+ difficult and laborious inquiry,-and | know not how far your appearance and open manner may betray me; we live furrounded by fpies, and fcarcely know how to truft our neareft relations or moft confidential friends. Amru is confcious of his exactions, and unjust practices, and dreads we fhould obtain access to the fovereign, or, perhaps, dreads ftill more that the fubjects fhould have accefs to each other, compare their grievances, and concert the means of redrefs.”. that even fuch an inquiry would frequently prove in vain. He ftimulated him, if poffible, to fee with his own eyes, and exercife his own judgment, that he might not incur the cenfure of acts of which he was ignorant, or which he believed to be the abfolute reverfe of what they really were. | "I am not fpeaking of what I wif, or what is beneficial; I fpeak only of what might happen, were not all the vigilant cunning of Amru exerted to prevent it." "But is there no poffibility of approaching the fovereign, and laying before him the exactions and oppreffions of which you complain?" Thefe fuggeftions had fuch an effect on Huffein that he determined to make an effort to pierce the clouds of royal ignorance in which he was involved. He communicated his intentions to Ibrahim. His plan was to go out in difguife among his people, while it fhould be fuppofed he was dangeroufly ill in his feraglio; and thus inform himself of the real public opinion relative to his government and the state of his kingdom. Ibrahim acceded to this propofal; and it was determined that the phyfician fhould declare that the king had fuffered a dangerous relapfe, which would unavoidably confine "Every avenue to the throne is him a confiderable time. Two carefully guarded; they are posts of faithful attendants were alone admit- which the enemy is in poffeffion, and ted into the fecret, and, by their on the defence of which he knows affiftance, the monarch was enabled his fafety to depend. Yet, perhaps, to leave his palace in difguife, and after all, the idea that the fovereign return, when he pleafed, without the is better than his minifter may be a obfervation of any perfon. mere courtly flattery without foun The fovereign, no longer fur-dation. We fee no effect of his rounded by his courtiers, now enter- goodnefs: it is with us a mere object ed what appeared to him a new of faith; and I affure you I know world. He paffed through the many freethinkers who dare to crowd: no man flattered him, nor doubt of the exalted attributes of did any regard him. He faw that this, to us, almost unknown divinity. dejection and difcontent prevailed They are certainly incommunicable among his people; and his heart was to his minifter, and ufelefs to his filled with forrow. people." In the courfe of his fecret excur fions, he one day faw a gravé elderly man, walking under a pleafant fhade of trees. He accosted him, and endeavoured to enter into converfation with him. The old man appeared fhy, and furveyed him fufpicioufly. By degrees, however, they became more familiar; till at laft his companion faid to him" I Oh, fate of royalty! (exclaimed Huffein, with a figh) which has no means of diftinguishing the flattery of its courtiers from deferved praise, or the just complaints of its fubjects from the reftlefs murmurs of fac tion!" Faction (faid the aged Perfian) never feizes a whole nation, of the majority of a nation. When com plaints plaints echo through a country, the fovereign may be affured they have foundation. Go where you will, if you meet with those who dare to Ipeak, you will hear the fame expreffions of discontent, mixed frequently with execrations." But, wherever he went, he continually met either with open cenfure and reviling of his minifter and favourite, or with a fufpicious fullennefs, which fpoke full as forcibly the condemnation of his tyranny. Some he had ruined by legal oppreffions, others by exactions contrary to law from fome he had torn their children to adminifter to his bafe pleasures; and of others he had procured the death, when he could in no other manner filence their clamours. Much was Shah Huffein both furprised and grieved that fuch fhould be the general character of the man who fo entirely enjoyed his favour, and in whom he fo implicitly confided. He would have wished to have found that every thing alleged against him was falfehood and calumny; and frequently had he recourfe to his former doctrine, that the governed are the natural enemies of their governors; in conféquence of which he endeavoured ftill to hope that his favourite was at least comparatively innocent. "Is it not true (faid Huffein)-I have been taught that it is that the lower claffes of fociety conftantly look with envy on thofe above them, that they wish to fhare the fame advantages,-and that they continually murmur and are diffatisfied because they are born to labour? though fociety cannot be fupported unlefs a very confiderable majority of its members be doomed to labour. But is it not this common lot of humanity of which they in reality complain? and do they not attribute this their misfortune, as they account it, to the pampered luxury of kings, and the extortions of their minifters?" "Such (faid the old man) is certainly the doctrine of courts; and perhaps you may have had the misfortune to have received your education within their contaminating One day, while he continued thefe sphere. But enter into the #orid, excurfions in difguife, he met with a and obferve with an impartial eye perfon who accofted him with freewhat paffes there. I will franklydom, and entered into a converfa-confefs, that, in all the converfation Ition with him, in which he seemed have