concealment of the night, and sings a beautiful air, accompanying himself on the guitar : "Love wakes and weeps O for music's softest numbers, For beauty's dream, "Through groves of palm While through the gloom The distant beds of flowers revealing. "O wake and live, No dream can give A shadow'd bliss, the real excelling From lattice peep, And list the tale that love is telling." "The voice of Cleveland was deep, rich, and manly, and accorded well with the Spanish air, to which the words, probably a translation from the same language, had been adapted. His invocation would not probably have been fruitless, could Minna have arisen without awakening her sister. But that was impossible, for Brenda, who, as we already mentioned, had wept bitterly before she had sunk into repose, now lay with her face on her sis ter's neck, and one arm stretched around her in "To all I love, or hope, or fear,-- Honour, or own, a long adieu! "He was again silent, and again she to whom the serenade was addressed, strove in vain to arise without rousing her sister. It was impossible; and she had nothing before her but the unhapy thought that Cleveland was taking leave in his desolation without a single glance or a single word. He whose temper was so fiery, yet who subjected his violent mood with such sedulous attention to her will---could she but have stolen a moment to say adieu...to caution him against new quarrels with Mertoun---to implore him to detach himself from such comrades as he had described, could she but have this, who could say what effect such parting admonitions might have had upon his character--nay, upon the future events of his life!" Under the agony of this impression, Minna has no resource but in silent and patient submission, to circumstances which seems to for bid what lay so near to her heart; she is at length roused to decisive exertion by the sound of voices beneath the window, which seem to be those of Cleveland and Mordaunt. The alarm she now feels enables her to accomplish her purpose, but not till the sound of the voices is exchanged to that of blows and strug. gling, which terminates suddenly in a deep groan. Minna rushes forward, and discovers the parties to be already retiring, but by their attitude of a child which has cried itself asleep in the arms of her nurse. It was impossible for Minna to extricate herself from her grasp without awaken-moon-light shadows, she observes a man ing her; and she could not therefore execute her bearing another on his shoulders. She throws hasty purpose, of donning her gown and hastening herself from the window and follows, but to the window to speak with Cleveland, who she without effect. had no doubt, had resorted to this contrivance, to procure an interview." And again, being still unanswered by his mistress : "Farewell! Farewell! the voice you hear, To cut the mast, and clear the wreck. "The timid eye I dared not raise, The hand that shook when press'd to thine, Mordaunt Mertoun is now missed, and the elder Mertoun is advised to take counsel of Norna at the ruined church of St. Ninian, a romantic and desolated spot, of which a grand and solemn picture is given. The superstitious tale which distinguishes this place, is well related : "Indeed, the scene was rendered more appalling to weak and ignorant minds, because the same stormy and eddying winds which, on the one side of the church, threatened to bury the ruins with sand, and had, in fact, heaped it up in huge quantities, so as almost to hide the side-wall with its buttresses, seemed bent on uncovering the graves of those who had been laid to their long rest on the south-eastern quarter; and, after an unusually hard gale, the coffins, and sometimes the very corpses, of those who had been interred without the usual cearments, were discovered, in a ghastly manner, to the eyes of the living." Mertoun, the father, repairs to St. Ninian. "It was to this desolated place of worship that the elder Mertoun now proceeded, though without any of those religious or superstitious purposes with which the church of St. Ringan's was usually approached. He was totally without the superstitious fears of the country,---nay, from the sequestered and sullen manner in which he lived, withdrawing himself from human society even when assembled for worship, it was currently believed that he erred on the more fatal side, and believed rather too little than too much of that which the Church receives. "As he entered the little bay, on the shore, and almost on a beach of which the ruins are situated, he could not help pausing for an instant, and becoming sensible that the scene, as calculated to operate on human feelings, had been selected with much judgment as the scite of a religious house. In front lay the sea, into which two headlands, which formed the extremities of the bay, projected their gigantic causeways of dark and sable rocks, on the ledges of which the gulls, scouries, and other sea-fowl, appeared like flakes of snow, while, upon the lower ranges of the cliff, stood whole lines of cormorants, drawn up alongside of each other, like soldiers in their battle-array, and other living thing was there none to see. The sea, although not in a tempestous state, was disturbed enough to rush on these capes with a sound like distant