months back, I had been the hap-He had the night before, according to the fervant's account, entered the Abbey, while the man waited for him without; who fell asleep, and did not awake till morning-he then entered to look after his master, pieft of mortals, the father of a lovely amiable child,-the husband of an angelic wife,-the poffeffor of an unblemished reputation:now was I an exile, though ia my native country; bereft of wife, child, and even reputation, in the eyes of the world; labouring under a ftigma of fhattered fame, never to be recovered. but his exertions proved fruitless; he was no where to be found.-His footfteps were traced to an apartment in the weft tower; where alfo a picture, which he wore next his "Tormented with thofe ideas, Iheart, was found, the ribbon of fet out on my return to Italy; but, unfortunately, was detained, through many incidents on the road, for near three days:-I, immediately on my arrival at my villa, had a private conference with Jafper. which feemed torn by force; but from this room no other figns of him could be found. "Jafper was equally aftonished and alarmed at this intelligence. He had omitted to attend at the usual place the night before, having been extremely ill; he, however, contrived to be among those who enter building, and with them examined that very apartment of the west tower where with me he had ofttimes performed the ufual ceremonies with the lamp. He then, with the rest, left the Abbey, and heard it agreed on, between the phyfician and officers, that the doors and outer gates fhould be left unlocked. "His countenance fhowed he had much to tell, and that of a dreadful nature. He informed me that after my departure, he kept himself as fe-ed with the ftrangers to fearch the cret as poffible, according to my orders, and only went out by night, and then concealed himself at a place near the cave.-The fecond time of his watching, he perceived Enuchio and three others, whom he did not by any means like, cautiously enter it about midnight,—and, fome time after, he faw a light pafs one of the casements in the weft tower of the Abbey; but, though he remained at the fame place till near daybreak, he never faw them return.— He attended again the next evening at an early hour, but faw no one go that way, though a light and the figure of a man moved feveral times, in the courfe of three hours, before the different windows,--He therefore concluded that those whom he had feen the night before had taken up their habitation entirely in the Abbey. He ftill, however, continued to keep a watchful eye on the building. "On the eighth day fome confufion was experienced among the peafantry. A fignor Balvolio, a phy. fician, with officers of juftice, and a fervant of Percival Maferini, arrived at Montferrat, to fearch for him, "On his return home he directly fent off a letter to me, acquainting me with thefe proceedings; but, unfortunately, I had, the day before the arrival of it at the place it was directed to, fet off for another part of France; and Jafper, after fome time, had the mortification to receive it again unopened. "In this interval he was, however, by no means idle,-and he determined, let the hazard be what it would, to go over the Abbey himself at midnight.-He, at the fame time, refolved to enter from the principal gates, being aware, did he attempt to pafs the fecret paffage, there was hardly a doubt but he fhould be interrupted. "This fcheme he carried into execution, and proceeded, well armed, with a dark lanthorn, to the hall. He He had not remained, in an obscure part of it, above five minutes, before Enuchio and two others came forth | from that apartment; which proved they must have been in the fubterraneous chamber, and confequently had afcended by means of the trap. -Thefe men had all three lamps,and, fhortly after, they were follow ed by a figure of noble mien, muffled up in his cloak, and his hat,, in which was a white feather, flapped over his eyes. But how was Jafper aftonifhed, when, by the light of one of their lamps which glared on his countenance, he discovered the features of d'Ollifont! "Being now more fully convinced that the most horrid treachery and villany was going forward,-though every moment in danger of being difcovered, he perfifted in following them at fome little diftance.-They proceeded flowly through the iron gate,that leads to the ruins of a once magnificent place of worship, and walked to the centre, on which part ftands a tomb to the memory of a monk, who in former times was a fuperior of this abbey. "He, immediately, by the fame method he had entered, quitted the Abbey, shocked at what he had been witnefs to, and entirely at a loss in what manner to act. He knew himfelf to be entangled by a promife of fecrecy, fimilar to that of mine, on which terms only I had been fuffered to make him my confidant; but yet he was certain, as well as myfelf, that it did not prevent our aid or affiftance to any one diftreffed or confined in the building; or our exertions to fruftrate any plans of wickedness or cruelty which the count might form, provided we did not difcover those circumftances in which we were involved relative to the light, &c.— Our fituations were both extremely delicate; and though we would have rifked our lives in the fervice of the unfortunate, yet we could not but recollect with horror, the forfeiture incurred by the breach of an awful oath. (To be continued.) One of the men having put A HINDOO'S REMARKS on the down a small basket, covered lightly over with a cloth, which feemed to GAME LAWS. contain fome provifion, they all four [From Mifs Hamilton's Letters of a entered the tomb.-But it was impoffible for Jafper to follow them Pere alfo; as the fize would hardly have admitted five perfons to keep far enough apart in it to prevent difcovery. "He heard a kind of noise which plainly told they were opening a large trap, and it feemed to require the exertions of three of them.He heard d'Ollifont fpeak: Take down the provifions; I will remain here.