arms, and riding-gear, upon a sorry yaboo, which he had borrowed at a neighbouring obah. His story was short and sad. At a solitary part of the road, where the path dipped into a hollow, he had overtaken a man who walked as if he were lame, and whom he afterwards recognized as a person he had observed on the preceding evening in the stables of the Khan; but to whom, being occupied in preparations for his journey, he had paid little regard. This man had accosted him, and, lame though he was, kept up with the pace—a smart walk at which he was then riding, conversing about the country and various other subjects, and expressing a desire, that, as they were going the same road, they should keep together for mutual protection, the place having the reputation of being dangerous. this, however, he, the courier, objected, as he could not delay on his journey, while the other from his lameness must be unable to keep up with his horse. The stranger, on the other hand, protested his ability to do so, and quickening his pace, advanced in a supplicating attitude close to the horse's side. At that moment he was riding kej (sitting on one side, and consequently somewhat off his balance), for the convenience of conversing, when the wretch, seizing hold of his foot as if in the earnestness of pleading, suddenly threw it up with such violence that he was immediately unhorsed, and fell with all his weight, head and shoulders on the ground.

To

Half stunned as he was, the fellow secured his complete insensibility by a severe blow on the head; and when he recovered his senses he found himself lying on one side of the little path, stripped to his shirt and drawers, with the stranger's clothes lying beside him; but horse, arms, clothes, despatches, and all were gone, and seen no more.

What need is there to say that the stranger was no other than the cunning rogue, Allee, who, finding that his disguise as a Dervish was not likely to serve his purpose, got rid of it secretly in the night, and did actually creep like a cat through a hole in the ruin, which he managed to block up with earth and rubbish so as to lull suspicion; and who, by picking up an old cast felt cap, and stealing a jacket, which he bedaubed with dust to prevent its being recognized, contrived with these, and some articles of apparel he had brought with him in case of need, to clothe himself as I have described? His cast Dervish's skin was afterwards found, and turned the laugh in favour of the Khan; but some of the Lourees to this day insist on the visit of Huzrut AbbasAllee as a fact, in spite of all the evidence against it.

As for Allee, in spite of several narrow risks and adventures, he reached Khorrumabad in safety, where he was heartily applauded, and found great favour with the Wâli, to whom the chupper's despatches, no less than the intelligence from the Feilee camp, proved of great value.*

From Mr. Fraser's new Persian romance, 'Allee Neemroo,' which will appear in a few days.-EDIT.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FIGHTING.

'Horrida bella.'

'He that fights and runs away
Will live to fight another day.'

'He! monsieur, mon cher maître, il est si doux de vivre!
On ne meurt qu'une fois, et c'est pour si longtemps.'

MOLIERE.

ROUND THE FIRST.

OUR aim may be amiss, and we may consequently shoot wide of the mark in attempting the exposition of the uses and abuses of fighting. We shall therefore take the field martial, and discuss the art offensive and defensive in general terms. Our illustrations, we hope, will be considered as not without a point, and should the critics sneer, we shall only set down their strictures to the account of sheer envy, as they neither conquer nor concur with us.

Should they, on the contrary, applaud our efforts, we shall be happy to tap their claret, and give them a little punch in return.

ROUND THE SECOND.

'Oui, j'aime mieux, n'en déplaise à la gloire,

Vivre au monde deux jours que mille ans dans l'histoire.'

'Discretion is the better part of valour.'

FIGHTING is doubtless a very pleasant pastime; for millions spend —and end—their days in the pursuit of it.

For our own part, there is only one phase in which we can regard it with any degree of complacency and satisfaction, and that is when we feel a consciousness of being on the right side-i. e. of possessing an acknowledged superiority in point of weight and metal, and consequently a dead certainty' of thrashing' our adversary.

In any other case it appears the height of brainless folly to seek the bubble reputation in the cannon's mouth.

Ambition induces some men to list'-to the persuasive eloquence of a recruiting sergeant, while poverty alone compels others; and the latter is the most reasonable excuse of the two; for the man who has * not a shot in the locker' is pretty sure of getting one in his chest. In war, the despairing lover may court danger' with better success than he courted his mistress; the rover may be settled,'-and the truant scholar, who regrets neglected opportunities, will find a field of battle the best finishing' school in the world.

·

The army is certainly a school of reform;-its moral discipline is miraculous; for the most dishonest knaves, rogues, thieves, and vaga

bonds speedily become upright men! although, in truth, they are sometimes known to-steal a march.

ROUND THE THIRD.

We have certainly no heroes among the moderns whose exploits can be compared with those of the ancients-mythological or historical. We have no authenticated account of any baby Hercules strangling serpents in a cradle, albeit we have witnessed many displays of courage in a Cribb.

The juveniles of the present day, influenced, no doubt, by the superior feelings of charity, instead of summarily punishing their serpents like Master Hercules, invariably-let them off!

ROUND THE FOURTH.

FOR fighting-that is, from the ebullition of that combined spirit of pugnacity and ire-the Irish are probably unequalled in the world; truly it appears 'mate, dhrink, washing, and lodging' to the boys, and breaks forth spontaneously even in their wakes,' fairs, and merrymakings. A shilelagh, indeed, seems born in the fist of every mother's son of them, so iligantly' do they handle the sprig,'-with so much effect and so little respect to the cause!

