The morning of the trial arrived, and Naples seemed to have sent forth the whole population of the city to witness the degradation of a noble, who had once, when in the day of his splendour, been the chief object of their admiration.

Popular favour and dislike are uncertain as the breeze which fans the flower of the Tuscan rose, and sweeps over the leaves of the deadly nightshade, without heeding whether it imbibes the fragrance of the one, or the poison of the other. Hle who seeks the good opinion of the public, undertakes a task of difficulty and danger; for though the majority of the world may sometimes be caught with the frail texture of a spider's web, at others even the huge net which would be necessary to ensnare the Leviathan of the boundless deep, would be insufficient to ensure their co-operation in the cause which they have professed to uphold. The man who is the idol of the people to-day, to-morrow, perhaps, may be denounced as the bitterest enemy of his country. Even his good deeds become the theme of the severest animadversion, and his faults are so magnified that they appear in the light of the most hideous crimes.

The accusation against Caserta was the subject of general conversation. The hall of justice was crowded with persons, who, without caring for the result of the trial, were anxious to gratify their own curiosity. Every avenue was crowded with the populace of a lower rank, and it had more the ap

pearance of the day of a solemn féle, than one which was to decide the life or death of a human being.

Such a decided insensibility to the finer sentiments which Nature has implanted in our bosoms, might well induce us to question the reality of our own feelings. Is it really possible that there can exist a class of beings so devoid of tenderness, of commiseration, of every principle that does honour to the heart, that they can, unmoved, behold a fellow-creature writhing beneath the pangs of affliction, tortured by fear, and suffering all the protracted agony of suspense, with calm, cold indifference? In such beings, who are devoid of every feeling which make man superior to the with herself, and, like a courtezan, to have been the quadruped, nature seems to have been at variance pandar to her own disgrace.

In the hall of justice a long array of nobles, mitred prelates, and cross-decorated knights, were assembled. At the upper end of the hall, beneath a canopy, backed with arras, and hung with curtains of cloth of gold, was seated in a chair of state, the reigning Prince of Naples; while to the right of the throne, on benches less elevated, were the judges who were to decide the fate of the accused noble, and to the left was an open space guarded by a file of soldiers, where Caserta was destined to take his place, and await the issue of the trial.

On benches placed lengthwise, extending to more than half the extreme length of the hall, the temporal and spiritual nobles of the kingdom were seated according to their several degrees, and below a bar, placed to prevent the pressure of the populace, stood those whom interest or curiosity had drawn thither, who were permitted, without distinction of rank, to witness the proceedings of the day. In a gallery, which projected several feet at the lower end of the hall, accommodations were made for those danes of noble birth, who might be disposed to be present at the ceremony of a state trial; and the centre of the hall, which was left open for the free ingress and egress of the nobles, was lined by the heralds and the officers of the court, who were employed rather to add to the imposing solemnity of the scene, than to be of any essential use in the proceedings.

Political considerations, which actuated several of this body of hereditary legislators, who were the inheritors of the party feelings, as well as of the titles and domains of their ancestry, caused a full attendance of the representatives of almost every