had with thefe inferior claffes of a total ftranger to every kind of mankind, I have admired nothing fo referve. He was a loud applauder much as the patience and good- of the exifting government, which, humour with which they bear their it appeared, had proved very profitburdens, their reverence for their able to him. Huffein was rather fuperiors, and their full conviction pleased to have at laft found one that it is right they fhould labour, who would fpeak well of Amru; and wrong that they should enjoy for Mafouf (fuch was the ftranger's much of the fruit their labour pro-name) had extolled him, his conduces, When they loudly complain, duct, and generofity to the fkies. it is probable, therefore, that they have much reafon for complaint; and ill will it fare with the government which too long neglects to redrefs their fufferings." Huffein found himself but little fatisfied with this doctrine: he left the old man and proceeded to feek other adventures, "My friend, (faid Mafouf, at length, to the difguifed monarch) you appear to me a very ingenuous and docile youth: if you are willing to ferve the generous Amru in an affair of iinportance we have now in hand, and are found faithful, your fortune will be made. It is a bufi. nefs of that confequence that too much much caution cannot be used, and we scarcely know whom to truft; but your behaviour pleafes me: meet me again to-morrow evening, and we will talk further on the subject." the laft moment. My life' now depends on what I do; as does yours, fince you have been intrusted. with the fecret." Huffein followed the directions of Mafouf. He applied to the attendants of the captive lady, who appear Huffein perceived that he might now have an opportunity to discovered to act more from fear than inclifome decifive facts, which might clear nation,-and was introduced to the up all his doubts relative to the con- imprifoned beauty, that he might duct of his favourite, and place his apprife her of her intended immecharacter in a true light: he, there-diate removal. He found her fitting fore, was punctual to the appointment, and fuited his behaviour fo exactly to his purpose, that Mafouf believed him to be precifely the perfon he had wifhed to find, and difclofed to him the fecret business in which he had been defirous to engage his affiftance. on the ground, fupported by pillows, in an attitude of wretchedness and defpair. She lifted her forrowful eyes; but how great was the astonishment of the monarch when he perceived the was his fifter Nourfhalem, who had lately disappeared from the feraglio, and who was fuppofed, from a variety of circumstances, to have eloped with a foreigner of eminence, a chriftian, with whom the was conjectured to be enamoured. The mystery was now completely understood by Shah Huffein. He perceived the bafeness of Amru, and entertained no doubt but the circumftances which feemed to render it fo certain that his fifter had fled to Europe, intending to renounce the religion of her fathers, were all contrived by his arts. "The great Amru, (faid Mafouf) | who fways the fceptre of the fublime Shah Huffein, and whofe will is a law, had conceived a violent paffion for a lady of exalted station; I my. self am not intrufted with the fecret of her real rank. His highnefs, whofe arts are profound as the fathomlefs abyffes of the ocean, has devised the means to get her in his power: he has feparated her from all her connections, and confines her in fecret; but the refifts his proffered love with fcorn and hatred. The For a while he stood as one transbreast of Amru appears agitated, as fixed by the thunderbolt of heaven; the waves of the fea when they are but, prefently, recovering from his difturbed by the tempeft of the aftonishment, he rushed into the fouth. He, doubtlefs, fears detec- arms of his fifter, calling her by her tion; and I am ordered to procure name. - He refumed his dignity, affifiance, and to remove her fome gave orders as fovereign, and was hundreds of miles from this place; obeyed with inftantaneous cheerfulwhere he may employ violence with- nefs by the attendants. The beauout alarm, and where the may never teous Nourfhalem was released, more be heard of. You fhall go and preferving her honour unfullied.— prepare her, and her attendants, for Mafouf was pardoned on account the journey, according to the direc-of the fortunate termination of tions I fhall give you; for Amru the adventure: but the artful and must be obeyed. Of me the detefts wicked Amru was difgraced and caft the fight; and fo much have her into a dungeon, there to end his beauty, her innocence, and her fuf-days. ferings, moved me, that I will not make my appearance to her until Ac ACCOUNT of ST. HELEN'S CONVENT, in the COUNTY of DUR HAM. "Shrines-where their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep, fweep." And pitying faints, whofe ftatues learn to TH HERE is at this time a fifterhood of twenty-five nuns, at St. Helen's Auckland, in the county of Durham, occupying the venerable hall, formerly the feat of Francis Carr, efq. and his fucceffors, and of late the years property of Mr. Carr, of Cocken, in the fame county. The fituation and premifes are in perfect confonance with religious retirement, and feem rather to have been originally intended for an establishment of this nature, than adopted through neceffity by a few perfecuted female refugees, driven from that spot to which "From the falfe world in early youth they fled [bound) To thofe lone walls, (their day's eternal Those moss-grown domes with fpiry turrets crown'd, Where awful arches make a noon-day night, And the dim windows fhed a folemn light." The house at St. Helen's