thunder, || and the billows, which rose in sheets of foam half way up these sable rocks, formed a contrast of colouring equally striking and awful. "Betwixt the extremities, or capes of these projecting head-lands, there rolled, on the day when Mertoun visited the scene, a deep and dense aggregation of clouds, through which no human eye could penetrate, and which bounding the vision, and excluding all view of the distant ocean, rendered it no unapt representation of the sea in the vision of Mirza, whose extent was concealed by vapours, and clouds, and storms.". Norna is discovered amongst the tombs of this appalling scene; she bids Mertoun seek his son at Kirkwall, on the third day after the fair. Minna, under the dreadful impression of Mordaunt's death by the hand of Cleveland, rapidly declines in health. Magnus Troil, accompanied by his fair daughters, repairs for relief to the dwelling of Norna, on the Fitful head, where, under the guise of an incantation, she affords it, by informing Minna, by natural means, of young Mordaunt's life and safety. The scene of the Novel is now transferred to the Orkneys, where Cleveland meets some brother pirates, the fair of Kirkwall succeeds; a quarrel with the towns-people takes place, in which Cleveland is made prisoner, and is rescued by a boat's crew from the consort vessel then lying in the roads, who take him off on board in safety. Young Mordaunt after his rencontre with Cleveland beneath the window of Minna, for so it appears it was in reality, is taken charge of by Norna, and cured. She, at this time, reveals herself as his mother. The Pirates agree to quit the coast, when supplied with provisions; hostages for this however, Magnus Troil and his daughters, treaty are exchanged, for a breach of which and detained in reprisal. The ladies are sent who are at sea in a handsome brig, are seized ashore to treat for the exchange of Magnus Troil for Cleveland, this is refused by the magistrates of Kirkwall; Cleveland is closely confined and guarded; Minna continues to see him, and at length contrives his escape in the disguise of her own cloak under the agency of Norna. We conclude our extracts with a fine picture. Cleveland is conducted by subterranean passages to the open country, and instructed to make a signal by fire to his comrades on board the pirate vessel. "When Cleveland awoke, the grey dawn was already mingling with the twilight of an Orcadian night. He found himself on the verge of a beautiful sheet of water, which, close by the place where he had rested, was nearly divided by two tongues of land that approach each other from the opposing sides of the lake, and are in some degree united by the Bridge of Broisgar, a long causeway, containtide. Behind him, and fronting to the Bridge, ing openings to permit the flow and reflux of the stood that remarkable semi-circle of huge upright stones, which has no rival in Britain, excepting the inimitable monument at Stonehenge. These immense blocks of stone, all of them above twelve feet, and several being even fourteen or fifteen feet in height, stood around the Pirate in the grey light of the dawning, like the phantom forms of anti|| diluvian giants, who, shrouded in the habiliments T of the dead, came to revisit, by this pale light, the earth which they had plagued by their oppression, and polluted by their sins, till they brought down upon it the vengeance of long-suffering Heaven." Cleveland, after his arrival on board, resolves, contrary to the injunctions of Norna, and has an affecting interview with Minna. An under plot of the Pirate crew, by which they determine to fix Cleveland's unsettled state of mind by the forcible seizure of himself and the object of his cares, ends in a defeat of their intentions by the vigilance and courage of Mordaunt, and Cleveland and his brother officer Bunce are again made prisoners. A King's ship arrives at the port, an action with the Pirate vessel succeeds, in which she is captured, and the crew are placed in confinement. The elder Mertoun meets Norna, and a denouement takes place, by which it appears that he is the partner of Norna's youthful error, and that Cleveland is their offspring; while Mordaunt is not her son, but the child of Mertoun, by a lady of Hispaniola. When Cleveland is examined before the Provost, Mertoun rushes in, avowing himself his father, Cleveland is pardoned, and dies in honourable enterprize in foreign service. Norna seeks and obtains refuge from her disturbed state in the consolations of religion; Brenda is happily united to Mordaunt ; Minna is humbly resigned to the will of heaven, and "learns to exchange the visions of wild enthusiasm which had exerted and misled her imagination, for a truer and purer connection with the world beyond us, than could be learned from the sagas of heathen bards, or the visions of later rhymers." CAIN, BY LORD BYRON. THIS is unquestionably one of those productions of Lord Byron in which, although we see much to admire, we have the mortification to find much more to blame; and the regret we feel is the deeper, that the condemnation, to be pronounced, must be strong in proportion to the ornamental garb of the offence. When we speak of a book which tends to unsettle the faith on which we build our best hopes, shall