It appears, that after leaving major Waggener's tent, he proceeded immediately to the wharf at the fort, either through the fort or on the outside; in either case the sentinel must have seen him pass: the boatmen belonging to our regiment were lying under the bridge or wharf. William went out on it to look for our boat-The sentinel from the ramparts hailed-what do you want there? William demanded by what authority he asked that ques. tion? The sentinel said, I tell you come off the bridge, you have no boat there, or I will shoot; in the meantime loading his gun. William said he would see by what authority he commanded him, and was walking briskly off the bridge towards the fort; and when he had got within a few steps of the end, the sentinel raised his musket: William called out to him, stop sentinel! stop sentinel! but alas! it was too late: the ball struck him near the heart; he fell on his knees, but instantly leaped up to some height and alighted on his feet, crying out murder! murder! Lord have mercy! The men who remained under the bridge during the affair, jumped up, and caught him in time to save him from falling: they led him into the fort: as they were passing, he observed his principal pain was in the body, but he thought it was only the wad; yet he found himself getting weak, and requested them to hurry-they placed him on the bed-a surgeon was at hand--William inquired whether the wound was mortal? the surgeon gave him no reply; his silence, I expect, was properly interpreted. On what a slender thread hangs this life. ON THE PRIZE POEM.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. MR. OLDSCHOOL, I OBSERVE with satisfaction, because I recognise the importance of the object, the premiums you propose for the two best naval songs that may be produced before the first of October next. With yourself, I have often regretted our deficiency in this department of literary taste; and while regretting it, I have often sought its cause without being able to hit upon a reason which satisfied me. Is it that we are yet too young a people? or is there any thing in our climate, temperament, institutions, or habits unfavourable to the growth of that peculiar cast of enthusiasm, which must enter into the composition of a sentimental popular ditty? That songmaking is not beneath the regard of the Muses, may be inferred from its having exercised the talents of some of our most respectable poets: Milton, Dryden, Prior, Rowe, Gay, Thomson, lord Lyttleton and others, have employed themselves in it; and to them we are indebted for some of our most admired old songs. But the words are but half of the song; and new music seems nearly as much a desideratum as new words. If we are obliged to borrow the tune, we still lack something of the independence we aim at; still evince a deficiency in the power of song, and thereby much weaken the effect of any successful effort we may make in regard to the verbal composition. Does not the charm of Scotch songs principally consist in the air? and if we analyze the source of our gratification at an opera, we shall find it to be derived from the music alone. What magic, for instance, is in the words of that once admired song in Love in a Village-" If ever a fond inclination, &c?" Not any; it is wholly in the air, the work of Gemigniano, and one of the most pathetic and plaintive pieces of melody that ever was composed. If we aspire then to the fame of good national songs, we should certainly study the principles of musical composition. It was the singular excellence of Dibdin, that he not only furnished the words, but the music also of his songs; so it was of Rousseau in his Devin du Village. And the pitiful figure he made in his first attempts at composition, is an encouraging proof to the adventurers in the science, how much the talent is a matter of acquisition. As to the nature of the songs which may be supposed to be required, they may be said to be principally of two kinds. The one animating by the apt display or commemoration of gallant achievements; the other exciting to acts of heroism, through the romantic melancholy of Love. Of the first sort, is Rule Brittania, Hearts of Oak, &c.—and of the other, Blackeyed Susan, &c. To these, Dibdin has added a third species, founded on the perils of the sea, or the personal worth, the misfortunes, or loss of an honest-hearted shipmate; for instance, the little Cherub sitting aloft; the good ship Rover, and Tom Boling. Original ditties of either kind, would doubtless be highly soothing to the American mariner, and tend to nourish the heroic sentiment which has already taken root in his heart. The policy however may be questioned of perpetuating national enmities from circumstances merely of casual and transitory hostility. If this rhapsody may have the smallest tendency to further your views for the naval glory, and liberal heroism of our country, it will amply pay me for the trouble of committing it to paper. G. VARIETY.