Of the antiquity of the 'tool' we confess ourselves ignorant; but we have heard a broth of a boy' (who has really felt the subject of his discourse) speak most cunningly of its descent! and declare, that if the shilelagh is not born with Paddy, it is undoubtedly his inheritance, -it comes so pat to his fist!

The ancient Britons were no doubt formidable fighters, and must have appeared in the eyes of their opponents as so many terrible spectres, for they always DYED before they went into battle, and of course every tribe appeared under its own colours. This was not the only peculiarity of these brave warriors; for Julius Cæsar, as well as native writers, make frequent and respectful mention of them as clubmen.

ROUND THE FIFTH.

THE ROMANS were famous fighters. The first families of their renowned city, like our Norman ancestors, were a band of brigands and cut-throats, who, in the language of Sam Slick, were 'too clever by half' to live in their own country, and, emigrating from necessity, pitched their colony in this favoured spot, where, by degrees gathering around them many spirits of the same mould, they constituted, in course of time, a nation that astonished the whole world by their exploits and wholesale appropriation,' which, from the magnitude of their operations, historians have been pleased to term glorious conquests!

When they had subjugated all the nations around, they gave vent to their ferocious spirit in the public games, which were exhibited in

the Circus or Amphitheatre, in which the choicest place was the orchestra, where the senate, tribunes of the people, and the vestal virgins were stationed. Before it was a platform (Podium), where the Emperor's throne was usually erected.

In process of time these amusements, which at first consisted only of gymnastic contests, and horse and chariot races, were improved upon by the introduction of Gladiators, and the Naumachia, or mimic naval engagements; and truly they were sports and pastimes worthy of the barbarous age in which they were enacted. But they were all honourable men,' and must, indeed, have been most honourable men if they adhered to their promises as strictly as they did to these 'engage

ments.'

We have a particular description of the manner in which they clothed their public combatants, but unfortunately we cannot discover in any of the commentators how they fed them.

The only word 'familiar,' we can find is batter;' but we doubt whether they got this internally or externally-we firmly believe the latter.

ROUND THE SIXTH.

SOME men are only pugnacious in their cups, being what is appropriately termed pot-valiant, and are generally found in public-houses logically and literally progressing from 'taps' to 'blows.'

The evil spirit' which possesses them is, however, soon laid, or if the spirit be the stronger, it soon lays them-by the heels.

There are such things, too, (we are credibly informed) as domestic broils; but these are very select and exclusive, and we would not for the world intrude upon the privacy of a parlour; nay, we should as readily thrust ourselves into the private box of a theatre as into the theatre of a private box! No; rather let every Judy have her Punch!

As for gentlemen of the Fives' Court, they are too formidable for us, besides they are professional-a fine set too are they: and we have heard some of them in our youth describe their fistic exploits with wonder and delight; but we did not quite believe all they asserted, for by their own showing they were notorious 'fibbers.' It is said that pugilism has latterly declined, the patrons having met with so many losses and 'crosses.'

The lower grades of the sex feminine sometimes exhibit in Billingsgate, and other low localities; and, like the lobsters they vend, generally rush to the deadly encounter with their claws '-although the majority content themselves with another kind of clawing-very terrible, but less dangerous-called 'clapper-clawing.'

ROUND THE SEVENTH.

'What is honour? Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday.'

ONE of the most ridiculous remnants of a barbarous age is the trial by combat-the modern duel.

What is very remarkable is that these hostile meetings' and 'af

fairs of honour' nineteen times out of twenty terminate without the slightest wound, a result which we charitably suppose to arise from the conscientious seconds omitting to put in the bullets!

We hope no man of nice honour will demand satisfaction for this assertion, for surely the charge cannot be deemed serious-where there is nothing but powder!

ROUND THE EIGHTH.

THE days of chivalry are gone! and the knights too have gone with the days, and a very fortunate 'go' it is for the peace and quiet of the present generation.

There are some romantic enough to believe that the 'moderns' have dwindled and degenerated; that we are as dwarfs in comparison with those thumping' boys of other days, and that in the battle-field we have become mere children—in arms!

This is a false conclusion. The knights of old were certainty ironed (and not unfrequently mangled), but the gentlemen of the present day are differently got up,' although they are done for quite as ef fectually as in by-gone days. The case is altered, but not the man. We no longer see men armed cap-à pie in steel or brass, except at the Lord Mayor's show; and so ridiculous an illustration do they afford of the unwieldy cavalry of the golden age of chivalry, that we are induced to exclaim in the words of the old song,

'What a figure! what a fright!
'Tis a goblin or sprite!

Whoe'er saw such an iron-bound loon?

With his leathery phiz,

Spit and pot-lid it is;

He has surely dropped from the moon!'

A pretty sight it must have been to have seen these same stalwart knights encased in steel, running and tilting at each other in the tournay, mounted on chargers resembling a small edition of brewers' horses, and poking each other in the ribs with long lances! casting one another in sport over the horse's crupper, and rolling on their backs in the saw-dust, and floundering about like so many helpless turtles, amidst the plaudits of ladies fair! Truly a most delectable and appropriate entertainment for those dames and damosels who were primed with a delicate dejeuner of beefsteaks and porter, with a red-herring for a relish! These things are, however, after all, a mere matter of tatse--we allude to the tournay, not the breakfast.

ROUND THE LAST.

A YOUTH, rather out at elbows, and whose habits were evidently disordered, if not disorderly, was brought before a magistrate, charged with pointing a fowling-piece at a gentleman, with a threat of bringing him down.'