeon.”—He turned away.—“ Ac- er to me.” cursed ambition! would that T never knew The miserable Counjt looked up in as- you—sin of the fallen angels! it is still their tonishment: Malatesta stood before him deadliest temptation to miserable man :” he but bis former handsome countenance dark bowed his head on the casement and even | ened into gloomy rage. “ Hear me. fool that look of horror is absurd. ' J can save The sea rising, committed great damage among the more exposed buildings, and swept away all the smaller vessels, and every thing that is generally loose about a beach. The scaffold was gone totally into the Mediterranean. In the burst of the hurricane on St. Elmo, the first care had been to secure the amunition and other im portant stores qf the fortress. The illustri ous criminal was partially forgotten. When at length the governor and tire guard enter" ed his cell, they found hinfalone. He was still kneeling, with his hands fixed as in prayer—but utterly dead. The countenance was calm: but on lifting the cloak that had fallen over his forehead, they found a deep red impression of a cross burned through to the brain. His death was attributed to the lightning. At a dinner lately given in Portsmouth to Lord Melville and John Wilson Croker, Esq. who had been inspecting the fortifica tions, naval states, &c. of that Arsenal, by the Admiral and other officers of the station, Mr. Croker, with his usual tact, and desire to shew hisrinferlors on what familiar foot ing he stands with the Peerage, took an op portunity in the course of the entertainment, to hail the First Lord with the familiar ex clamation of “ Melville, some wine.” The naval gentlemen looked, some of them sur prised at Mr. Croker’s familiarity, and others deeply impressed with the sense of his im portance—the great Land lord’s brow lower ed a little at being thus cavalierly addressed by a mere Secretary, and he swallowed his wine with as much hauteur as possible. But his revenge was to come. A young Mid shipman who had escorted Mr. Croker over the works, very much tickled by this hail- fellow-well-met style of doing business, after waiting for about a minute, and before the surprise had yet subsided, exclaimed with the utmost pitch of his voice from the bottom of the table—“ Croker, some wine,’* and on the Secretary very reluctantly com plying with the request, by pouring the smallest quantity possible in his glass,.add ed—“No skylights, my lad—Secs and Mid dies always take bumpers here.”—In the laugh that followed none joined more hear tily than Lord Melville. A / Lex Talionis.—A circumstance of rather a laughable nature took place last week at Ayr prison. A Sheriff Officer in Ayr, who holds also an official situation in the burgh, had received instructions to imprison a bro ther officer for a small debt. The latter hearing of the intention to incarcerate him, * and conceiving that society is preferabieTtdv -1f . t of%a diligence "’’f / " a bigotted govern ment, a besotted people, and every soul in j tan—obscure, besides—r-tmpossible.” the tribunal bribed, or bribable, from the lowest huissier up to the supreme judge! No, the only chance for me is his instant death. Are there no fevers, no pestilences under heaven ?” He rose and walked rest lessly about the room. Malatesta followed with his eyes. “Are there no opium draughts, no aqua-fontana drops ? Is there no doctor in the whole length of the toledo?” the old man pronounced : “ those are rather more to the purpose-—shall I inquire ?” The Italian heard him—but returned no answer : he continued pacing the room. A loud knocking was suddenly heard at the outer door. He glanced out of the window; and starting back, flung himself on the floor Wept. 1 umv I'JMJV VI IIVUVI to uu^u.vi. ,< VUL1 The officer made no observation: but a you:—nay,'you can save vourself.” He tumult outside now attracted the Hungarian took a lamp from his bo-;om and Opened to the casement. The glare of the torches, j small trap-door in the pavement. “ Under first led Manfredonia’s eye to the figure this stone,” said he, “ is the powdcV maga before him. He was a remarkably hand- zine. The king and his nobles are/now in some man, tall, and noble looking ; and the the fort waiting to see you set out for the rich costume of the imoerial guard covered scaffold. I have a key to every door in the with orders, gave the Hungarian a most con- prison : we can escape in a moment, and spicuous and brilliant appearance. Yet in the next moment may see the fort and aU the handsome countenance, bright with man- that it contains blown up into the air. Yen ly beauty and intelligence, he recognized geance, my friend—glorious, complete, mag- some traits with:, which he was familiar, nificent vengeance. But command me,. to There was a glance of deep fire, at times, in lay this lamp upon the train. Nay more the eye, to which he had never seen the e- the extinction of your enemies would leave qual but in one man. “ I think, Sir” said the world clear for you—from a dungeon he, “ we must have met somewhere before; you might be in a palace—-from a scaffold at least you have the most striking, likeness you. might mount a throne. One word to a person whom I have not seen these five The monk waved the lamp before his eyes, years. Yet his excessive age—a Neapoli- and the sudden thought of vengeance and 't~:j— *• * ** mighty retribution 11 — £,,: — the whole filling of “I am the Count de Rantzan,” said the I human ambition, smote, through him stranjrer, proudly drawing himself up ; and like lightning. The conflict was fierce : laving his hand on the diamond studded hilt he grasped the lamp, and felt that he had of his sabre; “ none but Hungarian blood, the fetes of a dynasty in his hand. But an and that of the noblest rank, can wear this inward voice, such as he had not heard for uniform. Put we waste time, is all ready!” many a year, seemed suddenly to awake He took up the fire work which had been him. He flung the lamp on the ground : agreed on as the signal to the Genoese ; and “ No more blood—no more blood !”