-FOR THE PORT FOLIO. SINGULAR BREACHES OF COSTUME. BOURGOANNE notes a painting in Spain where Abraham is preparing to shoot Isaac with a pistol. In the illuminations of a manuscript bible at Paris, under the Psalms are two persons playing at cards. Under Job, &c. are coats of arms and a windmill. MEMENTO MORI. Sir Richard Hoare gives us the following epitaph at Limerick, where mori is spelt with a y, but the whole is curious. MEMENTO MORY. Here lieth little Samuel Barinton, that great undertaker of famious citti clock, and chime-maker, He made his one time goe early and latter But now he is returned to God his creator The 19th of November then he seest, and for his memory, DON QUIXOTTE's dinner. In the first page of the history of Don Quixotte, it is said that on Saturdays the don's dinner consisted of "duelos y quebrantos." Shelton the first English translator, calls it "collops and eggs;" all the other translators say, "griefs and groans," "gripes and grumblings." Pellicer has thus explained the meaning in a note. It was customary in some parts of Lamancha, for the shepherds to convey to their master's houses the carcases of the sheep or cattle which have died during the week. After taking out the bones, the flesh was saited and preserved for culinary use, and broth was made of the broken bones. In allusion to the painful recollection of the loss of part of their flocks, the sorrow it occasioned, and the breaking of the bones, such food was called "duelos y quebrantos," sorrows and breakings. The term benevolence often occurs in English law books, and is nearly synonimous with tones. The duke of Buckingham, who rendered such important services to the tyrant Richard, thus characteristically defines benevolence: "that the name of benevolence, as it was taken in the reign of Edward IV, signified that every man should pay, not what he of his own good will list, but what the king of his own good will list to take. The Mediterranean sea must have been a theatre of depredation from the earliest ages. Nestor asks Telemachus in the Odyssy, when he means to receive him with the greatest civility, whether he is a pirate. The poems of Homer, if we may credit the oration of Eschines against Timarchus, were placed on the tables of the Athenian courts of justice, together with the laws of Athens, and the clerk was as frequently commanded to read from the one, as from the other. A dispute between the Athenians and the inhabitants of Salamis, was determined on the authority of two lines from Homer's catalogue of the Grecian fleet, from whence the inferiority of the inhabitants of Salamis was inferred. It is well known how pertinaciously the Welsh bards incited their countrymen to resist the tyranny of Edward I, a circumstance that gave rise to Gray's beautiful ode, denominated the Bard. After the conquest of Wales, these obnoxious animals are thus described, in a statute passed in the lifetime of that prince. "There shall be no more westours (masters), rhy"mours (rhymers), ministrels, or other vagabonds, to make as"semblies or collections, &c.". In a tract on hunting, published by Jervase Markham in 1615, we have the following quaint description of a perfect gray hound, left, as the author says, "in old rime by our forefathers." If you will have a good tike Of which there are few like, He must be headed like a snake Neckt like a drake, Backt like a beam Sided like a bream, Tailed like a bat And footed like a cat. The same author published a work, the title of which is alone sufficient to startle the ladies of the present day. It is called "the English Huswife, containing the inward and outward vertes which ought to be in a compleate woman, as her phisicke, cookery, banqueting stuffe, distillation, perfumes, wooll, hemp, flaxe, dairies, brewing, baking, and all other things belonging to an houshold. A worke very profitable and necessary for the general good of this kingdom." In this strange composition the qualifications of a cook are thus described. "First she must be cleanly, both in body and garments; she must have a quick eye, a curious nose, a perfect taste, and ready ear (she must not be butter fingered, sweet toothed, nor faint hearted) for the first will let every thing fall, the second will consume what it should increase, and the last will lose time with too much niceness." Among other singular remedies is the following: "To make oyl of swallows-take lavender cotton-spike-knotgrass, ribwort, balm, valerian, rosemary tops, woodbine tops, vine strings, French mallows, the tops of alecost, strawberry strings, tutsan, plantane, walnut-tree leaves, sage of virtue, the tops of young beats, isop, violet leaves, fine Roman wormwood, of each of them a handful; camomiles and red roses, of each two handfuls, twenty quick swallows, and beat them together in a mortar, and put to them a quart of neatsfoot oyl or May butter, and grind them all well together, &c. &c. This oyl is exceeding soveraign for any broken bones, bones out of joint, or any pain or grief, either in the bones or sinews." |