we hesitate to censure, from courtesy to the Noble Lord's powers? forbid it every thing dear to us! they can be pleaded but in aggravation. The beauties of Beauties which might redeem any other Byronic production, abound in this poem ; but in Cain, prominent excellencies stand stripped of their charms, by the more powerful effect of the general impression. As passages of this description we refer to the following extracts. The first is from the second act, in which Cain is conducted by Lucifer through "The Abyss of Space." Can it be? Cain. Yon small blue circle, swinging in far ether, The following delightful scenes are instances of the irresistible power of his Lordship's pen, when he depicts the best feelings of human nature: "Adah. Hush! tread softly, Cain. Cain. I will; but wherefore? Adah. Our little Enoch sleeps upon yon bed Of leaves, beneath the cypress. Cain. Cypress! 'tis A gloomy tree, which looks as if it mourn'd Cain. Ay, the last And longest; but no matter---lead me to him. [They go up to the child. How lovely he appears! his little cheeks, In their pure incarnation, vying with The rose leaves strewn beneath them. Adah. And his lips, too, How beautifully parted! No; you shall not Kiss him, at least not now; he will awake soon; His hour of mid-day rest is nearly over.--But it were pity to disturb him till 'Tis closed. Cain. You have said well; I will contain My heart till then. He smiles and sleeps!" Another, which as a picture of the parental affections is perhaps without parallel. Bless thee, boy! And loving him! Soft! he awakes. Sweet Enoch!|| As yet he hath no words to thank thee, but MR. HOGG has announced a work in the press, intitled "The Perils of Man," or War, Women, and Witchcraft, We hope the author will handle the latter interesting branches of his subject, as becomes "a gentle shepherd." Preparing for publication, "The art and mystery of Book-making, or the Mothers' Counsellor on the choice of early books for children, in 1 Vol. 12mo. By Charles Blunt. ACCOUNT OF THE CITY AND FORTRESS OF BUDA. THE city of Buda forms the singularly grand object in the middle distance of our plate, the view presented is that which is enjoyed from the royal observatory on the Blocksberg. The Danube, always an object of bold and picturesque beauty, has here a peculiar air of grandeur from its fine sweep, the presence of the two cities, the commanding character of the fortress, and the singular simplicity and extent of the bridge by which their connection is established. Buda is the seat of the Hungarian government, and the residence of the Palatine, and contains about 30,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, in a commanding and majestic position. The extensive fortress, which occupies a lofty rock, contains the palaces of the Palatine, and of several Hungarian nobles, the public arsenal and theatre, with many churches and streets, forming within itself a complete town. Round the foot of this rock, and along the side of the river, runs a street, while others, with gardens, surround it in different directions, and clothe the side of a second rocky eminence, called the Blocksberg, which overhangs the river at a short distance to the south, and on which the new Observatory is constructed. Pesth, the Transacincum of the Romans, occupies the left bank of the river. It is the seat of commerce, and contains nearly 30,000 inhabitants. It is built on a plain, over which it extends itself more and more every day, and is one of the very few continental towns which seems to have suffered little during the disturbances of the wars. Magnificence is seldom displayed in its buildings or its arrangement, but it has handsome streets, and convenient houses, with many churches and edifices belonging to different religious orders. Pesth and Buda, or as it is otherwise called, Ofen, form in fact one city, which is the capital of Hungary. Their separation by the Danube has produced the singular bridge of communication shewn in the view. This is formed of forty-seven large boats, united by chains, and covered with planks. The length of the bridge is nearly three hundred yards, and it is so constructed that two or three boats, with their planks and railings, may at any time be removed; and every morning and evening, at stated hours, the vessels and the rafts of timber, which navigate, or float down the Danube, are permitted to pass. During winter, however, large bodies of ice render it necessary to remove the bridge entirely; and for a period no communication exists between the banks of the Danube, till the whole is so completely frozen as to afford a secure passage over the ice. An unusual press of matter obliges us to omit, for the present month, the usual list of Births, Marriages, and Deaths; an article which, however sanctioned by established usage in the composition of every Magazine, were yet, in our opinion, " more honoured in the breach, than the observance." BEING Bell's COURT AND FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE; FOR FEBRUARY 1822. A New and Improved Series. EMBELLISHMENTS. 1. A correct Likeness of Mrs. W. S. CHATTERLEY. 2. A beautiful Whole Length Portrait Figure in an ENGLISH CARRIAGE MORNING VISITING DRESS. 3. A beautiful Whole Length Figure in a PARISIAN BALL DRESS. |