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titled family in Naples. The film of age had overspread the faculties of many of the apologists for the merited dignity of their forefathers, and the cataract of hereditary obscurity seemed to dim the acuteness of several, whose very ideas on the subject were regulated by the wishes of those in power. They were something like a set of antiquarian dotards ranged before a renovated picture, who admire the ravages of time on the canvass, rather than the genius of the artist who delineated the subject. The senility of the brain is not easily to be eradicated, but amongst the assembled group there were some who did not dare to think for themselves; some who had not even half an idea of their own; and others who politically borrowed their thoughts from the wishes of those in power. If the seeds of regeneration were sown in the minds of these representatives of Neapolitan dignity, the soil was too barren to raise them into life. The progress of vegetation was so tardy, that even nature seemed scarcely to have the power of ripening the anticipated fruit. Some accidental spur to their faculties, some vultus instans, was required to assist the exertions of nature, to remove the crust of time, and the dust of centuries, which still clouded the intellects of the actual generation of princely imbeciles. If the descendants of the illustrious dead degenerate into mere automatons, and retain no distinguishing mark, save the name of their forefathers, they surely have no right to complain if their want of mind becomes the remark of the plebeian throng. If that virtue, which in the primitive ages of nobility, alone conferred honour, be extinct-if that chivalrous spirit which dwelt in the bosoms of the brave was expiring, could they be surprised that the vacuity was visible? There were many among the high born assembly who were thus congregated together, who were indeed but poor apologists for the glory of their ancestors. The Prince took his seat in the chair of state which had been provided for his convenience, arrayed in his princely robes, while his head was covered with a cap of sable velvet, decorated with a bandeau and aigrette of jeweller's work, from which a plume, composed of the feathers of the heron and the ostrich, waved in snowy whiteness over the dark features of his countenance. The judges gave orders to their immediate attendants to summon the culprit into the presence of his peers, and in the space of a few minutes, the Duke, preceded by a herald, and followed by a guard, made his appearance in the space appropriated for him. From the lower end of the ball, a loud and heart-rending shriek startled the assembled senators, and before orders could be given to inquire into the cause of the disturbance, Faneli rushed up the centre of the hall, and grasping her father's arra, appeared like a beautiful statue of a guardian angel, or, metaphorically speaking, like Truth clinging to the side of Time. The suddenness of the action, and the loveliness of the offender, prevented that anger, which had it been a less interested and more menial intruder, would most likely have burst like the breath of the tempest on her head. The officers advanced to remove her from the side of her parent.

"Cease your efforts," said the Prince," he has no other friend;" and Faneli was permitted to re

tain the situation she had chosen. She looked pallid as a statue of Parian marble-her long tresses fell unbound over her shoulders, and her eyes were fixed on the care-worn countenance of her sire. So intense was her agitation that she appeared scarcely to observe that she was exposed to the gaze of the crowded assembly: one object alone had brought her to witness this scene of sorrow-it was to comfort her father that she came, and that end, through the benignity of the Prince, she had accomplished.

One of the ministers of justice now requested the Duke to answer to his name; and a herald, with his banner-decorated trumpet, thrice proclaimed silence in the assembly. Not a sound was to be heard-not even the rustling of a mantle, or the shuffling of a foot on the marble pavement, disturbed the quietude of the scene. The charges on which he stood accused before them were read and the Duke protested innocence.

"Duca," said the Prince, addressing himself to Caserta, "it pains us to be thus compelled to nobles of the nation, one whom we have long loved summon into our presence before the assembled and respected, and whom we would fearlessly have entrusted with the government of our dominions. We are unwilling to give credence to accusations or to reports, and we would fain hope that the painful duty we have now been called on to full, will terminate to the satisfaction of your honour, and bring forth undoubted proof of your innocence. From the evidence that has been produced before us, and the members of our council, a cloud apbecomes your duty to disperse. A stain like that, pears to hang over your conduct, which it now which has been stated to you in the accusation which has just been read can be eradicated but in one way, and whatever may be our private feelings or political bias towards you, we must forget our former friendship, and act now according to the impulse of justice. Say, Duca, are you innocent or guilty of the crime which has been imputed to you?"

My liege lord," replied Caserta," and you my respected brother Senators, will pardon the feelings which at a moment like this agitate my bosom. I am but a man-an old, a feeble man, who, thus supported on the arm of a daughter, is called upon to answer a charge made against him by a nameless accuser. For years, my Prince, I have dwelt in the very heart of Naples, surrounded by my family and respected by my friends, and was aught of crime alleged against me? Where are my accusers? Where? The very echo mocks me when I call for them. Bid them stand forth, my liege-bid the substance supersede the shadow, and let me look upon mine enemies."

"Then, Duca," said one of the judges, "we will record you plea of innocence. Bethink thee now that when those who are to give testimony against thee stand before the court, thou canst not withdraw thy plea. Art thou innocent?"

"Innocent! aye innocent!" replied Caserta, assuming a momentary courage, "wherefore should ye deem me guilty? Think ye that the last few hours of an old man's life are of so little value to himself that he should lie his head upon the scaffold without making an effort to prolong them?