-Leave the basket, and fay nothing.-Jafper fuppofed they did fo; for, after fome little time, he heard them replace the trap; and they paffed by him as they returned to the apartment from whence they came. Hindoo Rajah.] of cards is eftablished through TNIVERSALLY as the poojah out the country*, it has not, in the remoteft provinces, been able entirely to fupercede another fpecies of idolatry, which has clearly and indifputably been borrowed from the manners of their eastern progenitors, This is no other than the worship of certain birds and quadrupeds, which are held fo facred by their worshippers, that the prefervation of their lives occupies, I am well affured, many volumes of their laws, and has employed the chief study of their * See our laft, p. 368. fapient fapient legiflators. I should have wifhed to obtain much information upon a fubject fo curious; but all that I could learn, was, that the provineial rajahs, devoted to the worship of these animals, are moftly fprung from the first caft. (A certain proof of their Braminical origin.). They defpife the vain purfait of literature; and confcious of their native and inherent fuperiority, they pique themselves upon their ignorance of all the fciences that are in efteem among the lower orders of blazing fire, whofe cheerful light was reflected from the bright utenfils that adorned the white-wathed walls. My first appearance difmayed the little train: but fome candied fweetmeats, with which I prefented them, quickly reconciled them to my complexion. The genii who delight to revel in the troubled air, howled around this humble dwelling; and pouring the dafhing torrent from the black-bofomed clouds of night, they heard with joy the thunder's roar, while, nimbly following the lightning's flash, they exulted in the mingFrom fuch exalted perfonages led tempeft. The pale hue of terror much information was not to be fat upon the matron's cheek: fhe liftlooked for but a circumftance ened, with anxiety and impatience, which occurred while I journeyed for the voices of her husband and her over the remote parts of the king-fon, who were not yet returned from dom, threw fufficient light upon the fubject. men. the labours of the day: and while her own fears increafed with the In one particular, however, the horrors of the tempeft, fhe employed higher cafts in that country must be herself in appeafing those of the acknowledged to differ widely from infant group, who clung to her, the race of Brahma. They are de- demanding, with accents of clamourficient in hofpitality! Never did Ious forrow, the return of their father fee the doors of a great man open to and their brother. receive the wearied traveller:- the milk of his cows flows not into the ftranger's difh. Nay, fo very rude and inhofpitable are the manners of the people of high caft, that once upon a time, when, being overtaken by darkness in a rainy evening, I attempted to procure lodgings for myfelf and my attendant, at the houfe of one of thefe provincial rajahs, which was fituate near the road, I was not only denied admittance, but repulfed with the language of contempt, and neceffitated to continue my route, in a dark and ftormy evening, till the fight of a peafant's hut cheered my heart with the hope of fhelter. I was not difappointed; for in this country the fpirit of hofpitality is only to be found beneath a roof of thatch. The decent matron who inhabited this lowly hut, received me with looks of cordial welcome. Five blooming children furrounded the VOL. XXVII, When the ftorm a little abated of its violence, the little creatures ran by turns to the door, eagerly peeping into the dark abyfs of night, in hopes of difcovering their approach. The anxious mother added fuel to the already blazing fire; again the fwept the unfoiled hearth; and again adjusted the chairs, which had long been placed for the reception of the fupporters of her hope. At length, the well-known fteps were heard; every heart fluttered with joy, and every little hand was ftretched out, eager to receive the paternal and fraternal embrace. The old man and his fon were for fome time occupied in returning the careffes of their family; which they did with the tenderness of affection: and then the venerable mafter of this humble abode came forward, to welcome me to a fhare of the comforts it afforded. He had looked at me earnestly for fome time, when, to my utter afto3 G nishment, nishment, he addreffed me in my native language. The Mhors he fpoke was but indifferent; but it was intelligible, and more charming to my ears than the music of the feven genii. round the object to which it was in youth united; fo the heart of this honeft peafant, in all the forms of fortune, hovered round the cottage that contained his wife and child. At length, her obfcure retirement was gladdened by his prefence. By the employment of her-needle, the had procured, during his abfence, an honourable and virtuous fubfiftence for herself and fon. The little fortune he had brought from India was loft by the villany of the agent into whofe hands he had intrusted it. But in the endearments of mutual affection, this honeft couple had a fund of felicity, which the malice of fortune could not destroy. Both the good man and his fon found employment for their industry in cutting down the trees of a neighbouring wood: a work which had been committed to their care, and amply recompenfed their diligence. When they returned from their labour, the cheerful appearance of the well-ordered family at home, the fmiling welcome of the little innocents, and the affectionate tendernefs of the worthy matron, presented to them a reward which went farther than the gifts of fortune have power to penetrate:-it reached the heart. In order to account