—was planted it on the edge of the casement all that he could utter, as, feint and h«lf- Manfredopia felt the sudden sickness of blind, he took up a goblet in which some heart that has been so often experienced by wine had remained, and hastily put it to his the most powerful minds, when the blow is parched lip. He saw it suddenly covered to be struck that makes or mars them. He with sculptures of the same strange charac- swallowed some wine; and the thought I ter that had startled him,in the cave of the flashed across him, thatitstaste strongly re- j Solfatara^ “Leave me, Malatesta,” said solitude, obtained possession against the other, and resolved to have his company in his imprisonment. On arriving at the jail the first mentioned officer went through his duty of lodging the unfortunate debtor in the hands of the jailor; but no sooner was this done, than the' latter drew out his credentials and repeated the cere mony tdwards ibhr, by making his friend and brother officer his companion in his con finement, to liis no small surprise and dis* may. Symptoms of Christianity.—It is said (in the f dia Gazette) that the famous Furman General Fundoola, who was killed at the siege of Douahew, began, before his death, to evince symptoms of Christianity. When the Mugh (a native belonging to the Chit tagong frontier) who reported this interest ing fact, was-pressed to explain what these symptoms were, he replied, with much sim plicity, that Bundoola was of “ master’s caste,” having acquired a relish for the en joyment of roast beef pork and brandy. Bite the Biter.—A few nights ago a man in the neighbourhood of Knockbridge called on a neighbour who had recently killed two j)igs, and invited him to steal some turf from another neighbour for the purpose of drying his bacon; they were not many, minutes out when a party of his fellows came to the house, and; after tying his wife, took away the entire of the bacon. The disappointed thief ot his return home had nothing to dry but his ^rogues. He suspects the friend who invited him out-to have been in concert with the phtfy. Some time before he re fused ten pounds for the pigs .—Drogheda, Journal. . ? „ 1. \ in agony. “ They are come,” said he, “ the officers of the tribunal, to take me be fore the minister—my disgrace wiir be pub lic : I am beggared, outcast, crushed to the dust forever.” He writhed upon the floor. “ At all events, you must not be left in the hands of those hangdogs,” said the old man, attempting to lift him. * One word for all i pared for all results ; fee royal -family—' —give me cartc-blanchc, and let me save j He half drew his sabre, and held it suspen- you ; there is but oneway.* The wretch- ded.” The gesture was not to be misun- ed treasurer, still upon the ground, paused I derstood. ' ' in his agony; and threw up a melancholy j “ You would 'not let slaughter indiscri- look of doubt on his preserver.—‘ What I; min ate slaughter, loose in the palace ?” said sembled that strange draught of the Solfe- tara, which had never left his recollection. The Hungarian was now about to apply the match to the signal when he paused, and turning said; “ in five minutes after this is seen, the Gehoese will answer it; and there may be some alarm about the palace. If there should be resistance, we must be pre- soy I can do, whispered Malatesta. But JFlores must die. I have sworn it long ago %-my own injuries, and not yours call for Manfredonia, shuddering. “ They or we,” pronounced the Hunga rian fiercely, “ Hoto can it be helped? it; hilt I also desire to save uiy friend, j If they are mad enough to court their, fete ; Have I your consent to my at least making I consent to this. It may not be necessary, the trial V The knocking was redoubled, but, at all events, I mhst have your authority “ All; any thing ;” Italian: * do what you pleasel r rThe old• leave you to—aye, to the scaffold.” He man absolutely sprang from the ground with; pronounced the word : sternly—and dashed a cry of exultation, waved his withered arm 1 the sabre into.the sheath with a look of su said the shuddering ’ for using my discretion in the business, or T The storm of that morning is still rerhem — -i *»..rru._-._u —** >i, ere d in Naples. The wind unroofed j then resumed: “ you may have heard the j with a gesture of wild triumph over thebead j preme scorn. he, as he dropped the cup oil the table, deserve to die: life is distatefnl to me. Yet I would have avoided the shame of a public execution.” “ Then drink*” said the capuchin, pouring wine into the enp: “ shame will never reach the man that drinks this liquor.” The per fume of it filled the cell. “ Never out of that cup—that cup of crime !” groaned the victim. “Worship me, slave !” echoed in thun der through the air. “ Leave ipe, fiend,” was the scarcely au dible sound from Manfredonia’s lips. “ Then die.*—The form snatched up the cup, and dashed the wine on the Count’s fore head, as he knelt in remdrse and agonizing prayer. He felt it like a gush of fire—-ut tered a cry, and was dead! Now it cha^mced that the gude shippe Hector caste anchour in the Thames river, and the captaine thereof being much given to witte and iolitie, invited • that cunning poete, Mr. Benjamin Jonson, to drinke with him in his said shippe, whereupon this poete did with all speede repaire thither, and did sette down with the aforesaid captaine, and they two did quaffee wine together in gude fellowshippe, for a great space of time, tHf . finallie the captaine raisin? himself from his ' seate, knd holding mi<rhtiTie by the other side of the cabin, saide, “Now”, friende Jonson. addresse my gude shippe with an esaie of verse.” “ Most willinglie, what’fr the name of your gude shippe ?” “ Hector,” rejoined the captaine. Then Jonson, rais ing with the goblette of wine in sinister, and' supporting himself as he mought with his dexter, loudly did proclaim, as followcth— number of the principal mansions along the shore, tore the scafiold into a thousand T fragments, and dispersed the multitude/ “ Oh! thou crate Hector, son of Priam, “Behold thy master’sdronkeas I anim!” Whereupon in an extaisie of ioye they both emptyed their , o'llettes and as it were spon taneously prostrated themselves beneath the table.—Black Letter Jest Book.” Authority.—JJTothing morg impairs au thority than a too frequent or indiscreet exer- ‘ kion of it. If thunder itself was to be con tinual, it woolti excite no more terror thaa. fee .noise of it mill; and we should sleep at tranquillity when it roared the loudest.