Auckland, the new receptacle of thefe late unfortunate women, is very spacious, and contains a great number of apartIt is furrounded by high walls, (of which it may now be faid, "Relentless walls! whofe ample round ments. contains Repentant fighs, and voluntary pains,") except the fouth front, (which is a very ancient structure, remarkably neat, and containing feveral fmail Gothic windows) and another adjoining edifice of Grecian architecture, fronting the west, built about the beginning of the prefent century, by William Carr, efq. who was fome time member for Newcastle; a man of fine tafte, of unbounded hofpitality, and who fupported the character of a country gentleman with a fplendor almost unparalleled in those fpects at the prefent day. days, and rarely equalled in all re The fpace between these two fronts was formerly a bowling-green, and is fenced with a neat parapetwall of about four feet in height. It is fomewhat fingular that the wing fronting the weft, which might have commanded a profpect of the whole village, was from the first entirely fhut up; the building, which is of hewn stone, of a reddish colour, being ornamented with recesses, instead, of windows. Although the gate which opens into the fpacious court of this manfion is within twenty yards of a public road, which paffes between it and the beautiful little Gothic edifice, the parochial chapel of St. Helen, yet the houfe itself is perfectly fequeftered; every view from it being confined either to its delightful gardens, or the rich adjoining meadows. Thefe gardens, which comprehend between four and five acres, are inclosed by a brick wall about twenty feet in height, lined with an immenfe variety of the choiceft fruit-trees, and the whole laid out in the most enchanting manner. In fhort, nothing can furpafs the luxuriance of the fituation, nor its fitness for the purpose to which it has been lately applied. The writer of this has not heard by what means thefe voluntary exiles from fociety were tranfported from their refidence in the environs of Douay, to the sweet and peaceful fhades of Auckland, and to a retirement every way fo exactly fuited to their habits, "Where penitence may plant its meek abode, And hermit contemplation meet its God." It is needless to say that they were forced from thence by the overwhelming progrefs of the French arms; and it is added, that their efcape was not effected till after a part of of the roof of their convent had been broken by the enemy's cannon. The fuperior, or lady-abbefs, of this fifterhood (who alfo prefided in the fame capacity at their former refidence) is a Mrs. Houfeman, a native of Cumwhitton in Cumberland. The drawing-room, which is in the wing built by William Carr, efq. (as above-defcribed) is converted into a chapel, very beautifully decorated, and furnished with a handfome altar, candlesticks, a lamp, feveral paintings, and all the ufual furniture of fuch places. The habit of the nuns is grey woollen, with a very black veil: their heads are fhaven, and bound very close with a white fillet: the lower part of their fhoes (which are all made by themselves) is of leather, the upper part of platted or twisted cord: from the girdle is fufpended a rofary, and a crucifix from the neck, the appearance being altogether ftrikingly fingular in this country. Six or feven of them are English; the others Flemings: but the former only are generally shown to ftrangers, to whom they are reported to be extremely courteous and communicative. They have a conftant fucceffion of visitors, and the neighbouring gentry are particularly attentive and kind to them; no perfon entering the convent without making fome prefent to the ladies. No one, acquainted with the charac ter of the diocefan, will be furprised to learn that thefe votaries to a particular ftate, though without the pale of that church in which he fo illuftrionfly prefides, are nevertheless within the verge of his beneficence: and probably, from the influence of example, the "lot" of thefe weak and defenceless females could not have "fallen upon a fairer ground." They all wear the habit of their order, except a mifs Dalton, niece to the lady-abbefs, whofe neceffary intercourfe with the people of the village (as housekeeper) induces her to dress in a ftyle lefs likely to attract the public notice-which is fufficiently interefted ever fince the arrival of thefe poor "blameless veftals," at whofe gate "Black melancholy fits, and round her throws A death-like filence, and a dread repose." cient manfion-house at St. Helen's It is now two years fince the anAuckland became a convent of nuns! yet this is the first public mention that has yet been made of it!How characteristic of those who have here found an afylum-in one particular at leaft-are the words of the poet : "The world forgetting-by the world forgot!?? ANECDOTE of the ITALIAN POET, METASTASIO, A Ta time when Metaftafio's circumftances were far from afAucnt, and he was only known at Vien-na as an affiftant writer for the opera, under Apoftolo Zeno, a person with whom he had contracted a great intimacy and friendfhip, dying, left him his whole fortune, amounting to fifteen thousand pounds fterlingBut Metaftafio hearing that he had relations at Bologna, went thither in fearch of them; and, having found fuch as he thought beft entitled to thofe poffeffions, told them that though his deceafed friend had bequeathed to him his whole fortune, he could fuppofe it to be no otherwife than in trust, till he should find out the most deferving of his kindred, in order to divide it equally among them; which he immediately did, without the leaft referve in his own favour. SUF |