for what appeared to me fuch an extraordinary phenomenon, he told me that, in early life, he had been tempted, by the god of love, to win the affections of a damfel, whofe beauty had touched the heart of the village lord. The place of wife, in the establishment of this great man, was already occupied by the daughter of a neighbouring rajah; but he had probably been convinced by the philofophers, of the propriety of the fyftem of Mahommed; and thought that the damfel, though the daughter of a mechanic, would be no unworthy ornament of his zenana. It is not to be wondered at that he fhould be filled with indignation at the prefumption of the young peafant, who dared to interfere with his pleafures, and difappoint his fchemes, by mar. rying the object of his hopes. It is not proper that inferiors thould be permitted to defeat the intentions of their lords with impunity. This great man was of the fante opinion; and, in the height of his refentment against his fuccefsful rival, he had him torn from the arms of his bride, and fent in a company of foldiers, who were all collected in the fame arbitrary manner (probably as a punishment for the fame fort of offence) to the Eaft Indies. Here this unfortunate martyr to love spent eleven years in the fervice of the company, in the rank of a petty officer: when having, by his economy, saved a fum fufficient for the purposes of humble competence, he obtained leave to return to his native country. As the gay pennant,ing energy with which thefe prethough forced to obey the preffure of the changeful breeze, ftill clings to its beloved maft, and, at the return of every fhort-lived calm, flutters The recital of these circumstanceswas made to me during the most cheerful repaft that I ever faw Chriftians partake of. When it was ended, a ceremony enfued, which having never feen practifed at any other period, I have reason to think peculiar to themselves. Upon a hint from the old foldier, his eldest daughter prefented him with a very large book, from which, with a clear and folemn voice, he read fome admirable inflructions and exhortations. The fublime and command cepts were expreffed, might lead to a conclufion that this was a copy of the fame Shafier with which the departed Saib Percy prefented the learned. learned rajah: but many obstacles oppose themselves to this fuppofition. Could we believe that a book of fuch diftinguished authority, unheard of among the learned, and totally unknown among the fuperior cafts, fhould yet be found familiar in the cottage of a peafant? It is too abfurd for the fhadow of probability to rest upon. But to return to the religious rites of thefe fimple people, which, as I have obferved, differ effentially from all that had hitherto come within my obfervation: for instead of the poojah of cards, which at that hour would have been performed in the families of the higher cafts, when the old man had shut the book, he knelt down, his wife and blooming infants following his example. The latter clafped their little hands, and held them up to heaven, while he lifted up his voice, calling upon the unfeen, omnifcient, and immortal Preferver, to bless them, and to accept from hearts of gratitude the offering of praife and thankfulness. I cannot account for it, but there was fomething in this whole ceremony which greatly affected my mind; and I could not help, while I listened to the fimple- but fervent devotion of this virtuous labourer, feeling for him a degree of veneration, even fuperior to what I had experienced for the priest, whofe zeal had been fo confpicuous at the poojah of cards. the latter end of harvest, we met a young peafant, who carried a gun, which he frequently fired, to frighten the crows and other birds from the grain. My companion took the weapon of deftruction into his hand to examine it: and in that unhappy moment, in which the goddess of mifchance prefided, a group of partridges appeared before him: he involuntarily ftruck the flint; the report refounded through the air, and oh! unfortunate deftiny, seven of these facred birds were laid rolling in the.duft. He had no time to confider of the fatal deed; for, in a moment, two men, whom the bushes had concealed from our view, darted on the guilty youth, wrefted the weapon of deftruction from his trembling hand, and, with many imprecations of vengeance, infifted upon his immediately attending them before the awful tribunal of affembled magiftrates, who were now exercifing the facred functions of their office in the neighbouring village. It was then I learned the real magnitude of my friend's offence. For I was then informed, that to preferve thefe facred birds from being injured by the unhallowed hands of any of the lower cast, the severest laws were promulgated: and as the zimeendars in the office of the magiftracy, before whom thefe of fences were tried, were all of them worshippers of the rural Dewtah, they never fuffered the ftern fentence of juftice to be foftened at the fuggeftion of mercy. In the morning, the fame rites were again repeated; after which, I took leave of this innocent and happy family; the old man infifting As it is not good to forfake a friend that, as I had come fome miles out of in his adverfity, we entered the tem my way, his fon fhould accompany ple of juftice together. In this awme to the village where I had dire-tul tribunal, feated in two large ed my fervant and horse to meet me. chairs, we found the offended maThe lad willingly obeyed the com-giftrates. The firft of thefe judges mands of his father, and we fet leemed fully confcious of his dignity, out together. He was a handfome which was indeed very great; uniting youth, of about twenty years of in himself the triple offices of priest, age, and of a fenfible and intelli-zimeendar, and magiftrate of the gent countenance. Taking a path through a corn-field, it being now *Landholders. 3 G 2 place |